The Economist - UK (2022-02-19)

76 Culture The Economist February 19th 2022

C.F. Andrews, a priest andsocialreformer

who  urged  Britain  to  grantIndiaitsfree­

dom.  But  Mr  Guha  sets aside those he

terms  “bridge­builders” between Britain

and India (among themsomewhowished

for a kindlier form of imperialrule).Hisin­

terest  is  in  the  outrightrenegades,who

proved themselves utterly,joyouslydisloy­

al to Britain’s imperial project.

The  author  is  intriguedbythemotiva­

tion of people who makesacrificesforoth­

ers in distant places, orforgroupsdistinct

from  their  own,  whethersocially,racially

or  economically.  He  likenshisrenegades

to the thousands of foreignvolunteerswho

fought against fascism intheSpanishcivil

war of the 1930s. He findsanotherparallel

in individuals who choosetoturnagainst

immoral regimes, suchasidealisticwhite

South  Africans  who  resistedapartheid.At

times,  he  rightly  observes,disloyaltyisa

trait much to be admired.

Rebels with a cause

The  stories  of  his  seven subjects—four

men  and  three  women—aredeftlyinter­

twined.  The  most  compelling is Annie

Besant, who came to Indiainmiddleagein

1892,  an  orator  alreadyknown for cam­

paigning  for  “home  rule”inIreland.She

became a proponent oftheosophy(aneso­

teric religious movement)andfora while

outdid Gandhi in the affectionsoftheIndi­

an  public  as  she  calledforfreedom.She

pushed for women’s rights,andvotes,and

helped  found  BanarasHinduUniversity,

still  one  of  the  most  prominentinIndia.

Her  efforts  deeply  unsettledBritishrulers

who were unsure how toshutherup.

Meanwhile,  MadelaineSlade(pictured

on previous page), a formerconcertpianist

from Britain’s home counties,devotedher

long life to Gandhi, livinginashramsand

traipsing across rural India.ShetookanIn­

dian  name,  Mira  Behn,andprobablyhad

her  greatest  impact  bypleadingthecause

of  Indian  independencetotheAmerican

public  and  in  the  WhiteHouse.Theother

five  include  BenjaminHorniman,abatt­

ling newspaper editor whopromoteda free

press both before and afterindependence,

and  Samuel  Stokes, who campaigned

against the use of forced,unpaidlabour(a

disturbingly common practicebothbefore

and under British rule).

Mr  Guha  does  not  overstatetheroleof

these foreigners. He sumsuphisgroupas

“active  conscience­keepers”, who re­

mained true to their rebelliouswayseven

after  independence—readily criticising

their  friends,  the  new  rulersofIndia,just

as they had opposed misrulebytheBritish.

His account does not changethebroadnar­

rative  of  how  Indians wonfreedom for

themselves. Its real pointisasmuchabout

the future as the past—anargumentforthe

tolerant,  outward­looking country India

could once again become.n

LifeonEarth

Creatures of the

deep past

T

hedeeppastisaforeigncountry;it

helps to pack a guidebook. “Other­

lands”isjustsucha Baedeker.Inthisbrac­

inglyambitiousbook,ThomasHalliday,a

palaeobiologist,rewindsthestoryoflife

onEarth—fromthemammothsteppeof

thelastIceAgetothedawnofmulticellular

creaturesover500myearsago.

LikethetimetravellerinH.G.Wells’s

“TheTimeMachine”,readersriskchrono­

logical whiplash as chapters hopscotch

deeperintothepast,skippingmillenniaat

theturnofa page.Likethatliteraryodys­

sey,thisisa journeyfromthefamiliarto

the bewilderingly strange. At times in

Earth’shistory,eastAfricagroanedunder

ice sheets kilometres thick. Antarctica,

meanwhile, was once asteamy tropical

junglethroughwhichswaggeredpenguins

builtlikerugbyplayers.Massivereefsof

glassspongesgrewbeneathlateJurassic

seas,ghostlikethicketsoftranslucentsili­

conmarchingformilesintothedarkness.

Anoutlandishbestiarystalksthrough

“Otherlands”, which Mr Hallidayevokes

witha naturalist’seye.Earlyhominins,he

says,scavengedatkillsiteswithottersthe

sizeoflions—perhapsthefirstspeciesdri­

ventoextinctionbytheancestorsofmod­

ern humans.Other animalspromptsci­

ence­fictionhorror.Omnidens(“alltooth”),

theapexpredatoroftheCambrianseas,

mighthavebeendreamedupbytheartist

H.R.Giger.Thegiantwormsuckedpreyin­

toitsdigestivesystempastsixspiralsof

jagged teeth. Its closest analogy, Mr Halli­

day notes, is the “sarlacc” from “Star Wars”. 

This deep­time perspective marginalis­

es human beings. Maps at the start of each

chapter  convey  the  globe’s  mutability  as

the  familiar  outlines  of  the  continents

warp and blur, shuttling like chequers on a

board. The Ediacaran period, for instance,

is so distant in time that even its night sky

was different: “Many of the stars we are fa­

miliar with are yet to be born.”

Written  in  lush,  occasionally  overripe

prose,  Mr  Halliday’s  approach  is  immer­

sive.  He  relies  on  “trace  fossils”—in  other

words,  fossil  records  of  behaviour,  rather

than biological remains, a footprint rather

than a thigh bone. In this way lost worlds

are  preserved,  and  “a  startling  wing­

flap...is made solid and lasting”. Mythology

and folklore preserve such traces too. Mao­

ri  stories  commemorate  New  Zealand’s

Haast’s  eagle,  a  monstrous  raptor  with  a

three­metre wingspan that was capable of

snatching  a  child.  Myths  of  the  one­eyed

Cyclops  arose  from  the  nasal  openings  in

the skulls of dwarf elephants, which once

roamed the islands of the Mediterranean. 

The  long  view  of  “Otherlands”  offers

both  hope  and  trepidation.  Life  is  already

diversifying  in  response  to  human­

induced climate change: after 200m years,

glass sponge reefs have returned, thriving

in oxygen­depleted seas. In 2016 a bacteri­

um was discovered near a plastic­recycling

facility in Japan, “the first known life form

...to  be  entirely  plastivorous”.  But  the  re­

mote past also furnishes warnings.

The global warming of the Eocene per­

iod  anticipated  conditions  that  might

obtain  by  the  end  of  this  century—the

Antarctic  forested  with  temperate  wood­

land  and  sea  levels  rising  by  ten  metres,

swamping  the  homes  of  a  billion  people.

“Change, eventually, is inevitable,” Mr Hal­

liday says. At the same time,humankind’s

future requires “sacrifice,anactof perma­

nence”. It will not be cheap. n

Otherlands. By Thomas Halliday. Random

House; 416 pages; $28.99. Allen Lane; £20

Fantastic beasts and when to find them