Title: Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan – And the Struggle with the Musalman Powers of the South
Author: Lewin B. Bowring
Publisher: Asian Educational Services, 2003 (First published 1899)
ISBN: Nil
Pages: 233
Lewin B. Bowring was a British civil servant who served as the Chief Commissioner of Mysore from 1862 to 1870. This was the time when the maharajah was all but deposed in name and the kingdom was being directly administered by British officers. Bowring was a man of letters who used the sources that came into his notice in his official capacity and created a concise narrative of the reign of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. He is much more objective than contemporary British authors but harbours an affiliation to the official perspective. The rule of the father and son duo lasted only 38 years, which might seem at first sight a glitch in the centuries-old rule of the Hindu Wodeyar dynasty of Mysore. But the upheaval the state witnessed in this interval – innumerable wars, sieges, victories, defeats, pillage, booty, plunder, torture of innocent people and forced conversions – mark it as the lowest period in Mysore’s history. Nor was it redeemed to any extent by any gracious policy of these two tyrants. Even today, the name of Tipu Sultan evokes strong responses from the descendants of his victims and serves only to divide the society. In the case of impact on the country, Tipu’s rule may be compared to that of Saddam Hussein and the hard times Iraq had to go through during his devastating stint in power.
In the book’s first part, Bowring depicts Haidar Ali’s ascendancy to power noting that he was treacherous but extremely fortunate. He was a faujdar or military commander of the Wodeyar kings. He was an able soldier who chased the powerful Marathas out of the country. Raised to the title of Fateh Haidar Bahadur, he was the person the king sought help from when the incompetent king found himself in thrall by minister Nanjraj. Haider ousted Nanjraj but himself kept the king a prisoner. At this stage, Khande Rao, another minister, sought help from the Marathas. Haidar was defeated at first but the Marathas had to hastily return due to their defeat to Abdali at Panipat in 1761. Haidar then gained absolute control of Mysore and imprisoned his enemies. He mockingly promised to cherish Khande Rao like a parrot. True to his word, Rao was put in an iron cage and fed uncooked rice and milk till the end of his life. Haidar never refrained from any act, however dastardly, if that could gain something for him. The chief of Chitradurg, Madakei Nayak, stoutly resisted him. However, Haidar saw that the enemy had 3000 Muslim soldiers in his troops, induced a Muslim holy man to corrupt them and betray their master. Nayak was defeated and 20,000 young boys were forcibly taken away to Seringapatam to be converted to Islam.
Bowring also makes an effort to estimate the personality and character of both the protagonists. Haidar was a bold, original and enterprising commander who was skillful in tactics, fertile in resources, full of energy and never desponding in defeat. Unfortunately, he was also a man of the loosest morals and never spared any woman who had the misfortune to attract his attention (p.77-8). He habitually circumcised the prisoners of war for conversion. Still, the author claims that he was free from bigotry when compared to his son Tipu. Just imagine how fiendish Tipu might have seemed to his contemporaries! Haidar was permissive in employing people of other religions as his officials so long as they obeyed his orders.
This book introduces Tipu as a conceited zealot and bloodthirsty tyrant who always violated treaties and ceasefire obligations. Many a times, he promised personal safety to the besieged but as soon as they surrendered, imprisoned them. Tipu was a bitter foe of the British but that does not make him a freedom fighter. He was an ally of the French who were also looking to establish colonies in India. Tipu in fact drove the kings of Cochin, Travancore and Coorg to the bosom of the British to obtain help in defending against Tipu’s invasions. But Tipu’s star set in 1792 when the allied forces of the British, Nizam and the Marathas besieged Seringapatam and a humiliating treaty of capitulation was imposed on him. He had to cede half of his territories, pay three million rupees, release all prisoners and give two of his sons as hostages. Bowring deduces that Tipu was urged on by religious bigotry, innate cruelty and despotism. He thought little of sacrificing thousands of lives to his ardent zeal and revengeful feelings. These darker shades in his disposition are not relieved by any evidence of princely generosity, such as Haidar Ali occasionally showed (p.220). He sent ambassadors to Mauritius, which was the nearest French military base urging its governor to invade India as Tipu’s ally. Napoleon’s victory in Egypt in 1798 and other international interests finally convinced Britain to unseat this thorn in their flesh. Tipu fell in battle and died befitting a brave warrior. That seems the only saving grace for him.
The book includes a whole chapter on Tipu’s fanaticism and cruelty as if it had anticipated the glorifying false narrative a section of the people would attribute to him in future. During the siege of Mangalore, 30,000 Christians were taken to Seringapatam and forcibly converted. Similar was the fate of the people of Coorg who revolted. He destroyed numerous temples in Malabar and forcibly converted its inhabitants. In Kuttippuram, 2000 Nairs were converted and forced to eat beef as proof of their conversion. He frequently mentioned in his dispatches that ‘Hindustan is overrun with infidels and polytheists’ (p.187). He changed place names to denote their submission to Islam. Devanahalli, where he was born, was renamed Yusafabad, Chitradurga to Farukh-yab Hisar, Mangalore to Jamalabad, Sadashivgarh to Majidabad, Madikeri to Zafirabad and many more. Tipu filled his subordinate cadre with officials who shared his ruthless spirit. There was a commander named Mohammed Raza in his army. He was popularly called Benki Nawab which means Lord of the Fire. It is said that on one occasion, he shut certain Nairs up with their wives and children in a house and burnt them alive (p.191).
The book affords much historical vigour in presenting the narrative. Whenever a king or dynasty is mentioned, their pedigree and succession charts for a few generations before and after are given. Bowring assumes the shades of a disdainful Orientalist at times. It is almost a creed for him that the natives are not trustworthy. He comments that European diplomats are no match for the duplicity and craft of Orientals. By the time this book was written in 1899, the French had been totally eclipsed and marginalized to a few toeholds on the subcontinent’s coast. This encourages him to do a What-If analysis related to the mid-eighteenth century wars. The author points out that the French reserved all its strength for operations against the British in North America and seemed indifferent to recovering the prestige it had lost in India. Had it dispatched a sufficient army to the Coromandel Coast when Haidar was operating against the Madras forces, Fort St. George would have fallen and British authority would have been supplanted by the French. In the end, De Bussy arrived too late. With Haidar’s death and the success of Hastings’ diplomacy, French influence terminally declined. The Chapter 15 titled ‘Haider declares War Against the English’ was missing in the copy I handled, but the pages were numbered sequentially without any error.
The book is highly recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
Title: Missionaries and a Hindu State: Travancore 1858-1936
Author: Koji Kawashima
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000 (First published 1998)
ISBN: 9780195655346
Pages: 252
The reformation of Kerala society, sometimes denoted by the more grandiose term of ‘renaissance’, was as thorough as well as far reaching. Human development parameters of present-day Kerala are more in the company of those of the developed western nations than other states of India where pace has picked up only recently. This social progress of Kerala is directly related to the renaissance, but what caused it in the first place? Of the three geographical entities of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar that comprise the Kerala state, Travancore excels the other two, but closely followed by Cochin. This book shows how Travancore changed itself into a modern state, how they used Christian missionaries during the process of state building and how the British authorities were concerned in this process. It also explains how the state encountered, assimilated, utilized and resisted westernization and imperialism in the period 1858-1936. Koji Kawashima teaches political science and economics at Kokushikan University in Tokyo, Japan. He is not well known in Kerala for his scholarship on its society and I guess this book is the thesis of his research work. There is precious little about the author in the book.
Travancore was a Hindu state right from the beginning but it still permitted the missionaries to work and propagate their religion. They did not put any obstacles in the missionaries’ way in converting Hindus to Christianity. No other country in the world other than native Indian states was this liberal and tolerant in the nineteenth century. Travancore never came under Muslim rule in its history and therefore retained its ancient Hindu type and character. This was further reinforced by King Marthandavarma by surrendering the state to Lord Padmanabha, an aspect of Vishnu. The state made huge expenditures from the treasury for temples and maintaining feeding houses for Brahmins. The relationship between the missionaries, Travancore state and the British government which was the paramount power, changed greatly over time from the late-nineteenth century onwards as a result of the growing influence of Indian nationalism, Hindu revivalism and the growing awareness of self-identity among the depressed castes and communities.
Kawashima brilliantly captures the spirit of missionary work in Kerala and how its effectiveness and aggressive nature changed over the decades. The Protestant missions of London Mission Society (LMS) and Church Mission Society (CMS) were the most prominent and more powerful than Catholic missions. The East India Company officially prohibited missionary activity through its charter, but was ‘curiously inconsistent and self-contradictory in practice’. The company forbade missionary activity in Bengal where a large Muslim population held sway and were opposed to it. On the other hand, they encouraged the missionaries in South India where the Hindus were in a majority who would tolerate anything. The first British Residents of Travancore, C Macaulay and John Munro were zealous evangelists. State funds were granted to missionaries to carry out their conversion work. It was Munro who took over the administration of Hindu temples and thereby obtained the right to control its wealth. The missionaries resented any hurdles in their work. In 1857, Rev. John Cox warned the Maharajah that the only way of avoiding annexation of the kingdom to British provinces was to remove the current Resident and Dewan who were not supportive to the missionaries. Their insolence must have been maddening to native officials! After the Revolt of 1857, the British changed their policy of ‘civilizing’ India and decided to honour the social customs and rights of the native rulers. But these right envisaged in Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 took effect very gradually in Travancore, by the 1890s. The rise of patriotism and nationalist feeling in India also prompted the British to display religious neutrality. By the 1930s, the missionaries’ position had become very weak indeed.
The book narrates several instances when the funds of the Hindu state were diverted to missionary work of converting Hindus to Christianity. Munro even appointed Charles Mead, a missionary, as the civil judge in Nagercoil. This was the first time an evangelist was given such high powers in a native state. But Resident W. Cullen was hostile to them and resented the unconstitutional authority of the missionaries. The Maharajahs were also generous to the missionaries and liberally allotted funds for what was in effect cutting the branch they were sitting on. The LMS was given a bungalow in Nagercoil and rupees five thousand for purchase of paddy fields. CMS was gifted the land for Kottayam college worth rupees twenty thousand besides thousand rupees as grant. They were also granted a tract of land near Kollam ‘at least seven miles in circumference’! The raja of Cochin presented five thousand rupees to LMS for building the Nagercoil church.
The author also finds the answer to the question of why the Hindu state permitted the missionaries to carry on general education of the public along with religious study. The state compromised with the missionaries for the purpose of ‘modernization’ by utilizing their educational and medical activities. Bible was taught in several government schools too. The educational institutions run by the government had only a tenth of the students’ strength of the missionary schools. Religious education was forcefully imposed on Hindu students. A missionary recorded that ‘the heathen children at first stoutly refused to learn any Scripture lessons like Christian children. They were however obliged to do so by the rules of the school’ (p.87). When missionaries targeted higher castes for conversion, they had no hesitation in opening schools exclusively for them to avoid pollution by mixing with the lower castes. Several Nair schools sprang up. A M Blandford of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society started schools for Nair, Kshatriya and Brahmin girls. A school opened inside the sacred enclosure of the Padmanabha Swamy Temple. Bible was taught in this school and students had to mandatorily attend Christian prayers at the close of the morning and afternoon classes. This supreme manifestation of tolerance and accommodation was repaid by the missionaries with contempt and derision. J. Knowles, a prominent LMS missionary, noted that ‘medical work will enable the mission to touch the hearts of classes who otherwise are likely to remain shut up in their heathenism. It is also a great help with Christian adherents in the struggle against demonism and superstition’ (p.138). But gradually, the state realized the true colours of the missionaries. In 1902, it prohibited religious education during school hours.
Around the middle of the nineteenth century, missionaries were instrumental in facilitating many social reforms of which the Breast Cloth Disturbance is one. The women of lower castes were to keep their breasts bare in public which was resented by them. A few of the converted women started to dress like upper castes which led to the disturbance. Intervention by the missionaries enabled their flock to dress up in public. However, caste discrimination among the converted Christians existed in as severe a measure as in the Hindu fold. It was the inability of the missionaries to control this menace in their church that finally closed the tap of conversion. The book describes several such instances. The growth of communal identities among the Syrian Christians and the lower castes was a decisive factor that made the state reform its administration and adopt democratic measures, however limited it might have been. Definite change came with Hindu revivalism and the rise of national feeling. The British were also compelled not to intervene too forcefully. In 1901, the British decided not to intervene in the missionaries’ demand for the division of the Hindu Undivided Family (tharavad) and provide inheritance share for the converted. It is to be noted that after the 1880s, the missionaries did not influence any social reform. The Education Code of 1909 threw open government schools to all castes. The process was culminated in 1936 by the Temple Entry Proclamation.
There are people who credit the missionaries for Kerala’s top spot in literacy and education. The truth is that they had a part in it but not as big as is usually made out. Moreover, they were not much interested in medical care as compared to education. Kawashima finds a credible reason for this lack of enthusiasm. This was because medical missionaries were operating in other parts of India, especially NWFP. This was largely because ‘the other methods of diffusing Christianity were inefficient or impossible due to the fierce fanaticism of the Muslims living there’ (p.138). Whether education or medicine, what mattered most to them was how to spread their religion. On the other hand, the support and initiative of enlightened maharajahs and dewans in the medical field helped the state prosper in every parameter of personal health. The rajahs encouraged the introduction of western medicine and provided it freely to the people. This was in sharp contrast to British Indian provinces where medical priority was given to the army and jails only. The hospitals were much more egalitarian also. The lower castes were treated in government hospitals much before they were admitted to schools.
Even though the book has relied upon several impeccable reference sources, the author does not seem to be well conversant with the social conditions in Kerala apart from his academic exposure to it. He has heavily leaned on Left scholars who never miss a chance to peddle their partisan agenda. Unfortunately, the author has become an unwitting accomplice in their maneuvering. In the 1920s, the American Rockefeller Foundation extended help in improving the sanitation of Kerala. After noting down its contribution in enhancing public health, Kawashima unnecessarily and irrelevantly guesses the cause of the Foundation’s philanthropy and regurgitates the Marxist line thus: “improving the public health of people in developing countries was considered important for neocolonialism or the informal empire which supplied raw materials to the developed world and also provided consumers for western commodities” (p.123). Each chapter in the book has an introduction and conclusion which are essentially a summary of the contents of the chapter in repetition. A great advantage of the book is the chapter on Cochin which surveys the conditions in Travancore’s neighbour state and brings out the similarities and differences.
The book is highly recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
Title: Bose – The Untold Story of an Inconvenient Nationalist
Author: Chandrachur Ghose
Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2022 (First)
ISBN: 9780670096008
Pages: 714
Just as various rivers flow into the bosom of the sea, various political strategies and movements vied with each other for driving the British out and achieve independence for India. Violence was the earliest thread in liberation’s fabric that germinated straight from defensive measures against the establishment of the British empire, continued through the 1857 revolt and then channeled into political assassinations. After the amalgamation of India to the Queen’s domain in 1858, constitutionalism was the second channel of national aspiration. Then came Gandhi with the third alternative of nonviolent mass uprising. When India became free at last, it was due to the combined effort of all the three forms, but the British transferred power to the Gandhian faction who had public support and at the same time was readily amenable to British persuasions. When they sat down after 1947 to write the story of how India became free, all those outside the pale of Congress were left out or marginalized. The contributions of Subhas Chandra Bose to the freedom struggle are often condensed into a few lines whereas entire books can be made to bring out his single-minded efforts. This book is a good chronicle of the Bengali leader who was disillusioned with Congress and left the country to fight for her freedom seeking help from the oppressor’s enemies. Chandrachur Ghose is an author, researcher and commentator on history. He is one of the founders of the pressure group ‘Mission Netaji’ that has been the moving force behind the declassification of secret documents related to Netaji. His activism led to the declassification of over 10,000 pages in 2010.
A good snapshot of Netaji’s pre-political years is presented in the book. He did not join the coveted Indian Civil Service (ICS) even though he came on top in the examination and instead plunged into political work under Chittaranjan Das. He was elected the CEO of Calcutta Corporation but was arrested and incarcerated in Mandalay jail for three years suspected for having links to violent elements. He was practically exiled to Europe for several years in the 1930s. On return, he was selected as the president of the Indian National Congress. When his re-election bid was opposed by Gandhi, a poll was conducted and Bose defeated Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Gandhi’s nominee, by 1580 votes against 1377 in 1939. As the Gandhian lobby made his life impossible as the party president, Bose resigned. He was soon arrested again and confined to house arrest. In a daring escape, he fled to Germany which was at war with Britain. Disappointed at not getting much support from Hitler and Mussolini, Bose moved to Southeast Asia which was conquered by Japan. He constituted a national army using Indian prisoners of war and fought to liberate India. This was at the fag end of World War II but the axis powers soon fell in battle. It is believed that Bose died in a plane crash on his way seeking to open a new front with a possible alliance with Russia.
The book conspicuously highlights Bose’s falling out with Gandhi and his methods. Bose quickly realized the ineffectiveness of boycotting legislatures as part of the Gandhian civil disobedience program. Gandhi’s action plan for constructive work involved Charkha, the manual spinning wheel, which Bose found to be impractical and obsolete. C R Das and Bose stood for the party entering legislative councils. When Gandhi obstinately blocked the move, they formed a new front within the Congress called the Swarajya party. When Bose was arrested, Gandhi attributed it to his political work condoning violence and did not even pass a resolution seeking his release. He was let free after three years in a Burmese jail on health grounds. When his brother Sarat Bose asked for guidance on how he could be freed, Gandhi recommended the spinning wheel as the ‘sovereign remedy’. Gandhi often suspended at his will the civil disobedience campaigns which were running at full steam. At this point, Bose remarked that Gandhi was ‘an old useless piece of furniture who had done good service in his time, but was an obstacle then’ (p.207). Bose opposed sending Gandhi alone to the Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Congress. Sending more people with him would not have been of any help either as his blind followers would not question him and he would not heed the advice of those who were not his orthodox followers. Watching Gandhi obstruct his work as party president, Bose accused him of having grown into the role of a permanent super-president.
After examining Bose’s interactions with Gandhi, the author proceeds to analyse how Nehru fared with him. Jawaharlal Nehru always remained close to the power centre that was Gandhi in contrast to Bose who worked his way up. Both were rising youth icons and represented the left-wing element in the country. On many occasions Nehru’s initial reaction was in support of Bose, but after Gandhi clarified his stand, Nehru did not hesitate to make a volte-face. In fact, he openly confessed in his letters that he could not oppose Gandhi beyond a certain point. When faced with a difficult choice, Nehru would be non-aligned. This so irritated Bose that he confided to socialist leader Minoo Masani that Nehru was an opportunist who thought about his own position first and only then about anything else. However, he maintained a good personal relationship with Bose. Both leaders extended and received the hospitality of the other during visits to Allahabad and Calcutta. Nehru’s ideas on foreign relations never rose above the wishful thinking of an idealist teenager. Bose then advised Nehru that foreign policy is a realistic affair to be determined largely from the point of view of a nation’s self-interest. He even admonished that ‘frothy sentiment and pious platitudes’ do not make foreign policy (p.296). Congress politics was riddled with factional feuds even then. Bose wrote that ‘Congress politics has become so unreal that no sincere person can be satisfied with it’ (p.81).
It is seen that even though Congress was occupied in organizing campaigns against the British, it did not have any clear idea about what to fight for and its leaders were clueless about the arrival of complete independence. In the 1920s, they demanded dominion status within the empire. After a decade, the British were almost willing to grant it, but then Congress jumped a step further and wanted complete independence (purna Swaraj). There was no timeframe in their mind on when to achieve this. Satyamurti, a prominent Congress leader from the South, came out in 1938 with a demand to fully Indianize the army in the next 25 years – that is, by 1963! In his 1938 Haripura address, Bose enunciated the principle behind the rise and fall of empires. He surmised that empires collapse after reaching the zenith of prosperity and warned that the fate of the British empire would be no different. This claim anticipated several decades at the minimum, but with hindsight we see that this observation was made just nine years before independence. So it is likely that an economically devastated Britain had had no choice other than to offer independence after the War and it was the Congress leaders who were surprised the most at the decision.
The book also includes a clear depiction of some personal traits of Bose that dent his stature as a great leader. Though he professed to be on the side of the political left, he was often accused of pandering to the interests of the upper middle class to which he belonged. There was also a touch of megalomania in him. Everywhere he went, large crowds were arranged to greet him at the railway station and to line up on both sides of the road showering flower petals. He wanted to be treated like a commander. Bose often found himself in the middle of factional politics and the way he dealt with his opponents usually turned to highhanded and undemocratic. Bose’s workers disrupted meetings of rivals and physically assaulted their leaders. This included Gandhi too. On one occasion, a shoe was hurled at Gandhi which narrowly missed him and hit his secretary Mahadev Desai who was standing nearby. Bose also indulged in opportunistic politics. Even though he opposed Gandhi’s constitutionalism, he took up positions of power in Calcutta Corporation. He tried alliances with the Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League when it suited him. Allegations of financial impropriety were also levelled against him by opponents. Bose presented a will made by Vithalbhai Patel (Sardar Patel’s brother) after he died in Europe under the care of Bose. The will bequeathed a large sum of money to Bose and his association for political work. Vallabhbhai Patel challenged the propriety of the will in a court of law and had it quashed.
Bose’s claim to everlasting fame as a freedom fighter hinges on his daring escape from captivity and military fight against the British with the help of Axis powers. Bose first approached Hitler, but his disdainful approach to India made him dither in declaring open support. The racist in Hitler was more comfortable with India under the yoke of a white nation. Hitler was also keen not to antagonize Britain by helping Bose as he hoped to mend fences with them after successfully concluding Germany’s conquest of Russia. Japan’s storming success in Southeast Asia provided Bose with an opportunity to attack British India from Burma. Earlier, he was planning to attack from Afghanistan with German help. He arrived in Singapore in a submarine and assumed leadership of the newly constituted Indian National Army (INA). But it was the moment when Japanese fortunes were turning for the worse. Moreover, Bose wanted to direct military operations by himself even though he was not trained for it. He overruled veteran Japanese commanders. He refused to split the ill-equipped INA troops into small groups and embed them with larger Japanese units. He further insisted that they will fight only as a group under the command of Indian officers. There were ego clashes with the Japanese too. Disputes on minor questions like who would salute first when an INA and Japanese officer of equal rank met each other frequently arose. After discussions at highest levels, it was decided to salute simultaneously. Bose also vetoed the Japanese plan to bomb Calcutta. In the end, the INA and Japanese troops were thoroughly trounced. But the INA captured the imagination of the Indian youth in displaying a valiant alternative in fighting the British as compared to the effeminate and ineffective Gandhian satyagraha.
The book is rather subdued on the last days of Bose. He did not want to surrender at any cost. His final plan was to go to Manchuria which was under Russian occupation and seek help from them. The outcome was highly doubtful but he wanted to try. The author is silent on whether Bose boarded the plane or what happened to it. The mystery is still unresolved. The suspense is aggravated by another incident in 1942 when a plane carrying four INA men crashed, driving Gandhi to write to Bose’s family condoling his ‘death’! However, his absence in India after the War was undoubtedly a relief not only to the British but to many national leaders as well. INA trials and the Naval Mutiny aggravated this irritation. The violence in the mutiny was unprecedented with 228 killed in police and military firings and 1046 injured. This made it plain to the British that they could no longer trust the loyalty of Indian troops in any clash involving nationalist sentiments. This finally turned the tables and forced Attlee to offer complete independence.
As a part of maintaining the political balance, the book includes several cartoons published in the Jugantar daily, all of which are highly critical of Bose. It also hints at the ideological tussle between the national poet Tagore and politico-cultural nationalists represented by C R Das and Bose. Tagore was accused of harbouring shallow internationalism in life and literature which was not sincere and did not reflect the fundamental truth in nationalism. The book also contains a chapter on Bose’s doubtful marriage to Emilie Schenkl, his Austrian secretary. It is likely that Bose secretly married her and had a daughter, but his family cold-shouldered the women’s move to get recognized as such. The book is somewhat large at 714 pages. Its essence can be deemed to be the negation of what Pandit Nehru asserted from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 16, 1947 when he said that ‘India achieved freedom under the brilliant leadership and guidance of Mahatma Gandhi’. This book’s spirit declares that this claim is in fact a myth.
The book is recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
Title: Gajapati Kapilendra Deva – The History of the Greatest Hindu Conqueror of 15th Century India
Author: Nihar Ranjan Nanda
Publisher: Subbu, 2023 (First)
ISBN: Nil
Pages: 244
Odisha is a land gifted with vast natural resources and scenic beauty of varying nature such as the sea, lakes, forests and hills. Its fame in history is sealed by one of the oldest battles in India fought by Ashoka against Kalingas. However, after this episode, Odisha undergoes a long eclipse in history which lasts for several centuries. This is caused in a large measure by the cabal of liberal historians who believe that medieval India rose with the Delhi sultanate and ended with the Mughals with nothing in between. Numerous Indian monarchs ruled many parts of India, often humbling the sultans, but they are much too frequently relegated to the footnotes and appendices of mainstream history. A sustained effort to cast light on these dark pages of Indian history is the need of the hour and it is heartening to take note of this contribution of a young author to this great cause. This book brings to life Gajapati Kapilendra Deva who ruled Odisha in the fifteenth century and conquered a large territory by incessant wars which helped to check the relentless onslaught of Islamic imperialism. The idea behind the book is to depict Kapilendra Deva in a dispassionate way and make an unflustered assessment of the man which is accessible to ordinary readers. Nihar Ranjan Nanda is a software engineer by profession and is working in an MNC. He is a history enthusiast and writes on it regularly on various platforms. That he is an avid reader is proved by the extensive list of references used in preparing this book.
Kapilendra Deva did not belong to the royal lineage. He rose to become the minister of Ganga king Bhanudeva IV and usurped power with the help of nobles utilizing the discontent of the people on the king’s weak response to external aggression. Kapilendra faced unrest from vassals in the initial stages. He quickly overrode them and sent his sword of conquest in all directions. As per the book, his empire extended from Jharkhand in the north to Andhra in the south with a clear incursion into Tamil Nadu up to Rameswaram. The Suryavamsi Gajapati dynasty founded by him lasted for a century and ruled from Kataka (modern Cuttack). On military strength and extent of territory, Gajapati empire is on a par with Vijayanagar and Bahmanis. There are literary references of his conquest of Hampi and Bidar, their capital cities respectively. Nanda claims that the geographical area ruled by Kapilendra was the largest under a Hindu king. Only the Marathas would excel him on this count a few centuries later.
The author depends on many sources for this pioneering effort of historiography such as records of donatives, literary texts in various languages, epigraphic records and travelogues of Portuguese and Muslim travelers and tradesmen. Exaggerations found in these sources are denoted as such which leads to a balanced presentation. To provide context to the narrative, the author begins with an introduction of the neighbouring kingdoms and the reign of the last three rulers of the Ganga dynasty of Odisha. Nanda is a proud Odia, but in variance with the practice of local historians who always try to paint a glorious picture of their protagonists, takes a very professional approach in pruning out the impossible and maintaining the remaining as plausible. A clear advantage of the book is that it has examined many sources which were contemporary or immediately after the reign of Kapilendra Deva.
The book exposes a trait of Odia kings to use religion as a device of statecraft to gain legitimacy to their rule. Cleverness has always been an inalienable part of a politician’s survival toolkit. The Ganga ruler Anangabhima Deva III (1211-36 CE) made Puri Jagannatha the overlord of his kingdom and named it Purushottama Samrajya. He styled himself as the deputy (rauta) of the Lord. Later kings of other regions have also continued this custom. This bears a striking resemblance to Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma of Travancore, Kerala who ruled in the eighteenth century. He usurped his uncle’s throne and had to face stiff opposition from his cousins and the nobility. After assuming power, he surrendered the kingdom to the tutelary deity Sri Padmanabha, a manifestation of Lord Vishnu. He and his successors thereafter used the title of Sri Padmanabha Dasa (servants of Lord Padmanabha) to denote themselves. Kapilendra Deva also had to meet revolts from vassals. In fact, he was crowned at Bhubaneshwar as Cuttack was not deemed safe. He then declared that he became king at the Adesa (advice) of the Mahaprabhu Jagannath of Puri.
This book also analyses the role played by the Suryavamsi dynasty established by Kapilendra Deva in providing a bulwark against Islamic aggression from all sides and hence preventing the Odia culture from collapse. Even today, the Odia language has very little Persian or Arabic influence because of its lesser exposure to the conquerors’ tongues. However, some inscriptions in Tamil Nadu show that festivals in some temples could not be held during the Odia invasion. This has led some historians to surmise that they were also iconoclasts of the same genre as Muslim sultans. Nanda refutes this argument with convincing proof from other inscriptions. The temple festivals could not be held probably due to the unsettled condition of the local polity while a battle was in full swing in the neighbourhood to determine the destiny of the land. Even then, there is nothing to substantiate that worship was interrupted in these temples. On the other hand, several inscriptions from other temples in Tamil Nadu itself speak about the donation of cows, village grants and new offerings made to these temples by Odia king’s local governors. The author then considers the question of why Hindu kings did not ally with each other to fight Islamic invaders. The reason may be that the sense of brotherhood and oneness was not deep in Indian rulers at that time. Even Muslim sultans fought with each other even though the call of religion was much more powerful among them. The author suggests that even if the Hindu kings had cobbled up an alliance, the Muslims would have made a grander alliance to protect their religion. We have heard about the Shah of Persia offering help to Aurangzeb to track and hunt down Shivaji even though the Persians and Mughals were locked in combat over the province of Kandahar
The book claims that Kapilendra had campaigned against the very powerful kingdoms of Vijayanagar and Bahmani and conquered their capitals of Hampi and Bidar. A detailed justification for reaching this conclusion is cited from the sources. But still it sounds doubtful. At the same time, campaigns against the sultans of Malwa and Delhi are pure conjecture. In the case of Bengal, there is proof of construction of a temple signifying Kapilendra’s victory there. The book also includes an anecdote about the Bengal sultans and the reasons for their bitter resentment against Hindu kings. Raja Ganesh had ruled over Bengal in the fifteenth century. As he was very able and powerful, the Muslim nobles invited the sultan of neighboring Jaunpur to invade Bengal and get them rid of Ganesh. The raja was defeated in the battle which ensued. The victors allowed Ganesh to remain in his religion but insisted the crown prince Jadu to convert to Islam as a condition for ceasefire. After the Muslims left, Ganesh reconverted his son back to Hinduism with many rituals and paying huge sums to Brahmins. However, the Hindu nobles did not accept Jadu as one of their own. He became furious at this humiliation, became Muslim again and named himself Jalaluddin. He was the cruelest persecutor of Hindus. The lack of accommodating spirit and inclusiveness among Hindus also contributed to their downfall in the medieval period.
The author is not professionally trained in history, but this book is a great effort at creating history to fill up the missing links left behind by agenda-driven historians. The methods used by the author in narrating history are sturdy and scientific though the conclusions drawn may be open to question in some parts. Conjectures are also used to supply some deficiencies, but he explicitly mentions it as such. The author hopes that readers will learn something new about Kapilendra Deva in this book. This humble objective is more than achieved by this little piece of history which can be read easily. On the negative side, it must be indicated that it focuses only on political and military conquests in lieu of social, cultural or economic aspects. Scarcity of sources might be the reason behind this omission. The author consistently use the outdated acronym ‘AD’ to denote years instead of the more professional and secular usage of ‘CE’. The cover could have been a little more imaginative. It contains a graphic image of a king on top of a caparisoned elephant which makes the book look like an episode of ‘Amar Chitra Katha’. This is somewhat compensated by the silhouetted spire of the majestic Puri Jagannath temple and the stone sculpture of Kapilendra Deva.
The book is recommended.
Rating: 4 Star
