T ravel
- The Grand Tour of India
Moor hundred words of advice on a visit to 320 million people living in a sub-continent the size of Europe without Russia, with as many climates as Europe, more languages and religions, a longer history. . . . I can only skim the surface of the subject and deal with time, routes, cost, clothes, servants, and books.
First, time and routes. November to March is the best period for travelling. In the North, April is beautiful ; in Kashmir, May and June spent on a houseboat on the Dal Lake will prove enchanted months. Try not to hurry, for no one has ever been able to hurry the East. The cities you must see are Bombay, Agra, Delhi, Benares, and Calcutta ; I think I would add the view of the Himalayas from Dar- jeeling (thirty-six hours from Calcutta), where the greatest mountains in the world confront you in their white and blinding beauty, as a further essential. Such a restricted itinerary might be accomplished in two and a half months, but it would leave out three important Indias : the North, the South, and the Native States. To visit Peshawar and make the journey (now done comfortably in a day by car) through that grim gorge by which the White Huns of Tamer- lane, Mahmoud, and Baber came down to loot the fat lands of the Ganges, is an education in the problems which confront the Power that holds the sceptre of Hindustan at Delhi. Do not miss the Khyber Pass. It is open twice a week, and Peshawar' City, with its roses and brigands, will surprise and interest you almost as much as the Pass itself.
Then if you would see a paradise on earth, go up to Srinagar (two days by car from Rawalpindi), hire a house- boat (22 or £3 a week) and moor it among the lilies by the gardens of Shalimar. And if you would see more of those parts of India under the control of her Princes, visit Jaipur, Amber, Hyderabad, Travancore. Mention of this latter town—it is a very fascinating place—brings me to South India, with its tropical luxuriance and vast tanks and temples, where the painted elephants guard a treasure in votive jewels such as no king possesses. If you would see all this (and even so, I have missed out two places which may mean more to you than all the others : Cawnpore and its well of terrible memory, and the Residency at Lucknow, where alone of all the Union Jacks throughout the world our flag flies from sunset to the dawn), you must allow six months at least in order to assimilate and enjoy so much contrast and colour.
As to cost, that is simple. Allow £100 for the return journey and £2 a day per person. Naturally a big party would cost somewhat less, and a single traveller, luxuriously inclined, might easily spend more.
Clothes and servants are an important consideration. Many tourists squander a small fortune in London on totally useless equipment. Good sun-glasses are advisable—Crookes lenses of a light shade. A helmet for either man or woman can be bought at Messrs. Hawkes : this can be kept for " best " occasions. One very light summer costume will be required for the voyage out. Thick khaki helmets, camp equipment, extra clothes, bedding, mosquito nets, &c., can best be purchased at the Army and Navy Stores in Bombay : it is a mistake to bring out a quantity of gear of this kind from England. What is essential is warm clothing : a January morning in Delhi may pierce you to the marrow with its frost. If riding or shooting is in the programme (and India is the country of horse and gun), the necessary equipment should come from England. Rifle cartridges bought in India are often old and untrustworthy. Remember, by the way, that you will not be allowed to import weapons of military calibre, i.e., .303. As to servants, a valet or general factotum is practically indispensable : do not imagine because you pack your own clothes and travel third class in England that you will enjoy doing it in India. A Goanese servant, if you get a good one, will probably be best for the Visitor, as they all speak English and are ready to cook if required. Servants should be engaged through friends if Possible, and should meet the boat. As to wages, I had my servant for fifteen years and paid him 7s. 6d. a week throughout that time : on this he fed and clothed himself and his family and served me very faithfully, but he was the highest caste of Hindu that will serve us white " untouch- ables," and came from a long line of whiskered butlers. He Would not have suited a tourist. A temporary English- speaking Christian servant would probably require £1 a week nowadays, or even more.
On the vast literature_ relating to India one cannot dogmatize, but of the hundreds of books and authors I have read on the subject, Lord Zetland's Lands of the Thunderbolt and The Heart of Aryavarta seem to me the best of modem books. Sir Frederick Treves and Mark Twain both convey the " atmosphere " of the East with great skill in The Other Side of the Lantern and More Tramps Abroad respectively. Pierre Loti has done the same thing in French: in that brilliant though bitterly anti-English sketch, L' Inde sans les Anglais. For practical information I can recommend the booklets of the Indian State Railways : the essay on Benares (obviously written by an Indian) is particularly delightful. Benares is the most baffling city on earth, and one of the most ancient. Our railway pamphleteer says you can see it in two days, but two years would be too short a time for the holy city of Hinduism.
I have run over my space, but I must put in a word about the well-jumpers you may see at Delhi. All the usual sights —the six ruined cities, the seventh with its Mutiny memories, its Palace (" If there be a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this ! "), and the eighth (an atrocity we are building)—you will read about in guide-books. At Tughla- kabad pause awhile to see the well-jumpeis who dive down an eighty-foot well shaft, as their forefathers did before them, to amuse the Moghul Court. It is a hereditary profession. The men are old and very poor. Some of them had strange memories of 1857 when I first knew them, but those have gone. They love displaying their skill. Please, traveller, be liberal with them, even if you cannot be as lavish as the Great Moghul.
K. YEATS-BROWN.
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