Skip to main content

Baker, Ernest Brian Hindley. Papers collection, 1927-1947

 Fonds
Reference Code: GBR/0013/BAKER/1

Scope and Contents

Microfilm no. 45

  • Letters of Baker to his parents and others, 25 January 1931 to December 1932: i) from Madaripur where he writes he is transferred to Hijli as Governor of the Detention Camp for Political Prisoners at Kharagpur; ii) arrives February 1931; conditions in the camp; description of detainees; comments on Gandhi; iii) letter written on 17 September 1931 describing the incident in the camp when two detainees were killed and five wounded; iv) the consequences; v) Tagore’s intervention; vi) the Official Inquiry (Mullick and Drummond); vii) November in Sikkim on leave; viii) result of the Inquiry and consequences; ix) leaves Hijli; x) Congress intrigue; xi) reason for unrest – unemployment of the educated; xii) goes to Alipur (Duar Subdivision) very quiet; xiii) description of place and work; xiv) near another detainees camp; xv) missionaries; xvi) he feels the lack of money for social reform; xvii) tours tea gardens; xviii) at Rajshahi describes Christmas party with Anglo-Indians; xix) description of Busca Detainees Camp.
  • Pamphlet: ‘Chittagong and Hijli: British “Misrule” in Bengal’, published by J.M. Sen-Gupta. Foreword by Rabindranath Tagore. ‘Being the Report of the non-official Enquiry Committee on Recent Disturbances in Chittagong, and the Government Committee of Enquiry on Hijli Shooting.’
  • ‘Travel Diary Journal’ (possibly amalgamated from diaries):
    • Volume I, November 1927 – October 1932.
    • Volume II, October 1932 – October 1936
    • Volume III, October 1936 – March 1941:
  • Letters home, 1927 – 1928, 1929 – 1930, 1933: these are a most vivid and interesting ‘fill-in’ to the journal; he writes as a young and inexperienced official of all the details which strike him, and thus gives a vivid picture of the life of the administrator both from the work, the people, the stations and European life there; he goes into great detail and provides most interesting sidelights.


  • Click here to view this collection on the South Asian Studies website

    Dates

    • Creation: 1927 - 1947

    Biographical / Historical

    I.C.S. Bengal 1927-47; Joint Magistrate and Deputy Collector; Additional District Judge 1946.

    Extent

    1 item(s) (1 microfilm)

    Language of Materials

    English

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Original lent for copying by Mrs I. Baker

    Language of description
    English
    Script of description
    Latin

    Repository Details

    Part of the University of Cambridge: Centre of South Asian Studies Repository

    Contact:
    Centre of South Asian Studies
    Alison Richard Building
    West Road
    Cambridge CB3 9DT United Kingdom
    +441223 338094