Audiobook · read by volunteers
Indian Frontier Policy, an Historical Sketch
General Sir John Miller Adye (1819–1900)
Read by David Barnes · 3 chapters · 1 h 37
About the book
For much of the nineteenth century, the north-west frontier of India was a place where an empire met mountains and independent tribes, and where strategy, diplomacy and military action were all tested. General Sir John Adye, a soldier with long experience, sets out the history of British policy there. He wrote in 1897, when considerable operations were being conducted against a combination of the tribes, and he writes as someone eager to explain why the question mattered to the whole of the Eastern empire. The book is a historical sketch in three chapters, written from a particular point of view and shaped by the opinions of its time. Three recordings, about an hour and a half, for readers of imperial and military history.
Introduction
General Sir John Miller Adye (1819-1900) was a British Army officer who served in the Crimean War and in India and later held senior positions in the army. Indian Frontier Policy, an Historical Sketch was published in 1897, at a time when British forces were engaged in a large campaign on the north-west frontier.
The book is short and has a practical purpose. Adye wanted to give the public a historical background to the policy question of how best to manage the frontier, a question on which opinion was divided. He considered it of great importance to the general welfare of the Eastern empire, and he presents a narrative of what had been tried and what had resulted.
Listeners should approach the text as a historical document rather than as a neutral study. It reflects the assumptions and the vocabulary of a Victorian officer and defender of imperial policy, and it can be read both for the information it contains and as evidence of how such questions were discussed at the time.
The recording consists of three files, beginning with the preface and the first chapter, and it lasts about an hour and a half. It was read by a LibriVox volunteer. It will interest students of the British Empire, of military history, and of the long and complicated history of the region. The book is short and organised in a straightforward way, so it is easy to follow even for listeners without prior knowledge of the region. Reading it alongside a more recent history can be illuminating, since the contrast between the views of the 1890s and those of later writers is itself instructive.
Public domain
General Sir John Miller Adye died in 1900: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text