THE SINS OF THE GREAT-GRANDFATHER: THE ROWLATT ACT AND THE AMRITSAR MASSACRE

Justin Rowlatt, the BBC's South Asia Correspondent, writes a reflection on the 1919 Amritsar Massacre and the 1919 Rowlatt Act, which was a precursor to the Massacre. The author is the great-grandson of Sir Sidney Rowlatt, who was responsible for the 1919 legislation.     

IRAQ AND THE LESSONS OF VIETNAM: Introduction

Abstract

The following is the Introduction from a published collection of articles edited by Lloyd C. Gardner and Marilyn B. Young, Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam: Or, How Not to Learn from the Past (New York and London: The New Press, 2007. 322pp. 978-1-59558-149-5). The book's Table of Contents appears on p. 486 below.

The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian Peninsula. — George H.W. Bush, 1991     

THE DURAND LINE: HISTORY AND PROBLEMS OF THE AFGHAN-PAKISTAN BORDER

A historical survey which covers firstly, the various attempts to establish a satisfactory boundary between the settled lands of India and the mountain areas to the North; secondly, the negotiations from which the Durand line emerged as the boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan; thirdly, the status of the Tribal areas in Pakistan and the border areas more generally, and why so many of the obstacles to change seem to be the very elements which only change can resolve.     

THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY IN MALAWI IN THE 1960s: THE LEGACY OF SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF MALAWI AND THE ROLE OF DR KAMUZU BANDA AND HIS MALAWI CONGRESS PARTY

This article joins the debate on culture, history and politicsin postcolonial Malawi. Concentrating on the production of historyin the 1960s, the paper shows how the decade marked the beginningsof serious research, teaching and public discourse of Malawi'shistory. It proceeds to examine factors, such as the existingliterature, which helped to fashion the direction which theplayers, mainly teachers and researchers, took in accomplishingtheir tasks. In this connection the paper considers the mannerin which Harry Johnston, the first person to write widely onthe peoples of the Lake Malawi region, influenced the historiographyof the country. It also evaluates the role of the Society ofMalawi and its publication, the Society of Malawi Journal, inthe production of history. Finally, the article pays attentionto the ways in which the work of historians was affected byPresident Kamuzu Banda and the policies and actions of his rulingMalawi Congress Party.     

PROJECTIONS OF EMPIRE: INDIA AND THE IMAGINED METROPOLIS

This article describes how the British first tried to come to terms with India and to rationalise their role by postulating that Indians were at a different stage of the development trajectory. It then considers the development of the debate on good governance and the way in which the Imperial idea found expression in an “architecture of possession” both in India, (especially Lutyens’ Delhi) and in Britain itself. Lastly it assesses the way in which post-Imperial London has evolved.     

THOMAS AND LUCY ATKINSON: PIONEERING EXPLORERS OF THE STEPPE

Thomas and Lucy Atkinson were pioneering explorers of the Russian, Siberian and Central Asian Steppe in the 1850s. They both wrote books about their journeys which were feted in their own time, and in particular Lucy Atkinson was one of the first women to describe travels in this region in her 1863 work Recollections of Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants. Thomas Atkinson was also an accomplished painter, and his sketches of the steppe were highly sought after in the period. However, these two trail-blazing explorers have been largely forgotten today. How do we explain this anomaly? Is there any reason we ought to know more about the Atkinsons? Why have they fallen from public view? Did they add to the knowledge of the physical world or to ethnography? This article will try to put their journeys and their achievements into some kind of context and, hopefully, make the case for a reassessment of their contribution to the history of exploration.