KEEPING INDIA COOL.

The article discusses the employment of punkahwallahs or servants that operate punkhas or manual fans by households in British India. Topics explored include the acknowledgment of these servants in travel writings, memoirs, and even novels, the initial selection of prisoners to serve as punkahwallahs before some households opted to employ deaf men, and the way manufacturers of electric fans used complaints over sleeping punkahwallahs in their advertisements.