Sir C P Ramaswami Aiyar – A Biography

Title: Sir C P Ramaswami Aiyar – A Biography
Author: Saroja Sundararajan
Publisher: Allied Publishers, 2002 (First)
ISBN: 8177643266
Pages: 778

‘Diwan’ was the official title of the prominent minister of a king in an Indian state before all of them were folded down in the 1950s. If you ask a person from Kerala to name a Diwan he can think of, it is absolutely certain that the first or even the only name that comes to his mind will be that of Sir Chetpat Pattabhirama Ramaswami Aiyar (1877 – 1966), commonly known as Sir CP. He was well known for his keenness, intelligence and extraordinary charm. As in this book, ‘he was very intelligent and could not be hoodwinked; he was incorruptible and could not be purchased; he was superhumanly courageous and could not be blackmailed’. Sir CP founded many industries in Travancore and his visionary outlook in developing the state’s infrastructure is legendary. However, you won’t see a picture or bust of him in any public place in Kerala which has erased him from public view. He had the misfortune to cap his long association with the state with a severe calling out on the repressive measures he initiated to suppress the democratic aspirations of the people. He successfully contained a communist uprising in Punnapra-Vayalar, but then turned against the national movement too by advocating independence for Travancore when the British left. This was the proverbial last straw. An assassination attempt on his life took place, after which he resigned from his position as Diwan and left Travancore. This book sums up in around 700 pages the tumultuous life of this great scholar-intellectual who was once known to the British as ‘the cleverest man in India’. Saroja Sundararajan is a distinguished administrator and researcher from Tamil Nadu. She served as the principal of several colleges for 26 years. She has several books of a biographical nature to her credit.

This book provides a good overview of CP’s childhood, education and law study without delving into too much detail. His latter day fame as an authoritarian seems to have been moulded from his student days when he was under the control of his strict, disciplinarian father. To prevent the boy from dozing off while studying, a special lectern was made in which he had to stand all the while he was reading. However, he was mindful of serving the society. He joined the Servants of India Society run by Gokhale after graduation. A short while later, he abandoned it and returned to legal profession as per his father’s persuasion. CP joined the Indian National Congress in 1904, two years after becoming a lawyer. He attended the 1907 Surat conference and many such meetings in the following years. He drafted the Lucknow Pact of 1916 which reconciled the Congress with the Muslim League. He was one of the general secretaries of Congress along with Jawaharlal Nehru. CP associated with Annie Besant and engaged in nationalistic work letting go of a lucrative legal practice. Anyhow, it must be stressed that his social work was not full time and he found enough opportunities to engage in legal work commissioned by very prominent clients.

The author does not say so plainly, but CP was disillusioned with Congress following the ascent of Gandhi and his agitation based on mass participation which invariably ended up in violence even though professing lofty platitudes on ahimsa. Sundararajan notes that ‘by the turn of 1918, CP dissociated himself from Congress owing to various factors’ (p.55). These ‘factors’ are not clearly elucidated. It’s a puzzle that the author is reticent to disclose them even after the lapse of a hundred years. Congress had demanded immediate provincial self-rule at that time which was in stark contradiction of its resolve taken a few months back contemplating a gradual takeover. Hardening of such a nationalistic line made several eminent moderate men to leave the party. This was the time when the non-Brahmin movement was gaining momentum in Tamil Nadu. They targeted CP for being Brahmin – or rather, a successful Brahmin – and subjected him to ridicule and criticism. This bordered on intimidation and physical violence that he started carrying a gun with him in 1920. The non-Brahmin movement is not to be confused with Dalit activism. This was an association of non-Brahmin castes of Hinduism, many of them upper castes themselves, who treated the untouchables with equal or perhaps a little more contempt than the Brahmins. CP then turned to government work and was elected to the provincial legislative council in 1920. In the 1923-28 period, he was appointed the advocate general of Madras and later the Law Member of the Governor’s Executive Council. This is equivalent to a ministership in today’s Indian states. At this point, he was instrumental in clearing the Mettur and Paikara dam projects of their legal hurdles. As a kind of promotion, he was elevated to the Viceroy’s Executive Council as Law Member in 1931 which is equivalent to a union cabinet minister today. CP was a close associate and friend of Lord Willingdon when he was the Madras Governor and later as Viceroy. When India was taken out of the fiduciary gold standard and the economic problems developed, Willingdon was on the verge of resigning his post in protest. It was CP who persuaded him to stay on. Even after he left for England, Willingdon closely followed CP’s work in the press with keen interest and provided feedback occasionally. CP was transferred to the Railways and Commerce portfolio in 1932. He was the first lawyer deemed fit to fill that post. The entire British administration evaluated him as ‘the ablest man in India’.

CP had confessed that there was an autocrat in him. This autocrat had his most fulfilling incarnation as the Diwan of Travancore. This job appealed to CP’s heart who returned to it many times after temporary assignments elsewhere. However, Travancore proved to be his nemesis. Had it not been for Travancore, CP would have had a glorious career in post-independent India. CP was fiercely loyal to Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal and his adamant upholding of independence for Travancore as per the Maharaja’s wish cost him the goodwill of eminent statesmen who came to power in Delhi after the British left. This book presents a true picture of CP’s involvement with Travancore. Even before his elevation as Diwan, CP intervened with Viceroy Willingdon and high officials in Delhi in advancing the investiture of Chithira Thirunal by as much as ten months, ending the regency of the Maharaja’s aunt. (More stories on the palace intrigues can be obtained from Manu S. Pillai’s ‘The Ivory Throne’ reviewed in December 2019 and ‘History Liberated: The Sree Chithra Saga’ by Princess Aswathi Thirunal reviewed in July 2024). As Diwan, CP instituted many reforms in the social, political, industrial and commercial frameworks of the princely state, the most important being the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 permitting entry of untouchable Hindus inside temples. It was the Maharaja’s initiative as well, but some caste Hindus blockaded CP’s house in protest. His granddaughter, a baby of three years, sustained a fracture on her elbow at that time by falling into a pit in the backyard. The crowd prevented her from being taken to hospital chanting ‘let the granddaughter of untouchable CP die’ (chandalante pothi marikkatte, p.317). The child suffered a permanent deformity on the elbow which she later jokingly referred to as her ‘temple entry elbow’.

The book aptly describes the very strong antipathy of Travancore’s Christian community against CP who tried to curtail the unbridled proselytization and mass conversions in the state. Schools run by the Church received aid from the state but imparted Christian religious education to all children with an eye to ‘catch them young’. The percentage of Christians in the population of Travancore made a quantum jump from 20.6% in 1891 to 31.5% in 1931 and that of Hindus dwindled from 73.2% to 61.6% in the same interval. In 1936, the government forbade schools to be held in churches, places of worship or prayer houses. While instituting compulsory primary education, the 1945 educational reforms withdrew grant-in-aid to schools which taught religion. Churches came out strongly against it but CP stood his ground. The Temple Entry Proclamation closed the tap which supplied converts to Christianity. Piqued by the Proclamation, the Christians of Mankompu desecrated a bust of Chithira Thirunal. CP built a police station there and took strict action (p.324). The inveterate hatred of Travancore State Congress (TSC) towards CP was said to be fed by some Christian leaders in the top rung. The Church used British dignitaries also to their aid. Emily Kinnaird, an English lady and MP, freely indulged in a false but vicious propaganda against CP and Travancore itself by accusing them as anti-Christian. Questions were raised in British parliament on ‘persecution’ of Christians in Travancore. The book includes a long chapter on the liquidation of the Travancore National and Quilon Bank and the imprisonment of its Christian proprietors after a long court battle. They had attacked CP through their newspaper ‘Malayala Manorama’. The author claims that CP had no role in the bank’s unravelling and that the law had merely taken its course. But it is likely that CP was the brain behind the initial run on the bank and its eventual collapse.

Sir CP’s descent to disaster began in 1939 when public demands for responsible government became louder and more strident. Confrontations with TSC on the streets upset the tranquillity of the state. CP tried to downplay popular sentiment as roused by Christians on a communal agenda. The author also follows this line, but it seems not true. All sections of the society came out in support for the agitation. CP gagged several newspapers for reporting on the struggle or criticising him. The trait of authoritarianism was becoming clearly visible. There was also a spat with Gandhi around this time. In 1939, Gandhi advised CP to resign as Diwan as he had ‘heard disparaging remarks about his private character from reliable sources’ (p.377). CP began sounding out on the constitutional changes required in Travancore in view of India’s impending independence. Right from the beginning, he was very vocal against the British model having an executive responsible to the elected legislature. He favoured an irremovable executive with no dependence on legislature modelled on the US Constitution.

The ten months from October 1946 to July 1947 were epoch-making in Kerala history for the lightning pace at which far-reaching transformations took place. It began with the armed Punnapra-Vayalar insurrection and ended with the assassination attempt on CP’s life which injured his spirit more than the body. It all began with a communist-orchestrated militant labour movement in Alappuzha. Coir workers demanded bonus irrespective of profit of the company. CP took a pro-labour attitude and persuaded the company owners to grant four per cent bonus as deferred wages. This was before any labour leader had opened his mouth in the conciliation meeting. Having realized their demand for a song, the workers immediately asked for the end of monarchy and replacement of the Diwan. The government could not countenance such purely political demands coming from labour unions. Armed fighting took place between labour unionists and police. The disturbed areas were put under martial law and CP was made the lieutenant general of the army. The fighters in Vayalar were made to believe that they could effortlessly overwhelm the state forces whose weapons were claimed to be not loaded with ammunition! A brutal carnage then ensued and the number of people killed in the encounters is still not indisputably settled. CP felt singled out in this episode. The neighbouring Cochin state abetted in the uprising by taking no steps to prevent its soil from being used as a base for organizing subversive acts in Travancore. This was alleged to be in a bid for gaining popularity for the Cochin ruler. As independence neared, CP was further isolated from the national mainstream as he was not ready to concede paramountcy to the new regime that will be replacing British power. By April 1947, Baroda, Gwalior, Patiala, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Rewa and Cochin joined the constituent assembly, further cutting Travancore off from the tide. The tug of war continued till CP was taken out of the arena by the stroke of a would-be assassin’s sword. The author insists that the attempt on CP’s life had no relation to Travancore’s decision to finally accede to India. Sundararajan again certifies that the decision on Travancore’s status was the prerogative of the Maharaja and CP’s role in it was only advisory in nature. CP had confirmed it by saying that ‘by temperament and training, I am unfit for compromise, being autocratic and over-decisive’. However, CP was pained at his perceived abandonment by the royal family after he resigned as Diwan. The book narrates CP’s life for the next two decades, till his death in 1966. Though he worked as the vice chancellor of BHU and Annamalai universities, no worthwhile job which taxed his considerable talent in law and administration came his way.

A major shortcoming of the book is that it is written in a reporting style of what the subject said and did and not of what he thought. The author is never in touch with CP’s mind. Even though an extensive collection of his writings and speeches are meticulously maintained by the charitable foundation named after him, there is no mention of any diaries in which he recorded his most intimate thoughts. Did CP keep a diary? We may never know. He started writing a book on his ‘times’ towards the final years of his life, but it did not go anywhere. May be this constrained the author from making any analysis or review of her own rather than reproducing, and probably editing too, of what she had gathered from other sources. A touch of humour always attended his demeanour. This is natural in a person who was bandied about as a ‘Ladies’ man’ by his detractors even though the author stoutly rejects this accusation. When he was offered the post of judge early on in his legal career, CP declined saying that he ‘preferred talking nonsense for a few hours a day’ to ‘listening to nonsense every day and all day long’. Through the biography, Sundararajan also provides a broad outline of the progress of constitutional development in India under British rule. CP was closely associated with numerous reform committees in a substantial way. The book does not mention when CP was knighted and for what services he rendered. Another surprising drawback of the book is the total lack of information on CP’s private life. Even though the names of his wife and three children are mentioned, there is no chapter on how the family fared in the face of turbulent opposition engendered by CP’s official work as the Diwan. This is strange, especially from a woman author. The book includes a lot of monochrome pictures depicting various important occasions of his official life, but their reproduction is low-resolution and of poor quality. Considering their historical significance, readers can only hope that the originals are scrupulously preserved.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

History Liberated

Title: History Liberated – The Sree Chithra Saga
Author: Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi
Publisher: Konark Publishers, 2021 (First)
ISBN: 9788194201892
Pages: 450

The 565 native states which formed a part of British India were in varying degrees of social and material progress. Travancore was the foremost among them, adorned by a long line of enlightened monarchs crowned by the jewel among them – Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. He acceded to India in 1947 and functioned as the Raj Pramukh of the united Travancore-Cochin state till 1956. After stepping down, he graciously lived on as an ordinary citizen of India, eliciting deep respect from the people around him. He passed away in 1991 at the age of 79. Unfortunately, an effort was seen thereafter to belittle him and his lineage through reminiscences which the victims could not effectively refute owing to the great time that elapsed in between. Chithira Thirunal was the son of the younger of the two cousins adopted into the Travancore royal family. When the reigning monarch Sree Moolam Thirunal died, the elder cousin assumed regency powers. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have male offspring and the crown was transferred to the younger cousin’s lineage. In 1995, one of the granddaughters of the regent rani came out with a book titled ‘At the Turn of the Tide: The Life and Times of Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi’ which contained some adverse remarks. Noted author Manu S. Pillai’s 2016 book ‘The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore’ also repeated this trait (this book was reviewed earlier here). The present book is a rejoinder to these two strikes on a simple, progressive and visionary Maharaja. It is also for salvaging Sethu Parvathi Bayi – the junior rani – as she was the target of ‘calculated cruelty’ from some quarters. She is claimed to be victimized for nothing more than being strong-willed and the hardships and sufferings faced by her remains unknown. Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi is a member of the royal family and the niece of Chithira Thirunal. She is an economics graduate and an accomplished poetess. She was awarded the Padma Shree recently. This book seeks to liberate Chithira Thirunal’s history and legacy from the eclipse his rivals had planned.

The narrative begins with the adoption of two young girl cousins to the royal family named Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (elder) and Sethu Parvathi Bayi (younger). This kind of adoption was required in a matrilineal family in which there was no natural-born girl child. The senior male offspring of the elder princess was assured of the throne. The relationship between the princesses and the palace atmosphere were vitiated by the senior Rani’s miscarriage in the eighth month of pregnancy and junior Rani’s safe delivery of a male child. This meant the new-born would be the future king and power would be taken out of the senior Rani’s line. Junior Rani feared assassination attempts on the little prince. She was apprehensive even to hand him over to temple priests for mandatory rituals at the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. With the ruling king’s early death, senior Rani took over as Regent till the crown prince turned eighteen. She strictly controlled even the petty expenses of the junior’s household. There were times when money was not given to feed the entire household and the children had to obtain food from the kitchen of a loyal retainer. The junior’s mother and siblings were forbidden from staying with or visiting them at Kaudiyar Palace. When Chithira Thirunal was sent to Mysore for administrative training before assuming office, his mother was required to stay away from him. Unable to suffer this disgrace, she chose not to go to Mysore. All these were intentionally done to mentally harass her and the crown prince. Senior Rani’s household, especially her consort, was determined to prolong the regency by alleging grave falsehoods on the mind and character of the prince and his mother. Accusations of black magic involving an attempted human sacrifice of a baby were concocted and levelled against them. The author asserts that three assassination attempts were made on the life of the prince – one on the day of investiture itself and two in his minority. One such attempt was to torch the infant’s bed and to make it appear as originated from a toppled candlestick.

Some interesting features of the Regency rule are mentioned here. The paramountcy of the British was a principle that was displayed in full view of the public even in their most ordinary daily lives and its style and substance. The arrival of dignitaries in hierarchical order for state functions left no doubt unanswered on who’s the highest on the ladder. The Regent rani came first, followed five minutes later by the prince (who later became Maharaja) and the British resident came last. The sequence was reversed in dispersal. In the Investiture Declaration read out by the Resident, Viceroy Willingdon informed the public through his written order of how he was ‘convinced’ of the prince’s suitability for kingship after having an interview and interactions with him. The Maharaja responded in similar vein by profusely thanking the British and conceding that he has taken charge according to usage and recognition of the British government. The author has used every weapon in her resources to strike back at the senior Rani’s household. She is alleged to be partial to Christians and granted them prime land to build churches and ecclesiastical institutions. This was said to be in a bid to impress Viceroy Irwin who was a pious Christian. When charges of unsound mind came up against Chithira Thirunal, some bishops of Travancore sent petitions to the viceroy suggesting the prince’s incompetence to succeed to the throne (p.88). In the same way, the author arraigns some of the peculiarities of the senior Rani’s household. A comparison of the consorts is also made with the senior guy said to be more English than the English, mostly suited and booted and enjoyed hunting. The moral turpitude of injuring a living being for sport is played up and we are informed that though Chithira Thirunal was a sharp shooter who could smash a matchstick from a distance, he never fired to kill.

The Temple Entry Proclamation was the greatest achievement of Sree Chithira Thirunal. At the stroke of a pen, he castigated disgrace and discrimination that lasted many centuries to the dustbin of history and restored the self-respect of the lower castes. This was the first such action in India. Kochi and Malabar followed suit rather late in this respect and their titular rulers forever stopped going to temples when they had to finally permit entry of the untouchables. There is a line of thought that credits Diwan C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer as being instrumental for this crucial step. This book provides sufficient proof to dispel this view. The Maharaja constituted a nine-member committee in 1932 to study this issue, out of which seven were upper castes. In 1934, they recommended many reforms but stopped short of permitting entry. There was the threat of mass conversion of Ezhavas in the background. On Nov 3, 1936, a memorandum signed by 30,522 upper castes appealed for temple entry. A few days later on the Maharaja’s birthday, it was granted. The gates of Kaudiyar Palace were symbolically thrown open to all and a grateful multitude watched their rulers welcoming them from a balcony with open arms. Strangely, the senior Rani – earlier Regent – opposed temple entry and she never visited Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple thereafter. The book gives a very plausible argument for why Chithira Thirunal waited five years for temple entry. This was answered by Sir C.P. He said he advised the Maharaja to go for this reform when a Hindu diwan ruled the state. Thomas Austin and M. Habibullah were the diwans in the early part of the Maharaja’s reign.

In the 1940s, Chithira Thirunal’s star faded in the face of violent and uncompromising agitation for more power to the people’s representatives. At Indian independence, Travancore initially opted not to accede to India and remain independent with a constitution modelled on the USA. The 1946 Punnapra-Vayalar rebellion erupted in which hundreds of communist fighters were killed. This was a case of labour unions adopting political objectives such as removal of the diwan. The author rightfully concludes that this was nothing but a brazen attempt to create martyrs and to strengthen the Communist party. She refers to Nandigram in 2007 as similar to Punnapra-Vayalar. In the Bengal hamlet, the police in the communist-ruled state of West Bengal fired upon farmers protesting against eviction from their homesteads to make way for a new car factory. Many were killed. There the Communist party took the stand that law and order had to be maintained at any cost. Gouri Lakshmi Bayi obliquely admits that the demand for an independent Travancore was Chithira Thirunal’s brainchild. It is claimed to be only a bargaining chip to gain special status for the state. The Maharaja was claimed to be apprehensive that the North-dominated Centre would steamroll the interests of the southern states. Coincidental it might be, but Travancore decided to accede to India just days after an assassination attempt on Diwan Sir C.P. The author however clarifies that the attempt had no role to play in swaying Travancore into the embrace of India. Another progressive step was to abolish the death penalty in Travancore. The book lists out a lot of work done by the Maharaja in bringing modern institutions to his kingdom. This becomes a drag on the readers after some time.

Part 2 of the book is fully reserved for reminiscences of close family members on the Maharaja and his mother, the junior Rani. A collage of photographs of the two enveloping the period from their childhood to old age is artistically conceived and excellently reproduced. Curiously, none of the family explains why Chithira Thirunal chose not to marry and this point remains unanswered. It is true that matriliny made it immaterial whether a king had children or not as the mantle invariably fell on his nephew. The narrative concludes with the scrapping of the post of Raj Pramukh when unified Kerala state was formed. The author hints at many places that the Indian government never kept its word on the promises made to royal houses when their kingdoms were annexed to a newly independent India. The Privy Purse was later repealed but nothing is mentioned about this. The author also indicates about a sequel to this volume, which might not be a good idea. Many incidents of the later period of the Maharaja are only glanced over in passing.

The book has a hard cover and fully printed in very fine and glossy pages which cause it to weigh nearly 2 kg. The author’s deep respect for her uncle, the Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal, as a living god is discernible in every page. Several couplets she had penned in his honour and memory are reproduced in the book. Padmanabhaswamy and his temple are the other two major protagonists in the text which put in an appearance every few pages. There are some personal anecdotes narrated, but not enough from a person who had close familiarity with the Maharaja from her birth to his passing away 46 years later. Many rare photographs from the palace albums are included. These photos make for a good excuse to purchase this book. The diction is slightly cumbersome at some points. The author being an established poetess, her choice of words may make a connoisseur of rhyme enthused, but not the ordinary reader in some pages. The Maharaja had confided many things to the author’s care and the readers would have cherished some remembrances about the meeting Chithira Thirunal had had with Viceroy Willingdon which confirmed his suitability to hold the crown. If the Viceroy had decided otherwise, Travancore’s history would have coursed through along a new channel. Nothing is mentioned about this episode.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Developmental Modernity in Kerala

Title: Developmental Modernity in Kerala – Narayana Guru, SNDP Yogam and Social Reform
Author: P. Chandramohan
Publisher: Tulika Books, 2019 (First published 2016)
ISBN: 9788193926987
Pages: 260

The state of social reforms and standard of living varied much among the British Indian provinces and native states neighbouring them in the colonial period. Even among the princely states, matters differed very much. Travancore was a model state among them having high literacy, emancipation of the backward castes and better healthcare systems as compared to other states. Social reforms implemented in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries in the little southwestern kingdom were the fountainhead for the onset of modernity in Travancore. The reforms in society and transformation of the economy went hand-in-hand to usher in development in all spheres of life. This book explains the development of modernity in Travancore and the social work of Sri Narayana Guru and SNDP Yogam which acted complementary to open up a modern state along the lines of a constitutional monarchy. It nicely describes how the reforms sought to create a social climate for modernization. P. Chandramohan retired as curator of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi after having served in various positions in that institution for over thirty years. He is a scholar politically oriented towards the Left and this book is an attempt to ‘prove’ that the reform movement in Kerala followed Marxist precepts on the origin and development of social classes and the struggle between them. The book is an academic product of JNU and is a revised version of the author’s M. Phil dissertation which was submitted at its Centre for Historical Studies in 1982. The narrative covers the time interval from around 1891 in which the Malayali Memorial was submitted and till 1936 when all government temples in Travancore were thrown open to all Hindus irrespective of caste differences.

The subject matter of the book primarily deals with the Ezhava community, Sri Narayana Guru who rose up spiritually from its ranks and the community’s social organisation called Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (hereafter referred as SNDP Yogam). The Ezhavas constituted nearly a fifth of Travancore’s population and hierarchically enjoyed a good position among the untouchable castes. Their main occupations were cultivation, manufacture of coir, fiber and jiggery and the extraction of palm-tree products like toddy. Even though they nominally belonged to Hinduism, the Hindu community was stratified based on degrees of purity and pollution. Any kind of solidarity among Hindus in terms of religion was absent. In no other part of India was casteism more rigidly practiced than in Kerala that Swami Vivekananda likened it to a lunatic asylum. Narayana Guru and the SNDP Yogam found the most distressing social issue as the prevalence of the caste system which segregated people on a hierarchically ordained model on the basis of ritual status. The book explains the many situations like the consecration of a Siva temple at Aruvippuram when the Guru and the Yogam came to clash with entrenched dogma. Chandramohan claims that the reforms led to the formation of a new intelligentsia and a middle class whose objective was to determine the contours of a new inter-caste society. This tendency to map anything anywhere to comply with the Marxist principle of class struggle is a recurrent theme in the book.

The book lists out the land reforms introduced in the kingdom of Travancore which transformed the agrarian society in which the king was the sole owner of all land in the state into a modern system in which proprietorship was transferred to his subjects in return for a nominal tax on land they possessed. Important legislations that introduced the concept of private property came into being. In 1865, the government enunciated the Paattam Proclamation which is considered to be the magna carta of Travancore agriculturists. It granted full ownership rights of about 200,000 acres of government-owned land to the holders/tenants. These could then be treated as private, heritable, saleable and otherwise transferable property. This put an end to state landlordism and created peasant proprietorship. The landed ‘assets’ of the state became the landed ‘property’ of the people. Eventually, this would lead to the partition and liquidation of the joint family system. This accounted for 80 per cent of the land. The remaining 20 per cent of jenmam lands was addressed by reforms just two years later in 1867. It redefined the power of jenmis (zamindars) making the eviction of a tenant much more difficult although they were required to continue giving rent to the jenmis. In 1896, the Jenmi-Kudiyaan act came into being. It ensured permanent occupancy rights and fixed rents for kaanam kudiyaans. An amendment was introduced to this regulation in 1932. It converted all tenants into proprietors who were to remit rent to the jenmi. Rent payment had to be made only in cash. Thus the kudiyaans acquired full ownership of the land including tis output. The author also narrates the development of cash economy in the nineteenth century with spread of plantation crops, growth of industries like coir, cashew nut and cotton spinning effected rapid economic change in that century’s last quarter. A middle class cutting across caste lines grew up as a result.

The chapter on Narayana Guru neatly summarizes his contributions to social reform. He melded tradition and modernity and at the same time produced a result greater than the sum of its parts. Guru’s genius lay in completely eliminating some meaningless rituals like mock marriage of pre-pubescent girls (thalikettukalyanam) and those associated with attaining puberty (thirandukuli) while only modifying the practices in some other fields. Superstitious procedures and obscure social customs were summarily reformed. He deconsecrated Ezhavas’ till-then-favoured gods like Chathan, Marutha or Madan and introduced the mainstream Hindu deities minus the Brahmin priesthood. Chandramohan bestows the full credit in spreading universal education on the Christian missionaries. He even praises them for enabling the upward social mobility of the Ezhavas (p.40) because ‘the community used to have interactions with the missionaries’! This does not take into account the potential or limitations of missionaries in an objective way as done in the book, ‘Missionaries and a Hindu State: Travancore 1858-1936’ by Koji Kawashima reviewed earlier here. There is some confusion on the numerical strength of the schools run by them. On p.86-87, the missionaries were said to be running 416 out of 1901 schools (22 per cent), but on the next page, the ratio enlarges to 46 per cent. The mindset of the Travancore government and the people in making it the most literate state on Indian independence is glimpsed in the book. In 1897, 24 per cent of the students were the offspring of labourers/coolies who had recognized the utility of sending their children to schools rather than following the livelihood of their parents. The kingdom provided free education and encouraged new schools. In 1903, it spent 9.56 per cent of its total revenue on education.

The author analyses the socio-economic background which helped caste organizations like the SNDP Yogam to grow up. Contrary to popular perception that the entire Ezhava community engaged in toddy tapping, distilling and distribution, by the end of the nineteenth century, only 3.8 per cent of them were employed in this profession. Others were occupied in lucrative employment and prosperous trade. The government stopped the practice of unpaid compulsory manual labour for public works and instead employed labourers with wages to construct roads. Coir export to the US increased and the price of toddy and arrack doubled. A middle class arose from these developments who found the time to be ripe for collective action for social mobility. In 1896, Dr. Palpu formed the Ezhava Mahasabha but found it difficult to make it popular. Swami Vivekananda advised Palpu to find a spiritual leader around whom a social organization could be built up. That’s how Guru and Palpu met and the SNDP Yogam was born.

The nature and character of the Yogam is analysed in detail and Chandramohan claims that it was an elitist group at least for the first quarter century of its existence. According to the articles of association of the Yogam, it was largely commercial in nature. Membership fee was prohibitively high. Not more than a fourth collected in a year was to be used for that year’s expenses. The remaining was to be loaned out on interest in order to accumulate capital. Stringent restrictions were in place for members defaulting in payment of the fees. In 1916, the Yogam took court action against members who failed to pay subscription, sealed their houses and held up their property. The organization was said to be led by the educated middle class and the laboring class had no say in its functioning. The presidential address and most of the speeches at its annual meetings were in English. T K Madhavan was the leader who brought Yogam to the ground and made it accessible to all. He considerably reduced the fees in 1927 that helped ordinary men to afford membership. The number of members rose from 3818 to 63674 as a result in just two years. The book also includes a brief exposition on the lower castes gaining the right of temple entry and the agitation that went into it. Curiously, the lower castes were not very enthusiastic in entering government-owned temples. It was C. Raman Thampi and Janardhana Menon, two Nair leaders, who advocated for temple entry before any avarna voiced it. The author claims that Vaikom Satyagraha which demanded only the opening up of public roads around that temple to lower castes, was organized by the Congress, upper castes and T K Madhavan, while the Yogam kept aloof from it. The decade that followed it was a crucial one. Ezhavas allied with Christians and Muslims in the Abstention Movement and obtained reservation for the community in government jobs. An argument gained strength among Ezhavas to convert en masse to Christianity in order to break the shackles of caste oppression. The government was then quick to introduce the Temple Entry Proclamation which ensured the right of every Hindu to enter temples.

Even though the book is in original a part of the academic repertoire – being the author’s M. Phil dissertation – it’s very much readable. The argument regarding the social indices of various communities is backed by many tables culled from census data. The book is very reverent to Narayana Guru and adulatory to his work but is against the SNDP Yogam because of its roots among the middle class and its nonchalant approach to class struggle. As noted before, this book is an attempt to evaluate how modernity developed in Kerala in accordance with Marxist theory. The abolition of meaningless rituals like talikettukalyanam, thirandukuli and pulikudi is said to be ‘a phase in the evolution of bourgeois capitalism’ (p.124). The actions of the Guru are claimed to be similar to the liberal tendencies of the modern bourgeoisie (p.134). In the first few chapters of the book, the author maintains self-control in using leftist jargon. So we read about ‘how the ideas of the Guru suited the aspirations of the Ezhava middle class’ and the Guru’s religious reforms in rituals having a ‘democratic element’ in them. The term ‘bourgeois’ appears for the first time on page 128 and is a constant presence thereafter. The funniest part is that the book contains references to EMS Namboodiripad’s works who was nothing more than a jack of all trades but a master of political sectarianism. His arguments and opinions prove nothing but this seems to be a feeble attempt on the part of the author to a logical fallacy called ‘appeal to authority’. To cap it tightly with political rhetoric, it includes a Foreword by the well-known Marxist historian K N Panikkar.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Missionaries and a Hindu State: Travancore

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

Destiny’s Child

Title: Destiny’s Child – The Undefeatable Reign of Cochin’s Parukutty Neithyaramma

Author: Raghu Palat, Pushpa Palat

Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2022 (First)

ISBN: 9780670096305

Pages: 269

 

This is the story of a diminutive yet regal woman, hardly 4 feet 9 inches tall and slightly plump who was a stern and ruthless individual whom her attendants found generally not approachable. She had vested state powers in her own hands and the British gave her the entitlement of a 17-gun salute – the first Indian lady to be thus honoured. She was Parukutty Neithyaramma, the consort of Maharaja Rama Varma XVI of Cochin State. She belonged to the Nair caste which was traditionally lower than the Kshatriya rajas but managed to enter into a sambandham (a loose conjugal relationship once practiced in Kerala which was entered into between a Nair woman and an upper caste man and in which the male partner had no responsibility for the offspring of the union). Against all odds of discrimination by princesses of the royal family, she steadfastly adhered to her husband. He was sixth in line in seniority to the throne, but due to deaths in the line and abdication of the reigning raja, Kunji Kidavu – Parukutty’s husband – was fortunate to ascend the throne and rule for eighteen years till his death. Parukutty wielded immense power both directly and indirectly by strictly controlling access to the ruler and regulating appointments to key positions including that of the Diwan – the chief minister of the kingdom. Many allegations were levelled against her on corruption and nepotism. She cleverly met her opponents employing deft strategies such as lining up on the side of nationalism which was growing in stature at that time. After her husband’s death, she quietly entered a calm, private life. Raghu Palat is a banker, consultant, writer and teacher. He is also the great-grandson of the protagonist of this story, Parukutty Neithyaramma and has included personal reminiscences to add a touch of liveliness to the narrative. The co-author Pushpa Palat is his wife.

 

Many a Nair woman’s ticket to riches hinged on the sweet chance of finding the right paramour to enter into a sambandham. Parukutty’s Brahmin father was well connected with the Cochin royal family and requested the prince who was sixth in line to the Crown and was 17 years her senior having his hair prematurely greyed for an alliance with his daughter. Interesting facts about the union show how outrageously one-sided the selection was. Her father took her to the palace in Thrissur to introduce her to the prince who was staying there. They met him sitting at the far end of a verandah. After a few words, the prince asked her to walk to the other end and come back, just to observe her gait. This may set present-day feminists’ blood on the boil but the lady took this in her stride – literally. Even after this interview, there was no intimation of acquiescence from the groom. So the father went to Thripunithura where the royal family was permanently residing and obtained his consent for sambandham. But he would not come to her house nor will any ceremonies be held. Finally, her father took her to Thripunithura and presented her before the prince. She then stayed with him flouting centuries-old traditions that forbade Nair spouses from cohabiting with their Kshatriya partners in the palace. This caused the nobility to turn against her. But Parukutty was a strong woman who won’t bow down even to her husband on issues which she deemed to be for the benefit of the family. Unlike the other princes, her husband used to spend his allowances frugally and used his savings to lend to farmers at interest with their title deeds as collateral security. If they couldn’t pay back the debt, their lands would belong to the prince. With tactful management of his finances ably supported by Parukutty, the royal couple was able to amass a huge wealth even before he became the ruling king of Cochin.

 

The authors recount the family strife Parukutty was forced to endure from the prince’s family members on account of the supposed low birth of the consort. In fact, that was not the real bone of contention. Many other princes, including the reigning Rama Varma XV, had had entered into sambandhams with Nair women. But this prince let her stay with him in the palace allotted to him thereby bringing in a semblance of equality to the woman who was his partner. The palace women employed taunts and barbs at every available opportunity that she stopped visiting the Purnathrayeesa temple altogether, which was frequented by the royals. As a woman of character and diehard will, she made it a practice to visit the Chottanikkara temple every day in a bullock cart. A lifelong devotion thus sprang between the wronged woman and the goddess who was known for curing mental sickness. The prince however knew the real worth of his wife and allowed her to be present and participate in his meetings. This was a partnership many couldn’t quite understand and most envied.

 

The authors have taken some liberty to creatively portray some events that add colour and life to the narrative. The exquisite description of the coronation of Rama Varma XVI at the Dutch Palace in Mattanchery is one such incident. His journey from the Hill Palace in a car, the boat ride from Ernakulam and the rituals are rendered in so lifelike a manner as to be like watching in a movie. The British did not recognize sambandham as a lawful marriage and treated it more as a morganatic engagement. Consequently, the lady was never invited to official meetings nor met senior British officials. Rama Varma XVI made a clean break from the past on this point too. Within a short time of taking over the reins of the state, he performed a solemn ceremony at the palace in which he was crowned and bestowed the title of ‘Neithyar’ on his wife. With this, she was elevated to the rank of royal consort. The authors do not explain the meaning or etymology of the word Neithyar. True to the weight of her title, he sometimes openly solicited his consort’s advice in open court. Parukutty readily offered her opinion in a stern voice accompanied by a disclaimer that it was her own opinion and it was for His Highness to take the final decision. Within a short time, the courtiers found that the ruler’s opinion was always in sync with that of his dear consort.

 

From what is presented in the book, it is fairly obvious to everyone that Parukutty’s administration of the kingdom was riddled with large scale corruption. She made screening interviews on the appointment of diwans and senior officials who were expected to obey her bidding. As retaliation for the trouble she suffered at the hands of high-born princesses, she took control over the Amma Raja Estate, which was a fund constituted for the welfare of thampurattis (princesses) and their children. It is likely that public funds were siphoned off under various guises. This book does not mention any such case, but an incident narrated by Robert Bristow in his book Cochin Saga may have a direct bearing on this. Bristow found that the country boats carrying material for the construction of the harbour at Kochi were found to be stopped in Cochin State’s territory and an unauthorized toll of around 13 per cent of the value of the material was levied by a few people. Bristow personally intervened to stop this extortion and raised the issue with the Diwan who expressed happiness that the issue was resolved but expressed his own helplessness saying that “there are some things that even a Diwan is wise to put up with”. Possibly, the rani’s agents might have been behind this illegal collection of money. You can find this incident mentioned in Chapter 10 – Currents and Undercurrents in Bristow’s book. Nepotism was another curse of the rani’s administration. She made her son Aravindaksha Menon the chief engineer of the state even though he was very young and had little experience in the field. She also made a nephew the civil surgeon of Thrissur. She even tried to appoint her son-in-law Ramunni Menon Palat the Diwan in 1930, but the British firmly declined the suggestion.

 

The book describes the frequent interventions of the abdicated ruler Rama Varma XV in the administration of his successor which provides an interesting side story. Even though he is hailed as Rajarshi (royal sage) for relinquishing the throne, it is hinted in this book that he did not expect the British to accept his offer of abdication. His resentment led to continuous interference in the policies of Rama Varma XVI. While on the throne, he had purchased shares of the Moopley Valley Rubber Company in the name of the raja of Cochin. After demitting office, he wanted its dividends to be paid to his personal account which the reigning raja declined. The abdicated raja then filed a suit in a Travancore court where the company was headquartered and lost. This caused much bad press for the royal family. This book also depicts the end of Parukutty’s influence as the prince suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. Doubts were raised against his sanity by his own family members who clamoured for an investigation by a British mental expert. A capable practitioner was engaged from Mumbai, but the raja quietly passed away a few days before the examination was to take place thereby avoiding a huge embarrassment for the state. The authors also bring out the protagonist’s plans for retirement as she had anticipated the event much earlier. She had planned to settle in her home town of Thrissur and made a lot of improvements to the town. She is the architect of modern Thrissur. She built the ring road at the heart of the city and was instrumental in the development of Ramavarmapuram nearby which she planned to develop like a university town in the model of Oxford. She had planned to transfer the Maharaja’s College functioning at Ernakulam to Ramavarmapuram and also transferred the museum and zoo at Ernakulam to Thrissur.

 

The book is pleasant to read which opens up a mirror to Kerala society as it existed a century ago. It is also the saga of a woman who enforced her will in a male-dominated world hard bound by customs which never made her life easier. That she was unscrupulous in her mission to gain financial self-sufficiency for herself and future generations is fairly obvious even though the authors have given only indirect hints here and there of the rampant corruption prevalent in her administration. Since the co-author is her own great-grandson, this is excusable. It also gives a clear picture of the political drama and string-pulling that was normal practice in a princely state under British control. Readers also get a few glimpses of the old Ernakulam town and how it had staged some of the political events narrated in this book.

 

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Fat’h al-Mubin

Title: Fat’h al-Mubin

Author: Qadi Muhammad

Publisher: Other Books, 2015 (First published 1576)

ISBN: 9789380081175

Pages: 106

 

With the forceful Portuguese entry into the spice trade along Malabar coast in the sixteenth century, the age-old traditions and business relationships underwent a sea change. The newcomers were not content to be one among the players. Aiming to dominate the spice trade and navigation in the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese displaced the Arabs by military means. This set in motion a long series of attacks between Muslims and the Portuguese. Muslim intellectuals in Kerala recorded the events as a historical narrative. Notable among these was Sheikh Zainuddin Makhdum’s Tuhfat al-Mujahideen (Gift to the holy warriors) which was reviewed earlier. The next in line is Fat’h al-Mubin (A clear victory). Both these texts were originally written in Arabic. They present the Muslim side of the story in contrast to what we have from Portuguese archives. This narrative centres on the siege and eventual destruction of the Portuguese fort at Chaliyam in 1569. The attack on the fort was a part of the war effort that was orchestrated with help and coordination from Deccan sultanates of Bijapur and Berar. However, as the battleground heated up, the Deccan sultans slunk away from the accord and withdrew. Finally, the Zamorin – the traditional king of Calicut – accepted the responsibility on his shoulders. The Zamorin is the real hero of this history because of his support for the Muslim cause. This book effectively conveys the outrage which Malayali Muslims felt about the aggression of the Portuguese. The author Muhammad ibn Qadi Abdul Aziz was the Muslim civil judge of Calicut and the book was written around the year 1576.

 

Since the Zamorin is the hero of the tale, the author narrates legends about his dynasty that is extolled as without parallel. A story about the first Zamorin who had converted to Islam is also given. This is obviously the result of confusion with the legend of Cheraman Perumal, the last hereditary emperor of Kerala who distributed all land to his vassals. The first Zamorin got only a broken sword from him as he was very much delayed in appearing before his overlord. However, that Zamorin rose to the pinnacle with his military prowess. Islamic lore suggests that Perumal then accepted Islam, abdicated and went to Mecca. Another interesting tale on the origin of Zamorin’s clan links them to Moses or Prophet Musa, as the Muslims call him. The anglicized name Zamorin is rendered from the Malayalam title Samoothiri or Samoori. In the Quran, Sameri was the follower of Moses who misguided people exhorting them to worship the idol of the calf he made. Zamorin’s worship of the cow as a sacred symbol of Hinduism and the resemblance of his similarly sounding name prompted some people to connect his ancestry to Egypt and Moses.

 

The poetic tradition of medieval Kerala Muslims becomes quite evident in the author’s remark that he intends to stick to it and that rendition of prose into poetry is like changing silver to gold. It should be remembered that this comes at a time when alchemy was still a mysterious but respectable profession. Besides, Qadi Muhammad is also the author of Muhyuddin Mala, a garland of poetic honorifics being sung in Malabar in praise of Sufi saint Sheikh Muhyuddin Abdul Qadeer Jilani. The author was a polyglot and trained in many areas of learning. The book narrates the events right from the arrival of the Portuguese and till the capture of Chaliyam fort. The earlier part of the story is told without reference to any dates and serves only as background information to the events that led to the siege of the fort.

 

The book glorifies the Zamorin to the hilt because he sided with the Muslims. His ships are said to be sailing on the seas like the Persian horses do over vast plains. The hyperbole extends to his rule, of which justice and moderation were the significant features. He never confiscated anybody’s property except in case of crime nor does he teases anybody with injustice. He did not capture countries of those beneath him, even if they disobeyed. He was so kind-hearted that in such cases, he was satisfied by extracting tribute from such vassals. He was also said to be wise, statesmanlike, brave, patient, tolerant and spent all that he received as taxes and penalties on charities and feeding the poor. Since the Zamorin was fighting against infidels in spite of his own disbelief, the author reminds Muslims that it was incumbent on them that such a one should be prayed for like a Muslim sultan. The Zamorin was also shrewd in making appeals to Muslim communal sensibilities. He appointed a Quran reciter to encourage people besieging the fort. The author argues that death of a single Muslim soldier was a greater affliction to the Zamorin than the death of ten infidels. The author’s intolerance to non-Muslims is typical of Islamic thinkers anywhere, anytime. After the Chaliyam fort was demolished, he gave some portions of it as building material to reconstruct the Mishkal Masjid which was earlier destroyed by the Portuguese. The demolition of the fort was a long drawn-out process that lasted a year. In the end, it was leveled to the ground and the fort was said to have become a dream. At that instant, Adil Shah and Nizam Shah of Deccan switched sides and made peace with the Portuguese without any obvious justification palatable to his co-religionists in Kerala.

 

The author also provides relevant details on the political rivalries between the major powers of the era. To counter the Portuguese might, Muslim kings entered into a naval alliance that included the Ottoman sultan of Turkey, Mameluke sultan of Egypt and the sultan of Cambay (Gujarat). Even with this alliance in place to bolster their effort, they could not reach Calicut. The author claims poor strategy and bribery as the real reasons for this failure. In Kerala, the Zamorin treated other native rulers with contempt. They were repeatedly humiliated by forcing to seek permission even for such mundane tasks such as re-tiling the roof of their residences. Thus, they were looking for an opportunity to ditch their suzerain by making treaties with the Portuguese who was the enemy of the Zamorin. The rulers of Kochi and Kannur welcomed them with open arms. Another neighbour of the Zamorin, the Vettath Raja of Tanur, is reported to have converted to Christianity out of his enmity to the Zamorin. We can also have a glimpse on the total monopoly of the Portuguese on the spice trade of Malabar. Pepper and ginger were the staple commodities that were entirely handled by them. They left only such unwanted items such as coconuts for other traders. The author laments that whoever wanted a corn of pepper for making soup obtained it only in powdered form and packed in a piece of cloth. The Portuguese seems to have controlled retail trade too.

 

The book is a very short one, in 70 pages, containing 537 couplets in all. The translation has wiped away all poetic worth. The Arabic original is also given in the book. There are clarificatory notes at the bottom of most pages. The dates and years are rarely mentioned in the work and when it is disclosed, it is in Hejira calendar system. The book contains a foreword by Stephen Dale, an eminent historian known for his studies on eastern Islamic world and Kerala Muslims.

 

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star