BBC Eastern Service

Indian Writing

About: 

The Indian Writing magazine ran irregularly from 1940 to 1945. Ostensibly a literary magazine, Indian Writing was a platform for the radical, anti-colonial, broadly Marxist South Asian activists based in London to articulate their critique of Indo-British relations, alongside their own views on politics and culture, which would have been seen as extremist at the time.

The first issue of Indian Writing was written in 1940 with war ‘an immediate reality’ and the possibility of anti-colonial ‘revolutions’ imminent. Contributions to Indian Writing charted the Cripps mission to India, alongside a critique of the BBC’s Allied War Propaganda. Editors Iqbal Singh and Ahmed Ali forcefully voiced their objection to the use of Indian soldiers as ‘cannon fodder’ and to ‘the spectacle of innocent nations and peoples being dragged into the homicidal delirium of rival imperialist powers’ in the Second World War (Indian Writing 1.2 (1940), p. 68). In this way the magazine revealed the tensions between nationalism, anti-fascism and anti-imperialism of this period. The Book Review section of the Indian Writing magazine, served as a key space for South Asian writers like Ahmed Ali and Mulk Raj Anand to comment on each other’s novels as well as on other books on South Asia. This coverage was particularly important in the context of a broader, insular reviewing culture notably the resistance these South Asian fictional texts met from the more conservative, parochial elements of the British literary establishment, regarding their politics and use of Indian English.

Secondary works: 

Ranasinha, Ruvani, South Asian Writers in Twentieth-Century Britain: Culture in Translation (Oxford: Clarendon, 2007)

Content: 

Indian Writing 1.1 (1940), p. 3

Date began: 
01 Apr 1940
Extract: 

As Gorky observed: 'Culture is more necessary in storm than in peace.' it is more necessary because it is precisely in the stormy periods of transition that it becomes imperative to maintain some sense of the continuity of human thought and endeavour, and even more, to understand the processes which lead to new cultural integrations.

In launching Indian Writing we take Gorky’s view. And for good reason. It does not seem altogether fantastic to suggest that we are witnessing today a significant shift of the bases of culture, that initiative in cultural matters is passing to those vast masses of humanity who have so far served only as pawns for the profit of Western Imperialism. In this respect, the awakening of India is one of the most important facts of contemporary history. No single magazine could possibly claim to represent this great movement in all its complex aspects. We only hope to interpret its specifically cultural implications. […] We are interested primarily in publishing imaginative literature which is alive with the realities of to-day.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Editors: Ahmed Ali, Krishnarao Shelvankar, Iqbal Singh, Alagu Subramaniam.

Roland Hardless (business manager)

Relevance: 

The magazine reflects the Indian Writing editors’ perceived need to literally create their own space in the form of a literary magazine, to articulate their own views on politics and culture. The magazine demonstrates London’s role as a global centre and facilitator for anti-imperialism and diasporic nationalism.

Connections: 

Contributors: K. Ahmed Abbas, Mulk Raj Anand, Peter Blackman, Jack Chen, Ismat Chughtai, Cedric Dover, Attia Habibullah, Sher Jung, Pieter Keuneman, Enver Kureishi, Krishna Menon, Saadat Hussain Manto, R. K. Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru, Clemens Palme Dutt, Raja Rao, S. Raja Ratnam, Bharati Sarabhai, Rabindranath Tagore, Suresh Vaidya.

Date ended: 
01 Jul 1942
Precise date ended unknown: 
Y
Books Reviewed Include: 

Ali, Ahmed, Twilight in Delhi. Reviewed by Mulk Raj Anand.

Anand, Mulk Raj, Across the Black Waters. Reviewed by Iqbal Singh.

Barns, Margarita, The Indian Press. Reviewed by Krishnarao Shelvankar.

Bromfield, Louise, Night in Bombay. Reviewed by Mulk Raj Anand.

Chintamani, C. Y., Indian Politics since the Mutiny. Reviewed by Krishnarao Shelvankar.

Coatman, John, India: The Road to Self-Government. Reviewed by Krishna Menon.

Hemingway, Ernest, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Reviewed by Mulk Raj Anand.

Indian Progressive Writers Association, Naya Adab: Anthology of Progressive Literature. Reviewed by Ahmed Ali.

Koestler, Arthur, Scum of the Earth. Reviewed by Mulk Raj Anand.

Montagu, Ivor, The Traitor Class. Reviewed by Krishnarao Shelvankar.

Nehru, Jawaharlal, the Unity of India. Reviewed by Clemens Palme Dutt.

Palme Dutt, Rajani, India to-day. Reviewed by Iqbal Singh.

Rao, P. Kodanda, East versus West: A denial of contrasts, reviewed by Krishnarao Shelvankar.

Rilke, R. M., Selected Poems, reviewed by Iqbal Singh.

Shelvankar, Krishnarao, The Problem of India. Reviewed by Iqbal Singh.

Singh, Anup, Nehru: The Rising Star of India. Reviewed by Krishnarao Shelvankar.

Smith, Nicol, Burma Road, reviewed by Pieter Keuneman.

Spender, Stephen, The Backward Son. Reviewed by MulkRaj Anand.

Thompson, Edward, Enlist India for Freedom. Reviewed by Cedric Dover.

Zaheer, Sajjad, One Night in London. Reviewed by Mulk Raj Anand.

Zoshchenko, Michael, The Woman who could not Read. Reviewed by Iqbal Singh.

Location

16 Little Russell Street
London, WC1A 2HN
United Kingdom

Una Marson

About: 

Una Marson was born and grew up in Jamaica. After her work on the editorial staff of the Jamaica Critic in 1926, she founded her own magazine The Cosmopolitan, which she also edited. Having established herself in Jamaica, Marson moved to London in 1932 to experience life outside Jamaica and to find a wider audience for her literary work. She lodged with Harold Arundel Moody, and became involved with the League of Coloured Peoples. She worked for the League as its unpaid Assistant Secretary, organising student activities, receptions, meetings, trips and concerts. During her stay in England from Marson continued to publish on feminist issues, as she had in Jamaica. She also became increasingly interested in discussions about race, eugenics and the colour-bar, focussing on the most pressing issues faced by black migrants living in Britain.

During her first stay in Britain, Marson organized, staged and compered an evening of entertainment at the Indian Students Hostel. The line-up included the American singer John Payne, the pianist Bruce Wendell and the Guyanese clarinettist Rudolph Dunbar. By 1937 she was editor of the League’s journal and its spokesperson, working closely with Moody. Marson was also a member of the International Alliance of Women for Equal Suffrage and Citizenship and the British Commonwealth League (BCL). At the latter she met Myra Steadman, daughter of the suffragette Myra Sadd Brown. The All India Women’s congress was affiliated with the BCL. During the period she also became involved with the Left Book Club and encountered the writings of Rabindranath Tagore.

After two years in Jamaica, Marson returned to Britain in 1938. In 1939 Marson was offered work by the BBC as a freelancer for the magazine programme 'Picture Page' to arrange interviews with visitors from the Empire. She also drafted three-minute scripts for the programme. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Marson lectured occasionally at the Imperial Institute and worked as a talks and script writer for the BBC. In 1941 she was appointed full-time programme assistant to the BBC Empire Service, where she hosted and coordinated the broadcasts under the title 'Calling the West Indies'.

In November 1942 George Orwell asked her to contribute to the six-part poetry magazine 'Voice', broadcast on the Indian Section of the BBC’s Eastern Service, with Marson taking part in the fourth programme dedicated to American poetry, which also featured William Empson. She read her poem ‘Banjo Boy’. In the December edition of the programme she appeared alongside M. J. Tambimuttu, T. S. Eliot, Mulk Raj Anand, Narayana Menon and William Empson. This led Una to devise a similar programme for the West Indies, titled 'Caribbean Voices', which in later years under the direction of Henry Swanzy would introduce authors such as George Lamming, Sam Selvon, V. S. Naipaul and Edward Kamau Braithwaite to a wider audience. The programme ran for fifteen years until 1958. She returned to Jamaica in 1945 and died in 1965 from a heart attack.

Published works: 

Tropic Reveries (Kingston, Jamaica: Gleaner, 1930)

‘At What a Price’ (1932) [unpublished play]

Moth and the Star (Kingston, Jamaica: Una Marson, 1937)

London Calling (1938) [play]

‘Pocomania’ (Kingston, Jamaica, 1938) [unpublished MS]

Towards the Stars: Poems (London: London University Press, 1945)

Heights and Depths (Kingston, Jamaica: Una Marson, n.d.)

Example: 

‘A Call to Downing Street’, Public Opinion, 11 Sept. 1937 , p.5
 

Date of birth: 
06 Feb 1905
Connections: 

Mulk Raj Anand, Z. A. Bokhari, Vera Brittain, Venu Chitale, T. S. Eliot, William Empson, Victor Gollancz, A. E. T. Henry (BBC), C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Cecil Madden (BBC), Narayana MenonHarold Moody, George Orwell, Nancy Parratt, Christopher Pemberton (BBC), M. J. Tambimuttu, Mary Treadgold (BBC).

British Drama League, The International Alliance of Women, International League for Peace and Freedom

Contributions to periodicals: 

The Cosmopolitan

Jamaica Critic

The Keys

The Listener

Public Opinion
 

Extract: 

It is impossible to live in London, associating with peoples of other Colonies of the British Empire, without realising that British peoples the world over are working for self-realisation and development towards the highest and the best.

Secondary works: 

Delia, Jarrett-Macaulay, The Life of Una Marson, 1905–1965 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998)

Donnell, Alison, ‘Una Marson: feminism, anti-colonialism and a forgotten fight for freedom,’ in Bill Schwarz (ed.) West Indian Intellectuals in Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 114-31

Narain, Denise de Caires, 'Literary Mothers? Una Marson and Phyllis Shand Allfrey', Contemporary Caribbean Women's Poetry: Making Style (New York London: Routledge, 2002)

 

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives, Caversham Park, Reading

George Orwell Archive, University of London

Una Marson papers, National Library of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
 

City of birth: 
Sharon Village near Santa Cruz
Country of birth: 
Jamaica
Other names: 

Una Maud Victoria Marson

Locations

14 The Mansions, Mill Lane West Hampstead
London, NW6 1TE
United Kingdom
51° 33' 5.5404" N, 0° 11' 56.7564" W
164 Queen’s Road Peckham
London, SE15 2JR
United Kingdom
51° 28' 23.7072" N, 0° 3' 5.0544" W
Date of death: 
06 May 1965
Location of death: 
Kingston Jamaica
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1932
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1932-6; 1938-45

Hsiao Ch'ien

About: 

Hsiao Ch'ien was born into a sinicized Mongolian family in Beijing, China, in 1910. His father died before his birth and his mother died when he was seven. In 1931, he enrolled at Furen University where he and a young American named William Allen founded the English magazine China in Brief. In 1933, he entered the Faculty of English at Yenching University but switched to the Faculty of Journalism later that year before graduating in 1936.

In 1939, just before the Second World War broke out, he travelled to England to teach Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies and serve as a foreign correspondent for Takung Pao. After the outbreak of war, he also served as a war correspondent. SOAS relocated to Cambridge during the Second World War so, after spending one night in London, Hsiao Ch'ien went to Cambridge. He was classified as an 'enemy alien' by the Home Office but this changed after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the Chinese became members of the grand alliance.

The BBC chose Hsiao Ch'ien to report back to China about the European war and the war effort of the English. Around this time, he became good friends with Mulk Raj Anand and supported the Indian call for independence. He voiced his support for the Indian cause in his weekly BBC broadcast but the censors deleted it before it went on air. Later George Orwell, who was head of the BBC's Far Eastern Division, invited him to do several special broadcasts to the Indians and Americans, but strictly on the subject of literature.

SOAS moved back to London in July 1940 and Ch'ien took up residence in a house that catered especially to Asians; he shared the ground floor flat with a Tamil named Rajarantu, who later became the first deputy premier and foreign minister of Singapore. In wartime London, Hsiao Ch'ien socialized with Bloomsbury Group affiliates like Bertrand Russell, Leonard Woolf and E. M. Forster, with whom he became close friends. According to his autobiography, he first met Forster at the PEN Club memorial meeting for Rabindranath Tagore held on 9 May 1941. However, according to India Office files, this meeting was hosted by Krishna Menon and the India League. The speakers were Edward Thompson, Hewlett Johnson (Dean of Canterbury), Nagendranath Gangulee (Tagore's nephew), Beatrix Lehmann (actress), Bhicoo Batlivala, Helen Kirkpatrick (Chicago Daily Tribune) and M. Maisky (Soviet ambassador). Other attendees included Mulk Raj Anand, Tahmankar, Sunder Kabadia, Krishnarao Shelvankar, Alagu Subramanian, Iqbal Singh, Sasadhar Sinha and Asha Bhattacharya led the singing of Tagore's songs.

In June 1944, Hsiao Ch'ien became a journalist for Dagongbao and set up an office in Fleet Street, London. Soon afterwards he was sent to France and other parts of Western Europe as a war correspondent; he covered the meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco, and attended the Potsdam Conference in July 1945.

Hsiao Ch'ien returned to Shanghai in 1946 and took up writing. He was considered right-wing by the Chinese government and banished to the countryside but later received redress. He died in 1999 in Beijing.

Published works: 

Etching of a Tormented Age: A Glimpse of Contemporary Chinese Literature (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1942)

China but not Cathay (London: The Pilot Press, 1942)

'China's Literary Revolution', in E. M. Forster, Ritchie Calder, Cedric Dover, Hsiao Ch'ien and others, Talking to India: A Selection of English Language Broadcasts to India, ed. and with an introduction by George Orwell (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1943), pp. 27-34

The Dragon Breads versus The Blueprints: (Meditations on Post-War Culture) (London: The Pilot Press, 1944)

A Harp with a Thousand Strings: A Chinese Anthology (London: Pilot Press, 1944)

The Spinners of Silk (London: Allen & Unwin, 1944)

British Graphic Arts (Shanghai: Zung Kwang Publishing Co., 1947)

(as Qian Xiao) How the Tillers Won Back Their Land (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1951)

(as Qian Xiao) Chestnuts and Other Stories (Beijing: Chinese Literature, 1984)

(as Qian Xiao) Semolina and Others (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1984)

Traveller without a Map, translated by Jeffrey C. Kinkley (London: Hutchinson, 1990)

(as Qian Xiao) 'Letters from Cambridge'

(as Qian Xiao) 'Symphony of Contradictions'

(as Qian Xiao) 'Bloody September'

(as Qian Xiao) 'Three Days in London'

(as Qian Xiao) 'London under Silver Kites'

Date of birth: 
27 Jan 1910
Connections: 

Mulk Raj Anand (friend), Bhicoo BatlivalaZ. A. Bokhari, E. M. Forster (friend), Margery Fry (stayed at Fry's cottage in Aylesbury), John Lehmann (PEN Club), George Orwell (BBC), Bertrand Russell (attended tea parties with Russell), Stephen Spender (PEN Club), M. J. Tambimuttu, H. G. Wells (PEN Club), Leonard Woolf (met at Monk's House).

Contributions to periodicals: 

New Statesman and Nation (1939)

Daylight: Volume I: European Arts and Letters Yesterday: Today: Tomorrow ('The New China Turns to Ibsen', 1941, pp. 167-74)

Life and Letters Today, 81, May 1944, pp. 102-10, 110-19 ('Epidemic' and 'The Galloping Legs', published under the title 'Two Chinese Stories')

Reviews: 

O. M. Green, International Affairs Review Supplement 19.11, 1943 (China But not Cathay)

Mulk Raj Anand, Life and Letters Today 43.86, 1944, pp. 52, 54 (The Spinners of Silk)

 

Secondary works: 

Chen, Theodore Hsi En, Thought Reform of the Chinese Intellectuals (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960)

Gittings, John, 'The Scholar Who Went Back Home', obituary, Guardian (18 February 1999)

Hsia, Chih-Tsing and Wang, David D., A History of Modern Chinese Fiction (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999)

Involved in events: 

China Campaign Committee, organized by Victor Gollancz, Kingsley Martin, Margery Fry, Harold Laski (the society lobbied on behalf of China's resistance against Japan in the war)

City of birth: 
Peking
Country of birth: 
China
Current name city of birth: 
Beijing
Other names: 

Qian Xiao

Xiao Bingqian

Date of death: 
11 Feb 1999
Location of death: 
Beijing
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1939
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1939-44

Location: 

Milton Village, Cambridge

School of Oriental and African Studies, Christ College, Cambridge

King's College, London

George Orwell

About: 

George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihair, Bihar to Richard Walmsley Blair, an official in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service, and Ida Mabel Limouzin. His mother moved with her children to England and settled in Henley-on-Thames in 1904. Orwell was educated at St Cyprian’s School and Eton where he was briefly taught French by Aldous Huxley.

Instead of opting to study at Cambridge or Oxford, which would have been a logical step for an Eton-educated man, Orwell applied for a colonial job in Burma, where a large number of his mother’s family, including his grandmother, still lived. He joined the Indian Imperial Police Force in 1922. As part of his training he learnt Burmese and Hindustani. Orwell resigned his position after five years and returned to England to become a full-time writer. He drew on his experiences of imperialism for Burmese Days, ‘A Hanging’ and ‘Shooting an Elephant’ which unmasks how much he loathed the colonial administrative system of which he had become a part. Victor Gollancz turned down Burmese Days for fear of libel action and it was published in the USA in 1934.

After his return, Orwell started to build his reputation as left-wing writer. He was well-known for his social reportage in books like Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) or Homage to Catalonia (1938), based on his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Since the early 1930s Orwell reviewed and wrote poems and sketches for the Journal Adelphi.

Orwell’s network of Indian friends expanded when he joined the BBC Indian Section of the Eastern Service  as Talks Assistant in 1941. Orwell was deemed a suitable candidate because of his Anglo-Indian background, his service in Burma, his frank honesty and his proficiency in Burmese and Hindustani. Orwell had already broadcast on the BBC Home Service. After Z. A. Bokhari had produced a number of talks by Orwell for the Eastern Service, he recommended him for a full position with the Indian section, which Orwell took up on 16 August 1941. He attended training courses together with William Empson who had also just started working for the BBC in London. Orwell worked as part of the BBC’s efforts to counter the German propaganda machine and to communicate to India the importance of its support for Britain in the war effort. Orwell was instrumental in arranging a diverse schedule of programmes on arts, culture and politics, such as the literary magazine programme ‘Voice’, which brought together a wide range of South Asian, British and Caribbean writers. It would provide the template for Una Marson’s ‘Caribbean Voices’. Orwell and Mulk Raj Anand became good friends while working at the BBC. Anand would cook Indian meals for Orwell. Both had shared similar experiences while fighting with Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell commissioned Anand to write a talk on the event, however it did not pass the censor. He also befriended the Eurasian writer Cedric Dover, commissioning him to write talks for the Indian section, recommending him to publishers and editors and supporting him for a grant at the Royal Literary Fund.

Orwell became increasingly frustrated with the threat of censorship and questioned the effectiveness of the Service’s broadcasts. He also resented being challenged by Bokhari for his published journalism in newspapers such as the Observer and New Statesman. He resigned his position in September 1943. After leaving the BBC, Orwell began work on his most famous works Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His time at the BBC provided rich material for the latter novel. He continued to publish journalism and became the literary editor of Tribune. Orwell died of Tuberculosis in 1950.

Published works: 

Down and Out in Paris and London (London: Victor Gollancz, 1933)

Burmese Days, etc. (New York: Harper, 1934)

A Clergyman's Daughter (London: Victor Gollancz, 1935)

Keep the Aspidistra Flying (London: Victor Gollancz, 1936)

The Road to Wigan Pier (London: Victor Gollancz, 1937)

Homage to Catalonia (London: Secker & Warburg, 1938)

Coming Up for Air (London: Victor Gollancz, 1939)

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (London: Secker & Warburg, 1945)

Nineteen Eighty-Four (London: Secker & Warburg, 1949)

The Complete Works of George Orwell, ed. by Peter Davison (London: Secker & Warburg, 1998)

Date of birth: 
25 Jun 1903
Contributions to periodicals: 

Adelphi

Horizon

New Statesman

The Listener

Observer

Tribune

Secondary works: 

Buitenhuis, Peter, and Nadel, Ira Bruce, George Orwell: A Reassessment (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1988)

Burgess, Anthony, 1985 (London: Hutchinson, 1978)

Calder, Jenni, Chronicles of Conscience: A Study of George Orwell and Arthur Koestler (London: Secker & Warburg, 1968)

Coppard, Audrey, and Crick, Bernard R., Orwell Remembered (London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1984) 

Crick, Bernard R., George Orwell: A Life (London: Secker & Warburg, 1980)

Crick, Bernard, 'Blair, Eric Arthur [George Orwell] (1903–1950)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31915]

Hitchens, Christopher, Orwell's Victory (London: Allen Lane, 2002)

Milosz, Czeslaw, The Captive Mind (London: Secker & Warburg, 1953)

Rosenfeld, I., 'Decency and Death', Partisan Review (May 1950)

Shelden, Michael, Orwell: The Authorised Biography (London: Heinemann, 1991)

Stansky, Peter, and Abrahams, William, The Unknown Orwell (London: Constable, 1972)

Stansky, Peter, and Abrahams, William, Orwell: The Transformation (London: Constable, 1979)

Woodcock, George, The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell (London: Cape, 1967)

Stansky, Peter, and Abrahams, William, Orwell: The Transformation (London: Constable, 1979)

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

Correspondence, literary MSS, notebooks and diary, University College London Special Collections, University of London

Correspondence with Secker and Warburg, publishers, University College London Special Collections, University of London

Recieved Letters, Nauscript Collection, British Library, St Pancras

Involved in events: 
City of birth: 
Motihari
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Eric Arthur Blair

Date of death: 
21 Jan 1950
Location of death: 
University College Hospital, London
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1904
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1906-21, 1927-36, 1937-50

Location: 

77 Parliament Hill, London, NW3 1NR

Indira Devi

About: 

Maharajkumari Indira Devi was born on 26 February 1912 to Maharaja Paramjit Singh and Maharani Brinda of Kapurthala. She left India for Britain in 1935 at the age of twenty-three. Only her sisters Princesses Sushila and Ourmilla knew of her intentions. In England she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London with a view to becoming a movie star. While she did not fulfil this ambition, she managed to work briefly with Alexander Korda at London Films, who wanted to launch her as his next big star after Merle Oberon. However the difficulties of the film industry in the late 1930s meant she did not get her big break in the movie business.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Indira Devi successfully passed the St John Ambulance examination and drove motor ambulances during air raids. She also worked for a while as a postal censor. She joined the BBC in 1942 and became known as the ‘Radio Princess’. She hosted a half-hour radio programme in Hindustani for Indian forces stationed in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. She broadcast the programme 'The Debate continues', a weekly report to India on the proceedings in the House of Commons, where she was the only woman in the Press Gallery. She broadcast many talks series for the Indian Section of the Eastern Service Division. She also broadcast on the Home Service. She was offered a permanent contract with the Overseas Service Division in 1943. She continued to work for the BBC until 1968. Princess Indira died in Ibiza, Spain in September 1979.

Published works: 

The Revenge of the Gods: A Story of Ancient Egypt (London: The Eastern Press, 1928)

Date of birth: 
26 Feb 1912
Secondary works: 

Bance, Peter, The Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photographs (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007)

Orwell, George (ed.), Talking to India (London: Allen and Unwin, 1943)

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Kapurthala
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Maharajkumari Indira Devi of Kapurthala, The Radio Princess, Indira of Kapurthala

Locations

512a Nell Gwynn House
Sloane Avenue, Kensington
London, SW3 3AU
United Kingdom
51° 29' 32.2476" N, 0° 9' 56.736" W
Hepatica Cottage Ivinghoe Aston, LU7 9DQ
United Kingdom
51° 51' 14.0472" N, 0° 37' 5.5308" W
Date of death: 
01 Sep 1979
Location of death: 
Ibiza
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1935
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1935-68

Venu Chitale

About: 

Venu Chitale was a talks broadcaster and assistant to George Orwell at the BBC’s Indian Section of the Eastern Service. She arrived in Britain in the mid-1930s. She had come to Britain with her teacher in Poona, Winnie Duplex, to study at University College, London.

She joined the BBC in 1940 when the service expanded to broadcast different Indian languages including Marathi, her mother tongue. From 1941, Chitale assisted George Orwell in his work as a talks programme assistant for the BBC Indian section of the Eastern Service from 1941-43. She broadcast on his series of talks ‘Through Eastern Eyes’ as well as his 1942 magazine programme 'Voice'. She also broadcast as part of the series of talks ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’, which focused on the role of women in the war effort. Like Indira Devi of Kapurthala, she also broadcast on the Home Service, where she served as a newsreader at the height of the war. She contributed to programmes such as ‘Indian Recipes’ and the ‘Kitchen Front’ series, which was produced by Jean Rowntree. Orwell was particularly impressed by Chitale and she was often complimented for her speaking voice. She became a full-time member of staff as the Marathi Programme Assistant in 1942.

While in London, Chitale also became involved with the India League and forged a close relationship with Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister. She returned to India in 1950 and married Prof T. G. Khare. She published several novels and died in 1995.

Published works: 

In Transit, Foreword by Mulk Raj Anand (Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1950)

Incognito (Pune: Sriniwas Cards, 1993)
 

Date of birth: 
28 Dec 1912
Secondary works: 

De Souza, Eunice and Pereira, Lindsay (eds), Women’s Voices: Selections from Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Indian Writing in English (Delhi: OUP India, 2002)

West, W. J. (ed.), Orwell: The War Broadcasts (London: Duckworth/BBC, 1985)
 

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Shirole, Kolhapur
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Leelabhai Ganesh Khare

Locations

Central Club YMCA
Great Russell Street
London, W.C.1B 3PE
United Kingdom
51° 31' 4.8504" N, 0° 7' 36.2964" W
48 New Cavendish Street
London, W1W 6XY
United Kingdom
51° 31' 8.2956" N, 0° 8' 57.3864" W
Date of death: 
01 Jan 1995
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Location of death: 
Bombay/Mumbai
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1937
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1937-50

Damyanthi Sahni

About: 

Damyanthi Sahni was married to Balraj Sahni. After their move to Enlgand she found employment with the BBC's Indian Section of the Eastern Service.

Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1939-43

Location: 

London

Tags for Making Britain: 

Z. A. Bokhari

About: 

Before arriving in London, to become director of the Indian Section of the BBC Eastern Service, Bokhari was the director of the Delhi Broadcasting Station of All India Radio. Bokhari was in London in July 1937, where he attended a reception held by Firoz Khan Noon at India House Aldwych. He moved to London to take up the post of Indian programmes organizer for the Indian section of the Eastern Service of the BBC from 1940 to 1945. Sir Malcom Darling recruited Bokhari on the recommendation of the controller of broadcasting for All India Radio, Lionel Fielden, to set up the Indian section of the Eastern Service. Initially Bokhari and his team only contributed a weekly news report and the odd cultural programme.

Bokahri together with Darling were instrumental in recruiting George Orwell, who would be an important asset also because of his friendship with Mulk Raj Anand, who had previously rejected Darling's offer of work at the BBC.  Bokhari hoped that he would be able to persuade Anand and other Indian friends to work for the Indian Section. During his time in London he managed the contracts and programming of the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, working closely with George Orwell. He was also an accomplished broadcaster, regularly transmitting talks in Urdu to India. He accompanied Richard Dimbleby to report on the Indian soldiers stationed with the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. Organizing and coordinating the activities of the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, Bokhari was instrumental in the the Service’s programming and bringing together the network of free-lance talks writers based at the BBC. In 1945 he took up the position of Director of the All India Radio Station in Calcutta and later moved to Pakistan to become Controller of Broadcasting in Karachi for Radio Pakistan.

Published works: 

Orwell, George, (ed.), Talking to India (London: Allen & Unwin, 1943)

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1904
Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Fielden, Lionel, Beggar My Neighbour (London: Secker and Warburg, 1943)

Ranasinha, Ruvani, South Asian Writers in Twentieth Century Britain: Culture in Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)

West, W. J., Orwell: The War Broadcasts (London: Duckworth/BBC, 1985)

The Times (06 July 1937), p. 21
 

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

City of birth: 
Peshawar
Country of birth: 
India
Current name country of birth: 
Pakistan
Other names: 

Zulfikar Ali Bokhari, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah Bukhari
 

Locations

Park Lane
London, W1K 7AF
United Kingdom
51° 30' 23.094" N, 0° 9' 7.9128" W
55 Portland Place
London, W1B 1QG
United Kingdom
51° 31' 15.4596" N, 0° 8' 43.6092" W
Indian Section of the BBC Eastern Service
200 Oxford Street
London, W1D 1NU
United Kingdom
51° 30' 55.8288" N, 0° 8' 24.9612" W
Date of death: 
12 Jul 1975
Location of death: 
Karachi, Pakistan
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

early 1920s; 1940-5

Narayana Menon

About: 

Narayana Menon studied at Madras and Edinburgh Universities. He was a Carnegie Scholar in English from 1939 to 1941 at Edinburgh where he became active in student politics, joining the Executive Council of the Indian Student Association of Great Britain. He graduated with a PhD in English for his thesis on the development of William Butler Yeats, which was published in 1942. E. M. Forster reviewed it favourably on BBC radio, which marked the start of a life-long friendship. Menon became a Senior Carnegie Scholar in 1941-2.

Menon was an accomplished veena player and gave numerous performances, amongst other at a charity concert in aid of the Indian poor in the East End of London in 1938. He joined the Indian Section of the Eastern Service in 1942. George Orwell commissioned him to write talks and Z. A. Bokhari used him on many occasions as a talks reader in Hindustani and English. His work at the BBC was diverse and included broadcasts on literature and music. He participated with Mulk Raj Anand in the fifth instalment of Orwell’s poetry discussion programme ‘Voice’. He also wrote programmes on E. J. Thompson in the ‘Friends of Bengal’ Series, adapted Tagore’s ‘The King of the Dark Chamber’ for the Hindustani Service and the Prem Chand story ‘The Shroud’ for the series ‘Indian Play’. He was advisor and producer of the Music Programme for the BBC Eastern Service, a post he held until 1947. Menon was a committed supporter of the Indian independence movement. He was involved with V. K. Krishna Menon’s India League and regularly gave music recitals at its events. He had also close links with Rajani Palme Dutt and Krishnarao Shelvankar.

After his return to India he became Director of Broadcasting in Baroda State from 1947-8, before moving to All India Radio, for which he worked from 1948-63, later becoming its director general.

Published works: 

The Development of William Butler Yeats (London: Oliver & Boyd, 1942)

‘Recollections of E.M. Forster’ in K. Natwar Singh (ed.) E. M. Forster: A Tribute (New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1964), pp. 3-14

Example: 

Memo from Orwell, Indian Section of the Eastern Service,  200 Oxford Street, London, 24 Feb. 1943

Date of birth: 
27 Jun 1911
Content: 

In this extract, Orwell defends the choice of Menon as programmes director for music.

Connections: 

Surat AlleyMulk Raj Anand, A. L. Bakaya, M. Blackman, Z. A. Bokhari, Venu Chitale, G. V. Desani, Basil Douglas, Cedric Dover, Rajani Palme Dutt E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, William Empson, Islam-il-Haq, Parvati Kumaramangalam, Una Marson, N. D. Mazumdar, Krishna Menon, George OrwellShah Abdul Majid Qureshi, Balraj Sahni, George Sampson, Krishnarao Shelvankar, Iqbal Singh, M. J. Tambimuttu, S. Arthur Wynn, L. F. Rushbrook-Williams (Director of the Eastern Service), W. B. Yeats.

Indian Student Association of Great Britain

Contributions to periodicals: 
Reviews: 

Forster, E.M. 'An Indian on W.B. Yeats', The Listener 28.728 (24 December 1942), p. 824 (The Development of William Butler Yeats)

Orwell, George, Horizon (The Development of William Butler Yeats)

Extract: 

As the point has been queried, we are asking Dr Menon to choose the 15 minute musical programmes in weeks 12, 14, etc. because he has shown himself competent in selecting programmes of this type, and he ahs the advantage of being a student both of European and Indian music. He is therefore probably a good judge of the types of European music likely to appeal to Indian listeners.

Secondary works: 

'Concert To Aid Indian Poor Of East London ', The Times (25 October 1938), p. 12

Forster, E. M., Hughes, Linda K., Lago, Mary, et al. (eds) The BBC Talks of E. M. Forster, 1929-1960: A Selected Edition (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2008)

West, W. J. (ed.), Orwell: The War Broadcasts (London: Duckworth/BBC, 1985)

Archive source: 

BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, Reading

Involved in events: 

Independence Day Events of the India League

City of birth: 
Trichur, Kerala
Country of birth: 
India
Current name city of birth: 
Thrissur
Other names: 

Vadakke Kurupath Narayana Menon

Locations

BBC Eastern Service
200 Oxford Street
London, W1D 1 NU
United Kingdom
51° 30' 55.8288" N, 0° 8' 24.9612" W
5 Marchhall Road
Edinburgh, EH16 5HR
United Kingdom
55° 56' 11.0976" N, 3° 10' 6.042" W
176 Sussex Gardens
London, W2 1UD
United Kingdom
51° 30' 52.2648" N, 0° 10' 26.1264" W
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1938
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1938-47

Location: 

Edinburgh, London.

Sudhindra Nath Ghose

About: 

Sudhindra Nath Ghose was a Bengali novelist. After studying at the University of Calcutta, he travelled to Europe in the 1920s to continue his studies in Western Art at the University of Strasbourg where he graduated with a D.Litt. He subsequently worked as a research scholar at the Universities of London, Paris, Berlin, and Geneva. While at university he worked as a journalist, becoming foreign correspondent for The Hindu of Madras from 1924-32. He was also associate editor of World's Youth, the official organ of the YMCA from 1929-31. In 1931, he joined the staff of the Information Section of the League of Nations Secretariat in Geneva.

Ghose moved to England in 1940. He lectured to H. M. Forces and to US units about India from 1940-6. He was part of the panel of speakers that regularly toured for the India-Burma Association. Much of the research of his papers was conducted in the British Museum Reading Room, for which he had a reader’s pass. In the late 1940s, Ghose worked as the librarian for Student Movement House, 103 Gower Street, London, WC1, trying to persuade the British Council to offer translations of books about British life into Indian languages. He also organized its literary events. Ghose was not part of the Indian organizations fighting for independence, but worked as part of the political system and through his lectures tried to counter what he called ‘the systematic misrepresentation and vilification of Great Britain’ (Mss Eur F 153). He wrote lengthy reports on India League meetings and also attended meetings of the Committee of Indian Congressmen in Great Britain in the 1940s to write detailed reports for the India-Burma Association. Furthermore, Ghose wrote reports for the India-Burma Association following his lectures for Bevin trainees ('Bevin Boys') from India at Letchworth in 1944, fearing they might be led astray by Indian organizations campaigning for Indian independence in Britain.

Ghose was the proof-reader for the Bengali version of the government-produced brochure ‘War in Pictures’. During the war, he also worked as an ARP Warden in North Ealing. He tried on several occasions to get work with the BBC Eastern Service. He was invited to participate in a Round Table Discussion on India for the Home Service Department in May 1942. He was severely criticized by his friends at the Bibliophile Bookshop for taking part in this debate. Subsequently he became an occasional broadcaster for the BBC. He was commissioned by George Orwell in June 1942 to write a talk programme on the Future of Hinduism. However the talk was not accepted for broadcast, as Orwell thought it was not altogether suitable. Bokhari had blocked the broadcast of the programme for fear of antagonising the Hindu community in India and Ghose was subsequently released from his contract because he was deemed to be too expensive, after another venture for a Bengali-language news bulletin fell through. While the organization recognized Ghose’s proficiency in Bengali and his excellent delivery as a microphone speaker, it did not rate him as a script writer and did not employ him again.

Ghose was intensely critical of the Eastern Service, especially Bokhari and Anand, whose left-leaning politics he denounced in his private papers. Ghose alleged that Anand, Shelvankar, and Bokhari were conspiring against him. From 1943 onwards Ghose was a lecturer for the Imperial Institute’s Empire Lecture Scheme to Schools. After the end of the war, he stayed in England and continued to lecture on eastern and western art, architecture, philosophy and literature. He also published a successful tetraology of novels, based on his childhood in Bengal. He returned to India as a Visiting Professor of English at Visvabharati University, Santiniketan from 1957-8. He died in London in 1965 from a heart attack.

Published works: 

The Colours of a Great City: Two Playlets (London: C.W. Daniel Co. 1924)

Rossetti and Contemporary Criticism (London: Bowes, 1928) [non-fiction]

Post-War Europe: 1918-1937 (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1939) [non-fiction]

And Gazelles Leaping (London: Michael Joseph, 1949)

The Cradle of the Clouds (London: Michael Joseph, 1951)

The Vermillion Boat (London: Michael Joseph, 1953)

The Flame of the Forest (London: Michael Joseph, 1955)

Folk Tales and Fairy Stories from India (London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1961)

Folk Tales and Fairy Stories from Father India (London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1966)

Date of birth: 
30 Jul 1899
Connections: 

Lord Amery, Mulk Raj Anand (BBC), Z. A. Bokhari (BBC), G. H. Bozman, Hilton Brown (BBC), S. K. Datta, Alexander Duff, Edwin Haward (India-Burma Association),  Michael Joseph, C. H. Joyce, Edwin Haward (Secretary, India and Burma Association), S. Lall, (Deputy High Commissioner of India),  Salvador de Madariaga (BBC), Firoz Khan Noon, George Orwell (BBC), F. Richter (India Society), Krishnarao Shelvankar (BBC), L. F. Rushbrook Williams (BBC Eastern Service Director), Sir Francis Younghusband.

Committee of the International Assembly (London), Charles Lamb Society (London),International Friendship League, International P.E.N. Club, Member of the Allies Club (1942), Royal Institute of International Affairs, Student Movement House.

Contributions to periodicals: 

The Aryan Path

The Envoy

The Hindu, Madras

The Observer

World's Youth

Secondary works: 

Narayan, Shyamala A., Sudhin N. Ghose (New Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann India, 1973)

Who's Who of Indian Writers

Archive source: 

Mss Eur F153: Papers and correspondence, 1940-65, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

L/I/1/1383, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Involved in events: 
City of birth: 
Burdwan
Country of birth: 
Bengal, India
Current name city of birth: 
Bardhaman
Other names: 

Sudhin N. Ghose

Locations

1 St Mary Abbots Court Kensington
London, W14 8PS
United Kingdom
51° 29' 50.5788" N, 0° 12' 12.222" W
12 St Simon's Avenue Putney
London, SW15 6DU
United Kingdom
51° 27' 28.9656" N, 0° 13' 28.272" W
9 Corringway North Ealing
London, W5 3EU
United Kingdom
51° 31' 23.7756" N, 0° 17' 4.3332" W
Date of death: 
30 Dec 1965
Location of death: 
London, England
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1940
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1940-65

Location: 

135 Oakwood Court, London, W14

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