O'DWYER, Sir Michael. India as I saw It 1885-1925. London: Constable. 1925.
8vo. Original publisher's cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt; pp. x, [2], 464, folding map of India and one of the Punjab at rear; a little spotting to and offsetting from endpapers, as well as to edges, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition, very rare. Despite O'Dwyer's proud Irish heritage he was a staunch defender of British Imperialist interests in India, suppressing independence movements. 'In April 1919, O'Dwyer, the lieutenant-governor of Punjab in British India and a Catholic from Co Tipperary, was responsible for the troops who perpetrated the Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. Between 300 and 1,500 peaceful demonstrators were killed (depending on whether one believes the British or Indian accounts) at the holy city of Amritsar … In his pugnacious biography, India as I Knew it 1885-1925, he made clear that he saw the threat of Indian nationalist Ghadr “terrorism” in the strategically important Punjab province as analogous to the militant Fenian attacks he had witnessed in his homeland' . In 1940 O'Dwyer was assassinated by the Indian revolutionary Sardar Udham Singh.
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