Did Marco Polo Visit Calicut?

This was the question posed by an avid commentator, Premnath T Murkoth, on an earlier post (http://calicutheritage.blogspot.com/2009/06/locating-calic

ut-port-where-exactly-was.html ) Maddy, quoting the historian Ashin Das Gupta chipped in that Marco Polo did not mention Calicut by name, though he had visited Malabar. 'It appears that Yule added the 'unwarranted' comment about Calicut in the translation, according to Das Gupta', added Maddy.

We set out to explore this question a little further – a journey that took us all the way to Venice and back! But, first, let us look at some ofthe available evidence.

The picture given above is from the U.S. Library of Congress website. (http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/jun06/polo.html ) The two portraits are those of Marco Polo and the Florentine humanist historian Poggio (1380-1459). What is striking about the picture is the inset which shows a busy port with lush greenery.The trees are supposed to be 'firs' meant for ship-building – Marco did not know then that the raw material for Malabar ships was Teak.

Above the scene of the harbour is written the word “Calicu” which, the site thinks, is a reference to Calicut, India. The illustration appears to be the front cover of a copy of the Travels of Marco Polo, of which several versions were available. In fact, the US Library of Congress itself has 125 different versions of the Travels in their collection.

There is, however, not much difference in the details of Polo's sojourn in South India. He gives detailed description of Andamans, Coromandel coast, Mylapore and San Thome (in what came to be called Madras later), Masulipatnam, Tirunelveli, Kollam (Travancore), Cape Comorin, and Ezhimala (Deli). Then he launches into a general description of Malabar and the perils of piracy on this coast and we find him next on the Gujarat coast.

This has prompted John Masefield who edited Marco's travels (1908) to comment: '...it is just possible that the description of these places were taken from the tales of pilots, and that his fleet put boldly out to avoid the coast pirates' ( of the western coast).

Most probably Marco and company landed on the Coromandel shore and took the land route to Kollam. This conjecture might explain the vagueness of details about Calicut in a near-contemporary Chinese account highlighted recently by Maddy ( http://historicalleys.blogspot.com/ ) The Chinese account gives a lot of details about Kollam which must have been a flourishing port, exporting pepper, hemp, cloth, indigo etc. Coromandel coast was reputed to be the favourite landing place for horses and if the King of Kollam had been using horses, these must have landed on the eastern coast. The Kollam – Aryankavu- Shenkotta route to Tamil territory and Vijayanagar empire must have been the main land route. We repeat, all these are conjectures intended to provoke academic discussion by more knowledgeable persons!

Our visit to Venice looking for traces of Marco Polo was a dampner. We looked in vain for more local information on the intrepid traveller from Venice. The great Venetian museum in San Marco extolled the glories of the Doges and the city state. Museo Correr was another ego trip for the Serenissima Republic. We even drew a blank in the cemetery outside the Church of San Lorenzo where Marco Polo was believed to have been laid to rest. No, the City seemed to have forgotten its eminent son who spent his life trying to convince his people that what he was narrating about the glorious Cathay was the truth.

It would appear that Venice has not forgiven Marco for all the details provided by him which prompted a later generation of European adventurers to use his material and find a route to the east. Both Columbus and Vasco da Gama had used information from Marco Polo's travels. Their success led to the fall of Venice from the hub of European trade to a tourist spot touting gondola trips for the romantically inclined! Reason enough for the city to turn against the guy who caused it all!

There was one place which preserved the memories of Marco in Venice – its swanky airport called The Marco Polo Airport -the only place in the world where you get down from an aircraft and step in straight to a boat! (see pics above the title)

Locating Calicut Port

Where exactly was the medieval port of Calicut located? The Portuguese illustration of the Port of Calicut (above) from the 16th Century suggests a location between the Korappuzha River in the north and the Kallayi River in the south. The vessels anchored to the south of Kallayi River might even suggest a port extending from Korappuzha to Chaliyam (Beypore). The boat building activities would suggest Beypore, in which case the river has to be Chaliyar and not Kallayi. (Please click on the picture for an enlargement.)

The most prominent landmark in

the sketch is, obviously, the Portuguese Church which was built in 1598 and which later on was completed by the Zamorin in 1725. This church, now known as the Madre De Deus Cathedral appears to be right on the beach, according to the painting. The same church is today quite inland (see picture – the white turret is the top of the Cathedral under renovation).

Writing in 1883, William Logan (Malabar) observed: '...the sea encroaches one year it recedes again speedily, a fact which is perhaps to be accounted for by the rocky (laterite) nature of the bottom opposite the lighthouse, and for a considerable distance further north'. During Logan's time, 'The best anchorage for large vessels is marked by a buoy and is with the following bearings:-Lighthouse E to E by N in five to six fathoms, and from two to three miles offshore. Small craft, of which large numbers frequent this port, lie close in shore, but they should not anchor further south than with the light bearing E.N.E as the ground then becomes foul'.

Thus, the famous mud banks off the coast of Calicut, while beneficial for small crafts as these break the waves and make the waters placid, can be quite treacherous for larger vessels. In any case, larger vessels were anchored a few miles away from the port and goods and persons were transported in smaller boats. Thus, Calicut provided open anchorage and was no natural harbour. When Abdul Razzak, who visited Calicut in 1442, was speaking of Calicut as a 'perfectly safe harbour', he was obviously not referring to protection from the elements of nature which an open road stead port like Calicut did not provide, but to the rule of law which prevailed in the administration of the port.

An interesting factlet regarding the port was the change in the direction of trade during the middle ages. When Marco Polo visited Malabar, the trade was predominantly with the East, dominated by Chinese traders. Zheng He, the great voyager and admiral of the Chinese fleet died in Calicut in 1433 and Abdul Razzak who came only 9 years after the event noticed already a shift in the trade from east to west.

The limits of the port of Calicut today are as follows:

To the north.- The boundary pillar erected three quarters of a mile north of the new custom house.

To the south.- The boundary pillar two miles south of the custom house; the seashore between them to within fifty yards of high-water mark spring-tides

For an interesting presentation on Calicut Port – Past and Present please visit http://calicutheritageforum.googlepages.com/meeting92

A Hilarious History of Calicut

Around the time William Logan was writing Malabar Manual (1887), an American scholar, diplomat and lawyer was describing Calicut and its inhabitants to his young readers almost as if he were describing some little known tribe deep in the jungles of the 'dark continent'. His book, Adventures of Vasco da Gama (1878) was the first of a series called Young Folks' Heroes of History which included the biographies of other famous explorers like Francis Drake, Magellan and Marco Polo.

Towle, who did not have any experience of India, appears to have embellished his story in order, as he admits in his preface, to '...attract and hold the absorbing 

attention of the young reader from beginning to end'. How far he has permitted his imagination to run wild can be seen by his description of Calicut traders who, while trading with Vasco da Gama, ' ...were delighted to receive some silver coins (which they took care to test by biting them with their teeth) in exchange for their wares'. !

George Makepeace Towle (1841-1893) is best known for introducing Jules Verne to the English-speaking world by translating from French his book, Around the World in 80 Days. He followed this up by translating many other works of Verne into English. A prolific writer, he also wrote an outline history of America, The Nation in a Nutshell.

The first view of Calicut, as seen by Vasco da Gama, is itself a figment of Towle's imagination:

Its domes and minarets glittered in the sunlight; its broad quays seemed full of life; and in the bay (!) upon which Calicut was was situated floated many ships from all parts of the east.

de Gama did not approach Calicut from the sea; he had first anchored off Kappad and then was piloted to Panthalayani Kollam from where he travelled to Calicut overland in a palanquin!

Before de Gama came, according to Towle, Arabs had been trading with Calicut and 'while they traded with the natives, who were a race very inferior to them in energy and intelligence, they took advantage of their opportunities to make converts to the Mohammedan religion.

Calicut was then ruled by a prince named Permaloo who was 'worked upon by the Arabs until they converted him to the Mohammedan faith. This caused his nobles to revolt; and, Permaloo, tired of the cares of sovereignty, divided up his dominion among various kinsmen and chieftains. The city and the neighbourhood of Calicut he awarded to a low-born favourite, a cowherd, who had behaved very valiantly in the wars against the Rajah and who, assuming the government, was awarded the title of Zamorin.'

Permaloo retired for the rest of his days to Mecca.

The city, according to Towle, was large enough to occupy a space several miles square. Its trade was so prosperous that many of the Arab and Moorish merchants who resided there owned as many as fifty ships; and it was not rare for five or six hundred ships to visit its harbour in the course of a winter.

Some other gems from Towle:

• '...it was an ancient law of Calicut that the Zamorin must die in the pagoda or temple of the Hindoo gods'.

• 'The Zamorin never married, but had a concubine, whom they could put away at pleasure, and take another. Their children did not succeed them, but brother succeeded brother; and there being none of these, the sons of the Zamorin's sister succeeded him'.

• ' If a Zamorin was killed, on the third day after death his body was taken to a field and placed on a pyre of sandal and other precious wood, his relatives and nobles all standing by. The body was burned amid the lamentations of the multitude, and the ashes were gathered and buried. Then all the relatives, even the children, set to shaving every part of their bodies; this being a token of great mourning. (saving only their eyelashes and eyebrows, according to Castanehda who was presumably the source of this story, but Towle was not inclined to give this concession!)

  In the ensuing fortnight (after the cremation) they were forbidden to chew betel, a favourite practice in that region; and, if any of them broke this rule, his lips were cut with a sharp knife.

Evidently, most of Towle's sources are from accounts by Portuguese traders and travellers. Castanehda's fantastic tales of Malabar in his Historia appear to have been a primary source. One of Castanehda's stories is about the Zamorin, who after defeat by the Portuguese in 1504, was crestfallen and despairing and took up religious seclusion in a turcol (thrikkovil ?) after yielding up the government to his successor and courted death by propitiating the gods.

Interestingly, this myth of ritual suicide by the Zamorin was quite popular among Portuguese travellers of that period. F.de Magalhaes (A Description of the Coast of Africa and Malabar) describes about a king of Malabar who would, after reigning for twelve years, offer a grand feast to the Brahmans and, in their presence, commit ritual suicide by cutting his own throat.

Instead of relying on the fantastic yarns of Portuguese travellers, the learned French translator could have followed the authentic travel experience of the Frenchman Pyrard de Laval who visited Calicut during 1608-09 and documented what he saw with the dispassionate approach of a historian. He observed that the Brahmins of Calicut put on brown slippers ' much pointed in front, the point raised high with the knot of the same leather in winter', and used wooden sandals in summer. Towle, on the other hand, describes the royal messenger sent by Zamorin to the Portuguese as 'naked, except that he wore a white cloth about his loins'!

Towle's series about the Young Folks' Heroes of History had a good audience, although the publisher ended up in bankruptcy. But the damage had been done – generations of Americans grew up with the stereotyped image of India as the land of snakes, elephants and naked fakirs. No wonder, another distinguished American, Katherine Mayo, who was a teenager when Towle's book was published (and might well have been fed on such 'heroes of history' stuff), wrote the scurrilous Mother India, which among other things described Ayurveda as 'voodoo doctoring of the West Indian negro'!!

Pirates in the History of Calicut

Calicut pops up in the most unlikely stories. Business Standard reports that many of the victims of the Somalian piracy now raging in the Gulf of Aden are seamen from Calicut!

 Incredibly, India is reportedly the biggest trading partner of the lawless Somalia, supplying it with essential commodities like rice, pulses, wheat, flour and sugar and helping transport the country's only significant export - goats. The trade is undertaken in large dhows, many of them made in Beypore. And the brave seamen who undertake the trade come from Mumbai, Kutch, Mangalore and - Calicut. 

And while high profile attacks on Russian and US ships and tankers get world attention and swift naval action, these anonymous victims are often at the mercy of the dhow owners and small time traders of Dubai who would rather cut their losses than spend more money as ransom.

Calicut's association with piracy on the high seas is as old as piracy itself. Piracy was recognised as one of the occupational hazards of seafaring. As Biddulph explained, 'There was no peace in the ocean. The sea was a vast No Man's domain where every man might take his prey'. 

As trade flourished so did piracy. The Indian trade with the Red Sea was paid for in gold and silver and, therefore, ships sailing from Jeddah - which carried pilgrims from Mecca, apart from the treasure - were prime targets. Many of these vessels were bound for Calicut.

British government took several measures to contain piracy on the Indian seas. Countries were required to issue passes and East India Company Commissioners were authorised to seize pirate ships and hold them till the King's pleasure.

But all these measures did not diminish the threat from pirates, and ships bound for the Malabar coast -extending from bet Dwarka in Gujarat to Anjengo in Travancore - were  plagued by frequent  and violent attacks by buccaneers. A specimen of the viciousness of such attacks is provided in the following narration of what happened off the coast of Calicut during such a raid:

 23rd november 1696

On this morning a ship under English colours stood into Calicut, and when alongside ship struck the English and hoisted Danish colours, fired a broadside, boarded and took her. Her boats then took three other ships. The Governor then came to us with threats and ordered us forthwith to send off to her and ask who they were, whereupon we sent Captain Mason, who returned saying that they were soldiers of fortune and that if the ships were not ransomed for Pounds 10,000 they and the rest of the shipping should be burned. We were well guarded all that night by the Governor's people.

24th November 1696

This morning the pirate was found to have moved her prizes to deeper water. The Governor ordered us to send off to know if they could lessen their demands. Captain Mason was accordingly sent off with a flag of truce and remonstrated civilly but to no purpose. They said he was no countryman of theirs, that they would not abate of 40,000 dollars ransom, and that unless it was sent off by noon one of the ships would be fired. Captain Mason again went off and offered 20,000 dollars, but they were deaf to it, and at four o'clock set one ship on fire. 

 It was clear by now that the local Governor (presumably representing the Zamorin) was buying time with the English pirates while arranging for an assault by 'Malabar pirates'. The assault started in the night of 25th November.  By the evening of 26th November the English pirates had been driven away and the Malabar pirates also managed to rescue Captain Mason, who had been held hostage by the pirates. 

27th November 1696

Captain Mason returned, having been put in a boat by the English pirate which was captured by the Malabar pirates, whereby he was obliged to jump overboard and swim ashore. He brought news that the pirate would cruise for Persia and Bussors ships. He reported her to be of about 300 tons, 20 guns and 100 men, her captain a Dutchman of New York, and that she daily expected a consort of about the same strength under one Hore. They offered him command of the ship if he would join them. He gathered that most of the pirates were fitted out from New York and returned thither to share the plunder with the Governor's connivance. One pirate had presented the Governor with his ship.

War with France was raging and there was no way the English naval force could come to the rescue of its merchant fleet. It was thus that some influential persons in London including the Chancellor, Lord Somers, Lord Orford and Lord Bellomont (who had been designated the Governor of New York)formed a syndicate and obtained a letter of marque for privateering to tackle the menace of piracy. It was rumoured that King William himself had a ten per cent share in the syndicate.

They obtained a commission for Captain William Kidd to act against the pirates with a reward of 50 pounds for every captured pirate. But soon it was revealed that Kidd had other ideas. From a tormentor of pirates he turned out to be the biggest pirate of them all, attacking English, French, Dutch and native ships without discrimination. His activities on the Malabar coast hurt English trade interests most and soon the entire 'syndicate' episode turned into a stinking political scandal.

Captain Kidd had visited Calicut in October 1697, apparently to seek replenishment of 'wood and water', but his reputation had preceded him and the Company authorities politely refused him, although he tried to browbeat them with authority of the King's Commission. Turned away from Calicut, Kidd sailed on towards the Laccadives. His last daring act was the capture of the ship Queddah Merchant.

Fate caught up with Kidd and he was arrested at the behest of his own mentor, Lord Bellomont who had by then taken over as the Governor of New York. The good Lord who had shared of Kidd's booty tried to distance himself from the pirate, claiming that 'I secured Captain Kidd last Thursday in the Gaol of this Town (Boston) with five or six of his men... It was true the King had allowed me a power to pardon pirates. But that I was so tender of using it (because I would bring no stain on my reputation) that I had set myself a rule never to pardon piracy without the King's express leave and command'.  This pompous statement came after Bellomont snatched from Kidd the only piece of evidence  (the French pass issued to Queddah Merchant) which could have saved Kidd's life! 

Perhaps Bellomont was hinting to the King that he could bail out his former business partner. But this did not happen and Kidd was tried, convicted and hanged at Execution Dock (on the Thames, at Wapping) on 23rd May 1701. If there was honour among thieves, it was only Kidd who demonstrated it - he did not disclose the names of his powerful patrons, despite close questioning!

While all this was happening, the Zamorin was the powerful Bharani Thirunal (1684-1705) who has been described as 'the terror of the Dutch'. He was perhaps still stationed in Ponnani and even found time to conduct two Mamankams in 1694 and again in 1695. 

The Governor mentioned in the narration of pirate attack must have been the Kozhikkode Thalachannavar who must have been the de facto Governor of Calicut. But, who were the 'Malabar pirates'? Is it a reference to some local naval force which must have been restructured after the cruel betrayal of Kunhali Marakkar? Or did the Shahbandar Koya have his own rapid action force?

Reference:

1. Business Standard, 15 November 2008

2. Dictionary of Pirates - Jan Rogozinski

3. The Pirates of Malabar etc. - John Biddulph

4. The Zamorins of Calicut - K.V. Krishna Ayyar

Ananthapuram - the

 Forgotten Frontier of Zamorin Country

"The Zamorin's empire at its zenith included the whole of the west coast from Kollam to Kollam, that is from Panthalayini in Kurumbranad Taluk of British Malabar to Quilon in the Travancore State", writes Prof. K.V.Krishna Ayyar in his monumental work, 'The Zamorins of Calicut'.

Panthalayini Kollam was, of course, a well-known medieval port city, blessed as it is with natural mud banks which ensured calm water on the open coast all through the south-west monsoon.  'This is the Pandarani of Portuguese writers, the Flandarina of Friar Odoric, the Fandreeah of Rowlandson's Tahafat-ul-Mujahidin, the Fandaraina of Ibn Batuta', says Logan in his Malabar Manual. 

When news reached the Zamorin at Ponnani that Vasco da Gama's fleet was anchored off the coast of Kappad on 21st May 1498, his first instruction was to ensure that Gama should be escorted to Panthalayini Kollam, 'which was a good port unlike Calicut itself'. He was aware  that the south west monsoon with its devastating power was only ten days away and even the strongest fleet could be wiped off in its fury. (It was, however, a different story with the East India Company's vessel Morning Star which was totally wrecked in the fury of the south-west monsoon in 1793, while anchored at Panthalayini Kollam.)

Perhaps the folklore about the rivalry between Zamorin and Kolatthiri helped to confirm the belief that the boundary between the two principalities was the Korappuzha River.This may have contributed to the lack of any serious investigation of the reach of the Zamorin to the territory between Korappuzha and Panthalayani Kollam.

 How did the Zamorin come to acquire Panthalayini Kollam, about ten miles north of Korappuzha river? 

Krishna Ayyar quotes from Keralolpathi: The territory of Kolatthiri stretched from Korappuzha to Nileswaram. A prince from this family was stationed at Panthalayini Kollam as the southern viceroy. During one of his visits to Calicut, the young viceroy fell in love with a young princess (Thampuratti) of the Zamorin's family. They eloped to Kollam and from there to Chirakkal, the headquarters of Kolatthiri. Enraged at this, the Zamorin advanced against the Kolatthiri kingdom to take revenge against this insult to the family. He occupied Kollam and was marching towards Chirakkal.

 The Kolatthiri, however, sent emissaries offering to make amends for the wrong done by the viceroy. The Zamorin was pacified by offering Kollam and certain rights over the temple at Taliparamba. Thus it was that the Zamorin gained control over this prosperous port town.

Kollam became a favourite destination of the Zamorins till the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Mysore army and finally the British pinned them down to Calicut. The Calicut Granthavari records the demise of a Zamorin from Panthalayini Kollam in 1597 and the coronation of his successor  at the same location. But the records do not mention 'Panthalayini Kollam'. Instead, the name mentioned is 'Ananthapuram'. 

The Granthavari records an offering made by the Zamorin to the Ananthapurath Thevar in 1656 A.D. but no reference to the more famous Pisharikavu Temple which is next door. Perhaps, this Temple had an autonomous existence and the Zamorin confined himself to the Ananthapuram Temple. However, the Granthavari  does record the conferment of the title of Manappurath Arayan on a fisherman named Kodi son of Payyanad Kuttan in 1667. But the conferment of this title took place in the Calicut Palace, although the Manappurath Arayan had jurisdiction in Panthalayani Kollam.

Ananthapuram today is a small hamlet about half a kilometre to the north of Kollam town on the National Highway. It lies on the northern side of the vast Kollam Chira (tank) and more than a kilometre to the east of the port. Even the tank is not associated with the Zamorin - the local legend has it that a prosperous trader named Elela Chingan (some say Chingan Nair) dug the tank, which today is part of the Pisharikavu Temple complex.

The only vestige of the Zamorin in Ananthapuram today is a modest building which used to be the Palace of the Zamorin and a few Brahmin households which formed part of the agraharam. Then there is the small but majestic Maha Vishnu Temple which may have been built by either the Kolatthiris or the Zamorins - midway between the two more famous Ananthapuram Temples in Kasaragod and Trivandrum. 

Anathapuram Maha Vishnu Temple

A Heritage Site Soon to Disappear

One more landmark in the glorious past of Calicut may soon disappear – unless those who love Calicut (and they are legion) act to prevent the demolition of the only colonial structure left in the Mananchira Square. The row of buildings constructed in the Victorian style which adorns the southern bank of the Mananchira Tank may soon be sold in auction for meeting some statutory payments relating to the dues of the workers of the Commonwealth Trust.

Photo: Courtesy www.skyscrapercity.com

The Commonwealth Trust, which is the successor to the Basel Mission Industries, is a standing reminder of the bold and revolutionary attempt at social engineering in Malabar, attempted by the German missionaries. The story of this magnificent failure has been recounted by Jaiprakash Raghaviah, an active member of Calicut Heritage Forum, in his work : Basel Mission Industries in Malabar and South Canara, 1834-1914 (1990).

The fascinating story of dedication and perseverance of a handful of Calvinist priests is worth narrating in some detail. Napoleon had, in 1815, escaped from imprisonment in the Island of Elba and had landed in France. Soon, war restarted in Europe. The city of Basel which shared its boundaries with Germany and France felt the tremors of invading armies. A group of pious Christians belonging to the Reformed Church of Basel and the Lutheran Church of Wurtenberg pledged to start a seminary fro missionary training if God would spare Basel from destruction. Soon Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and the threat disappeared. In fulfilment of this pledge, six persons including three clergymen, one professor, a notary and a merchant, met in the rectory of St. Matin at Basel and formed the Evangelical Missionary Society on 26^th September, 1815. Within a year, they started an institution for training missionaries with seven students.

They started by setting up centres in West Africa in 1821. However, their effort to send missionaries to India was thwarted by the East India Company which did not permit non-British missions to work in the areas occupied by it. This obstacle was removed after the revision of the Company's Charter in 1833.

Thus it was that three missionaries – Johan Christopher Lehner, Christian Lenhard Greiner and Samuel Hebich – landed in Calicut on 21^st August 1834. Although their original mandate was to establish schools and institutions for training catechists, they realised soon that mere education without providing some remunerative jobs would be unsustainable, due to the extreme poverty of most of the members of the congregation.

The mission had started work in Mangalore, as the place was thought to be more hospitable. The Collector of Mangalore, Mr.H.M.Blair had donated a piece of land to Rev.Hebich to help him pursue his idea of jobs for the poor. The padre's experiment in coffee plantation on this land was a disaster. The next experiment of making sugar from toddy was equally disastrous. When their various agricultural ventures failed, the missionaries turned to industries as a possible alternative for creating jobs for the congregation.

It was not as if their industrial ventures were great successes, either. The first attempts at locksmithy, carpentry and watch making were all failures. The printing press which was started in Mangalore in 1841 fared better and soon it was churning out English-Kannada-Tulu-Malayalam dictionaries.

The arrival of Mr.Haller, a European weaving expert marked the beginning of the weaving industry by the Mission. He set up a small factory in Mangalore with 21 handlooms of European design and a Dye house. Mr. Haller is reputed to be the inventor of Khaki, the colour and cloth which is now known the world over. Khaki was born in Mangalore in 1852.

A review of the Mission's activities was undertaken in Basel and as a result, Mr. Pfeiderer was sent to India in 1854 to guide the missionaries in their ventures. It was Mr. Pfeiderer who laid a firm foundation for the commercial enterprises of the Mission by laying down that their aim should be not to make profits but to teach how to conduct business on Christian Principles. A joint stock company was formed under the name Mission-Handels-Gesellschaft (Mission Trading Company) and one of its first ventures was a Tile manufacturing factory.

Although the Mission had started its industrial activities in Mangalore, it soon found that Malabar had better availability of labour, raw materials and other factors. The activities spread rapidly in Malabar with the first weaving factory being set up in Kannur in 1852, followed by another in Calicut in 1859, Chombala, Tellicherry and Codacal in 1860. A Dye house was established in Koilandy in 1880. The first tile factory in Malabar was established in 1887 in Codacal and Palghat, followed by another in Feroke in 1905.

The Mission insisted on a casteless society among converts unlike many other congregations, particularly in Travancore where the converts continued to carry their pre-conversion caste hierarchy and prejudices into their new lives. It also insisted on following a management pattern which mirrored closely the Church hierarchy. In many cases, factory responsibilities and Church positions overlapped. The idea was to look after the converts in an exclusive atmosphere where their temporal and spiritual needs were looked after. In spite of this, the Calvinist doctrine of individual salvation perhaps limited the scope for mass conversion. Raghaviah reports that the total number of converts in 1914 was less than 20,000.

Perhaps Malabar and the Malayalam literary world will remember the Mission less for its factories and more for its gift of its first and greatest lexicographer, Dr. Herman Gundert. He was part of a team of missionaries which landed in Calicut on 13^th October 1834. Mr. Thomas Strange, the British District Judge of Tellicherry, who was well disposed towards the Basel Mission, donated his Illikkunnu Bungalow for missionary activities. It was here that Gundert spent the next several decades working at not only the monumental dictionary, but on a grammar book called Malayala Bhasha Vyakaranam (1868) and a translation of the Bible into Malayalam.

When World War broke out in 1914, the properties of the Mission were seized as belonging to Germans who were enemies of the British. Commonwealth Trust was formed in London to administer the properties and industrial ventures. (Please see for more details http://calicutheritageforum.googlepages.com/meeting5)

The Mission's activities were thereafter confined to its original mandate of education and uplift of the socially depressed classes. In 1947 the Protestant denominations of Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists came together to form the unified Church of South India (CSI). The Lutherans did not take part in the unification. CSI now maintains a large number of educational institutions and health centres.

The Commonwealth Trust meanwhile prospered under British patronage, making fabrics for the European homes. Most of its products found ready acceptance as these were tailored to the demands of the western market. Modern designs and technologies, introduced from time to time, ensured that the supremacy was maintained. A case in point is the invitation to the influential American weaver Sheila Hicks in 1966 to visit Calicut and work with the weavers to develop new designs. She designed a type of tapestry 'in plain weave, its ribbed, sculptured effect relying on the random insertion of very thick tapering and overlapping wefts secured by rows of plain even weave using the same fine cotton as the warp.'

Sheila named the fabric 'Badagara' to commemorate her stay at the Sandbanks island in Badagara during her assignment in Calicut. She took samples to Paris where it became popular as a wall covering for hotel foyers and other common areas. The new Hong Kong Club which was being built in Sydney used 'Badagara' for its foyer.

However, the Trust and its products gradually declined and, under a new ownership the effort was to sell the family silver to overcome temporary cash flow problems. The first casualty was the majestic colonial bungalow on the beach which went, reportedly, for a ridiculously low price. Then followed some factory sites in Palghat and the Guest House facing Crown Theatre, another piece of colonial architecture.

The final piece will be the imposing building on the southern shore of Mananchira Tank which houses the administrative block and some weaving sheds at the back. Efforts are on by institutions like INTACH to stop the sale of this heritage building. We can only pray that the new owners may retain the facade of the existing structure while building their own dream edifice behind it.

Reference: 

www.skyscrapercity.com  

www.geocities.com/basel.htm

www.poerhousemuseum.com

British Graves, yet again!

We had posted an entry (Dec 12, 2008) on the abandoned graves of two British soldiers who lost their lives in the 1921 Revolt. We had ended with the hope that an agency like the Commonwealth Graves Commission would take care of these graves to prevent possible desecration. 

We were pleasantly surprised to receive a communication from the eminent British author ('The Great Hedge of India' and 'Tea - Addiction, Exploitation and Empire', among others) and a great friend of Malabar, Roy Moxham, about his efforts to take up the issue with the War Graves Commission and their reply. 

We reproduce below their reply in order to demonstrate the great care they take of their dead and the practical difficulties in looking after scattered graves of British dead. It also gently reminds us that Government of India had, in 1950, given 'assurances that these sites would be respected and remain undisturbed.' Are we in default of this?

Thank you for your e-mail of 15th December 2008.

 Firstly I must apologise for the delay in my reply but we are currently working to clear a large back log of enquiries. Please find below all the details that we hold for Private Ely and Private Hutchings, this being the information provided by the relevant service authority after the war.

Their names are commemorated on Madras memorial because their graves at Tirurangadi could not be maintained. Please see our Historical notes/explanation below.

 Private  ELEY , F M

 Unit: 2nd Bn.

 Regiment: Dorsetshire Regiment

 Service No: 5718896

 Date of Death: 30 August 1921

 Commemoration: MADRAS 1914-1918 WAR MEMORIAL, CHENNAI

 India

 Face 17.

 Additional Information: Buried in Tirurangadi Graves.

 Private  HUTCHINGS , H C

 Unit: 2nd Bn.

 Regiment: Dorsetshire Regiment

 Service No: 5718762

 Date of Death: 20 August 1921

 Commemoration: MADRAS 1914-1918 WAR MEMORIAL, CHENNAI

 India

 Face 17.

 Additional Information: Buried in Tirurangadi Graves.

 Location: Madras War Cemetery is about 5 kilometres from the airport and 14 kilometres from the central railway station. The GST Road (Great Southern Trunk Road) leads from the airport past Trident Hotel to Kathipara roundabout. The way is via Mount Poonamall Road, passing at the foot of St.Thomas Mount. The cemetery can easily be located on the right hand side of the road 1 kilometre from St. Thomas Mount. From Madras Central Railway Station the route is up Mount Road (Anna Salai) and over the bridge which crosses the River Cooun. The route passes St. Mary's Cemetery on Pallawan Road and is via LIC building (Life Insurance Corporation Building) situated on Mount Road, which leads to Anna Flyover and to Kathipara Junction.

  Visiting: The memorial stands in Madras War Cemetery. The cemetery is open  daily, including Sundays (excluding public holidays)  between 08:00am and     18:00pm. Outside of these times, access can be gained via two other gates which are always open as they lead to the resident manager's living quarters within the cemetery.

 Historical: The MADRAS 1914-1918 MEMORIAL is situated at the rear of the cemetery. It bears the names of more than 1,000 service  who died during the First World War who lie in many civil and cantonment cemeteries* in various parts of India where it is not possible to maintain their graves in perpetuity. The memorial stands in MADRAS WAR CEMETERY which was created to receive Second World War graves from many civil and cantonment cemeteries in the south and east of India where their permanent maintenance could not be assured. 

The cemetery contains 856 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War.

 * Agra Cantonment; Aligarh Civil; Allahabad New Cantonment; Arogyavaram Pothapole Union Mission Sanitorium; Bangalore Cantoment (Kulpully); Bangalore (Hosur Road); Bantra, Howrah; Bareilly; Barkacha Military Grave; Barrackpore New; Bellary Military; Benares Cantonment; Bettiah; Bezwa  Eurpean; Bolarum Cavalry Barracks, Secunderbad; Calcutta (Entally); Calcutta (Lower Circular Road); Calicut New Beach; Cannanore General; Cawnpore Cantonment New; Chakrata; Chaubattia; Chikmagalur; Cuddapah European; Dehra Dun; Dinapore No 3; Dum Dum New; Fatehgarh Cantonment Open; Fyzabad Cantonment; Gaya New; Jamalpur Railway; Jhajha; Jhansi Cantonment; Kailana, Chakrata; Kala Khan, Naini Tal; Kataphar New, Jalapahar; Kharagpur; Kohima; Kotwa Military Grave; Kydganj New, Allahabad; Landour General; Lebong Cantonment; Lucknow Cantonment Military; Madras (Kilpauk); Madras (St Andrew's); Madras (St George's) Cathedral; Madras (St Patrick's); Madras Wesleyan; Madura R.C.; Malappuram (Christ Church); Mussoorie General; Muttra; Narayan Guda Hyderbad Government; Ootacamund (St Thomas); Poonamallee; Port Blair; Puri; Purna R.C.; Raichur Railwa  Ramandrug; Rangamati; Rhanikhet New; Roorkee; Sadiya; Saharanpur; St Thomas's Mount Church; Secunderbad; Secunderbad European R.C.; Shahjahanpur Cantontoment; Sillong; Tirurangadi; Trimulgherry Cantonment; Wellington Garrison.

 In 1950, after the British withdrawal from India, it was announced in Parliament that the continued maintenance of the cemeteries could not be undertaken  by the Governments of India and Pakistan.They did however, give assurances that these sites would be respected and remain undisturbed.

It was obviously not possible for the Commission to endeavour to maintain a few war graves in a cemetery otherwise unmaintained. It was, therefore, decided that a permament commemoration of the war dead buried in these cemeteries should be on memorials at Madras, Kirkee, Karachi and Delhi.

 I hope that this information is helpful to you.

 Yours sincerely,

 Mrs J Williams

 Enquiries Section