Revisiting Sir Robert Bristow's ‘India’: A post-colonial analysis of Cochin Saga

Abstract

Sir Robert Bristow, popularly called Bristow Sahib, is recognized as a path-breaker in the field of port construction in the historical consciousness and cultural imaginary of the people of Kerala, the southernmost state of India. His memoir, Cochin Saga, published in 1959, records both his professional experiences as a harbour engineer and his personal reminiscences as a British resident posted in Cochin. Maritime scholarship has paid scant attention to this literary document, which is a crucial record of how Bristow succeeded in winning hearts in an alien culture, overcoming hostile environmental situations. This article attempts to reconsider Bristow's memories as recorded in Cochin Saga from a post-colonial perspective, and tries to examine whether Bristow's accounts fall prey to employing universalizing tendencies and a hegemonic world view of India and its culture.