"QUIT INDIA!"
Those were the days of the British Raj in India, with cries of "Quit India!" being raised all over the country by the people who wanted independence from British India.
Yet the British went unfazed and undeterred in the extreme summer heat of India, dressed in woollen uniforms and Solar Hats!!
Those were the days of the British Raj in India, with cries of "Quit India!" being raised all over the country by the people who wanted independence from British India.
Yet the British went unfazed and undeterred in the extreme summer heat of India, dressed in woollen uniforms and Solar Hats!!
For a long time thereafter the Solat Hats became symbols of British
Imperialism and the British Raj In India. Actually these were very
scientifically prepared with a double layer and hollow within, so that
the heat would not touch the head.
Today relics of these Solat Hats can only be found in Museums where they have not been eaten by moths or worms.
For a long time after the British had left India, the British Solar hats were worn only by lunatics who had escaped from lunatic asylums or were on their way to one!
Any person seen talking gibberish on the streets - and if he became violent- hurling stones, who had a Solar Hat on his head was immediately identified as a lunatic!
It was also a common sight to see the older generation -octogenarians- living in the nostalgia of the British Raj, wearing such Solar Hats, perhaps to bemoan the departure of the British, or merely to throw their weight around on the local populace who were still afraid of these relics of the past.
I retained two such solar hats of that period which are too small for my head-- maybe the hats shrunk or I got a swollen head, and I give pictures of them below. One of them got bashed out of shape when a trunk fell on it!! So much for nostalgia of the British Raj! I use them off and on in my Comic Videos!!
By the way, for those who do not know, after two hundred years of ruling India, the British Finally Quit India in 1947, marching out of the Gateway of India in Bombay with full regalia and aplomb and full military uniforms and their solar hats in full bloom, with military bands in attendance, playing "Beating the Retreat"! What else would they be playing at a time like this? Anyway that is my surmise, and they might as well have been playing "God Save the King"!
Today relics of these Solat Hats can only be found in Museums where they have not been eaten by moths or worms.
For a long time after the British had left India, the British Solar hats were worn only by lunatics who had escaped from lunatic asylums or were on their way to one!
Any person seen talking gibberish on the streets - and if he became violent- hurling stones, who had a Solar Hat on his head was immediately identified as a lunatic!
It was also a common sight to see the older generation -octogenarians- living in the nostalgia of the British Raj, wearing such Solar Hats, perhaps to bemoan the departure of the British, or merely to throw their weight around on the local populace who were still afraid of these relics of the past.
I retained two such solar hats of that period which are too small for my head-- maybe the hats shrunk or I got a swollen head, and I give pictures of them below. One of them got bashed out of shape when a trunk fell on it!! So much for nostalgia of the British Raj! I use them off and on in my Comic Videos!!
By the way, for those who do not know, after two hundred years of ruling India, the British Finally Quit India in 1947, marching out of the Gateway of India in Bombay with full regalia and aplomb and full military uniforms and their solar hats in full bloom, with military bands in attendance, playing "Beating the Retreat"! What else would they be playing at a time like this? Anyway that is my surmise, and they might as well have been playing "God Save the King"!
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