MILITARY AND WILDLIFE SCENES IN WESTERN INDIA DURING PARTITION

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: MGH 5184).

Synopsis

Reel 1: (Mixed Colour/B&W) IEME School at Kirkee (near Poona), prior to Indian Partition and the creation of Pakistan. British officers fire pistol and rifle on range. Bulldozer clears a malaria site. Indian/Pakistani soldiers pack up, prior to the splitting of the post-Independence Indian Army into its Indian and Pakistan elements. Sherman tanks are marked "EME Training Centre, Pakistan, c/o O/C 503 Command PEME Workshops, Quetta". Churchill Crocodile flamethrower trials (Colour). Indian soldiers at Sports Day. Mongoose attacking captive snake. Snake charmer.

Reel 2: (Colour) Indian wedding procession. Rural scenes of agriculture and game hunting. Tribal Indians.

Reel 3: (Colour) Railway journey in western India, past Dhulia. Arrival at Forest Rest house for shooting expedition. Visit to remote Indian village where villagers wear distinctive red and orange headdress masks, and males perform circular ceremonial dance. Traditional agricultural scenes. More game hunting.

Reel 4: (Colour) More game hunting, and dissection of animal corpses. Distinctive villagers again. Skinned tiger.

Reel 5: (Colour) Indian procession. Mongoose attacking cobra. Railway journey in western India, passing through Lonavla. Sequence in Bombay shows young Indian girl prostitutes waiting in their distinctive cages for clients, signs advertising Grant Road Clinic (presumably the next stop for clients who catch venereal disease) and Dr Patel and Indian soldiers walking along street. Fortified island off coast. Tourist scenes of Agra Fort and Taj Mahal.

Reel 6: (Colour) British Army officer with Pakistani (or Indian) troops on railway station preparing to depart from post-Independence India (national flag flies). (Camera fault) Embarkation on Caledonia at Bombay, and return voyage via Karachi, Port Sudan and Suez Canal to Liverpool, where luggage waits loading aboard train.

Amateur film shot by Lieutenant-Colonel G Hayward of the IEME (Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) while serving in India, and (after July1947) with the PEME (Pakistan Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) records preparations for moving equipment from Kirkee (IEME) to Quetta (PEME), Churchill Crocodile flamethrower trials, extensive coverage of Indian wildlife and remote Indian tribal populations shot during game hunting expeditions, caged prostitutes in Bombay and his homeward voyage on the Caledonia to Liverpool in 1948.

Notes

Date: stock edge mark is 1946 for all six reels, so only the last reel is chronologically definitely in the correct position.

Summary: Reel 1 contained pencilled note "bulldozer on anti-malaria site".

 

Titles

  • MILITARY AND WILDLIFE SCENES IN WESTERN INDIA DURING PARTITION (Allocated)
  • AMATEUR FILM BY LIEUTENANT-COLONEL G V HAYWARD (Alternative)
 

Technical Data

Year:
1948
Running Time:
94 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
Std 8mm
Colour:
Colour, B&W
Sound:
Silent
Footage:
1200 ft ca
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
cameraman
Hayward, G V (Lieutenant-Colonel)