A CHRISTIAN IN THE MALABAR ROYAL FAMILY

The Zamorin's nephew became a Christian in 1600

I never thought Udayamperoor,just seven kilometers away from my place,Tripunithura was connected to Ooty.Frederic Price,in his book,Ootacamund,a History,says that the decision to redeem Catholic faith in Ooty was taken in the Diamper Synod of 1599.Diamper is of course,Udayamperoor.A Jesuit priest,Fr Fininicio was sent to Ooty.Then comes the biggest surprise.I quote from the book:A native convert,a nephew of the Samur Rajah,accompanied him and some others.
This journey was in 1602 and Fr Fininicio wrote a report on it at Calicut on April 1,1603.This Portuguese manuscript is preserved in the British Museum.

Reception to Gama by Zamorin.Illustration by Philip Baldaeus,1672

I have seen Illustrations,fictitious,of this trip in the Sullivan's Museum in Kotagiri,Nilgiris.But there was no illustration of the nephew of the Zamorin,who had become a Christian.I had written on Prince Rama Varma of the Cochin Royal family who became a Christian in 1835.But the conversion in Calicut was 235 years earlier;before that,around 1537,the Tanur King had converted and taken the name,Dom Joao.It was the time when the Zamorin failed to evict the portuguese from Chaliyam.Soon,Vettathu Raja with his wife became Christians but went back to the Hindu fold,dejected.
We will come to the details of the nephew later.
Unless we gather the background of the Synod,we won't be able to assess the importance of the Calicut conversion.

Synod Church

The Synod of Diamper was held inspired by the inquisitions in Spain and Portugal,in the All Saints Church of Udayamperoor during June 20-26,1599,under the leadership of the Portuguese Arch Bishop of Goa, Aleixo de Menezes.153 Ecclesiastes and 660 laymen,elected/invited,participated.The Synod issued 200 decrees.It was held under threat by the Raja of Cochin;he threatened to take over the assets of the churches which stayed away from the Synod.The church was encircled by Portuguese/Cochin soldiers.The Raja himself was a slave of the Portuguese.He was consecrated as King in the Church,with a crown bearing the Cross.

The Syrian Christians of Malabar(modern Kerala)were following a lot of original Hindu beliefs.The Synod condemned all these,relating to transmigration,fate and astrology.The Hindu customs relating to matrimony,death,purification on touching lower castes were abandoned.The Christians were banned from attending traditional Hindu functions like Onam.Hindu musicians were banned from performing in Christian churches.The Christians who were doing military services to Hindu kings were asked to stop it.The formal separation of Christians from their Hindu brethren and the unification of Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala with the Roman Catholic Church was complete.

Menezes

Till the Synod,the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala were under the See of the Chaldean Patriarch or Catholicose of Babylonia(Seleucia-Ctesiphon).Menezes endeavored to eliminate the Bishops sent from Babylonia.He created the impression that the Patriarch was Nestorian, heretic and was opposed to Rome.He told the Synod so.The last Metropolitan of the Saint Thomas Christians,appointed by the Patriarch,Mar Abraham of Angamaly,who was Persian, died in 1597.His Archdeacon George (Geevarghese)took charge as Administrator of Angamaly Archdiocese.Archdeacon was All India Head of the Palliyogam or Assembly,thereby the virtual ruler.The Bishop,one from abroad,was a nominal representative.The Archbishop Menezes of Goa,taking this void as an opportunity,nominated  Jesuit priest,Fr Francis Roz as Administrator.Since Fr Goerge was very popular,Menezes had to reverse the decision.Fr George called an assembly of Saint Thomas Christians in Angamaly and took the pledge that if Rome sends George as Bishop,they will accept,but not a Latin.

The enraged but tactful Menezes toured Kerala in February,1599 to earn goodwill of the churches and priests.After winning over a sizable number of priests,he threatened George to depose.Menezes appointed Thomas Kurien,nephew of the former Arch Deacon of 1593,whose claims had been overlooked earlier,as the new Administrator.George had no other way than to yield. After deposing the influential George, Menezes began to consolidate.The consolidation had its finale at Udayamperoor.The Portuguese imposed new customs,hierarchy,law,liturgy and rites.Several manuscripts were burnt(Liturgical and Episcopal texts at the Angamaly library were systematically burnt;Menezes burnt Syriac books in 59 churches.After Angamaly,Syriac collections of Cheppad and Chengannur were burnt).All references to the childhood of Jesus and the first wife of his father Joseph were removed.

Kunjali's sword

During the Synod,the King was Keshava Rama Varma(1565-1601),who is known to have gone on a pilgrimage to Kashi and other temples for five years,fed up with slavery under Portuguese.Kunjali Mohammed Marakkar was in touch with him.In 1583,Portuguese Viceroy Francisco Mascernhas forcibly took the authority to collect commercial tax from the King.As public protest raged,the new Viceroy,Duarte Menezes came to Cochin and sorted out the issue.It was on January 26,1599,Archbishop Menezes arrived in Cochin.On the second day of arrival,he convened a meeting of officials to seek help for the war efforts at Kottakkal,without the permission of the King.The King sent his Chief Justice, Joan d Miranda to Menezes to pull him out of the Kottakkal war.Miranda told Menezes that Cochin was at war with Koratty Kaimal and could not help with forces at Kottakkal.Menezes sent Miranda back.Then two meetings between the King and Menezes followed;Menezes shouted a lot at the King for helping the Archdeacon.Menezes forced the King to help him in the Synod.Before Menezes left for Goa after the Synod,he met the King again and asked him to get converted to Christianity.A very long conversation followed.The King escaped saying he would call a meet of Brahmin scholars later.Menezes cursed the King to undergo the harshest tests on the D-Day and left.The King died on 3 May,1601.

Old Marakkar home,kottakkal

Archdeacon George (Geevarghese of the Cross),or Arkhadayakon Geevarghese died in 1640.He had surrendered and led the priests in the Synod.His protests continued afterwards and he was excommunicated by the Bishop,Francis Roz.In 1615 they reconciled.Though George was appointed Bishop of Palayur,he rejected it.His earlier position of Archdeacon was above that of a Bishop.They again fell out.He didn't jell well with the next Bishop Britto too.He is believed to be buried in the forefront of the Pakalomattam ancestral house at Kuravilangad,Kottayam.

Joseph Kathanar(Josephus Indus),who reached Europe from Crangannur in the beginning of the 16th Century had given the Europeans a brief on the Kerala Christians.From his brief,it was clear that the Christian customs were no different from that of the Hindus.With the advent of the Europeans in Kerala,this social fabric of bonhomie got shattered.The European Christians who came had both ideological and commercial scores to settle with the Muslims in Kerala.The harassment Muslims had to undergo has been described in the Tuhfat-Ul-Mujahideen of Sheikh Zainudin.The Diamper Synod virtually separated the Kerala Christians from the main stream.

Dr K N Ganesh,Historian,has opined that as far as the respective communities are concerned,the actions of the Europeans and Kunjali Marakkar are similar.Marakkar too struggled against the new forces that tried to undermine the existing strength.The last Marakkar declared freedom from the Zamorin and tried to be the King of the Muslims.

I am not sure whether we can equate Marakkar with the Europeans,like Ganesh did.For our present story the period is important.It is known that Samoothiri was Samudrathiri and was termed for the first time as Zamorin by Abdul Razzak after 15th Century.Though Vasco da Gama had arrived in 1498,the Zamorin gave permission to the Portuguese to build fort at Ponnani only in 1585.After this,Zamorin helped them to destroy several Muslim structures in Kottakkal.Zamorin allowed the Portuguese to build a factory at Calicut  in 1591,the year Menezes bacame Bishop of Goa.A Foundation for a Church was also laid in that year.It is clear that Zamorin did this because he was afraid of his former Naval Commander Kunjali Marakkar IV,or,Mohammed Marakkar.

Gama with Zamorin,steel engraving,1850s

 Kunjali was a title given by the Zamorin to the chief trader.The Kunjalis who were there in Calicut for seven decades were natives of Cochin who had escaped to Calicut after Portuguese fleets reached Cochin and threatened their commercial interests.For both Zamorin and Kunjali,the Portuguese were common enemies.It is because of this enmity,Zamorin had entered into a treaty with his arch enemy,Cochin,in 1503.But in 1598,the Portuguese were able to convince the Zamorin that Kunjali Mohammed Marakkar intended to take over his Kingdom.After he fell out with the Zamorin,Kunjali terrorized the Portuguese with his trusted lieutenant, Chinali.Chinali was a Chinese slave of the Portuguese from Malacca.The boy who was rescued by Kunjali,became a Muslim and his right hand.The forces under the Portuguese Commander,Ande Furtado de Mendoca,in 1600, attacked Kunjali and Chinali,captured them.Marakkar was executed  publicly in Goa.

Thus,in both the Diamper Synod and the execution of Kunjali Marakkar,Menezes presided over.
Aleixo de Menezes(1559-1617) was Arch Bishop of Goa,Arch Bishop of Braga in Portugal and finally,Viceroy of Portugal.He was consecrated as Bishop in Goa in 1591.He was just 35.He was leader of the Inquisition in Goa.Both the Inquisition and the Diamper Synod were condemned by Rome later.The result of the Synod was unfortunate.I quote the Catholic Encyclopedia(1913):The only case in which an ancient Eastern rite has been wilfully romanized is that of  the Malabar Christians,where it was not Roman authority but the misguided zeal of Alexius de Menezes ,Arch Bishop of Goa,and his Portuguese Advisers at the Synod of Diamper(1599),which spoilt the old Malabar rite".The Synod was invalid because it was convoked without authority,without the approval of Rome.The Saint Thomas Christians could not participate in the proceedings because the medium was not Malayalam or Syriac.The agenda was pre planned.Several decrees were incorporated after the Synod.Because of the Synod,the Church split into two.Since it was found invalid,Bishop Francis Roz ,who was appointed after the Synod,called another Synod at Angamaly in 1603.Maybe the word menace in English has its origin in Menezes.

It was this  fanatic zeal of Menezes that reigned in both Malabar and Cochin during 1591-1600.A period of upheavals.The Saint Thomas Christians had the monopoly over the spice trade and hence it was a requirement of the Portuguese to bring them under control.Zamorin was pressurized tactfully to remove Kunjali.When Zamorin finally aligned with the Portuguese,his nephew became a Christian.

Price's book

It was at the request of Governor of Madras,Lord Ampthill,in 1903,Frederick Price began writing,Ootacamund,a History.Sir John Frederick Price was Chief Secretary of Madras and Member,Madras Legislative Council,who translated the Diaries of Ananda Ranga Pillai.He researched the expeditions to Ooty and found the first was in 1602 or the early part of 1603.The details are there in The Manual of the Nilgiri District by H B Grigg.He quoted on the first expedition from JW Breeks' (First Collector of Nilgiris)work ,Thomas Whitehouse's abstract of a (Portuguese) manuscript in the British Museum.Whitehouse has used it in his book,Lingerings of Light in a Darkaland(1873),a history of the Syrian Catholic Church in Malabar.I quote it:

At the Synod of Udiamparur in the State of Cochin,held under Archbishop Menezes in 1599,information having been received that there were certain villages of Christians in a country called Todamala,who anciently belonged to the Syrian Church of Malabar ,but then had nothing of Christianity except the bare name,it was ordered that priests and preachers should be sent thither immediately to redeem them to the Catholic faith,baptise them,etc.Francisco Roy,the first Roman Catholic Bishop of the Syrian Christians(From the Synod history,the name is wrong,it should be Francis Roz),in 1602 sent a priest and Deacon of the Christians of St Thomas with a good guide to find out the place,and collect information.They reached the Todamala;but ,as the account brought back by them was not sure and complete as was desirable,Bishop Roy requested the Vice Principal of the Jesuits to depute a priest of his own order to make further inquiries.The Rev Jacome Ferreiri was selected for this mission.He started from Calicut,the place of his residence ,and was permitted to return safely,after undergoing great exposure and fatigue ,with a good deal of information about the hill tribes,their manners and customs;but with no tidings of any Christian colony,which had either become extinct or removed elsewhere,if it had ever been there at all.At Calicut,he wrote a formal report,dated April 1st,1603,from which the following particulars are gleaned-
He proceeded,via Manarecate 13 leagues inland from Tanur.A native convert,a nephew of the Samur Rajah,accompanied him and some others.....

A medal:Gama with Zamorin

I stop here;let them continue the journey.The name,Jacome Ferreiri in this description has been established wrong.Frederick Price has referred to a re translation of the document in the British Museum,which appears in Cambridge Anthroplogist Dr WHR Rivers' book,The Todas(1906)in which the priest is Fininicio.In present documents he is Jacome Fininicio,a Jesuit priest from Portugal.
What about the nephew of Zamorin ,the new Christian,who was with Fininicio?He is not mentioned again in the document.

Reference:
Ootacamund:A History/Frederick Price/Rupa,2012
Kerala Samooha Padanangal/Dr K N Ganesh/Prasakthi Book House,2002
Calicut:The City of Truth/MGS Narayanan
The History of Christianity in India/James Hough,Vol 4.
Cochi Rajya Charithram/K P Padmanabha Menon/Mathrubhumi,1989
Eastern Christians in India/Cardinal Tisserant
India and the Apostle Thomas:An Inquiry,with a Critical Analysis/A E Medlycott
The History of the Church of Malabar/Michael Geddes
Portuguese Cochin and the Maritime Trade of India/Pius Malekandathil

See my post,PRINCE RAMA VARMA BECOMES JACOB RAMA VARMA

KRISHNA MENON'S LOST LOVE

It is a story of two women, one drug and political intrigues

V K Krishna Menon had a nervous break down in 1935 and was hospitalised in London.According to the letter of 1,January 1952,sent by Under Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations,Sir Percivale Liesching to Sir Archibald Nye,British High Commissioner to India,there were two reasons for the breakdown:death of his father Advocate Komath Krishna Kurup and the collapse of a long term relationship with a woman.I had read the biographies of Sergei Eisenstein and Satyajit Ray written by Marie Seton.But I never knew then that Marie was the woman in Krishna Menon's life.

Marie,who later became a friend of Indira Gandhi and lived in India for two decades,has also written a biography of Nehru,Panditji:A Portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru.In it Marie says her first meeting with Menon was in 1932.Menon told her:"The only man to lead India into the modern world is Jawahar Lal Nehru.Gandhi can't do this.Nehru has a modern scientific mind".

Marie Seton

Based on Menon's correspondence with his sister Janaki Amma,his grand niece Janaki Ram has written a book,V K Krishna Menon,a Personal Memoir.In it Janaki Ram(Janaki Ram is related to Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer too;she is the daughter of Menon's sister Janaki's elder daughter VA Madhavi Shastri) says that Menon was a believer in Astrology and after a failed love affair he remained a bachelor.The author,however suggests that in spite of his haughty temperament,many women were attracted to him.
The failed love affair,of course was the one with Marie Seton.As Janaki said,he had flings,but the only serious affair he had was with Marie.
Britain declassified a bunch of their Security Service MI5 files in 2007,in an effort to denigrate him.While he was Secretary of the India League during 1928-1947,they intercepted his phone calls at home,office and his letters.He was under surveillance.The MI5 dossier on him is of the view that Menon was a Communist agent and hence a threat to Britain.When I tried to corroborate the information in the files with other documents,I got the feeling that Menon was a single man army fighting the British and a true revolutionary.He agitated both Britain and the US.MI5 had even suspected African leaders Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah when they were in London.Britain considered Menon a weak link in the Commonwealth security chain.

The files are silent on Marie Seton,but refers to Menon's relationship with a woman,Bridget Tunnard-about that later.
In the 1930s,a period when both Menon and Marie met,Britain was under severe domestic pressure to grant India autonomy.Intellectuals such as Bertrand Russel, Harold Laski and Labour Party politicians such as Stafford Cripps,Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot batted for India.Laski was professor of Menon in the London School of Economics.According to Paul M McGarr of the University of Nottingham,Menon,above all others "transformed the British based campaign into a cohesive and dynamic political force".The  India League under his leadership became a force to reckon with.He made an intelligent move to be associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain,CPGB.At that time the attendance for India League meetings was meagre.He met Nehru for the first time in 1935(the year of break down).He became Nehru's literary agent,acted as political chaperon to Indira Gandhi when she studied at Somerville College,Oxford.CPGB had 15000 members and had a newspaper with a circulation of 40,000.So Menon got enough people for his meetings and propaganda.Menon became friendly with Rajani Palme-Dutt,Marxist theoretician and Harry Pollitt,General Secretary of CPGB.Pollitt,years later rescued the Indian Communist Party from a split in the Madurai Party Congress.Menon co-opted leading British Communists to Executive Committee of India League.

Marie with Satyajit Ray,London

In 1934 he became Labour Councillor from the North London borough of St Pancras.And then,four more terms.Though the MI5 files say that Menon was an opportunist,facts are otherwise.He would have been an MP from the constituency of Dundee which had connections with India's jute industry.But the ticket for him in 1939 was cancelled because he refused to condemn the Soviet invasion of Finland.This shows the strength of his association with CPGB.The invasion had its repercussions in the Indian Party,especially in the Kerala unit.Democratically speaking,the invasion was immoral.Though Menon tolerated it for the sake of CPGB,his relationship with the party soured  after the Nazi invasion of USSR on 23 June 1941.The CPGB stopped attacking British colonialism because by then the Soviets had allied with the British.

Marie's book on Ray

British Viceroy Linlithgow had written to British Secretary of State for India Leo Amery in November 1942 to put Menon in jail:"...that it has been found possible to accept the suggestion which I have I think made once or twice that we should take pains to break up Menon and break up the India League with him.I am certain that so long as he is there he will be a focus of discontent and difficulty and I should myself have thought that he was really worth taking a little of chance."
This suggestion was not accepted;Britain feared the backlash.
I think this is enough to destroy the MI5 files and fix Menon's prominence before independence.Suffice to say that Menon was a man of character when he met Marie Seton.
Marie Seton(1910-1985)was an actress and an accomplished art,theatre,film critic,who remained a socialist throughout her life.She was the daughter of Captain Seton who served in India and got wounded in one of the uprisings.Mother,also a Marie,remarried Sir Charles Walpole after Seton's death.

Krishna Menon

When she was just 19,Marie Seton organised lectures for the Soviet film Director of the landmark film, Battleship Potemkin,and father of the technique,Dialectical Montage,Sergei Eisenstein when he toured Western Europe in 1929(I have seen two more films of him:Strike and Ivan the terrible).After two years,she went to Russia as an associate to Eisenstein,to study film making.After return she took keen interest in the formation of the British Film Institute.It was then,as Art Correspondent of Manchester Guardian,while moving in socialist circles,she heard about Menon and met him.She had once barged into Gandhi's room to meet him.
They fell in love.Marie described Menon thus:"He was strikingly unlike any Indian,thinner by far and extra ordinarly angular.It was hard to decide if he was a very handsome man in a hacked out sculptural manner,or if he was distinctly devilish to look at...when focused,his almond-shaped eyes resembled those of a hawk".
Menon's Social Secretary in the High Commission,Pamela Cullen remembered Marie thus:"Seton had a fascination for India and as a young woman she had been introduced to India's fight for independence by Menon,who was a struggling lawyer in London".
It is a fact that Menon was struggling and had been financed by Bob Cleminson,son of a Methodist preacher,especially during the war.

Eisenstein

Marie was busy in the Cultural circle when she was going strong with Menon.In 1935,she helped in establishing the reputation of the Jamaican sculptor,Ronald Moody.She also became part of the circle of PD Ousepensky,the Russian esotericist.After his move to Newyork,she worked for him.She slowly drifted away from the struggling Menon.The broken Menon,during the course of his rehabilitation,became dependent on Luminal,a barbiturate-based sedative,the side effects of which included confusion,loss of consciousness and paranoia.Luminal was a brand name of phenobarbital marketed by Bayer in 1912.It had sedative/hypnotic properties.It was a first-line drug for partial and general epileptic seizures;was a sedative for anxious or agitated patients.It remained a commonly prescribed sedative until the introduction of Benzodiazepines in 1960s.
Marie went on with her work.She helped her friend,CLR James,the Trinidadian writer to stage his play,Toussaint Louverture,based on Haitian revolution,which had Paul Robeson in the lead role.Her first book was the biography of Robeson.She garnered public opinion when Robeson was victimized in the US.She published five seminal essays on British Cinema in Sight and Sound during 1937-1938.She married Donald Hesson,Chicago based lawyer and writer in 1938.They got separated in 1942.

Guy Liddell

When Menon was High Commissioner,Nehru asked Menon to find an expert of British origin to evangelise on the educational quality of films.Menon in turn asked his Social Secretary,Pamela Cullen.Pamela looked for Marie.It is said that Marie was suggested by S G Tendulkar,who was studying Cinema with Eisenstein in Moscow.Marie arrived in India in 1955 to help in establishing the film society movement in India.University Film Society and Childrens'Film Society were set up.In the 1960s she was a guest of Indira in the Tin Murti Bhavan.The Federation of Film Societies came into being with Ray as its President.Indira was its Vice President and Marie,Adviser.She was awarded the Padmabhushan in 1984 and was cremated on her death according to her wish.

Now the Second phase of Menon.

He was made the High Commissioner in London in 1947.His eccentric character encouraged both Indian and UK officials to question his psychological stability.But Nehru stood behind him like the rock of Gibraltar.
MI5 continued to suspect him a person with Communist leanings and blocked all Top Secret files from going to him.In 1949, Guy Liddell,Deputy Director General of MI5,observed:"As long as Menon and his associates remained in his office,there could be no reasonable guarantee of (Commonwealth)security as far as India is concerned".In May that year reviewing the Menon dossier,he concluded that Menon's long term affair with Bridget Tunnard,an India League Secretary (she was Administrative Secretary till 1971)connected to the CPGB is of more concern to MI5.Liddell wrote,Menon's relationship with Tunnard suggested 'that anything of interest that Menon hears about will reach the Communist Party through her".
There were more threats.Menon had appointed PN Haksar ,another leftist to head External affairs(Haksar was Principal Secretary to Indira Gandhi later,1967-1973).Then came Patsy Pillai-she and her husband were members of the Communist Party of South Africa and joined the Brondsbury branch of the party on their arrival in London.Menon appointed her immediately in his private office.Sanjeevi Pillai,Director of IB was briefed by MI5 in 1948 and 1949 while he was in London.IB posted LL  Nan in India office to spy on Menon and regular reports were sent to Nehru.
Menon appeared incoherent in public in several occasions in 1951.Rumours of TB,heart disease or addiction to drugs began to spread.A second nervous breakdown was suspected.Nehru described an encounter with Menon in Paris in 1951:"He staggered into the room,obviously very far from well...his appearance and general behavior was so odd that he attracted the attention of others...Malik,our Ambassador here,asked Nan if Krishna Menon was drunk.Nan was herself alarmed and came to me to say that Krishna was very ill and something should be done about him.He had the appearance of a person on the verge of going off his head..".

NR Pillai with Ambassador Richter,1957

We do not know whether Menon began taking Luminal again.But his abuse of Luminal was well known to the British(see,Gordon Walker,Political Diaries,page 241).
Nehru dispatched his Secretary M O Mathai to London in September 1951 to inquire about Menon.Mathai's report mentions Menon's special bonding with Bob Cleminson.He saw Menon at least once daily.Menon took his girl friend from the High Commission to Cleminson's London apartment."On one occasion,she danced naked",Mathai informed Nehru.Foreign Secretary,N R Pillai informed Nehru on Menon's special interest in SCK Agencies,involved in defence deals.India ,it was reported then had overpaid them 1,40,000 pounds for ammunition contracts.Its Chief Associate was the murky Bob Cleminson.The money was going to India League and Menon's publishing venture,Meridian Books,which published Nehru's Discovery of India in 1951(The famous Penguin books was founded by Menon with Sir Allen Lane).
It has to be assumed that Mathai was sent after a private letter Nehru got from Mountbatten in September,1951 requesting him to remove Menon.Mountbatten cited only the ill health of Menon.Head of MI5,Sir Percy Sillitoe briefed the Prime Minister Clement Attlee.Later that year,Attlee told Rajkumari Amrith Kaur that "Menon too ill and incoherent to meet or talk with".
Menon had been pushed to the wall.He was offered a Cabinet Minister post or the post of Ambassador in Moscow or the Vice Chancellorship of the Delhi University by Nehru.Menon had sent Nehru medical certificates to prove that he was sober and normal and threatened to commit suicide if removed from London.Finally Menon was cajoled to be in the UN delegation.
Thus,in the downfall of Menon,a woman character,Bridget Tunnard played a part.His infatuation for her was not fiction-I have read in the reminiscences of Winnie Dadoo,wife of the South African Communist leader Dr Yusuf Dadoo (he had studied in Aligarh Muslim University,before doing Medicine in London)that when they met Menon in 1949,Ms Tunnard was with him.Inder Malhotra,well known journalist has written that the Menon-Tunnard relationship was known to everyone connected with India League office.
None except Menon could have survived such an international onslaught;Nehru would not have protected anyone else in a vulnerable position.Hence people said,Menon was the alter ego to Nehru,like Ezra Pound was to T S Elliot.
Reference:
1.'A Serious Menace to Society':British Intelligence,VK Krishna Menon and the Indian High Commission in London,1947-52/Paul M McGarr/The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History,August,2010
2.Portrait of a Director/Marie Seton
3.For,Menon's nervous breakdown/British Archives file KV/2/2513-10
4.For,Menon's suicide threat/Note by Spooner,24 January 1951,British Archives file KV/2/2512-16,Brown,Nehru248
5.Panditji:A Portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru/Marie Seton
6.V K Krishna Menon,A Personal Memoir/Janaki Ram
7.Nehru:A Political Life/Judith M Brown 
8.Left out in history/Inder Malhotra/Indian Express,March6,2007

See my post,KRISHNA MENON AS A HEADLOAD WORKER







 
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NAMBIAR,NEHRU AND INDIRA GANDHI

Split in party;split in life,life in Europe

Two people whom Jawahar Lal Nehru loved apart from his father Motilal and Gandhi were Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and ACN Nambiar.I do not know whether we can say Nehru and Nambiar were relatives;they were related to the same family at least-Nambiar had married Suhasini,the sister of Sarojini Naidu.Nehru was in love with Padmaja Naidu,daughter of Sarojini Naidu.Nehru made Padmaja the Governor of West Bengal(1956-1967; Mother was Governor of UP,1947-1949).Nehru used to keep a portrait of Padmaja in his bedroom,which Indira would often remove.Suhasini was the first woman member of the Communist Party of India.She was instrumental in making Captain Lakshmi a politician.

Commander Bertling with Nambiar(second from right) and Krappe,Berlin,1944

Arathil Candeth(Kandoth) Narayanan Nambiar(1896-1986) was born in Tellicherry to Kesari Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar,who wrote Vasanavikrithi,the first short story in Malayalam.Vengayil family had 200,000 acres of land while Chirakkal Raja had only 30,000.Major General K P Candeth,who led the liberation of Goa,was Nayanar's grand son.Sir C Sankaran Nair,former Congress President was the maternal grandfather of Candeth.Nambiar had gone to London to pursue studies.He became influenced by the famous revolutionary Chatto or Virendranath Chatopadhyay, brother of Sarojini Naidu.Afterwards Nambiar became a reluctant recruit of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose,to be on the side of the Nazis.
Somerset Maugham wrote the story,Giulia Lazzari,based on the British attempt to murder Chatto in 1915,on the Swiss border with France or Italy.Maugham was in British secret service then.The main character in the story,John Ashendon was based on Maugham himself and Chandra Lal  on Chatto.It is said that Maugham wrote 21 stories on his secret service experience.Only seven saw light of the day.Winston Churchill asked him to burn the other 14.

Chatto

Chatto was born in Hyderabad in 1880 and at Twenty Two, he sailed to London for studies.He came under the influence of Bipin Chandra Pal and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.Bose asked him to move to Berlin.It is there the British secret service agent Donald Gullick tried to lure him to the Swiss border.He was arrested by the Swiss police in Zurich.He felt both Nehru and Bose let him down and he escaped to Moscow.He wished to be part of the Comintern,but his rival,M N Roy made it there.He changed his name to Virendranat Agornatovich Chatopadhyay to escape from enemies.His father was the first Indian to get a Dsc, Aghoranath Chatopadhyay,Physicist from Edinburgh University and the first Principal of Nizam's College,Hyderabad.In Moscow,Chatto was very close to M N Kirov,Stalin's no.2.Kirov fell out with Stalin during the Great Purge and Chatto was executed by Stalin in 1937.The romantic Chatto had at least lived with three women;he lived with the American journalist Agnes Smedley for seven years(1921-1928) which was ruinous for both.She moved to Shanghai,where she was lover of Soviet super spy,Richard Sorge.She is well known for her novel,Daughter of Earth.

Agnes

Chatto and Nambiar had shared their love for the Ghadar Party,the revolutionary party formed by Punjabi Indians in the US and Canada.Nambiar as a roving journalist had written an article,The Elephant and the Porcelaine Shop in the June 1927 issue of The United States of India published by the party.The same issue contains an article,China,India and English Imperialism by Rabindra Nath Tagore!The party which was formed in 1913 got split into Communist anti Communist factions after the first World War.
Nambiar was introduced to Suhasini in Chennai,by his brother,Madhavan,who was in the Indian Education Service.He had known Nehru while at Cambridge.Madhavan had befriended Suhasini's sister Mrinalini,while studying in London.Mrinalin had her home in Chennai .Nambiar's relationship with Suhasini was detested by Madhavan and Nambiar had to leave the home.An Industrialist by the name, Sankara Iyer helped him to pursue studies in London.Suhasini had gone to London early,to join Oxford.Together they shifted  in 1922 to Berlin,at the invitation of Jayasurya Naidu,Sarojini's son.. Nambiar set up the first Information Bureau of the Indian National Congress in Berlin in October,1922,at the request of Jawahar Lal Nehru,whom he had met at Brussels..It was called The Indian News Service and Information Bureau.Suhasini joined the Communists and left for Moscow,to study in the Eastern Universitry,and Nambiar made his Secretary at the Bureau,Eva Geissler,his mistress.Eva's sister Louise became M N Roy's mistress.Suhasini returned to India with Lester Hutchinson,who guided the Communist Party of India,and got accused in the Meerut conspiracy case.Suhasini's letters to Nambiar found no solace and they got separated ;Sarojini Naidu stood by Nambiar when it happened. Nambiar had fallen out with Chatto too .There is reason:Sarojini Naidu,at the instance of Gandhi,published a statement condemning Chatto's activities as 'terrorism'.After this,her father refused to see her and didn't allow her to see even in his last days.All the available evidence shows Ms Naidu was not on speaking terms with her family members.

Sarojini Naidu with Padmaja

Motilal and Nehru visited Berlin in November,1927 at Chatto's invitation;before that Chatto and Nambiar had met Nehru at the Anti Colonial Congress in Brussels,in February.Nambiar  worked as a left wing journalist when the Second World War broke out.It was in Germany Bose met Nambiar.When finally Bose got the interview with Hitler,he took Nambiar as interpreter.Hitler didn't support the ideas of Bose and he sent Bose in a submarine to Japan.When Bose left Germany,the reluctant Nambiar was given the charge of Free India Centre.Germany gave the Berlin Centre the status of a Mission.He also became Chief of the Radio station,Radio Free India and Indian Legion,the 3000 strong army of former Indian prisoners of war which was formed by Bose to fight the British in India.Commander of the Legion was first Lt Col Kurt Krappe and then Heinz Bertling.Against the wishes of the members,they were sent to defend the French coast.In April 1943,there was mutiny in the Legion itself.They refused to move to Holland.9th Company of the Legion was sent to Italy on a failed mission.In the August Allied bombing,Nambiar's own house was  destroyed.Nambiar was a Minister of State in the Provincial Government formed by Bose in March,1944.Eventually Nambiar was beaten up by Nazi Storm Troopers,imprisoned and deported to Prague and then to Paris.Nehru's interim government gave him an Indian passport,against the wishes of Britain.By then the entire Nehru family had become his second family.In several articles and books,it is mentioned he was the first Indian Ambassador to (West)Germany in 1947.It is not so.First Ambassador was Subimal Dutt(1952-1954).Nambiar was appointed Ambassador to Sweden in 1953 December(See picture of him after presenting credentials to the King)and to (West)Germany or FDR in 1955.He served for three years1955-1958.

ACN Nambiar

For the love life of Bose,his great grand nephew(Netaji's elder brother Saratchandra's grandson)and Harvard History professor,Sugata Roy in his book,His Majesty's Opponent,quotes Nambiar.Nambiar remembers Bose's love affair with the Australian,Emilie Schenkl:"He was deeply in love with her.In fact,it was an enormous intense one.The love blossomed during 1935 in Vienna and in the mountain retreats of Austria and Czechoslovakia.The hills and valleys of Kurlsbad,Hofgastein and Badgastein were the only witnesses to this romantic side of Subhas's life-a side that remained hidden from public view".
In December 1935,Nambiar was with Nehru,Kamala and Indira in Vienna and the Badenweiler health resort in Germany.Her death was just two months away.Kamala was worried about the future of Indira.Kamala shared her anxiety with Nehru in the presence of Nambiar.She expressed her disapproval of Indira marrying Feroze.He was a Parsi,the son of Jehangir Faredoon,a Marine Engineer.After his father's death,he and mother Rattimmai arrived in Allahabad to live with aunt,Dr Shirin Commisariat of Lady Dufferin Hospital.He didn't complete degree in Ewing Christian College.He had attached himself as a Congress volunteer and helper to Kamala.He was with her in the Bhawali TB Sanatorium in 1934.Feroze is not stable,not qualified,Kamala said.She spoke with emotion and became tired."You leave the matter to me",Nehru said and went out.The Nehru family used to call Nambiar,Nanu.Kamala turned to Nambiar and said:"You know what he said.Indu will listen to none except me.I could have guided Indu gently away from Feroze.But my end is near.Jawahar will give no guidance to Indu.She will be ultimately allowed to count the mistake of her life".

Hutchinson,Suhasini(middle)Mrinalini

Kamala died on 28 February 1936,at Lausanne,Switzerland.Afterwards Feroze fell in love with the daughter of Vijayalakshmi Pandit,who was an editorial trainee at National Herald,of which Feroze was MD.Pandit airdashed from Moscow and rescued her.He then began a relationship with the daughter of a Muslim Minister in UP who was in the AIR.Several others-Tarakeswari Sinha admitted she was in the list.
After a visit to Spain with V K Krishna Menon in 1938,Nambiar met Nehru in Europe.Nambiar asked Nehru what would be the outcome of the civil war in Spain.Nehru replied Republicans would win.He wanted Nambiar's comments.Nambiar was blunt:"Like all the Liberals in England,Europe,US and Krishna Menon,you are indulging in wishful thinking.My assessment is that much to my dislike,the Republicans have not got the ghost of chance.More blood will flow and Franco will emerge as the ruler of Spain".Nehru was angry.

Nambiar's article,1927

During  Nehru's first visit to Germany as PM in July,1956,he had to give a return banquet to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer(1949-1963) and his colleagues.Ambassador Nambiar wanted to serve drinks.He spoke to Foreign Secretary N R Pillai and Pillai to M O Mathai,Nehru's Secretary.Nehru said:"Tell Nanu he can serve Sherry to begin with and Moselle wine(white)and Rhine wine(red)and nothing else.He and Pillai should not drink".
When Maulana Abul Kalam Azad visited Germany as Congress President,he stayed at the Embassy in Cologne with Nambiar.Nambiar was a meticulous host,who knew the habits and tastes of his guests.He set up a small bar in Maulana's room with plenty of whisky,brandy,white and red wines and French Champagne.Maulana liked Champagne.Nambiar discovered that Maulana was happy to be left alone.Nambiar had invited German guests for a dinner in honor of Maulana.Maulana sneaked out immediately after the dinner was over and remained in his room alone,sipping Champagne.On return to Delhi he praised Nambiar as the best Indian Ambassador.

Nambiar in Sweden,outside palace1954

It was M N Roy who got Suhasin admitted to the University in Moscow,at the instance of Chatto..Once Sarojini Naidu  introduced Suhasini to Edgar Snow ,who wrote Red Star over China,in Mumbai.He thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met.T T Krishnamachari who was Finance Minister saw Nambiar was alone in Germany.On return,he said he will sanction a social secretary to Nanu if Ministry of External Affairs demanded it.It was done.
Suhasini  in the late 1920s joined the under ground Communist Party.She with brother and writer Harindranath Chatopadhyay went to Lahore from time to time,where their sister Mrinalini was Principal of Gangaram School.It was in Lahore Suhasini found a good cadre in Vimla Bakaya. Suhasini married  RM Jambhekar,who joined the party in 1929 along with cousin,S G Sardesai.He was an artist and singer as well and belonged to the industrial family of Jambhekars and Kirloskars.The Communist Manifesto was translated into Marathi by Gangadhar Moreshwar Adhikari when he was in Meerut jail(1930-1931).It was edited by Jagannath Adhikari and Jambhekar.Jambhekar was arrested following the Girni Kamgar Union strike of March,1940.He was elected Generel Secretary of All India Friends of Soviet Union(AIFSU) in its first Congress on June3-4,1944.Sarojini Naidu was President.Famous poet of Kerala,Vallathol was Vice President.The Congress was dominated by B T Ranadive,Hiren Mukerjee and Jambhekar.There is a sad story on Suhasini and Jambhekar in A Traveller and the Road by Mohit Sen.In June 1950,Mohit Sen and wife Vanaja Iyengar traveled to Prague to attend the world Congress of the International Union of students.It was the period of Calcutta Thesis propounded by B T Ranadive.Suhasini,Jambhekar and Vimla Bakaya(who later married Satyapal Dang)had been aggressive exponents of the thesis,which advocated armed killings.They had used their position to damage those who
disagreed.

Vimla Bakaya

 Masood Khan from Bhopal dropped a bombshell in the conference.Khan had married Katya,daughter of Russian intellectuals who had run away to Czechoslovakia after the 1917 revolution.Masood in his speech said the Jambhekars and Vimla  had reported on the so called revisionist views of Masood and Pradyot Mukerjee(historian who died young in Mexico) to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.Hence Masood was jailed for some time,Katya was under house arrest and Pradyot was expelled from the country.He hit out at Suhasini,Jambhekar and Vimla.It stunned everyone.Vimla wept.Suhasini and Jambhekar were suspended from the Party;Vimla was recalled to India.
Captain Lakshmi remembers Suhasini had stayed at her home in Gilchrist Gardens,Madras as a political fugitive at the time of the Meerut conspiracy case of 1929-1933.She used to sing excellently.She taught Lakshmi the Communist Internationale.Suhasini knew Madras well;she had studied in Queen Mary's College where Kamaladevi Chatopadhyay,Harindranath's future wife,was her friend.Suhasini died in 1973 and Jhambekar in 2003.It is said Suhasini first met him at the Moscow University.

Journal of 1927

When Indira's marriage with Feroze was in doldrums,she wrote to Nanu uncle,seeking his views.Nambiar replied that under certain circumstances,it was preferable to have a clear break to living in make-believe.
Nambiar used to go to BITS,Pilani to see his niece who was Dean of Humanities there,whenever he was in India.He stayed with Nehru while in India.Nehru always fought with him on political matters.In early 1964 Nambiar saw an exhausted Nehru at the break fast table.Nambiar told him:"I feel sad about one thing-you have not got angry with with me this time."Nehru tried to smile.Nambiar got the feeling that Nehru will not live long and he will not see him again.He wept.
Indira Gandhi before her death in October 1984,brought Nanu Uncle from Germany. He stayed at Uday Park,South Extention II,Newdelhi till his death two years later.He died unsung.His relatives didn't care for him.

Reference:
1.Edgar Snow:A Biography/John Maxwell/Hamilton
2.Chatto:The Life and Times of an Indian Anti Imperialist in Europe/Nirode Barooah/Oxford
3.Reminiscences of Nehru Age/M O Mathai
4.Two Alone Together/Sonia Gandhi/Penguin,2004
5.His Majesty's Opponent/Sugata Roy,Cambridge,2011
6.Bose in Nazi Germany/Romain Hayel/Random House
7.Transcultural Encounters between Germany and India/Routledge,2013
8.A Traveller and the Road/Mohit Sen/Rupa,2003
Please read, Nambiar,Bose and Germany in blog,Maddy's Ramblings.
See my posts,KRISHNA MENON AS HEAD LOAD WORKER,THREE ENGLISH MADMEN

THE TIGER THAT ROARED LIKE A LION

He was drinking toddy and singing Thodi

For Tiger Varadachari,the music maestro, it was a journey from one Kutcheri to another Kutcheri.He was,at 23, a clerk in the survey department at Calicut Mananchira Huzur Kutcheri.
Tiger had come from Madras to Calicut because of financial constraints and worked in the office at a salary of Rs 12/- a month.Out of office,he began to sing in marriage and other ceremonies.His name spread and an invitation came from Mysore Palace to sing in Dussehra celebrations.Maybe,Mysore Varadachar,his close friend interfered on his behalf.It changed his life.He became Tiger there.

Tiger Varadachari

Tiger Varadachari(1876-1950) was born in Kolathur, Chengalpet.He was the son of Tamil,Telugu and Sanskrit scholar Sriman Kandadai Ramanujachari.He had two younger brothers.Veena Krishnamachari and Musicologist K V Srinivasa Iyengar.But Tiger has said he learnt much from his sister.All the three who were musically mad were disciples of Patnam Subramanya Iyer(1845-1902).Iyer was resident of Tiruvaiyar when they began studies and moved with him to Madras.Tiger was with Iyer for three years from age 14.They learnt from Thatchur Singaracharya Brothers too.In Madras they stayed in Kaladipet and were called Three Musketeers of Kaladipet.Tiger drew inspiration from street dramas,bhajans and stray contacts like Fiddle Ramachandrayyar.Photo Masilamani and Pedda Singaracharyalu encouraged Tiger in musical pursuits.Krishnamachari was taught veena by Kalahasthayya.
At Patnam Subramanya Iyer's house,Mysore Vasudevachar was also a disciple.When the invitation came from Mysore King Krishna Raja Wodeyar to sing on Mahanavami day,Tiger took leave from the Calicut office for the whole week,reached a day early and stayed with Vasudevachar.He composed an intricate pallavi in praise of the King in Raga Poornachandrika.On the morning,he found his throat  filled with phlegm and drank boiled water.His voice became trim and he sang the pallavi for four hours,was conferred the title,Tiger.He was invited to the Court of Mysore; he resigned his job in Calicut.
He had gone a day early to Mysore to know what to wear at the durbar. He was seen always wearing a monkey cap after that.He used to admire himself wearing it,in front of the mirror,greeting himself,Anjaneya Namaha.His obsession with the cap made him a laughing stock and his friends requested Vasudevachar to interfere.One day when he went to Vasudevachar's house,he was singing Kamboji.He suddenly paused but resumed at Tiger's request.After two hours of singing,Tiger offered whatever he has.Vasudevachar asked for the monkey cap!

Tiger playing Kabaddi

Not the cap alone;Tiger was seen with the caste mark on forehead,a coat and upper cloth,an umbrella in hand and betel case made of coconut leaves.Vasudevachar in his memoirs,Na kanda Kalavidharu has called Tiger an unparallelled genius.Tiger left for Madras after a decade.There he became Principal of the Teachers College of Music started by the Madras Music Academy.After five years,he became Head,Department of Music,Madras University;Principal,Music College,Annamalai University and finally Principal,Music section,Kalakshetra.It was there MDR became his disciple.Tiger used to drink-MDR once commented it was not liquor,it was his Raga,Toddy!

Tiger

Of course,he was fond of Raga,Todi.Endless talks had bored people in Ranade Hall in Mylapore during Shyama Sastri's anniversary conducted by Music Academy.Tiger,when his turn came contemplated a moment on whether to talk.Then he began singing:kannatalli gada biddayani kanikaramintaina Ieada,Amba?".Anupallavi of Keerthanam in Todi,Ninne Namminanu...
Tiger was in Mylapore during his teaching days.It was a practice to have concerts on friday evenings at Tiger's place or Veena Dhanammal's place.On a Friday at 7PM,Flutist Virinjamuri Sreenivasachari went to Tiger's house and Tiger sent him back saying he is not in a mood.Virinjamuri went back to his sister's home which was close by.He began sleeping in the yard in front of the house since it was a summer night.At around 10 PM,Tiger came,woke him up and asked whether he was ready to listen to him.At his home,he sang one keerthanam for eight hours,till 6.30 AM,when his wife came around with coffee and asked him to stop.
His voice was gruff.If he had trouble with his voice,he used to become more animated with exaggerated actions and gestures.
And he used to snore.Raga Begada was his forte. He sang Begada in Tiruvaiyar Thyagaraja festival in 1940 when he was in Chidambaram,Annamalai University.He stayed in Kalyana Mahal.There was no electric power.So he slept at night on the pathway between two rooms.Restless by Tiger's loud snoring,a Parsi engineer asked:"Is this fellow a tiger?he is making all sorts of funny noises!".
"Yes,yes",Tiger replied,"this fellow is Tiger,he is set to make  wider varieties of sounds shortly".It was the first time the engineer was encountering a bhagavatar speaking in English.Tiger sat up and began to sang Begada once again.

Tiger with class of 1935;Parur Sundaram Iyer,left

He had sung Begada at a concert in 1937 during a marriage ceremony in Veena Dhanammal's house.She was a harsh critic known for her knowledge and intolerance of mediocrity.Though he had to catch up a train to reach Chidambaram,he went on at the encouragement of Dhanammal who was in the audience.Not only that,a solid foundation for ragaprasthara had been laid after ragam,thanam and niraval.After the kutcheri he told Dhanammal:"Dhanamma! I have been singing myself hoarse.Did you really have to ask me to sing before you?".Dhanammal presented him a silver trophy filled with sugar candy.
Tiger knew his sore points.He had replaced another vocalist who could not make it on time for a radio programme.Accompanists were Chowdiah and Palakkad Mani Iyer.The Tambura player asked Tiger for Shruthi."My Shruthi"?,Tiger told him,"it is low,very low,reaching almost the bottom of the well".
Like his voice,he had a rough exterior.He was benign inside.

MDR by R K Laxman

According to S Y Krishna Swamy,Tiger felt it is "pure music which is important  in a Pallavi,it depended very little on words".T K Sethuraman remembers a Kamboji in the village of Seerkazhi.After a concert in which he elaborated a Pallavi in Kamboji,Tiger returned to his resting place with Sabesayyar, Inchimudi Varadaraja Iyengar,Mysore Varadacharar and MDR.A challenge was put before Tiger to recite a Pallavi not heard sofar.Suddenly a street vegetable vendor,a woman, shouted:kathirikkai,kathirikkai(Brinjal for sale).Tiger began the Pallavi:Kathirikka Vangavayendi,adi Thozhi(come with me to buy brinjal,lass!).Another Pallavi of him was:Uppuma Kindadi Penne,nanna(Hey lass,stir the uppuma well).He composed the keerthanam,Eediname Sudinamu when Sir C Rajagoplachari as Governor General visited Kalakshetra.
Tiger is responsible for the position Raga Kharaharapriya adorns in concerts today.Before him,it was treated only a minor Raga.The devadasi nautch was renamed Bharatanatyam after he presented a resolution in 1935,in the midst of a clamour to ban it.
Once Tiger sang in a Music Academy festival in a ground close to the Madras Zoo.Veena Seshanna said the Tiger became a lion!

Patnam

MDR,in honor of his guru,adopted Varadadasa as signature in his compositions.They were very close.Once when Tiger shook his left hand several times and showed unfamiliar gestures with it to exhibit his new wrist watch, MDR publicly told him in the class:"you are not only a guru,a watchman too!".
MDR was by Tiger's side when he breathed his last;MDR was asked to sing,Entharane of Tyagaraja during those last moments.He did it with tears in his eyes,in a choked voice. 
You may have heard MDR singing Entharo Mahanubhavulu.He repeats mahanubhavulu several times before he enters the Pallavi.It is MDR's pranams to his guru.Hence rasikas said,Tiger was a Janaka Raga;MDR was its Janya Raga.
Reference:
1.Isai Maethigal/T Sankaran/VOC Noolagam,2004
2.Kedaram/Krishna Murthy/Current Books,2006
See my posts,VIOLIN COMES TO CHENNAI,A SPRING IN MEMORY

THE LADY BEHIND THE COCHIN PORT

A FREEMAN WHO WAS A SLAVE

When Robert Bristow,the harbour engineer, met Marie Adelaide Brassey in Madras in 1920,he found a mysterious glow in her eyes.Her eyes 'massaged' him from top to bottom.The special bonding that began from the very first sight resulted in making Cochin a big port.She supported him in every crisis.She was Lady Willingdon,wife of Governor Thomas Freeman Willingdon. Bristow,the architect and builder of the port has recorded this much;it is not known whether it developed into a full blown relationship.It is known that the 'pushy' Lady Willingdon dominated the Governor.

Lady Willingdon

She was the daughter of Willingdon's one time boss,Lord Brassey who was Governor of Victoria,Australia.
Marie(1875-1960)was the youngest daughter of him by his first marriage.Much popular as a political hostess, at 15,she began helping her father to receive guests in Park Lane,before the arrival of her stepmother.She married Thomas Freeman,who was aide-De-camp to her father on July 20,1892.She was 17.

Lord and Lady Willingdon

Major Thomas Freeman,later Lord Willingdon(1866-1941)was the son of Frederick Freeman Thomas by Mabel Brand,daughter of the First Viscount of Hampden.He had his education in Eton and Cambridge.He was in Sussex Artillery for 15 years,after which he became aide-De- camp to Lord Thomas Brassey,First Earl of Brassey in 1895.He accompanied Lord Brassey to Australia.In 1900 he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party candidate.
He was raised to peerage.He became Baron Willingdon of Ratton,thereafter Viscount,Earl and finally the first Marquess of Willingdon.Marie became Marchioness.He was Junior Lord of Treasury during 1905-1912.He began as Lord-in waiting to King GeorgeV,in 1913.From then on he was in
the Raj service for 23 years.He became Governor of Bombay,Madras,Governor General of Canada and finally Viceroy of India.It was a rise unequaled.He would have remained a parliamentary backbencher,had it not been for two things: tennis partner to the King and his wife,Marie.
The Willingdons' tenure in Bombay was marred by Marie's tiff with Muhammad Ali Jinnah.At 41,Jinnah had married the 18 year old Parsi girl,Ruttie,daughter of textile magnet,Sir Dinshaw Manockjee Petit Bart,against the wishes of her parents.Jinnah had accompanied Dinshaw who was his close friend and his family in the summer of 1916 to Darjeeling on a two month holiday.Jinnah was smitten by the vivacious Ruttie who was 16 then. When Jinnah made the proposal,Dinshaw was furious.Ruttie left her home and married Jinnah on April 19,1918.It was his second marriage.

Ruttie Jinnah

Both Jinnah and Ruttie were invited by Lord Willingdon for supper.Ruttie wore a low-cut evening gown for the occasion.Seeing it,Marie asked an ADC to bring Ruttie a wrap.The angry Jinnah retorted that if Ruttie needed a wrap,she would ask for it;he instantly walked out of the Government House with Ruttie.Later when Marie was accorded a civic farewell to Madras,Jinnah agitated against it;the happy citizens built the Jinnah Memorial Hall in the Congress compound in honor of him.
The Willingdons arrived in Madras in 1918.Marie befriended the influential people and two among them,Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer and Raja Annamalai Chettiar became her favorites.Bristow came in 1920 at the orders of her husband to Madras service and was sent to build the Cochin port.
Willingdon is known in Kerala for the deft handling of the situation after the Moplah rebellion of 1921 and the Wagon Tragedy of 19,November 1921.About a hundred Moplahs convicted for rebellion were put in a goods train from Tirur to Coimbatore.46 died of asphyxiation when the train reached Podannur;Six died when they were taken out and two died in hospital.The incident sent a shudder of horror.Willingdon formed a committee and it submitted the enquiry report on 30 August,1922.Based on it he took stern action.He  became popular in England for getting Gandhi for the Second Round Table conference.He became unpopular in Cochin after he tried to remove the King Rama Varma(1914-1932)saying he was mentally unstable.
Marie presided over the opening of the Catherine Booth Hospital for Women in Vadassery in Nagercoil in October,1921. She helped the Ladies Recreation Club in Chennai to acquire 150 grounds in Egmore;it was named Willingdon Estate.She supported Sister Subbulakshmi's efforts to rehabilitate widows; Lady Willingdon School and Lady Willingdon Institute of Advanced Study in Education came up.Marie formed the South Indian Nursing Association in 1920;it merged with the Lady Ampthill Nursing Service to become Lady Willingdon Nursing Home.Started in Mount Road, it shifted in 1951 to Pyncrofts Garden Road which Sankara Netralaya bought in 1998 and demolished.When they returned to London,they left behind other memorials too:Lady Willingdon Higher Secondary School,Triplicane,Lady Willingdon College,Chennai,Lady Willingdon Hospitals in Manali and Lahore,Willingdon Island in Cochin,Willingdon Club and Lady Willingdon Hostel,YWCA,Mumbai,Lady Willingdon Hall in Ludhiana,Willingdon Crescent ,Willingdon Airfield,Lady Wllingdon Park in Delhi,They renamed Lodhi Gardens in Delhi, Willingdon Gardens and Bristow was asked even to name the newly built dredger,Willingdon!

Marie had an obsession for mauve color.From her husband's Coaches to toilet papers,everything was mauve.The Khaki cows she maintained in her farm and the Khaki dogs she bred in England were of a sombre brown hue.
She harassed her aide-De-camps;we don't know whether it was because she met her husband as one!When an aide-De -camp complained,Lord Willingdon pacified him saying he suffered her all these years,why can't the aid for at least 5 years!

Lady Willingdon:Early years

Marie used to ask for any object she desired as gift-the Baroda royal family buried state jewels at the time of her visit.Her aids used to carry a bag with a wide mouth wherever she went.The bag used to be filled with pearl necklaces.She asked for even Mahogany toilet seats.An incident comes to memory:Saraswathi Giri,wife of former President V V Giri had this habit;she asked the employees of the Ernakulam Guest House once to pack the carpet she saw on the floor!The Willingdons had furnished Rideau Hall,official residence in Canada with rare carpets,screens and objects of art they had collected from India and China.
Willingdon,though Viceroy was denied entry to the Royal Bombay Yacht Club since he was accompanied by Indian friends.So he formed the Willingdon Sports Club.I had recounted a story of the formation of the Lotus Club of Cochin by Gertrude Bristow when she was denied entry to the elite Cochin Club,in my post,Three English Madmen.

Willingdons with staff,employees and contractors

The Willingdons had two sons:Lieutenant Gerard Frederick Freeman Thomas(1893-1914)died in First World War.Inigo Thomas(1899-1979) suceeded Lord Willingdon as Marquess.The Willingdons left India in 1936.They had a delightful Bungalow of Elizabethan period at Ratton,Willingdon,Sussex.Marie was a wonderful gardener there.He suffered her till 1941,when he died.Like all hen pecked husbands he used say:"my wife had been a constant inspiration and encouragement".She died only in 1960.
Reference:
1.Ruttie Jinnah:The Story Told and Untold/Khwaja Razi Haidar/Oxford,2010
2.Advanced Study in the History of Modern India 1920-1947,Vol 3,G S Chhabra/Lotus Press,1971

See my Post,THREE ENGLISH MADMEN