Penderel Moon

A real-contemporaneous report of the day-by-day happenings in Bahawalpur State on the western border of Rajasthan during the immediate post-independence period, by a British administrator seconded to the State. The author may show some traces of a certain sympathy for the Muslim cause, as the communal carnage in East Punjab (the Indian portion) was reported to be extremely violent and heartless, whereas he says that the killings in Bahawalpur were kept to a minimum. The work is included in the Partition Omnibus of Oxford University Press, and gains in value by an introduction by Mark Tully, and an after-word by Tapan Roychaudhuri that relates the author's judgments to some findings of more recent scholarship.… (mais)

1131 Warren Hastings and British India, by Penderel Moon (read 27 Sep 1971) Warren Hastings was the son of a clergyman and was born in December 1732 at Churchill, Oxfordshire, England.. He was orphaned early, and at 17 (in Jan 1750) sailed for India. He worked as a clerk for the East India Co. In 1761 he became a member of he Royal Council. He resigned and sailed for England in Dec 1764. He was there four years, and then was appointed in 1768 to the Madras Council. He became Governor in Bengal Apr 9, 1772. In Feb 1785 he left Bengal, returned to England, was impeached, his trial before the House of Lords opened in Feb 1788, and on Apr 23, 1795 was found not guilty. A good book, quite favorable to Hastings, but not absorbing. A person has to know more about India than I do to follow and relish the complicated doings that make up Harding's Indian career.… (mais)