AN INDIAN DIARY
EDWIN S MONTAGU
EDITED BY VENETIA MONTAGU
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1930
First Edition.
The Secretary of State for India from 1917-1922, Montagu details his landmark visit to India in 1917-18.
These were eventful years in the history of the subcontinent, with a growing nationalist movement and an increasing realization among the British ruling élite that more co-operation and political reform were urgently required. Such concerns were made more acute by India's immense contribution to the war effort. Montagu was impatient to play an active part in this process and hoped to succeed Lord Hardinge as viceroy in 1915. Although unsuccessful in his bid to become viceroy, his interest in the governance of India found unexpected fulfilment when, following the resignation in July 1917 of the Conservative secretary of state, Austen Chamberlain, Montagu was appointed in his place. Montagu was the last Liberal and only Jew to become secretary of state, and his period of office constituted a turning point in the history of the raj.
Montagu inherited a difficult situation, and one of his first acts was to make a clear statement of the government's position on future constitutional advance for India, a position which had broad cross-party support and had been drafted by the former viceroy, Lord Curzon.
Montagu was personally committed to this process, and his enthusiasm was evidenced by his decision in winter 1917–18 to undertake an extensive tour of India in order to ascertain public opinion at first hand and formulate with the viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, a concrete scheme for constitutional reform. Apart from a brief visit by Crewe accompanying the king for the Delhi durbar in 1912, no secretary of state had officially visited the subcontinent over whose destinies they presided, and Montagu's tour proved a landmark. He kept a daily record of the visit, published posthumously as An Indian Diary (1930). The Diary reveals his frank opinions on a range of issues, including the nature of the political problems confronting India; the need for major reforms and an overhaul of the machinery of empire; the hundreds of Indian political delegations he received; his frustration at what he considered unnecessary bureaucracy and the inherent conservatism of the Indian Civil Service; his fluctuating and often less than charitable views of Chelmsford; as well as the pleasures of dining, shooting, and birdwatching with his many friends in princely India.
The resultant Montagu–Chelmsford report of July 1918 formed the basis of the Government of India Act, which formally entered the statute book in December 1919. (ODNB)
Of sporting interest are his chapters on hunting tiger and sambur in Gwalior, more tiger in Alwar, and bear in Jaipur. (Czech, Bibliography of Asian Big Game Hunting Books.)
23 x 16 cm. xv + 410 pp + 16 plates.
Good + condition, cloth mottled, page edges foxed. Previous owner's name and gift inscription on front endpaper. Tipped in on the rear free endpaper is a 1934 newspaper article relating to the Montagu–Chelmsford reforms.
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