Hindustani Handbook Specially Prepared for Colonial Use. Lessons in Grammar, Key to Exercises, Vocabulary, and Useful Information on Indian Religions, Customs, and Languages. (Devanagari and Roman Scripts)
Suva, Fiji: H. Craigie, 1931. Very Good -. Item #46722
Suva, Fiji: H. Craigie, 1931. First Edition. Octavo (21.2 cm); publisher's olive green cloth with gilt lettering and border; [xii],290pp. Boards edgeworn with a light concave bow; some soiling and smudging to cloth, toning to spine, and dulling to lettering. Light dampstain to endpapers over front hinge, with a patch of rippling to front free endpaper and title page. Prior ownership inscription in pen at bottom of front free endpaper. Binding sound and pages unmarked.
The first example of a work devoted to Fijian Hindustani, "appearing at the end of a decade during which conditions affecting the Indian population have changed rapidly. The ordinary European in contact with them has no longer, as he had in the old days, to deal largely with gangs of labourers with whom he could carry on in a jargon sufficient for the operations of plantation work" (from the preface by J.R. Pearson, Secretary of Indian Affairs in Fiji, p. [iii]).
Price: $200.00