Fanning the foreigners.

Byline: Rafia Zakaria

THE first thing that the British realised about India was that it was hot. Arriving from their cold and wet island, the relentless humidity or the unwavering sunshine of the plains was not only foreign, it was maddening.

They tried many tricks to address this encumbrance, a change in clothing and an abandonment of the stiff serge and wool for the pleasant cotton that breathed. Others tried to change their diets, avoiding hot foods and turning to lighter fare so that their own sweat, occasioned not by hard work but simply by the frustration, poured down their backs.

The story of the solution they did find appeared in an essay written by historian Arunima Datta for History Today. In 'Keeping India Cool', she notes the surge in the demand for punkhawallas as the numbers of British arriving to the subcontinent increased. The first surge came early when most of the British colonialists were men, who basically hired whoever was available to do the odious and constant job of fanning their masters through the day and night.

When the British had entrenched themselves more deeply in India, made sure that all the largesse was available for loot and that a permanent life in India was required to obtain it, a second surge occurred. Now the punkhawallas were required not just for the sahib, but also for the memsahibs and the baby sahibs.

The British took most of India's wealth with them, but they left their sense of entitlement to germinate and grow.

The way that the British treated and used the punkhawallas, whose numbers could literally have constituted an army, could well serve as a metaphor for their stance towards their colonial subjects in general.

The first problem with hiring a human to pull at a fan for all your waking and sleeping hours was the proximity of it all. The British wanted to rule India but they did not wish to be close to Indians, particularly to men for whom station and fate made it necessary to accept the most servile task of a country bound up in servitude.

The answer was that the punkhawallas were not allowed in the same room as the white men, women and children for whose comfort they were responsible. They sat outside, pulling at a rope that pulled the fan that made the breeze that cooled the foreign overlord who could be sleeping or eating or reading or doing nothing at all. Provided with a punkhawalla they would, in all states and conditions, continue to be cool.

Mastery over a subjugated population, the...