An early 1900s watercolor caricature of a “budmash”

Budmash is a Hindi term for a notorious character – a bad dude. This wonderfully ferocious-looking watercolor painting was done by George E. Macleod (1851-1910) and signed “G.E.M.” Macleod was a civil service commissioner in Oudh and Assam from 1870-1890s. The painting is one of several by Macleod, who was clearly talented, and are part of an archive of correspondence, photographs and caricatures that belonged to his son Charles Mcleod and his wife Sybil, an upper class British couple living in India in the early 1900s, where Charles was captain of the 2nd Battalion, Black Watch Regiment of the Royal Highlanders.