Amraoti District: Volume A (Descriptive)

Fitzgerald, S. V. (ed); Nelson, A. E. (ed), Amraoti District: Volume A (Descriptive), Central Provinces District Gazetteers (1911). First Edition, with 8pp. ALS from Fitzgerald slipped in, addressed to a Prof. Vinogradoff. Green cloth with gilt stamped title to front board and publisher to spine. All twenty-five plates and four folding maps are present, as well as an errata slip, tipped into the contents page. Internally occasional spotting and spotting to edges. Minor bumping to corners and extremities, with some minor to base of rear board with no effect on text. Very Good. ALS on two sheets of black bordered bifolio letter paper, both with a faint central fold crease. Very Good. An interesting cultural, historical, economic and ecological précis of Amraoti District, which was part of Berar Province of the Central Districts when India was under British colonial control. Split into both qualitative discussions of culture and traditions of groups living in this portion of central India, as well as statistical discussions of population, resources, wages, famine and relative poverty levels. The preface details that this can be used as a standalone volume, with volume B being entirely statistics. Scarce in commerce and in institutions, with WorldCat tracing only five copies held institutionally. The letter, penned by Fitzgerald is addressed to Prof. (Paul) Vinogradoff (1854-1925), an Oxford Professor of Jurisprudence. Fitzgerald, a friend, writes with this book enclosed that it is a belated Christmas present as the Prof. is about to travel to India and wished to learn more of the ‘native customs’, and says he may find some village communities disappointing after ‘judicial decisions of the last hundred years’, and that he knows some Indians who feel legislation has outlived its usefulness, followed by a brief discussion of Hindu religious requests. He then asks if a letter of introduction was received for a C.E. Low, who was briefly in Oxford but now serves on the Committee on Administrative Methods in Bengal, a ‘congenial spirit’ according to Fitzgerald. Before a final page of pleasantries, he briefly returns to academic discourse, discussing ‘primitive customs’, that he was stationed for several years in a district, ‘mainly inhabited by primitive tribes’, and says, p. 147 and 289 will provide some valuable reading, but remarks that the professor possibly knows more than he did when it was written. He finishes by extending an invitation to the Professor, to visit him in Amraoti Camp in Berar, but that the sightseeing is scant and it might be a good place to stop off before Bombay on his return journey. Dated 7/1/1914, it is a warmly written letter from one of the compilers of the book, but like the book it speaks to the old era of colonialism, and of the states of the British empire being both cultural curiosities that wealthy gentleman can ponder over from their Oxford armchairs and also as resource rich mines that can be exploited. Overall, this is a scarce title with an interesting association to an important academic.…