ROLE OF JAMES FINLAY IN TOPPLING EMS

The Role of the U K Based Tea Giant Revealed

The liberation struggle, spearheaded by the Christian Church and financed by the CIA was not the sole reason for prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to dismiss the EMS Namboodiripad-led first Communist government in Kerala in 1959. A foreign plantation lobby also played a crucial role in the decision, reveals K Ravi Raman's book, Global Capital and Peripheral Labour: The History and Political Economy of Plantation Workers in India.

Published by Routledge in 2009, the book is based on the archives in London. Ravi Raman, a labour expert and a member of the Kerala State Planning Board member, quotes from the Memoir of Walter Smith Sutherland MacKay (1976), a chronicle prepared by the then general manager of Kanan Devan, which was a subsidiary of UK-based plantation giant James Finlay. The Memoir is a collection of opinion pieces and memoirs of Col W.S.S. MacKay about his time in Travancore, from 1924 to 1957, written for the Overseas Development Ministry of Britain.

High Range Club in 1910, the year of its foundation

Over the years many diabolical stories about the CIA's role in Kerala’s “Liberation Struggle” have been proved beyond doubt, by various sources. The first insider story came from From Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ambassador to India during 1973-1975, in 1978. In his book, A Dangerous  Place, Moynihan said the CIA had paid money to the Congress party twice and once through its president Indira Gandhi to fight the EMS ministry. 

Though Ms Gandhi rubbished it as a malicious lie, in an oral interview in 1991 and again in 2003, Ellsworth F Bunker, U S Ambassador to India from 1956-1961, who was in charge of the covert operations in Kerala during 1957-1959, revealed that money was indeed paid to the Congress. He expressed no regrets about the operation because the embassy had hard evidence that the Soviets were funding the Kerala communists, "as they have done everywhere, all over the world... But as we have done elsewhere in the world." (1)

However, Bunker exonerated Ms Gandhi and named S K Patil, a prominent Maharashtra Congress leader, as the intermediary. But S Gopal has confirmed Ms Gandhi's role in his biography of Nehru. Subsequently, David Burgess, who was Charge de Affairs at the U S embassy in New Delhi, corroborated the revelations.

A 1996 book, Beating the Unbeatable Foe: One Man's Victory Over Communism, Leviathan and the Last Enemy, by Australian evangelist Fred Schwarz, admitted that he had led the Christian anti-Communism crusade. He had paid money to the Kerala politician George Thomas to start a newspaper Keraladhwani, to campaign against the Communist ministry. Thomas had a PhD in Political Science, from the University of Washington, where he had taught too when he met Schwarz and sought help to fight Communism in Kerala. After the fall of the EMS government, Thomas wrote to Schwarz, proudly acknowledging his contribution. Thomas later became a legislator and published the Keralabhooshanam Daily. He ran into income tax troubles when he diverted the donations from the Indian Gospel Mission in the US, for other activities.

The declassified CIA documents also contain a plethora of information related to its activities in Kerala. They reveal that a daily brief to the U S President Lyndon B Johnson even mentioned the marital discord between T V Thomas and K R Gowri, two ministers in the EMS government. Allen Wells Dulles, CIA director from 1952-1961, was monitoring all reports from Kerala. Allen was the brother of John Forster Dulles, U S Secretary of State during President Eisenhower.

When the EMS ministry took over, the CIA report noted: "If commies play cards right, gains could be more than local. Economic improvement in Kerala could have a nationwide appeal. The local policy of moderation would tend to make commies more acceptable elsewhere in India."

The report observed that communists had been working hard to gain popularity. "They have cut their own pay, stayed eviction of peasants attacked corruption, solicited private capital." The report lamented that "in the interim, we face embarrassing problems regarding US-sponsored activities in Kerala.

High Range Travancore tea estate rolling room, 1910

Two years into power, there were administrative lapses, and the communists found themselves amid law and order issues. There was widespread anarchy, nepotism and the rule of law by communist cells. 

Even though one of the first decisions of EMS as home minister was to ask the police to be people-friendly and not intervene in labour disputes, things went sour. Throughout his first term as CM, a series of police actions were criticized.

On 18 November 1957, striking cashew industry workers were lathi-charged. On 26 July 1958, police firing killed two striking cashew workers belonging to the ruling CPM ally Revolutionary Socialist Party in Chandanathope, near Kollam district. On 20 October of the same year, police killed two striking tea estate workers, Pappammal and Rawther, associated with the party in Munnar. 

Two fishermen, Yacob and Yaggappan, died at Pulluvilla, in Thiruvananthapuram in the police firing, on June 12, 1959. 

At Vettucaud in the coastal belt of Thiruvananthapuram, three persons, J. Marian, John Netto and P. John Fernandez were killed in the firing on 15 June 1959. The same day, a police firing killed three, including Flory Pereira, a pregnant woman, at Cheriyathura, in Thiruvananthapuram. 

The rest is history with the resultant protest snowballing into the liberation struggle that brought down the EMS Ministry. Finally, the communist government was dismissed by the central government on 31 July 1959.

But the MacKay papers reveal a British effort to topple the Communist ministry in Kerala. Walter Smith Sutherland Mackay, was employed by James Finlay & Co. in the management of tea estates in the High Range of Travancore of which Finlay was the Managing Agent. Born in 1904, and related to Charles Mackay, the Scottish poet, he was Assistant Manager during 1924-32, Manager from 1932-46, and Assistant General Manager from 1946-57.

MacKay records the evidence thus: “It was here that EMS met his waterloo!”  According to him, William Roy, visiting agent of James Finlay, had met then Prime Minister Nehru, along with George Sutter, acting general manager.“The Union Government has been convinced that the Namboodiripad government in Kerala should be dismissed,” says MacKay. 

(Incidentally, MacKay has also written a paper, Trout of Travancore, in 1945, in the Bombay Natural History Journal. It talks about the Rajamalai hatchery and his efforts to rear the fish in the High Range waters.)

At that time, the Scottish company James Finlay had around 1.27 lakh acres of land in Kerala alone.

There have been varied accounts of what led to Nehru’s decision to dismiss the first democratically-elected Communist government in the country. The role played by the CIA has been widely discussed. Ravi Raman’s book, however, has thrown open the role of another player behind the dissolution of the government.

Ravi Raman's work points out that the EMS government’s move towards the nationalisation of foreign-owned plantations coupled with militant trade unionism had provoked the plantation giant.

Going by Raman's book, global capital played a vital role as the plantation lobby had already set the ground that later led to the decision. The James Finlay-owned plantation in India was the largest integrated plantation in the world at the time. The book quotes MacKay as saying, "the planters were a state within a state". 

“So far, it hasn’t come out who lobbied Jawaharlal Nehru initially on dismissing the government. This work sheds light on that. The intervention of A K Gopalan (the Communist opposition leader in the Indian Parliament) for the nationalisation of foreign-owned plantations and the Communist Party (CPI) manifesto had already provoked the plantation major. The emphasis on caste and communal alliance with Congress toppling the government is an incomplete narrative. We cannot forget the role played by global capitalist forces in the decision,” Raman says.

Finlay in India

It was Kirkman Finlay (1773-1842), a leading merchant in Glasgow, Scotland, and a member of Parliament, who as the head (1790) of James Finlay & Co, first made efforts to capture lucrative Asian markets, and ventured into India. He successfully challenged the British East India Company, first in the cotton trade with India.

Thirty years after Kirkman’s death, the Company took its first steps into the rapidly growing Indian tea business thanks to the vision of Sir John Muir, Baronet of Deanston, Scotland. Muir was made a junior partner in 1861 before becoming the sole proprietary partner in 1883. He was instrumental in opening a branch in Calcutta in 1870. Styled as Finlay Muir & Co., the branch soon added agencies for a range of British companies either exporting to or with businesses in, India. 1872 saw Finlay Muir’s first recorded involvement with Indian tea when 80 chests were shipped to New York. In the following year, the branch became agents for the Nonoi and Sootea tea farms. By 1881 the Company had amassed 16 agencies including the Chubwa Company, one of whose farms was, and still is, the oldest in India.

At this time most tea farms were owned and or managed by a band of hardy pioneers. In the case of Sootea, one of its proprietors lived in the jungle for three years after being outlawed by the Government and before leaving India with a train of ten children and two ayahs!

John Muir saw the opportunity to cultivate tea on a large scale and had the finance necessary to put his ideas into practice. Working with several talented agriculturists and traders including P R Buchanan and Thomas McMeekin, whose businesses were eventually to become part of the Group, John Muir floated two large tea companies on the Glasgow Stock Exchange in 1882, The North Sylhet and The South Sylhet tea companies. In addition to developing tea in Sylhet, in what is now Bangladesh, over the next 15 years, these companies acquired interests in other farms in Assam, the Dooars, Darjeeling, North Travancore and Ceylon.

In 1896 and 1897 Muir rationalised the Company’s now significant tea interests by grouping them into what were effectively four holdings companies with shares being offered to the public as part of a stock exchange listing.

In addition to having significant shareholdings, Finlays controlled and managed these, and other tea interests, both in India and the UK, by way of agency and secretarial agreements. One company, The Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Co., Limited had as one of its objects, “bringing the consumer into direct contact with the producer”.

Sir John Muir

Finlay Muir began buying and trading tea in 1874 and over the years this became, as it still is, a staple part of the Group’s business. Carried out from a worldwide network of offices, this allowed Finlays to become one of the largest traders of tea in the World. By the end of the 19th century, the British Empire was the world’s biggest producer of tea. India was responsible for 200 Million lbs, 85% of which went to the UK, far outstripping exports from China; over 500,000 acres of tea had been planted in just over 40 years.

When Muir died in 1903 he had been ennobled as Sir John Muir and had built Finlays into one of the pre-eminent tea businesses in the world. By his final years, Finlay Muir & Co had 90,000 employees worldwide, one of the largest companies ever. Approximately 70,000 were in the Indian subcontinent. 1949 Finlays was the largest tea plantation business in the world managing over 100,000 acres in India alone. 

Muir suffered two strokes, one in 1901 in Glasgow and another at Deanston House where he died on 6 August 1903. He left an estate of £862,802 but with much of his wealth invested as capital in James Finlay & Co and various offshoots, it is thought that his true worth was considerably greater.

The History of Munnar Tea Plantation

The first European to visit the Munnar hills was the Duke of Wellington in 1790. The Planting Opinion of 1896 records that the Duke, then Col. Arthur Wellesley, was dispatched by General William Meadows to cut off the retreat of Tipu Sultan at Kumily gap. Tipu’s intelligence, however, forewarned him of this move and Wellesley was ordered to retract.

It was nearly 30 years later that Lieutenants Ward and Connor of the Madras Army were assigned to the Great Trigonometrical Survey, located the mountain peaks of the High Range, and in particular, the Anaimudi and the Chokanad.

In 1878, Henry Gribble Turner and his half-brother A.W. Turner (Thambi Turner), both ICS officers, came on vacation from Madras and reached the mountains by the Bodimettu pass. Guided by the Muthuva tribal head Kanan Thevan, Turners eventually reached the summit of the Anaimudi and saw the grandeur of these hills. The commercial advantage of the hills struck them, and before the expedition ended, they obtained a ‘Concession’ of approximately 588 square km from the Poonjar Raja of Anjanad.

On behalf of them, John Daniel Munro, the Scottish designated Superintendent of the Cardamom Hills, related to the former Resident of Travancore-Cochin, John Munro, made an application to the Poonjar chief for the grant of the property called Kanan Thevan Anchanatu Mala on payment of Rs 5000 and obtained from the Raja the first Pooniat Concession Deed.

Smallholders then began to purchase plots of these lands and planted a variety of crops ranging from cinchona to coffee and sisal to tea, and these planters formed the North Travancore Land Planting and Agricultural Society Limited in 1879. The first tea is planted in Parvathi Estate, a part of today’s Sevenmallay Estate, by A. H. Sharp in 1880.

In 1895, Sir John Muir bought over the deeds of the Concession for further development. 

The Kanan Devan Hills Produce Company was formed in 1896 in the Kanan Devan Concession territory. In 1900 the Concession area became vested with the Company, in which Finlay Muir held a large interest, and the area started to develop rapidly along more commercial lines, the main crop becoming tea. Estates outside the Concession territory but within the High Range were owned by the Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Company, a subsidiary of Finlay Muir & Co. Ltd.

The Kanan Devan Hills Produce Company constructed the first Hydro-electric Power House in  India, at Pullivasal in 1900. In the same year, the Korangani – Top Station ropeway was also established to transport goods from the plains to the Hills and tea to the plains in turn.

By 1915, about 16 fully equipped factories were functioning on the estates. Transport of leaf from the field to the factory was by bullock cart. The Kundaly Valley Ropeway for the transportation of tea and goods was completed 1n 1926 aforRs 7.61 lakhs. The Company started a Veterinary Department in the same year to improve the condition of the cattle in the High Range.

Presently all the archives of the James Finlay Company are with the University of Glasgow, and it contains the personal accounts of the employees which help us visualize the tea estates’ social environment rather than just numerical financial figures.*

Croly Boyd, a Finlay employee in the 1920s, shares his account of the 1924 Kerala floods (2) that caused major loss of life and damage to the high-range tea estates. The devastating aftermath has been documented in a photo album (3) which shows the impact of 3.8 metres of rain over ten days. At first, the storm was mistaken for normal monsoon weather. Boyd and his family were trying to reach Rajamallay Estate for an extended visit to friends; however, they found the roads blocked by a flooding Periyar river. They reached their bungalow much before many landslides destroyed numerous properties.

Major JRS MacKay with Eravikulam trout and Rajoo Thevan, Head Ghillie

Returning to Munnar on foot, Boyd found the estate's factory flooded under several feet of water. Estate workers were trapped in the factory structures having an anxious wait on the roof, in the hopes it could survive the strong currents engulfing it. Boyd would find the main bridges were down and the estate's light railway completely destroyed. All contact had been lost with the opposite side of the Periyar river. In the aftermath, establishing communication and getting a rope over the river was a priority. This was achieved by Chief Engineer Grant, who attached a string to a golf ball and with difficulty drove it across the raging river.

It took around a year to repair the estate and bring it back into full operation. The huge international expanse of James Finlay’s business interests would lead to several encounters with earthquakes, storms and flooding, some are documented within the photographic collections (4) and mentions of the impact on the business can be found in the companies’ minute papers.

Despite the dangers of storms and the long voyage from Scotland to India, this did not deter adventurous individuals such as engineer Josh Walker. Walker is named among the many other employees who were predominantly engaged for work in estates in India and Ceylon. These staff members exported European culture on a grand scale. Staff and their families formed social clubs the same as you would expect to find within Europe. 

The foundation stone of the Christ Church of Munnar was laid on 11 March 1910 by A. K Muir. It was dedicated on Easter day, 16 April 1911 by Bishop Charles Hope-Gill, the third Anglican Bishop in Travancore and Cochin. In January 1927, the marriage of WSS Mackay and Miss John was conducted with a licence because of the plague scare between 1927-1928.

An unexpected document is the Trout of Travancore by W.S.S. MacKay, (5) an account of the establishment of trout in the rivers of Travancore, India. The book is intended to teach the lessons of the many mistakes made during the process and it contains a variety of photographs. The evidence of their success can be found in the minutes of the annual general meetings of the High Range Association.

Finlay’s was described as “going modern” with the replacement of illuminated electric lanterns with white bowls suspended over desks. Intriguingly, an employee WCM Tring noted in his personal notes “Forty Years After,” (6) that the Provident Fund 1938 was designed to increase Finlay’s productivity. This changed the tradition of retaining elder staff for life in favour of funding their retirement.

Apart from Kanan Devan, Munnar will also be remembered in history as the place where the communist government's police killed Pappammal and Rawther, two members of its backbone, the proletariat.

_________________________

*The James Finlay Employees: International Tea Day by Morphew, 15 December 2015

1. Ellsworth Bunker, Global Trouble Shooter, Vietnam Hawk, by Howard B Schaffer, page 67

2.GB 248 UGD 91/1/9/3/5

3.GB 248 UGD 091/1/12/15/21

4.GB 248 UGD 91/1/12/15

5. GB 248 UGD 91/16/8

6.GB 248 UGD 91/1/9/3/6

References: A brief history of tea – Roy Moxham and Finlays Magazine and the Company’s historic archives in the University of Glasgow.

© Ramachandran