BAMBOO AND BUTTERFLY: A MALABAR WOMAN FOR BRITISH RESIDENT

The Amazing Life of a Thiyya Woman

She shared three males,among them a British Resident and a British Doctor.The Resident's British son became a renowned Lepidopterist,collector of butterflies,and the grand daughter of the Thiyya woman, a globally acclaimed Botanist.This happened in 19th century Kerala.The Resident was none other than John Child Hannyngton(1835-1895) who signed the famous Mullapperiyar dam agreement for 999 years,with Kerala and the Doctor,Lt Colonel WG King(1851-1935),in whose name,the famous King's Institute of Preventive Medicine,was established in Madras.

JC Hannyngton

The woman will be never known:she was Kunhi Kurumbi of Kuruvayi house, Thalassery in Kannur district of Kerala,in Southern India.She was born in 1845,was at first partner of  Hannyngton,then King,finally a Nair,and mothered,Kalyani,Martha Fewkes,Devi Krishnan,Kuruvayi Govindan King,Krishnan King.Martha and Devi were Hannyngton's children and the two Kings,belonged to King.Dewan Bahadur E K Krishnan ,first Malayali Deputy Collector of Malabar,married Devi and,Dr E K Janaki Ammal,Botanist,Geneticist and global Plant Geographer,whom India honored with Padmasri in 1957,was,their daughter.

I knew there was a Thiyya Kingdom in Kannur,till 1905,the males of which married the excommunicated higher caste women in Kerala.Seeing two names,Govindan King and Krishnan King,I wondered whether they were kings from the family,and further research led me to Hannyngton and King!

Hannyngton comes to Malabar

Hannyngton was born in Barrackpore,West Bengal,on 23 September 1835,as the son of Major General John Caulfield Hannyngton and Harriet.John Caulfield(1807-1885) was a celebrated General,with pious habits.He entered Indian Army Service in 1825 as a cadet in the 24th Regiment of Native Army.He got a political appointment as in charge of the Manbhoom Division,on Southern Frontier and was made Judicial Commissioner in 1842.He went back to regimental duty when he was promoted as Lt Colonel,in 1856,and posted to 63 BNI.He was in Berhampore at the time of the 1857 Mutiny,and 63rd didn't mutiny,but was disarmed.

He retired as Military Auditor General in 1861.He was appointed Asst Secretary of Finance in the India Office,remained in the position,till his death.His interests were Astronomy and navigation,one of the first officers to use,Thomson's Arithmometer.He devised the Table of Haversines,to compute distances for Nautical Almanac.He was associated with the Bengal Military and Orphan Funds,tirelessly working for widows and orphans.

John Arthur

J C Hannyngton married Laura Elisabeth and had seven children,Major General John Arthur Hannyngton,Patrick,William Onslaw,Frank and Agnes Bernice among them.Frank Hannyngton was the Lepidopterist.

Hannyngton Butterfly

Lt Col JC Hannyngton's career in India was,during 1857-1892.He began as a Writer,and was sent as Assistant to Collector/Magistrate,Trichy in 1859,and from there,moved to Malabar in 1861.He was in Malabar for 10 years.After becoming a Judge,John Hannyngton was Resident of Travancore and Cochin four times:20 February1878-March 1879,1 April1881-May 1883,15 August1884-July 1887 and 7 October1888-July 1890.When he was Acting Resident,on behalf of Ayilyam Thirunal,Dewan Nanu Pillai wrote to him,on 13 November 1878,that the King was willing to sent a Nair Brigade to help the British in the second Anglo-Afghan war,of which,Hannyngton Senior was a Commander.J C Hannyngton was very much involved in the palace intrigues between Ayilyam Thirunal Rama Varma and his brother,Visakham Thirunal Rama Varma,and he with Dewan A Seshaih Sastri,had plotted to oust,Dewan Peishcar,P Sankunni Menon,who wrote,History of Travancore from The Earliest Times.

WG King

Hannyngton was arbitrator in five territorial cases between Travancore and Cochin.His verdict favored Travancore,only in one-it was the Thachudaya Kaimal case of Irinjalakuda.Thachudaya Kaimal was a representative of the Travancore to the Koodalmanikkam Temple there,in whom vested all the spiritual and temporal affairs of the Temple.Since the temple stood in Cochin territory,Cochin questioned the right of Travancore,in nominating the Kaimal,when the then Kaimal died,in 1850.Cochin contented that Travancore can nominate him,only if a repair is needed to the temple building.On March 19,1881,Hannyngton held Cochin's contention,untenable.Among the other four cases,three were Devaswom cases,pertaining to,Elankunnapuzha,Annamanada and Peruvanam,and the fourth one,related to,Idiyaramed.

Sir Grant Duff,Governor, finds Hannyngton in Kerala

Sir Mountstuart E Grant Duff,who was Governor of Madras,mentions Resident Hannyngton 

in his book,Notes From a Diary,Kept Chiefly in Southern India,1881-1886.They went to Courtallam,on 12 September 1882,on a picnic.While in the Travancore Residency,Mrs Davies,wife of Colonel Davies,showed the Governor,an ornament made of the claws of a tigress,which her husband had shot in Coimbatore,after it had killed 130 people."Mr Hannington saw the same Colonel Davies shoot a tiger which had sprung on the back of a young elephant and was trying to kill it",the Governor records.Grant Duff extensively toured Kerala then.

King and his English wife in Burma(1904)

Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff(1829-1906)was son of the British Historian,James Grant Duff(1789-1858),who was Resident of Satara,in British India,at the salary of Rs 3500(2000+1500 as allowance),in 1818.He named his son,Mountstuart Elphinstone,in honor of the Resident of Poona by that name,who helped him to rise in service.Sir Grant Duff was sent as Under Secretary of the State of India,(1868-1874),after he became a British MP.

Sir Grant Duff

He was Under Secretary of Colonies(1880-'81)before becoming Governor of Madras(1881-1886).He records the visit of Travancore King,Visakham Thirunal,and a return visit,in his book.Both the Kings of Travancore and Cochin were present when he took over, as Governor. Grant Duff built the Marina,in Chennai beach.As Under Secretary,the massacre of 5o rebelled Kukas sparked off an outrage in Parliament,and Grant Duff was compelled to own responsibility. Kukas are Namdhari Sikhs,and they attacked Malerkotla,princely State in Sangrur,Punjab,on 15 January,1872.As Governor,he was criticized for mishandling Chengalpet Ryots case(1881-'83 )and Salem Hindu/Muslim riots(1882). The Ryots in Chengalpet filed a case against the Tahsildar for extortion,the Court punished him,but Governor Grant Duff,Acquitted him.His son,Adrian,Colonel of Black Watch was killed in the first battle of Aisne in 1914,and another son,Neill,was shot down over France in 1940,whilst with RAF.

Patrick

Grant Duff had a liking for Hannyngton, and during Visakham Thirunal,Hannyngton was made,Secretary of Madras State.On 29 October 1886, a lease indenture for 999 years, on Mullapperiyar was made between Visakham Thirunal and British Secretary of State for India,and the agreement was signed by Dewan V Rama Iyengar of Travancore and Hannyngton.From a letter written by Travancore King,Sri Moolam Thirunal,dated 4 January 1893,to his Commercial Agent,John Rohde,we under stand that,Hannyngton and his wife were staying at Bolghatty Palace at that time,to settle a border dispute between Travancore and Cochin.At the installation speech in 1888,King Rama Varma of Cochin(1888-1895),the king who died in Chingam,had mentioned Hannyngton,as a friend.Hannyngton died in March 1895,at Lewisham, London.

He was a King in Tropical Medicine

Devi Krishnan

Walter Gawen King(1851-1935) was the son of John Henry King and Laura of Greenwich.He did his Medicine from Aberdeen and joined India Medical Service as a Surgeon in 1874.He arrived in India on 31 October, and was in the service for 36 years,and was Surgeon of the Duke of Buckingham,William Marret for a short period from 1876.He built the first Public Health department in the Indian Empire.His proposals for the re organization sanitary and vaccination departments of Madras Presidency were made in connection with the resolution of the first Indian Medical Congress held at Kolkata in 1894.Madras Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1899 was passed according to his proposals.  He was made a full Colonel in 1905 and he retired in 1910.He was Professor of Physics in Presidency College,Madras and Professor of Hygiene in Madras Medical College.He was Special Sanitary Officer,Madras City,Superintendent of Mandalay Central Jail and Lunatic Asylum before appointed as Sanitary Commissioner,Madras.On promotion to administrative rank,he became Inspector General of Civil Hospitals and then Sanitary Commissioner in Burma.He was honored for the tremendous work he did during the Madras famine of 1876-'77,and 20 years later,during the famine as Sanitary Commissioner.He rejoined service during First World War as ADMS,Western Command,later, Consultant,Tropical Diseases Clinic at the Ministry of Pensions,and finally,Lecturer in Hygiene at Kings College,London.The King's Institute of Preventive Medicine at Guindy,Chennai,was started as a depot to treat small pox on 7 November 1899.King died at Hendon,in 1935.His books include,The Cultivation of Animal Vaccine(1891)and The Plague Inspector's Manual(1902).

William

King was a pioneer of tropical medicine in India.In the Presidential address to the Science Congress Association in 1915, W B Bannerman said:
Only one man in India had issued a warning to all Government officers within his jurisdiction,to be prepared for the introduction of Plague from China,where it had broken out in epidemic form in 1894.This man was Colonel W G King, at that time Sanitary Commissioner of Madras, after whom the King's Institute of Preventive Medicine at Guindy has been named by a grateful Government.

The King's Institute,Guindy

A report from Times of India,1 November,1897:
Surgeon-Lieutenant Colonel W G King has requested certain officers in Vizagapatnam, Bellary and Saidapet to report upon the possibilities of cultivating the "Soy Bean" with a quantity of which he furnished them. The "Soy bean" is,he states, probably the most nutritious form readily assimilable pulse at present known, and should it prove possible to introduce it widely in the Madras Presidency,it would prove of great advantage in jail,and also to the poor classes generally.

Correspondence of King in Burma shows Mrs King had painted 800 pictures of plants and fruits from Malabar Coast, Burma and Madras.Plants for this were imported to Burma from Malabar and Madras. Her name is not mentioned in any of his biographical sketches.

The Mystery meeting of Hannyngton and Kurumbi

Govindan

EK Krishnan

Hannyngton  met Kunhi Kurumbi,while he was Assistant and Magistrate at Thalassery.He was leading a double life,like most British civil servants.He was sent from Trichy to Malabar as, Officiating Head assistant,  Justice of Peace,in 1861.Next year ,he was invested with full powers of Magistrate.He was Special Assistant to Collector and Magistrate,and Acting Head Assistant,Malabar. In 1867, he became Acting Judge, Court of Small Cases, Thalassery,and Acting Civil and Sessions Judge,Thalassery, and afterwards,Kozhikode,in 1868.He went to London on leave for two years,in 1869, to return to Thalassery as, Judge,Court of Small Cases.Then he became acting Collector and Magistrate, Malabar, before moving to Guntur,Vellore and Salem.He took leave for two years in 1876, and on return,became Resident.Every British Trading Factory had a Surgeon attached to it,and King would have begun his career at Thalassery Factory, because,after joining the Indian Medical Service in 1874, he was in the Military for two years, meaning he reached Malabar, three years after Hannyngton left.Both Hannyngton and King, were geniuses, King 16 years younger,and it is not clear who handed over whom,and whether the Nair partner of Kurumbi had any role in the entire affair,or whether Hannyngton' s son Frank met Kurumbi when he was Assistant Collector in Malabar. But, it is certain that her life was much more robust than that of her partners! The family still has a couple of letters from Hannyngton.Patrick,Hannyngton's son,who became Commissioner of Police in Madras(1913)was born at Thalassery on 14 October 1871.

John Caulfield

Edavalath Kakkat Krishnan married,Kurumbi's daughter, Devi Krishnan(1864-1941),after becoming a Judge at 42,and she was 23 years younger to him.He had a first wife Kalyani and from both,he had 19 children,including Rao Bahadur E K Govindan,from Kalyani.Govindan became Agent Governor General of India,and Dewan of Pudukottai,later.Krishnan(1841-1907),after studies in the Provincial School,Kozhikode,entered Government service as English Writer of Civil Court,Thalassery in 1861.He became Malayalam Translator in Madras High Court in 1864, and passed BL next year.He was appointed Sub Judge in 1883,retiring in 1896.He was re appointed as Deputy Collector of Malabar in 1899,retired in 1901,to become Chairman of the Thalassery Municipality.

If Frank was a Lepidopterist,Krishnan wrote,Birds of Malabar and Birds of Thalassery,apart from,Life of Churia Cannan.He was very close to the first Malayalam Novelist,O Chandu Menon,and it was Krishnan who planted the century old Rain tree in the Thalassery cricket stadium,where the famous EK brothers of Edathil played some of their historic matches. 

Kuruvayi House of Kurumbi/Courtesy: Premnath T Murkoth

Matha becomes Martha and marries Fewkes

According to Prabha Stoneham,great grand daughter of E K Krishnan, and daughter of Cricketer Ambalavattath Haridas, former Chief Engineer, Kerala PWD, Martha, second child of Kurumbi from Hannyngton,younger sister of Devi, was adopted by James Austin Sausman and wife Elizabeth of Madras, around 1865, as a baby. Sausman was Superintendent of Monegar Choultry in Madras,"which offered shelter, food and raiment to the poor, lame, halt and blind of Madras,without reference to caste".  Matha, at that time,was a popular Thiyya name of Malabar.In all probability, it was christened to Martha, during baptism. Martha married Josiah Fewkes,a bank clerk of Madras in 1886, at the Baptist Chapel in Madras. Martha was 21 and Fewkes, 26. Their son, Harold Arthur Fewkes was born in March 1888 (death 1950). Martha died few days after a daughter was born in July, 1889.The baby girl died in August, of,diarrhea. The Kuruvayi family still preserves a letter written by Fewkes to Krishnan, his brother in law,informing him of the death of Martha.Fewkes sent a telegram after Martha's death  from Royapuram on 08 July, 1889, to Krishnan,who was in Kozhikode. Martha was 24. The family has a letter  from John Hannyngton too.

Telegram on Martha

Fewkes remarried in March 1891.Harold was baptized only in 1894.

E K Raghavan,after clearing FA from Victoria College,Palakkad, was sent by his step uncle Dr Govindan King to Burma.He got a job in Survey Department of Burma,in Rangoon and he kept the King connection alive.Here is a picture of Dr King,taken in 1907 at the studio of D A Ahuja,in Rangoon.

A Butterfly comes to roost on Sugarcane

Janaki Ammal

Edavalath Kakkat Janaki Ammal(1897-1984), daughter of Krishnan,loved sugar canes and bamboos more,developing their hybrid varieties. She grew up in the large house,Edathil, by the sea in Thalassery.She studied at the Queen Mary's College in Madras and Presidency College and had a passion for Cytogenetics. She taught at Women's Christian College, with sojourn as a Barbour Scholar at University of Michigan, from where she did her Masters in 1925. She came back to India as Professor of Maharaja's College of Science in Thiruvananthapuram, and after two years, joined as Geneticist at Sugarcane Breeding Institute,Coimbatore.She became asst Cytologist at John Innes Horticultural Institute, London, Cytologist, Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley and Nehru invited her in 1951 to re organize the Botanical Survey of India,as its Director General.

She continued her research on sugarcane and egg plant, collected various medical plants from the rain forests of Kerala. She headed the Central Botanical Lab at Allahabad, Regional Research Lab,Jammu,before settling down at Madras in 1970, as Emeritus Scientist at Centre for Advanced Study in Botany, Maduravoyal, doing field work, until her death in 1984. She co authored, The Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants. Vinita Damodaran, of Sussex University has written a wonderful paper,Gender, Race and Science in Twentieth Century: E K Janaki Ammal and the History of Science.

Frank

Birds,bamboos and butterflies in one family.Frank Hannyngton(1874-1919), was the youngest child of Hannyngton. He passed ICS in 1897, was Assistant Collector in South Arcot, as well as Malabar.As Commissioner of Coorg in 1912, he was more interested in the butterflies there and published a paper on them in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society; as Post Master General in Bengal, he sent collectors into the Chumb Valley to know more about butterflies.There he found a new species of butterfly which he sent to Andrey Avinoff, who named the species, after Frank, as, Parnassius hannyngtoni. Andrej Nikollejewitsch Avinoff (1884-1949), the Russian Entomologist,was one of the world's greatest butterfly collectors,and Director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History for 20 years.Frank also made collections of butterflies of Kumaon.He married Magdeleine, daughter of Col Willoughby Edward Gordon Forbes,in 1905. He died in Bombay and was in the executive committee of the Natural History Society, till his death.

Reference:

1.Early History of Soybean and Soyfoods Worldwide 1024 BCE-1899/William Shurtieff,Akiko Aoyagi
2.The Shaping of Indian Science 1914-1947,Vol 1 
3.Notes From A Diary,Kept Chiefly in Southern India 1881-1886/Sir Mountstuart E Grant Duff 
4.I am indebted to Premnath T Murkoth,for the pictures of the Kings,Kuruvai House,the telegram on Martha & a lot on the Kerala roots.

© Ramachandran 

See my Post,FIGHT AND FRUSTRATION:THE BIRTH OF A HISTORY

FIGHT AND FRUSTRATION:THE BIRTH OF A HISTORY

He spurned Dewan's post,to write History

In Travancore,when the brothers,the King Ayilyam Thirunal Rama Varma(1860-1880) and heir apparent,Visakham Thirunal Rama Varma(1880-1885) quarreled,several officers found themselves at the receiving end.One among them was Dewan Peishcar P Sankunni Menon (Shangoonny Menon  in English records),and when at the height of the war between the brothers,he was offered the post of Dewan,he resigned his job,and wrote,A History of Travancore from The Earliest Times.Later,his son,K P Padmanabha Menon,surpassed his father as a Historian,by writing,History of Kerala and History of Cochin.

Sankunni Menon had entered Travancore service at the salary of Rs 10 a month during King Swati Thirunal(1829-1847)and rose to become one of the four Dewan Peishcars,as a loyal and honest officer.Two years after Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma(1846-1860) ascended the throne,the King received a letter from Madras Government(1849),on the great exhibition planned in London in 1851,on produce,manufactures and arts of the countries of the Empire.The letter asked for a contribution from Travancore.The King formed a Committee,with Resident Major General W Cullen,Dr Paterson,Durbar Physician,Kohlhoff,Judge of Apellate Court and Raman Menon,Dewan Peishcar as members.Sankunni Menon was its Secretary.An ivory State Chair,in the shape of a throne was already under construction,by artisans,for the use of the King,and it was decided to sent it to London,and gift it to the Queen after exhibition.The happy Queen sent an acceptance letter to the King,which was presented by General W Cullen,Resident,in the Durbar,to the King,on 27 November,1851.A sketch of this was published by the Illustrated London News,on 31 January,1852.

General Cullen presenting letter of Queen Victoria to Uthram Thirunal

Though the King Ayilyam Thirunal had faith in Sankunni Menon,after the exit of Dewan T Madhava Rao,the new Dewan A Seshaiah Sastri and the Resident John Child Hannyngton got themselves involved in the palace intrigues,and they began to view Menon with suspicion.Rao had to quit as a victim of palace politics,and Seshaiah was his class mate.Amaravathi Seshaiah was born in a poor family in Amaravathi,Thanjavur,and he had moved to Madras,while at 9,with his uncle,Gopala Iyer.After degree,he enterd revenue service as Clerk in 1848,and was a Tahsildar,when he was appointed Dewan of Travancore,in 1872.He quit after receiving an anonymous letter on a plan to finish him off,by the King Ayilyam Thirunal.The letter was written by Kerala Varma Valiya Koyil Thampuran, the poet and play wright,the friend turned foe of the King.He admitted author ship of the letter later.

Ivory Chair sent to Queen Victoria

It was Hannyngton,as State Secretary of Madras,who signed the Mullapperiyar agreement of 999 years,with Travancore Dewan,V Rama Iyengar, later in 1886,during Visakham Thirunal.

There were people jealous of Menon's proximity to the King.When Hannyngton complained to the King about Menon,the King told him that he,as someone who had known Menon for long,has complete faith in Menon,and he doesn't believe in the scandals.Hannyngton pressed for the removal of Menon once again,stating old age as reason.The King silenced him by saying,Menon has been given additional charge of Kollam Division,since Kollam Peishcar Rama Rao has gone on leave.

K P Padmanabha Menon

Upset with scandal mongers,Menon gave a written complaint to the King.Here is the King's reply dated 9 April,1877.

My dear Peishcar,

I was quite delighted with your letter and its enclosure.Be assured that you shall always have my unqualified support,kindness and protection,as I cannot have a more truly loyal,attached and devoted servant and more faithful dependent than yourself.I have arranged with the Dewan for the continuance of the Military guard of which you had written.With best wishes,

Rama Varma.

Dewan Seshaiya

Dewan Seshaiah quit in 1877,became Dewan at Pudukottai(1878-1894).He became famous as builder of the city of Pudukottai and the Pudukulam Lake.He was Dewan Regent during 1886-1894.

After Seshaiah quit,the King asked for Menon's consent to be appointed in place of him.Menon told the King that writing  Travancore History was under way,and he would like to go on leave to complete it.It was completed and published in 1878.He didn't live long there after.

To complete the History,Menon built a home on the banks of Periyar river at Puthenvelikara,near North Paravur.It had a library and lit by the warmth of oil lamps, he would wade through information,collate it,and write down drafts,with the assistance of his son,Padmanabha Menon.In a letter to his son,Menon had said,"History would judge that my decision to spurn the offer of the post of Dewan for writing the book,was right".

Puthenvelikkara Home

When the  news of Menon's death came,the King said:"He was the pilot to all my journeys.He has gone as a pilot of my last journey!".

Sarvadhikaryakkar P Govinda Pillai,on behalf of the King,sent a letter of condolence, to K P Sankara Menon,Menon's son,on 18 March 1880(Sankara Menon wrote the biography of Kesari Balakrishna Pillai).Ayilyam Thirunal had went into a coma after the resignation of Menon,without signing the appointment order of,P Govinda Pillai,succeeding Menon.The King died on 30 May 1880.He followed the pilot.

Padmanabha Menon was a lawyer and an assistant to H H Shepherd,who was Advocate General in Madras.Shepherd was made a Judge of the High Court,later.Menon moved to Cochin,practiced at the appeal court,before moving to Travancore.He was a member of the Marumakathayam Committee, appointed to recommend changes in the laws pertaining to customs of Nairs.

Padmanabha Menon,known for his sedentary habits, finished writing History of Kerala(4 volumes)using a portion of Aluva Palace,in 1910.It was published only in 1924,five years after his death,on May Day,1919.KP Padmanabha Menon stayed at his mother Parvathy Amma's house at Edapally,Krishnathu Puthenveedu,which is still there at Blossom Road,Punnakkal.The Puthenvelikkara House was pulled down in the 1990s before it could be made a monument.

Reference:

1.Dewan Peishcar Sankunni Menon/R Kulathu Iyer

2.Sarvadhikayakkar P Govinda Pilla/P Damodaran Nair

See my Post,A GREAT POET AS HOSTAGE IN TRAVANCORE

THE GHOST OF MARAR EMERGES FROM THE SEA

Babu Paul saw the ghost in the Bath room!

Dr D Babu Paul has seen a ghost,only once,after he took charge as Cochin Port Trust Chairman on March 25,1984.It was not an ordinary ghost,but a VIP ghost,riding a black horse,in a three piece suit.

The first Chairman,the legendary Robert Bristow had left in 1941; the predecessors of Babu Paul were,Milne,Marar,Sreenivasan,Venkateswaran,Venkitaraman,Subramanya Iyer,KPK Menon,P S Padmanabhan,AKK Nambiar,U Mahabala Rao and T N Jayachandran.

Old Harbor House

The Port became operational on May 26,1928,when the ship,Padma entered the Port.Then the discussions on building  the wharfs  and other activities, were led in Shimla, by Joseph William Bhore,who was the Dewan in Cochin during 1914-1919.A Sub Committee,consisting of Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer,Thej Bhadur Sapru,Cochin Dewan C G Herbert,Central Finance Secretary Allen Parsons and Finance Member Sir James Grig was formed,and they took all the decisions,in four sittings.According to an article A V Menon wrote in Malabar Herald,the King,Rama Varma XVI,the King who died in Madras(1914-1932),as he was known later,prayed publicly, before he gave the final sanction.A lamp with four wicks was lighted.Since the King was 70(born on 6 October 1858),he placed 71 silver coins on a bronze plate before the lamp.He closed his eyes and prayed for 10 minutes.He ended the prayer thus:"My God,Poornathrayeesa,every thing has been examined.Even then I beg you,nothing negative should happen to the State with this.If my signing this now,as an obedient servant of you, is wrong,please do pardon me!".70 silver coins were gifted to the people present.The King laid foundation to the fourth phase on 12 August 1936.

KWP Marar

Sir J W Bhore(1878-15 August 1960) joined the ICS in 1902,and is remembered as the Chairman of Central Health Survey and Standing Committee that chartered a course for public health investments and infrastructure in India.He was Under Secretary,Madras,when he was appointed Dewan of Cochin,succeeding A R Banerji.He was acting High Commissioner of India,during 1922-'23 and Secretary to the Simon Commission,in 1928.He married Margaret Wilkie/Stott in 1911.She died in Bhopal in May,1945,and Bhore died in Guernseu,Channel Islands,15 years later.

Babu Paul admits in his service story,Katha Ithu Vare(The Story So Far),that several ghosts haunted the Chairman,from the past.Then,shockingly,he records seeing the ghost of the former Chairman,KWP Marar!

Ever since I read about Marar in the book in 2008,I had been searching for information on Marar,and an image of him.I had mentioned him,in my post,Three English Mad Men. I spoke to Babu Paul,who said Marar's cricketer son,M P Govind,was his batch mate,in the Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram-but they were not in touch.

The little information now I have on Marar,is from London and Assam.The London Gazette of 6 November 1928,records that,Kottil Walappil Parameswara Marar was selected to the Indian Civil Service,after open competition,on 4 October,1928.There were only 11 Indians in the list,three South Indians among them,only one Malayali.The other South Indians were,Nellicheri Swaminathan Arunachalam and Hundi Srinivasa Kamath.The Other Indians in Marar's 1928 batch:Santosh Kumar Chatterjee,Prasanta Chandra Chaudhuri,Manilal Jagdishbhai Desai,Ranjit Gupta,Karuna Kumar Hajara,Mohammad Karamatullah,Purushottam Mangesh Lad and Mulkraj Sachdev.

Babu Paul

Marar was the fourth Malayali to get into the ICS,after KPS Menon(1922),N R Pillai(1923), and M C B Koman.Pillai was the first Cabinet Secretary of Independent India.

Babu Paul told me that Govind belonged to Thrissur;there is a Kottil Valappil,in Kottapuram,Poothole,Thrissur.

The Edinburgh Gazette of 4 January 1935 records that Marar was given the New Year award of Kaisar-i-Hind Medal of the first class for public service,as Deputy Commissioner,Nowgong,Assam.

Marar was the second Chairman after Bristow,post 1947;till 1945,it was taken over by the Navy,during the Second World War.Marar belonged to Assam cadre of the ICS ,and was,,Superintendent of Census Operations,Secretary,Supply in Assam and Joint Secretary,Agriculture,Delhi,in 1944-'47 ,before he was appointed Chairman,Cochin Port Trust.Malayala Manorama of 31 July 1948,reports,Marar's appointment as,Administrative Officer,Cochin Port,and the three line report says,he belongs to Thrissur. 

Census and partition of Assam

Marar had a very controversial career in Assam,as Superintendent of Census Operations in 1941.The controversy finds a place in the book,India Divided (page 321)by the first President of India,Rajendra Prasad.The earlier census in Assam was in 1931,and compared to it,there was a fall in proportion in the 1941 census,in the whole of Christians,and to a less extend,in the case of Hindus and Buddhists.The explanation of Marar was that the previous census was on the basis of Religion,where as the 1941 census was on the basis of community.A Khasi will be a Khasi,not a Hindu or a Christian.

This is what we have in the book of Rajendra Prasad.When I read it,I was shocked:it meant,Marar,in the case of tribes,ignored conversion.So what would have happened in Assam?

An adjournment motion was moved by Provincial Congress Chief,Siddhinath Sarma,in the Assam Assembly,on 4 December,1941.

Port Trust Building,1948

Marar's census refrained from providing religious classification in Assam.The compilation for communities was done with reference to,"race,tribe and caste",not religion,as it was in the case of 1931 census.It evoked strong criticism;it led to debates in news papers and Assembly.Congress criticized the Government for manipulating the census.It was alleged that,it was under the Assam Provincial Government's insistence that Marar,as Superintendent,issued a special circular to the Deputy Commissioners and census officers in Assam,to compile a data on the basis of community.Marar wrote:

The basis for community is the answer to question S3,but generally the communities are,unavoidably mixed up and where community cannot be ascertained in answer to question 3,to question 4 will be the basis;eg,if a Kachari has not in answer to question 3 mentioned that he is a Kachari,and is returned under 4 as Hindu,Muslim or Christian,he will be shown as Hindu,Muslim or Christian as the case may be,but if he is returned as Kachari against question 3,he will be entered such,irrespective of his religion.

Saadulla

The Lahore Session of Muslim League,on March 24,1940,for the first time had adopted a resolution for Pakistan and partition.Though the term Pakistan,was not there,it termed,Muslim majority areas in the North Western and Eastern zones of India,as 'sovereign' and 'independent' states,and demanded a Muslim home land.

In the back drop of this,the census assumed added importance,since Assam had a Muslim League Chief Minister during 1939-1946,Moulavi Saiyid Sir Muhammad Saadulla(1885-1955).In Bengal too,it was alleged that the League Ministry had doctored the 1941 census to inflate the Muslim demographic strength.

Bhore with wife Margaret

Marar's Assam Tables is there,in Census of India,Vol IX,unscathed.

On a Black horse,in a three piece Suit

Marar's home in Cochin was,the present Port Trust Office,in Willingdon Island.He was poisoned to death after a few months of becoming the Chairman. After death,according to Babu Paul,Marar used to emerge from the sea, riding a black horse,travel by the side of the present Harbor House,to the old building.He was certain to rise from the sea,if it was a friday and new moon.If  the security guard was found,sleeping,he would beat him up with a Cain.The ghost Marar would go up to Malabar Hotel,then return  by the same route,to the Chairman's Jetty,to disppear into the perennial waters.

One day,Marar appeared in Babu Paul's bath room,wearing a three piece suit.It was a weekend,when Nirmala,his wife and children had gone to their native home.Babu Paul had returned from a dinner and was,alone.

Cochin Port Trust

Next day,Babu Paul searched for the pictures of former Chairmen,found a picture of Marar-Yes,the same person!He kept those pictures in his room,with admiration.Today Marar,maybe tomorrow,Vankataraman!Babu Paul,was not afraid of ghosts;but he felt,discretion is the better part of valour.

Babu Paul located Mrs Marar,and invited her to be present the next Republic Day.It was when she arrived with family,Babu Paul realized that the handsome cricketer Govind,who was called Thadiyan Govindan(plump Govindan) in the College,was Marar's son.Babu Paul shuddered when Leela Marar told him that,Marar's favorite hobby was riding horses.And he had a liking for black horses!Friday,new moon,black horse,the attack on the security guard,the apparition in the bath room-Babu Paul refrained from being alone at the Harbor House.He was haunted by the fear,till the death of his own father;there after,he found solace in the fact that he has a savior in the nether world.

There is a Marar Road in the Island,now.

"Was it a hallucination,after all"?,I asked Babu Paul."Maybe,maybe not",he said and went on to reminisce the discussions he had with the enlightened people at the time,hinting at the possible existence of ghosts.

It is past midnight, 1.08 AM now-I am.....a bit scared.Babu is distant, but,old Harbor House,for me,is just 20 minutes away!

Reference:

1.Katha Ithu Vare/Babu Paul
2.India Divided/Rajendra Prasad

3.Tribal Politics in  Assam 1933-1947/Suryasikha Pathak(teaches History at Assam University,Silchar).
4.Partition of Bengal and Assam,1932-1947:Contours of Freedom/Bidyut Chakrabarty 

Note:The image of Marar,was cropped by me from a Photo Division picture of the meeting of Indian Oil Seeds Committee,on 16 October 1947,presided by Minister for Commerce,C H Bhabha.

See my Post,THREE ENGLISH MADMENTHR

 

 

THE BANISHMENT OF SIR RAMUNNI MENON

An excommunication 8 years before Thatri,in 1897

Three important questions:1.Who introduced Music as a subject in Madras University?2.Who proposed a monthly allowance to Mathematical genius,Ramanujan's wife,Janaki Ammal?3.Who stayed in M S Subbulakshmi's home before her?Please take your time to answer,while I tell you the story of Ramunni Menon.

In 1892,the 20 year old Kankoth Ramunni Menon(1872-1949) from Villadam,Thrissur,traveled down to Tripunithura to meet the King,Chingamasathil Theepetta Thampuran(The King who died in the month of Chingam),Kerala Varma V(1888-1895).Menon had studied in Maharaja's College ,Ernakulam and Presidency College,Madras,passed BA Zoology,and was planning to go to England for higher studies.After meeting the King,he met the heir apparent,Rama Varma,who wielded great influence over the King.

King Kerala Varma

Rama Varma,who later came to be known as His Abdicated Highness,after his abdication in 1914, casually asked Menon,whether the question of his social position after his return from Engaland had been considered and a definite understanding on it arrived at-it was the practice among higher castes then to excommunicate the person who crossed the sea.Rama Varma told him the precaution was highly necessary as the majority of the people of the State was still very orthodox in social and religious matters, and might object to his re admission into society.Menon said,if he could have Rama Varma's sympathy and support,there would be no trouble.

Rama Varma replied that his sympathy,or for that matter,the sympathy of the King,would be of no avail in such matters,so long as society was not ready to accept a drastic change.Menon then told Rama Varma,that the King has given him,permission.Rama Varma,by his on version,was surprised,and asked him,whether there was any discussion as to his position,on his return."No",Menon said.

Ramunni Menon

Rama Varma,met the King the very next day,and asked him,why he consented to Menon's request.The King said,the man was determined to go,and if the request was declined,he might approach the Resident,and other influential persons and through them bring pressure,and it would be difficult to with stand.Rama Varma asked,whether the King had at all thought about Menon's position,after his return from England.The angry King barked:"That is an event to come after two or three years.Who is going to live till that time?'".
King Kerala Varma(1845-1895)was the son of Manku Thampuran and younger brother of King Rama Varma(1864-1888),who died in Mithunam.He was well versed in English,and went on a pilgrimage to Kasi,Gaya and Calcutta in 1893 and died in September,1895.

Menon went to England,did his MA in Zoology at Christ's College,Cambridge,and had first class in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos.On his return from England in 1896,he wrote to Rama Varma,who had ascended the throne,in 1895.In the letter Menon said that,his first duty on his return from England was to pay the King his respects,but that he was obliged to put it off for fear of social difficulties.The King replied that,his precaution was wise,in the sense that the King should not misunderstand him.Menon reached Tripunithura after some time,and did not attempt to mingle with his people,didn't enter temples,or touch the public wells,or tanks.

Rama Varma

Rama Varma told him that the objection of the orthodox section of the people to his readmission to caste privileges and rights was still very strong,and if the question was hastily brought to the front,the chance was that it would have to be decided against the reformers.Rama Varma asked him to wait for few years.

Rama Varma,one day in 1897, received the news that Menon was going to marry from one of the influential Kuruppam houses.Varma warned a branch of that house in Tripunithura,against the alliance,and they sent a telegram.By that time, the Sambandham has already taken place,and the bride continued to enter temples,and enjoyed all the caste privileges.The orthodox people protested,and apprehending grave consequences,Varma called the Dewan P Rajagopalachari(1896-1901 in Cochin;1906-1914 in Travancore.Father of former Minister,S Varadarajan Nair) and explained the situation.Both felt sorry for Menon,who didn't heed the advice to wait.Varma told the Dewan to take immediate action to preclude the couple from enjoying caste privileges.It was resolved to issue a temporary order prohibiting Menon and wife from entering temples and enjoying caste privileges,pending an enquiry,at an early date to arrive at a final decision.The issue of the order created a huge sensation.

Iyengar

The leading Nairs were taken into confidence,and were requested to give their views.In the Thrissur Palace,a two day conference of the Vaidikas was arranged,and on King's request,Sir V Bhashyam Iyengar,attended.Legal Luminary Sir V C Desikachar,the Dewan and district Judge Ramachandra Iyer also attended.The scholars were unanimous in their view that Menon had forfeited his caste and could not be re admitted even after prayaschitham.The papers were given to Iyengar for his views.Iyengar advised the King was the final authority,but he would recommend readmission of the accused after necessary explanatory rituals.He also suggested taking Menon's explanation on the polluting acts brought against him,and that if he admitted them,his wife also must be asked whether she and Menon were not living as man and wife.What action was decided upon should apply equally to both.The couple replied to the questions sent to them,admitting allegations.Final order was issued confirming the initial order.

Rajagopalachari

Some time later,Dewan met Menon accidentally and asked him why he acted so hastily in marrying the Thrissur girl without giving a chance to offer the Darbar's advise,and if he was in a hurry to marry,why he could not select a lady from British Malabar,where these things didn't matter much.According to Rajagoplachari,Menon said,he acted on the advice of certain enemies in the garb of friends.Rama Varma kept a big file on Menon,even after abdication.

The decision of Rama Varma may conform with the edicts in the Manusmrithi,but his final decision was neither democratic,nor secular.He ignored the sane advise by the expert,Bhashyam Iyengar,who asked the King to readmit Menon after purifying rituals;he ignored an individual's right to study,wherever he want.The King's own family proved him wrong in later years by Lalan Thampuran marrying the sister of V K Krishna Menon,who studied in England.Oh!Krishna Menon belonged to British Malabar!Nonsense.
Rajagopalacahri,who presided over the decision to banish the young Ramunni Menon,became the Dewan of Travancore in 1906,at 44,had a sambandham with a Nair woman,Ambujam,and S Varadarajan Nair,Former KPCC President and Minister was born.There is a road in the city,in his consort's name,Ambuja Vilasam Road,where she stayed. 

Christ's College,Cambridge

Madras University

Ramunni Menon went to orthodox Madras where scholarship was valued,much better than in Cochin,joined the Madras Education Department in 1898 and became the Zoology Professor at Presidency College,his alma mater,in 1910.Students held him in high esteem;his classes were known for lucidity of expression.He,for several years studied certain forms of Coelenterates,and was conscious to a degree,with the result that he was not able to produce the amount of research work,that one must have expected.

When he retired in 1927,he was made Vice Chancellor of Madras University,and he planned out three University Labs for Zoology,Botany and Biochemistry during his tenure,till 1934.He was honorary Director of the Department of Zoology of the University,which he built up.Zoology in South India,owes a lot to him,which I didn't know,as a student of Zoology,in his former Maharaja's College.

Indira Menon

He completed new University buildings,was life member of the Senate,and was elected to the Madras Legislative Council,twice.He represented the University at the Congress of Universities at Edinburgh in 1931;he was Chairman of Inter University Board during 1932-'33,and was Member of the Council of States of India,till it was dissolved in 1934.

He was not one of those who wanted to be in the lime light,and to the solace of Rama Varma,he was too, conservative,concentrating on Music and Sanskrit in final years.

He was knighted on the new year day of 1933,invested with Knighthood on 3 March by the Viceroy Earl of Willingdon at Newdelhi,and thus became Dewan Bahadur Sir Ramunni Menon.

He proposed  to G H Hardy,in a letter dated 28 July 1920,a monthly annuity of Rs 20 per month to Ramanujan's wife,Janaki Ammal,for handing over her husband's documents.He introduced Music as a subject in the University and in 1944 presided over the Madras Music Academy's annual celebrations,and he was one of the founding fathers of the Tamil Isai Sangham.He was maternal grand father of Musicologist Indira Menon,and her sisters,singer Kalyani Menon and Historian Narayani Gupta.Menon wanted the best tutelage for his grand daughters,and so T Brinda was brought in as Guru.Indira's father VRK Menon was in the ICS; nephew,Ramu Damodaran,of  the IFS,became a famous news caster.

Indira was born in 1935 in the house that M S Subbulakshmi made famous as Kalki Gardens.It was the residence of Ramunni Menon for a short while,during which time,Indira was delivered.Many years later,Indira went to Kalki Gardens with her mother,and was pointed out the room were she was born.M S told her that it was her boudoir!

Reference:

1.Reminiscences/Rama Varma

2.Ramanujan:Letters and Commentaries/Srinivasa Ramanuja Aiyangar

3.A Life Well Lived/Indira Menon

See my Post,HIS ABDICATED HIGHNESS:THE COMPLETE STORY