Chronicles of Time and Chance - Hardcover

Raymond Francis Isar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9384082368 ISBN 13: 9789384082369

Publisher: Primus Books, 2015

Synopsis

Far more than simply autobiographical, these selections from the memoirs of a former ICS officer offer a fascinating cultural and social history of the subcontinent, notably of the Indian- Christian community of the Punjab in the first half of the twentieth century. They explore the conditions in which converts were made and how they engaged with the broader culture. They delineate the entanglements between the ideas and imaginings of a crudely Westernized lower middle class and the culture of the colonizers. They recount how, as a young District Officer, the author confronted both the cultural challenges of rural postings in the extreme south and the implications of being a fledgling Guardian and how, in New Delhi later on, he experienced the bloodletting of August 1947. He questions the myths, action models and growing corruption of the new Indian ruling class of which he was himself a part as he rose to the higher ranks of the central and state bureaucracy. The book’s concluding chapters capture the political manoeuvrings of the last Nehru years as well as the prime ministerial life and times of his still undervalued successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri.

About this title

About the Author:

RAYMOND FRANCIS ISAR was born in 1916 in Sialkot (Pakistan), in a hybrid Catholic family. His father was a convert from Hinduism, while his maternal grandparents were originally Sufis. He was educated at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1940 he joined the Indian Civil Service and in 1948 the Indian Foreign Service. In 1956 he was obliged to resign from the IFS on account of his second marriage to a foreign national.

About this edition

• Publisher: Primus Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 9384082368
• ISBN 13: 9789384082369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278