Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Caroe, KCSI,KCIE (15 November 1892 – 23 November 1981) was an administrator in British India, working for the Indian Civil Service and the Indian Political Service. He served as the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India during the World War II and later as the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province (the frontier with Afghanistan). As Foreign Secretary, he was responsible for reviving the McMahon Line, which included the Assam Himalayan frontier (present day Arunachal Pradesh) within India. After retirement, Caroe took on the role of a strategist of the Great Game and the Cold War on the southern periphery of the Soviet Union. His ideas are believed to have been highly influential in shaping the post-War policies of Britain and the United States. Scholar Peter Brobst calls him the "quintessential master of the Great Game" and the "foremost strategic thinker of British India" in the years before independence.[1]
Born in London, Olaf Caroe was the son of architect William Douglas Caroe (1857–1938) and Grace Desborough Rendall (died 1947), daughter of John Rendall, barrister. He was educated at Winchester College, where his maternal uncle Montague Rendall was headmaster, and entered Magdalen College, Oxford in 1911 on a demyship, where he read classics.[2][3]
On the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment, rising to the rank of captain. He spent the entire war in India, where he began learning Urdu and Pashto and acquired a desire to return to the country after the war.[2][1][4]
Career
In 1919, Caroe joined the Indian Civil Service, and soon moved to the Indian Political Service. He was influential in foreign policy and rose to be the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, serving in that role through the World War II.[1]
When he was deputy foreign secretary, Caroe is credited with getting the Government of India to reaffirm the McMahon Line, which had been negotiated by a former Foreign Secretary Henry McMahon with Tibet in the Simla Convention of 1914. The McMahon Line ran along the crest of the Himalayan ranges east of Bhutan, and incorporated the present day Arunachal Pradesh within the territory of India. For various reasons, the Simla Convention was not operationalised until 1935, and the official publication of the treaties of the Government of India, Aitchison's Treaties, did not include it.[a] Caroe obtained the British government's permission to revise the official Indian maps to show the McMahon Line as the new boundary and to include the Simla Convention in a revised volume of Aitchison's Treaties but to do so "unobtrusively".[7] Caroe reissued the new volume in 1938, but still carrying the original 1929 date, and had the original volumes withdrawn. When the matter was discovered in 1963, it gave rise to accusation of a "virtual falsification" of the official records.[8] Scholar Karunakar Gupta states that Caroe's zeal in operationalising the McMahon Line warrants it being renamed the "McMahon–Caroe Line".[9]
Caroe took a great interest in involving native Indian officials in foreign service and training them in diplomacy. Two of Caroe's officers rose to high ranks after independence: K. P. S. Menon, who became India's ambassador to China and Soviet Union as well as foreign secretary, and A. S. B. Shah, who headed Pakistan's Political Service and later went as ambassador to Egypt.[10]
After the war, Caroe was appointed as the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), on the northwest border of the Indian subcontinent, adjoining Afghanistan and Russia.[1] He served in this role from 1946 to just before the Partition of India in 1947. Subject to accusations that he was too close to the Muslim League,[11] he encountered opposition from Congress Party politicians,[12] and was replaced in mid-1947 by Rob Lockhart as governor.
Strategist
He wrote extensively after returning to Britain in 1947.[13] His strategic ideas proved influential in the United States:
At about this time there were those in Washington, looking for ways to secure the oil resources and practice containment in the middle east. The formulations of Sir Olaf Caroe attracted attention and soon found favour in official circles. His article in the March 1949 number of Round Table and his 1951 book, Wells of Power, led to invitations from the state and defence departments to visit Washington.[13]
Works
Wells of Power. London: Macmillan. 1951.
Soviet Empire: The Turks of Central Asia and Stalinism. 1953.
Reprinted with an additional Introduction. London: Macmillan. 1967.
The Pathans 550 B.C.–A.D. 1957. Macmillan and Company, London 1958
Reprinted with a Foreword and an Epilogue on Russia. Karachi: OUP. 1983. ISBN0-19-577221-0
From Nile to Indus: Economics and Security in the Middle East. 1960.
"The Geography and Ethnics of India's Northern Frontiers". The Geographical Journal. 126 (3). 1960.
Notes
^The Simla Convention was an ambiguous trilateral treaty negotiated between Britain, Tibet and China, but it was signed only by Britain and Tibet as binding upon themselves. China declined to sign it. No action was taken to implement the treaty for roughly two decades, partly out of concerns that it was in violation of the Anglo-Russian Convention, partly out of hope that China could be persuaded to join it and otherwise due to "vagaries of bureaucratic politics".[5][6]
^ abPrior, Katherine. "Caroe, Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30901. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^"Personal recollections of Sir Olaf Caroe". university of Leeds Special Collections. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
^Hoffmann (1990), p. 19: "In the absence of Chinese acquiescence, and with the onset of World War I, acceptance of the McMahon line by the British themselves (and especially by the British home government in London) became lukewarm and even unsupportive. British policy toward the line thereafter varied according to changing international circumstances (among them the problematical Russian attitude toward the Simla agreement in 1914) and the vagaries of bureaucratic politics in London, India, and Assam itself."
^Mehra (1972), p. 305: "... what is patent is that for nearly two decades after 1914, the dubious risk of attracting Russian, and later Chinese, attention continued to be the principal reason for the non-publication of the Simla Convention and its adjuncts, the Trade Regulations and the India Tibet boundary agreement."
^Hoffmann (1990), p. 20: "As of 1936 the India Office [of the British government] was prepared to concur with the suggestions about Aitchison's Treaties and the Survey of India change, but it set forth certain conditions. Of these the most important was that unnecessary publicity should be avoided; the press should not even be notified of the Aitchison changes.
^Banerji, Arun Kumar (2007), "Borders", in Jayanta Kumar Ray (ed.), Aspects of India's International Relations, 1700 to 2000: South Asia and the World, Pearson Education India, pp. 173–256, ISBN978-81-317-0834-7: "Accordingly, a new edition of the vol. 14 of the Aitchison's Treaties was published in 1937, but to make the changes unobtrusive, it was passed off as the 1929 edition. This amounted to a virtual falsification of official documents.[61] Copies of the original 1929 edition of the Aitchison's Treaties were withdrawn and destroyed, with the possible exception of one, kept in the Harvard Library."
^Gupta, Karunakar (July–September 1971), "The McMahon Line 1911-45: The British Legacy", The China Quarterly (47): 526, JSTOR 652324
^Brobst, The Future of the Great Game 2005, pp. 31–33: "Department of External Affairs might form a cadre of Indian strategists for the future of the Great Game. He therefore did what he could to foster strategic thinking among his Indian deputies and to enlarge their professional experience."
^Wali Khan, Khan Abdul, , Facts are sacred, Awami National Party, archived from the original on 18 July 2004
^Parshotam Mehra, The force Badshah Khan built (review of The Pathan Unarmed: Opposition & Memory in the North West Frontier by Mukulika Banerjee), Tribune India 2 December 2001
^ abRudolph, Lloyd I.; Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber (25 February 2006), (PDF), Economic and Political Weekly: 703–709, archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2006
Bibliography
Brobst, Peter John (2005), The Future of the Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India's Independence, and the Defense of Asia, University of Akron Press, ISBN9781931968102
Brobst, Peter John (March 1998), "Kashmir 1947: Sir Olaf Caroe and the question of British 'Grand Design'", Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 36 (1): 92–123, doi:10.1080/14662049808447762
Hoffmann, Steven A. (1990). India and the China Crisis. University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-06537-6.
Marshall, Julie (2004). Britain and Tibet 1765–1947. Routledge. ISBN978-1-134-32784-3.
Mehra, Parshotam (February 1972), "A Forgotten Chapter in the History of the Northeast Frontier: 1914-36", The Journal of Asian Studies, 31 (2): 299–308, doi:10.2307/2052598, JSTOR 2052598
Meyer, Karl E.; Brysac, Shareen (2009). Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. Basic Books. ISBN978-0-7867-3678-2.
Panigrahi, D. N. (2009), Jammu and Kashmir, the Cold War and the West, Routledge, ISBN978-1-136-51751-8
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to Olaf Caroe.
Noorani, A. G. (6 May 2006), "Caroe's lessons (review of The Future of The Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India's Independence, and the Defense of Asia by Peter John Brobst)", Frontline, retrieved 18 May 2018
olaf, caroe, olaf, kirkpatrick, kruuse, caroe, kcsi, kcie, november, 1892, november, 1981, administrator, british, india, working, indian, civil, service, indian, political, service, served, foreign, secretary, government, india, during, world, later, governor. Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Caroe KCSI KCIE 15 November 1892 23 November 1981 was an administrator in British India working for the Indian Civil Service and the Indian Political Service He served as the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India during the World War II and later as the Governor of the North West Frontier Province the frontier with Afghanistan As Foreign Secretary he was responsible for reviving the McMahon Line which included the Assam Himalayan frontier present day Arunachal Pradesh within India After retirement Caroe took on the role of a strategist of the Great Game and the Cold War on the southern periphery of the Soviet Union His ideas are believed to have been highly influential in shaping the post War policies of Britain and the United States Scholar Peter Brobst calls him the quintessential master of the Great Game and the foremost strategic thinker of British India in the years before independence 1 Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Strategist 4 Works 5 Notes 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External linksEarly life EditBorn in London Olaf Caroe was the son of architect William Douglas Caroe 1857 1938 and Grace Desborough Rendall died 1947 daughter of John Rendall barrister He was educated at Winchester College where his maternal uncle Montague Rendall was headmaster and entered Magdalen College Oxford in 1911 on a demyship where he read classics 2 3 On the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Royal West Surrey Regiment rising to the rank of captain He spent the entire war in India where he began learning Urdu and Pashto and acquired a desire to return to the country after the war 2 1 4 Career EditIn 1919 Caroe joined the Indian Civil Service and soon moved to the Indian Political Service He was influential in foreign policy and rose to be the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India serving in that role through the World War II 1 When he was deputy foreign secretary Caroe is credited with getting the Government of India to reaffirm the McMahon Line which had been negotiated by a former Foreign Secretary Henry McMahon with Tibet in the Simla Convention of 1914 The McMahon Line ran along the crest of the Himalayan ranges east of Bhutan and incorporated the present day Arunachal Pradesh within the territory of India For various reasons the Simla Convention was not operationalised until 1935 and the official publication of the treaties of the Government of India Aitchison s Treaties did not include it a Caroe obtained the British government s permission to revise the official Indian maps to show the McMahon Line as the new boundary and to include the Simla Convention in a revised volume of Aitchison s Treaties but to do so unobtrusively 7 Caroe reissued the new volume in 1938 but still carrying the original 1929 date and had the original volumes withdrawn When the matter was discovered in 1963 it gave rise to accusation of a virtual falsification of the official records 8 Scholar Karunakar Gupta states that Caroe s zeal in operationalising the McMahon Line warrants it being renamed the McMahon Caroe Line 9 Caroe took a great interest in involving native Indian officials in foreign service and training them in diplomacy Two of Caroe s officers rose to high ranks after independence K P S Menon who became India s ambassador to China and Soviet Union as well as foreign secretary and A S B Shah who headed Pakistan s Political Service and later went as ambassador to Egypt 10 After the war Caroe was appointed as the Governor of the North West Frontier Province NWFP on the northwest border of the Indian subcontinent adjoining Afghanistan and Russia 1 He served in this role from 1946 to just before the Partition of India in 1947 Subject to accusations that he was too close to the Muslim League 11 he encountered opposition from Congress Party politicians 12 and was replaced in mid 1947 by Rob Lockhart as governor Strategist EditHe wrote extensively after returning to Britain in 1947 13 His strategic ideas proved influential in the United States At about this time there were those in Washington looking for ways to secure the oil resources and practice containment in the middle east The formulations of Sir Olaf Caroe attracted attention and soon found favour in official circles His article in the March 1949 number of Round Table and his 1951 book Wells of Power led to invitations from the state and defence departments to visit Washington 13 Works EditWells of Power London Macmillan 1951 Soviet Empire The Turks of Central Asia and Stalinism 1953 Reprinted with an additional Introduction London Macmillan 1967 The Pathans 550 B C A D 1957 Macmillan and Company London 1958 Reprinted with a Foreword and an Epilogue on Russia Karachi OUP 1983 ISBN 0 19 577221 0 From Nile to Indus Economics and Security in the Middle East 1960 The Geography and Ethnics of India s Northern Frontiers The Geographical Journal 126 3 1960 Notes Edit The Simla Convention was an ambiguous trilateral treaty negotiated between Britain Tibet and China but it was signed only by Britain and Tibet as binding upon themselves China declined to sign it No action was taken to implement the treaty for roughly two decades partly out of concerns that it was in violation of the Anglo Russian Convention partly out of hope that China could be persuaded to join it and otherwise due to vagaries of bureaucratic politics 5 6 References Edit a b c d Brobst Kashmir 1947 1998 p 93 a b Prior Katherine Caroe Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 ref odnb 30901 Subscription or UK public library membership required Personal recollections of Sir Olaf Caroe university of Leeds Special Collections Retrieved 2 February 2015 Brobst The Future of the Great Game 2005 p xvi Hoffmann 1990 p 19 In the absence of Chinese acquiescence and with the onset of World War I acceptance of the McMahon line by the British themselves and especially by the British home government in London became lukewarm and even unsupportive British policy toward the line thereafter varied according to changing international circumstances among them the problematical Russian attitude toward the Simla agreement in 1914 and the vagaries of bureaucratic politics in London India and Assam itself Mehra 1972 p 305 what is patent is that for nearly two decades after 1914 the dubious risk of attracting Russian and later Chinese attention continued to be the principal reason for the non publication of the Simla Convention and its adjuncts the Trade Regulations and the India Tibet boundary agreement Hoffmann 1990 p 20 As of 1936 the India Office of the British government was prepared to concur with the suggestions about Aitchison s Treaties and the Survey of India change but it set forth certain conditions Of these the most important was that unnecessary publicity should be avoided the press should not even be notified of the Aitchison changes Banerji Arun Kumar 2007 Borders in Jayanta Kumar Ray ed Aspects of India s International Relations 1700 to 2000 South Asia and the World Pearson Education India pp 173 256 ISBN 978 81 317 0834 7 Accordingly a new edition of the vol 14 of the Aitchison s Treaties was published in 1937 but to make the changes unobtrusive it was passed off as the 1929 edition This amounted to a virtual falsification of official documents 61 Copies of the original 1929 edition of the Aitchison s Treaties were withdrawn and destroyed with the possible exception of one kept in the Harvard Library Gupta Karunakar July September 1971 The McMahon Line 1911 45 The British Legacy The China Quarterly 47 526 JSTOR 652324 Brobst The Future of the Great Game 2005 pp 31 33 Department of External Affairs might form a cadre of Indian strategists for the future of the Great Game He therefore did what he could to foster strategic thinking among his Indian deputies and to enlarge their professional experience Wali Khan Khan Abdul Chapter 18 Mountbatten Gets to Work Facts are sacred Awami National Party archived from the original on 18 July 2004 Parshotam Mehra The force Badshah Khan built review of The Pathan Unarmed Opposition amp Memory in the North West Frontier by Mukulika Banerjee Tribune India 2 December 2001 a b Rudolph Lloyd I Rudolph Susanne Hoeber 25 February 2006 The Making of US Foreign Policy for South Asia PDF Economic and Political Weekly 703 709 archived from the original PDF on 4 September 2006Bibliography EditBrobst Peter John 2005 The Future of the Great Game Sir Olaf Caroe India s Independence and the Defense of Asia University of Akron Press ISBN 9781931968102 Brobst Peter John March 1998 Kashmir 1947 Sir Olaf Caroe and the question of British Grand Design Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 36 1 92 123 doi 10 1080 14662049808447762 Hoffmann Steven A 1990 India and the China Crisis University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 06537 6 Jha Prem Shankar 1996 Kashmir 1947 Rival Versions of History Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 563766 3 Marshall Julie 2004 Britain and Tibet 1765 1947 Routledge ISBN 978 1 134 32784 3 Mehra Parshotam February 1972 A Forgotten Chapter in the History of the Northeast Frontier 1914 36 The Journal of Asian Studies 31 2 299 308 doi 10 2307 2052598 JSTOR 2052598 Meyer Karl E Brysac Shareen 2009 Tournament of Shadows The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia Basic Books ISBN 978 0 7867 3678 2 Panigrahi D N 2009 Jammu and Kashmir the Cold War and the West Routledge ISBN 978 1 136 51751 8External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to Olaf Caroe Noorani A G 6 May 2006 Caroe s lessons review of The Future of The Great Game Sir Olaf Caroe India s Independence and the Defense of Asia by Peter John Brobst Frontline retrieved 18 May 2018Political officesPreceded byRonald Evelyn Leslie Wingate Chief Commissioner of Balochistan1937 1938 Succeeded byArthur Edward Broadbent ParsonsPreceded bySir George Cunningham Governor of the North West Frontier Province1946 1947 Succeeded bySir Robert Lockhart Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Olaf Caroe amp oldid 1103466119, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
