Kathy Baker
13-05 2021 15:07
wrote:
I had the privilege of meeting Tony 50 years ago, in 1971, when he accepted me as a research student on his first major project funded by the (then) SSRC, to work in Bulandshahr, UP, north India. Tony thus influenced the course of my life in a positive way and for that I am hugely grateful to him. Tony was an excellent supervisor: he could always see the bigger picture and had inspirational ideas. He gave me help when needed but also sufficient freedom to make, and sort out my own mistakes. What particularly impressed me about Tony was his kindness, generosity, and his concern for other people. He was a highly principled person and I respected him enormously for this. These paragraphs are a few of many memories from ‘Bulandshahr days’.
The Bulandshahr project investigated the impacts of Green Revolution technology on farming and livelihoods in Bulandshahr District, and of particular interest to Tony was the impact on wheat yields of canal and tube well irrigation. The adventure began with Tony driving the project’s Landrover to India, packed with everything for the fieldwork, including jars and jars of marmite and peanut butter. Tony was a popular figure in Bulandshahr, his gentle manner and humility appealing to those with whom we worked and socialised. However, as the fieldwork got underway the local enumerators whom he had employed learnt that Tony was a stickler for punctuality and hard work, which came as something of a surprise. We left promptly for the field at 8am each day, six days a week, and everyone had to be present at the Landrover by two minutes to eight, by which time Tony was revving up the vehicle, prompting people to ‘hurry up’. There were no harsh words when anyone was late but the atmosphere was such that no one was late twice. The enumerators adapted with good humour and affectionately nicknamed Tony ‘two-to-eight’. Tony was not amused by this. Inevitably, getting the fieldwork done was of paramount importance and Tony could not bear to be held up for a minute on the way to a village, almost exploding with frustration when the road was blocked by a broken bullock cart, or by a level crossing with barrier down, something the enumerators found highly amusing. It was at such points that cultural differences between Tony and the Indian Team were most in evidence; the one tense, refusing to accept the inevitability of holdups; the others relaxed, accepting that delays were the norm.
Tony cut a striking figure in Bulandshahr and its villages, unique on the north Indian plains. He stood head and shoulders taller than most people (not stooped, as we came to know him), and sported a very impressive, large, Afro hairstyle. People would simply stare and in the villages many admitted to never having seen such a person before, though they always liked his gentle demeanour. He was embarrassed by such attention.
On the way home from the field treats were frequent, especially if the field work had gone well. We all enjoyed stopping for snacks or fruit and on one occasion Tony bought over a kilo of Indian sweets for everyone to share, only to find that these were rejected by the enumerators. This, it emerged, was a caste issue, so, personally unaffected by caste, Tony and I devoured the lot. But caste was to cause more problems for Tony: project villages were randomly selected and when fieldwork was conducted in low caste villages the enumerators were in and out in a jiffy, huddled in the Landrover, declining all hospitality, and leaving Tony and me to eat as much as we could from a generous spread provided by people who had very little. Try as he might he could not persuade the enumerators to spend more time on the fieldwork in those villages. It upset him that the quality of fieldwork might have been questionable and he was sorely troubled by attitudes towards the poorest. At times,Tony found India very difficult.
Some five years after completing my PhD Tony encouraged me to apply for a post in the Geography Department at SOAS and I thus went from being student to colleague. He remained the same, ever helpful and supportive. My last memory of Tony is a happy one. It was in 2018 when we met by chance at the Russell Square entrance to SOAS. It struck me as we said goodbye that this was the same place we had said goodbye when he had set off for Bulandshahr in the Landrover almost 50 years earlier.
I shall always be grateful to Tony for the opportunities he gave me, opportunities that have shaped my life. I’m just sorry Tony has left us.
Kathy Baker
Kathy Baker
13-05 2021 15:07
wrote:
I had the privilege of meeting Tony 50 years ago, in 1971, when he accepted me as a research student on his first major project funded by the (then) SSRC, to work in Bulandshahr, UP, north India. Tony thus influenced the course of my life in a positive way and for that I am hugely grateful to him. Tony was an excellent supervisor: he could always see the bigger picture and had inspirational ideas. He gave me help when needed but also sufficient freedom to make, and sort out my own mistakes. What particularly impressed me about Tony was his kindness, generosity, and his concern for other people. He was a highly principled person and I respected him enormously for this. These paragraphs are a few of many memories from ‘Bulandshahr days’.
The Bulandshahr project investigated the impacts of Green Revolution technology on farming and livelihoods in Bulandshahr District, and of particular interest to Tony was the impact on wheat yields of canal and tube well irrigation. The adventure began with Tony driving the project’s Landrover to India, packed with everything for the fieldwork, including jars and jars of marmite and peanut butter. Tony was a popular figure in Bulandshahr, his gentle manner and humility appealing to those with whom we worked and socialised. However, as the fieldwork got underway the local enumerators whom he had employed learnt that Tony was a stickler for punctuality and hard work, which came as something of a surprise. We left promptly for the field at 8am each day, six days a week, and everyone had to be present at the Landrover by two minutes to eight, by which time Tony was revving up the vehicle, prompting people to ‘hurry up’. There were no harsh words when anyone was late but the atmosphere was such that no one was late twice. The enumerators adapted with good humour and affectionately nicknamed Tony ‘two-to-eight’. Tony was not amused by this. Inevitably, getting the fieldwork done was of paramount importance and Tony could not bear to be held up for a minute on the way to a village, almost exploding with frustration when the road was blocked by a broken bullock cart, or by a level crossing with barrier down, something the enumerators found highly amusing. It was at such points that cultural differences between Tony and the Indian Team were most in evidence; the one tense, refusing to accept the inevitability of holdups; the others relaxed, accepting that delays were the norm.
Tony cut a striking figure in Bulandshahr and its villages, unique on the north Indian plains. He stood head and shoulders taller than most people (not stooped, as we came to know him), and sported a very impressive, large, Afro hairstyle. People would simply stare and in the villages many admitted to never having seen such a person before, though they always liked his gentle demeanour. He was embarrassed by such attention.
On the way home from the field treats were frequent, especially if the field work had gone well. We all enjoyed stopping for snacks or fruit and on one occasion Tony bought over a kilo of Indian sweets for everyone to share, only to find that these were rejected by the enumerators. This, it emerged, was a caste issue, so, personally unaffected by caste, Tony and I devoured the lot. But caste was to cause more problems for Tony: project villages were randomly selected and when fieldwork was conducted in low caste villages the enumerators were in and out in a jiffy, huddled in the Landrover, declining all hospitality, and leaving Tony and me to eat as much as we could from a generous spread provided by people who had very little. Try as he might he could not persuade the enumerators to spend more time on the fieldwork in those villages. It upset him that the quality of fieldwork might have been questionable and he was sorely troubled by attitudes towards the poorest. At times,Tony found India very difficult.
Some five years after completing my PhD Tony encouraged me to apply for a post in the Geography Department at SOAS and I thus went from being student to colleague. He remained the same, ever helpful and supportive. My last memory of Tony is a happy one. It was in 2018 when we met by chance at the Russell Square entrance to SOAS. It struck me as we said goodbye that this was the same place we had said goodbye when he had set off for Bulandshahr in the Landrover almost 50 years earlier.
I shall always be grateful to Tony for the opportunities he gave me, opportunities that have shaped my life. I’m just sorry Tony has left us.
Kathy Baker
