Charles Allen, a writer of British Indian and
South Asian history, passed away at his home in England on August 16th , aged 80, after struggling with cancer for a long time. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, and their children,
Poppy, George and Louise, and four grandchildren.
He was a much loved
writer, broadcaster, and an inspiring traveller. He has published
23 plus books and has made a documentary “Bones of Buddha” for BBC. His long-time associate Toby Sinclair, who worked
with Charles on the documentary ‘Bones of The Buddha’ in 2013, which was
broadcast by National Geographic Channel, said,“Charles talked about the many layers of Indian history and he walked
the land he wrote about. Without giving too much prominence to the European
rulers, Allen focused on the men or women in the field who studied India, be
they local historians or British or European academics, interlinking different
bits of information across a wide area of research. It was well written
accessible history backed up by rigorous research.”
Born as the son of a political officer in the
North-East India, Geoffrey Allen and his wife Joan in the year 1940 at Cawnpur
(Kanpur), Charles was the sixth generation in his family to be born in India. It
was his great grandfather, Sir George Allen, who gave the famous writer, Rudyard
Kipling (Jungle boy fame), his first job as an assistant editor of the Civil and
Military Gazette in Lahore. Charles went to England when he was eight for his
education where he stayed with his Grandparents and read the first editions of
Kipling’s books. However, Charles left Canford School at Dorset, without
attaining any qualifications and his only education was the 18 months he spent
at a college in Perugia, Italy.
At 26, he went to Nepal with Voluntary Service
Overseas as a teacher. He was Sunday Telegraph's Traveller of the year in 1967 for his extensive trekking in the Himalayas. There he started his lifelong fascination with
Buddhism and often described himself as half “Buddhish”. Incidentally, he met his wife Liz
Gould at Kathmandu and they got married in 1972.
Charles always had a feel for those who have been
marginalized by the society, he always felt strongly about the unfairness of
the world which he witnessed as a child and later in his travels as an adult. One
of the books he has wrote and my favourtie is about a Soldier – “A Soldier of the Company: Life of an Indian Ensign 1833-43.”
Charles’s most popular work in England was the radio
series “Plain Tales from the Raj” where he interviewed the last generation of
British Administrators for BBC in 1974 which also became a very popular book.
We all know the National Emblem of India is the Lion
Capital of Ashoka from 250BC in Sarnath and its chakra features in the middle
of our National Flag, yet what most of us do not know now is the fact that a few
centuries ago Ashoka was all but forgotten for centuries altogether and it was
an English Scholar, William Jones (late 18th Century) who
re-discovered him and brought to light the glorious days of India. Charles’s 2012
book “Ashoka:
the Search for India's Lost Emperor” brought back to the minds of
contemporary readers Emperor Ashoka and his re-discoverer William Jones's efforts.
Charles was always enamoured by the contributions of
the philologists, archaeologists, geographers of the British era whose
contribution is collectively called as “Orientalism”. His 1982 book “A mountain
in Tibet” is all about their contribution. In the 2002 book, The Buddha and the Sahibs, Charles mentioned James
Princep, an assay master in the Calcutta Mint, who helped decrypt the Brahmi
Script of the third century BC and the spadework of members of the Asiatic
Society who studied Ashoka’s edicts inscribed on slabs across the subcontinent.
Professor Edward Said (author of the "Orientals") had severely criticised the
Orientalism stating, “the British framed
the east as a place to be judged, ruled and catalogued as if a zoological
collection.”; Charles was very clear
in his reply to him and his disciples, “What Professor
Said and his many supporters have consistently failed to ask is where we would
be without the orientalists. They initiated the recovery of South Asia’s lost
past.” In Charles’s view the orientalists also challenged the deeply entrenched
Indian caste system, “so enabling a newly
emergent and increasingly modernising middle class to free itself from the
chains of orthodoxy”.
Charles was very fond of our way of life and the
Indian culture in general and had written against administrators like Thomas
Macaulay and James Mill (18th Century) who somehow thought Europeanisation is the only way to civilize India. Charles did not turn a blind eye towards the
atrocities committed during the time of the Raj but advocated for the approach
to represent the period fairly. At Lahore Literary Festival he debated with
Shashi Tharoor who in his book, “The
Inglorious Empire” had said the British impoverished his state Kerala to
which Charles had aptly replied that “the very
measures which Tharoor had said recovered Kerala have been put in place by a 19th
Century British administratior (Colonel Munro) who reformed the approach and attitude of the
selfish local ruler.”
Charles had considered himself half Buddhist and had
passionately written many books about Buddhism highlighting the most important
British discovery about India, the location at Bodhgaya in Bihar where Buddha
got enlightened with the perspective of the Sahibs (the way British men were
addressed then). Some of these books are, The Buddha and the Sahibs (2002), the Soldier Sahibs (2000)
etc.. “The Soldier Sahibs” was about a group of soldiers and administrators in
Afghanistan (North West Frontier) and their lives. Charles had first-hand
information through his relative, General John Nicholson, who was stationed at
the frontier.
Soon after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the twin
tower, Charles wrote God’s Terrorists:
The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad (2006) establishing
the link between the today's fundamentalism and past Islamist insurgencies in
the sub-continent. After a detailed field visit Charles was certain the
terrorists camps were Osama Bin Laden’s and Kashmiri terrorist trained in
Northern Pakistan was the same as that of late 19th century Islamist
insurgencies.
While
being restricted to bed towards his final years, Charles wrote a book on
“Swastika”, supporting the theory of migration of Aryans to India and trying to
prove his claim by collecting evidences from different sources like genetical
mapping and archaeology. The book is expected to be published soon, even though
it is against the popular view.
Ø Charles Allen was awarded Sir Percy Sykes gold medal by the Royal Society for
Asian Affairs for services to south Asian history and was Fellow of
the Royal Geographical Society, Royal Asiatic Society, Royal Society for Asian Affairs and member of the Kipling Society and the
Frontline Club.
On
his death, Charles Allen, has left behind a huge collection of work, for which
he had dedicated all his life and it will continue to shed light on our collective past and also for those who continue to walk the path Charles has
already done .
