Thread by @Anuraag_Shukla

The people of India most accessible to the Europeans were their domestic servants. Most newcomers to India commented on the large number of servants which even a modest European household contained.

#history #lessons #education #decolonization

Captain Thomas Williamson, the author of the first British guide book for India, The East Indian Vade Mecum, London, 1810, explained a large number of servants largely due to “the division of Indians into sects, called by us castes.” #history #lessons #education #decolonization

Williamson lists 31 kinds of servants that a gentleman would need for his home and office, depending on his occupation and status. The servants described Willamson were divisible into an upper and lower category.

#history #lessons #education #decolonization

The upper servants, 𝘯𝘢𝘶𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘯, held positions of trust or supervision and would not be expected to do menial work. The lower order of servants, or 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘯, had their own hierarchy and were divided into those largely doing inside work. #history #lessons #education

The job they were assigned was to be waiting on the table, cooking, acting as the wine cooler, the hookah bearer, and the furniture keepers. The outside servants included a gardener, the palanquin bearers, a butler, a dhobi, peons, and the watchman and doorkeeper. #History

The household in many respects became the model which the British created for Indian society. Each occupational specialty with its assumed caste base, was made to live separately, usually in the back of the great house where their families lived and ate their food. #History

Throughout the 19th century, the representation of servants & their duties remained a major subject matter of paintings and drawings which were organized in sets, done by British and Indian artists, and sold as souvenirs to be brought back to Britain. #decolonization #History

Source: Archer, William; Archer, Mildred (1994). India served and observed. London: BACSA.