Between Two Worlds: A Rajput Officer in the Indian Army, 1905-21: Based on the Diary of Amar Singh of Jaipur [Paperback]

Between Two Worlds: A Rajput Officer in the Indian Army, 1905-21describes two societies in early twentieth century colonial India- the British governmental and military society and the regional Rajasthan aristocracy. The book portrays life in the peacetime cantonments of Mhow (1906-14) and New Delhi (1918-19), on the Western and Mesopotamian fronts of World War One, and on the Northwest Frontier (1919-21) during the Pathan uprising.

The story is tied together by the pioneering experiences of Captain (later Major-General) Amar Singh, an aristocrat of Jaipur state. Singh's personal story, revealed through the diary that he kept throughout his adult life, details Indo-British cultural collaboration. Amar Singh was, unwittingly, an excellent ethnographer of Rajput society, extensively recording family tensions, marriages, estate development, and the decadent lives of Rajput princes. Singh, in 1905, was among the first Indians given an officers' commission in the British Indian Army. However, it was not until 1917 that he received his full officer commission.

...the author has accomplished the substantial effort needed to make appropriate selections from Amar Sing's voluminous diary linked by extensive commentary in a thorough and excellent manner. The selections provide a good sense of the variety and depth of the information and insights that the diary offers. Frances Taft,Journal of Asian Studies

Ellinwood has ended up providing a rich introduction to the culture and politics of the Raj and its armed forces in the first decades of the twentieth century. The bibliography is extensive, the tone of the test conversational and informative, and the uninitiated reader will finda sure guide to the pecularities and intricacies of British rule and colonial socil3: