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