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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [32r] (63/498)
The record is made up of 1 file (247 folios). It was created in 1976-1978. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
XVII. SIBI - BALUCHISTAN.
Nancy, our nineteen month daughter Joan and I arrived in Sibi in October
1921 ^here I became Assistant
Political Agent
A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency.
to Lt. Col. Terence Keyes,
brother of the Admiral Keyes who was renowned for his wartime raid on
Zeebrugge, My particular duty, apart from superintending the PA’s office,
was to conduct relations with the two Baluchistan tribes - the Maris and the
Bugtis.
The Maris were looked up©n as the senior tribe in Baluchistan. The
Chief, called the Tumandar (turnan Baluch for tribe) was 3 smelly old man
who actually enjoyed a position in the tribe of some sanctity.
I became deeply interested in the tribal customs which were based on the
necessity in a tribal society to settle both civil and criminal cases by
appeasing the aggrieved defendant rather than rewarding the plaintiff.
This made sense for in the tribal lands where there were no government
magistrates or government police it was essential to prevent the spread
of a blood fued by settling the claim of the aggrieved or he, or his family,
v/ould pursue the feud. The practice of running the country through jirgas
or council of elders of the tribe was the lynch-pin of Sir Robert Sandeman's
policy in Baluchistan. Sandeman had been the Deputy Commissioner of the
British Indian district of Jacobabad and had been the first official to
make contact with the neighbouring unadministered Baluchistan in 186?.
Raiders from B-luchistan were frequently invading the British India
districts of Sind, Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan, so Sanderaan decided
to make personal contact with these marauding tribes and try to come to
some modus vivendi with them.
Baluchistan, at that time, consisted of a small independent state of
Las Bela in the south ruled by an autonomous Jam of Las Bela. North of
that state lay the much larger state of Kalat which ran v/estwards to the
frontier of Persia. Kalat claimed a measure of suzerainty over Las Bela
and the Jam was supposed to pay a small tribute - which he was always
About this item
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Memoirs of Sir Herbert Todd (1893-1985) of the Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. , later of the Iraq Petroleum Company. Written during the years 1976-78, the memoirs begin by recounting Todd's childhood on his family's farm in Kent, his education and entrance into the Home Civil Service in 1912, and his entrance into the Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. in 1913. Roughly half of the memoirs (ff 10-137) covers Todd's career up to 1947, which can be summarised as follows:
- Posted to the Indian Police, Burma [Myanmar], 1913-17 (ff 10-22)
- Served in the 11th Bengal Lancers (Probyn's Horse), Indian Army, in Mesopotamia [Iraq], 1917-19 (ff 22-24)
- Remained in Baghdad as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Baghdad East Subdivision, 1919-20 (ff 25-31)
- Transferred to Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. , holding positions in Baluchistan, 1921; Gilgit, 1927; Quetta, 1931; Bharatpur, 1936-39 (ff 31-67)
- Served in the Home Guard during extended leave (1939-40), first in Canfield, Essex, and later in Blackheath, London (ff 68-72), followed by a spell as an air warden while awaiting re-posting to India (ff 72-78)
- First attempt at passage to India abandoned when the ship he was travelling on, SS Simla , was torpedoed, September 1940 (ff 79-88)
- Returned to India, holding positions at Udaipur, 1940 (ff 93-97); Baluchistan, 1941 (ff 97-101); Cochin [Kochi] and Travancore, 1943 (ff 101-111); and Calcutta [Kolkata] and the Eastern States, 1944-47 (ff 111-134)
- Returned to London on leave, April 1947; career brought to an abrupt end in June 1947 with the announcement of the handing over of power and Indian independence (ff 135-137).
The last hundred or so folios relate to Todd's employment in the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), 1948-59 (ff 138-227), and his subsequent retirement in Oxted, Surrey, 1959-78 (ff 227-248). As Chief Representative of the IPC, Todd and his wife spent much of their time in Baghdad. The memoirs document Todd's relations with prominent Iraqi politicians, diplomats, and visiting British MPs, as well as Todd's visits to Beirut, Damascus, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Persia [Iran] and the United States. Also included are Todd's thoughts on the Suez Crisis and the 1958 revolution in Iraq (Todd was holidaying in Austria at the time and never returned to Baghdad).
Aside from his career, Todd writes about his hobbies (polo and hunting) and comments on UK and world events, such as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the death of Winston Churchill, and the first moon landing in July 1969; he also mentions in passing meeting Professor Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie at the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud (Iraq) in April 1955.
The text is typewritten with annotations and crossings out in pencil and ink. It includes some offensive terms and language in its descriptions of members of colonised populations.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (247 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 249; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The file also contains an original printed foliation sequence. It should be noted that number 13 in the original foliation sequence is missing (in between folios 14 and 15).
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/30
- Title
- 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977'
- Pages
- 2r:248v
- Author
- Todd, Sir Herbert John
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