John Beames

John William Beames (21 June 1837 – 24 May 1902) was a civil servant and author in British India. 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. He was also a scholar of Indian history, literature and linguistics. His great work was a comparative grammar of Indo-Aryan languages, published in three volumes in 1872¹–1879. When he retired from the Indian Civil Service in March 1893, he had gained extensive knowledge of Indian life, and in 1896 wrote an account of his career, first published in 1961¹ as Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian.

John William Beames (21 June 1837 – 24 May 1902) was a civil servant and author in British India. 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. He was also a scholar of Indian history, literature and linguistics. His great work was a comparative grammar of Indo-Aryan languages, published in three volumes in 1872–1879. When he retired from the Indian Civil Service in March 1893, he had gained extensive knowledge of Indian life, and in 1896 wrote an account of his career, first published in 1961 as Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian.

Early life

Beames was born in the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, a few hours after the death of William IV and the consequent ascent of Queen Victoria to the English throne. He was 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, and spent his formative years moving around England with his father's appointment to various parishes before being sent for education at Merchant Taylors' School in 1847 and Haileybury College 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.

India

Beames arrived in India in 1858 to work in the Indian Civil Service (ICS), serving in the Punjab from March 1859 to late 1861. From December 1861, he 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. He was a District Officer and Collector of several districts in Bengal, and the Commissioner of Chittagong until he retired in 1893. In his autobiography, which was not published until 1961, he describes himself as "an obscure person – an average, ordinary, middle-class Englishman".

Beames and Odisha

Beames' Memoirs records his stay in Odisha as a period of great happiness and productivity. Odisha had just recovered from a severe famine in 1866 when he arrived in Balasore in 1869. He learnt Odia and wrote on its language, literature, temple iconography, fortresses and folklore. He identified with local sentiments for the preservation and promotion of the Odia language. In "On a Copper Plate Grant from Balasore AD 1483", he argued that Odia script had developed from a southern variety of Kutila type. He wrote on the poetry of DinaKhrushna Das and pioneered comparative folk culture studies with the publication of his folklore of Odisha.

Views

John Beames was not known for his progressive views. A staunch representative of reactionary Anglo-Indian opinion, he sincerely believed that Indian officers, who formed a minuscule minority in the ICS, should not be given salaries on par with the salaries given to British officials in the same service. 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 allowed his personal preferences to colour his professional 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 Indian colleagues in the ICS, Brajendranath De, esq., then serving in Hooghly under the (Acting) Commissionership of Beames, should be told not to sit in the presence of his and other British members of the committee. Beames' demand was not met by the committee members. He was asked to leave the room while De, fully seated, was extensively questioned by the committee members. Later De's views were heeded in the committee's report.

Later life

Beames retired to Clevedon, Somerset, where he died on 24 May 1902.

Bibliography

B. P. Ambashthya, editor, Beames' contributions to the political geography of the subahs of Awadh, Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa in the age of Akbar. Patna: Janaki Prakashan, 1976. John Beames, A comparative grammar of the modern Aryan languages of India : to wit, Hindi, Panjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, and Bangali. London: Trübner, 1872–1879. 3 vols. John Beames, Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian. London: Chatto & Windus, 1961. Reprinted 1984 and 2013 by Eland. Henry Miers Elliot, Memoirs on the History, Folk-lore and Distribution of the Races of the North Western Provinces of India: Being an Amplified Edition of the Original Supplemental Glossary of Indian Terms, 2 vols. revised by John Beames. London: Trübner, 1869; New Delhi, Asian Educational Services, 2 vols. (2004¹) John Beames's Essays on Orissa History and Literature : Edited by Kailash Patnaik, Published by Prafulla Pathagara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, 2004 John Beames, Grammar of the Bengali Language: Literary and Colloquial. London: Trübner, 1891. John Beames, Outlines of Indian Philology: With a Map Shewing the Distribution of Indian Languages. London: Trübner, 1868. (Multiple later reprint editions exist.) John Beames, "Chaitanya and the Vaishnava Poets of Bengal." Reprinted in later editions as a standalone volume, 2004

References

Beames, John: Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian (Eland, 2013)

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