Bengaluru has had a host of rulers in its five centuries of existence – from the time of the Nada Prabhus to the Wodeyars and beyond – and their traces are everywhere if one looks in the right places. But among all these, the English are perhaps unique in the sheer amount of memoirs, journals and even bureaucratic paperwork they produced, allowing a reader a glimpse into the more mundane side of the city's recent history. The colonial British residents or visitors to Bengaluru, as a whole, are not easily put into a single box. They range from priests and teachers to military men, a future prime minister of Britain, and one of the first mountaineers to come within sight of Everest's summit. Reverend William Arthur’s account One of those who documented the Bengaluru of the 1800s was Reverend William Arthur, who travelled through the kingdom of Mysore. In his 1850 book A Mission to the Mysore, he provides a description of what MG Road used to look like. Describing an open esplanade over a mile long in front of a "chapel" (most likely today's East Parade Church), he says, “Each of its sides is skirted by an avenue of trees, with a fine broad road. Along the right-hand road extends a series of barracks, capable of accommodating a regiment of European cavalry, one of infantry, and two of sepoys. The opposite road is lined with compounds, as the garden-plots in which houses stand are invariably called; a large building for assembly-rooms terminating the row at one end, and a spacious English church adorning the other. At the head of the esplanade is seen the residence of General Cubbon..” At this time, the old pete and the British cantonment were practically in different realms in their way of life and demographics. While the former housed the Kannada-speaking population, Arthur notes that the Indians of the Cantonment area in British service were mostly Tamils. He goes on to say, “the Tamul (sic) population are congregated in clusters of houses, some of which, as Alasoor (Halasuru), the Chuli (Shoolay), and the Great Bazaar, swell into considerable towns..” Rev Arthur also provides detailed descriptions of how commerce was carried out by local Kannadiga merchants in the pete. These descriptions, however, go alongside a considerable disdain he carried for local Indian beliefs that were perhaps typical of British clergy of that time. Today, a writer speaking of religious beliefs in such a manner would be accused of bigotry. Through Winston Churchill’s eyes Another chronicler of the city was none other than Winston Churchill. While it is popular knowledge in Bengaluru that he left an unpaid debt of Rs 13 at the Bangalore Club, it is less well known that he was in debt elsewhere as well, confined as he was by the low salary of a subaltern officer and the expenses involved in keeping up appearances. He leaves us a description of the Bangalorean bankers on whom he relied on to meet these expenses, “ ..most agreeable; very fat, very urbane, quite honest and mercilessly rapacious. All you had to do was to sign little bits of paper.The smiling financier rose to his feet, covered his face with his hands, replaced his slippers, and trotted off contentedly till that day three months. They only charged two per cent a month and made quite a good living out of it..” The reason behind all these considerable expenses becomes quite apparent when one recalls that as a young man, Churchill was a polo enthusiast. With two other officers, he rented a large bungalow with a “heavy tiled roof and deep verandahs sustained by white plaster columns” in a two-acre plot. They then built sufficient stables for 30 horses. Sir George Bell’s memoirs Another British soldier, Sir George Bell, had pleasant words to say about the city, his close encounters with the local snakes notwithstanding. A reading of his memoirs is nevertheless marred by clear racial prejudice towards the locals. His accounts leave an idea of what the average British officer's living condition was like in 1827, “ ..like so many villas in the neighbourhood of a large city in Europe, each having a large compound from one to twelve acres of ground, laid out partly in garden, grass, and walks planted with very beautiful trees of various kinds, shrubs and flowers; the fruit is generally orange, pumpella, plantains, guavas, mangoes, there are also strawberries in many gardens, and all kinds of European vegetables. All houses have stabling, coach-houses, and a set of servants' apartments, with many other conveniences, detached a little way from the dwelling.” He also leaves a number of descriptions of the trees of Bangalore, many of which are still familiar. One of these is of the jackfruit tree, which he says is “a noble tree bearing large fruit like a hedge-hog.”
