Podcast: The Prince

Please listen to me narrating a story from the history of India's freedom struggle in this podcast:

https://anchor.fm/ramesh-srinivasan/episodes/Pages-from-History-Indias-Freedom-Struggle-ecrqm1

Poetic Justice and the Prodigal Son

Societies tell their stories in a manner quite different from the way historians narrate them. While historians look for proof in the way of archaeological evidence, copper plates, etc, rarely do they admit folklore or other oral traditions as credible evidence of a historical occurrence.

Strangely, in yet other instances historians tend to over look credible proof as substantial enough to acknowledge the emotions that underwrite historical occurrences. It happens when history is written by those who perhaps desire that the society of which the history is written at best remain ignorant of the justice that history does to some of its actors in ways that only history knows best.

This is one such story - the story of William Collins Jackson, who set the stage of history aflame in which one of the greatest sons of India was consumed, Veerapandiya Kattabomman.

Jackson, William Collins was born in 1763 in a humble British family. By the reference of some well-wisher of the family, young Jackson was employed as a Writer by the EIC in 1781. In 1783, he became Assistant to the Secretary to the Select Committee and in 1785 became Deputy Secretary to the Select Committee. In the initial years of his employment in Madras and Bombay, Jackson’s fortunes were against him, though he managed to grab the attention of the Board of Governors in Madras who eventually made him Deputy Secretary in the Military and Political Department in 1786. He also served as Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese Translator. His fortunes turned favourable when, in 1790 he was appointed Secretary in the Mlilitary, Political, and Secret Department, and Judge Advocate-General. Though he had built a modest fortune by then[1], the duties enrusted upon him began to tell upon his health and he requested the Board of Governors for change of vocation. Heeding to his request, the Board appointed him as Collector of Ramnad and Collector of the Southern Polygar Peishcush, in 1797.

On 12 March 1797, he took over as Collector at Ramnad. In the ensuing two years, he came to lock horns over the collection of Peshcush from Veerapandia Kattabomman. Bommu initially preferred to arrive at a compromise. However, the council Jackson received from some elements of his Cutchery inimical to Bommu resulted a deadlock and his failed attempt to arrest Bommu.

In his own memoir[2] published in London in 1812, Jackson suspected the Military President of EIC to have indirectly sided with Bommu which resulted in Bommu being returned to his Palayam with no more than an advice to comply with EIC directives.

In the meanwhile, allegations of improper appropriation of wealth by the Collector began falling on the ears of the Board. At least two specific instances of him asking for a ‘nuzzer[3]’ of 20000 and 18000 pagoda[4] from various sources came to be investigated by the Board of Governors. Jackson also made use of his position to trade privately in clothes and cotton, though such practice was prohibited by EIC nonetheless indulged by most English officials in India.

Together, both the instances of failure to secure Bommu and allegations of impropriety resulted in EIC asking Jackson to relinquish his duty[5] and returned to England. He returned to London in 1799 and eventually resigned from Company Service in 1812.

Jackson’s life took a different turn in London. With the wealth he had acquired in Madras Province, he purchased an elegant home at 11, Gloucester Place in London’s fashionable West End, and Mr Jackson had recently acquired a country estate in Langley, Buckinghamshire[6]. He had one son, William Jackson Burkes Collins who was born 1792. Jackson Jr was destined to inherit the family estate and a handsome £ 50000 at the passing of his father.

The Jr however had more than mere pleasure of being an Esquire’s son to give to his father. Wealth at his disposal made him frequent the brothels of London and indulge in improper public conduct, resulting in his arrest at least thrice and incarceration in Old Bailey. Every time Jackson Sr would use his moneys and connections to get his son out of Old Bailey, Jackson Jr managed to avail himself of another ignoble opportunity. Between 1810 and 1812, Jackson Jr indulged in a public fraud that became the theme of London society talk. The dismayed father, with the help of Sir George Shee (his brother-in-law) and few other factors eventually managed to save his son from Old bailey again on the condition that he would be deported to the Penal Colony in Australia.

In 1812, Jackson Jr was deported to Australia. He died in Sydney purportedly due to malaria in 1828 at the age of 36.

William Collins Jackson, the father, died in 1814, aged 51 and broken hearted. The trials and tribulations of the Jackson family of the London years became a theme for study of ‘wealthy Nabobs and their profligate sons”[7].   

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[1] Jackson even had his portrait done by John Smart in 1787 in the fashion of Victorian elites. The portrait is in a private collection in Germany. See:  http://www.historicalportraits.com/Gallery.asp?Page=Item&ItemID=1875&Desc=Portrait-miniature-of-a-Gentleman,-possibly-William-Collins-Jackson-|-John-Smart

[2] Jackson, WC (1812), Memoir of the Public Conduct and Services of William Collins Jackson, Esq. Late Senior Mechant on the Company’s Madras Establishment, Smith & Co: London, Pp 53-54.

[3] Nuzzer – gift. The Mughal custom of accepting personal gifts by officials of the Mughal administration was followed with fervor by many EIC officials resulting in the amassment of wealth beyond honorable means. 

[4] See the comment on Star Pagoda at Note 2.

[5] The Ramnad Committee forwarded their proceedings to the Governor in Council on the 31st day of December 1798; and on the very day they were received at Madras, viz. the 4th of January 1799, the Collector was “dismissed from his employ;” not for any measure originated in his public conduct, but “on Ly” for having written (after he had notified his intention to resign) a private letter to a Member of the Board of Revenue, containing some wholesome and salutary advice. “Considering,” said Lord Clive and his Council, “considering the important situations which Mr. Jackson has filled, and the repeated testimonies of approbation which he has obtained from this

Government, and from the Honorable Court of Directors, we have had much concern in manifesting this serious mark of our displeasure: but individual pretensions, however splendid, or meritorious, MUST Yield To the weighty NECESSITY OF SUPPORTING THE CONSTITUTED AUTHORITIES OF GOVERNMENT”. (Pp53-54 of the Memoir).

[6] Nicola Phillips, A Case Study of the Impact of Wealth on the Criminal Justice System in Early Nineteenth-Century England, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies, Vol. 17, n°1 | 2013, 29-52.

[7] Nicola Philips, The Profligate Son: Or, a True Story of Family Conflict, Fashionable Vice, and Financial Ruin in Regency England, OUP Oxford, 24-Oct-2013.

Bommu

The Poligar (Palayakkarar) of Panchalankurichi stands tall among the torchbearers of revolt against the British at a time when the East India Company (EIC) had established itself as the sole military power in control of swathes of land much larger than their parent country, England. After battle of Plassey in 1757, only three kingdoms remained unsubdued by the English cannon and it’s Native Infantry (ironically!!). The Marathas to the west, Nizam of Hyderabad in the Deccan and Hyder Ali/Tipu Sultan of Mysore. It would be a mere matter of five decades before these three will come under the English control and a hundred years before Queen Victoria will proclaim herself as the Empress of India.

Between the later destiny of England and the evil designs of East India Company stood one man atop the ramparts of a modest mud fort at Palayamkurichi – Veerapandia Kattabomman.

Bommu Naicker as he was popularly called was just 39. Married to Rani Jakkammal, the lady with the name of his family deity for whom he had constructed a temple at Palayamkurichi, He was a fearless warrior. When the Nawab of the Carnatic tried to establish his control over the Poligar dominions in the southern districts of Tamil country, Bommu refused to accept the Nawab’s suzerainty. Many Poligars in the region endorsed his views, Bommu came to be viewed as a rebel by the Nawab.

The Nawab had also liberally availed loans from East India Company in order to live the life of a king. Some 900000 Star Pagoda[1] worth of loans later, the EIC entered into an agreement with the Nawab in 1793. Under the terms of the agreement, the EIC was given powers to collect Peshcush (tributes) and Kisti (taxes) from the Poligars and peasant/traders to make good Nawab’s loan. Couched in appropriate words, the agreement gave unrestrained power to EIC to collect the revenues, even using force when necessary. Of course, the Nawab was obliged to pay extra for the expenses of the ‘force’ when so used[2].

It is in this background, the Collector of Ramnad/Tinnevely (Tirunelveli), William Collins Jackson, sent an ‘advisory’ to Kattabomman to pay up his dues in 1793. Not receiving favorable reply, Jackson entered into an elaborate political play that eventually unwound in the form of siege of Panchalankurichi. Though it was a mud fort, it stood the siege for nearly five months. In the aftermath of this debacle, EIC was left with little choice but to pull every trick under its hat to subdue Kattabomman, for, his successful stand had fanned the embers of revolt amongst other Poligars. EIC went about proclaiming Kattabomman as a bandit and indulged in a maligning campaign to dent his appeal amongst other Poligars. Obviously, Kattabomman became the most wanted bandit in British India history.

Led by Major John Alexander Bannerman, EIC troops eventually succeeded in breaching and reducing the mud fort in their next attempt. Even though, Bommu lost his able deputy Vellaiyathevan, he escaped capture. Roaming around incognito in the realms of Pudukkottai, Kattabomman was arrested by the soldiers of Vijaya Raghunatha Thondaiman, Raja of Pudukkottai, and handed over to the EIC. By the time Bommu was hunted and captured, Jackson was replaced by Stephen Rumbold Lushington, as Collector of Ramnad/Tinnevely.

In a trial that was aimed at sending a strong message to other Poligars, in as much as ending smothering the fire of revolt in Kattabomman, he sentenced to death by hanging. The public hanging, much in the form of mediaeval fanaticism of the Crusades, was carried out at Kayathar by Major Bannerman. Bommu was hung from a tamarind tree and his body was left there to rot for the public to see.

Bommu had two brothers and two sisters but no progeny of his own. Even though very little is known about his kith and kin, there are reports that some descendants of him still live at Panchalankurichi. Government of Tamil Nadu has re-erected the mud fort and housed a memorial for Bommu at the site. India Post honored his memory with a stamp on the 200^th Death Anniversary in 1999.

School Text Books in Tamil Nadu and books on the history of India celebrate him as the hero of the First Revolt against British Rule. Statues of Kattabomman adorn the pride of place in many a towns and cities of Tamil Nadu, including Panchalankurichi.    

The Indian Navy’s establishment INS Kattabomman was commissioned on 20 Oct 1990 by then President, Shri R Venkataraman.

Tamil cinema immortalized Veerapandia Kattabomman’s story in 1959 by a movie by the same title, with Tamil Cinema’s leading actor Shivaji Ganesan playing Bommu. BR Pantulu’s movie dialogues have gained common usage in Tamil language in every context that is appropriate. A great box-office success, it was premierred in London and then released in India. It ran for 25 weeks continually and was even dubbed in Hindi as Amar Shaheed. It also received a ‘Certificate of Merit ' at the Afro-Asian Film Festival in Cairo.

Among the five hundred odd Tamil folk ballads, Kattabomman Kathai (Story of Kattabomman) remains the most popular along with that of Raja Desing. Scholars like S Ganeshram have rendered the Tamil version into English.

Media reports of peasant activists in Karnataka and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh even show that Kattabomman’s dialogues (from the movie of course, but drawn from historical records, as the below given evidence suggests) have been used to drive home the message of their agitations to authorities concerned.

Source: Mukund, Kanakalatha, The View from Below: Indigenous Society, Temples, and the Early Colonial State in Tamilnadu, 1700-1835, Orient Blackswan: New Delhi. 2005

[1] A Star Pagoda was the coin of exchange in Southern Provinces from 1740 to 1807. Each coin weighed 3.4 gms in gold and carried Vishnu on the Obverse and a star on the reverse.

[2] Treaty with the Nabob Mahomad Ali dated 1 2th July 1792,  in  Collection of Treaties with the Native Princes and States of Asia concluded on behalf of the East India Company, 1812, United East India Company(Publisher): London, P  424-433.

Note & Acknowledgement: The above material is a short synthesis of the study on Veerapandia Kattabomman that the Author has undertaken. The study is guided by the curiosity to find the full and correct version of the political and economic circumstances leading to the eventual hanging of Kattabomman in 1799. The lives of main players in the historical stage viz., Jackson, Lushington and Major Bannerman will be visited in the subsequent posts. Author wishes to place his acknowledgement and gratitude to sources in public domain where

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[1] A Star Pagoda was the coin of exchange in Southern Provinces from 1740 to 1807. Each coin weighed 3.4 gms in gold and carried Vishnu on the Obverse and a star on the reverse.

Angels in Cancer Ward

A friend of mine shared The Starfish Story the other day on WhatsApp. The young girl in the story is seen picking up starfish left on the beach by the tide one by one and throwing them back to the sea. An old man approaches her and says, “There are thousands on the beach….you cannot possibly make a difference”. The girl walks to pick yet another star fish and throws it back to the sea and then says: “It makes a difference for that one”.

Even as I read the story, memories of an incident in RR Army Hospital, Delhi came rushing to my mind.

A friend of mine was admitted there to undergo spinal surgery. It was a sunny Sunday and I was staying just across the road. My wife made something for the friend for lunch and so I just walked across to call on him. He was in good cheer and we chatted for some time before I took leave to go home. Instead of taking the lift, I decided to walk down all the three floors.

As I turned into the corridor of the floor below, I noticed three ladies standing by the side wall. Well dressed and holding themselves so graciously, I couldn’t help lingering my look a little while. Just then, one of them turned and happened to catch me looking at them. And, she smiled as graciously.

I bowed my head and said, “Good Morning”.

“Good morning, how do you do?” she said.

“I am fine, ma’am. I am Wing Commander Srinivasan. What are you doing here? Is everything alright?” I said.

“Oh, I am Mrs….. My husband is a Colonel. Well, yeah, actually things are not pretty okay for someone. So, we were just wondering what next?”

The chivalrous soldier in me rose to the occasion. Stepping forward, I said, “Can I do something, ma’am?

 She looked at me for a few seconds and then said, “Perhaps not. But you can come in and have a look”.

She led me then into the Ward with the sign board – Terminal Patients.

The ward was full of young and old, with everyone apparently having the messenger from the Maker standing at hand. Notwithstanding the life support or other medical equipment that surrounded their beds, each one propped, waved, raised a hand and smiled looking at the three ladies. Many of them called out “mai” (mother) in voices that were laced with love. Their eyes glistened and wherever the ladies stood, hands reached out and held to them.

The ladies in turn sat by the bedside, holding hands, placing their palms on cheeks and simply ruffling the few curls still left on those pates. Their eyes were also moist but they poured out a compassion that ran like a river, immersing everyone in the ward.

Even I stood there watching, my eyes welled. It felt though my chest was caught in pincer, squeezing a strange emotion that I knew not the name. I cried.

The Colonel’s wife came over to me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. Led by her, I went over to a bed where a patient was cocooned in a plethora of medical equipment. Ironically, it looked as though the plethora of tubes running around and through him were actually sucking the juice of life out of him. The scrawny, skeletal body screamed a song of pain, though his lips hardly moved. There was not enough fluid in him even to moist his eyes with misery. I was immobile, both in body and mind, even to think what he must be going through.

She looked me into the eye and guided my sight to a board that hung by the bed. The patient was on Chemo for over six months. And, now the light of life was exiting him, anytime. He was just 23.

I stood frozen in a cocktail of emotions.

All our life, we spend every neuron of our energies into controlling things around us. We seek constantly to embolden and fortify our lives with money, material comforts, power, position and accolades. We crave to bring newer vistas under our power, seeking them not only in planet Earth, but also in the Moon, Mars, and the universe beyond.

We have everything and have the power to possess anything that we set about to want. Yet, thins fleeting thing called life refuses to bow down in front of our colossal might. It enters and leaves our beautiful bodies at will, sometimes devastating this cage of bones and muscles in ways that no human eye ever wants to see. At least, never want to imagine affliction with one’s own body.

What use is that power which conquers the mighty oceans and mountains and vales, yet remains so vulnerable to a thing that eyes cannot see? What use is that power which conquers worlds beyond, yet is bereft of the power to understand the world within?

The Colonel’s wife gently touched my shoulder again. I turned and walked slowly towards the entrance door. As I stood there, she patted me gently, not needing words to communicate. Both of us remained quiet for some time.

As I turned to look at her, she said quietly, “Please pray. He will be gone any time now”.

I bowed my head and nodded as I left.

I pray every day, even though I know he is gone long back.

There are thousands of starfish on the beach. You may not rescue any of them. But when you pray, you do not know to which when you are making the difference.

PS: I have come to believe that there are angels on Earth, especially in Cancer Wards.

Tale of Three Cities and Three Women

Story I: Madras

This is a tale of three cities – Madras, Bombay and Calcutta - and three women. In fact these are three stories that together built what would eventually come to be known as “the Crown Jewel of British Empire” – British India.

Madras

Francis Day- for those who are familiar with the history of Madras, along with Andrew Cogan, is the founder of Madras. But then, the raison d’etre for founding Madras was not merely commercial. It was a story of love.

In 1625 AD, the English East India Company (EIC) managed to obtain permission from the Raja of Chandragiri to build a fort on the Coramandal coast 35 miles North of Pulicat Lake, in a place called Durgarajapatnam, One of the main persons who assisted EIC to secure the permission was Arumugam Mudaliar[1] who was the accountant of the village. Grateful to Arumugam Mudaliar, EIC named the fort Armagon – in the manner in which they could pronounce his name!! For the next 14 years, EIC conducted its trade procuring fine cottons, silks and textiles from the areas adjoining Pulicat, including Conjivaram (Kanchipuram).

Francis Day, in his capacity as Factor of Armagon, traveled across the landscape to conduct his trade. In the process, he developed “liaison” with a Tamil lady who lived in a village near the coast of present day Marina beach. His love for the woman grew in time to make it necessary for him to visit her village frequently.

By 1639, Armagon nearly fell into disuse, being struck by malaria amongst other commercial reasons, necessitating the establishment of alternate site since the trade in the area was considerable. So in 1639, 22 August to be precise, Francis Day succeeded in obtaining the grant on lease for two years a ten-mile strip of sand closer to a village called Madraspattinam[2]. In due course, Fort St George was built at the beach by Francis Day. Work on the fort was commenced in 1640[3].

With the establishment of a trading post guarded by a fort, at last, later Sir Francis Day could continue his visits to the lady of his heart without much ado. That Madras, now Chennai, grew into the Presidency town and the seed from which East India Company will go on from a mere trading corporation into the master of Hindustan is of course, a matter of later history.

Story II: Bombay

Bombay

“On 23 June 1661 a marriage treaty agreeing upon the union of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza of Portugal was signed. Catherine brought a dowry of £500,000, as well as Bombay, Tangier and the right of free trade with the Portuguese colonies, and also popularized tea-drinking in Britain”[4].

The map and route to ‘Bumbye’, which was part of the marriage contract, unfortunately went missing though the Lord Chancellor believed it to be somewhere near Brazil[5]. Finally, fourteen months after the marriage, Sir Abraham Shipman with 450 men arrived to claim Bombay for his King. His entry into the port was blocked at gun point since the Portuguese Governor of Bombay had received no instruction to handover the port. It would take three more years and the death of Sir Shipman and nearly two thirds of his force (due to fever and heat), for the Portuguese to hand over Bombay to the British. By then, even though he inherited Bombay as his dowry, Charles II did not want the trouble of ruling these islands and in 1668 persuaded the East India Company to rent them for just 10 pounds of gold a year[6].

Twenty years later, the English had grown bold enough in Bombay to even attack Mughal fleet, of an empire that was in its peak military prowess under Emperor Aurangzeb. While they managed to capture over a dozen Mughal ships in 1688, a year later in 1689, the Mughals retorted by landing a large force in Bombay docks and laying siege to the fort. Hundreds fled and many were killed when the fort eventually fell. Thoroughly subdued, the British sued for peace.

Notwithstanding such declines in its life, Bombay became the capital of East India Company in 1687 and continued as such till 1708, after which it shifted the capital to Calcutta.

Reverting back to Catherine of Braganza, Charles II was advised by many and he himself had shown only a ‘disinterested acceptance[7]’ for the marriage with her. But for this marriage, British possession of Bombay would had had to perhaps wait till the final conquest of Marathas by Major General Arthur Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) in 1803 AD. 

Catharine of Braganza may never have known India personally. But Bombay (Mumbai now) would never have the history it has, but for her.

Story III: Calcutta

Calcutta

In the aftermath of the catastrophic battle with the Mughals in 1689[8], Mughals had seized all the EIC trading forts at Bombay, Hugli, Kasimbazar, Masulipatnam and Vizagapatnam. The Surat factory, one of the oldest in India, was also closed. British Factors and their men were arrested and kept in chains in Surat castle and Dhaka Red Fort under conditions insufferable to English pride. It is only when Aurangzeb was satisfied that the English had repented and submitted themselves to Mughal authority, he agreed to forgive them[9].

This fiasco led one young Company Factor named Job Charnock to look for alternate place for establishing a trading post in what would in due course became Calcutta. In August 1690, Charnock began building a settlement in the swampy ground between two villages of Kalikata and Sutanuti in Bengal, with the permission of now condescending Nawab of Bengal[10].

Even though Charnock was accused of even brutality to Indian prisoners and mismanagement,[11]he had an interesting personal story.

Charnock had served as the Company Agent in Patna, Bihar, between 1659 and 1664. While on one of his many trips to procure saltpeter for the Company, he chanced upon the Sati of a young widow. Smitten by her beauty, Charnock sent his soldiers to forcibly take her away from her gruesome fate and eventually married her[12]. At the time of rescue, she was reportedly of fifteen years of age and of a Rajput princely family. Charnock christened her ‘Maria’, though she continued to practice her native faith. She even managed to influence Charnock into accepting practices of her faith so much so that when she died later, Charnock buried her and continued to sacrifice a cockerel over her grave in her memory every year[13]. He fathered many daughters by her and they were married into wealthy English families. In fact, Mary, his first daughter was married to Sir Charles Eyre, the First President of Fort William, Calcutta.

There were raging controversies about celebrating Job Charnock as the founder of Calcutta. Primarily the challenge to this distinction came from one of the oldest families in Calcutta, of Lakshmikanta Majumdar and his descendants, who claimed that the land in question belonged to them and it was merely leased to Charnock for 99 years by Lakshmikanta Majumdar. The Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta instituted a commission of five eminent historians to study the issue. Based on the recommendations of the Commission, the High Court ruled in May 2003[14] that Job Charnock cannot be held as the founding father of Calcutta and therefore 24 August 1690 cannot be held to mark its birthday[15].

But there is adequate historical evidence to prove that the young widow rescued by Job Charnock played a key role in his life.

That brings me to the end of the Tale of Three Cities and Three Women who shaped history of India, whether they consciously knew it or not. 

   

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[1] http://madrasmusings.com/Vol%2024%20No%203/the-forgotten-harbour.html

[2] Through his Dubash (Translator) Beri Timmappa, whose proximity to Ayyappa Naik, brother of Damerla Venkatappa Naik of Wandiwash (Vandavasi), Francis Day procured the permission. Persian Horses and military protection was offered in returned to the Naik. See: The Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume (1994), Asian Educational Services, Chennai. Pp 160-164.  ISBN 8120605373, 9788120605374

[3] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. P 21.

[4] https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/charles-ii-and-catherine-of-braganza-a-loveless-marriage/

[5] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. P 22.

[6] https://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/trading/bombay/history.html

[7] See Footnote 4 above

[8] Popularly known as “Child’s War” named after the British Director of East India Company Sir Josiah Child who believed that the English sword can put the Mughals into place.

^[9] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. Pp 24-25.

[10] Dalrymple, William. The Anarchy, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2019. Pp 24-25

[11] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Job-Charnock

[12] Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies (1727), ed. William Foster, 2 vols (London: Argonaut, 1930), Vol. II, pp. 8–9.

[13] Moorhouse, Geoffrey (1971): Calcutta, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974

[14] Sabarna Roychowdhury Paribar ... vs The State of West Bengal And Ors. on 16 May, 2003 (citation: (2003) 2 CALLT 625 HC)

[15] For details see: https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/20030602-job-charnock-not-the-founder-of-kolkata-calcutta-high-court-792769-2003-06-02. See also: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Job-Charnock-not-Kolkatas-founder-Expert-committee/articleshow/36080070.cms