The first part of an essay series tracing the extraordinary educational tradition of spreading sacred knowledge throughout the length and breadth of Bharatavarsha for a period of at least three millennia.
The 1891 diary of the British surgeon Dr. Francis offers us valuable raw material for doing a fuller historical analysis of British colonialism. While it is largely sympathetic to India, it does not rise above the innate tone of colonial superiority.
In the fourth part of this series, we see Dr. Francis' minute observations on mundane things like waking up, the Hindu attitude to farming, efficiency of Hindu barbers, and the cultured art of letter-writing in India.
In the third part of this series, Dr. Francis offers a user manual of sorts on how Englishmen who wish to come to India must behave with the "natives" here. His observations on the abuses in Indian languages and the sacred bathing habits of Hindus make for highly interesting reading.
In the second part of this series, Dr. Francis provides an eye-opening picture of the manner in which the officers of the British Raj took enormous loans from our Mahajans and Shroffs (moneylenders) for their sensual and other enjoyments.
The first part of a series carrying excerpts from Dr. Francis, a British surgeon who stayed in India at the turn of the twentieth century and recorded his observations of our society, culture, beliefs, customs, and physical conditions.
