Description

Unwoven carpet of Hindustan by Irene Bose. A memoir written by Mrs. Bose from time to time throughout her life in India. (C.1926 – 1974). TS 211 pp.

• Beginning of welfare work in cotton mill – mistakes and problems – the enormous social problems, customs and beliefs – the tragedy and the beauty of Indian village life.
• Marries Vivian Bose, an Indian, and a High Court Judge. Description of the family house and city. Entrance into the family and an appreciation of the great personality of her husband’s grandfather. Household management.
• Starts educational village work again. Picks on Koradi as being suitable.
• Preliminary discussions in the village for permission to begin.
• Miss D., the social worker, begins with medicine. Her reception. Results of this medical beginning. Miss D. moves to a house nearby in Mahdulla.
• Time-sense in timeless people. Lord Irwin, Bhagwat the headman, and the well. Profile of Bhagwat. Progress and village life. Characters and small incidents in village life.
• A journey into the jungle. Christmas in tribal territory.
• Entertaining a variety of people in the war.
• Beginning a new village school. Success and problems of water and caste. Adult classes begin. Comments and incidents which the school brings.
• The multifarous consequences of the school. First visit to grandfather’s house in Calcutta. Traditional relationships.
• Description of a three day fair for children.
• Famine – and famine relief organisation – aspects of hunger.
• Discussions about religious beliefs and marriage.
• Jumble sale and the incredible jumble.
• Famine again – broken rice sold. Critique of government policy -Grain shop and the tragedies of famine.
• Grain shop put on Government rationing scheme. Incidents in the grain shop.
• From grain ship to Investiture.
• An act of great courtesy done by the men of the village.
• The visit of a saddhu.
• The case of a boy with a broken hip.
• Goats.
• Three day Viceregal visit to the city.
• Gandhi – incidents of meetings.
• The visit of a Scandinavian woman who tries unsuccessfully to reform the village.
• Incidents of a sick child, a sick woman, a kitten – all indicative of Indian village life.
• Dasera Festival described.
• Statue of Queen Victoria.
• Incident of a woman who had been imprisoned during the war as part of the Quit India Movement.
• Small, very illustrative incidents of life in India and Indian characteristics.
• Flashback to cholera epidemic, and the fight against superstition, ignorance, and the disease.
• News of Gandhi’s death and the following day of universal common prayer.