Calicut Heritage

A New Look at Calicut's China Ties

2012-01-24T10:28:00.002+05:30

Dr.Liu Yinghua examining the manuscripts at the Calicut University

Historians of Calicut deal with the Chinese periodin its history as a brief interlude of about a quarter of a century between1400and 1425 AD highlighted by the seven voyages by Zheng He (Chengo Ho), theThree Jeweled Eunuch Admiral of the Ming fleet.

Chinese had been arriving in India since timeimmemorial, but mostly through the land routes of Central Asia and North WestIndia, and through Burma to lesser extent. The rise of the Mongols and the strife amongthe Central Asian principalities led to the virtual closure of the Silk Routein the 14^th Century. Thus it was that as the ambassador of Mohammedbin Tuglaq,the Delhi Sultan, Ibn Batuttahad to travel all the way to Calicut to catch a ship to take him to China. Thiswas, incidentally, 60 years before the first of the seven voyages of Cheng Horeaching Calicut.

Althoughthe Tang Treasure Ship evidence (Belitung Shipwreck) shows that Chinese hadtrade contacts with Arabia and possibly Africa even in the 9^thcentury, no concrete evidence has been discovered of their having touchedQuilon (which existed then as a prosperous port) or what was thepredecessor-port of Calicut. Our knowledge of Chinese contacts with Calicutbegins with references in the 14^th Century.

IbnBatutta had in February, 1342, arranged a berth in a Chinese junk starting fromCalicut and had loaded his baggage in a smaller vessel (kokum); but, accordingto Ross Dunn in the book The Adventuresof Ibn Battuta, he had to cancel his trip at the last moment when he foundout that all the good cabins had been booked by rich Chinese merchants and hewas being offered a cabin without a lavatory – an insult to the Plenipotentiaryof the great Delhi Sultan! Thus, notonly were Chinese vessels frequenting Calicut port almost a century beforeCheng Ho had come, the Chinese merchants were flaunting their wealth on Calicutshores and Chinese trade was predominantly controlled by the private sector. Who were these Chinese traders and what wastheir route? We do not know for certain, although we know that Yuan Empire hadbeen pursuing foreign trade vigorously, and had an ambitious maritime policy.

Again,while we know much about Cheng Ho’s adventure (mostly from Chinese records,like Ma Huan’s accounts), we do not know why the Ming trade stopped so suddenlyin 1423 after the death in Calicut of Cheng Ho, or if the trade at all endedabruptly, as historians claim. The traditional explanation is that the Mingbureaucracy wedded to Confucian ideals of insularity succeeded in convincingthe successor of Emperor Yongle to terminate all voyages and even destroy muchof the records. Economic historians advance an argument that after 1450 China,like all major economies, had suffered from a prolonged period of economicdepression and this might have led to the reduced volume of internationaltrade.

Detail of a manuscript with the Chinese coin used to tie it

Theseand many other emerging issues on China-Calicut relations came up fordiscussions in a seminar held in Beijing in September, 2011. Theseminar saw participation from leading historians of Ming History like Prof.(Mrs.) Wan Ming, Professor of History of Social Sciences and Vice President andSecretary General, Chinese Society for Historians of China’s Foreign Relations,Prof. (Mrs.) Zhao Tong, Professor of Linguistics at Beijing Normal Universityand Mrs. May Yang, a candidate for Oh.D in Sanskrit from Gottingen University.C.K.Ramachandran, Convenor of Calicut Heritage Forum also participated. Theseminar was organized by Dr.Liu Yinghua, a friend of Calicut, who has beenvisiting Calicut for many years now as a researcher in Sanskrit and Ayurveda at the University of Calicut.

16 manuscripts with Chinese coins

Theseminar emphasised that trade and cultural relations between Calicut and Chinaexisted even before the Zheng He visit, as documented in Chinese chronicles. Itdid not stop with the death of Zheng He in 1433. In 2007, Liu Yinghua had, whileworking with the manuscript section of Calicut University under the guidance ofDr. C. Rajendran, Professor of Sanskrit, discovered 15 Chinese coins being usedto tie together the palm leaves manuscripts. These coins belonged to much laterperiod. Liu identified these asbelonging to the periods of Emperors Qianlong (1736-1795), Jiaqing (1796-1820)and Daoguang (1821-1850). This probably showed that trade relations betweenCalicut and China continued well into the second half of the 19^thCentury when the Opium Wars soured the Sino-British relations.

Pro.Wan Ming emphasized the need to discover local evidence of Chinese presence inCalicut during the Ming expeditions.

Theseminar concluded on the note that much more research requires to be done inCalicut on the new findings to trace back the manuscripts to their sources toexplore if further evidence of transactions with China existed. In the light ofthe Pattanam experience, it was also felt that archaeological excavations couldbe a useful source for more detailed information. In view of the importance ofPanthalayini –Kollam (Fandaraina) as a haven during the inter-monsoon intervalduring the medieval times, it was suggested that further investigation couldalso be conducted there to seek information on the existence of Chinesecommunities there.

Portrait of a Young Zamorin

2011-12-10T16:27:00.001+05:30

The image that comes to mind of the Zamorin is usually that of an old patriarch presiding over the destinies of his territory from the Calicut palace. The formula for succession - the eldest male member from the various branches of the family - confirms this impression that any member of the family gets to become the ruler only during the fag end of his life. Castaneda, for instance, who chronicled the meeting between the Zamorin and Vasco da Gama describes the former as 'well advanced in years'.

However, there have been exceptions. Conflicts and diseases used to claim several royal lives and adoption of young boys and girls was a regular practice to ensure the continuance of the lineage. This often led to younger members of the family being called upon to take the reins.

Pietro Della Valle

Pietro meeting Queen Abbakka

We have the portrait of one such young Zamorin in the travelogue of the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle who visited Calicut in December 1623. Born in a rich and noble family in Rome in 1586, Pietro took to travel primarily to get over his disappointments in love. He travelled in style and kept a meticulous record of his travels in the form of letters addressed to Mario Schipano, the doctor who had suggested that he take up travel to overcome his suicidal tendencies. (Readers may recall having encountered Pietro in an earlier post when he describes his meeting with the brave Queen of Ullal.)

Pietro and his entourage reached Calicut by ship from Mangalore in the evening of December 21, 1623. He was travelling with a Portuguese Captain who was on a delicate mission of not only concluding peace with the Zamorin but also of brokering peace between the Zamorin and the Raja of Cochin. Malabar had witnessed a rather turbulent era (as described in detail by Maddy) and the new Zamorin had assumed the throne only in 1617.

Pietro's description of Calicut's Bazar and its inhabitants is fascinating in its detail : the Market was full of all sorts of Provisions and other things necessary to the livelihood of that people. He found the hair style of the Calicut women the gallantest that I have seen in any other nation. He noticed that the residents were mostly Nairs, but the sea coasts are full of Malabari ( referring to the Moplahs).

Pietro gives a body blow to Calicut's reputation as 'The City of Truth' when he describes Malabar as 'famous in India for the continual Robberies committed at Sea by the Malabar thieves; whence in the Bazar of Calicut, besides the things abovementioned, we saw sold good store of the Portugal's commodities, as Swords, Arms, Books, Clothes of Goa and the like Merchandise, taken from Portugal vessels at Sea; which things, because they are stolen and in regard of the excommunication which lies upon us in that case, are not bought by our Christians.(He glosses over the fact that Calicut was then at war with the Portuguese and the Portuguese were committing extreme atrocities against the Moplah and Arab vessels at sea. Just two years before Pietro's visit, a joint expedition had been launched against the Portuguese by the Dutch and the English which had effectively blockaded the Portuguese possessions in Malabar)

Pietro had no difficulty in walking into Zamorin's Palace where he and his Captain were almost forced to have an audience with the Zamorin. His description of the Zamorin as he walked into the hall to meet the visitors is graphic: After a short space the King came in at the same door, accompanied by many others. He was a young Man of thirty, or five and thirty, years of age, to my thinking; of a large bulk of body, sufficiently fair for an Indian and of a handsome presence. ... His beard was somewhat long and worn equally round about his Face; he was naked, having only a piece of fine changeable cotton cloth, blue and white, hanging from the girdle to the middle of the Leg.

How hands-on the Zamorin was is clear from the curiosity he displayed on seeing in the hands of a soldier, who had accompanied Pietro, a short firearm with a large bore, which he was seeing for the first time, perhaps. He asked the firearm to be brought to him, emptied the gun power on the ground, and looked through the sight, shewing thereby that he was a good marksman, as they told us afterwards he was.
Although Pietro mentions that the Zamorin kept talking about peace, no one was taken in by his words. The Portuguese knew that he was buying time for a large fleet to reach Calicut unmolested by the Portuguese at sea. For, this was the Manavikrama Zamorin who continued the war in Cranganore with greater vigour. The envoy who came in the ship which brought Pietro was indeed on a mission to conclude a treaty of peace, but on condition not acceptable to the Zamorin. The Portuguese had pleaded that the Zamorin spare the King of Cochin who was their ally.

The talks broke down and the war continued for another forty years, although the dashing young Zamorin died at the young age of around 40, on 10th April, 1627 at Calicut.

One Hundred Years of a local Logan

2011-09-16T16:56:00.000+05:30

One Hundred Years ofa local Logan

Logan’sMalabar Manual (1887) has inspired many of his successors to study the customs,traditions and the economy of the area in great detail. The most notable ofthese were Malabar and Anjengo (1905) byEvans and Innes; Malabar Gazetteer (1908)by C.A. Innes; and A Descriptive Memoirof Malabar (1906) by Lts. Ward and Conner.

Localwriters were also inspired by Logan’s example to write on Malabar. Thepioneering work in this vein was T.K.Gopala Panikkar’s Malabar and Its Folk (1900).Panikker’s book was a sociological study of essentially South Malabar and wasaimed at removing some of the preposterous notions on Nair polyandry thatexisted among the colonial masters. The writer showed great foresight inanalysing the root cause of the Moplah unrest which had been plaguing Malabarfor more than sixty years at the time of his writing.

Twodecades before the final outbreak in 1921, Panikker had correctly identifiedthe reasons for the protests and the possible remedies : One cannot resist the idea that these riots are at least partly, thoughnot wholly, due to the oppression of the tenantry by the land-owning classes;and the possible remedies towards their eventual and permanent suppressionappear to lie only in some definite scheme whereby the intellectual and moralstatus of the Moplah population in the backward Taluqs will be raised by meansof the imparting to them of free and compulsory education, the suppression ofthe present defective and dangerous system of Moplah religious instruction andthe substitution in its stead of some method based upon a rational andscientific foundation, the permanent reversal of the policy of coercion and theadoption of a policy of concession, but of course within limits, in politicaldealings with the Moplah classes and their conciliation by other and last butby no means least, the final settlement of the Malabar Land Question which hasall along been looming large on our legislative horizon and to which the peoplehave been so eagerly looking forward.

Awork, more in line with Logan, was that of Rao Bahadur C. Gopalan Nair, DeputyCollector, Malabar, published with a foreword from Mr.R.B. Wood, ICS, thenCollector of Malabar. The book, MalabarSeries : Wynad, Its Peoples and Traditions (1911) attempted a detailed study ofthe political and social history of the place, its people (both the rulers andthe ruled) and a study of the beginnings of plantation in Wynad. The mostvaluable portion of this book is an anthropological study of the tribals and agood summary of the various non-tribal communities of Wynad. The author, whowas posted at Mananthawady (Manantoddy, as it was then called) as the DeputyCollector, reveals the instinct of a social scientist in his analysis of thesymbiotic relationships in this remote part of Malabar which had known peace onlyfor a generation, after the bloody Pazhassi wars.

Theintroduction by R.B. Wood is equally erudite. He recalls the existence of ‘Granthams’in the old houses – ‘ the actual daily diary of the daily life of the ancientpeople and the Princes of Malabar’ –and wonders : ‘I do not know, and I havemet no one who can tell me, exactly how far back the Granthams go: but Iunderstand that it is for several hundred years ... perhaps from beyond thetime when the Chinese first sent their annual fleets to Quilon and Calicut.These records are of priceless historical interest: yet the cadjan files aretied up and bundled away in old cupboards and almyrahs, ready to be the prey ofthe first fire that chances’.

Onehundred years after these fears were expressed by a colonial administratorabout the possible loss of ‘our’ heritage, are we today able to salvage whatremains of these precious records from white ants, fire and pulp factories?

Remembering Dr.K.B. Menon

2011-08-03T18:58:00.002+05:30

We had occasion to recall the great contribution of Dr.K.B.Menon to the freedom struggle in the context of the Kizhariyur Bomb Case of which he was the first accused. His story inspired us to do some deeper research into the life and contributions of that great patriot who is now remembered by few.

It was while looking for persons who might have known him well that we stumbled on a silent social worker who, despite his age and physical infirmity brought on by a fall, was serving his neighbourhood in Pathiripala as a family physician. Dr. P Sankaran Nair who retired as Joint Director, Health Services, Government of Kerala in the 1980s, recalled his association with Dr.K.B.Menon.

He remembered meeting Dr. Menon casually in the corridors of the Madras General Hospital in 1955 where he had come to seek treatment for his stomach illness. Dr. Nair had seen his photographs and immediately recognised him as the MLA from Trithala who, as the leader of the opposition (PSP) was also heading the Public Accounts Committee of the Madras Legislature.

Dr. Menon was so unassuming that he refused to be treated as anything but an ordinary patient. Dr. Nair took him to the Medical Superintendent, DR. Masilamani who attended to him immediately. But Dr. Menon insisted on getting admitted in the general ward so that he could personally experience the travails of the ordinary citizens.

When Dr. Nair told him that he had got his posting as Medical Officer at Ponnani, the legislator requested him to study the health system there and send him a report. Dr. Nair promptly sent a report highlighting the fact that in a year the government was spending only Rs.1200 on the rural health system of which the honorary medical officer was paid a measly Rs. 600 per year and the balance amount was expected to meet the cost of medicines, supplies and other expenses. Armed with this scandalous data, Dr.Menon unleashed a stormy attack on the ruling party which led to immediate improvements in the system.

Dr. Nair recalls another occasion when he met Dr. Menon when he was a Member of Parliament, representing Badagara. Dr. Nair had just then got his posting as Medical Officer in Lakshadweep. Dr. Menon could have offered to intervene and get the hard posting cancelled; but he was no run of the mill politician and such a thought did not strike him at all. Instead, he asked Dr. Nair to send him a detailed report on the medical facilities available in the Islands and what could be done to improve the plight of the Island population. He did indeed take up the issue in Parliament, based on the reports he got from Dr. Nair.

The next time he met Dr.Menon was when he was posted at Calicut (around 1958) where he received a small chit scribbled by Dr. Menon informing that he had been admitted at the General Hospital Calicut and would like to meet him. Dr. Nair saw to it that he was provided the best attention possible. But, Dr. Menon wanted to be discharged quickly. He revealed that he was in possession of a ‘political bombshell’ which he could not blast from the hospital premises. His only request to Dr. Nair was to arrange a car to take him to the PSP Office in Jail Road from where he wanted to let go the bombshell. Sure enough, the next day’s newspapers carried the story of how EMS government had pledged valuable bamboo wealth of Kerala to the Birlas for starting a pulp factory in Mavoor, Calicut.

We are reminded of the famous tribute to Gandhi from Einstein : Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.

Whither, Indian Politician?

A Kochi Girl in the Mughal Court - 1707-1732

2011-07-17T19:45:00.000+05:30

Cochin -1656 courtesy:www.farelli.info

Portuguese had ruled Cochin for nearly 160 years between 1503 and 1663 before the Dutch invasion. Although the capital of Portuguese India was shifted from Cochin to Goa in 1510, Cochin continued a favourite destination for the Portuguese and many Portuguese families chose to stay on in Cochin, soaking in the sun and sand, gossiping and leading their exclusive fidalgo life. (Fidalgo literally means 'son of somebody' and refers to nobility.)

Juliana was born in 1658 in Cochin to Agostino Diaz da Costa and his wife. She grew up as a frolicsome young girl, playing on 'the sandy beaches, where my sister and I could run with the waves lapping our feet'. When she was five, fate struck in the form of the Dutch who invaded Cochin in 1663. Just before the Dutch attack started, the da Costa family managed to flee to Goa, although they lost all their baggage in a ship wreck. The family then decided to try their luck in another Portuguese enclave, Calcutta, but by the time they reached there, Portuguese there had earned such a bad name through their indulgence in piracy and slave trade that the conditions were not considered favourable for their relocation to Calcutta.

It was then that the da Costas decided to move down to Agra where the father had been invited to attend on the Emperor. It was here that Juliana got to know the doctor who attended to the Mughal emperors whom she married later. Juliana herself was adept at home remedies, having picked up some from her stay in Goa and from Garcia de Orta's book Colloquios published in 1563. (We in Kerala know much more about Hortus Malabaricus which was published more than a hundred years later in 1678. Garcia was himself a medical doctor - unlike Van Rheede who depended on local vaidyans like Itty Achuthan)

Juliana got to know the royals closely through her husband and even had an audience with Aurungzeb, thanks to the influential Jesuit priest Fr. Magalhaes (a colourful character who worked assiduously for promoting Society of Jesus in India and China). Juliana recorded faithfully the experience of an audience with the Alamgir who had a reputation for being brusque and curt. 'The old emperor was sharp, but I was amazed at the amount of time he spent talking with me. He asked me a great deal about the Malabar region, of the Portuguese interests, and of the Deccan interaction with the Portuguese'.

Juliana was soon appointed as Superintendent of the Zenana, looking after the women in the Palace and teaching the young princes and princesses. Juliana soon came to be known for her piety and her ability to work miracles - putting out fires with consecrated palm fronds and curing illness through prayers. She was particularly close to Prince Muazzam who carried the title Shah Alam and was later to be crowned as Bahadur Shah in 1709, after killing his brother.

Juliana continued in the Mughal Court even after the death of Bahadur Shah in 1712 and continued to serve the Mughal household with her advice, prayers and cures. Farukhsiyar ascended the throne in 1713 after another bout of internecine blood-letting, but Juliana not only survived the intrigues of the powerful Sayyid brothers who had the Emperor under their control, but even had powers to get the Emperor to issue firmans.

British colonial historians have been asserting that it was the English surgeon, William Hamilton who had cured Farukhsiyar of a painful carbuncle and obtained a firman for trading without duties. But, apparently, it was Juliana who had cured the Emperor with her herbal concoctions (and a liberal dose of Christian prayers). She records that she had got firmans out of Farukhsiyar not only for the Portuguese, but even for the English traders!

Mohammed Shah
courtesy: wikipedia

The crowning glory of Juliana's days in the Mughal Empire was in 1719 when she was asked to physically crown the new Emperor, Mohammed Shah (Rangila)! The day she chose for this was, of course, the day of St.John the Baptist, her Patron Saint. She wrote: 'At mid-morning today, I , Juliana Diaz da Costa, actually crowned the emperor! I carried the crown and placed it on the head of Prince Mohammed Shah'.

Donna Juliana (she had been conferred the title for her services to the Church and the Jesuits) continued in the service of the Mughals. A letter written in 1727 testifies: 'The Chief Surgeon of Bacaim is in the Court, who has been called to look after the mother of the king. The treatment is pending the arrival of Donna Juliana to the palace, to touch and give medicines to the patient with the help of the Surgeon mentioned'.

Juliana passed away in 1732 and was buried in Agra in an unnamed grave! Thus ended the saga of the girl from Fort Cochin who wielded great influence in the Mughal Court during an era when heads around her were rolling in the relentless wars of succession.
Source : Forgotten (2010) by Bilkees I. Latif, Penguin Books

A Jews Street in Calicut?

2011-07-02T16:37:00.004+05:30

A view of the Jews Street with shops at the far end

It was young Toufeek Zakariya, a history enthusiast, avid blogger (http://relicsofcranganore.blogspot.com) and an accomplished calligrapher (http://thoufeekzak.blogspot.com) who alerted us on the possible existence of a Jews Street in Calicut. He got the lead from an advertisement of an electrical shop on the net. Phone calls to the listed number got the response that the number did not exist.

Our team led by Advocate Madhusoodan started looking for clues on the ground. Local historians did not know (or in one case belittled the importance of the finding, which made us more curious).

At the end of the week, we got information that there does indeed exist a small locality called Jootha Bazar in the heart of legendary Thekkepuram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thekkepuram) between Kuttichira and Idiyangara.

We know that of all the communities which had once strong presence in Calicut, there is no evidence of only two - Chinese and Jews.

This is true of not only Calicut, but even of other centres of trade like Panthalayini-Kollam. It is only recently when the Geniza papers are being deciphered that we get to know that a Jewish trader, Abraham Yiju had once made purchase of spices from Panthalayini-Kollam (Fandaraina) around 1120 AD. He records in one of his letters (232 T-S

A Jaaram (tomb) at the entrance to the street

20 quoted by Amitav Ghosh at page 227 of his The Imam and the Indian:

'...I bought for (al Basara?) from Fandaraina two bahars (of cardamom) as a substitute for 17 mithqals.' Please click here for details.

Almost 200 years later, the Franciscan Friar, Odoric of Pordenone had visited Panthalayini and had this to say about the Jews there and their conflict with the Christians :In Flandrina both Iewes and Christians doe inhabite, betweene whom there is often contention and warre: howbeit the Christians ouercome the Iewes at all times.

As Prof. A. Sreedhara Menon observes, 'There are no traces of Jewish colonies in these places except that there is a 'Jew's Hill' at Chowghat and a 'Jew's Tank' at Madayi'. (A Survey of Kerala History, p.95) Could this Jews Street in Calicut be a remnant of a forgotten past ? We decided to verify.

As we walked down from the Miskal Mosque heading south, one road leads east and turns south again towards Idiyangara. There are a few shops on this street and this place is now called Jootha Bazar or Jews Street. Local people had different explanations for the origin of the name. An elderly person said that perhaps the origin could be traced to mothers calling their naughty offsprings children of Jews as a curse. But, why should the name called stick to a place, unless only children of that locality were mischievous. Another ingenious explanation given was that naughty young people of that locality would gather in the Jootha Bazar and gamble and, therefore, the name stuck.

A third person, who appeared to be more knowledgeable about the history and culture of the place explained that it was just possible that the location of the present Jews Street was once a flourishing market run by the Jews, like the Silk Street, Gujarati Street etc.

We do not yet know whether the Jews Street has any historical significance. But, considering the irrefutable evidence of both Jews and the Chinese having once been a strong presence in Calicut and are now obliterated without any trace, we wonder whether there was some similarity in the sudden disappearance of the two communities.

Zheng He, the Chinese Admiral made his last voyage to Calicut in 1433 and died during this voyage. The date is significant from the point of view of direction of Calicut's trade. For, Abdul Razzak who visited Calicut just 9 years after the death of Zheng He noted that the trade had already shifted from the east to west. Recent research has revealed that Emperor Yong-le who had deputed Zheng He had already decided to shift his trade relations from Calicut to the newly emerging Cochin, prompted perhaps by the pressure on Chinese traders from the Arab trading monopoly. The Chinese Emperor's overtures to Cochin in the form of a poetic epistle (click here)dated 28th December 1416 was carried by Zheng He. (The Chinese had unwittingly shown the Portuguese how to pit Calicut against Cochin!)

The massacre of the Chinese which took place soon after the last voyage of Zheng He could have encompassed all foreign traders, including the Jews. For, there is not much record of the Jewish presence in Calicut after the 15th Century.

Pereira de Paiva, a Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin who visited Cochin in 1686 on behalf of the Amsterdam Jewry reported that there were only 465 Malabar Jewish families, all in and around Cochin. It is likely that along with the Chinese traders, the Jewish traders of Calicut also migrated to Cochin.

It is most likely that the Jewish traders in Calicut belonged to the Black Jews (the original tribes who had been trading from the days of Solomon). The White Jews , descendants of Spanish, Portuguese and Iraqi arrived on the Malabar coast much later in the 16th Century.

Remembering Conolly - the Malabar Collector between 1846 and 1855

2011-01-21T14:00:00.000+05:30

Maddy has, in a recent post, mentioned the contributions of H.V. Conolly, Malabar Collector between 1842 and 1855 – a brilliant career which was cut short at the age of 49 when he was brutally killed by some fanatic Moplahs. He is today remembered mainly on account of the Conolly Canal, an old project which only his leadership and drive could make happen. The teak forest of Nilambur is another standing monument to the vision of this great administrator.

specimen of Conolly's signature
on a passport issued by him at Calicut

We had occasion to recall his tact and secular credentials in an earlier post. He had persuaded the Mambram Thangal to voluntarily emigrate to avoid bloodshed. Ironically, this event was later used to build up a case against him by fanatics, leading to his being hacked to death in the presence of his wife.

We have obtained his record during training and probation (as published in the Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and foreign... Vol 23) which shows that even as a probationer, Conolly had shown promise of growing into a competent officer. Even as a young recruit, the officer had shown dedication and a high degree of intelligence which marked him out later in his distinguished career.

Conolly joined the Madras Civil Service at the age of 18 and was trained at the College of Fort St. George, Madras which used to train the provincial civil servants. He was admitted in September 1824 and passed out in June 1826, standing first in Marathi and Hindustani. The record of the College needs to be reproduced at length to prove Connolly’s diligence as much as to show how the East India Company took great care to groom its civil servants:

Several weeks previously to the examination, Mr.Conolly met with a serious accident, which materially interrupted his studies, and was the occasion of his being examined under great disadvantage; the result has nevertheless been highly satisfactory.

In Mahratta, Mr.Conolly has attained a very high degree of proficiency: he is well acquainted with the idiom of the language, and with the principles of its construction, and possesses a very extensive knowledge of words, which he used with readiness, and applies with judgment and discrimination. Mr. Conolly’s translation of a difficult Mahratta paper was remarkable for its fidelity; the meaning, not only of every sentence, but of every word of the original, with one single exception, being fully expressed. Mr. Conolly was equally successful in translating from English into Mahratta. In conversation he expresses himself with correctness and propriety, and with a good pronunciation. He is also acquainted with the style of familiar and official letters.

Mr. Conolly’s proficiency in Hindostanee is equal to that which he has attained in Mahratta; he executed translations of the most difficult exercises, both into and from the language, in a manner die (sic) most creditable. He converses on various subjects with fluency and propriety, and explained with ease an original urzee written in an obscure style.

Mr. Conolly has already obtained the highest allowances of the institution; and he is fully qualified for the transaction of public business in two languages, we recommend that he may now be employed on the active duties of the public service. We beg leave further to state our opinion, that his acquirements in Mahratta and Hindostanee are of so high an order as to entitle him to the honorary reward of 3,500 rupees; and we have much pleasure in recommending that this distinction may accordingly be conferred upon him.

The Government House, Fort St. George, 1798 Th. Daniell

The Madras Governor accepted the recommendation of the College at Fort St. George and ordered accordingly:

The Hon. The Governor in Council has observed, with much satisfaction, that the general results of the examination lately held at the College is highly creditable to the students attached to that institution, and is pleased, agreeably to your recommendation, to confer on Mr.Conolly the honorary reward of 3,500 rupees for his proficiency in the Mahratta and Hindostanee languages, and on Mr. Porter the highest rate of College allowances from the fourth inst.

Mr. Conolly and Mr.Gardner will be permitted to enter on the duties of the public service.

(sd.) Acting Secretary to Governor

Calicut and the decline of Venice

2010-12-21T19:47:00.001+05:30

The Silk Route (red) and traditional coastal spice route (blue) courtesy: Wikipedia

When Vasco Da Gama reached the shores of Calicut, the first to greet him was a Muslim merchant from Tunis with the cold welcome: May the Devil take you! What brought you here? The trader understood the implications of the new arrival and the threat that it posed to his livelihood. For, Vasco Da Gama had discovered an alternative route to reach Calicut, circumventing the usual route used by the Arabs and the European traders.

The route from Calicut to Venice till 1498

Much of recorded history of this period is still lusocentric, describing this event either in terms of what a great discovery the new route was or how the Portuguese empire was established starting with this expedition. The landing of Da Gama's fleet in Calicut was indeed a cataclysmic event in international trade, as the Tunisian had understood. But, how cataclysmic?

Portuguese route circumventing Arabs and Venetians
courtesy: Wikipedia

The spice trade till then had been in the hands of two major groups of traders - the Arabs and the Genoese-Venetian syndicates. Till around the 13th Century, bundles of spices would commence their long journey from Malabar coast and take the Silk Route, which was protected by the might of Genghis Khan to Aden and thence into the hands of waiting Venetian merchants. Once the Silk Route was closed, spices started travelling in Arab dhows and Chinese junks to Jeddah (which replaced Aden), where the local rulers levied a tax on the cargo. It then crossed the Red Sea and reached the city of Tuuz (near Mount Sinai) where again it was subjected to tax. Finally, the cargo of spices travelled by camel back to Cairo; this was a hazardous trip due to the threat of banditry. From Cairo, the cargo was sent down the Nile River to Rosetta, where a tax was again levied. There it would again be loaded on camels for a day's trip to Alexandria where galleys from Genoa and Venice would be waiting for the precious cargo. By the time these spices reached the retail markets of Europe, the price would be more than 1000 per cent of what had been paid at Calicut.

It was this lucrative trade that the Portuguese had destroyed by discovering the Cape route to Calicut. Spices could now be transported to Europe untouched by Arab or Venetian hands. The distance was longer than the Cairo route, but cost of transhipment and taxes could be saved. No wonder, the Venetians received the news of Da Gama's adventure with a sense of shocked disbelief.

The loss of the spice trade would be like the loss of milk and nourishment to an infant, wrote Girolamo Priuli, a prominent spice trader in his journal in July 1501. He continued: When this news reached Venice, the whole city felt it greatly and remained stupified, and the wisest held it as the worst news which could ever arrive.

Within the next couple of years, economic depression engulfed many of the trade centres of Europe, with firms collapsing and banks failing. The crisis was felt most in Venice which was the largest buyer of Asian spices. The Venetian Senate passed a resolution on 15th January 1506 on the alarming fall in trade as a consequence of the Portuguese arrival in Calicut: Since, as everybody knows, this commerce has now been reduced to the worst possible condition, it is essential to take some action and to provide our citizens with every facility for sailing the seas.

They immediately formed a 5-member committee to advise the city government on how to handle the large number of business failures and bankruptcies. Venice also appealed to the Sultan of Cairo to reduce the rates of taxation so that their imports could compete with the Portuguese supplies. But, instead of reducing the tax on spices, the Sultan sent an armada apparently to assist the Zamorin to fight the Portuguese at sea. It was this mighty armada which was trapped and destroyed by the 6th Portuguese Armada led by Lopo Soares on 31st December 1504 off the coast of Panthalayani in Calicut. Some 2000 Arab and Egyptians perished in the battle, while 23 Portuguese sailors lost their lives. Significantly, the Egyptian force was carrying some Venetian guns and even two Venetian engineers who manufactured the first cannons for the Zamorin.

Afonso D'Albuquerque had correctly assessed the situation after his conquest of Malacca in 1511: I hold it as very certain that if we take this trade of Malacca away out of their hands, Cairo and Mecca are entirely ruined, and to Venice will no spiceries . . .[be] . . . conveyed except that which her merchants go and buy in Portugal.

Will Durant has described the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to be as spectacular as the invention of the aeroplane. It transformed the direction of foreign trade (as can be seen in the accompanying maps) and destroyed the monopoly of the Italian states. Though Calicut and Venice - the largest seller and the largest buyer of spices - did not have any direct trade links, the loss of Arab supremacy over spice trade in Asia led to the fall of Venetian monopoly on the retail distribution of spices in Europe. Globalisation, anyone?

Baudelaire and the Girl from Malabar

2010-12-08T14:02:00.000+05:30

Charles Baudelaire
Courtesy Wikipedia

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was a French Romantic poet who is considered as a pioneer among the French Symbolists of the 19th Century. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) was written when he was a young restless soul, not at peace with himself. One of the poems of this work (which was proscribed by the French authorities on grounds of immorality) is a beautiful poem called A une Malabaraise (To a Girl from Malabar):

Malabar Girl
copyright: imagesof asia.com

Your feet are slim as your hands, and your hips/Are the heavy envy of the most beautiful white woman...

Baudelaire speculates on her chores back home in Malabar (in the warm blue climate where your Gods bore you) : light the pipe of your master, to drive far from the bed raiding mosquitoes and to buy pineapples and bananas at the bazaar.

The poet ends by dissuading the girl from her wish to go with him : O, why,happy child, do you want to see our France!/That populous country slashed by suffering... seeking amongst our dirty fogs/The slender ghosts of distant coco-palms!

Who was this Malabar Girl and where did Baudelaire meet her?

Born in Paris, Baudelaire grew up as a spoilt and rebellious child resentful of the loss of his father when he was very small and the mother's second marriage to a young and dapper colonel. The stepfather wanted to discipline the young boy and sent him off to Calcutta in 1841. A shipwreck saw the young Baudelaire landing on the shores of Mauritius, instead of Bengal. There he meets the Girl from Malabar in an account from which it is difficult to sift facts from fiction.

Here is the story:

The young fugitive who landed on the shores of Mauritius was in bad shape. He was an alcoholic and into drugs too. He had not written anything for a while and inspiration seemed to have dried up. He had even contemplated suicide, while on the ship tp Calcutta.

It was then that he met young Dorothee in a sugarcane plantation near Trois Mammelles in Curepipe area of Mauritius. (Under the shadow of the Mammelles...) Dorothee whose family 'came from Calicut or Cochin' was a slave girl working as a household servant. Her mother was brought by the Portuguese from Malabar and sold to the French as a slave. Baudelaire fell for the charm of the chocolate skinned Dorothee and settled down with her in the mountains.

It was Dorothee who inspired Baudelaire to write again, and poems started flowing from the 20-something young rebel and the world took notice. Thus Les Fleurs du Mal owes its inspiration to the Girl from Malabar and Baudelaire acknowledges it in his poem. But, as for taking her back to France, he demurs, raising various objections from harshness of the climate and hostility of the people! So much for his dalliance with the maid servant!

What is intriguing is how the Portuguese were exporting slaves from the Malabar coast, even though slavery was legally abolished in Malabar in 1792. There is ample evidence of the Portuguese and the Dutch indulging in slave trade from Bengal, the Coromandel coast and Malabar even as late as the 19th century. Dorothee does not appear to have been an indentured labourer, as her mother was a slave in Mauritius and the Great Experiment of importing large numbers of indentured plantation workers from India started only around 1849, while Baudelaire met her in c.1841.

Malabar springs up in the most improbable places!

The Unsung Heroes of the Bomb Case

2010-09-26T17:37:00.001+05:30

We had touched upon the 1942 Keezhariyur Bomb Case in an earlier post (click here). Many readers responded that they were not aware of this incident in the history of Calicut's fight for Indian independence. But, far away from Calicut, a young writer from Bihar had written a Hindi play on the incident and a theatre group in California had staged it in 1998! Sujit Saraf, the young writer and author of bestsellers like The Peacock Throne and Confessions of Sultana Daku (www.sujitsaraf.com) had commemorated the Keezhariyur Bomb Case in his Hindi play entitled Vande Mataram.

Today we remember one of the unsung heroes of the case who was among the 'Bombay Five' - young men working in Bombay who had embarked on this suicidal venture convinced that non-violence would not get India freedom. The five - Dr.K.B.Menon, N.A.Krishnan Nair, V.A.Kesavan Nair, Mathai Manjooran and C.P.Sankaran Nair - left Bombay for Calicut and began their political activities here at a time when the Malabar Congress was in disarray after the mass detention of its top leadership during the Quit India movement.

N.A. Krishnan Nair, 2nd Accused

Nampannur Azhakil (N.A.) Krishnan Nair was born in 1902 into a family of substance in Calicut. As a student, he was actively involved in the Boy Scout movement. Later he participated in the Civil Disobedience movement and was the 19th 'Dictator' from Kerala. Jailed for 16 months, he came out and decided to be a full-time political worker.

He left for Bombay in 1934 and joined the Century Mills as a coolie in order to understand the plight of the workers. He organised workers under the Girni Kamgar Union (whose leader was S.A.Dange) and also participated actively in the Congress movement. He attended the Faizpur session of the Indian National Congress in 1937.

Nair was by now a known trade union leader in Worli and had worked for B.G.Kher during the 1937 elections. He resumed Boy Scout work briefly in 1938 but left it in 1941 to join TOMCO. While working as a labour leader in TOMCO, he was also Chairman of the Governing Body of the Bombay Keraleeya Samaj.

Back in Kerala he was part of the group which organised several acts of sabotage between August 1942 and May 1943, including causing explosions to blow up the Feroke bridge, railway lines, cutting telegraph lines, setting fire to government buildings etc. The conspiracy was hatched in Ramanattukara (in Pulapre gate house) and subsequently in a house in Chalapuram. The bombs were fabricated in Kandiyil Methal house in Keezhariyur in Quilandy. Later, as the Police seemed to have got wind of the manufacturing, it was shifted to Parappanangadi, a fatal error which led to the unravelling of the conspiracy and the capture of the conspirators. For, one of the Parappanangadi team decided to use some bombs for settling a private score!

The case was tried in the Court of the Sessions of South Malabar Division, with M.A.T. Coelho, Sessions Judge presiding. The Bombay Five (except for Mathai Manjooran who was absconding) was defended by the ace criminal lawyer from Madras, Sri K. Bhashyam Ayyangar, ably assisted by Sri K.G. Nayar. The Bombay Five were acquitted by the Sessions Court but were convicted on appeal by the Madras High Court and sentenced to 7-10 years of imprisonment.

Nair was released in 1946 when the interim Congress government came to power. He drifted back to mainstream Congress work, but found that during his long absence, new faces and new interests had taken over the Party. The party chose him to be a candidate for the Madras Legislative Council elections, but intra-party feuds led to his defeat. As a protest against the party, he later contested elections as an independent for Assembly and Parliament elections with predictable results.

He drifted away from Congress and eked out a living as an Insurance agent. He however continued his social service through Harijan Sevak Sangh, Sanskrit Prachar Sabha and Boy Scout movement.

Old timers in Calicut remember Nair (fondly called 'Kittar') on the Mananchira ground encouraging footballers ( he was himself a keen player in the company of football legends of Calicut like Andy Master of 'andy pass' fame, Kottayi Achu and Kesavan Nair). Meticulously dressed in Khadi, he was a presence in the halls where chess was being played, for chess was another of his passions. And young cubs in those days remember the elderly Scout Rover encouraging them from a distance! The indomitable Nair found time to pass the intermediate and BA examinations from Madras University when he was well past 60!

How did the Nation honour him for his sacrifice? His name ranked 658 in the first batch of 1000 Freedom Fighters who were honoured at the red Fort in 1972 with Tamrapatra and a pension of Rs. 300. The State government sanctioned a pension of Rs.150.

Mr. Nair spent a life of service and altruism till death invited him on 26th December, 1987 at the age of 85. Jai Hind!

2010-09-10T20:08:00.001+05:30

Did the British Really Conquer Us?

Jahangir

The title is intended to provoke. We hear the refrain that those who came to trade conquered us and colonised us. How far is it true? Was it a one-sided conquest or did our rulers aid and abet the conquest by their actions?

For instance, the 19^th century historian Philip Anderson observes that the British empire in India ‘began without a strip of territory. A warehouse was expanded into a province; a province into an Empire’. How did this happen?

A good way to understand this is by following a couple of early English expeditions and how they were treated by the Indian rulers. The first two voyages of the East India Company focused more on the Spice Islands in search of cinnamon, cloves and other spices. It was the third voyage which was mandated to touch Aden and Surat, to explore a market for English broadcloth.

The fleet was commanded by William Keeling and had William Hawkins, the seasoned navigator who also spoke Turkish, who was expected to use his linguistic skills in Aden.

They took off on 1^st April 1607 with Keeling piloting the Red Dragon and Hawkins leading the ship, the Hector. While Keeling aborted his plans for Aden and headed straight for Bantam, Hawkins landed in Surat on 28^th August 1608, and became the first commander of an East India Company vessel to set foot on Indian soil. Surat was the principal port of the land-locked Mughal Empire.

Hawkins did not have a happy experience in Surat, as Mukarrab Khan, the Mughal officer in charge of ports was hostile to the new visitors, having been influenced by the Portuguese who were entrenched in the port. Hawkins tried to browbeat the Portuguese by claiming to hold the commission from his King; the Portuguese reply to this was:’a fart for his commission’!

The Emperor in a session

Hawkins then decided to travel to Agra to plead with the Emperor himself. Armed with the letter of introduction from King James I to the Emperor Akbar (who had, by now, been interred in his tomb at Sikandra) Hawkins travelled to Agra and was received by Emperor Jahangir with embarrassing warmth. They soon became such pals that Hawkins became a permanent invitee to the Emperor’s daily drinking spree.

Hawkins was ordered not to move out of the Emperor’s side and was offered an annual salary of 3200 pounds, the rank of ‘Khan’ and permission to build a factory at Surat (the permission remained on paper, though, till Sir Thomas Roe used his superior diplomatic skills on the Mughals, and got the promise implemented in 1615.)

The Emperor also found a suitable bride for Hawkins – the daughter of an Armenian Christian who was in the service of his father, Akbar. But for the intrigue of the courtiers who thought that the Emperor was being far too generous to the ‘Inglis Khan’, the first Englishman to have landed in India could have got half the Mughal Empire for the asking! Call it conquest?

As for Keeling, he did not fare badly, either. He was sailing past Calicut when the Zamorin sent his minister to invite him offering him many inducements. The Zamorin was then at war with Cochin and was in the vicinity of Cranganore. He concluded a treaty with Keeling : As I have been ever an enemy of the Portuguese, so do I propose to continue forever.

The Zamorin wanted the English to help him win over the combined forces of Cochin and the Portuguese. And in return, the Underecon Cheete (a corruption for Poonthurakkon Cheet, the name by which Zamorin’s communications are known)offered : And if I succeed in taking the port of Cranganore, I engage to give it to the English, to possess as their own, together with the island belonging to it, which is in length along the sea coast nine miles and three in breadth’.

Further, if he succeeded in conquering Cochin with the help of the English, the cost will be apportioned half and half and ‘the benefits of the plunder thereof, whatsoever kind, shall belong half to me and half to the English’.

This was more than 140 years before the Battle of Plassey which is described in history as the beginning of territorial acquisition by the East India Company!

It would appear that the idea of territorial sovereignty was a western concept imported into India by the colonials in the 18^th Century. Our rulers – the Mughals as well as smaller rulers like the Zamorin – had viewed the state more as an economic unit which could be controlled to extract revenue for the state.

Ultimately, it looks as if our rulers were too keen to offer portions of their territory on a platter to the colonial powers in return for protection, weapons, money or even a cask of red wine, as in the case of Jehangir! Cheers!!

Terrorist Acts in Calicut

2010-08-28T12:19:00.000+05:30

Calicut is in the news for all the wrong reasons. There was a series of bomb blasts in the city a couple of years ago. The peace-loving citizens of Calicut thought it was some amateurish attempt to attract attention. There were, of course, some lone voices warning about militancy gaining ground. The Calicut Corporation promptly passed a resolution against terrorism. But then, didn’t our Corporation pass a resolution condemning US invasion of Iraq and the hanging of Saddam Hussein?

We were jolted out of complacency when the alleged kingpin of these activities was caught in faraway Dhaka and he started singing. It appears some of these outfits had been active in the city for some time. And not only the Calicut blasts but even the Bangalore and possibly some more blasts in South India were perhaps planned in our Calicut!

It is not that terrorist activities were totally unknown to Calicut. One of the earliest recorded acts of terrorism in Calicut was the assassination of the Malabar Collector, H.V. Conolly in 1855. A few convicts who had escaped from the jail, plotted to do away with the Collector. It is not clear what motivated them: some say it was because he was instrumental in acquiring large tracts of agricultural land for his ambitious canal project which is now named after him; another explanation is that he was harsh in implementing the law promulgated in 1854 providing for stringent punishment including fining of entire localities in case of outrages.also Mr. Conolly had taken the initiative for negotiating the voluntary exile of Syed Fazal Pookoya Thangal (Mambram Thangal) to Arabia, as the latter was suspected of being the rallying point for fanatics. Anyhow, that act of terrorism deprived Malabar of one of the most sagacious and sympathetic administrators.

But, the most serious act of terrorism in recent times in Calicut was staged in 1942, when the Quit India movement was at its peak. This little known incident, which is unfortunately still called after the criminal case (Keezhariyur Bomb Case) which led to the conviction of 27 accused to long terms of imprisonment, deserves a place in the history of India’s freedom movement as much as the Alipur Conspiracy Case.

The formation of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 as a caucus within the Indian National Congress gave an opportunity for the Communists to implement their agenda of implementing the ComIntern strategy. In many states like Kerala, the Communists dominated the Indian National Congress (INC) through their control of CSP. The strategy was exposed in 1942 when the call for Quit India movement attracted a lukewarm response from Malabar. This was because the Communists, who were originally opposing the imperialist Britain, turned overnight their supporters after Soviet Russia had joined the War against the Axis powers in June 1941.

The British administration had taken pre-emptive action in arresting all the top leaders of the INC in Malabar well before the Quit India call was made. The vacuum was filled by some young Congress workers who constituted themselves into a Socialist group. Led by the young and dynamic Dr.K.B.Menon, this group of young men from Bombay – N.A.Krishnan Nair, V.A.Kesavan Nair, C.P.Sankaran Nair and Mathai Manjooran – provided the leadership for the movement in Malabar.

E.Vasudevan Nair who had left
his medical studies to join the conspiracy

Dr.Konnanath Balakrishna Menon (1897-1967) is described by Nossiter as ‘a neglected figure’. Trained as an academic economist with a doctorate from the University of Berkley, California, he was teaching in Harvard where he met Jaiprakash Narain who had joined there as a student. Under JP’s influence, Menon decided to return to India and work as the Secretary of the All India State People’s Conference and a Human Rights body of which Nehru was the Chairman. He also spent two years with Gandhiji before he became disillusioned with the non-violent philosophy and landed in Calicut in the wake of the Quit India agitation.

Kollom-where the bombs were stored

Koilandy Railway Station - one of the targets

The conspiracy hatched in Koilandy (Calicut) was to mark November 9^th, 1942 (subsequently shifted to 17^th Nov. as the bomb-making was delayed) as the ‘Sabotage Day’ by staging a series of blasts to damage government buildings, railway lines and other installations. Bombs were originally fabricated by the ‘weapons expert’, Narayanan Nair at Keezhariyur, a sleepy village in Koilandy Taluk on the banks of the Akalappuzha River. But, when it was suspected that the Police had got wind of the conspiracy, the bomb making was shifted to Parappanangadi. Manufactured bombs were transferred and stored in the office of the Charkha Club in Kollom, Quilandy. But at some stage, a few bombs were stolen and used by some of the participants to settle private scores.

The Police had already got wind of the conspiracy, alerted by some Communist agents among the conspirators, and were lying in wait for the climax which was to be the bombing of the Koilandy Railway Station and the Registry. (Ironically, one of the participants, E.Vasudevan Nair from Kollom was the son of a Registrar!) It was the duty of Kurumayil Narayanan to shift the bombs from Kollom to the team from Kunnathara who were waiting at the Railway Station to plant the bombs. The Police, alerted by the Communists, were of course waiting to pounce on the saboteurs.

It was a long wait for all the parties – the bombs did not reach the Kunnathara team. Narayanan’s explanation was that they dozed off at the Charkha Club and when they woke up, it was day! Some charge the Kollom team with having developed cold feet. However, the Police had no difficulty in nabbing most of the conspirators, except for Mathai Manjooran, T.P.Kunhirama Kidave ( the son of K.Kelappan, known as ‘Kerala Gandhi’), M.A. Sadanandan, O. Chekkutty and Verkott Raghava Kurup, who went underground.

The trial started in the court of the Sessions Judge Mr. A. A. T. Coelho on 14th February 1944. The following 27 accused were tried apart from the five absconding: Dr.K.B.Menon, C.P.Sankaran Nair, N.A.Krishnan Nair, V.A. Kesavan Nair, D. Jayadeva Rao, O. Raghavan Nair, Karyal Achuthan, E. Vasudevan Nair, N.P. Abu, K. Narayanan Nair, K. Kelukkutty, T. Pachar, K. Narayanan, K. Kunhiraman, Unnikkutty, Cheriya Kunhiraman, K.V. Chamu, V.Prabhakaran, K. Mohammed Naha, P. Mammootty, V. Abdullakoya Thangal, S.N. Valliyil, V. K. Achuthan Vaidyar, K. Gopalan, C. Damodaran, K.T. Alavi and C. Choyunni.

It was a sensational trial keenly watched by people of Malabar. The accused got legal and financial support from various quarters including the Mathrubhumi newspaper (which formed a committee to defend the accused), M.R. Masani (who mobilised funds from Bombay) and K. Bhashyam who made similar fund-raising in Madras. A galaxy of lawyers including K.T. Chandu Nambiar, M. Narayana Kurup, K.G. Nair, P. Govinda Menon, K. Kunhirama Menon, K.V. Krishnan and Mahadeva Iyer offered to defend the accused without charging any fee.

The Judge found 13 accused guilty and let off the rest. Among those guilty, one was awarded imprisonment for 10 years and the rest for 7 years of rigorous imprisonment. On appeal by the prosecution, the punishment was enhanced by the Madras High Court to 10 years of imprisonment in respect of the entire ‘Bombay gang’ comprising K.B. Menon, N.A. Krishnan Nair, V.A. Kesavan Nair and C.P. Sankaran Nair. The punishment in respect of others was upheld. They were let off in 1946 when the interim Congress Government took over as a prelude to granting independence.

Many of the young men who took part in the conspiracy were either students (including one who was studying for medicine) or had bright careers ahead of them. They had given up their future for the sake of freedom of the country. Many who were let off after Independence were not suitably rehabilitated, apart from the meagre pension for freedom fighters. Several faded into oblivion, taking with them the dreams and aspirations of their families. We salute their spirit of sacrifice!

Calicut - about a Hundred Years Ago

2010-08-16T20:21:00.000+05:30

S.K.Pottekkatt courtesy Wikipedia

The colonial writers of the 19^th and early 20^th century like Logan and Evans-Innes have left detailed descriptions of the province of Malabar during their time. But, as administrators dealing with issues of land revenue and conflicts, they have not provided much in terms of a description of Calicut town. It was left to the adorable writer, S.K.Pottekkatt to give us a sketch of the vibrant life of the town in his Oru Theruvinte Katha (The Story of a Street). A grateful city has honoured him by putting up a giant bust of the author on the northern end of the Sweetmeat Street (Miththayi Theruvu) whose chronicle he had recorded in all its starkness.

We give below a description of the author’s childhood memories of Calicut during the 1920s. This is extracted from an article he wrote for the daily Mathrubhumi published in 1978:

Calicut of today (1978) is not very different externally from the town in my childhood memories (1920). In fact, if Vasco da Gama were to land here again, he would have no difficulty in finding his way to the Zamorin’s Palace.

Varakkal (West Hill) those days housed the barracks of the European soldiers. Local teams and European teams would often play football and hockey matches at the Mananchira playground.

The ‘Mission Shop’ (Commonwealth Trust) was also known as the German Shop. It had been seized by the British during the First World War and run as the Commonwealth Trust. The southern and north-eastern side of Mananchira – which was the heart of Calicut – was in possession of the Germans.

To the east of Mananchira (where an educational office and text book store stand today ) was a hospital. Attached to it was the Medical College (School?) I would be scared to look at the skeletons which used to be hung in the open from a jackfruit tree in the compound. One wondered why they had to display the scary skeletons, meant for the anatomy lessons of medical students, in the open rather than store safely in a room.

Muthalakkulam was then also the centre of activities for the washer men of the town. East of this ground was a large garden of jasmine. To its south, opposite the Women and Child Hospital, there was a coffee plantation. An abattoir stood to the south of the W&C Hospital.

The road to the east of the vegetable market in Palayam led one to a marshy land where buffaloes were kept in sheds. There was extensive sugarcane cultivation to the north of the Sreekantheswara Temple, where the present Mavoor Road is laid.

A ‘red light area’ functioned to the south of the present Polytechnic, catering to the European soldiers of West Hill barracks. Another centre for prostitution was near the third Railway gate. In fact, prostitution was known locally as ‘third gate’. Palayathe Kuttippennu was a notorious prostitute of those days and many were the salacious stories circulating about her.

The Calicut of old was much more colourful. Even now we find a few Arab traders landing here in country boats and pattemmaris. But in the olden times Arabs would come by the hundreds – coal black giants in long gowns and tight caps. It was fun to watch them move around the streets in groups, eating from the bunch of plantains which one of them would be holding. They would usually descend during the summer.

Kabuliwallahs also would come in groups and would camp in the outskirts of the town in tented colonies. They used to hawk things like knives, scissors and stone garlands on the streets of Calicut. Their women, who wore colourful skirts and shirts with a yellow bandana tied on their foreheads, were stout but unalloyed beauties. But they could also be violent at times. I still remember how one such female caught hold of a handsome 16 year old boy in my neighbourhood and molested him till he fainted!

How Calicut has changed! The two oil price hikes of 1973 and 1979 had led to sudden prosperity in the Middle East and many residents of Calicut got employed there. Their remittances led to so much investment in the city, transforming the sleepy town of Pottekkatt’s to a bustling metropolis. Unfortunately, all this activity has also led to the destruction of many heritage structures in the city. If he were to return to Calicut today, Pottekkatt himself would not be able to find his way to his house, Chandrakantham in Puthiyara!!

Mambram Thangal and Mahatma Gandhi

2010-07-27T17:56:00.000+05:30

When Mambram Pookoya Thangal had challenged British authority in the 1840s, his followers had believed that he was invested with powers to perform miracles. It was even said that he could stop the British bullets with his bare hands and that on his orders the guns of the soldiers would be silent. A similar folklore was spread during the Khilafat movement in 1921 in an effort to boost the morale of those fighting the British. Surprisingly, this folklore was not confined to Ernad or Valluvanad and similar stories could be heard wherever Khilafat volunteers were arousing the people. The central character would change but the miraculous powers remained more or less the same.

Old Memorial at Chauri Chaura
Courtesy:www.chaurichaura.com

History tells us that Mahatma Gandhi persuaded the Calcutta session of the Congress to adopt the non-cooperation movement and that it was formally launched in August 1920. The Khilafat Committee which had met in Lucknow agreed to join hands and make their agitation part of the larger non-cooperation movement.

We also know that Gandhiji decided to call off the non-cooperation movement after the unfortunate violence at Chauri Chaura on 4^th February 1922. What history does not highlight is that the Chauri Chaura event was very much a Khilafat agitation. ( What follows is taken from the judgement of the Allahabad High Court in an obscure case named Abdullah vs The Emperor, Criminal Appeal No.51 of 1923 in which the perpetrators of Chauri Chaura were tried and convicted.)

Evidence given before the Court by many witnesses speaks of two Musalmans having visited the village (one wearing spectacles and the other having a beard) who sang songs of the brave deeds of Shaukat Ali and Mohammed Ali. After this, all the volunteers who were about three thousand, got up and started from there crying out, Mahatma Gandhi ki jai’.

‘We take it that there was perceptible in the spirit of this crowd (which was marching towards Chauri Chaura Police Station) that sort of magnetic force which the ancient Greek ascribed to supernatural influence, and which has often been noted as emanating from an army destined to be victorious in an impending encounter’. (What a classic description of the haalilakkam!)

The judgement continues: ‘Psychologically, it has its basis in the recognition on the part of each member of the force that those around him are animated by the same resolution which he feels in himself; he knows that if he elects to go forward, he will not go forward alone’.

But how does all this connect with Mambram Thangal and his powers to perform miracles? We need to go back to the judgement for evidence. If it was the utter lack of tact and strategic thinking on the part of Collector Thomas which had led to the massacre in Tirurangadi, it was similar tactlessness and boorishness on the part of Sub Inspector Gupteswar Singh that ended in the tragic events in Chaura where he and other 22 members of the force (including village chowkidars) lost their lives.

From the Judgement: ‘The firing of the first volley in the air was met by the cry that Mahatmaji Gandhi was working miraculously in favour of the volunteers and was turning bullets to water. We have plenty of evidence on this record as to the wide-spread belief in this gentleman’s miraculous powers. We have no doubt that such a cry was raised and that it put the finishing touch to the resolution of the mob’.

grandson of accused Lal Mohammad
courtesy:www.chaurichaura.com

In an obiter dictum the Allahabad High Court Judgement (delivered by the Chief Justice Sir Grimwood Hears Kt. , and Mr.Justice Piggot on April 30^th, 1923) reaffirms the culpability of Gandhi and his miracles: ‘The appellants are in the main ignorant peasants; the great majority of them were drawn into the business by misrepresentation of facts and preposterous promises concerning the millennium of ‘swaraj’ the arrival of which was to be forwarded by courage and resolution on their part. Some indeed were apparently influenced by the belief that Mr.Gandhi was a worker of miracles. We cannot take leave of the case without an uneasy feeling that there are individuals at large at this moment, men who have not even been put on their trial in connection with this affair, whose moral responsibility for what took place at Chaura Police Station in the afternoon of February 4^th 1922, is at least equal to that which rests upon such men as Nazar Ali and Lal Mohammad, who acted as leaders openly, in the light of the day and at least placed their own lives on the hazard along with the rest’.

The irony was that when the judgement was being delivered, Gandhiji was serving a prison sentence for his role in the non-cooperation movement. Another interesting tidbit is that Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who had opposed the non-cooperation resolution in the Calcutta session of the Congress on the ground that it could lead to large-scale violence, was the lawyer who unsuccessfully defended the 225 persons who were put to trial in the Chauri Chaura Case. 19 ring leaders were sentenced to death, 113 for transportation for life to the Andamans and the rest acquitted.

What history does not tell us is how Gandhiji was suddenly jolted into action after the loss of 23 lives in Chauri Chaura and called off the movement when six months before this event, many more innocent lives had been lost in Malabar on the same Khilafat cause? As Gandhi wrote, explaining his decision to call off the non-cooperation movement, ‘God spoke clearly through Chauri Chaura’. Perhaps, God was less coherent in Malabar! Sir C. Sankaran Nair wrote about Gandhi in his book Gandhi and Anarchy (1922 ) : Mr. Gandhi, to take him at his best is indifferent to facts. Facts must submit to the dictates of his theories.

Ref: 1. Judgement in the case Abdullah vs Emperor Criminal Appeal No. 51 od 1923, Allahabad High Court, reported in Indian Cases, Vol 92 www.archive.org

2. Mahatma Gandhi: Selected Political Writings edited by Dennis Dalton (1996)

3.www.chaurichaura.com

4. Sir C. Sankaran Nair : Gandhi and Anarchy, Mittal Publications, New Delhi

Calicut's E&S Company

2010-07-05T15:23:00.000+05:30

Senior citizens of Calicut would recall that the tea dust they bought some half a century ago used to come in large plywood chests and was dispensed by the retailer in pounds or its fractions. These tea chests had on its sides a string of letters stencilled in black, indicating the plantation from which the merchandise came, the date of packing and the wholesale price and the company that supplied it, in bold -E&SJCWS

Buyers would, of course, recognise the first two letters, for E&S was a reputed company in Calicut and provided employment to thousands in their plantations, tea factories and other businesses. Like many other colonial institutions, E&S has also vanished from Malabar scene without leaving a trace.

How did this unlikely name become a household name in Malabar and much of South India? It takes us back to the history of co-operation. It is recognised that the first co-operative was launched by 28 flannel weavers who came together in 1844 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Soon the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) movement took shape and the English CWS was formed in 1863-64. Starting with the business of wholesale merchanting, these CWSs expanded to cover every item of business from production to retailing. It also dabbled in banking and insurance. At one time, the English CWS owned 174 factories in different parts of England and Wales. Similarly, the Scottish CWS owned 56 factories and employed 13000 workers. In the pre-world war years these two CWSs came together to form the English and Scottish Joint Co-operative Wholesale Society (E&SJCWS).

The Society did a commendable job during the years of the First World War in holding the price in Britain by ensuring adequate supply of consumer goods. Perhaps as recognition of this good work, it was permitted to acquire more than 32000 acres of tea plantation in South India and Ceylon in 1920. Thus came into existence the largest player in tea production and trade in the east which at one time had controlled almost one sixth of the tea import into Britain and was competing with private players like Brooke Bond and Lipton.

(source:http://www.wopc.co.uk/assets/images/countries/uk/cws-snap.jpg)

The Co-operative had its own printing press at Longsight, Manchester which brought out many items advertising its tea. The pictures above are the covers of playing cards promoting its tea, produced by the Manchester Press.

We could not trace any remnant of the E&S Company in Calicut. We are, however, sure that many readers would have their own reminiscences of the Company which was once part of many Malabar families. It is reported that most of its tea estates in Kerala and Tamil Nadu were taken over by the Parry Agro Industries Ltd.

FOR PEPPER AND CHRIST - A Fictional History of Calicut

2010-06-28T16:15:00.000+05:30

For Pepper and Christ, a novel written by the eminent poet and former IPS officer, Keki N. Daruwalla, covers a vast canvas running from Lisbon to Cairo to Mozambique and Milind now known as Malindi) to Calicut. The storyline is the epic journey of Vasco da Gama in search of pepper and the fabled Christian king of the East, Prester John. Three voices tell the story - that of Brother Figueiro, a member of da Gama's fleet, Taufiq, the young disciple of the legendary Ibn Majid who guides the Portuguese fleet from Milind to Calicut and the 'obtrusive narrator' (as the author himself describes) who covers the Cairo portion of the story, rather ponderously.

Vasco Pillar on Malindi beach

We deal here with the Calicut portion of the story which starts with da Gama meeting Ibn Majid who entrusts him with the young pilot, Taufiq, before imploring Gama: 'Everybody robs India. Be frugal in your thefts'. Taufiq leads the fleet to the coast off Kappad (Capua) and the rest of the story follows closely recorded history.The fictional part involves two strands - the tragic romance of Chirukandan, one of the Zamorin's ministers and Taufiq's dalliance with a young Muslim girl in Calicut.

Unfortunately, both the sub plots fail to give local flavour of Calicut in the 15th Century. One can understand the limitation of the author, as there is not much vernacular source on the social history of Calicut. He appears to have depended mainly on Western sources (judging from the acknowledgements) and these sources have their limitations in terms of understanding and describing local milieu.

What is outstanding about the book is the sheer poetry of Daruwalla's prose : Taufiq's thoughts -...beyond all this is the sea: shell-encrusted sand, the roar of the high tide, the backwash, the undertow scrambling to pull back the lace, which the tide has left on the beach....The sea demands passion.

The novel's poetic ending deserves to be quoted: A certain Clive would have won a battle and yet been impeached, and Burke and Sheridan would have thundered against Hastings all the same, whether a Taufiq had guided one Vasco across the seas or no. There's something inexorable about history - also about gunpowder and gunboats.

Reference:

For Pepper and Christ - a novel by Keki N.Daruwalla, Penguin (2009) India Rs.399

Calicut, Ooty and Jannat Biwi

2010-06-07T15:20:00.000+05:30

'What a glad moment it is, to be sure, when the sick and the seedy, the tired and testy invalid from pestiferous Scinde or pestilential Guzerat "leaves all behind him" and scrambles over the sides of his Pattimar.'

Thus begins the travelogue of Richard Burton recollecting his journey to Calicut and Ooty. (Please see http://calicutheritage.blogspot.com/2009/02/kamasutra-translator-in-zamorins-mankav.html)

Ever since Ooty was developed around 1830 as the favourite location for rest and recuperation (R&R) for British soldiers (much like Bangkok and Manila for US soldiers during the Vietnam wars) Calicut started receiving 'the sick and the seedy, the tired and testy' British soldiers from the Sikh and Afghan campaigns who would be sent on long R&R vacations to the salubrious hill station. Usually, they would land by sea at Calicut and take either the Nilambur or Mettuppalayam route. Burton himself was on R&R from Sindh and spent six months

in Goa, Calicut and Ooty.

William Logan's 'Malabar' is perhaps the most authentic source of history of the place, particularly for the period after the fall of Tipu and Pazhassi. Yet, Logan does not mention Calicut as the route for the R&R crowd, except to mention casually that when there was a Hindu-Muslim conflict in November 1841, the District Collector of Malabar was 'away at Ootacamund', suggesting that not only British soldiers, but even civil servants headed for the Blue Mountains.

Writing in 1887, Logan states: 'Shortly after the close of the war with Coorg (in 1834) the district administration entered upon a period of disturbance, which unhappily continues down to the present time.'(page 623, Malabar Manual) Then follows a long list of 'outrages' perpetrated by the Mappilas on the Hindus, all attributed to the phenomenon of Haal ilakkam (religious frenzy). The narrative culminates with the gruesome murder of Conolly, the Collector.

Were all the disturbances involving Muslims during this period due to haal ilakkam? Or was Logan being selective in the narration to suit his thesis about land tenure and to make out a cogent explanation for Conolly's murder? The Jannat Biwi episode jerks the needle of suspicion a bit.

Around the same time that Burton had reached the shores of Calicut en route Ooty, another fatigued soldier, one Captain S.W. Partridge attached to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry was also travelling on recuperation to Ooty. But unlike Burton, the young Captain was accompanied by a young Muslim girl from Sindh, where he had been posted. Apparently, the soldier had enticed the young unmarried girl who had left her house. Her people had reportedly written to the Ponnani Maqdoom, Ahmad Musaliar.

On 16th February 1847, the Maqdoom's men surrounded the Ponnani Travellers' Bungalow where the couple (along with one major Craig and family) had been put up. The crowd of more than 300 Muslims managed to abduct the girl - who gave her name as Jannat Biwi - and took her to the house of the Maqdoom's wife.

Both Major Craig and Captain Partridge appealed for immediate Army action. But, the District Collector was the sagacious Conolly who recognised the potential for great damage unless the situation was handled carefully. In fact, he had himself recorded a similar instance which had happened a decade ago when he was not the District Collector of Malabar. Another adventurous British military officer on medical leave was travelling to Ooty and had engaged as his companion a Muslim woman of easy virtue. But before they could proceed, they were attacked by an irate mob in Calicut which managed to free the woman.

Mr. Conolly was, therefore, circumspect in taking action. The Tahsildar of Koottanad who had jurisdiction over the case was inclined to resort to military action, presumably under pressure from the Army officers. But Conolly deputed a Muslim Tahsildar, one Mr.Kuttoosa to assist the Koottanad Tahsildar. Kuttoosa managed to defuse the situation and arrested about 34 Muslims including the Muqdoom of Ponnani.

The arrested were produced before the District Magistrate on 21 February 1847. Conolly deputed his Assistant Collector, H.D. Cook to conduct an enquiry and report.

The case came up for trial before the sub judge Mr. T.W. Godwin in early March 1847. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the Court of the Sessions Judge, Mr.H. Morris. On 27 July 1847 the Judge convicted 18 persons for imprisonment for a term between 2 to 7 years. (Aside: How quickly cases were decided in those times when there was no 'fast-track court'!)

Maqdoom himself was convicted for 3 years and sent to the Chengalpet jail under escort. Both the Madras Government and the Board of Directors of the East India Company confirmed the sentence as necessary for maintaining the rule of law. The only aggrieved persons, other than the accused, were the two Army officers who protested against the soft treatment meted out to the religious head.

Obviously, the above two cases could not have been isolated. It is possible that young Army officers (mostly bachelors) would have been looking for and acquiring companions to take with them to Ooty on R&R. After all, Burton himself was bored stiff during his R&R and has left a vivid description of the type of female company that was available for the young bachelors in Ooty: 'Among the ladies, we have elderlies who enjoy tea and delight in scandal:grass widows... and spinsters of every kind, from the little girl in bib and tucker, to the full blown Anglo-India young lady, who discourses of her papa the Colonel, and disdains to look at anything below the rank of a field-officer'! No wonder, Burton left Ooty much before the end of the furlough, casting 'one last scowl upon Ootacamund, not, however, without a grim smile of joy at the prospect of escaping from it'.

Was Logan glossing over these incidents of transgression by British men in uniform or was he being selective in only reporting cases which suited his thesis? How many of the 38 cases attributed to Haal Ilakkam during this period could have been legitimate social protest? More research may be called for. We should also research the impact on colonial Calicut of the opening up of Ooty as the premier R&R centre in India.

Reference:

1. W.Logan : Malabar Manual

2. R.Burton : Goa and the Blue Mountains

3. Husain Randathani (Ed) : Makhdoomum Ponnaniyum (1998)

4. Mollie Panter-Downes : Ooty Preserved (1967)

Calicut Railway - some more details

2010-05-31T16:56:00.000+05:30

Reader Devasahayam wanted to know whether the old Beypore Railway Station exists any longer. Sadly, the building has disappeared long ago, leaving only a large fresh water well which was dug for supplying water for the steam engines.

Fortunately, we have an old photograph of the Beypore Railway Station furnished by another reader, Calicocentric. As he explains, this photograph used to be on the British Library Museum site but has somehow disappeared from there. We thank Calicocentric and reproduce the photograph, acknowledging the copyright of the British Library Museum.

Premnath has furnished another priceless photograph of the stagecoach crossing the Dharmadom river with passengers. Here it is!

Calicut - Before and After the Railway

2010-04-25T06:19:00.000+05:30

The first train in India chugged off from Bombay’s Bori Bunder to Thane, at 3.35 PM on April 16^th, 1853 – a train with 14 railway carriages accommodating 400 guests. It took another three years before the first train in South India ran on 1^st July 1856 from Royapuram/Vyasarpadi to Wallajah Road (Arcot), a distance of around 100 kilometres. The Madras Railway Company which was operating this line took up the construction in small reaches with some gaps. The reach between Tirur and Beypore was opened on 12^th March, 1861 and the link between Tirur and Kuttippuram two months later. It was further extended from Kuttippuram to Pattambi and Pattambi to Podanur in 1862.

One reason to start the construction from the Beypore end was the port facility available there. The locomotive and the railway coaches for running the train reached Beypore by sea and was unloaded there using the legendary khalasis.

It took another 13 years for the train to reach Calicut, because the work was taken up as part of the northern extension. It was on 2^nd January 1888 that Calicut Railway Station was formally inaugurated. Till then, people had to travel to Beypore to catch the train.

How did the people of Calicut manage before the train reached Calicut? We get interesting vignettes from contemporary publications.

The Asylum Press Almanac Directory and Compendium of Intelligence was a publication which gave important information to travellers. It was compiled, printed and published at the Lawrence Asylum Press, Mount Road, Madras, by G.W.Taylor, Superintendent. Apparently, it was a Government publication. ( Incidentally, ‘The Indian Bradshaw’ which was popular in North India as the authentic information for rail travellers was being published by W.Newman & Company from 1866 onwards, but was more popular on the north and east railways)

The Asylum for 1888, describes Beypore thus: The terminus of the line on the western coast. There is an hotel on the station premises for the accommodation of travellers. Calicut, the principal town of Malabar is 9 miles distant and the population is 57,085. The Beypore river is crossed in boats, and bullock bandies (‘vandi ‘in Malayalam!)can be obtained on the other side. Traveller to Cannanore and other places would find it most convenient to take passages in the B.I.S.N Company’s Steamers which call weekly at Beypore except during the South West Monsoon, though it is possible to make the journey by land through Calicut and Tellicherry, travelling partly by bullock cart and partly by boat on the backwaters. The route passes through Mahe, a French settlement about 4 miles of Tellicherry, which is a very pretty and interesting place.

Obviously, the Asylum for 1888 was published before the Railway came to Calicut in January of that year. The next edition, published for 1889 makes good by providing useful information on Calicut:

The Railway was opened to Calicut on the 2^nd January 1888, and this station is now the Western Terminus of the Madras Railway. Calicut is the principal town of Malabar and is a port of call for the Coasting Steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company. The population of the town is about 61,000. A Hotel has been opened on the Beach by Mr.P. Canaren, formerly Proprietor of the Railway Hotel, Beypore.

Acknowledgement: We thank Dr. Oliver Noone for providing the pictures of the Almanac from the British Museum Library, London

2010-04-17T16:30:00.000+05:30

Cornwallis

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Munnar and Malabar – How boundaries are determined!

The tragic-comic spectacle of the Kerala Government deputing team after team to ascertain the nature and extent of its holdings in Munnar would bring tears to the hardest heart. Officially, the entire area of Munnar belongs to the government, but look at the way it goes about identifying and removing encroachment.

The British colonial regime had no such problems. As soon as it was realised that the rolling hills and the bewitching valleys of Kannan Devan Hills are suitable for raising a variety of crops – apart from being developed as a low-cost option for the annual vacation and furlough for the Europeans – they started grabbing the land with finesse.

John Daniel Munro was the pioneer in this field. Ironically, he was working as Travancore’s Superintendent of Cardamom Hills and was also its representative in settling the boundary dispute with Madras. He persuaded the Poonjar Raja (whose title to the land is still a subject of litigation) to allot to him vast tracts of land. With his influence with the Travancore government (his father, Urban Verres Munro was Travancore’s first Conservator of Forests and his grandfather, Col. John Munro was the legendary Dewan of Travancore during 1811-1814 after whom an entire island is named - Munrothuruthu), it was no surprise that the Resident himself sent a strong note to the Dewan on 30^th January 1862:

I cannot too strongly urge that the Sircar should at once declare the policy which it proposes to adopt with regard to these jungles and make the gentlemen who have applied aware whether they can cultivate these jungles. Every day is of importance, and I have repeated requests from gentlemen to know when they may expect answers to their applications. (quoted by Paul E. Baak, EPW, Aug 15, 1992)

And who are these ‘gentlemen’? Apart from JD Munro, others included an ICS officer from Madras, the Turner brothers (one of them again a civil servant) and a few other influential civil servants. Now we know where the political parties and land sharks of Munnar learnt the not-so-subtle art of arm twisting the decision makers.

What has all this got to do with Malabar, one may ask? We have, indeed, a parallel in taking decisions on boundaries when the facts are hazy and the claims are dubious.

According to Pamela Nightingale, the British historian, how the territories of Malabar which came under the East India Company were decided, is not quite clear. On 22^nd February, 1792, the Company signed the preliminary articles of peace with Tipu Sultan. The terms did not specify which areas of Tipu’s dominions were to form the half which he ceded to the Company and their allies. (The Srirangapatam Treaty which ended the second Mysore War had laid down that Tipu would surrender one-half of the dominions in his possessions.) The issue was referred to the Governor General, Lord Cornwallis who was camping in Madras and was personally leading the war against Tipu .

Cornwallis had his Bengal model of settlement before him and interpreted the final terms of the treaty to bring the Rajas (Nayar chieftains) under the Company ‘on the footing of the Bengal Zemindars,...’ so that ‘the commerce of that country in pepper, spices etc may become extremely advantageous to the Company.’

A two member Commission was appointed by General Abercromby to delineate the boundaries and negotiate the rent to be paid by the Rajas and chieftains on the lines of the Bengal settlement. Of the two members, Major Dow had been a military commander at Tellicherry since 1789 but the other gentleman, William Gamul Farmer was a Senior Merchant with no experience of Malabar and resented being sent there. (More about this gentleman in another post). Cornwallis also deputed his trusted Bengal civil servants, Jonathan Duncan and Charles Boddam to assist the Commission.

Tipu had left Malabar in disarray. The rulers had fled the land. Tipu’s own machinery did not provide any records to the Commission on the plea that all records had been destroyed in the recent battles. The dethroned Nair chieftains would do their best to sabotage the British takeover of their territories. They falsified their records so that their tributes to the Company would be small.

Ultimately, the boundaries of Malabar and its revenue obligations were settled merely on the basis of the Company’s self-interest of ensuring uninterrupted supply of pepper at cheap rates and maintenance of peace in the pepperland. How one wishes that those in charge of the Munnar operations also followed the salutary principle of enlightened self-interest and protected the state property from sharks of all hues!

2010-03-31T17:10:00.001+05:30

Why There are no Chinese Nets in Calicut?

Ever wondered why Calicut, with its centuries of contact with the Chinese, did not have a single Chinese net, whereas Chinese net has almost become the mascot of Cochin?

After all, more than Cochin, Calicut and Quilon had longer and more sustained trade relationship with China in the 14^th and 15^th Centuries. The greatest of Chinese mariners, Zheng He is reputed to have visited Calicut seven times and had even left a memorial plaque to mark his visits. He is believed to have died in Calicut during his seventh visit and his body was buried in the high seas off the coast of Calicut.

Chinese traders of Silk -a statue on Calicut's Silk Street (coutesy:bloomingcalicut)

Calicut and Panthalayini Kollom were reputed to have had enclaves of Chinese settlers. While Calicut boasts of a Silk Street where the Chinese traders had been peddling their ware, Panthalayini Kollom still has a Silk Bazar where similar trade must have been conducted by the Chinese mariners. Then, there is the evidence of travellers about the existence of Chinibachgan or the Children of the Chinese in Calicut, although there are other interpretations too for the source of the word.

It could also not have been the lack of suitable water bodies for fixing the nets, for the Chaliyar, Akalappuzha and the lagoons of Kadalundi offer locations comparable to the backwaters of Vembanad and Kochi kayal.

Wikipedia suggests that ‘some believe’ that the Chinese nets were introduced into Cochin by Zheng He, the great General of the Ming Dynasty. If so, why did he not introduce the nets into Calicut? More pertinently, did Cochin exist as an important port during Zheng He’s visits?

Chinese fishing nets in Cochin backwaters (courtesy:Wikipedia)

A more plausible explanation has been offered by Deepa Leslie in her article at http://enchantingkerala.org/kerala-articles/chinese-nets.php According to her, it is the Portuguese Casado settlers from Macau who brought this form of fishing into Cochin. She explains further that the names of the various parts of the net currently in use are Portuguese in origin :

The net used for catching the fish is called rede, its edge is borda, the arms of wooden parts which hold the extensive net together is brasao, while the flexible ring on the top on which the entire brasao moves is argola. In addition there are Corda and Pedra for balancing the movement of the net. There is Caluada on which the fishermen moves up and down and the posts which support the entire structure from the river bottom are called Odora.

Incidentally, the Portuguese settlers had also introduced the wok which is called cheenachchatti and the delicacy known among the coastal Christians of Cochin as cheenasampal. Finally, the catch from the Chinese nets when dried is called bakkal (vakkal) which is derived from the Portuguese term ‘Bacalhau’.

As Portuguese settlers ( Casado means ‘married one’) were not welcome in Calicut, the net also did not reach its shores!

Calicut Soap Factory and Raja Ravi Varma

2010-03-13T14:14:00.000+05:30

We had some time ago written about the glorious days of the Kerala Soap Institute, (KSI) Calicut which used to supply its famous Sandal Soaps to the Viceroy's House and the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi after independence. (Please read here:

http://calicutheritage.blogspot.com/2008/11/soaps-for-viceroy-made-in-calicut.html)

The good news is that our speculation about the factory's obituary was rather premature! The state government showed great determination in reviving this heritage factory and we shall soon see our favourite 'Kerala sandal' on the shops of premier supermarkets. We do hope the quality equals that of the Mysore sandal - which incidentally learnt the art from Kerala Soap Institute, Calicut.

Getting the Viceroy of India to endorse the product was nothing less than a coup! But, using Raja Ravi Varma's lithographs to popularise the soap was something out of this world; but this was what the management of KSI did.

Raja Ravi Varma had started a lithographic press in Bombay in 1894 on the advice of Dewan Madhava Rao. It was called the Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic Press (FAL Press, for short - those from the older generation might recall glossy calendars of gods and goddesses hanging from barber shops and tea stalls with the legend 'FAL Press' in the corner!) The press was managed by the painter himself and his brother Raja Varma. It churned out a large number of lithographs which were used as Calendar pictures. Many of these were paintings by Ravi Varma himself and others were by famous artists like C.K.Raju and Ramalingam.

The most famous lithograph of the artist used by KSI was 'Mohini on a Swing, 1894' which suggested freshness and natural fragrance, so appropriate as qualities for the sandal soap! But, then, some time later, Amco Batteries, Bangalore bought the lithograph and it disappeared from KSI Calendars. This was replaced by Hindu gods and goddesses.

It would be nice if Kerala Government could revive these heritage lithographs and use them in wrappers, calendars and other materials to revive the century old legacy of KSI.

Calicut has another legitimate claim on the works of Raja Ravi Varma - but therby hangs a tale! In 1904, the Viceroy, Lord Curzon conferred on the great artist the title Kaiser-i-Hind on behalf of His Majesty the King Emperor.

The citation mentioned the title, 'Raja' for the first time against the name of Ravi Varma. The Maharaja of Travancore, Sri Moolam Thirunal objected to this 'usurpation'. Ravi Varma, however, defended the title by claiming that his ancestors belonged to the royal family of Beypore, near Calicut. Anyhow, he continued to use the title 'Raja', since then.

Ironically, both the grand daughters of Raja Ravi Varma were later adopted by the Travancore palace and one of them became the mother of the next Maharaja, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma!

Reference:

Raja Ravi Varma: Painter of Colonial India (2010) by Rupika Chawla

Wikipedia article on Raja Ravi Varma

http://sites.google.com/site/ravivarmalithos/

What happened to Kottapparamba after the 1766 suicide?

2010-02-25T19:40:00.001+05:30

Hyder Ali marched into Malabar from the north in 1766, leading to general panic in the area. Soon he was knocking at the gates of the Zamorin territory. There are several versions of what took place between Hyder and the Zamorin before the unfortunate event of self-immolation. The version relied on by Logan and Krishna Ayyar suggests that Hyder had sent Ali Rajah by sea to Calicut as advance party and it was he and his forces which had initiated the siege of the fort.

Logan states further that the Zamorin himself met Hyder Ali at Kurumbranad and offered to deliver the whole of his treasury and all his property but this did not satisfy Hyder who demanded a crore of gold mohur as compensation. Hyder, it seems, had even seized and imprisoned the Zamorin after break down of the talks. He was sent under the guard of 500 horse and 2000 infantry to the fort of Calicut; the Raja was confined in his own house without food, and was strictly prohibited from performing the ceremonies of his religion; and as he thought that Hyder might inflict some further disgrace upon him, either by causing him to be hanged, or blown from a gun, the Raja set fire to the house with his own hand, and was consumed by it.' (Logan, page 463)

What followed was bedlam. The Eralpad who had accompanied the women from the Calicut fort to the safety of the Ponnani kovilakam, took over as the new Zamorin and lost no time in exhorting the Nairs loyal to the Zamorin to wage a guerrilla war against the Mysore forces and their aliies from Cannanore. This was followed by the valiant revolt led by Prince Ravi Varma of Padinjare Kovilakam.

When at last Tipu attacked Travancore, the English woke up to the threat and appealed to all the rulers of Malabar to join hands in facing the common enemy. A cowlnama (agreement) was signed between General Meadows, the Commander-in chief of the East India Company forces and the Eralpad which recognised the right of the Zamorin to collect revenue etc.

It was perhaps in pursuance of this authority that the members of the ruling family started selling off bits and pieces of the great Palace and Fort of the Zamorin. Thus it was that Aiysumma of Koilandy bought a piece of the Kottapparambu and consequently the present Moideen Palli came up on that plot. Thus it was too that Kandan and Beeran got proprietary rights over plots of land where Abdul Razzak and Vasco da Gama had been received and feted.

The fascinating story of how the transfer of this prime real estate took place was revealed with the help of polichezhuthu documents by the eminent historian Prof. M.R. Raghava Warrier at the Febuary 2010 meeting of the Calicut Heritage Forum. Please read the full report at

http://calicutheritageforum.googlepages.com/meeting9232

Father Finicio of Calicut

2010-02-05T11:49:00.000+05:30

Father Giacomo Finicio was an Italian priest of the Order of Society of Jesus who lived and died in Calicut in the 16th Century. Born in Capua, Italy in 1588, he joined the Order and, after training, was deputed to Calicut where the Jesuits had established themselves firmly with Portuguese support.

Although the Portuguese had long given up their efforts to locate the mythical King Prester John, a local version of the same chase was being enacted when Finicio reached Calicut. The Syrian Catholic Bishop of Angamaly diocese had received reliable information that some Christians who had strayed from the path were leading a life of neglect and isolation in the Nilgiri Hills. They knew 'nothing of Christianity except the bare name', the report said. Curious about this lost Christian tribe, the Bishop sent in 1602 a team to find out facts and report to him.

The team had a strange composition. Apart from a priest and a deacon, the team also consisted of a cousin of the ruling Zamorin of Calicut. The mission was, however, a failure as it could not locate any such community.

It was then that the Bishop turned to Father Finicio of Calicut for help. A team under the Father set out in 1603, consisting of six Nairs, four Christians and the Zamorin's cousin who had been on the previous mission.

Finicio and party travelled from Calicut to Tanur and then to Mannarkkad. From there they trekked to Chavadiyur. After three days of strenuous trekking through the Attappadi and Sundappatti hills they reached Melur, a Badaga village in the Nilgiris.

At the end of the trip all that Father Finicio and his team could find was a tribe of innocent Badagas and Todas who worshipped the buffalo. The pious priest stayed among the Todas for two months braving the biting cold, trying to convince the Todas on how they could be saved by becoming Christians. In return, the head priest of the Todas extolled on the virtues of the Bufalo God!

Fr. Finicio might have failed in converting the Todas, but he contributed greatly by telling the world outside about the existence of such a tribe. More important, his report dissuaded further attempts at their conversion till at least for the next 200 years when the Basel Mission went up the Blue Mountain.

Fr. Finicio was the first westerner to locate the Todas and to provide a satisfactory ethnographic account of the community. Anthropologists have acknowledged his pioneering contribution. Finicio died in Calicut in 1632.

400 years after the Finicio Expedition, a group of some 20 adventurers under the auspices of an environmental NGO, Save Nilgiris Campaign, retraced the 'Finicio Trail' in 2004. Their account can be read athttp://hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2004/02/22/stories/2004022200130200.htm

Syphilisation of Calicut

2010-01-22T19:31:00.000+05:30

When Vasco Da Gama reached Calicut, his audience with the Zamorin was delayed as the gifts he had brought with him were considered worthless by the Palace hangers-on. In place of gold and precious stones, the visitor had brought cheap trinklets and wash basins! It took all the charm that Gama was capable of to persuade them to permit him to have an audience.

But, while the Nairs and Muslim merchants were squabbling over the gifts, Gama's mariners were distributing a gift among the women folk which their husbands would remember for a long time. Starved of female company for more than a year, the Portuguese sailors rushed to the fleshpots of Calicut -there were many, according to contemporary accounts- and infected the Calicut women with the dreaded Great Pox, as Syphilis was then known.

Syphilis was a relatively new disease, but one which was spreading with devastating outcome, much like the AIDS during the late 1980s. Its origin is disputed (as indeed of HIV/AIDS) but most agree that it flared up in Europe during the last decade of the 15th century. The first reported epidemic was in the Spanish port city of Cadiz to which Columbus had returned in 1493 and had dismissed his crew. The expedition had reportedly picked it up from Haiti. Within the next 15 years the disease had killed 10 million people in Europe.

It was Ludvico Di Varthema, the Italian adventurer who had reported the spread of Syphilis in Calicut in 1505 - just 7 years after Gama had landed. Varthema called it the 'French' disease, although the French were to reach the shores of Calicut much later. Varthema being Italian, called it the French disease, as it was known in Italy and Germany. The French, however, called it the Italian disease. The Turkish called it the Christian disease or the Frank disease from which the Malayalam name Parangippunnu came about.

The disease did spread quickly, and if Varthema were to be believed, it did not even spare the ruling Zamorin, Manavikrama Raja (1500-1513). Varthema could not meet the Zamorin in 1505, 'in consequence of his being at war with the King of Portugal and also because he had the French disease and had it in the throat'.

The Ruler of Calicut was in august company: King Henry VIII, who had been crowned King of England in 1509, was also suffering from Syphilis and had passed on the disease to all his children, except the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I.

Varthema attempts to soften the blow of his revelation: You must know that I have seen the disease three thousand miles beyond Calicut, and it is called 'pua' and they say it is about seventeen years since it began, and it is much worse than ours.

Whether the Zamorin did indeed have Syphilis or not, we can say on the testimony of Alfonso de Albuquerque that he died of poisoning. Writing to the King of Portugal shortly after the death of the Zamorin in 1513, Albuquerque calimed credit for this: I hold it for certain that the Nambiadiri slew the Zamorin with poison, because in all my letters I bid him do so and that in a peace treaty I will come to an agreement with him...

Albuquerque died in 1515 in Goa and there is no record of his having paid back the Nambiadiri. Just possible that the Zamorin did indeed die of Syphilis and the Portuguese general was claiming credit! Anyhow, the era of syphilisation of Calicut had begun with the first Portuguese mariner rolling in the Calicut sand!

The Land of Many Hills

2010-01-15T14:48:00.000+05:30

Calicut is famous as an ancient Port City, also known during the Zamorins' heyday as The City of Truth. But one would not ordinarily describe Calicut as a city of many hills - till one gets either an aerial view of the city as the plane maneuvers to land on the Karippur runway OR a view of the city from the Arabian Sea in an approaching ship or boat.

This is the view described by early mariners who would approach the shores of Calicut. They would first sight the Nilgiri hills at a distance and Wynad hills further to the north. As one gets closer, the undulating hillocks in and around Calicut come into focus. This is the impression of Calicut port as portrayed in contemporary paintings and engravings of the 15th - 18th Centuries. The accompanying engraving which figures in the Oriental Memoirs by Forbes (1810) is an instance.

A graphic description of Calicut from the sea is provided by Richard Burton in his book, Goa and the Blue Mountains (1851) : Seen from the sea, all the towns on

this coast (of Calicut) look like straggling villages, with a background of distant blue hill and a middle space of trees, divided by a strip of sand from the watery plain. He explains further what he meant by the 'distant blue hill' in a foot note : The mountains distinctly visible from the sea off Calicut in clear weather, are the Koondah range of the Neilgherries, or Blue Hills.

Come to think of it, Calicut has a large number of places with 'hill' suffixed - the most obvious are West Hill, East Hill, Silver Hills and Florican Hills (Florican, incidentally is a bird of the bustard family which is virtually extint now in Calicut). Then there are the vernacular names : Pokkunnu, Eravath kunnu, Katcheri kunnu, Kariyakkunnu, Kalathilkunnu etc.

Interestingly, there is an ancient Nair family in Calicut called Palakunnath (literally, Of Many Hills). Its original location is near Chevaur (Kovoor) and the many branches of this family used to hold possession of several hillocks around stretching from Chathamangalam to Kuttikkattor.

Today, the hillocks of Calicut have been overshadowed by the high-rise apartments, as seen in the accompanying picture!

Gama Ko Gussa Kyon Aaya? (What Made Gama Angry?)

2010-01-04T15:05:00.000+05:30

A 17th Century engraving of vasco Da Gama

Although Gama was feted in Lisbon as the conqueror of the east, he was still seething with ager at the lukewarm reception that he got from the Zamorin and the hostile treatment at the hands of the Moors. The instructions to the second expedition led by Cabral were clear and unambiguous: if the Zamorin would not quietly consent or give sufficient lading to the ships, he should wage cruel war upon him for his injurious conduct to Vasco Da Gama.

Cabral's impetuous actions further eroded what little goodwill the Portuguese had in Calicut. Cabral's report on his return to Portugal was not very encouraging, but King Manuel was still hopeful that apart from financial rewards from the voyage, it would also bring spiritual dividends through conversion of the infidels into Christianity. He turned once again to the great Captain Major, Vasco Da Gama to lead another expedition. Thus it was that Gama landed in Calicut once again on the 29th October 1502 - eager to wreak vengeance on a people who had fooled him into believing themselves to be Christians.

This time, there was no mistaking, for he was carrying on board Catholic priests to ensure that the heathens were shown the true path. King Manuel had also made his intentions clear: in a despatch to India he wrote - we are sending (in this expedition) religious persons and men well-versed in the Christian faith and religion that they may celebrate the divine worship and administer the sacraments, so that you may be able to see for yourselves what is our religion and faith which was established by Jesus Christ.

Gama's cruelty to the people of Calicut has been characterised by the Encyclopedia Brittanica (1953 edition) as 'savagery too horrible to describe'. He set the standards for dealing with the heathens in the name of the Chruch. Sir James Tennant, in his work, Ceylon quotes from a contemporary account of Portuguese cruelty : Jerome Azavido, a soldier less distinguished by his prowess than infamous for his cruelties, was despatched to Ceylon in 1594 to avenge the iniquities endured by his fellow countrymen ... In the height of his success there, he beheaded mothers after forcing them to cast their babies between millstones... He caused soldiers to take up children on the point of spears... He caused many men to be cast off the bridge at Malwane for the troops to see the crocodiles devour them, and these creatures grew so used to the food, that at a whistle they would lift their heads above the water!

Portuguese government was shamed into punishing Commander Azavido. Sitting in his Lisbon dungeon, Azavido pondered upon the fickleness of a system that condoned similar behaviour earlier by a patriot called Vasco Da Gama but used him as a scapegoat to appease public conscience!

Not too long after the massacre and the vigorous effort to Christianise India, landed Francis Xavier, the co-founder (along with Ignatius Loyola) of the Society of Jesus. He was scandalised as much by the Jewish wickedness of not observing the Sabbath as by the Muslim abhorrence for pork and Roman Catholics.

He was kept so busy converting the heathens of Malabar (Cape Comorin area) into Christianity, that he wrote in one of his prolific letters: ... it often happens to me to be hardly able to use my hands from the fatigue of baptizing; often in a single day I have baptised whole villages. Sometimes I have lost my voice and strength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and the other forms.

He realised the truth of the dictum, catch 'em young, and recruited infants and young children into the proselytising mission. He wrote: The fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by the instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These children, I trust heartily, by the grace of God, will be much better than their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine law, and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and imparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They get into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once. Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil with a greater amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received of honor and worship from their parents, relations, and acquaintances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick them about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage.

source: Wikipedia

Not content with this, Francis Xavier wrote on May 16, 1545, to D Joao II, King of Portugal: The second necessity for Christians is that your majesty establish the Holy Inquisition, because there are many who live according to the Jewish Law and according to the Mahomedan sect, without fear of God or shame of the world.

The anger of Gama at being duped by the Malabaris into believing them to be Christians, seems to have played out for a long time, leading to frequent massacre of innocent lives and forced conversion. Trade was all but forgotten in this proselytising zeal. This perhaps hastened the eclipse of Portugal after 1580 when it became part of the Spanish empire and inherited all the traditional enemies of Spain like the Netherlands and England.

How Calicut Remained 'Christian' for Three Years

2009-12-20T15:41:00.000+05:30

Even after the Crusades had ended, its spirit pervaded much of Christendom in the Europe of the 14th and 15th Centuries. On this was superimposed the jealousy at the unholy alliance between the Venetian-Genoese cartels and the Moors and Persians who, between them, had monopolised the profitable trade in spices from the east.

No wonder, then, that the mandate given to both Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama was identical: re-discover the fabled Indies of Marco Polo; convert the natives to Christianity and bring home spices which were essential for preserving meat in winter.

Prester John (source: Wikipedia)

Vasco Da Gama had a clearer mandate as regards Christians. He was to locate and make friends with the legendary Prester John, the Christian King of the East who was believed to be the descendant of one of the three Magi. This mythical King had occupied the imagination of the crusading Europeans ever since the 12th Century. Christendom had long dreamt of this champion of Christianity who would deliver them from the advance of Islam. Although his exact domain was in the realm of speculation, it was thought that it extended from Babylon to the Indies.

The Papal Bull dated 4th May 1493 (further clarified by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494) had effectively partitioned the world between Spain and Portugal and since the latter was given the eastern part, it was in the fitness of things that the exporer of the east, Vasco Da Gama, should be carrying a letter to King Prester John from King Manuel of Portugal!

Vasco Da Gama who was looking for Christians found them wherever he went. While his fleet was anchored at the East African Port of Malindi, he noticed four vessels in the harbour which were said to belong to 'Indian Christians' - who curiously did not like to eat beef! Some of these 'Christians' boarded the Portuguese ship Sao Raphael and prostrated themselves before an altar-piece 'representing Our Lady at the foot of the Cross with Jesus Christ in her arms and the apostles around her'.

Again, in Calicut, no sooner had he embarked on his first trip in a palanquin to meet the Zamorin, and where should he find himself - in a shrine of Santa Maria. For, he had no doubt in his mind that the Durga Temple at Puthoor on the northern boundary of Calicut was a beautiful shrine dedicated to Our Lady, and he bowed reverentially before the altar and received the sprinkling of the holy water from the priest. It was left to the humble clerk of Sao Raphael to doubt whether the grotesque pictures of 'saints' on the shrine's walls were indeed oriental representation of Christian martyrs. Even while following the Captain Major in bowing down, he was heard to mutter a prayer :If these be the devils, I worship the true God!

The triumphant return of Vasco was much celebrated in Portugal - for not only had he found the source of spices but had forged an alliance with the Christian King of Calicut. Pedro Alvares Cabral who led the next expedition to India was also briefed that the King of Calicut was 'Christian', but an 'imperfect one'.

Within a month of the return of Vasco Da Gama to Lisbon, King Manuel was writing to Ferdinand and Isabella (of Spain) : The Christian people whom these explorers reached are not as yet strong in the faith, nor thoroughly conversant with it....But when they shall have been fortified in the faith, there will an opportunity to destroy the Moors of those regime...

King Manuel did take the business of 'fortification of the faith' of the Zamorin and his subjects quite seriously. The fleet of Cabral was carrying some Christian priests who would teach the people of Calicut true faith. In his letter to the Zamorin which Cabral was carrying, Manuel wrote, as one Christian King to another: (God) considers Himself better served by the fact that the holy Christian faith is communicated and joined between you and us as it was for six hundred years after the coming of Jesus Christ, until there arose some sects and contrary heresies as predicted...and these sects occupy a great part of the Earth between your land and ours. Here was the King of Portugal attempting to 'de-toxify' the Zamorin from the heresies of the Mappilas and the Arabs!

That this fiction of a Christian Calicut was maintained for a couple of years in Portugal is evident from the correspondence of Girolamo Sernigi, an Italian investor with business interests in Lisbon. In one of his letters he wrote to Florence on the basis of information gathered from the first ship in Gama's convoy that Calicut was peopled by Christians, although rather odd ones: In this city are churches with bells but there are no priests, and the divine offices are not performed, nor masses celebrated, but in each church there is a pillar holding water in the manner of the fonts holding our holy water, and a second pillar with balm.

He added, this King of Calicut eats neither meat nor fish nor anything that has been killed, nor do his barons, courtiers or other persons of quality, for they say that Jesus Christ said in his law that he who kills shall die.

However, the deception could not be continued for long. The truth came out in the most dramatic fashion. There was a Polish Jew, a trader from Alexandria who spoke fluent Venetian. He was in the service of the Muslim Sultan of Bijapur. He was found by the Portuguese back in India roaming around the Portuguese vessels with an intention to spy on them. He was caught and flogged till he confessed. He was carried by the Portuguese with the returning fleet, was converted to Christianity and later did yeoman service to Potugal as Gaspar da Gama. Vasco Da Gama was so pleased with him that he agreed to be his Godfather and lent his surname!
Although Gaspar publicly repeated the official version about Christian Calicut, the Jew who was forcibly converted to Christianity wanted to take revenge by leaking the truth.

When the story of Calicut came out from the mouth of Gaspar, it must have created quite a commotion in diplomatic and ecclesiastical circles. Our Florentine investor could be seen to quickly correct himself in his subsequent letter, quoting none other than Gaspar himself: He says that in those countries there are many gentiles, that is idolators, and only a few Christians, that the supposed Chruches and belfries are in reality temples of idolators and that the pictures within them are those of idols and not of saints. To me this seems more probable than saying that there are Christians but no divine ministrations, no priests and no sacrificial mass. He does not believe that there are any Christians of account other than some so called Jacobites and those of the Prester John, who is far from Calicut on this side of the gulf of Arabia.
The mood in Lisbon was upbeat after the return of Da Gama and they did not spare other nationalities. The joke making the rounds was that now that a new trade route had been discovered, Venetians would soon have to become fishermen, as they had no future in trade. The eagerness of the Florentine to puncture the ego could have been jealousy at the Portuguese achievement. If so, Sernigi was not alone - there was a fellow Florentine who felt the same way. Amerigo Vespucci wrote to his patron Lorenzo de Medici in 1500, deprecating the fuss being made about Vasco Da Gama's so called discovery:Such a voyage as that I do not call discovery, but merely a going to discovered lands, since as you will see by the map, they navigate continually in sight of land, and sail along the southern part of Africa, which is to proceed upon a way discussed by all the authorities in cosmography.
Facts support Vespucci - Da Gama had taken the same chief pilot who had accompanied Bartholomeo Diaz and was familiar with the route till the Cape; from Malindi Da Gama took the veteran pilot Ibn Majid. Where, indeed, was the discovery? Christians in Calicut??
Reference:
Sanjay Subrahmaniam : Career and Legend of Vasco Da Gama, CUP
Joan-Pau Rubies: Travels and Ethnology in the Renaissance South India through Eurpoean Eyes, 2002, CUP

Zamorin's Wars Abroad II

2009-12-06T05:45:00.000+05:30

The Zamorin's forces - mostly the navy under the Marakkars - were deployed outside Calicut's territories on the western coast during the first half of the 16th Century. One such instance was in defence of the brave Queen of Ullal, Abbakkadevi - a story which our north-centric historians have largely ignored.

Our knowledge about Queen Abbakka and her valiant fight against the Portuguese comes mostly from Arab and Portuguese sources. It appears the Italian traveller Pietro Della Valle who toured India during this period had heard about the brave queen from no less a person that the Persian Emperor Shah Abbas who was all praise for the queen's courage in foiling the Portuguese bid to occupy the Ullal Port. (The accompanying picture commemorates Pietro meeting the Queen)

After the fall of Vijayanagar in 1565 the region was fragmented, with many local chieftains asserting sovereignty. Thus came into being on the western coast alone, several tiny prinicipalities like the Santras of Karkala, Bangas of Mangalore, Sawants of Mulki, Chowthas of Mudibidri, Ajilas of Venur etc.

The Chowthas of Mudibidri were a Jain ruling dynasty, although their family deity was Somanatheswara of Ullal, a Hindu temple. Ullal was the most important port of the principality and Rani Abbakkadevi II was crowned the Queen of Ullal by her uncle, Thirumala Raya, in the tradition of the matrilineal system which the Chowthas followed. She was given in marriage to Lakshmappa Bangaraja of the mighty Banga dynasty of Mangalore. But the political alliance did not last long and the Rani left her pro-Portuguese husband and shifted to Ullal with her three minor children. Her husband did not forgive her for this, as subsequent events would show.

The Portuguese who had established themselves in Goa were plotting to expand southwards and re-establish their monopoly of the spice trade by trying to subjugate the coastal rulers. They were able to win over the Mangalore Prince by offering sops, but the Rani of Ullal would not give in. Ullal Port was a prosperous trade centre and used to export spices and other produce to the Middle East under the protection of the Zamorin's fleet. Often goods from these ports were transported and aggregated in Calicut for export.

The Portuguese seized one of Ullal's ships in mid-sea in 1555 and Abbakka retaliated by attacking the Portuguese factory in Mangalore. Although the Potuguese responded in force, Abbakka managed to organise a band of Mogaveer (fishermen) raiders aided by Moplah soldiers to raid Portuguese warships at night and set them afire, killing any sailor who attempted to jump out into the sea.

After an interval, the Portuguese again rose against the Queen in 1568 (? the dates are a bit hazy in the Abbakka story), worried by the increased volume of trade through Ullal port which did not honour the Protuguese system of cartaz. They issued an order that her alliance with the Zamorin was illegal and that her direct trade with Persia was an unfriendly act. When the Portuguese finally attacked again, the queen defended her territory valiantly and preferred to die fighting rather than surrender to the enemy. (There is a Portuguese version which says that she was captured but died fighting while in captivity - much like the contemporary 'encounter' stories put out by our Police!)

The Zamorin's General Kutty Pokkar Marakkar led the naval forces in this final battle against the Portuguese and managed to destry their fort at Mangalore. But he was killed by the Portuguese while returning triumphantly from Mangalore.

It is sad that so little is known about the efforts of the Zamorins to maintain free trade on the seas against attempts to monopolise by the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally by the English. These wars of attrition went on till spices lost their importance and territorial colonisation took over. This perhaps explains why the English colonial historians did not highlight these battles. We hope the Kerala historians take up these strands and provide flesh and blood to the skeletal history of Calicut!

Zamorin's Wars Abroad

2009-11-23T20:37:00.000+05:30

Historians of Calicut have dwelt at length on the internecine wars which the Zamorin had fought with other rulers in Kerala, leading in many cases to mutually assured destruction. Some of these stories may be apocryphal such as the 48 year-war which the Nediyiruppu Eradi (who later on became the Zamorin) fought against the Porlathiri - a narrative replete more with details of marital infidelity than with martial valour!

We also have detailed accounts of the Zamorin's annexation of much of Valluvanad by propitiating the Thirumandhamkunnu Bhagawati. The wars with Cochin which occurred regularly have been well-documented. The occasional forays into Kolathiri and Palakkad territories - the last one proving fatal - are also described in considerable detail.

However, we do not find mention of the wars that the Zamorin's forces waged beyond the Indian shores or of the battles fought in territories not contiguous with the Zamorin borders.

We discuss briefly one episode of the Zamorin fighting a war abroad.

Sri Lanka was unified as one island kingdom by King Parakramabahu VI of the Kotte Kingdom in the early 15th century. But this did not last long, as the Jaffna kingdom had revolted in 1467 leading up to a break up. The threat from the Portuguese ( who had landed in the island in 1501) increased with a large fleet landing at Colombo in 1518 and their attempt to build a fort there named Santa Barbara.

Finally, a palace coup by the King's sons led to his deposition in 1521 and the break up of the kingdom into three independent units of Kotte, Sitawaka and Raigama. The powerful Kandy kingdom remained outside as an independent kingdom, as it did during most of Parakramabahu's reign.

Vijayabahu VII (1509-21) who had deposed Parakramabahu perceived that the growing power of the Portuguese would be a threat to his kingdom and, instigated by the Mappilas who shared the same threat perception, appealed to the Zamorin for help in driving away the foreign power.

But the sagacious ruler of Calicut (1513-1522) had signed a treaty in December 1513 with the Portuguese and would not like to upset the understanding which recognised the new reality of a declining influence of the Moors and the need to accept the reality of the European traders. The Zamorin refused to intervene.

Bhuvanekabahu VII who inherited the truncated Kotte kingdom was apprehensive too, this time of his brother Mayadunne who was ruling the neighbouring kingdom of Sitawaka. There is little that remains of the kingdom of Sitawaka today except the ruins of a fort and a 'kovila' in modern day Avissawella town. But when it was founded by Mayadunne, it was a land-locked territory with no access to the port of Colombo for its rich agricultural produce.

Although the Potuguese could not complete the construction of Santa Barbara fort due to local resistance, they had been permitted to station an agent at Kotte under royal protection to watch their trading interest and to counter the Mappila domination of the cinnamon trade.

In 1526, the war between the brothers broke out again and now it was the turn of Mayadunne, the ruler of Sitawaka to seek the help of the Zamorin. The wise ruler who had brought peace and prosperity to Calicut by signing the treaty with the Portuguese in 1513 had passed away in 1522. (It was a different matter that the Portuguese had reneged on the clauses of the treaty as soon as they had completed the construction of their fort at Kallayi.)

The new Zamorin was not too friendly towards the Portuguese who had annoyed everyone by their treacherous acts. The period between 1524 and 1540 (when a new treaty was signed with the Portuguese at Ponnani) was an era of turbulence in the history of Calicut - an era which witnessed the brief reappearance of Vasco da Gama only to die in Cochin and the barbarities of Viceroys like Menezes and Sampayo.

Silawaka's first foray against Kotte was in 1528 when the Zamorin's forces also fought alongside. But this and the next attack in 1537 were repulsed by the Kotte forces aided by the Portuguese. The Mahavamsa (expanded with the inclusion of the Culavamsa) which is the recorded chronicle of Sri Lankan history, describes the second war thus:

It was in 1537 AD. This time the Zamorin sent help to King Mayadunne. He sent 51 warships, 500 guns and 200 soldiers....Zamorin's armies were stationed in Vedalayi close to Rameshwaram. When Souza (the Portuguese admiral from Goa) discovered this, he began to attack them. This developed into a great sea battle. In the battle, the Zamorin armies were defeated....Whatever gifts the Zamorin had sent to King Mayadunne were also seized by the Portuguese'.

Third and final assault on Kotte took place in 1539 in which the Zamorin's force supported the Sitawaka army. The attack was yet again repulsed by the Portuguese Captain-General Miguel Ferreira who dealt a body blow to the Zamorin forces by capturing his two generals - Kulhena Marikkar and Pachi Marikkar.

The Zamorin's forays beyond the shores of Calicut were confined to the brief period between 1524 and 1540 which represented a difficult period in the relationship with the Portuguese - an era which covered the expulsion of the Portuguese from Calicut in 1525, building of the Chaliyam fort in 1531 and continuous war on land and sea between 1531 and 1540 culminating the Ponnani Treaty which was signed in 1540.

(Zamorin's army had participated in other wars outside its territory - details in the forthcoming post.)

Reference:

Wikipedia article on Sitawaka

Zamorins of Calicut by KV Krishna Ayyar

Logan's Manual

http://the sundaytimes.lk dated 12 July 2009

2009-10-17T06:45:00.000+05:30

Calicut and Foreigners

photo:courtesy The Hindu

Calicut witnessed a few days ago the curious spectacle of large number of people forming a 'human chain' against Government of India's decision to sign a Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN nations. According to the organisers, the pact is part of an international conspiracy by the globalising forces to surrender the country's sovereignty and this would destroy Kerala's agricultural economy.

The ruling coalition in Kerala has taken a consistent stand against globalisation which they interpret narrowly as allowing imports and permitting foreign capital. They are not against export of Kerala commodities nor against foreign tourists visiting Kerala and spending their dollars and Euros here. And obviously, they wholeheartedly support the export of human power from Kerala to the Gulf which sustains the economy and the intellectual activities of the leisurely class like human chains!

Economics tells us that no country can only export goods while putting barriers against imports. Similarly, no economy can export human capital (as Kerala does to the Gulf and the western hemisphere) without permitting foreign capital -financial and human - to be allowed entry.

Was Calicut always like this? What does Calicut's history tell us?

The Persian envoy Abd-al-Razzaq al-Samarqandi who travelled to Malabar en route Vijayanagar in 1442 was one of the earliest chroniclers of Calicut during the Zamorin era. He describes the existence of a large settlement of foreign (pardesi) merchants - Arabs, Persian, Gujaratis, Khorasanis and Deccanis. These merchants were not itinerant traders - they were expatriates who were in Malabar for a considerable period. According to Razzaq, 'they were great merchants and possess in this place wives and children, and ships for sailing to all parts with all kinds of goods'. They were so powerful that they had their own courts which administered their laws without interference by the Zamorin. The fascinating story of a Jewish entrepreneur in the 12th century having settled down in Malabar and marrying a Nair woman had been revealed to us by Maddy (please see details at http://calicutheritageforum.googlepages.com/meeting923).

These pardesis presented a striking contrast to the locals. While the latter were pitifully clad in a single piece of 'bandage around the middle called lankotah which descended from the navel to above the knee', the Pardesis were fastidious in the matter of clothing. '...they go well-dressed and adorned with silk stuffs, scarlet cloth, camlets and cottons : their head-dress wrapped around their heads. They have large houses and many servants: they are very luxurious in eating, drinking and sleeping...' (Razzaq). Their successors in the 17th century Calicut were wealthy merchants like Issac Surgun the Jew and Hajji Yusuf the Moplah of Arab descent. It was this opulent style of the expatriate resident traders which was copied by the first generation East India Company employees like Robert Adams in Calicut and Robert Clive in Calcutta.

The Zamorin not only encouraged the Pardesi traders to settle down but even provided them secretarial and other assistance, much like the government's current policy of encouraging Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as enclaves of foreign capital operating under a different set of laws and protected from local threats. According to Duarte Barbosa, another traveller of the period, the Zamorin gave each foreign trader 'a Nair to guard and serve him, a Chetty scribe for his accounts and to take care of his property and a broker for his trade'.

Abdul Razzaq recounts another instance of how far the Zamorin would go to please foreign powers and invite them to trade in his kingdom. Upon hearing of the power of the Persian King Shah Rukh, the Zamorin sent him some costly presents and a message, which read : 'In this port, on every Friday and every solemn feast day, the Khotbah is celebrated according to the prescribed rules of Islamism. With your majesty's permission, these prayers shall be adorned and honoured by the addition of your name and your illustrious titles'. It's ok to be a toady if it promotes the trade of the realm!

The grand reception which Vasco da Gama received in Calicut ( 'With pomp unwonted India’s nobles greet/The fearless heroes of the warlike fleet.',according to Lusiad) has been well documented. Similarly, William Keeling. Esq. was passing down the western coast in his ship 'The Dragon' when a 'Tony' (the Malayalam word for a boat, Thony was very popular) approached the ship with a message from the Zamorin. Keeling was requested to go to Cranganore where the Zamorin was camping, and soon a treaty was signed in haste on 10th March 1616, permitting the English East India Company to establish a post.

But the rivalry among the European powers and the greed of native rulers and their eagerness to use the foreign powers to settle their own little scores led to the decline of an empire which was built on sound principles of free trade and open economy. The decline started with the Portuguese demanding monopoly status in spice trade and grew worse with the Dutch cruelties. By 1720, the Zamorin had become so weak that he was seen pleading with the French to save him from the Dutch. The days of commercial treaties are over - it is now a desperate effort to save political sovereignty. Writing to the King of France on the 16th April 1720, the Zamorin pleaded: '...I write to your Majesty to request that it helps me, in order that I take revenge on the insults which the said Dutch are doing to me. I hope your Majesty will order to help me'

The French did make a gesture of helping the Zamorin, but that is another story!

Yawning Gaps in Calicut History

2009-09-30T17:20:00.000+05:30

What was Calicut like before the Zamorins established thier rule in the 12^th century? We have only folklore masquerading as history to rely upon. Keralolpatti and Keralamahatmyam are thinly disguised attempts to portray Brahmin supremacy over the ruling classes founded on the adventures of the ubiquitous Parashurama.

Sifting history from folklore is a formidable task. Prof. MGS Narayanan is categorical that ‘There was no city of Calicut (Kalikooth of the Arabs, Kallikkottai of the Tamils and Kozhikkode of the Malayalees) before the 12^th century of the Christian era. There was no harbour or trade centre.’ (page 58, Calicut: The City of Truth Revisited, 2006) If we accept this proposition, we have to assume that either Porlathiris, the rulers of these parts before Zamorin annexed Calicut, during their last days or Zamorins themselves after their conquest of Calicut must have developed Calicut as a port and trading centre.

When did Calicut develop as a major trading centre, visited by merchants from faraway places? From the above statement, it must have been during the 12^th century. But, we find references to Malabar in general and Calicut in particular during the same period suggesting that it must have already been a developed port. For instance, Marco Polo visited Kerala in 1293-94 and refers to Calicut as the ‘Kingdom of Melibar’, second only to the Kingdom of Eli (Ezhimala). ‘There is in this Kingdom a great quantity of pepper and ginger and cinnamon and turbit (the pigeon rearing of Kundungal and Kuttichira must have been quite an ancient hobby!) and nuts of India. They also manufacture very delicate and beautiful buckrams. (Buckram during Polo’s days was not the stiff cloth known today but fine cotton cloth – what was Calico called before Calicut was founded??) The ships that come from the east bring copper as ballast. They also have cloves and spikenard and other fine spices, for which there is a demand here for the products of these countries.’ There is no mention of Zamorin yet. The first such recorded mention is in the travel accounts of the Moroccan traveller, Ibn Batuta (1342-45) who stated unequivocally: ‘The Sultan of Calicut is an idolator known as the Samuri’.

We know that the last Perumal was Rama Kulashekhara (1089-1102). Therefore, the partition or dismemberment of the country must have happened after 1102. But, did the Eradis of Nediyiruppu re-invent themselves as Zamorin soon after becoming independent? Evidence does not support this contention. For, in the stone inscription dated 1102 discovered in Quilon (deciphered by MGS) there is a reference to Manavikrama, the Governor of Eranad. Again, in the grant of the Veera Raghava Chakravarti ( 1225 AD), the Chief of Eranad is referred to as Eranad Udayavar. We may, therefore, presume that the movement of the Eranad

Prince north to Calicut and his conquest (by deceit?) of the Porlathiri must have taken place much later, perhaps in the second half of the 13^th century.

How do we reconcile this with the tradition that before Manichan and Vikkiran inherited the land, the present day Calicut was a marshy patch with possibly some salt pans? And the statement quoted above that there was no Calicut before the 12^th century? Although Marco Polo did not refer to the buckram cloth as Calico, it is known that the 11^th Century Jain scholar from Gujarat, Hemchandra had referred to Calico in his writings. Could there be Calico without Calicut? If Calicut was unknown before the 12^th century, why did all the Arab travellers make a bee-line for this place, if all it had was some salt pans and thorny bushes. How did the 9^th Century Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (820-912 AD) who was working as the Director of Posts and Police, know of this place and why did he write about it? What about the Arab traders who had settled here and had fathered children by local women?

We are yet to find out answers to these and many more questions. Recently a new window was opened to Malabar’s history during this period by the erudite presentation before a select audience of Calicut Heritage Forum (full report and the presentation may be seen at the CHF site http://calicutheritageforum.googlepages.com/meeting923 ) by Ullattil Manmadhan, known to history buffs as Maddy (http://historicalleys.blogspot.com) . In short, Maddy spoke of the story of a Jewish entrepreneur, Abraham Yiju who had not only set up an industry in the Malabar coast in 1120 AD but had even married a local girl. The new findings came from deciphering the Geniza fragments(http://www.genizah.org) are still being studied by historians in Cambridge and Princeton. The industry was utensil manufacture and the market was Egypt and from there to Rome. Calicut and surrounding areas must have been a vibrant manufacturing and trading centre even much earlier than now thought of. The testimony of Marco Polo that copper was being used as ballast in the ships arriving from the east corroborates the fact that metal forging and smithy must have been a major industrial activity in and around Calicut.

There is urgent need for the academic community to take the lead opened up by the Geniza documents and research on the antiquity of Calicut and its status as an industrial and trading centre before the 12^th Century. It is time we moved on beyond pseudo history like Keralolppaththi!

2009-07-04T19:07:00.000+05:30

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)

2009-06-06T19:35:00.000+05:30

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

2009-05-18T16:47:00.000+05:30

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'!!

2009-04-27T14:50:00.000+05:30

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

2009-03-31T16:54:00.000+05:30

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

2009-03-25T12:25:00.000+05:30

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

2009-02-25T19:19:00.000+05:30

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

2009-02-16T12:43:00.001+05:30

Kamasutra Translator in Zamorin's Mankav Palace

Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-1890) was a colourful Victorian gentleman. He is best known for his translation of the The Book of the One Thousand Nights and One Night (otherwise known as the Arabian Nights), the Perfumed Garden and of course, Kamasutra. He was so versatile that the Wikipedia entry on him describes him as an 'English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat'.

Burton started his career in the East India Company in 1842 when his family had to purchase him a commission after his expulsion from Oxford University for unruly behaviour. He was posted in the Sindh where he devoted himself to the study of Indian languages. He also spent the time in India to learn wrestling, horsemanship and snake-charming. Because of his close proximity with the ordinary people of the country and his sympathy for them he could sense the impending threat to the British rule :'...the greatest danger in British India is the ever-growing gulf that yawns between the governors and the governed; they lose touch of one another, and such racial estrangement leads directly to racial hostility'. Coming from one whom his fellow officers would call contemptuously as 'the white nigger', this was one warning which the rulers had ignored at their peril.

Burton fell a victim to the cholera epidemic which swept Sindh in 1846, but was lucky to survive. The Bombay Medical Board granted him a convalescence leave of two years to be spent at Ootacamund which had already earned a name as a destination for British rest and recuperation. Ordinarily, British offcers travelling on r&r to Ooty would take a steamer to Calicut and then take the road vis Nadukani. But not so Burton, the inveterate seeker of thrills. He took a 'pattimar' (a country raft used for coastal trade) and broke journey in Goa where he spent considerable time studying the Portuguese

outpost and its history. Then he took another 'pattimar' and proceeded to Calicut. Although he devotes almost 80 pages of his book to describing Calicut and Malabar, he chose to give the title Goa and the Blue Mountains; or six months of sick leave giving no indication of the time he spent at Calicut.

Burton's first view of Calicut as seen from the 'pattimar' was disappointing. 'Can those three or four bungalows, with that stick-like light-house between them and the half-dozen tiled and thatched roofs peeping from amongst the trees, compose Calicut – the city of world-wide celebrity which immortalised herself by giving a name to calico? 'He asks.

Burton's keen eye soaks in the details of the town which he faithfully recorded in this first of the many books that he was to write. He notes, for instance, that Calicut did not have much of a harbour – 'Nature has made no attempt at a harbour, and the ships lying in an open roadstead, are constantly liable to be driven on the sand and mud-banks around them'. Yet trade continued to flourish there with export brisker than imports. The principal commodities exported were spices, drugs, valuable timber and cotton cloths. Imports consisted mainly of European piece goods and metals. Between September 1846 and May 1847 he noted that no less than 80 ships, besides an immense number of pattimars and native crafts touched at Calicut.

The bazars of Calicut, he notes, appeared to be well stocked with everything but vegetables and butcher's meat – these being procured from neighbouring stations (as even now!) He visits the Varakkal Temple but unlike Vasco da Gama who was ceremoniously ushered into the shrine, he does not attempt to enter the temple : 'We will not venture in, as the Hindoos generally in this part of the world, and the Nairs particularly, are accustomed to use their knives with scant ceremony'.

He visits the Samiry Rajah who he finds 'a proud man, who shuns Europeans, and discourages their visiting him on principle'. The then Zamorin, 'Mana Vikraman', apparently belonged to the Padinhare Kovilakam for Burton and company preceed to Mankavu (spelt Mangaon) 'through lanes lined with banks of laterite, and over dykes stretching like rude causeways along paddy fields invested with a six-foot deep coating of mud'. On reaching the Palace, the party did not find the Raja hostile to Europeans, as they were received warmly, with a caparisoned elephant and a troop of half-naked armed Nairs receiving them at the gate. Burton found the Raja 'injudiciously attired in a magnificent coat of gold cloth, a strangely shaped cap of the same material, and red silk tights '(!). The Raja met them with a warm, moist, and friendly squeeze of the hand and engaged the visitors in 'the small-talk of an Oriental visit'.

The piece de resistance of the visit was, however, the chance encounter of Burton with 'a crowd of dames belonging to the palace'. The translator of Kamasutra turns poetic while describing the 'sight of Nair female beauty' : 'The ladies were very young and pretty-their long jetty tresses, small soft features, clear dark olive-coloured skins, and delicate limbs, reminded us exactly of the old prints and descriptions of the South Sea Islanders. Their toilette, in all save the ornamental part of rings and necklaces, was decidedly scanty.'

We have no means of verifying whether the encounter described so graphically by Burton did indeed take place. It is difficult to believe that visitors and women of the house shared a common path causing the visitors to meet 'in the gateway a crowd of dames belonging to the palace'. It is also doubtful whether the twenty-something lieutenant of the East India Company on furlough would be so readily granted an audience by the Zamorin Raja. According to K.V.Krishna Ayyar, the Zamorin who occupied the throne between 1845 to 1848 had P.K. as initials, suggesting that he belonged to the Thiruvannur Kovilakam. It is also possible that Burton had visited the second in line the Eralpad Raja who may have been from the Padinhjare Kovilakam at Mankav.

The scepticism is prompted by some of Burton's other claims which were later proved to be rather exaggerated. For instance, his claim that he studied Hindu culture in such depth that his Hindu teacher officially allowed him to wear the Brahmanical thread (janeu) was found to be a figment of his imagination. Similarly, the oft repeated claim of Burton that he was deputed by Sir Charles Napier, the Governor of Sindh to investigate the homosexual brothels of Karachi has been found to be an unsubtsantiated claim by subsequent research. His recent (1990) biographer, James A. Casada goes so far as to suggest that Burton had invented the story. Did he also invent the story of his encounter with the Nair beauties of Mankav Palace? One wonders.

Ref: Wikipedia article on Burton

Goa and the Blue Mountains; or six months of sick leave by Richard F.Burton with an introduction by Dane Kennedy, published by University of California Press (1991)

2009-01-24T20:37:00.000+05:30

The Black Hole of Attingal - The Story of A Forgotten Massacre

Generations of students all over the English speaking world were fed on the tragic story of the Black Hole of Calcutta in which, on the night of 20th June 1756, 146 persons were locked up in a small room measuring 18x14 feet and only 23 came out alive the next morning.

What is left of Anjengo Fort - an aerial view

Lord Macaulay described this in 1843 as 'the great crime, memorable for it singular atrocity'. This event became in the eyes of the British public a powerful myth portraying how the pioneering traders of the Company had overcome through grit and courage such horrors and atrocities by the Oriental despots.

The source of the Black Hole story is the narration by one of its plucky survivors - John Holwell who was one of the few who remained in Fort William when others, including the Governor, had fled to Falta. Patient research has now established that the testimony of Holwell was rather unreliable and his story was full of holes.

The 'Black Hole' was not the Nawab's making - it was a room in Fort William used by British soldiers 'to sleep off their hangovers'. There was no way that so many people could be stacked in this small room - the numbers were largely exaggerated. There were Indian, English, French, Dutch and Portuguese people who had been locked up that fateful night - it was in no way a symbol of British heroism. Finally, Siraj ud Doula had no knowledge of the incident, and it was probably done at the instance of the local soldiers of the Nawab to make sure that the prisoners did not walk away from their custody - in fact many did indeed do just that in the confusion which followed the sacking of the Fort by the Nawab's soldiers!

Yet the powerful symbolism of victimhood represented by the Black Hole lingered on for generations, justifying not only British occupation, but often British cruelty. As Nirad Chaudhuri remarked, the episode 'threw a moral halo over the British conquest of India'.

Strange that a more tragic loss of British lives in a massacre that took place more than 35 years before the Black Hole, is all but forgotten. While Lord Curzon did erect a marble memorial to the victims of the Black Hole ( which was later on removed at the behest of protestors led by Netaji Subhash), no memorial marks the place which witnessed the cold-blooded murder of 150 Englishmen and more than two dozen Topazes and coolies.

There are several versions of what happened in 1721, each embellished to suit the narrator's agenda - patriotic fervour, glorification of the native rulers, valour of the 'Nairs' etc. The version given below is based on the book English East India Company and the Local Rulers in Kerala (2003) by Leena More. This is the most authentic of the versions, as the author

has dug up several original documents which were thought to have been destroyed. Almost every incident is backed up by entries in the Anjengo diary or despatches to Fort St.George.

Old Attingal Palace - the site of the massacre

The Queen of Attingal was the most powerful ruler of South Kerala in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Other independent principalities of the region included Kollam (Venad), Kayamkulam and Thiruvithamkode to the extreme south. Attingal Queen permitted the English traders - who were originally operating from Vizhinjam (Brinjohn) - to establish a warehouse ('factory') at Anjengo in 1694 and 'to fortify with stone and to abide there for ever'.

Although the Queen was sovereign, she used to come under the influence of the powerful local chieftains - the Ettuveettil Pillais and madampees - who would try to bend state policy to suit their private ends. Thus, while it was Cuddamon Pillai who advised the Queen to relocate the English from Vizhinjam to Anjengo, other Pillais instigated the locals against English fortification.

The fact that Captain Kidd, the notorious pirate was active on the Malabar coast seemed to support the propaganda unleashed by Verdamon Broca ( the authorised Indian trading agent of the Company) that Brabourne and colleagues were indeed pirates. Brabourne could sense the impending hostility and hurriedly built the fort, disregarding not only local protests, but even stern warnings from London that he should gather as much pepper as he could rather than waste his resources on building the Fort.

Alarmed by such reports, the Queen asked the English to leave the Fort as she did not want them to harbour criminals, pirates, thieves and the like. But, by then, Brabourne had mounted his guns and was ready to defend his territory.

There was a period of uneasy co-existence between Attingal and the Company during the first two decades of the 18th Century. The fight between the two Pillais -Vanjamutta and Cuddamon - also helped the English play one against the other. In a concerted attack on the Fort by the Nairs and Muslims, Vanjamutta sided with the English who repelled the attack and destroyed the nair force.

From 1712 onwards, Anjengo Fort had the misfortune of a succession of unprincipled and dishonest leadership. John Kyffin who became the Chief of Anjengo in 1712 misappropriated the Company's money and was accused of dealing with their enemy, the Ostenders. He was dismissed in 1719 and was replaced by William Gyfford who turned out to be an even bigger rogue. 'He systematically double-crossed the Company as well as Malabar pepper merchants' (More).

During Gyfford's tenure, the behaviour of the English factors also became increasingly insolent. Particularly hated was Ignatio Malheiros, the official linguist and interpreter, of Portuguese descent. As a staunch Roman Catholic, he instigated young English lads to insult and humiliate Muslims. Instead of punishing the guilty, Gyfford imprisoned the Muslim complainants. The English living in the Fort were also reported to have forced a Namboodiri Brahmin to shave off the beards of their slaves - an act which would lead to the upper caste Brahmin losing his caste. The Hindus were further incensed to learn that Ignatio Malheiros had obtained possession of some Hindu temple lands through a money-lending transaction. Resentment against the English was brewing among the Hindus and the Muslims.

Meanwhile, the annual presents due to the Queeen of Attingal as part of the lease deed of 1694 fell into arrears, partly because there was confusion about the rightful heiress to Queen Umayamma Rani who had passed away in July 1698. The Pillais tried to snatch the presents but the English insisted that they would hand over the presents only to the Queen.

Peace was restored in Attingal after Queen Amutamburan was installed as the legitimate ruler. Efforts were made to patch up with the Company which was only too eager to befriend not only the new ruler but both the powerful Pillais, Vanjamutta and Cuddamon. who were bribed handsomely. It was decided that the presents to the Queen which were pending for seven years would be taken personally to Attingal Palace by the Chief of Anjengo.

Gyfford thus set forth from Anjengo on Vishu Day, the 14th April 1721, with the presents and his best men of about 150 English and a large number of Topazes and coolies. In fact but for a few invalids, almost everyone joined the pageant which moved up the river for a distance of 4 miles. They were met enthusiastically at Attingal by a large crowd which had gathered to witness the show.

The main approach to the Palace - Gyfford and team might have taken this walk on the fateful evening

Simon Cowse, who had been the Agent till 1712, happened to be accompanying Gyfford on this mission. Cowse could speak Malayalam like a native speaker and overheard that there was some big plot to finish them off. He also heard that Vanjamutta Pillai was too drunk to receive the Engish visitors. Cowse warned Gyfford who would not believe what he was told; instead he beat up Cowse and imprisoned him in the Queen's palace itself.

The Queen received the presents graciously and invited the team to spend the night at the Palace. She could not accommodate them at one place and they were scattered in several small buildings. Gyfford became suspicious much later in the night when he found that all their ammunition had been tampered with. All he could do was to send a message through a friendly Malabari to Captain Sewell, the store-keeper of the Fort who was left behind.

Not a single European was spared on the night of the bloody massacre. While most Europeans were killed at one go, the angry crowd had reserved their pent up ire on the perpetrators of past atrocities - Gyfford and Malheiros. Gyfford's tongue was torn out, nailed to a log and allowed to float down the river. Malheiro was administered a slow and painful death, by dismembering his body gradually. Even Simon Cowse and Burton Fleming, the two other prominent English traders, were not spared. Only 17 topazzes survived from out of the party of almost 200. Every European was cut down to pieces.

The angry crowd then set off for the Fort but the inhabitants had been warned through Gyfford's message and they took defensive action. Three English women whose husbands had been slain, were shipped off to Quilon and Madras and the guns were positioned to repel any attack.

Historians disagree on where the massacre of Attingal took place. Most asserted that the English were attacked and killed on their way to the Queen's palace. Recent scholarship, has however, proved beyond doubt that the massacre took place within the Palace and after the presents had been handed over. The violent reaction from the combined force of Nairs and Muslims was partly out of commercial interests but mostly due to the insensitivities of the English factors to local customs and beliefs. The incident had not been chronicled properly and, therefore, no lessons were probably learnt. More than a hundred years after the Attingal Revolt, English had to pay a heavy price for their lack of sensitivity to Hindu and Muslim sentiments in the run up to the 1857 Revolt! After all, history teaches us that it teaches us nothing !

Today, the old Attingal Palace is a crumbling building without any sign to show that it was the venue of the first ever organised revolt by the local interests against English domination. There is a prominent notice on a wall that the entire property has been attached by a commercial bank under SARAFESI Act for non-repayment of loans taken by some of the owners who had been running a hospital. Unless the Government of Kerala intervenes, we could lose one more precious heritage building. And all this under the watchful eyes of the Maharaja of Travancore whose bust, protected by a glass shield, stands next to the site of the massacre.

Bank notice seizing our common Heritage The Maharaja - looking the other way!