Soldier Sahibs: The Daring Adventurers Who Tamed India's Northwest Frontier (Hardcover)

by Charles Allen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The less-than-politically correct subtitle (should we think of populaces as being "tamed"?) of this book is bound to raise hackles, as will its unapologetically imperialist perspective. As the back flap proclaims, Allen "was born in India, where six generations of his family served under the British Raj, and now lives in London," where he has written such books as Plain Tales from the Raj and The Search for Shangri-La. This book centers around Allen's forebear John Nicholson (" `Nikkal Seyn' to the native inhabitants he subdued," says the front flap), who arrived in Calcutta in 1839, serving as a cadet in the East India Co.'s Bengal Native Infantry. The company was at this time a managing agency for British rule in India, and Nicholson & Co.'s mission was to secure the Northwest frontier, including the Khyber Pass and approaches to Afghanistan. Allen follows Nicholson's rise in the ranks and service in the Sikh Wars via letters, diaries and other accounts, and details his eventual shared governorship of the area. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 almost destroyed the tenuous British hold on India, as native soldiers rose up against European civilians and soldiers, but the Northwest remained loyal and helped in no small way to contain the rebellion, though the book ends with the death of Nicholson during the capture of Delhi. British subjects may have found a lot to like in this book when it was published in the U.K. last year (the Sunday Times called it "an excellent guide through this fascinating territory"), but U.S. readers unfamiliar with the era, area and prejudices will find it tough going.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
From July 1839 to September 1857, British Indian history centered on events taking place in the Punjab on India's northwest frontier. Allen shapes his narrative of this pivotal period around the lives of a swashbuckling coterie of British civil and military leaders, including John and Henry Lawrence, John Nicholson, Neville Chamberlain, William Hodson, Reynell Taylor, and James Abbott. The theme coursing through these British leaders' lives is action first, thought later. Beginning with the First Afghan War and continuing through two Sikh wars to the retaking of Delhi during the Indian Mutiny, Allen follows the intertwined lives of these "heroes" as they blunder about Afghanistan, conquer, annex, and administer the Punjab, and subsequently break the Indian Mutiny at Delhi. Allen, a freelance writer living in London, eschews historical interpretation to telling a riveting good tale that is still essentially factually correct. The result will readily appeal to the general reader. John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers (May 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786708611
• ISBN-13: 978-0786708611
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #908,434 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars history, flashman style, November 26, 2001

By	Omar N. Ali (LA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Soldier Sahibs is an old-fashioned and unapologetically imperialist book. And writer Charles Allen makes sure you know what you are getting into by giving it the flagrantly politically incorrect subtitle: The Daring Adventurers Who Tamed India's Northwest Frontier. But imperialist does not necessarily mean inaccurate and Allen has taken a good deal of trouble to get his facts right. The book claims to tell "The astonishing story of a brotherhood of young men who together laid claim to the most notorious frontier in the world, India's North-West Frontier,
which today forms the volatile boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan."
The men in question include John Nicholson, Harry Lumsden (founder of the Guides), Herbert Edwardes, William Hodson, James Abbot and Neville Chamberlain. Protégés of Sir Henry Lawrence, these men were responsible for laying the foundations of British rule in the Punjab and the Northwest Frontier. The author's intent is to tell the story of these young men and through their adventures, give the reader an idea of how the British conquered - or, as he would prefer, "pacified" - the 'wild' Northwest Frontier of India.
But while Soldier Sahibs gives a very readable account of the adventures of these (surprisingly) young men, it is not possible to piece together the broader history of those times from his book. Why the British were here in the first place and what were the factors that made a small island in Europe more powerful than any kingdom in India do not form any part of Allen's concerns. Nor does he waste much time explaining the situation in the Punjab or of the East India Company at that time. In fact, the author does not even provide a map of the vast area over which his protagonists established their rule. If you are totally at sea about those times, then you may have to read a few other books to fully appreciate the goings-on in this one. But if you are one of those enthusiasts who cannot get enough of the Raj, the mutiny and all that jazz, then you will definitely enjoy this book. Its written in authentic 'Flashman' style, with wit and verve and loads of 'local color'.
The English heroes may appear larger than life but by all accounts some of them indeed were larger than life. And being Englishmen, they left us a veritable storehouse of laconic and understated wisecracks. These include Nicholson walking into the mess to tell his fellow officers: "I am sorry gentlemen, to have kept you waiting for your dinner, but I have been hanging your cooks." (The cooks had apparently poisoned the food but were detected and hanged, and dinner was served half an hour late).
Though Nicholson gets the most lines in the book, the stories of Edwardes of Peshawar and Bannu and Abbot of Abbotabad are also told in some detail. William Hodson, the villain who executed Bahadur Shah Zafar's sons, also gets a sympathetic hearing. We are told surprisingly little about Sir Henry Lawrence, who is supposedly the godfather of this fraternity. And it is not always clear why certain officer's lives are described in detail and others get only cursory mention. Lack or availability of sources may be the explanation for that .
In these times, it is impossible to read such a book and not look for parallels with the current efforts at "pacifying" Afghanistan. But these British adventurers and their peculiar code of life are poles apart from the westerners who are now coming to bring us into the civilised world. Occasionally, Madison Avenue will try to create a suitable heroic image for some American colonel or diplomat but the substance of this new empire is very different from the last one and so are its agents.
Nicholson and company may have been bigoted, male chauvinist psychopaths, yet they also had undoubted personal courage and their own peculiar brand of love of justice. In the Pakhtuns and the Punjabis, they found not just enemies, but also friends and fellow adventurers. It is fashionable these days to describe their local supporters as 'traitors' who took the side of a 'foreign power'. But to the Sikhs, Punjabi Muslims and Pakhtuns who fought under Nicholson to reconquer Delhi, the capital was was as much a foreign power as the British. And these British officers had always respected their honour and treated them fairly. They provided an administration that was in many ways a big improvement over the 'locals' they had replaced. In fact, it would not be remiss to say that the Punjabis and Pakhtuns who fought for the British were men of higher character and personal courage than almost any of their current detractors. Many things have improved since Nicholson rode across the plains of the Punjab blowing mutineers from canons but it is hard to avoid the suspicion that some things have also deteriorated.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hero-Making as History, February 6, 2002

By	T. C. Ross (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In his prologue, Charles Allen lays out the approach he will take Soldier Sahibs. This is not to be read so much as a comprehensive history examining the social issues or complexities of the expansion of British rule out of India and into the North-West Frontier (now partially in Afghanistan and partially in Pakistan), but as a true-to-life "boy's adventure" story. The tale is of John Nicholson (one of Allen's forbearers) and the other Young Men who, under the guidance of Henry Lawrence, help spread the reach of the East India Company.

And what a tale it is: culture clashes, petty bureaucrats, noble savages. Allen draws heavily upon the letters, diaries and reports of the principle heroes of the tale, leading to a history that is drenched in Victorian stereotypes and ideals. With this caveat in mind, however, Allen does a great job of bringing the modern reader into the world walked by Nicholson and his compatriots. The writing draws in the reader with fantastic tale after fantastic tale, starting with a brief biography of Nicholson and of the East India Company and ending with the lifting of the siege of Delhi during the Sepoy Rebellion. There are lots of vignettes highlighting life in the service of "John Company" and the British Empire and the inevitable culture clashes that occurred across the subcontinent.

Oh, and for those keeping track at home, the subtitle "The Daring Adventurers Who Tamed India's Northwest Frontier" appears to be the work of a copywriter at the U.S. publisher, Carroll & Graf. The original U.K. subtitle is "The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier," which doesn't have as much flash, but doesn't seem as harsh as "tamed."

(Reviewed copy was the 2001 paperback version, printed in the U.K. by Abacus.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Of dusty heroism, April 3, 2009

By	Roman Nies (Helibrunna) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author was born in Indian where six generations of his family served under the British Raj. His father was a political officer in the North-West Frontier. He must have brought him to the idea of dealing with the affairs of the Raj which was in that area always also and most prominently a military issue. He himself returned after the usual education in England to the Indian Subcontinent in 1966 to work with the Voluntary Service Overseas in Nepal. He made a name as a historian who specialized in British colonial and military subjects. And a specialist he is in deed.
This book is about the British Raj in northern India and the Himalayas. For anybody who has no knowledge at all in this field, it must be difficult in parts to read, if not out of date. Here my warning: this is not only a book about soldiery! For the author the "Soldier Sahibs" stand for something on a larger scale. They are to blame for making the famous North-West Frontier. So, this book is about that border-line and its adjacent land which is now Pakistan and Afghanistan foremost.
The book is mainly about events in north-west British India (which included Pakistan) between 1839 and 1857, spanning the advent and mortal departure of a certain cadet, whose proceedings in that exotic, demanding surrounding is also described, and this very broad and detailed. An attempt to bring to life what seems to be so far away!
Meanwhile the British East India Company extended its conquests to the very edge of the mountain barriers which define the northern boundaries of the Indian sub-continent, a land that has always seen wars and revolt and still has, long since the influence of the British faded away.
I read this book because I visited these areas and I tried to get a better idea of what made the area to what it is now. It is still all about power, economical advantage on one side and the self-establishment and self-determination, self-rule and other "selfes" cause the people who live there are concerned about their "selfes" and nothing else, a lesson still to be learned by the western allies, it seems.
We hear here a lot about army organization which is not so interesting today, although it helps to understand the procedures then, when we know that there were regular and irregular troops of the Company; that the Native infantry was largely made up of recruits from certain regions, more or less difficult to handle, and nearly all high-born Hindus from the Brahmin and Rajput upper castes, with the result that the men in these corps put caste and religious loyalty first. An infantry regiment raised in Punjab might have had two companies of Punjab Muslims, one of Sikhs and one of Hindu Dogras. That asked for trouble.
Sometimes I had a tinge of suspicion that the author tends to hail the transporters of his stories, as far as the British are concerned, that special breed of British heroes: "Saints militant fired with Christian grace; beaux sabreurs, sans peur et sans reproche" who were "mostly young men of strong convictions and unlimited self-confidence, driven to the extraordinary things quite as much by their upbringing and motivation as by their personal qualities". A good match for the Afghans!
And one never gave a thought to danger, would Neville Chamberlain write many years later after time had darkened the memory mercifully. At that time a sword and a horse was enough for a British gentlemen - and some cricket at home.
Another factor was the religious conviction of those who saw themselves as the pioneers of "Christian civilization." God above and duty below! The author is asserting that one reason for the success of the British in combat was their strong faith and their favourite mark, the "IHS" the Greek letters for "Jesus my saviour".
Many wrote of the recklessness with which the British soldiery went into battle in these times. We have to make a leap of imagination from our own faithless age, back to an era when the promise of the heavenly kingdom steeled the hearts of those who fought the good fight. Yeah, and drinks also played their part!
How sweet it is to die for the nation! The author puts this in the mouth of the dying soldiers of the mutiny in Delhi. And dying was much! Even today you can visit over there cemeteries with graves of so many young men whose luck ran out.
All of them gentlemen, of course, but in reality mostly Scots, Scots-Irish or Anglo-Irish, younger sons of small country squires, lairds and vicars who lacked the means to set them up at home. The Queen`s Army, the Navy, the clergy - and India: these were the classic outlets that might, if fortune and patronage smiled, bring advancement sufficient to retire at fifty.
India, as the well known borderer Sir Walter Scott wrote, "had become the corn chest of Scotland where we poor gentry must send our youngest sons as we must send our black cattle to the South".
Not to speak of the masses of Indian soldiers who got never graves at all, due to the customs of the country. In my opinion this is also the shortcoming of the book. It is on Sahib soldiers, true, but a chapter on those who served them, would not have been too bad!

Besides that the book is mainly on the wars of the period, Afghanistan 1839-1842, the Sikh wars 1845-49, the consolidation time till 1853, the Sepoy mutinity of 1857. A rough time for everybody! And everywhere! It was a particularly violent an gunsmoke filled period of time in which killings were daily routine on both sides.
As heroic the soldier might have been, their commanders lacked some intelligence sometimes, or was it just the ignorance of a superior race that made them consider only their own affairs? How else could the mutiny be explained which broke out because muslim soldiers did not like to lick their cartridges with pork fat and Hindus neither theirs with beef?
Another substantial element of this book is the interaction between local forces and the British in a more friendly and respectful way. The mutuality of East and West! And there is the frontier itself, as a border and imaginary line that runs for about a thousand kilometres between Pakistan and Afghanistan from one mountain top to the other, cutting right through the homelands of the Pashtune tribes, made up of poor soil, scrubby terrain, sandy and rocky mountainsides but with fertile valleys.
Still a lure today, but hardly a paradise! And the main Frontier town Peshawar has its bazaars with large sections unchanged, still thronged by passers-by as varied and picturesque as they were in those days. Changed have the means of transport, the loudest and fastest being the cavalry, while now stinking and noisy trucks are endangering the streets -besides occasional bomb blasts.
The life of the Frontier was hard and they tread it daily to the brink of eternity between horror and beauty, between dust-storms and fragrance of flowers. Yes, not so much has changed.
The North-West Frontier was to the British what the Wild West was for the US. It needed hard man for a hard country, merciless to the loser, with people who always carry guns but are also hospitable to the extremes. Throughout the British reign there was hardly one year that passed without any kind of military expedition to bring one or other of the clans to heel.
The people still refuse to be a part of the whole, even if these means bringing wrath of governments down on their heads. An independent people - a stubborn people!
A book only for the aficionados of the North-West Frontier myth! Another myth which has a strong reality!