John Beames
Encyclopedia
John Beames was a civil servant in British India and an author. The eldest son of Rev. Thomas Beames, preacher of St James's Church, Piccadilly
and grandson of John Beames Esq., a barrister
and later bencher
of Lincoln’s Inn, Beames was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
and Haileybury College before leaving for India in 1858. He served in the Punjab from March 1859, to late 1861 and in Bengal from December 1861 until the conclusion of his service in 1893. Latterly, Beames was employed in the Bengal Presidency, becoming a permanent Collector in 1867 and a Commissioner in 1881. He thrice officiated as a Member of the Board of Revenue. By the time he retired from the ICS in March 1893, Beames had gained extensive knowledge of Indian life and in 1896 chose to set down in writing an account of his career. This account was first published in 1961 as Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian.
a few hours after the death of William IV
and the consequent ascent of Queen Victoria to the English throne. He spent his formative years moving around England with his father's appointment to various parishes before being sent to Merchant Taylors' in 1847 and Haileybury in 1856. In his fourth term at Haileybury, Beames won the College's Classic
, and Sanskrit
prizes as well as the Persian
Medal. This affinity with languages served him well in India and permitted him to excel in his early examinations in Calcutta.
. He was a District Officer and Collector
of several districts in Bengal, and the Commissioner
of Chittagong
. He was also a scholar of India
n history, literature and linguistics. His great work was a comparative grammar of Indo-Aryan languages
, published in 3 volumes in 1872-1879. In his autobiography, which was not published until 1961, he describes himself as "an obscure person - an average, ordinary, middle-class Englishman".
, he published essays in the Bengal Asiatic Society. These dealt with the question of retaining Arabic element in the official form of Hindustani. Treating Bishop Caldwell’s Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages as a model, he commenced work on the counterpart of Aryan languages.
To The Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, Beames contributed essays on Chand Bardoi and other old Hindi authors and studies on the antiquities and history of Orissa (1870-1883). In 1891, he published a pioneering volume Bengali Grammar, and after his retirement, he wrote for Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review. His reputation rightly rests on the Comparative Grammar of the Aryan Language of India, published in volumes in 1872, 1895 and 1879.
John Beames (1837-1902) who served as the Collector of Balasore and Cuttack, became an important interlocutor of local linguistic and cultural aspirations. Little known even in Orissa, his evocative “Memoirs of a Bengali Civilia” is generally confined to antiquarian circles. The classicists remember his celebrated “Comparative Grammar of the Aryan Languages of India” and essays in Indian Antiquary and Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society. And yet, Beames remains foremost in his interventions for the survival of the Oriya language. He made outstanding contributions for regional formations in Eastern India.
– Bengali language
conflict had basically an economic origin. Language hegemony was deployed by sections of the Bengali colonial administration for the exercise of power by cornering government jobs. One of the earlier manifestations by resistance to the colonial administration in Orissa
was the assertion of linguistic and cultural identity. .
In 1867, for instance, Deputy Magistrate Rangalal Bandhopadhyaya spoke in public meeting of the primacy of Bengali over Oriya. Like wise, well-known Bengali scholar Rajendralal Mitra who came to study the temples of Cuttack declared that there was no need to have a separate language for a mere 20 lakh Oriya population. In fact, Mitra argued that Orissa was doomed to remain backward so long as it had a separate language. Pandit Kanti Chandra Bhattacharya, a teacher of Balasore Zilla School, published a little pamphlet named ‘Udiya Ekti Swatantray Bhasha Noi (Oriya not an independent language ) where Mr.Bhattacharya claimed that Oriya was not a separate and original form of language and was a mere corruption of Bengali .He suggested British Government to abolish all Oriya Vernacular Schools from Orissa and to alter into Bengali Vernacular Schools . Beames examines both the languages from close quarters and suggests that as a separate language “Uriya extends along the sea coast from Subarnarekha to near Ganjam.’ Landwards, its boundary is uncertain, it melts gradually into the Boud and other rude hill dialects and co-exists with them.”Beams wrote three notes remain supremely important in this regard. ‘On the relation of the Oriya to the other modern Aryan language,’ ‘On Oriya language, script and literature’ and ‘Urya.’ These refuted the claim that Oriya was a dialect of Bengali, specifically the conspiracy of Bengali intellectuals to abolish Oriya Language got dimmed Beames’s exposition of the origin of Oriya language and study of its evolution brought him closer to the Oriya people who were battling then for the survival of their language.
John Beames represents perhaps the best face of British colonialism in Orissa. Educated, enlightened and well-meaning, he adapted to the land and its culture. While his contributions in the field of administration will be forgotten, his linguistic and cultural legacy remains historic. Beames empathized with the local culture and aspirations and made decisive interventions in the comparative study of languages. His support of the cause of Oriya was timely. It contributed vitally to community formation in Orissa during the 19th century.
Beames, who stayed for a considerable time in Orissa and worked for the survival of Oriya language quotes:
, esq., then a Joint Magistrate of Hooghly, under the (Acting) Commissionership of Beames, should be told not to sit in his and other British committee members' presence. Beames' demand was not met by the committee members, and he was asked to leave the room while De, fully seated, was questioned by the members of the committee. Later De's views were also heeded in the committee's report.
St James's Church, Piccadilly
St James’s Church, Piccadilly is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, UK. It was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren....
and grandson of John Beames Esq., a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
and later bencher
Bencher
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister , in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law...
of Lincoln’s Inn, Beames was educated at Merchant Taylors' School
Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....
and Haileybury College before leaving for India in 1858. He served in the Punjab from March 1859, to late 1861 and in Bengal from December 1861 until the conclusion of his service in 1893. Latterly, Beames was employed in the Bengal Presidency, becoming a permanent Collector in 1867 and a Commissioner in 1881. He thrice officiated as a Member of the Board of Revenue. By the time he retired from the ICS in March 1893, Beames had gained extensive knowledge of Indian life and in 1896 chose to set down in writing an account of his career. This account was first published in 1961 as Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian.
Early life
Beames was born in the Royal Naval HospitalRoyal Naval Hospital
A Royal Naval Hospital was a hospital operated by the British Royal Navy. No Royal Naval Hospitals survive as such, although some have become civilian hospitals and one remains as a tri-service military hospital.Royal Naval Hospitals included:...
a few hours after the death of William IV
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
and the consequent ascent of Queen Victoria to the English throne. He spent his formative years moving around England with his father's appointment to various parishes before being sent to Merchant Taylors' in 1847 and Haileybury in 1856. In his fourth term at Haileybury, Beames won the College's Classic
Classic
The word classic means something that is a perfect example of a particular style, something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality. The word can be an adjective or a noun . It denotes a particular quality in art, architecture, literature and other cultural artifacts...
, and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
prizes as well as the Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
Medal. This affinity with languages served him well in India and permitted him to excel in his early examinations in Calcutta.
India
Beames arrived in India in 1858 and served in the Punjab from March 1859 to late 1861. He was a member of the Indian Civil Service in British IndiaBritish Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
. He was a District Officer and Collector
District collector
The District Collector is the district head of administration of the bureaucracy in a state of India. Though he/she is appointed and is under general supervision of the state government, he/she has to be a member of the elite IAS recruited by the Central Government...
of several districts in Bengal, and the Commissioner
Commissioner
Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....
of Chittagong
Chittagong
Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...
. He was also a scholar of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n history, literature and linguistics. His great work was a comparative grammar of Indo-Aryan languages
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
, published in 3 volumes in 1872-1879. In his autobiography, which was not published until 1961, he describes himself as "an obscure person - an average, ordinary, middle-class Englishman".
Career and scholarly contribution
Beames’s scholarly contributions began early in his career. While at the district of Champaran, BiharBihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, he published essays in the Bengal Asiatic Society. These dealt with the question of retaining Arabic element in the official form of Hindustani. Treating Bishop Caldwell’s Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages as a model, he commenced work on the counterpart of Aryan languages.
To The Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, Beames contributed essays on Chand Bardoi and other old Hindi authors and studies on the antiquities and history of Orissa (1870-1883). In 1891, he published a pioneering volume Bengali Grammar, and after his retirement, he wrote for Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review. His reputation rightly rests on the Comparative Grammar of the Aryan Language of India, published in volumes in 1872, 1895 and 1879.
John Beames (1837-1902) who served as the Collector of Balasore and Cuttack, became an important interlocutor of local linguistic and cultural aspirations. Little known even in Orissa, his evocative “Memoirs of a Bengali Civilia” is generally confined to antiquarian circles. The classicists remember his celebrated “Comparative Grammar of the Aryan Languages of India” and essays in Indian Antiquary and Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society. And yet, Beames remains foremost in his interventions for the survival of the Oriya language. He made outstanding contributions for regional formations in Eastern India.
Role in the survival of the Oriya language
The OriyaOriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
– Bengali language
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
conflict had basically an economic origin. Language hegemony was deployed by sections of the Bengali colonial administration for the exercise of power by cornering government jobs. One of the earlier manifestations by resistance to the colonial administration in Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
was the assertion of linguistic and cultural identity. .
In 1867, for instance, Deputy Magistrate Rangalal Bandhopadhyaya spoke in public meeting of the primacy of Bengali over Oriya. Like wise, well-known Bengali scholar Rajendralal Mitra who came to study the temples of Cuttack declared that there was no need to have a separate language for a mere 20 lakh Oriya population. In fact, Mitra argued that Orissa was doomed to remain backward so long as it had a separate language. Pandit Kanti Chandra Bhattacharya, a teacher of Balasore Zilla School, published a little pamphlet named ‘Udiya Ekti Swatantray Bhasha Noi (Oriya not an independent language ) where Mr.Bhattacharya claimed that Oriya was not a separate and original form of language and was a mere corruption of Bengali .He suggested British Government to abolish all Oriya Vernacular Schools from Orissa and to alter into Bengali Vernacular Schools . Beames examines both the languages from close quarters and suggests that as a separate language “Uriya extends along the sea coast from Subarnarekha to near Ganjam.’ Landwards, its boundary is uncertain, it melts gradually into the Boud and other rude hill dialects and co-exists with them.”Beams wrote three notes remain supremely important in this regard. ‘On the relation of the Oriya to the other modern Aryan language,’ ‘On Oriya language, script and literature’ and ‘Urya.’ These refuted the claim that Oriya was a dialect of Bengali, specifically the conspiracy of Bengali intellectuals to abolish Oriya Language got dimmed Beames’s exposition of the origin of Oriya language and study of its evolution brought him closer to the Oriya people who were battling then for the survival of their language.
John Beames represents perhaps the best face of British colonialism in Orissa. Educated, enlightened and well-meaning, he adapted to the land and its culture. While his contributions in the field of administration will be forgotten, his linguistic and cultural legacy remains historic. Beames empathized with the local culture and aspirations and made decisive interventions in the comparative study of languages. His support of the cause of Oriya was timely. It contributed vitally to community formation in Orissa during the 19th century.
Beames, who stayed for a considerable time in Orissa and worked for the survival of Oriya language quotes:
At a period when Oriya was already a fixed and settled language, Bengali did not exist. The Bengalis spoke a vast variety of corrupt forms of Eastern Hindi. It is till quite recent times that we find anything that can with proprietary to be called a bengali language.
We may place the Hindi with its subsidary forms Gujurati and Punjabi first fixing their rise and establishment as a modern languages distinct from their previous existence as Prakrut till the 12th or m13th century. Oriya must have quite completed its transformation by the end of the 14th century. Bengali was no separate independent language but a maze of dialects without a distinct national or provincial type till the 17th or beginning of the 18th century. It was not till the gradual decay of the central Mohamedan power of Delhi enabled the provincial governers to assume an independent position that Bengali severed itself from Hindi and assumed characteristics which now vindicate for its right to be called a separate language.
Beames & Orissa
Beames' Memoirs records his stay in Orissa as a period of great happiness and productivity. Orissa had just recovered from a severe famine in 1866 when he arrived in Balasore in 1869. He learnt Oriya and wrote on its language, literature, temple iconography, fortresses and folklore. He identified with local sentiments for the preservation and promotion of the Oriya language. On a Copper Plate Grant from Balasore AD 1483, argued that Oriya script had developed from a southern variety of Kutila type. He wrote on the poetry of Dinahrushna Das pioneered comparative folk culture studies with the publication of his folklore of Orissa.Controversy
John Beames was not well known for his progressive views. A staunch representative of reactionary Anglo-Indian opinion, he sincerely believed that officers of a certain rank, not higher than District Magistrate and Collector, and belonging to the native population, should not be given salaries on par with salaries given to British officials in the ICS. This he clearly stated in a deposition to the Aitchison Committee which looked into the possibility of equalising the salaries of all officials, British and Indian, in the ICS at the time of the Ilbert Bill controversy in 1883. Beames was a die-hard conservative who also allowed his personal preferences to colour his judgements and interactions with his Indian juniors in the ICS. For example, while deposing before the Aitchison Committee, he insisted that one of his junior colleague in ICS, Brajendranath DeBrajendranath De
-In Calcutta and Lucknow:He was born at his maternal grandfather's home at 123, Manicktala Street, Calcutta. His father's family, originally from Uttar Rarh in Bengal, belonged to the newly emerging middle class of Calcutta. He describes them as Kayastha bhadraloks in his unpublished memoir...
, esq., then a Joint Magistrate of Hooghly, under the (Acting) Commissionership of Beames, should be told not to sit in his and other British committee members' presence. Beames' demand was not met by the committee members, and he was asked to leave the room while De, fully seated, was questioned by the members of the committee. Later De's views were also heeded in the committee's report.
See also
- OrissaOrissaOrissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
- Oriya languageOriya languageOriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
- Oriya LiteratureOriya literatureOriya is an official language of the state of Orissa, India. The region has been known at different stages of history as Kalinga, Udra, Utkala, or Koshala. The language is also spoken by minority populations of the neighboring states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The...
- RebatiRebatiRebati , the famous Oriyashort story by Fakir Mohan Senapati, is considered as the first Oriya modern short story,Fakir Mohan Senapati , the prime figure of modern Oriya Fiction ,was considered the Vyasakabi or founder poet of Oriya language...
- John Beames’s Essays on Orissa History and Literature : Edited by Kailash Patnaik, Published by Prafulla Pathagara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, 2004