A new book examines the final years of colonial rule in India and the violence against bureaucrats

Robert Douglas, the District Magistrate of Midnapore, perhaps had some premonition of the lurking danger that awaited him. His predecessor, James Peddie, had been shot dead by youth revolutionaries while inspecting a school in April 1931. Robert, a civilian with 16 years of experience, was sent to the difficult Bengal district of Midnapore. Unlike his predecessor or most other British colleagues, India was not totally alien to Robert. His father, Rev. John, had come to Nagpur towards the end of the 19th century and engaged himself in missionary work, rendering service to the distressed people in the Central Provinces during famine and plague.

Robert was born in England but came to India with his parents as an infant and spent some years of childhood at Nagpur. He returned to England for his education, was selected for the Indian Civil Service in the year 1913, and came to Bengal in the following year. When the Great War broke out, he volunteered and was in military service during the years 1916 to 1919, fighting on the battlefield. Such outrages, therefore, could hardly frighten a man like Robert. Violence did not abate in Bengal, and in July 1931, another senior member of the ICS,...

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