Eclipse Teamwork

This photograph, and the notes recorded on its reverse, capture the observing team at Pulgaon, India, shortly after the eclipse of 22 January 1898. Pride of place is given to the astronomers and their travelling party, seated.

On the ground in front are three Royal Engineers and two members of the Imperial Civil Service. Standing behind are nine assistants, marked collectively as “Babus”, the title given to native Indian clerks.

The expedition’s leaders, Captain Hills and H. F. Newall, reported that “The skilled native assistants, provided by the kindness of the Surveyor-General, were thoroughly accustomed to observing work, and the preparations and preliminary drill proceeded with the utmost smoothness.”

As Lockyer’s quote (above) makes clear, eclipse observers were quick to draw distinctions between their own exacting work and the superstitions of their hosts.

Once astronomers returned to Britain their public reports often contrasted European observers’ rationality with what they saw as the primitive beliefs of locals—even those who had successfully assisted them. Accounts like this of the Astronomer Royal William Christie reinforced British notions of intellectual superiority and colonial difference:

“The natives of India regarded [the eclipse] as a very solemn religious function, and we were somewhat nervous as to whether our native assistants—who were high-caste Brahmins—might not fall down on their knees and begin to say their prayers, instead of attending to the duties they were told off to perform.

'I am very glad, however, to bear testimony that they performed their duties most satisfactorily and managed to reconcile duty and religion … I mention this as one of the things that cause some anxiety to observers during an eclipse, and to show that native ideas and native prejudices must be reckoned with.”(2)