Reginald Henry Craddock is a British colonial official, presently serving as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Burma from a position of exile in Bombay.
Craddock was initially appointed to govern Burma on February 15th, 1918, succeeding the famed Spencer Harcourt Butler and the brief interim governor Walter Francis Rise. He presided over some of the most defining events in Burmese colonial politics, such as the 1920 University Strike and the rise of the GCBA. He led the colonial administration during the Burmese Revolt of 1924, before being evacuated in late 1925 to British India, where he has lived ever since. He is associated with the hardline and uncompromising faction in the British Raj led by Charles Augustus Tegart, and was previously a close associate of the late Reginald Dyer.
Biography[]
Early life and career[]
A young Craddock, during his time in Nagpur.
Reginald Henry Craddock was born on March 11th, 1864, in the city of Dharamsala in the province of Punjab. His family had long held connections to India and the colonial civil service. His father, William Craddock was a military surgeon who joined the Bengal Army as in 1843. In 1857 he was attached to the 70th Native Infantry and 1st Gurkha Rifles, seeing service in the First Sikh War and the Second Opium War. Reginald's mother, Mary Charlotte Craddock (née Hawkins), was the daughter Francis Spencer Hawkins, a very distinguished Bengal Army colonel. The Craddock family thus had a great deal of prestige and influence within the British Raj and the British colonial empire as a whole. Reginald Craddock studied at the prestigious Wellington College before going on to Keble College, Oxford. He qualified for the Imperial Civil Service in 1882 and two years later was sent on his first posting to the Central Provinces, one of the more remote outposts of the Raj. Craddock spent many years in the Central Provinces, moving steadily up the civil service ladder. He was an industrious worker and his diligence was duly recognized by the authorities. From 1893 onwards, he held the following positions in rapid succession: Commissioner of Excise; head of the Nagpur District; Chief Secretary to the hetad of the Province; Commissioner of the Nagpur Division; and finally Chief Commissioner of Nagpur in 1907.
He was later appointed as the Home Minister for the Viceroy's Executive Council, during which he adopted a hardline stance towards members of the Indian independence movement. In 1913 he visited the infamous Cellular Jail on the Andaman Islands, meeting with many prisoners who had submitted pleas for mercy or wished to express their grievances with the poor conditions they were housed in. Most notably among them was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, whom Craddock made specific note of. The home minister declared that none of the men were worthy of any mercy and recommended specifically that Savarkar be kept under lock and key for as long as legally possible. With such a strong imperialist will, alongside a distinguished service record and family background, Craddock appeared an obvious choice for Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, despite his lack of familiarity with Burmese culture or politics. Upon being approached for the position, Craddock appeared to have been jubilant. His colleagues noted Craddock sincerely believed that "no organized nationalist movement" existed in Burma, from the reports he had read.
Early term as Lieutenant-Governor[]
Craddock (left) and his predecessor Spencer Harcourt Butler (right).
Reginald Craddock returning to Rangoon by plane after a visit to Calcutta, 1919.
Reginald Craddock was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Burma on February 15th, 1918, arriving in the colony shortly afterwards. He would succeed the relatively obscure acting governor Walter Francis Rise, who had filled in for the more notorious Spencer Harcourt Butler. Craddock was a close follower of Butler's methods of governance, which had emphasized gagging the native press and Burmese student groups, as well as breaking up political organizing among ethnic minorities such as the Karen peoples, despite their ostensibly loyal attitudes to the British. Craddock had arrived right on the heels of the infamous "Shoe Scandal", which saw the British colonial administration make one of its first major concessions to the native Burmans by forbidding Europeans from wearing shoes inside of Burmese temples. It seemed Craddock was not keen to follow in this line of political development, and would actively refuse any attempts at appeasing the locals. In 1919 he wrote in defence of the recent Amritsar Massacre, arguing in favour of the conduct of both Colonel Reginald Dyer and Viceroy Rufus Isaacs. After Viceroy Isaacs declared a state of emergency throughout the British Raj, Craddock was swift to support him and implement said policies in Burma.
In 1920 Craddock put his backing behind English intellectual Mark Hunter's infamous University Bill that would enforce a more expensive, exclusive and European-focused education throughout Burma. Despite the massive protests and the great University Strike against the bill, Craddock dismissed all criticism off it until the governor's Legislative Council eventually convinced him to support an amendment that would make the bill more tolerable to the Burmans. Even after this, Craddock still maintained a condescending and patronizing view of the Burmese people, talking at length in 1921 during a dinner hosted by the European Chamber of Commerce at the luxurious Minto Mansions Hotel about how the Burmans were "too primitive and backward" to "appreciate advanced education". While the speech was later leaked to the Burmese nationalist press, Craddock brushed off their criticisms with his usual lack of care. Towards the mid 1920s, the term "Craddockism" had become a synonym for tyranny amongst the Burmese nationalists. The famed monk U Ottama led several demonstrations against martial law in Burma with the slogan "Craddock Get Out!", something which led the governor to arrest the monk repeatedly.
Handling of the Burmese Revolt[]
Burmans flocking outside the Jubilee Hall in Rangoon, as U Ottama delivers his famed "Craddock Get Out!" speech.
In 1924 Craddock approved even more violent and authoritarian measures to suppress dissent in the colony. He penned and published two famous manifestos, "The Dilemma In India" and "On the threatened extinction of European services in India", arguing for an uncompromising stance against the Indian Revolt and its supporters in Burma. The aftermath of the "Red Summer" of 1924, and its subsequent defence by Burmese nationalists such as U Ottama would cause the governor to begin officiating forced disappearances and assassinations of Burmese political activists, most notably of U Ottama himself. After Ottama was murdered, Craddock faced an enormous upheaval throughout Burma, with full scale revolt breaking out. Whilst Craddock initially attempted to quell the unrest, tensions escalated even further over the winter of 1924, culminating in the Rangoon Arsenal Raid and the subsequent Rangoon Uprising. The governor and the whole administrative bureaucracy of Burma was relocated from Rangoon to neighbouring Syriam, but even the situation there would eventually become untenable. In late 1925, Craddock and his administration were evacuated from Burma entirely, alongside most of the remaining British forces in the colony. An office-in-exile was established in the city of Bombay, the new de facto capital of the British Raj. Whilst Craddock remained bitter and disappointed over the loss of Burma, he did not let that dissuade him from fulfilling the duties of his role as lieutenant governor, even after now being relegated to governing nothing beyond a mere office space.
Life in exile[]
During his time in exile, Reginald Craddock appeared to have been radicalizing even further towards iron-fisted imperialist policies. He issued second editions of "The Dilemma In India" and "On the threatened extinction of European services in India", with forewords and amendments defending his conduct during the Burmese Revolt and speaking his views on the future of British colonialism. He remained a dedicated admirer of both the late Isaac Rufus, as well as the late Reginald Dyer, seeking to promote their "integrity of character" and erase any accusations of wrongdoing from both men's legacies. During the late 1920s and the 1930s, Craddock voiced his opinions about the governance of the remaining territories of the British Raj, gradually falling in with Charles Tegart's faction of uncompromising imperialists. Whilst Craddock received bipartisan support for his initiatives to protect the Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Burmese communities within the Raj's borders, he has feuded with reformists in the civil service, condemning any calls for "democratic" or "diarchal" reforms.
His criticism also extended to the nascent Indian government(s) to the north, as he offered a multitude of cynical commentaries on the factional conflicts among the nationalists. In the wake of the first free elections of the Azad Hind, which saw Vallabhbhai Patel gain the presidency, Reginald Craddock spoke out against the "ignorance, superstition and credulousness" of the Indian population, noting of the Azad Hind that "if they've lowered the franchise to the point to which it is now to be lowered, they are bound to get a lower stratum. On the basis of a revenue of two rupees a year, you get the most ignorant people—even, in parts of certain Provinces, the most ignorant aborigines—and, therefore, there is bound to be raw ignorance, credulity and superstitution dictating the future of northern India," effectively arguing that the natives of India were too ignorant to ever elect anyone capable of governing them effectively. In the wake of Rufus Isaac's death, Reginald Craddock spoke out at what he perceived as a potential power grab from the reformist faction of British India, condemning their leader Maharaja Gangha Singh's reproachable policy of "good will" towards Azad Hind, stating, "I want to say a few words about good will. There is no one who values good will more than I do in all human relations, but the charm of good will may sometimes fail when displayed towards implacable foes or foes who bear you ill will, and want nothing but your expulsion, as those sections who bear ill will in India do. Good will is all very well, but unilateral good will is as useless as unilateral disarmament," and later adding that if democratic reforms were brought to southern India, then "socialism among the poor classes and terrorist intelligentsia will crush all police activities in future. That is one of the most serious risk which has arisen during the last 10 years, and it is what the Maharaja Ganga Singh unwittingly promotes, bringing about chaos and bloodshed. That is what the police dread. If the whole of the people, not merely the riffraff but the whole countryside, should once more be incited to the murder of landlords and Government servants and so forth, the police will collapse, because they cannot deal with these overwhelming numbers."
Political views and associations[]
Reginald Craddock has long been associated with the most authoritarian and brutally imperialist cliques of the British Raj's civil service. He has considered himself a close friend of men like Reginald Dyer, Rufus Isaacs and Charles Augustus Tegart, backing their political views and decisions in every instance. He has also been a staunch supporter of the British Conservative Party, in particular of their colonial policy, although he has not shied away from partaking in political feuds with some of its doves and more moderate members. In the 1920s, Craddock expressed interest in potentially running for a seat in parliament after his term as governor was up, but the British Revolution and the revolts throughout India and Burma put an end to those ambitions. Despite his wide influence inside of British India, he remains a relatively obscure figure throughout the rest of the remaining British Empire, despite efforts to promote himself and to publicize his books in Australasia and Canada.