New Delhi: India’s fourth President VV Giri spent three years in Ireland between 1913 and 1916—the revolutionary years in the European country. The stay would go on to have a huge impact on his own actions as a part of India’s freedom movement. This little nugget of history is on display at a travelling exhibition in Delhi that captures the complicated history of Irish people who served the British empire in India.
“When I am not an Indian, I am an Irishman,” Giri is often quoted as saying.
The ‘Looking East: Ireland + India’ exhibition showcases individuals from Ireland, especially men, who sought their futures in India as a part of the enterprise of colonialism. However, many on their return to Ireland were unwelcome given their links to English colonialism, and the families they left behind were marginalised in Indian society.
The exhibition highlights the lives of soldiers, colonial administrators, and civil bureaucrats from Ireland who made their way to India.
Curated originally at Dublin’s EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum in September 2024, the Delhi edition will remain open till 1 February 2025 at the Lokayata Art Gallery. The launch of the multimedia exhibition on Wednesday saw a panel discussion moderated by historian Sucheta Mahajan, with curator of the exhibition Catherine Healy, Indian born Irish writer Cauvery Madhavan, and Sheetal Khanna from the Honorary Consulate of Ireland, Kolkata as panellists.
From the early administrators, the mutiny of the Connaught Rangers regiment in 1920, to the lives of Annie Besant and Margaret Cousins, the travelling exhibition shares the lives of the Irish in India, as well as those Indians who made Ireland their home, including Giri, and chefs from Punjab in the 1970s.
A complicated history
Ireland is considered one of the oldest colonies of England, facing waves of English attempts to take over the country from the 12th century onward. The peculiar nature of the European country’s ties with India comes from the fact that despite facing English colonisation, Irish nationals were involved in maintaining and expanding Britain’s control over the subcontinent.
“The experience for Indians of Ireland is often through the education system and the Irish schools,” Catherine Healy said at the launch of the exhibit.
Author Cauvery Madhavan, who has lived in the European country since 1986, added that her own early knowledge of Ireland at schools stemmed from the Irish nuns.
Ireland, a predominantly Catholic country, nevertheless was an active agent in the making of the British Empire, which in the 16th century became a Protestant kingdom. While there was a ban on Irish Catholics from serving in the East India Company, it was often ignored. A number of prominent Irish men, including Catholics, served in India, according to Healy.
The complicated history between Ireland and England (later the United Kingdom), and the advent of British colonialism only makes their historical relationship more complicated. The Irish also helped unmake the Empire in the 20th century, with a number of Indian freedom fighters learning from this experience.
“Without the Irish the British Raj would not have happened. The third, fourth or fifth sons who did not stand to inherit in Ireland would come to India,” said Madhavan.
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Irish as colonisers and the colonised
The two countries, thousands of kilometres apart, have a common experience of British colonialism, even if the nature of control from London differed. In Ireland, the British looked to settle in the country, throwing out the Irish, an attempt it did not make in India. Nevertheless, the British employed its lessons from colonising Ireland in India.
Arthur Wellesley, born to an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family, is known famously for his victories in the Napoleonic Wars, especially the Battle of Waterloo (1815) in which he defeated French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Before he was made the Duke of Wellington in 1814, Wellesley cut his teeth as a soldier in the Indian peninsula, facing off against the ruler of Mysore Tipu Sultan and the Marathas.
Learning from the British experience in Ireland and Scotland, Wellesley drove roads through the dense forests of the Malabar, clearing the trees on either side as a part of his campaign against the warrior king Pyche Raja in Kerala, a notable starting point for the ecological warfare faced by Indians during the rise of the British.
However, while Wellesley returned to England a hero both in India and Europe, and rose to become the prime minister of the United Kingdom, a number of Irishmen who partook in the colonial enterprise in the subcontinent were not so lucky.
“When these Irish men returned to Ireland they were ostracised for taking the “King’s shilling” that is for taking money from the British crown, especially if they were Catholics. The Anglo-Irish further had their own issues over identity. They were not accepted on either side,” explained Madhavan.
She posited that this may be one of the reasons that the role of the Irish in the British colonies have not received much attention. Similar to India, the idea of “shame” within the community plays a large role in Ireland, added the author.
However, the Irish who returned from India also left their families back in India, which formed a large part of the Anglo-Indian community that was marginalised for many years till at least the 1970s or 1980s.
These families “were not acknowledged” by their people, said Madhavan, adding that for many members of the community who looked to return “home”—be it the UK, Ireland or Canada—they were not welcome.
“Anglo-Indian families would save money to send the fairest child abroad who would likely to be accepted in the UK for example, who would then work hard to bring the rest of the family there,” the author said.
Healy added that a number of Irish soldiers did not come to India as “committed imperialists” but because of the military tradition in their families.
“This is a most peculiar situation where the Irish were colonised and the coloniser as well. Margaret Cousins came to India with her husband and did amazing work in education. But at the same time, a number of Irish military regiments were used by the British to maintain law and order in India. The Irish have impacted every facet of life in India,” said Madhavan.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)