Miscellaneous Accounts

The third and final section offers readers a brief introduction to China to some of its places, monuments, institutions, customs, language, educational system, religion, trade, and a number of other topics, at times from a comparative perspective. The chapter ends with four lively and fascinating discussions of Japan and its achievements, the author’s conversation with an American, the looting of and atrocities committed in China by the foreign forces, and the ties that bound China and India together.

Introduction

‘Who does not know,’ writes Gadadhar Singh, the author of Chīn Me Terah Mās (Thirteen Months in China), in the opening line of the concluding section entitled ‘Chin aur Hind[ustan]’, ‘that in the Asian continent, both China and India are very big and fertile countries and, as civilizations, the most superior’...

The War in China

The chapter recounts Gadadhar Singh voyage to China on board the ship Palamcottah. He and his 7th Rajputs Regiment sailed from Calcutta on June 29, 1900, and made brief stopovers in Singapore and Hong Kong en route to Tianjin. The author opens with his reflections on China seemingly on the verge of collapse, Japan on the rise, and India already subordinated and closes with his thoughts on such topics as the Arya Samaj; ‘sea voyages’ or kala pani, i.e., the issue of Hindus crossing the ‘black waters’; the differential treatment of white and black soldiers; and the martial identity and ideology of Rajputs. As his ship approaches China, Singh launches into a discussion of religion and the deep compassion he felt towards the Chinese even though he was there to wage war on them.

War Scenes

A lengthy second chapter traces the author’s experiences of the war in China beginning with the Battle (or Relief) of Tianjin and concluding with the march on and takeover of Beijing to end the Boxer siege of the Foreign Legations. His personal narrative is interspersed with ruminations on Hindustan, caste, race, Japan and the key Japanese role in the success of the International Expedition, China, and Chinese history.