Bill Aitken: The writer who showed real India to the world

My late wife Colleen and I first met Bill Aitken, along with Ruskin Bond, as one of Mussoorie’s resident writers. We had settled there after I left the Navy in 1974. We took to Bill immediately. He was a straightforward man; extremely soft-spoken, but very sharp if he sensed anyone was trying to take advantage of him. Bill was a gentleman to his fingertips, yet always in control of the situation, wherever he was.

Though born a Scotsman, Bill was deeply interested in India. He felt its philosophy was something the world needed to know. He came to study Indian philosophy and attached himself to an ashram where he met the widowed Maharani of Jind, Prithvi Bir Kaur. We came to know her as Preeti. She was finding it increasingly difficult to manage her estate. She spoke to her guru at the ashram who introduced her to Bill. He agreed to assist her. Bill became a sort of secretary to the Maharani.

But that wasn’t enough for him. Bill began exploring the Indian Railways. He was fascinated by the country’s enormous rail network, which covered vast and varied terrains unlike any other country. He was equally intrigued by India’s rivers. He was a typical, complex European who absorbed India, but, you know, our country is so big that you can’t absorb it all. You’d have to be an absolute giant to absorb everything. Bill was specific in his obsession, or rather it would be better to say, his love for India.

What Colleen and I found particularly fascinating was the way he approached India, unlike many European writers — he delved deep. He was fascinated with Hindu philosophy, which goes beyond puja and aarti. It goes down to itihas, the thing common to the three of us.

We believed that itihas, that is the inherited legends that are passed down through the ages, was a unique creation of Hinduism. Using itihas, they were able to send deep scientific truths down the ages till these could be interpreted. Let me give an example. The Das Avatars (though a mythological concept) predate Darwin’s scientific theory by centuries, and yet they capture the essence of his theory and go much into the future, into the evolution of human beings. These were the kinds of conversations we had with Bill.

I don’t classify Bill as a travel writer, just I wouldn’t call my friend Ruskin Bond as just a writer of children’s stories. Yes, he wrote travel books but his identity was shaped by a wide spectrum of experiences.

His humour was acerbic. He had a biting sense of humour. And if anyone tried to get a little too familiar with him, he would cut them down to size easily. And that’s what I loved about Bill.

Bill found it absolutely fascinating that in India, we live in a multiracial, multilingual society. He detested the racial approach of Europeans, thinking that they are superior. And he felt that the people he was researching and living with had a much older and more sophisticated philosophy than any of the white settlers who may have come in.

Had Bill Aitken been born in the Victorian times, he might have been celebrated as one of the pioneering Brits who went into the depth of Indian philosophy and culture and revealed the true India to the world.

I would classify his love for India at the same level as that of Rudyard Kipling. And, this is saying a lot because I’m very fond of Kipling.

— Gantzer is a veteran travel writer

(As told to Seema Sachdeva)

Comments