The Kincaids: Two Generations of A British Family in the Indian Civil Service

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

This is a study of Charles Alexander Kincaid (1870-1954) and his son Dennis Kincaid (1905-1937), British authors who worked in the Indian Civil Service. Deeply enamoured of the rich multi-coloured tapestry of life in India, they endeavoured to interpret it as they saw it, mainly for western readers, through a number of books they wrote, fiction as well as non-fiction

Apart from presenting an evaluation of the literary contributions of the Kincaids, the book offers an interesting study of their attitudes towards India. There were many British families connected with India for two or more generations: prominent were the Thackerays, the Birdwoods and the Rivett-Carnacs, though there must have been many other lesser-knowr families. Studies of the changing attitudes of the different generations of these British families would doubtless interest students of sociology Families which produced authors would interest a literary historian. This author thinks that it was a rewarding exercise, therefore, to study the responses of different generations of the same family to the Indian scene, which was partly stable and partly changing, socially as well as politically.

The Kincaids provided to the author an ideal representative family in which two of the four generations, viz., Charles Alexander Kincaid and his son Dennis, had a similar educational background, a similar work experience and a similar life pattern. Both studied at the Balliol College, Oxford, for the ICS; both worked in the judicial department of the then Bombay Presidency, both were authors of merit, both were students of Maratha history and admirers of the heroes of Indian history and mythology, both endeavoured to know more and more about the land they administered and its people; both chose subjects related to the Bombay Presidency as a canvas for their literary productions.

The book provides an analysis and evaluation of the responses of two successive generations of the Kincaid family towards the changing situation in India, and also includes biographical accounts with a discussion of their literary creations. In presenting his study, the author has made use of 300 and odd letters of Charles Kincaid written to his collaborator and others which come to light for the first time.

The book, in a sense offers a glimpse into the intellectual life in Maharashtra at the turn of the last century.

AROON TIKEKAR (1944-2016) belonged to a distinguished family of litterateurs and journalists. A keen student of the literature produced by the Anglo-Indians, as the British residents in India were then called, Dr. Tikekar's interest went beyond what is warranted by a purely literary scholarship. His recourse to an inter-disciplinary approach developed his interest in wider field of enquiry, like the history of modern Maharashtra. His earlier book The Cloister's Pale : A Biography of the University of Bombay (1984), the post-centennia Silver Jubilee publication of one of the premier universities of India, was an attempt to show how the city of Bombay and its university grew almost simultaneously, socially, culturally and intellectually.

Dr. Aroon Tikekar was a renowned journalist and writer and was President of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, a premier institution of higher learning in Western India.

His latest book Mumbai De-Intellectualized : Rise and Decline of a Culture of Thinking was published in 2009/2010.

In letter to Rao Bahadur DB Parasnis, historian from Satara, on 12 March 1923, CA Kincaid wrote, 'Some day perhaps my literary work will be more fully appre- ciated than it is at present.' More than six decades have passed since these words were written, yet no complete study has been made of the literary achievements of either C A Kincaid or those of his son, Dennis. In the following pages, I have sketched a profile of the Kincaids in India and their work in their adopted country, with an evaluation of their literary achievements.

When I set out to collect material for this study at the initiation of my uncle, the late SRTikekar, little did I realize the vastness of the literary activity of the Kincaids and the range of subjects they wrote on the father in a span of eighty-four years and the son within a mere thirty-one years. Charles wrote thirty-six books in addition to numerous articles, book reviews, and addresses in India, England and France. His subjects varied from folklore to history and mythology to fic- tion. Dennis, on the other hand, essentially concentrated on fiction writing. He wrote five novels, and also a biography of Shivaji and a survey of British social life in India covering a period of over 300 years.

During the pursuance of the project which was primarily meant to be for Ph.D. degree of the University of Bombay, I found that the Kincaids-particularly the senior Kincaid were more than just writers and deserved more years of study to win for them a rightful place in the history of Anglo-Indian literature and in the intellectual life of the British then staying in the erstwhile Bombay Presidency.

I was also faced with a dilemma: should I include their works on the Maratha history or leave them to more competent hands? I opted for the former course of action, even if it meant a further probing for a few more years.