WALTER SCOTT AND A BRITISH SURGEON IN KERALA

Hyder Ali and Tipu in the British Novel

Sir Walter Scott had family and friends who had been or were in India while he was writing his novels: their experience was useful to him for three of his novels: The Surgeon's Daughter; Guy Mannering; and St Ronan's Well.

In 1821, Scott wrote: India is ‘the corn chest for Scotland, where we poor gentry must send our youngest sons as we send our black cattle to the South’. Scott’s novella, A Surgeon’s Daughter, is partly set in India and friends serving there helped with details. One of these was Colonel James Fergusson who, after his return from India, in 1823, had settled at Huntlyburn, a house on Scott’s Abbotsford estate. As he approached the end of The Surgeon’s Daughter and the scene shifted from Britain to India, Scott felt he needed Fergusson’s help:

‘I cannot go on with the tale without I could speak a little Hindhanee, a small seasoning of curry powder — Fergusson will do it if I can screw it out of him'.

The problem was that Fergusson was not always there when wanted:

Walter Scott

'Colonel Fergusson’s absence is unlucky. So is Maxpopple [Sir William Scott of Raeburn, who owned the farm ‘Maxpoffle’] and half a dozen Qui His besides, willing to write chits, eat Tiffing and vent all their pagan jargon when one does not want to hear it and now that I want a touch of their slang, lo! There is not one near me.'

Ferguson provided some written material that Scott, describing it as ‘highly picturesque’, incorporated directly into his novel.

Family, like brother Robert and cousin James Russell, were in the East India Company; his wife Charlotte received about £40,000 annually (today’s value) from her brother in India; his brother Robert died young. His uncle Colonel William Russell of Ashestiel served with both the East India Company and the army in Madras. His cousin James Russell was born in India and served in the Madras Native Cavalry. His brother-in-law Charles Carpenter was a 'commercial resident' at Salem in South India. Many of Scott's childhood neighbours in George Square, Edinburgh, had Indian connections, as did his Border friend and fellow ballad-collector John Leyden.

Walter helped his nephew to an Indian position – but discouraged his sons. His eldest son, Walter Scott (1801-1847) fulfilled Scott’s military ambitions by becoming an accomplished soldier. Scott purchased his son a commission and he joined the army, initially as Cornet before being promoted to Captain and Lieutenant Colonel of the 15th King’s Hussars. He married Jane Jobson in 1825. Walter went to Madras only after his father’s death and died en route home. By the time of his death in 1847, there was no issue, and the Abbotsford estate passed to his eldest sister’s children.

When his other son Charles was offered a place as a lawyer in India, Scott promptly had the offer postponed and ensured that Charles never went, and when the daughters of his dead friend William Erskine planned to go to India, Scott offered only reluctant approval because he could not see any other path for them. Evidently, the experience of so many deaths amongst those he had sponsored to go there had cooled his enthusiasm for India as a place of opportunity.

Typical of Scott’s personal engagement with India include his active involvement in finding friends, the sons of friends and clients' places in India and then promoting their careers with letters to the governing powers. In addition to his nephew (another Walter Scott), he helped his cousin, Patrick Meik, John Leyden, the son of neighbours in the Borders, and the two sons of the poet Allan Cunningham. Amongst gifts of Indian origin, he received from David MacCulloch, formerly a merchant in Bengal, a sword that was claimed to be that of Tipu Sultan. Sadly, his letters also record the deaths in India of Richard Lockhart, his son-in-law’s brother, and of the brothers Hugh and John Scott (sons of Francis Scott of Beechwood and his distant cousins) who died in India within a month of each other, as well as the death on his way back from India of the eldest son of his friend William Adam of Blairadam. Given all this, it is perhaps not surprising that Scott had mixed feelings about India as a destination for Scotland’s sons (and daughters). When his elder son, Walter, hoped to go to India with his regiment Scott opposed it resolutely:

'in the Kings service […] you can get neither experience in your profession nor credit nor wealth nor anything but an obscure death in storming the hill fort of some Rajah with an unpronounceable name […] or if you live it is but to come back 20 years hence a lieutenant or captain with a yellow face a diseased liver and not a rupee in your pocket to comfort you for broken health.'

The Surgeon's Daughter was written between 20 June and 16 September 1827 and published as the third and final tale in Chronicles of the Canongate. 

The main story of The Surgeon's Daughter was transmitted to Scott by a regular informant, a Galloway excise officer Joseph Train (1779‒1852). For details of life in India, Scott owned three useful publications: A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan (1775‒78) by Robert Orme;  Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry, who was detained a prisoner during ten years, in the Dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoou Saib (1824) and Narrative Sketches of the Conquest of the Mysore, Effected by the British Troops and their Allies, in the Capture of Seringapatam, and the Death of Tippoo Sultaun (1800).

While he was composing the novel, Scott realised that he needed more information about India than these books provided, so he enlisted the help of James Ferguson (1778‒1859), who had served with the East India Company, and who furnished him with a set of sketches of Indian life and manners that proved very helpful: they are sometimes quoted almost verbatim.

As acknowledged in the 'Magnum Opus' edition of Chronicles of the Canongate (1831), 'The Surgeon's Daughter' was inspired by an anecdote related to Scott one morning by Joseph Train(1779‒1852), Gallowegian excise officer and antiquarian, who also supplied material for Guy Mannering, Old Mortality, and Red Gauntlet. Train's narrative, a version of which he submitted for the 'Magnum Opus' edition, involved an unscrupulous adventurer who tricks a surgeon's daughter into travelling to India so that he might hand her over to an Indian prince. It has not to date been established whether Train's anecdote derives from a true story.

Scott's most significant source, however, was Colonel James Ferguson (1778-1859), the younger brother of one of Scott's closest friends Sir Adam Ferguson. Ferguson returned to Scotland in 1823, after spending twenty-five years in India, and came to live with his two sisters at Huntlyburn on Scott's Abbotsford estate. As he worked on The Surgeon's Daughter, Scott felt increasingly hampered by his lack of first-hand knowledge of Indian life. As he wrote in his Journal (22 August 1827), the tale required 'a small seasoning of curry powder'. He turned to Colonel Ferguson who obliged him with written sketches of Indian manners, ceremony, and protocol and with advice on the Anglo-Indian language. Some of Ferguson's material is reproduced almost verbatim in The Surgeon's Daughter. It is from Ferguson too that Scott derives the punishment of death by an elephant that is inflicted on Richard Middlemass.

Hyderali as pretended fakir

The Surgeon's Daughter is set in the mid-to-late 1770s between the First and Second Mysore Wars. It is the story of Menie Gray, daughter of Dr Gideon Gray (who is thought to have been modelled on Scott's own doctor, Ebenezer Clarkson of Selkirk). Menie falls in love with Richard Middlemas, an illegitimate child brought up in the surgeon's household. Richard has been educated in the medical profession, and the couple is betrothed with the blessings of Menie's father. Scorning his prospects as a country doctor, however, Richard leaves Scotland to seek his fortune in India. Here he becomes the paramour of an adventuress Adela Montreville who concocts a plot to lure Menie to India and hand her over to the Vice-Regent of Bangalore, Prince Tippoo Saib (whose passions have been aroused by a picture of the young girl). Bribery and hope of advancement lead Richard to go along with the scheme, and Menie, who has been reduced to poverty following her father's death, answers Richard's call to join her in India as his wife. The hero of the story turns out to be Adam Hartley, a student friend of Richard's and his unsuccessful rival for Menie's hand. Adam secures the help of Hyder Ali, Tippoo Saib's father, who assures Menie's safety and punishes Richard by having him crushed to death by an elephant. Shortly afterwards, Adam contracts a fatal disease leaving Menie as his principal heir. Out of respect for his memory, she remains unmarried.

Robert Orme

The Surgeon's Daughter was highly praised by half the reviewers as a powerful narrative, while the others gave it a lukewarm reception at best: the most common complaint was that the events, particularly in the second part set in India, were improbable, and that Scott was out of his element on the subcontinent.

Robert Orme, on whose Indian history Scott depended, was the son of Dr Alexander Orme, Surgeon at Anjengo (Anchuthengu) British factory in Travancore. Robert Orme, born in Anchthengu, and lived there for two years, became an authority on India. Alexander Orme was the brother in law of the first Tellicherry (Thalassery ) British fort Chief from 1703 to 1728, Robert Adams. Surgeon Alexander became the political agent at Anjengo after the Attingal massacre in 1721.

There is a surgeon after all.

Robert Orme ( 1728-1801 ) was a historian admired in his time, inspiring writers, Thomas Macaulay and William Makepeace Thackeray too. But he was later ignored by historians from James Mill onwards. His work, History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan from 1745, laid the foundation for all the future historical works on India. He was born on Christmas day in 1728, as the second son of the Chief of the English East India Company Factory there, Dr Alexander Orme, and Lady Hill. Lady Hill was the sister of the wife of Robert Adams, Chief of Tellicherry factory. Alexander had replaced the notorious Chief, William Gyfford, who was killed by the Attingal Pillai Brigade along with 132 Britishers, in 1721, on the premises of the Attingal palace, and the corrupt Midford, who followed, Gyfford.

Dr Alexander was a surgeon in the service of the Company, at Anchuthengu Factory, in 1707. Robert Orme was sent to London, only to come back to India in later years.

Robert was sent to his aunt, Mrs Robert Adams, when he was two; he studied at Harrow School during 1734-1741, under Dr James Cox. He spent a year at the Accountant General's office of the Royal African Company, before joining the mercantile house of Jackson and Wedderburn at Calcutta in 1742 and entering the East India Company's service as a Writer, in 1743. His elder brother, William was already a Writer at the Company's Calcutta office. Robert Orme gained deep knowledge of Indian customs. He considered Indians generally and Bengalis especially, effeminate, and attributed the climatic conditions to the character. In the 1761 article, The Effeminacy of the Inhabitants of Indostan, he wrote: Breathing in the softness of the climates, having few real wants; and receiving even the luxuries of other nations with little labour, from the fertility of their own soil, the Indian must become the most effeminate inhabitant of the globe, and this is the very point at which we now see him.

He was appointed member of the Council of Fort St George at Madras, from 1754 to 1758. During that period, he took part in the Council deliberations on the Carnatic operations and was instrumental in sending the Young Robert Clive, as Head of the punitive expedition, against Siraj-ud-Dowlah, in 1757, to Calcutta, in the aftermath of the infamous Black Hole incident of Calcutta in 1756.

Anjengo Fort

 

He was the Accountant General during 1757-58, made a small fortune and returned to England in 1759.

He bought a house in Harley Street, London, and spent his time writing. History of the Military Transactions was published in three volumes in 1763-78 and, Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, the Morattoes and English Concerns in Industan from 1659, was published in 1782. From 1769, till his death, he was the paid Historiographer of the East India Company. It was on the strength of his Military History, that he was appointed the Historiographer, and the military encounters of the British came through the writings of Robert Orme. It formed the foundation for many other works on India. Walter Scott had read the book in his youth and he relied heavily upon Robert for his novels, including, The Surgeon's Daughter, based in India. The Newcomes of Thackeray invokes Robert frequently.

The Chief in Tellicherry, Robert Adams had married Alexander's sister. Adams was believed by Alexander Hamilton to have made considerable sums in private trade during his time in India. This allowed him to retire to live in Cavendish Square, one of the grandest addresses in London at that time, having been developed by the 2nd Earl of Oxford and John Prince starting in 1717. He died in 1738.

Much of the money that Adams had made during his time in India is believed to have come from making loans of Tellicherry Factory funds to the Zamorin, who used it to fund his wars with the Dutch from Cochin and especially those at Chetwai (Chettuva).

These loans had not been sanctioned by the Board of Directors of the East India Company, and Robert Adams found himself in some difficulty when the Zamorin later defaulted on many of the repayments. Adams made a journey to Calicut in order to try to recover the money.

The EIC authorities fearful that he might abscond, placed his wife (sister to Alexander Orme at Anjengo.) under restraint at Tellicherry to prevent them both from running away. However after a while, she was able to board the Decker, a vessel bound for Fort St. George, Madras, and in this vessel, she collected her husband at Calicut.

© Ramachandran 

THE BRITISH INDIAN JUDGE WHO SACKED INDIRA GANDHI

He Raised His Children as Hindus

The name Justice William George Broome may not ring a bell to many Indians today. Though British, he was the Indian Judge who started the proceedings in Allahabad High Court Against Indira Gandhi in 1971, which resulted in the declaration of the Emergency in 1975. Broome was the last British judge to remain in judicial service in India, and the only one to have been appointed to a High Court after independence. He came to India as an Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer, took Indian citizenship and assimilated into Indian life and society impressively.

His official biodata reads: Graduated in B.A. (Hons.). Born on 18th March 1910. Educated at Laytmer Upper School, Hammersmith and Caius College, Cambridge. Joined the Indian Civil Service on 10.10.1932 and served in Uttar Pradesh as Assistant Magistrate and Collector, Joint Magistrate. Became District and Session Judge on 16.4.1941, appointed Registrar of Allahabad High Court in December 1943, confirmed as District and Sessions Judge on 13th September 1945 and in the Selection Grade on 31.3.1953. Appointed Additional Judge, Allahabad High Court on 8.12.1958. Permanent Judge of Allahabad High Court on 18.2.1959. 

Broome came to India as an imperial official in 1932. During a period when British rule in India was still characterised by racial hierarchies and segregation, he defied British prejudices by marrying an Indian woman and devoting his life to India. He even raised his children as Hindus, learned numerous Indian languages and immersed himself in Indian culture. 

He served in what was then the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). In 1937, he married Swaroop Kumari Gour, the daughter of the lawyer, politician and academic Sir Hari Singh Gour. Hari Singh had married Olivia, the daughter of  Balwant Singh of Bhandara.

Hari Singh Gour

Sir Hari Singh Gour (1870 –  1949) was a distinguished lawyer, jurist, educationist, social reformer, poet, and novelist. Gour was the First Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi and Nagpur University, founder and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sagar, Deputy President of the Central Legislative Assembly of British India, an Indian Delegate to the Joint Parliamentary Committee, a Member of the Indian Central Committee associated with the Royal Commission on the Indian Constitution (popularly known as the Simon Commission), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Hari Singh Gour was born on 26 November 1870 to a poor family near Sagar, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The family had to be supported by Hari Singh's eldest brother who provided an allowance of 50 rupees per month. Hari Singh's father was a carpenter and farmer, but the young boy was not interested in this trade. At the age of ten, Hari Singh won a scholarship of two rupees per month which enabled him to attend a night school in Sagar. Later, with the help of another scholarship, he went to Jabalpur to undertake further studies. Mathematics was his favourite subject and for this, he received a special prize. In Jabalpur, he went for his matriculation but he failed the first time as he was deeply disturbed as someone stole his gold ring which he brought by saving 10 rupees from all his scholarships. But the second time he passed out with good marks. He passed his Intermediate examination from Hislop College, Nagpur, a free church institution, standing first in the whole province.

When he was 18 years old, Hari Singh Gour went to the University of Cambridge in England where he took Moral Sciences Tripos and Law Tripos. Unfortunately, the young Hari Singh experienced a great deal of racism as a student and throughout his life. He participated in a mathematics competition, of which the results were not declared. Some years after obtaining his LL.D. he learned that the scholarship that the competition awarded was not given to foreigners, especially "blacks," as Indians were referred to by the British. Since Hari Singh came first in the competition, the scholarship ended up not being awarded to anyone. He faced similar treatment in other situations and academic competitions, however, he never let this unfair treatment by the British discourage him. Instead, he began to write poetry. In fact, while in England he came to be known in literary circles as a promising poet, becoming acquainted with the likes of George Bernard Shaw. He wrote a book of poetry entitled Stepping Westward and Other Poems due to which he became somewhat of a celebrity and was thereby selected as a Member of the Royal Society of Literature.

He was admitted as a pensioner at Downing College, Cambridge on 5 June 1889. Gour received his BA in 1892; the MA in 1896; LL.M. in 1902; and finally the LL.D. in 1908. After his time at Cambridge, he read for the D.Litt. and LL.D. at Trinity College, Dublin. 

Young Hari Singh Gour

On his return to India, he became a successful lawyer in Raipur. He wrote two monumental works, The Law of Transfer in British India and The Penal Law of India. Another book entitled Hindu Law Code published later added to his reputation as a great jurist. In the Central Legislative Assembly in 1921, Gour denounced the sequestration and suppression of women. He was also a great social reformer and was successful in getting an act passed to enable women to be enrolled as lawyers, while his Civil Marriage Bill of 1923 showed him to be a reformer thinking ahead of his time. Gour was not only a progressive scholar; he demonstrated such forward-thinking in his personal life as well. 

The first bill for the abolition of untouchability was introduced in 1921 by Hari Singh Gour. Through his determination and industry combined with a gift of oratory, Sir Hari Singh Gour rose to an eminent position in the political scene. He became a Leader of the Opposition and of the Nationalist Party in the Indian Legislative Assembly from 1921 to 1934. He was a Member of the Constituent Assembly that framed India's Constitution.

Gour donated Rs 20 lakh on 6 December 1946 and 2 Crore in 1949 to establish the Dr Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar-it was the highest charity offering in Asia then. He gave off all his properties.

Gour and Family

Gour was not only a progressive scholar; he demonstrated such forward-thinking in his personal life as well. He married Olivia, daughter of Balwant Singh of Bhandara. In marrying Gour, Broome defied these prejudices. He raised his children as Hindus (Broome was an atheist), learned numerous Indian languages and developed a strong interest in Indian culture.

Broome was appointed as a district and sessions judge in 1941. His independence in that role was legendary. When the chief secretary of the United Provinces declared that too many detainees under the Defence of India Rules were receiving bail, Broome responded by threatening the chief secretary with contempt of court.
By 1958, Nehru was able to write of Broome that “I have seldom known any Englishman who has so Indianized himself in various ways as he has”, and that “he is as much as Indian as anybody can be who is not born in India and indeed probably more so than many people born in India”. 

In that year, with Nehru’s assistance, Broome renounced his British citizenship and became an Indian citizen. 

Unlike other British civil servants, he opted to stay in India as a judge after Independence. He was appointed to the Allahabad High Court, where he served until his retirement in 1972. His judgments in this role demonstrated a strong concern for civil liberties, even going further than the Supreme Court of that time.

Broome with Swaroopa

One of Broome’s final cases as a judge was to hear the early stages of Raj Narain’s challenge to Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election from Rae Bareli – the challenge that ultimately led to the Emergency. Broome had known Nehru and had once enjoyed a friendly relationship with Indira – he and his wife were even invited to Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi’s wedding reception. But he nonetheless made important procedural rulings in Narain’s favour. (Although Broome’s friendship with Indira Gandhi seems to have ended after this case, it is striking that no effort was made to delegitimise his decisions by referring to his foreign birth.)

1971 was a momentous year in our history. India was celebrating its silver jubilee. The general elections that took place a few months prior to the Bangladesh war had provided a battle cry that sounded as hollow as it was shrill: Garibi Hatao. Yet again, the nation got fooled, perhaps lulled into believing its progenitor – Indira Gandhi. She won a resounding victory. 

Raj Narain, her adversary for the keenly contested Lok Sabha seat of Rai Bareli, nearly lost his deposit. But the plucky, bandana-wearing socialist, born in the same year as Indira Gandhi, went to court alleging that Mrs Gandhi had deployed government jeeps during canvassing, thereby violating the code of conduct. The charge of appropriating a few jeeps – 23 to be precise – for the purposes of election canvassing seemed laughable.

Justice Broome thought otherwise. He inadvertently set in motion events that heralded the most shameful chapter in our young history.

 In the first week of March 1971, Raj Narain and Indira Gandhi crossed swords for the Rai Bareli seat. Mrs Gandhi won handsomely (with a margin of 1,11,810 votes). A month later, on April 24, 1971, Narain filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court challenging Mrs Gandhi’s election on the grounds that she had indulged in corrupt practices. No, not for promoting her kin to positions of limitless power or indulging in shady arms deals, but rather for using official jeeps for canvassing.

Raj Narain alleged that Yashpal Kapur – a gazetted officer who claimed to have retired by the time his expert services were availed of by Mrs Gandhi – had shamelessly distributed quilts, dhotis and alcohol among the voters as an inducement. He had also hired and procured a number of vehicles for the free conveyance of electors to the polling stations.

It was this last allegation that changed the course of India’s history. 

On February 24, 1971, Dal Bahadur Singh, President of the District Congress Committee, Rae Bareli, wrote a letter to Yashpal Kapur, in which he commanded Kapur to ask the Electoral Officer to release some jeeps. Dal Bahadur was incensed as this gutsy officer had earlier denied Dal Bahadur’s request on the grounds that “it was not possible to release the vehicles in favour of any party for election purposes”.

Kapur duly obliged but made a grievous error while wording his letter – understandable as he was a gazetted officer. He not only asked the Election Officer to release the 23 vehicles without delay but also stated that the vehicles in question had already been taken by the District Congress Committee.

Tense confusion and truth blurtings aside, this time round the letter had come from none other than the Prime Minister’s election agent, and the poor election officer had no option but to “release” the vehicles that had already been released.

Back then our politicians thought it fit to act on their own advice and not their lawyer’s. Not to be outdone by her electoral agent’s gaffe, Mrs Gandhi gave it in writing to the court that indeed those 23 jeeps had been used by the District Congress Committee Rae Bareli for election purposes in the constituencies of Rae Bareli, Amethi and Ram Sanehi Ghat.

Raj Narain

Verdict: Allahabad High Court (http://indiankanoon.org/doc/689646/)

Date: September 14, 1971

Bench: Justice WG Broome

The first of many judges to have contributed to Indira Gandhi & Others’ downfall was Justice BN Lokur. The hearings began on July 15, 1971 and it wasn’t long before Raj Narain demanded that none other than Indira Gandhi should depose before the Allahabad High Court. Justice Lokur rejected Narain’s request outright. He also rejected Narain’s appeal for the many “incriminating” books and documents of the respondent (Mrs Gandhi) to be placed before the court. Before the issue could be taken further, there was a small matter of constitutional reading. Justice Broome swept in gladly to oblige.

“The petitioner”, said Justice Broome, “has applied for leave to deliver interrogatories in writing for the examination of the respondent and for a direction to the respondent to make a discovery on oath of the documents which are or have been in her possession or power relating to the questions arising in the petition. The arguments advanced on both sides have ranged over a wide field of both English and Indian law, but I shall endeavour to deal with them as succinctly as possible.”

Succinctness, wit, erudition – Justice Broome then went on to display each of these qualities in equal measure, quoting liberally from judgments delivered centuries ago.

“…After jurisdiction was conferred by the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868, the court continued to follow the principles, practice and rules on which committees of the House of Commons had previously acted in dealing with election petitions; and as pointed out in Wells v. Wren, (1880) it is admitted that the exhibition of interrogatories to the sitting member by an election committee was a thing unheard of. When elections were introduced in India, however, there was a radical departure from this principle…”

“…The respondent says that the petitioner should not be allowed to supplement these particulars by resorting to discovery. But this argument is misconceived, for discovery has nothing to do with supplementing the petitioner’s pleadings; its object is to elicit admissions from the respondent that may obviate the necessity for producing lengthy evidence when the time comes to examine witnesses.”      

“…It is no doubt true that the Indian electoral law has been largely modelled on the corresponding English statutes, but that does not mean that English Common Law doctrines must be followed when interpreting the Indian Law. An objection that an order for discovery of documents might tend to incriminate the party ordered is not sufficient to give immunity from discovery. To sum up, I find that in India there is no warrant for following the English practice of disallowing discovery in the trial of election petitions.”

“…Accordingly I grant leave to the petitioner to deliver the accompanying interrogatories for the examination of respondent. I also direct the respondent to make discovery on oath of the documents which are or have been in her possession or power. The affidavit in reply to this also shall be filed by October 4, 1971.”

It was too late-Smt Gandhi & Others promptly approached the Supreme Court that, much to their ire, sided with Raj Narain. In Allahabad, however, something else was brewing, something to do with a little blue book.

Raj Narain Vs Smt Indira Gandhi & Others

Verdict: Allahabad High Court (http://indiankanoon.org/doc/431532/)

Date: March 20, 1974

Bench: Justice KN Srivastava

It appears Mrs Gandhi was hell-bent on denying Raj Narain and the court a dekko at some documents that included, bizarrely, a “blue book”. The judge wasn’t too pleased with this stand.

“In this election petition”, said Justice Srivastava, “privilege has been claimed [by the respondent, ( Mrs Gandhi ) regarding three sets of documents, including copy of a blue book with the title Rules and Instructions for the Protection of Prime Minister when on Tour or in Travel. It shall hereinafter be called as the blue book…The Union Government itself disclosed a part of this blue book, on the top of which the word Secret is printed. The blue book is not an unpublished official record. The State cannot be permitted to have two yardsticks for two different individuals.”

“…Unless the blue book is made available to him, the petitioner cannot be in a position to efficiently cross-examine the respondent’s witnesses. It is, therefore, just, equitable and in accordance with the principle of natural justice that the claim of privilege regarding the blue book and other papers which are correlated with the blue book be rejected.”

Yashpal Kapur with Indira

Mrs Gandhi would hear none of it. She approached the Supreme Court again, demanding that the blue book not be shown as evidence during the trial. The year was 1974 and having purged her dissenters, rebuffed Nixon, broken Pakistan in two, and exploded an atomic bomb, she was invincible. Indira was India and India was Indira.

A five-judge bench heard her plea and, unexpectedly, disregarded all previous judgments. Mrs Gandhi had won the right to hide the blue book. Her victory, though, was short-lived. The Supreme Court, while pronouncing its verdict, also directed the case to be heard afresh by a single judge of the Allahabad High Court.

It was Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha.

On June 12, 1975, in a jam-packed courtroom, under long-stemmed ceiling fans that pretended to bring relief from the unbearable heat, Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha found the sitting Prime Minister of India Mrs Indira Gandhi guilty. He declared her election “null and void” and forbade her from fighting elections for six years. The concluding words of Justice Sinha: “I regret my inability to accept her evidence, on one point; her plea has no legs to stand on, on another; and that it does not bear any scrutiny, on a third.”

Years later, Mrs Gandhi would call Justice Sinha “a petty judge”.  On that hot June day, however, after expressing her dismay and anger to BBC’s Mark Tully in a rare interview, she promptly trundled off to the Supreme Court yet again. This was because Justice Sinha had stayed his judgment for 20 days to allow the Congress party to elect a successor. Exactly the window Mrs Gandhi needed. Her appeal to the Supreme Court was for an “absolute stay” on the judgment.

Jagmohan Lal Sinha

The Supreme Court was on vacation. Only one judge was available

Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi Vs Raj Narain & Another

Verdict: Supreme Court (http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/1240174/)

Date: June 24, 1975

Bench: Justice VR Krishna Iyer

“While the right to appeal is statutory”, said Justice Iyer, “the power to stay is discretionary. But judicial discretion – indeed, even executive discretion – cannot run riot. Judicial power is dynamic, forward-looking, socially lucent and aware. The Court is the quiet of the storm centre and views with an equal eye the claims on each side. The High Court and its finding, until upset, holds good, however weak it may ultimately prove.”

“…I hereby pass a stay of the order of the High Court under appeal. The petitioner will remain a Member of the Lok Sabha, will be entitled to sign the Register kept in the House for that purpose and attend the Sessions of the Lok Sabha, but she will neither participate in the proceedings nor vote nor draw remuneration in her capacity as Member of the Lok Sabha.”

This was anything but the “absolute stay” Mrs Gandhi had wished for. Her anger was palpable. Fascism beckoned her, and at midnight, June 25, 1975, she declared a state of Emergency. We got freedom at midnight and lost it another midnight.

Yashpal Kapur, the one who started it all by providing the jeeps, went on to become, just like his nephew RK Dhawan later on, a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Broome died in Bengaluru in 1988. Having come to India in the service of imperial power, he died an Indian.

Broome’s decision to seek Indian citizenship, and the nation’s willingness to accept his faithful service, highlights interesting aspects of ‘citizenship’ and ‘nationalism’ in the young Indian republic. 

He was retained as a judge by the independent Indian government partially through pragmatism: despite the long struggle for independence, free India kept many of the institutions and officials that had governed (even subjugated) colonial India. But his life also reflected important, idealistic aspects of the new Indian state. But the fact that Broome brought up his children as Hindus underlines his belief in the Indian tradition and culture, unlike Nehru.

B N Rau

Broome's son Ashok lives in the Pune farmhouse, Broome Farmstays in Marunji village, with his wife, Leela Gour Broome. They built the farmhouse in 1989. Leela's Dutch mother was married to a Maharashtrian. Earlier, they had lived in a tea estate, High Wavy Hills,90 km away from Madurai.

Broome was not the only civil servant to serve in the high court. In Punjab, the first four Chief Justices, post-Independence, were from the ICS, namely Eric Weston, a European ICS, AN Bhandari, GD Khosla and Donald Falshaw, another European ICS, who left in 1966. There were many like Broome, the majority being Englishmen. 

It will be apt to remember B N Rau here. He was an eminent jurist and served as a Judge of the Calcutta High Court from 1939. He was also a judicial ‘lateral entrant’.B.N. Rau was a member of the International Court of Justice Bench at The Hague, and the first from India. Earlier, he was also the constitutional adviser to the Constituent Assembly of India. 

He was the most important person after B.R. Ambedkar in drafting the Constitution of India. The draft Constitution debated in the Constituent Assembly, later amended to become the Constitution of India, was his brainchild. The Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly had accepted his draft virtually without any change. But, B.N. Rau was not an advocate or member of the judicial services. He was a civil servant. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1910 and served with distinction until his elevation to the high court.

He was also closely involved in drafting key provisions of the Government of India Act, of 1935, which later became the template of the Constitution of India. B.N. Rau was also a prolific author and wrote on many aspects of law and jurisprudence.

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Reference: Indira, Jeeps and Blue Books/Anand Ranganathan

© Ramachandran