The forgotten brigadier

      Historians say that on that one moment, as the Khalsa’s spearhead was rushing at our throat, rested the three centuries of British India. Perhaps. It was surely the moment in which Gough’s battered little army stared certain death and destruction in the face, and whatever may have settled our fate later, one man turned the hinge then and there. Without him, we (aye, and perhaps all of India) would have been swept away in bloody ruin. I’ll wager you’ve never heard of him, the forgotten brigadier, Mickey White.



Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.260, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


Tags: Flashman, Flashman quotes, hinge.

Blind luck

      You’ll have difficulty finding Ferozeshah (or Pheeroo Shah, as we Punjabi purists call it) in the atlas nowadays. It’s a scrubby little hamlet about halfway between Ferozepore and Moodkee, but in its way it’s a greater place than Delhi or Calcutta or Bombay, for it’s where the fate of India was settled — appropriately by treachery, folly, and idiot courage beyond belief. And most of all, by blind luck.



Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.245, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.



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A promise broken

      I’d vowed never to go near India again after the Afghan fiasco of ’42, and might easily have kept my word but for Elspeth’s loose conduct.


Flashman and the Mountain of Light, p.21, Fontana Paperback edition, 1991.


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Mera Jhansi denge nay

‘…and that is why I resist as best I can. As you, and Lord Palmerston would. Tell him,’ says she, and by George, her voice was shaking, but the pretty mouth was set and hard, ‘when you go home, that whatever happens, I will not give up my Jhansi. Mera Jhansi denge nay. I will not give up my Jhansi!’

Flashman in the Great Game, p.97, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Rani Lakshmibai.

Cold eyes and pale faces

‘Can you not see that that is not our way – that none of our ways are your ways? you talk of your reforms, and the benefits of British law and the Sirkar’s rule – and never think that what seems ideal to you may not suit others; that we have our own customs, which you may think strange and foolish, and perhaps they are – but they are ours – our own! You come, in your strength, and your certaintu, with your cold eyes and pale faces, like … like machines marching out of your northern ice and you will have everything in order, tramping in step like your soldiers, whether those you conquer and civilize – as you call it – whether they will do or no. Do you not see that it is better to leave people be – to let them alone?’

Flashman in the Great Game, p.95, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Rani Lakshmibai.

The effects of English aristocracy on India

It’s different now, of course; since it became a safe place many of our best and most highly-connected people have let the light of their counternances shine on India, with the results you might expect – prices have gone up, service has gone down, and the women have got the clap.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.58, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,English, India.

Attractions of empire

I remember young Fred Roberts (who’s a Field-Marshall now, which shows you what pull these Addiscombe wallahs have got) once saying that everyone hated India for a month and then loved it forever. I wouldn’t altogether agree, but I’ll allow it had its attractions in the old days; you lived like a lord without having to work, waited on hand and foot, made money if you set your mind to it, and hardly exerted yourself at all except to hunt the beasts, thrash the men, and bull the women.

Flashman in the Great Game, p.58, Pan edition, 4th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,Frederick Roberts, India.

Thoughts of home

It’s a strange thing, to come through hundreds of miles of wilderness, from a foreign land and moving in the wrong direction, and suddenly find yourself sniffing the air and thinking, ‘home’. If you’re British, and have soldiered in India, you’ll understand what I mean.

Flashman at the Charge, p.214, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

Tags:
Flashman, Flashman quotes,India, British.

If it comes to firearms

‘India and Afghanistan ain’t in the Haymarket, uncle,’ says I, looking humble-offended, ‘and if it comes to firearms, well, I’ve handled enough of ’em, Brown Bess, Dreyse needles, Colts, Lancasters, Brunswicks, and so forth’ – I’d handled them with considerable reluctance, but he didn’t know that.

Flashman at the Charge, p.13, Pan edition, 5th printing, 1979.

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Flashman, Flashman quotes,Haymarket, firearms.

Better countries

There may be better countries for a soldier to serve in than India, but i haven't seen them. You may hear the greenhorns talk about heat and flies and filth and the natives and the diseases; the first three you must get accustomed to, the fifth you must avoid - and as for the natives well, where else will you get such a docile, humble set of slaves? I liked them better than the Scots, anyhow; their language was easier to
understand.



Flashman, p.68, Pan edition, 12th printing, 1979.