INDIA IMPRESSIONS
INDIA IMPRESSIONS
WITH SOME NOTES OF CEYLON
DURING A WINTER TOUR, 1906–7
BY WALTER CRANE, R.W.S. WITH
A FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR AND
NUMEROUS OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1907
TO MY WIFE
MY TRAVELLING COMPANION
ON THIS TOUR, AND TO WHOM
THE PROJECT WAS DUE, I
NOW INSCRIBE ITS RECORD
Although many books descriptive of Indiaand Indian life have recently appeared, evena short visit to that wonderful country presents soextraordinary a series of spectacles to the European,especially to one seeing the East for the first time,that it occurred to me that a few notes and freshimpressions from an artist’s point of view, accompaniedby sketches made on the spot, as well asillustrations of the lighter side of travel, might notbe without interest to the public.
Even apart from the enormous artistic interestand architectural splendours of India, which are sorich and abundant that one feels that hundreds ofdrawings would be necessary to give any adequateidea of their beauty, there is the human interestof these vast populations, among whom so manystreams of race, language and religion are found,not to speak of the problems of government andadministration they present.
I cannot claim to have had any special facilitiesin seeing the country—no more at least than mightbe at the command of an ordinary English tourist,and have trusted chiefly to what powers of observationviiiI may possess in describing the various citiesvisited, and the districts traversed, and I offer thesenotes strictly as personal impressions.
Owing to ever increasing facilities of travel, theEast is, in a sense, drawn nearer to the West, or,rather the West to the East, but nothing strikes thetraveller so much as the apparently vast gulfdividing the dark-skinned races from the white—agulf deeper and wider than the oceans.
I mean the profound differences in ideas, inreligion, in sentiment, in life, habit and custom.Western influence where even it has had anyapparent effect—apart from commercial enterprise—seemsto be but a thin veneer, and it is a constantwonder how the British should have been able toacquire and maintain their grasp over this vastpeninsular, and to hold the balance betweenantagonistic races and creeds so long.
But it is not a comfortable thought for anEnglishman, loving freedom,