Nightrunners of Bengal

Nightrunners of Bengal
Author(s)	John Masters
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Michael Joseph
Publication date	December 1951
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	382 pp (hardback edition) & 368 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-7181-0269-X (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-14-001076-9 (paperback edition)
OCLC Number	2067032

Nightrunners of Bengal is the title of the first novel by John Masters. It was published in the United States in January 1951 by the Viking Press, New York, and at first attracted severe criticism from some reviewers who objected to what they regarded as its imperialist viewpoint and graphic depiction of acts of savagery. However, it was made the American Literary Guild's Book of the Month on publication, and was widely sold.

Plot introduction

It introduced the fictional Savage family, whose history of service in British India rather resembled that of Masters's own ancestors.

Plot summary

The novel is set at the time of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The central character, Captain Rodney Savage, is an officer in a Bengal Native Infantry regiment. Restless with garrison life, he is still devoted to his regiment and its sepoys (Indian soldiers).

In spite of his empathy with the sepoys Savage does not realise that fear and resentment are driving them to intrigue with local rulers and other conspirators against the rule of the British East India Company.

The complacent life of the British community in Bengal is shattered when the Rebellion breaks out. Most of the British officers of the Bhowani garrison and their families (including Savage's own wife) are killed in the outbreak or subsequently murdered.

Savage escapes the massacre along with his infant son and an English woman, Caroline Langford. The small group of refugees are sheltered by sympathetic Indian villagers.

For some time Savage's sense of betrayal and loss drives him into insane hatred of all Indians and he kills an Indian officer who was his friend. Eventually the humanity and tolerance of the villagers, combined with his growing love for Caroline, enable him to recover and to reach the British forces gathering to suppress the rebellion and infected with their own hatred and desire for revenge.

In a final clash an emotionally torn Savage fights against his own former regiment. Ironically it is a charge by Indian cavalry, who have remained loyal to the British, which turns the tide of battle.

The "Nightrunners" in the title are messengers who distributed chapatis, shortly before the outbreak of the rebellion. This mysterious historic incident remains unexplained to this day.

Characters in "Nightrunners of Bengal"

• Rodney Savage – captain of infantry
• Caroline Langford – Savage's new love
• Sumitra Devi, Rani of Kishanpur – regent of a semi-independent state (loosely based on Rani Lakshmibai)
• "The Silver Guru"; revered ascetic holy man
• Risaldar Rikirao Purohit; veteran Indian officer leading the Cavalry charge

Relations with other books in the series

The Deceivers is about Rodney's father, William, who suppresses the Thugee. William's butler, Sher Dil, also appears in Nightrunners of Bengal, now an old man, and working for Rodney. Piroo, an ex-Thug who worked as part of William's band in The Deceivers, and revered William as a great leader, also appears in this book.

Rodney Savage appears as a middle-aged colonel in The Lotus and the Wind and in Far, Far the Mountain Peak as an elderly retired general. He also makes a final appearance in The Ravi Lancers as a very old but still vivid man in 1915, who meets his younger relative, one of that book's main two protagonists, and speaks with concern and criticism on the conduct of the First World War.

Robin Savage, Rodney's son, features in The Lotus and the Wind, a novel about the Great Game.

Bhowani Junction, set in 1946-47, seems clearly intended as a counterpoint to the present book, and the two are more closely related to each other than to the other books of the Savage series. The later book also takes place in the fictional Bhowani and its environs, and specific locations are seen again changed by the passage of the century (for example, the metalled road which plays a significant part in Nightrunners has been replaced by the railway which plays an important role in Junction). Moreover, one of the later book's protagonists is also called Rodney Savage (the great-grandson of the central character of Nightrunners) and in many ways seems the same character, and he also meets the descendants of Sumitra Devi in the same settings where his ancestor had met her.

Awards and nominations

American Literary Guild's Book of the Month on publication