Allan Octavian Hume para niños

Datos para niños Allan Octavian Hume
El autor (escaneado de una woodburytipia)
Información personal
Nacimiento	6 de junio de 1829 Kent
Fallecimiento	31 de julio de 1912, 83 años Londres
Sepultura	Cementerio de Brookwood
Residencia	Inglaterra
Nacionalidad	inglés
Familia
Padre	Joseph Hume
Cónyuge	Mary Anne Grindall
Educación
Educado en	East India Company College UCL Medical School
Información profesional
Área	naturalista, botánico, ornitólogo, político, zoólogo, curador
Conocido por	cofundador del Congreso Nacional Indio
Empleador	Indian Civil Service
Abreviatura en botánica	Hume
Abreviatura en zoología	Hume
Partido político	Congreso Nacional Indio
Miembro de	Sociedad Zoológica de Londres
Distinciones	Compañero de la Orden del Baño Fellow of the Zoological Society of London

Allan Octavian Hume (St. Mary Cray, Kent, 6 de junio de 1829 - 31 de julio de 1912), funcionario público de la India Británica, reformador político, naturalista, y ornitólogo. Fue uno de los fundadores del Congreso Nacional Indio, un partido político que a la larga conduciría al movimiento independentista de la India. Se lo conoce como el "padre de la ornitología india"; quienes lo consideraron un dogmático, lo llamaron "el pope de la ornitología india".

Vida y obra

Nació en Inglaterra. Su padre era el parlamentario radical escocés Joseph Hume. Estudió medicina y cirugía. En 1849 parte hacia la India y un año después ingresa en el Servicio Civil en Etawah. En este ámbito impulsó la educación primaria gratuita y la creación de un periódico local, Lokmitra ("El amigo del pueblo"). Se casó en 1853 con Mary Anne Grindall.

En 1857 tuvo que intervenir frente a la Rebelión de los Cipayos; por su actuación fue nombrado compañero de la Orden del Baño. Tiempo después siguió impulsando la educación a alto nivel, convencido de que de esta manera se podían evitar las revueltas de una manera positiva. Era muy franco para hablar, y no le importaba criticar al gobierno si consideraba que procedía mal. Criticó a la administración de Robert Bulwer-Lytton por su desidia respecto del pueblo indio; muchos funcionarios públicos superiores lo persiguieron. Como consecuencia, en 1879 publicó un libro sobre "Reforma agrícola en la India".

A pesar de las humillaciones continuó trabajando hasta 1882, fecha en que renuncia al Servicio Civil. Todo ese tiempo estuvo dedicado además a su gran pasión, la ornitología; publicó "The Game Birds of India". En 1883 escribió una carta abierta a los graduados de la Universidad de Calcuta, en la misma los convocaba a formar un nuevo movimiento político. Este fue el origen de la primera sesión del Congreso Nacional Indio, que tuvo lugar en 1853 en Bombay. En 1887 escribió a la Comisión Pública de la India, declarando que "se sentía un nativo de la India".

Contribuciones a la ornitología

Hume se dedicó al estudio sistemático de las aves del subcontinente indio, y reunió la mayor colección ornitológica asiática en el mundo. Entre las varias especies que describió, cabe mencionar (téngase en cuenta que algunos nombres ya no son válidos):

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• 516 Blue Rock Pigeon (Columba livia neglecta)
• 525 Andaman Wood Pigeon (Columba palumboides)
• 555 Andaman Redcheeked Parakeet (Psittacula longicauda tytleri)
• 563 Eastern Slatyheaded Parakeet (Psittacula finschii)
• 601 Bangladesh Crow-pheasant (Centropus sinensis intermedius)
• 607 Andaman Barn Owl (Tyto alba deroepstorffi)
• 610 Ceylon Bay Owl (Phodilus badius assimilis)
• 611 Western Spotted Scops Owl (Otus spilocephalus huttoni)
• 613 Andaman Scops Owl (Otus balli)
• 614 Pallid Scops Owl (Otus brucei)
• 618b Nicobar Scops Owl (Otus scops nicobaricus) (=Otus alius)
• 619 Punjab Collared Scops Owl (Otus bakkamoena plumipes)
• 626a Himalayan Horned or Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo hemachalana)
• 643 Burmese Brown Hawk-owl (Ninox scutulata burmanica)
• 645 Hume's Brown Hawk-owl (Ninox scutulata obscura)
• 653 Forest Spotted Owlet (Athene blewitti) (=Heteroglaux blewitti)
• 654 Hume's Owl (Strix butleri)
• 669 Bourdillon's or Kerala Great Eared Nightjar (Eurostopodus macrotis bourdilloni)
• 673 Hume's European Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus unwini)
• 679 Andaman Longtailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus andamanicus)
• 684 Hume's Swiftlet (Collocalia brevirostris innominata)
• 684a Black-nest Swiftlet (Collocalia maxima maxima)
• 686 Andaman Greyrumped or White-nest Swiftlet (Collocalia fuciphaga inexpectata)
• 691 Brown-throated Spinetail Swift (Chaetura gigantea indica)
• 732 Nicobar Storkbilled Kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis intermedia)
• 738 Andaman Whitebreasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis saturatior)
• 773 Narcondam Hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus narcondami)
• 793 Pakistan Orangerumped Honeyguide (Indicator xanthonotus radcliffi)
• 841 Manipur Crimsonbreasted Pied Woodpecker (Picoides cathpharius pyrrhothorax)
• 887 Karakoram or Hume's Short-toed Lark (Calandrella acutirostris acutirostris)
• 889 Indus Sand Lark (Calandrella raytal adamsi)
• 898 Baluchistan Crested Lark (Galerida cristata magna)
• 915 Pale Crag Martin (Hirundo obsoleta pallida)
• 974 Large Andaman Drongo (Dicrurus andamanensis dicruriformis)
• 986 Andaman Glossy Stare (Aplonis panayensis tytleri)
• 998 Hume's or Afghan Starling (Sturnus vulgaris nobilior)
• 1000 Sind Starling (Sturnus vulgaris minor)
• 1041 Hume's Ground Chough (Podoces humilis)
• 1113 Andaman Blackheaded Bulbul (Pycnonotus atriceps fuscoflavescens)
• 1165 Mishmi Brown Babbler (Pellorneum albiventre ignotum)
• 1172 Mount Abu Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus schisticeps obscurus)
• 1190 Manipur Longbilled Scimitar Babbler (Pomatorhinus ochraceiceps austeni)
• 1225 Kerala Blackheaded Babbler (Rhopocichla atriceps bourdilloni)
• 1234 Hume's Babbler (Chrysomma altirostre griseogularis)
• 1289 Western Variegated Laughing Thrush (Garrulax variegatus similis)
• 1301 Khasi Hills Greysided Laughing Thrush (Garrulax caerulatus subcaerulatus)
• 1330 Manipur Redheaded Laughing Thrush (Garrulax erythrocephalus erythrolaema)
• 1363 Sikkim Whitebrowed Yuhina (Yuhina castaniceps rufigenis)
• 1389 Bombay Quaker Babbler (Alcippe poioicephala brucei)
• 1424 Eastern Slaty Blue Flycatcher (Muscicapa leucomelanura minuta)
• 1434 Whitetailed Blue Flycatcher (Muscicapa concreta cyanea)
• 1453 Eastern Whitebrowed Fantail Flycatcher (Rhipidura aureola burmanica)
• 1484 Hume's Bush Warbler (Cettia acanthizoides brunnescens)
• 1510 Northwestern Plain Wren-Warbler (Prinia subflava terricolor)
• 1520 Northwestern Jungle Wren-Warbler (Prinia sylvatica insignia)
• 1526 Sind Brown Hill Warbler (Prinia criniger striatula)
• 1540 Blacknecked Tailor Bird (Orthotomus atrogularis nitidus)
• 1569 Small Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca minula)
• 1570 Hume's Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca althaea)
• 1577 Plain Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus neglectus)
• 1664 Andaman Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis andamanensis)
• 1707 Redtailed Chat (Oenanthe xanthoprymna kingi)
• 1714 Hume's Chat (Oenanthe alboniger)
• 1730 Burmese Whistling Thrush (Myiophonus caeruleus eugenei)
• 1820 Manipur Redheaded Tit (Aegithalos concinnus manipurensis)
• 1850 Manipur Tree Creeper (Certhia manipurensis)
• 1903 Andaman Flowerpecker (Dicaeum concolor virescens)
• 1913 Andaman Olivebacked Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis andamanica)
• 1918 Assam Purple Sunbird (Nectarinia asiatica intermedia)
• 1129a Nicobar Yellowbacked Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja nicobarica)
• 1955 Blanford's Snow Finch (Montifringilla blanfordi blanfordi)
• 1960 Finn's Baya (Ploceus megarhynchus megarhynchus)
• 1970 Nicobar Whitebacked Munia (Lonchura striata semistriata)
• 1971-2 Jerdon's Rufousbellied Munia (Lonchura kelaarti jerdoni)
• 1993 Tibetan Siskin (Carduelis thibetana)
• 1995 Stoliczka's Twite (Acanthis flavirostris montanella)

William Ruxton Davison, Curator of Hume's personal bird collection

An additional species, the Large-billed Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus orinus was known from just one specimen collected by him in 1869. The status of the species was contested for long and DNA comparisons with similar species in 2002 suggested that it was a valid species. It was only in 2006 that the species was seen again in Thailand.

Hume made several expeditions solely to study ornithology and in March 1873 he made one to the Andaman, Nicobar and other islands in the Bay of Bengal along with geologists Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka and Dr. Dougall of the Geological Survey of India and James Wood-Mason of the Indian Museum in Calcutta. Hume employed William Ruxton Davison as a curator of his personal bird collection and also sent him out on collection trips to various parts of India, when he was held up with official responsibilities. Around 1878 he was spending about ₤ 1500 a year on his ornithological surveys.

Stray Feathers

Cover of Stray Feathers

Hume started the quarterly journal Stray Feathers - A journal of ornithology for India and dependencies in 1872. At that time the only journal for the Indian region that published on ornithology was the "Journal of the Asiatic Society". He had wondered if there was merit to start a new journal and in that idea was supported by Stoliczka.

To return; the notion that Stray Feathers might possibly interfere in any way with our scientific palladium, the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, is much like that entertained in England, when I was a boy, as to the probable effects of Railways on road and canal traffic.

Hume, 1874

He used the journal to publish descriptions of his new discoveries, such as Hume's Owl, Hume's Wheatear and Hume's Whitethroat. He wrote extensively on his own observation as well as critical reviews of all the ornithological works of the time and earned himself the nickname of Pope of Indian ornithology. He critiqued a monograph on parrots, Die Papageien by Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch noting that changes to names (by "cabinet naturalists") were being suggested which in his view were aimed to claim authority without the trouble of discovering new species. He wrote:

Let us treat our author as he treats other people's species. “Finsch!” contrary to all rules of orthography! What is that “s” doing there? “Finch!” Dr. Fringilla, MIHI! Classich gebildetes wort!!

Hume, 1874

Hume in turn was attacked, for instance by Viscount Walden, but Finsch later became a friend.

Hume sometimes mixed his personal beliefs into the notes that he published in Stray Feathers. For instance, he believed that birds flew by altering the physics ("altered polarity") of their body and repelling the force of gravity stating that this ability while being normal in birds could be acquired by humans through maintaining spiritual purity. He maintained that at least three Indian Yogis and numerous saints in the past had this capacity for aethrobacy.

Red de corresponsales

Hume built up a network of ornithologists reporting from various parts of India. More than 200 correspondents are listed in his Game Birds and this was only a fraction of the subscribers of Stray Feathers. This huge network made it possible for Hume to cover a much larger geographic region in his ornithological work.

Distribution and density of Hume's correspondents across India.

During the time of Hume, Blyth was considered the father of Indian ornithology. Hume's achievement which made use of a large network of correspondents was recognized even during his time:

Mr. Blyth, who is rightly called the Father of Indian Ornithology, "was by far the most important contributor to our knowledge of the Birds of India." Seated, as the head of the Asiatic Society's Museum, he, by intercourse and through correspondents, not only formed a large collection for the Society, but also enriched the pages of the Society's Journal with the results of his study, and thus did more for the extension of the study of the Avifauna of India than all previous writers. There can be no work on Indian Ornithology without reference to his voluminous contributions. The most recent authority, however, is Mr. Allen O. Hume, C.B., who, like Blyth and Jerdon, got around him numerous workers, and did so much for Ornithology, that without his Journal Stray Feathers, no accurate knowledge could be gained of the distribution of Indian birds. His large museum, so liberally made over to the nation, is ample evidence of his zeal and the purpose to which he worked. Ever saddled with his official work, he yet found time for carrying out a most noble object. His Nests and Eggs, Scrap Book and numerous articles on birds of various parts of India, the Andamans and the Malay Peninsula, are standing monuments of his fame throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world. His writings and the field notes of his curator, contributors and collectors are the pith of every book on Indian Birds, and his vast collection is the ground upon which all Indian Naturalists must work. Though differing from him on some points, yet the palm is his as an authority above the rest in regard to the Ornis of India. Amongst the hundred and one contributors to the Science in the pages of Stray Feathers, there are some who may be ranked as specialists in this department, and their labors need a record. These are Mr. W. T. Blanford, late of the Geological Survey, an ever watchful and zealous Naturalist of some eminence. Mr. Theobald, also of the Geological Survey, Mr. Ball of the same Department, and Mr. W. E. Brooks. All these worked in Northern India, while for work in the Western portion must stand the names of Major Butler, of the 66th Regiment, Mr. W. F. Sinclair, Collector of Colaba, Mr. G. Vidal, the Collector of Bombay, Mr. J. Davidson, Collector of Khandeish, and Mr. Fairbank, each one having respectively worked the Avifauna of Sind, the Concan, the Deccan and Khandeish.

James Murray

Many of Hume's correspondents were eminent naturalists and sportsmen of the time.

He also corresponded and stayed up to date with the works of ornithologists outside India including R. Bowdler-Sharpe, the Marquis of Tweeddale, Pere David, Dresser, Benedykt Dybowski, John Henry Gurney, J.H.Gurney, Jr., Johann Friedrich Naumann, Severtzov and Dr. Middendorff.

My Scrap book: or rough notes on Indian Oology and ornithology (1869)

Dedication of "My Scrap Book" to Blyth and Jerdon.

This was Hume's first major work. It had 422 pages and accounts of 81 species. It was dedicated to Edward Blyth and Dr. Thomas C. Jerdon who, he wrote [had] done more for Indian Ornithology than all other modern observers put together and he described himself as their friend and pupil. He hoped that his book would form a nucleus round which future observation may crystallize and that others around the country could help him fill in many of the woeful blanks remaining in record. In the preface he notes:

...if these notes chance to be of the slightest use to you, use them; if not burn them, if it so please you, but do not waste your time in abusing me or them, since no one can think more poorly of them than I do myself.

Game Birds of India, Burmah and Ceylon (1879-1881)

This work was co-authored by C. H. T. Marshall. The three volume work on the game birds was made using contributions and notes from a network of 200 or more correspondents. Hume delegated the task of getting the plates made to Marshall. The chromolithographs of the birds were drawn by W. Foster, E. Neale, M. Herbert, Stanley Wilson and others and the plates were produced by F. Waller in London. Hume had sent specific notes on colours of soft parts and instructions to the artists. He was unsatisfied with many of the plates and included additional notes on the plates in the book. This book was started at the point when the government demoted Hume and only the need to finance the publication of this book prevented him from retiring from service. He had estimated that it would cost ₤ 4000 to publish it and he retired from service on 1 January 1882 after the publication.

In the preface Hume wrote:

In the second place, we have had great disappointment in artists. Some have proved careless, some have subordinated accuracy of delineation to pictorial effect, and though we have, at some loss, rejected many, we have yet been compelled to retain some plates which are far from satisfactory to us.

while his co-author Marshall, wrote:

I have performed my portion of the work to the very best of my abilities, and yet personally felt almost as if I were sailing under false colors in appearing before the world as one of the authors of this book; but I allow my name to appear as such, partly because Mr. Hume strongly wishes it, partly because I do believe that as Mr. Hume says this work, which has been for years called for, would never have appeared had I not proceeded to England, and arranged for the preparation of the plates, and partly because with the explanation thus afforded no one can justly misconstrue my action.

Hume's comment on the illustration The plate is a cruel caricature of the species, just sufficiently like to permit of identification, but miscolored to a degree only explicable on the hypothesis of somebody's colour-blindness… Fortunately for our supporters, this is the very worst plate in the three volumes.

White-fronted Goose One of the illustrations that Hume considered as exceptionally good.

Nidos y posturas de aves indias (1883)

This was another major work by Hume and in it he covered descriptions of the nests, eggs and the breeding seasons of most Indian bird species. It makes use of notes from contributors to his journals as well as other correspondents and works of the time.

A second edition of this book was made in 1889 which was edited by Eugene Oates. This was published when he had himself given up all interest in ornithology. An event precipitated by the loss of his manuscripts through the actions of a servant. He wrote in the preface:

I have long regretted my inability to issue a revised edition of 'Nests and Eggs'. For many years after the first Rough Draft appeared, I went on laboriously accumulating materials for a re-issue, but subsequently circumstances prevented my undertaking the work. Now, fortunately, my friend Mr. Eugene Oates has taken the matter up, and much as I may personally regret having to hand over to another a task, the performance of which I should so much have enjoyed, it is some consolation to feel that the readers, at any rate, of this work will have no cause for regret, but rather of rejoicing that the work has passed into younger and stronger hands. One thing seems necessary to explain. The present Edition does not include quite all the materials I had accumulated for this work. Many years ago, during my absence from Simla, a servant broke into my museum and stole thence several cwts. of manuscript, which he sold as waste paper. This manuscript included more or less complete life-histories of some 700 species of birds, and also a certain number of detailed accounts of nidification. All small notes on slips of paper were left, but almost every article written on full-sized foolscap sheets was abstracted. It was not for many months that the theft was discovered, and then very little of the MSS. could be recovered.

Rothney Castle, Simla, October 19th, 1889

Eugene Oates wrote his own editorial note

Mr. Hume has sufficiently explained the circumstances under which this edition of his popular work has been brought about. I have merely to add that, as I was engaged on a work on the Birds of India, I thought it would be easier for me than for anyone else to assist Mr. Hume. I was also in England, and knew that my labour would be very much lightened by passing the work through the press in this country. Another reason, perhaps the most important, was the fear that, as Mr. Hume had given up entirely and absolutely the study of birds, the valuable material he had taken such pains to accumulate for this edition might be irretrievably lost or further injured by lapse of time unless early steps were taken to utilize it.

This nearly marked the end of Hume's interest in ornithology. Hume's last piece of ornithological writing was done in 1891 as part of an Introduction to the Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission an official publication on the contributions of Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka, who died during the return journey on this mission. Stoliczka in a dying request had asked that Hume should edit the volume on the ornithological results.

Indian National Congress

Hume at the first session, Bombay, 28–31 December 1885

After retiring from the civil services and towards the end of Lord Lytton's rule, Hume sensed that the people of India had got a sense of hopelessness and wanted to do something, "a sudden violent outbreak of sporadic crime, murders of obnoxious persons, robbery of bankers and looting of bazaars, acts really of lawlessness which by a due coalescence of forces might any day develop into a National Revolt." He felt that the British government had a studied and invariable disregard, if not actually contempt for the opinions and feelings of our subjects, is at the present day the leading characteristic of our government in every branch of the administration.

There were agrarian riots in the Deccan and Bombay, and Hume suggested that an Indian Union would be a good safety valve and outlet for this unrest. On the 1st of March 1883 he wrote a letter to the graduates of the University of Calcutta:

If only fifty men, good and true, can be found to join as founders, the thing can be established and the further development will be comparatively easy. ...
And if even the leaders of thought are all either such poor creatures, or so selfishly wedded to personal concerns that they dare not strike a blow for their country's sake, then justly and rightly are they kept down and trampled on, for they deserve nothing better. Every nation secures precisely as good a Government as it merits. If you the picked men, the most highly educated of the nation, cannot, scorning personal ease and selfish objects, make a resolute struggle to secure greater freedom for yourselves and your country, a more impartial administration, a larger share in the management of your own affairs, then we, your friends, are wrong and our adversaries right, then are Lord Ripon's noble aspirations for your good fruitless and visionary, then, at present at any rate all hopes of progress are at an end and India truly neither desires nor deserves any better Government than she enjoys. Only, if this -be so, let us hear no more factious, peevish complaints that you are kept in leading strings and treated like children, for you will have proved yourself such. Men know how to act. Let there be no more complaining of Englishmen being preferred to you in all important offices, for if you lack that public spirit, that highest form of altruistic devotion that leads men to subordinate private ease to the public weal - that patriotism that has made Englishmen what they are - then rightly are these preferred to you, rightly and inevitably have they become your rulers. And rulers and task-masters they must continue, let the yoke gall your shoulders never so sorely, until you realise and stand prepared to act upon the eternal truth that self-sacrifice and unselfishness are the only unfailing guides to freedom and happiness.

His poem The Old Man's Hope published in Calcutta in 1886 also captures the sentiment:

Sons of Ind, why sit ye idle,
Wait ye for some Deva's aid?
Buckle to, be up and doing!
Nations by themselves are made!

Are ye Serfs or are ye Freemen,
Ye that grovel in the shade?
In your own hands rest the issues!
By themselves are nations made! ...

The idea of the Indian Union took shape and Hume initially had some support from Lord Dufferin for this, although the latter wished to have no official link to it. Dufferin's support was short-lived. It has been suggested that the idea was originally conceived in a private meeting of seventeen men after a Theosophical Convention held at Madras in December 1884. Hume took the initiative, and it was in March 1885, when the first notice was issued convening the first Indian National Union to meet at Poona the following December.

He attempted to increase the Congress base by bringing in more farmers, townspeople and Muslims between 1886 and 1887 and this created a backlash from the British, leading to backtracking by the Congress. Hume was disappointed when Congress opposed moves to raise the age of marriage for Indian girls and failed to focus on issues of poverty. In 1892, he tried to get them to act by warning of a violent agrarian revolution but this only outraged the British establishment and frightened the Congress leaders. Disappointed by the continued lack of Indian leaders willing to work for the cause of national emancipation, Hume left for Britain in 1894.

The 27th session of the Indian National Congress at Bankipur (26–28 December 1912) recorded their "profound sorrow at the death of Allan Octavian Hume, C.B., father and founder of the Congress, to whose lifelong services, rendered at rare self-sacrifice, India feels deep and lasting gratitude, and in whose death the cause of Indian progress and reform sustained irreparable loss."

South London Botanical Institute

After the loss of his manuscript containing his lifetime of ornithological notes. Hume took up a great interest in horticulture while at Shimla.

... He erected large conservatories in the grounds of Rothney Castle, filled them with the choicest flowers, and engaged English gardeners to help him in the work. From this, on returning to England, he went on to scientific botany. But this, as Kipling says, is another story, and must be left to another pen.

In 1910 Hume bought the premises of 323 Norwood Road, and modified it to have a herbarium and library. He called this establishment the South London Botanical Institute which continues to promote the study of plants to the present day. Hume objected to advertisement and refused to have any public ceremony to open the institute. Frederick Townsend, F.L.S., an eminent botanist, who died in 1905, had left instructions that his herbarium and collection was to be given to the institute, which was then only being contemplated.

The SLBI has a herbarium containing approximately 100,000 specimens mostly of flowering plants from Europe including many collected by Hume. The collection was later augmented by the addition of other herbaria over the years, and has significant collections of Rubus (bramble) species and of the Shetland flora, the latter including a major gift from the late Richard Palmer, joint author of the standard work on Shetland plants. Other resources include a very good library originally containing Hume's own books. The institute today has classroom facilities, a small botanical garden, and an ongoing programme of talks and courses. In the years leading up to the establishment of the Institute, Hume built up links with many of the leading botanists of his day. He worked with F. H. Davey and in the Flora of Cornwall (1909), Davey thanks Hume as his companion on excursions in Cornwall and Devon, and for help in the compilation of the 'Flora', publication of which was financed by Hume.-->

Véase también

En inglés: Allan Octavian Hume Facts for Kids