Calicut Heritage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.www.chaurichaura.com

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

S.K.Pottekkatt courtesy Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kollom-where the bombs were stored

Koilandy Railway Station - one of the targets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jahangir

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Emperor in a session

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

N.A. Krishnan Nair, 2nd Accused

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charles Baudelaire
Courtesy Wikipedia

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

Malabar Girl
copyright: imagesof asia.com

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the story:

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

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

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

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

Malabar springs up in the most improbable places!

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

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

The route from Calicut to Venice till 1498

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

Portuguese route circumventing Arabs and Venetians
courtesy: Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(sd.) Acting Secretary to Governor

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Jaaram (tomb) at the entrance to the street

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cochin -1656 courtesy:www.farelli.info

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mohammed Shah
courtesy: wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whither, Indian Politician?

One Hundred Years of a local Logan

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

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

Two decades before the final outbreak in 1921, Panikker had correctly identified the reasons for the protests and the possible remedies : One cannot resist the idea that these riots are at least partly, though not wholly, due to the oppression of the tenantry by the land-owning classes; and the possible remedies towards their eventual and permanent suppression appear to lie only in some definite scheme whereby the intellectual and moral status of the Moplah population in the backward Taluqs will be raised by means of the imparting to them of free and compulsory education, the suppression of the present defective and dangerous system of Moplah religious instruction and the substitution in its stead of some method based upon a rational and scientific foundation, the permanent reversal of the policy of coercion and the adoption of a policy of concession, but of course within limits, in political dealings with the Moplah classes and their conciliation by other and last but by no means least, the final settlement of the Malabar Land Question which has all along been looming large on our legislative horizon and to which the people have been so eagerly looking forward.

A work, more in line with Logan, was that of Rao Bahadur C. Gopalan Nair, Deputy Collector, Malabar, published with a foreword from Mr.R.B. Wood, ICS, then Collector of Malabar. The book, Malabar Series : Wynad, Its Peoples and Traditions (1911) attempted a detailed study of the political and social history of the place, its people (both the rulers and the ruled) and a study of the beginnings of plantation in Wynad. The most valuable portion of this book is an anthropological study of the tribals and a good summary of the various non-tribal communities of Wynad. The author, who was posted at Mananthawady (Manantoddy, as it was then called) as the Deputy Collector, reveals the instinct of a social scientist in his analysis of the symbiotic relationships in this remote part of Malabar which had known peace only for a generation, after the bloody Pazhassi wars.

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

One hundred years after these fears were expressed by a colonial administrator about the possible loss of ‘our’ heritage, are we today able to salvage what remains of these precious records from white ants, fire and pulp factories?

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

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

Pietro Della Valle

Pietro meeting Queen Abbakka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr.Liu Yinghua examining the manuscripts at the Calicut University

Historians of Calicut deal with the Chinese period in its history as a brief interlude of about a quarter of a century between 1400and 1425 AD highlighted by the seven voyages by Zheng He (Chengo Ho), the Three Jeweled Eunuch Admiral of the Ming fleet.

Chinese had been arriving in India since time immemorial, but mostly through the land routes of Central Asia and North West India, and through Burma to lesser extent. The rise of the Mongols and the strife among the Central Asian principalities led to the virtual closure of the Silk Route in the 14^th Century. Thus it was that as the ambassador of Mohammed bin Tuglaq,the Delhi Sultan, Ibn Batutta had to travel all the way to Calicut to catch a ship to take him to China. This was, incidentally, 60 years before the first of the seven voyages of Cheng Ho reaching Calicut.

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

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

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

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

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

16 manuscripts with Chinese coins

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

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

The seminar concluded on the note that much more research requires to be done in Calicut on the new findings to trace back the manuscripts to their sources to explore if further evidence of transactions with China existed. In the light of the Pattanam experience, it was also felt that archaeological excavations could be a useful source for more detailed information. In view of the importance of Panthalayini –Kollam (Fandaraina) as a haven during the inter-monsoon interval during the medieval times, it was suggested that further investigation could also be conducted there to seek information on the existence of Chinese communities there.

Malabar came under British rule in 1792, although it was only in 1800 that a proper administrative structure was put in place, after a prolonged period of turbulence. It constituted an important district under the Madras Presidency and covered the area of the present districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikkode, Malappuram and Palakkad.

Malabar under the British enjoyed a long line of able and benevolent administrators who tried to introduce many social reforms long before these were sought to be implemented in their home country. An instance is the abolition of slavery. The abolitionist movement under William Wilberforce was facing opposition in Britain and his bill had been defeated in the British Parliament in 1791. But the anti-slavery movement had influenced the British civil servants in Malabar considerably and the Joint Commissioners, Duncan and Botham who were deputed to establish British administration in Malabar had ordered the abolition of all forms of slave trade here. It took another 40 years for Britain to abolish slavery.

The sentiment affected not just civil servants of the Company. Captain Lachlan Macquarie had just moved into Calicut in 1794 as part of the Regiment which was fighting Tipu and later Pazhassi. He had settled down with his young bride, Jane in the beautiful bungalow which he had named Staffa Lodge. (There is no trace of this bungalow now in Calicut). He had picked up two slaves from Cochin to help his new bride set up home in Calicut. But, Jane persuaded him to set them free and even enrolled the two slaves in a parish school in Bombay. Macquarie later on rose to become the first Governor of Australia and is remembered as the ‘Father of Australia’ for his measures to rehabilitate convicts.

Another British administrator who worked to abolish slavery in Malabar was Thomas H Baber, the Sub Collector of Tellicherry, better known for his success in eliminating Pazhassi Raja and his loyal soldiers. Baber’s fight against domestic and agrestic slavery in Malabar saw him give evidence before a Parliamentary Committee. He had serious differences with his superiors on many matters of policy and did not mince words. He had the welfare of the people at heart and had repeatedly protested against the unjust revenue assessments made by East India Company against poor farmers. It was more than a 100 years later, in 1907, that the British Government officially acknowledged that its land revenue policy in Malabar was flawed!

William Logan (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Conolly who was the Collector in the 1840s was another administrator with vision and commitment to the welfare of the people. His strategy to deal with the communal disturbance might have cost him his life, but he will be remembered for his pioneering effort to cultivate teak and for planning a waterway from Payyoli to Mathilakam in Trissur District – what is known today as the Conolly Canal. The introduction of railways around the time the canal was being completed had eclipsed its importance. But with the increasing fuel price and the eco-friendly nature of water transport, Conolly’s plans are bound to be re-visited.

William Logan was not only a brilliant administrator but a painstaking chronicler of Malabar’s history. His contribution to bringing about peace in strife-torn Malabar is as valuable as his effort in compiling important papers relating to British affairs in Malabar (1879) and his monumental Malabar Manual ( 1887).

Logan’s successor in office Evans was also a chronicler as well as a hard-working administrator. To him is attributed the statement: ‘Give me a car and no wife, I shall manage two districts!’ Innes, his collaborator in writing the Malabar Gazetteer, was another illustrious administrator of Malabar.

Sri P.K.Govindan who worked in the Malabar Collectorate for many years has narrated his experience with ICS Collectors of Malabar in his delightful book of the same name. He describes the kind and generous disposition of H.H.Carleston, ICS Sub Collector who would fine a poor rustic accused of boot-legging and would pay the fine from his own pocket to avoid the poor man being sent to jail for 3 months. Once Carleston was travelling from Malappuram to Calicut when his car knocked down a pedestrian near the Kallai bridge. He not only ensured that the victim got prompt medical attention, but kept sending him some money regularly for his period of disability, even after Carleston had been posted out of Malabar.

The last of the British Collectors of Malabar was Bouchier, ICS, CIE, a person of high integrity. Govindan quotes an instance: while proceeding home on leave, the Collector wanted to take some local handicrafts. He visited Quilandy and wanted to purchase the beautiful finger bowls made of coconut shells which is still a popular item among tourists. Bouchier insisted that the entire transaction take place in the presence of the local Tahsildar and that he be charged the full price. Bouchier was on leave on the day India won Independence and did not return. Govindan concludes, quoting Gandhiji, ‘You may hate British imperialism, but not the Britishers’.

(Originally published in the Hindu, Calicut Edition on 30 January 2012. The original can be accessed here)

Travails of Trading in Malabar

Vasco da Gama was supposed to have made his agenda clear to the first person he had met on Calicut coast. The story goes that in reply to a question from the Genoese trader(who was the first person encountered by da Gama), why in the name of the Devil had he come here, da Gama calmly replied: ‘For Pepper and Christ’. Obviously he wanted to please both his masters – Prince Manuel I of Portugal and the Pope who had blessed the voyage and whom Manuel I wanted to placate.

Pepper indeed formed the main item of export from the Malabar Coast, but as the Portuguese established themselves in Goa and Cochin, the trade also got complex. During the initial days of conquest, there was a virtual state monopoly imposed by the Portuguese on Malabar spices and this meant that ship after Portuguese ship would be loaded with pepper and other spices and would sail from the western coast of India, escorted by the powerful armada.

But, as Portuguese trade stabilized, private players also got involved which included non-Portuguese players as well. The Venetians, who had been uprooted from their monopoly of the Mediterranean trade soon after Vasco da Gama had discovered the Calicut route, did not waste time to capitalize on the new opportunity.

We have a fascinating account of the complex coastal trade practised by one such Venetian, Cesar Fredrici who had traded in the Indies for 18 years between 1560 and 1580 and maintained a journal of his adventures. The journal was almost immediately translated from Italian into English by Thomas Hickock under the title, The Voyages and Travaile: Of M. Caesar Frederick, Merchant of Venice, Into the East India, the Indies, and Beyond…( Was Shakespeare influenced by Frederici’s account when he wrote The Merchant of Venice around the time the translation had appeared in England?)

Frederick set out on his long and eventful voyage in 1563 from Venice, travels to Cyprus and finally lands up in Portuguese Goa in 1566. He proceeds from Goa to Malacca in a Portuguese ship which was en route to Banda to pick up a cargo of nutmegs and mace. The ship passed through Ceylon and Nicobar before reaching Pegu in present day Myanmar. His description of the cannibal tribes of Andamans is graphic.

After selling his cargo of nutmeg and sandal, he decides to proceed to Venice via Chittagong, Cochin and Lisbon. But a severe cyclone (touffon) hits the ship which drifts to the Sondiva (Sunderbans) islands. He eventually makes it to Cochin only to realize that the Portuguese vessels had all departed and he would have to wait for a year to catch the next sailing. He decides to proceed to Goa for the wait and to transact some business.

Frederici falls ill in Goa and has to sell some of his rubies (which he had purchased from Pegu) to meet his medical expenses. He had, however, taken care not to sell the most valuable rubies which he preserved for sale back home in Venice. Once he recovers from the illness, he decides to proceed to Cambay where he invests a large sum (2100 ducats, to be precise) in buying opium which fetched a good price in Burma. He again travels east via Cochin and reaches Pegu only to realize that just a day before his cargo had landed, a large shipload of opium from Cambay had arrived crashing the price of his commodity from 50 to 2½ Bize. On an investment of 2100 ducats he could recover only 1000 ducats after two years! Such was the uncertainty of coastal trading in those days.

We have another account of a private trader, more than a hundred years after Frederici which gives a fascinating account of the diversity of coastal trade. Charles Lockyer, an English trader boarded the East India Compay ship Streetham in February 1703 and reached Batavia in October of the same year. As the monsoon winds had changed, he could not proceed to China which was his ultimate destination and used the interval by trading between Malacca and India. The ship managed to sell its cargo in China only in September 1704 with the resumption of favourable winds.

On the way back the ship, laden with goods originating in China, Malacca and the eastern coast of India reached Calicut by which time again the season for sailing westward had ended. So the ship shuttles between Colombo and Surat in the north, hugging the coast to avoid the rough seas and making good money selling various surplus European goods and buying Indian spices for the return cargo.

The chief items bought by the ship are Cardamom and Coconut kernels at Calicut, coir, hubble-bubble cane (for making the hooka) from Maldives, cardamom and rice from Tellicherry, arrack from Goa (one of the most lucrative trade for, according to Lockyer, it was available for Rs. 13½ per hogshead in Goa and could fetch Rs.25-30 in Bombay and Surat.) He was prudent enough to mention: the smuggling trade with the Dutch, I leave to the Persons concerned – emphasizing that he indulged in only legal trade!

Lockyer’s description of Tellicherry (which had just acquired the status of a fort) is interesting. Among the important items mentioned by him is opium ‘of a deep purple, the best in India’, ‘…it bears double the price of Bengal opium’. He next lands in Calicut and after a pleasant stay moves down to Cochin, then a Dutch stronghold. The ship is replenished with essential supply in Cochin – 60 pigs, a thousand fowls, one small heifer (‘but beef is not usually so cheap’) and water casks. The ship then proceeds to Europe, crossing the Cape of Good Hope in July 1706.

This was an era of ‘pure trade’ when the Europeans were contended with making money out of trade and had no territorial ambitions. Trade was not conducted only by the East India Company, but by small enterprising traders who saw opportunities in a delayed sailing and pursued profitable coastal trade between Malacca and Malabar and Malabar and Hormuz. They competed with the Arab, Moplah and Chetty traders . Some like Frederici lost hugely and others like Lockyer made windfall profits!

Medieval Calicut was known as a prosperous entrepot, often described as the Emporium of the World. People of several nationalities speaking a variety of languages used to visit this busy trading centre and enjoy the peaceful trading ambiance which the rulers had provided them. But, a centre for scholarship - that too, Sanskrit? Not many would readily agree.

Even those who are familiar with the Revati Pattathanam at Tali Temple would recall Uddhanda Shastri and how he was snubbed by the diminutive Kakkasseri Bhattathiri in the famous exchange - aakaro hrusva. Naughtier persons would recall the obscene sloka attributed to Uddhanda (Bhaginee.....bhagyabhavo vibhava).

But, the range of contribution and the role of the ruling Zamorins (more particularly two of them) is vaster, as was explained to CHF audience the other day by the renowned Sanskrit scholar and Professor and Head of the Sanskrit Department of Calicut University, Dr. C. Rajendran.

The story behind Revati Pattathanam as an annual assembly of scholars in the four areas of knowledge – Tarka, Vyakarana, Mimamsa and Vedanta– is well-known and is being re-created even now every year to commemorate the great event. But the wealth of output by these scholars – many of them like Uddhanda Shastri came with the limited aim of a literary conquest but decided to stay on as court scholars of the Zamorins – has not received sufficient notice from scholars and historians of this golden age of Calicut.

Zamorin Raja leading the Revati Pattathanam procession in front of Tali Temple

Zamorins of Calicut were known in history for their skilful governance and their ability to weld together different communities and nationalities in pursuit of the common interest of trade and commerce. Among them at least two were also known as patrons of learning. The annual assembly of scholars in Tali temple may have started in the 13^th Century, but it was with Manavikrama the Great (1466-1471) that royal patronage managed to attract the talents from far and wide.

Undoubtedly, the star among them was Uddhanda Shastri who set off from Natapuram in Chengalpattu (Tamil Nadu), was disappointed with the cold reception that he got from the Karnataka ruler and stormed into Calicut, announcing his arrival by a sloka in which he warned the poetic elephants of Calicut that he, the literary lion was in town and they better take cover.

But, according to Dr. Rajendran, Uddhanda’s real contribution is not in the histrionics at the Pattathanam but the valuable glimpses of Calicut history that is revealed in his poems, particularly in his Kokilasandesam . He describes the vibrant urban life of Calicut where every house was white-washed and shining and where young men and women frolicked in the streets.

Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth lived in Calicut and the proof of this could be seen in the ships laden with riches from around the world, anchored in Calicut harbor which the poet describes as the dowry sent to Zamorin by his father-in-law, the Ocean whose daughter Lakshmi was! The reference could have been to the Treasure Ships of the Ming Chinese which had frequented Calicut for well over three decades in the first half of the 15^th Century.

His description of Onam – when the young girls would sing to the accompaniment of villu, and young men would be found running around worrying about how to manage to buy the traditional Onappudava for their women – has a contemporary tone. So is his description of Conjee(of Chinese origin?) with coconut scrapings, green gram curry and ginger chutney!

Uddhanda had also written a short drama called Mallikamaruthawhich he had staged at the Tali temple. The Zamorin Raja himself was no less a scholar and had produced a commentary on Murari’s Anargharaghavam called Vikramiya. Another great scholar who adorned the Zamorin’s assembly was Chennas Narayanan Namboodiri who transformed temple worship in Kerala with his treatise called Tantrasamuchaya.

The other great patron of learning in Calicut was the Zamorin named Manaveda (1658-1662) who is more popularly known as Manaveda Kavi for his Krishna Geethi on which the dance drama of Krishnanattam is based. According to some western writers, Krishnanattamcan be said to be the first opera in Sanskrit. One of his courtiers, Narayana Pandita wrote the second part of Manameyodaya, a philosophical work. There were many Sanskrit writers in and around Calicut those days like Anantanarayana and Sambashiva. We have little information about their contribution, other than stray references to their writings by contemporaries.

Dr. Rajendran concluded his talk with a reference to the only woman scholar in the male-dominated galaxy, Manorama Thampuratti who was so learned in the annotation of Siddhantakaumudi (called Manorama) that she started being called after this annotation. Her lament at the plight of having been forced to be the life partner of an illiterate Namboodiri is matched only by her romantic epistles addressed to Prince Karthika Tirunal, the Dharma Raja of Travancore !

After the disastrous tsunami of 2004, researchers have been digging into the past to document all cases of possible tsunamis which happened in the past. We were alerted to the possibility of a tsunami after reading the description of 'the great storm of the 16th, 17th and 18th April, 1847' as described by William Logan in his Malabar Manual.

'The storm originated somewhere beyond the southern islands of the Laccadive group. It swept over islands of Kalpeni and Androth, and did some damage to Kavarathi, but Agathi was apparently beyond the circle of its violence'. ... Kalpeni was also partially submerged by a wave, and the drinking water of the people in wells was spoilt and their stores of food and their houses destroyed. ...it was estimated that from three hundred to four hundred people only had perished in the storm or of famine afterwards and that the others had left the island'.

Of a population of over two thousand five hundred in Androth, nine hundred only remained, the rest having either perished in the storm or dispersed. Two boats with ninety-six males and a number of females belonging to Agatti were caught in the storm and heard of no more.

The tsunami did not spare the Malabar coast either. As Logan reports, The storm wave dashed on the coast in a very unexpected manner and its effects were felt from Cannanore to Chetwai. The wave destroyed the Cannanore Custom house, it came in so suddenly that the officials had hardly time to escape by the rear as the sea swept in at the front. Graphic description of a typical tsunami wave, as those who have watched on TV the visuals of the waves hitting Phuket on 26th December 2004 would recall.

Giant tsunami waves hitting Phuket, 26 December, 2004

Further south the waves damaged the mouth of the Kotta (Moorad, Vatakara) river and destroyed the Palliyad dam and the cultivation above it over two miles from the mouth of the river. The floods from inland breached the new work on the Conolly canal at Calicut. At Parappanangadi and Tanur private persons suffered much loss from the sudden rise of the sea.

The tsunami altered the topography permanently in Chavakkad, where, Logan records, the sea forced a new and deep opening into the Chavakkad backwater and broke with much strength on the Ennamakkal dam....

The description leaves no room to doubt that it was indeed a tsunami . Considering the lack of proper communication those days, it is likely that the damage - particularly in terms of loss of lives and destruction of property - was much more widespread but was not properly documented.

But is there a record of this tsunami in the annals of tsunami research? We find that there indeed was an earthquake of an estimated magnitude of 7.5 – 7.9 on the Richter scale in 1847 which was followed by a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, but its impact is not known. But the date recorded was 31 October 1847 and the destruction was centred around Great Nicobar Island. An earthquake is also recorded in Zennkoji, Japan on the 8^th May 1847, killing nearly 10,000 people. But, no event has been recorded on the dates mentioned by Logan - 16th, 17th and 18th April. Most probably, this event escaped the notice of the researchers, although it is also possible that Logan, writing 30 years after the event, got his dates wrong. As the 2004 tsunami showed us, Calicut is not totally tsunami-proof. It was explained that in 2004, Malabar coast was saved by the protection offered by the Lakshadweep Islands. But, what if these islands are also hit, as seems to have happened in 1847?

Early this year, I was invited to participate in a lively discussion at the Nalanda Srivijaya Centre of the Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. Key speakers were Prof. Geoff Wade and Prof. Tansen Sen, both eminent Ming/Zheng He scholars. The theme of the talks was that the Ming expeditions to the Western Ocean were part of the regime's imperialistic designs.

Geoff Wade repeated his known position - these expeditions were part of Ming colonial ambitions. Tansen Sen's argument was more subtle : Ming court seems to have been more interested in advancing the rhetoric of a Chinese world order rather than colonizing or just profiting from maritime commerce.

When pointed out that they were speaking of a pre-imperialist era, they amended their description and preferred to describe the Ming conquest as 'Mingism' rather than imperialism.

Prof Wade described the voyages of Zheng He as 'proto-colonialistic', and mentioned the incidents of his conquest of Palembang, Sumatra. Further, the Chinese admiral's forces fought a bitter battle in North Java and invaded the royal city in Sri Lanka and took away the ruler and his family back to the Ming Court at Nanjing.

The Ming aim, according to the Professors, was not in grabbing territories, as European colonists would attempt later; they were only interested in controlling ports and maritime trade routes on the Western Ocean. Wade's interpretation of the 'tributory-trade system' was that these Asian powers who paid tribute were doing so in exchange for military protection and trade benefits.

This view was vehemently opposed by Dr.Tan Ta Sen, the President of the International Zheng He Society, Singapore and some others. They argued that there was no proof either in the Ming annals or in the writings of co-travellers like Ma Huan to suggest an expansionary agenda for the voyages. It is true that Zheng He had established guan changs (military and trade depots) at places like Malacca, but then Chinese had already established themselves in these locations and this was testified by Ma Huan when the fleet visited Malacca. Dr. Sen repeated his well-known position that Zheng He was the greatest maritime voyager in history and that the voyages had the following five specific objectives:
1. The voyages sought to establish the political legitimacy of Emperor Yongle who was, in fact, an usurper to begin with;
2. The diplomatic objective of the voyages was to reinforce the Confucian world view of overlord-vassal state relationship by ensuring that the vassal states pay tributes with their local produce in return for China's recognition of their sovereignty. The peace-keeping role of the fleet - as in suppressing piracy in Palembang or arbitrating in inter-state disputes between Siam and Malacca or Malacca and Palembang - should be seen as part of the fleet's objective of keeping the trade routes safe.
3. Yongle had banned private trade and all trade was state-conducted. He also allowed foreign tribute missions to bring and sell duty-free trade goods for private trade in China. The voyages were meant to promote foreign trade which had been flagging during the early Ming period.
4. Zheng He disseminated Chinese culture and promoted cultural exchange between China and the states visited by the fleet.
5. Conducting scientific maritime exploration was the final objective of Zheng He's voyages, according to Dr. Tan Ta Sen.

Where do we stand on this issue? Calicut was the principal destination of many of Zheng He's seven voyages. In fact, Zamorin had been sending envoys to China even before the Ming voyages commenced. The very first voyage had one of Calicut's envoys who was returning from his mission. The following translation from the Ming annals testifies to the importance of diplomatic relations between Calicut and China :
The envoy Ha-bei-nai-na and others who had been sent by Sha-mi-di, the king of the country of Calicut, offered tribute of local products. Paper money and silks were conferred upon them. In addition, silk gauzes, fine silks, gold brocade drapes, porcelain and other goods were conferred upon Sha-mi-di.
(Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/entry/1475, accessed October 25, 2012.)

The identity of Habeinaina (Nayanar?) need not detain us here. But the fact that there were frequent visits by Calicut's envoys to China shows the vigorous diplomatic and trade relations which the two states had been developing. In fact, according to Geoff Wade's monumental effort of translating Ming Shi-lu (http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/search/?q=calicut&b=Search) there are at least 27 references to envoys from Calicut being banqueted by the Ming Court. These references were spread over 31 years, between 1405 and 1436.

And yet, there is no statement indicating that the Ming Empire sought to subjugate Calicut. In fact, a fleet of more than 200 ships and 27000 sailors could walk all over Calicut which did not have a maritime fleet. There is a reference to a Chinese fort in Calicut and a Chinese compound (guan chang?) in Panthalayini -Kollam, but no evidence of any cultural domination.

We feel that there was a subtle difference in the way the fleet treated the states of South East Asia and Calicut. The SEA states already had Chinese enclaves and it was easy for Zheng He to enforce their diktat. We should not gloss over the atrocities committed by the fleet in SE Asia. For instance, Zheng He and the Ming fleet behaved like International Policemen in fighting Sekander, the usurper of the Semudera throne and in taking him and the family back to Nanjing to be executed there.

But, with Calicut, the approach appears to have been different. We find that during the first of the seven voyages, Zamorin had presented his visitors with sashes made of gold and studded with precious stones.During the four months that the fleet stayed waiting for favourable monsoons winds, the Chinese were entertained with song and music. Records show that, unlike many other Indian Ocean states, the Chinese treated Calicut with respect and on an equal footing : Though the journey from this country to the Middle Kingdom is more than a hundred thousand li, yet the people are very similar, happy and prosperous, with very identical customs.

Then, there is the vexed issue of Chini Bachagan (the children of Chinese), presumed to be a snide reference by the Persians to the mixed population as a result of the Chinese stay in Calicut. Another interpretation of the appellation is that the sailors of Calicut on the eastern route (after the decline of the Ming expeditions) were derisively called by the Persians as Chini-bachagan. (The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol I, 1200-1700).

We need to conduct a DNA test of the population of Calicut (as politely suggested to me by Dr. Wong Ah Long, Deputy Chairman, Board of Trustees, ISEAS) to ascertain whether they carry any Chinese genes. But, unlike many South Eastern nations where the influence is obvious from physical appearance, the people of Calicut do not show evidence of such liaison!

We also read about the strict injunction by the Ming Emperor against the fleet mixing with the local population. The ban, however, could not have affected the Chinese traders who used to frequent Calicut before and after the Ming era. The policy of the first imperialists to visit the Calicut shores - the Portuguese - was vastly different; they encouraged marriage with locals resulting in a large army of Topazes who continued to aid and abet imperialism as interpreters and foot soldiers.

In sum, Calicut cannot subscribe to the theory that the Zheng He fleet was out to conquer and colonise. That was not the experience of medieval Calicut, at least. They did nothing to dominate or control the ports or maritime trade routes of either Quilon or Calicut. Perhaps, as in the case of Vasco da Gama ( who thought that the ruler and people of Calicut were Christian because he mistook the temple of Devi in Puthoor for a Church of Mother Mary), the Chinese mistook the polite exchange of gifts by the Calicut ruler for a tacit recognition of Chinese sovereignty! But, proto-colonialism - sorry, we do not share the view point.

Calicut's E&S Company

Mambram Thangal and Mahatma Gandhi

Calicut - about a Hundred Years Ago

Terrorist Acts in Calicut

Did the British Really Conquer Us?

The Unsung Heroes of the Bomb Case

Baudelaire and the Girl from Malabar

Calicut and the decline of Venice

Remembering Conolly - the Malabar Collector between 1846 and 1855

A Jews Street in Calicut?

A Kochi Girl in the Mughal Court - 1707-1732

Remembering Dr.K.B. Menon

One Hundred Years of a local Logan

Portrait of a Young Zamorin

A New Look at Calicut's China Ties

Men Who Ruled Malabar

Travails of Trading in Malabar

Calicut's Contribution to Sanskrit Scholarship

Did a tsunami hit Calicut coast in 1847?

Was Zheng He a Colonialist?