A Cricketing History

Cricket in the 19^th century – Malabar

Kerala finally got into the Ranji trophy finals and played two-time winner Vidharba. Sadly, they conceded a first-innings lead and in the resulting draw and loss of the title, were outclassed by another Malayali player Karun Nair, playing for Vidharba, who scored close to 200 runs across his two innings. But well, I will call it a Malayali triumph nevertheless and proved that Kerala who were always a subject of ridicule when it came to top-class cricket, are inching their way up.

What is remarkable, is that it took over 150 years from the time it originated, for a team from Kerala to find itself in the Ranji final. Even more interesting is the fact that it took them 68 years after they first started playing in the Ranji fixtures, to get to the finals. I am sure experts will provide umpteen reasons, but this article is not about the present match at all and is about the beginnings of the game in Malabar.

My initiation to cricket was by my father, who in his college days played for Presidency College Madras. He introduced to us the rudiments of holding the bat and bowling with a straight arm, on a makeshift pitch in front of our rented home in Koduvayur, Palghat. The portly Rama Mannadiar, our landlord must have, sitting amid oil, spices, and rice in his ‘palacharakku’ shop nearby, wondered what this family was up to, for cricket was an alien game to those small towners.

But naturally, the origins are connected to the British in Malabar, and specifically Tellicherry, the land of cricket, circus, and cakes. That was where the British factory (as it was termed in the 18^th century – a locale where spices and other materials were collected and readied for export) was located. It was also where they, facing turmoil and attacks from the French, the Portuguese, the Dutch, local rajas, Mysore chieftains, and so on, built a fort in 1708, as well and increased in ranks and size, over the years leading up to the last decade of the18^th century, by which time, they had attained total control of the region. It was in 1663 that the Chirakkal Raja granted the site to the British East India Company, to start the factory and later build the fort (post 1857, the EIC gave way to the British crown).

Tellicherry is located in North Malabar, about 15 miles south of Cannanore. As a home to the British gentry, it hosted luminaries like Arthur Wellesley who was later titled the Duke of Wellington and   Napolean’s nemesis, TH Baber, Overbury, Brennen, Gundert, William Logan, etc. While it is reasonable to assume that many of the ICS officers and career soldiers, educated in British schools had played cricket before sailing to distant Malabar, and considered it a sport dear to them, it is not well documented. Nevertheless, we will travel back in time and revisit some of the tales, legends, lore, and a few scattered facts, after we have had a look at the earliest mention of cricket being played on the Indian shores.

Clement Downing published his work - A compendious history of the Indian Wars; with an account of the rise, progress, strength, and forces of Angria the Pyrate, in London in 1737. In it, he talks about the battles with Angria pirates and of a period where they relax near Cambay. He states - We lay here near a Fortnight before they returned, and all the while kept a good Look-out; and tho' all the Country around was inhabited by the Culeys (Kolis, the hill tribe of Gujarat), we every day diverted ourselves with playing at Cricket, and other Exercises, which they would come and be Spectators of. But we never ventured to recreate ourselves in this Method, without having Arms for ourselves, and guarded by some of our Soldiers, lest the Country should come down upon us. Several times, four or five of the Heads of the Town came down on Horseback, with great Attendance. They had two Men generally running at their Horse’s Heads, with bamboo Lances of a great length; and one or two a little before them, with their Swords and Targets.

This stray mention is the only documentary evidence of the game being played in India for the first time. The Calcutta cricket club was established in 1792 (6 years after MCC at Lords) and in 1871, Narendranath Ganguly wrote about the 1721 game, while talking about the CCC. If there were others, we do not know of them yet. The Madras Cricket Club was founded in 1846. The Oriental Cricket Club was founded in 1848 by the Parsis of Bombay, and the Bombay Gymkhana was established in 1875. The first recorded cricket match in India was played in 1751 between British settlers and the British army.

That said, let us go down south. Between 1792 and the period when the Tellicherry Cricket Club was opened in 1860, the only mentions are related to Wellesley and not substantiated.  Arthur Wellesley had come down with his troops to capture the Pazhassi raja, a period when TH Baber was the district Judge at Tellicherry. Towards late March 1800, Wellesley had travelled down from Seringapatam through Coorg and down the pass, to Cannanore. He reached Cannanore on the 3rd of April 1800 and was busy trying to subdue the Pazhassi Raja for another 4 years, based at Cannanore and Tellicherry. After settling down, did he try to play any cricket in one of the parade grounds? We find no documentary evidence but there is a lot of lore around it.

Considering that he did play earlier in Seringapatam and had been playing cricket while schooling at Eaton, most people conclude, that he played the game regularly, ever since. His biographer Elizabeth Longford, however, clarifies that while at Eaton, even the most casual cricket or boating did not attract Arthur, even when he spotted a cricket match underway. But play he did – for we can see that in August 1792 during the Garrison and All-Ireland game, the defeated military team had a player named Arthur Wesley (Hon. A. Wesby on the score sheet).  Captain George Elers - 12th Regiment of Foot, mentions in his memoirs of playing cricket with his regiment buddies, circa 1804, as well also other games such as quoits, and long bullets. So, by conjecture, Wellesley may have promoted cricket at the local grounds he stayed at. Muthiah in his Chepauk book mentions vaguely- that Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, formed, it is believed, a Cricket club in Seringapatam in 1799, after Tippu Sultan had fallen and Wellesley had been put in charge of Mysore.

Let’s get back to Tellicherry and its parade ground, located between the sea and the fort. It is said that in those early years, soldiers used to play at the parade ground when not soldiering or marching. And that is where, according to Puducheri Musa Sahib, the caretaker of the bungalow across the ground where the players once lounged, a water well was situated. I chanced on this tidbit from a lovely article penned by K Balakrishnan the esteemed journalist and writer. Let me at the outset provide due acknowledgment to Balakrishnan and his work – this article uses some of his inputs.

Though the exact location of the well is not quite clear to me, it must have been in the vicinity as marked. As the soldiers found to their dismay, a well-whacked ball, perhaps a full toss or a rank bad ball, ended up in this well on the periphery of the grounds, much to the disgust of the players, an event which always ensured a stop of play.

Now as one can expect the British did not wash their clothes and hired dhobis or washermen to do it. Thus, a Dhobis’ colony had sprung up somewhere around the well area, which water they used (clothes were dried on the ground), and a few vagabond boys squatting at the periphery and watching the game would plunge into the well, retrieve the ball and fling it back to the bowler. Time went by and the boys ended up playing country cricket using twigs for wickets and a local ball, plus a coconut ‘matta’ as a bat. Over time, it appears that these dhobi boys and some fishermen became members of the cricket group and played with the soldiers and other Englishmen who were keen on the game. And that my friends, is the story of the watering well, and its role in the origin of cricket.

Time went by and the Tellicherry Cricket Club was founded in 1860. Matches were played with regularity and players included luminaries like Mookoth Kumaran, a writer I have mentioned often He used to say - that playing cricket with passion would lead to selflessness . . . and a good cricketer will become a good citizen. His son, the writer and fighter pilot Moorkoth Ramunni retells many stories, of how his father walked from Cannanore to Tellicherry, played cricket for the day, and got back at dusk. Interestingly, Ramunni’s brother Srinivasan was also a good player.

Moorkoth Ramunni adds tidbits like how the Tellicherry players used to carry dried fish for their counterparts in Coorg, and the favor would be returned when, during the return match, the Coorg team would bring oranges down to the plains. Later, many native cricketers proved so much better than their English opponents that they used to be taken along whenever the regiment was transferred.

The pitch was laid by an English engineer Anson in 1898, one which lasted a century. Abu Baker who emulated his wicket-keeping prowess and stood up to the stumps was known as Anson Abu Baker. Chilton Kattu Hassan took after Chilton. Kumar Chellappan writing in the Daily Pioneer echoing Balakrishnan adds - The local players exceeded expectations, excelling in all aspects of the game. Talented batsmen, bowlers, and fielders emerged, and some quickly gained prominence. Notable players like Aboobaker, Ahmed, and Kunjipakki became local legends. Aboobaker was famously nicknamed Anson Aboobaker for his batting style, which resembled Geoffrey Anson’s, while Kunjipakki earned the title Sixer Kunjipakki for his crowd-pleasing sixes. Records of Kunjipakki and Aboobaker’s performances, chronicled in scorebooks imported from England, are preserved in the Arakkal Home, the ancestral house of the chieftain. This home, with its panoramic view of the maidan, houses a collection of cricket memorabilia from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

But there are other documented stories as well, and Herman Gundert, Malabar’s well-known missionary and literary giant mentions about cricket being played during his time in Tellicherry, 1839-1859.

There are stories of interesting events too, of how the police inspector from Calicut named Anandan countered Ceylon’s Saravana Muthu’s century before lunch, with a century after lunch and before tea! When Saravana Muthu smacked a sixer which landed in the Juma Masjid, Anandan reciprocated with a six landing in the same spot.

There is the legend of the Circus master Keeleri Kunhikannan (Bombayo’s teacher) who proved to be such a ferocious bowler that he had to stop playing due to the injuries he caused to batsmen playing without guards and helmets! Some events bring a smile to your lips, of how sixer Kunhipakki’s shot cleared the grounds and landed in the district court, shattering the tiles and startling a sitting judge who calmed down and muttered – oh! They are playing cricket, mind not, let them play!

More than all that, some families could field their teams like the famed Mambally family - the well-known bakers of the region, the EK family, the Acharathu family, and the Parambath Moplahs. Kottieth Lakshmanan whom we read about in a previous article was a well-known player, and well, the list goes on and on, reestablishing the claim that Tellicherry holds the preeminence when it comes to Cricket. Such was their love for the game of Cricket. I must add here that Cannanore also had a cricket field in the 1870s, but a report mentions that only a few games were played there.

Richard F Burton writing about his visit to Malabar and Nilgiris in the 1850s mentions that Ooty had a cricket club, but it appears no matches took place, though you could buy a membership for 2 shillings per mensem.

Calicut was not far behind, we know of the cricket club there, the many players, and of course the matches played in Mananchira during the Canterbury festival that I wrote about some years ago. Every October, Calicut hosted Canterbury Week - largely attended by the coffee planters of Coorg, Mysore, Wynad, and Nilgiris. There were races on a racecourse, about five furlongs round, cricket, racquets, and the like, and every night a dance or a big dinner, or some other function which was protracted to the small hours. The races were the principal item. At Calicut, there was a good number of Englishmen living there too and Sreejith tells us that - Matches were organized involving both the whites as well as the natives. Weekend matches were played at Mananchira Maidan in Calicut where clubs from Tellicherry, Palghat, Kannur as well as distant Ceylon and Mangalore participated.

After the British left, the interest in the game receded and Football perhaps took over. The Kerala State Cricket Association was run under the stewardship of GV Raja from the Travancore Royal family, who started it together with some members of the Cochin royals. That was the Travancore -Cochin cricket association. Raja was at its helm for 13 years and later became the VP of the Indian cricket board. Nevertheless, the region boasted few good players and was hardly noticed at the national level.

Stray mentions can be found of Balan Pandit, whose 262 not out against Andhra, and Sreekumar Nair who made an unbeaten 306 against Services in 2017. In the mid-80s, skipper K. Jayaram scored four centuries in five Ranji matches. Before the bowlers Tinu Yohanan and S. Sreesanth played for India, Kerala fans could only talk of players who had some parental connection with Kerala, like Ajay Jadeja or Robin Uthappa (whose mothers were from Kerala). Or Sunil Valson, K.P. Bhaskar, Devdutt Padikkal, and Varun, who were born elsewhere. Sanju Samson continues to be somewhat erratic when not simply brilliant while Kerala’s home team batters, Salman Nizar, 27, has 607 runs, and Mohammed Azharuddeen, 30, has 601. In 1973, the Kerala CM’s 11 which beat Sri Lanka, was captained by Salim Durrani, the team included Gundappa Viswanath and BS Chandrasekar as well!

Even though the Englishmen professed that gentlemen and good soldiers were or should have been cricket players, you will see an absence of caste Hindus in the early history of the sport, then dominated by Moplahs and Tiyyas of Tellicherry & Cannanore. Well, one can only guess that it was due to the caste strictures. While Brahmins had to handle cowhide leather, caste Hindus of Malabar perhaps stayed away from the game since Moplahs, Christians, and Tiyyas were playing in the team.

It has all changed, from the days when we dreaded carrying the heavy mat from the college stores to a distant ground, a hideous and horrendously heavy bit of kit and certainly no fun playing on, compared to the hard pitches today!

References

A Compendious history of the Indian wars – Clement Downing
The spirit of Chepauk – S Muthiah
Memoirs - George Elers
Pazhassiyum Kadathanadum – K Balakrishnan
The middle class in colonial Malabar - A Social History - Sreejith K.
The Evolution of Thalassery Cricket – The Pioneer Jan3, 2025, Kumar Chellappan
Tellicherry's Rise to Prominence in Indian Cricket History

Tailpieces

Arthur Wellesley, hero of Waterloo, was visiting his old secondary school at Eton when he spotted a cricket match underway. " The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”, the iron Duke is purported to have said. Most historians doubt he ever said that, for it was attributed to him much later, in 1889, 40 years after his death. Nevertheless, Cricket gained fame since then and became a gentleman’s game, and it made it conditional that Gentlemen and good British soldiers should have a cricketing history.  Interestingly Wellesley took Lady Jane Lennox to a cricket match, some days before facing off with Napolean. He was certainly some guy - Lady Caroline Chapel says he used to amuse himself humbugging the ladies, particularly the Duchess of Richmond!

Why is a wicket called so? The earliest cricket was played against wicket gates in the Middle Ages by peasants. We learn from the M.C.C. film ‘Cricket in Ireland’ that the game was imported into England by Anglo-Irish landlords. Now there are also arguments that it was picked up from India’s Gulli Danda, much like Shakespeare was Sheshappa Iyer who took a ship to England.

Moorkot Ramunni - joined the IAF after graduating from the Presidency College, Madras, and was the first IAF pilot from the state, and saw action during the Second World War. He was posted at Air Headquarters, Delhi, after the war. After Independence, he was deputed to the Union Cabinet secretariat and later appointed chief instructor at the National Defense Academy. He was later involved in the administration of Nagaland and Laccadives.

A Kerala player and later secretary of the association (Suresh Menon Hindu article dated Feb 26^th, 2025), K.V. Kelappan Thampuran, invented the 50-over game in 1951. This was the Pooja All-India tournament, a decade before the Midlands Knockout Cup was played in England and 12 years before the Gillette Cup there. He invented the popular format — which led to the World Cup and the current Champions Trophy — for a very practical reason. He wanted to run an all-India tournament in Tripunithara, a small town in Kochi, but there was not much time for the existing formats (three days and two days).

Sunny Master & the Fishmonger (Indian Express May 16, 2012) - The towns of Cannanore and Tellicherry are the oldest cricket-playing rival teams in India — the English tea and coffee planters in Wynad and their garrison stationed in Cannanore were the initial sources of players and cricket is said to have been played in Tellicherry when the set of stumps was two. The archrival teams were playing a match in Tellicherry sometime in the ’30s. Amongst the onlookers was a Moplah fishmonger well acquainted with the nuances of the game. He had taken time off from his work to watch the match. Lying beside him were the two baskets of fish and the yoke. At a critical stage, a Tellicherry batsman hit one high into the air and a rival fielder was under it to pouch the ‘dolly’, when the umpire Sunny Master belatedly declared it a no-ball. This blatant prejudice on the part of the umpire enraged the fishmonger who grabbed the yoke and stormed onto the ground shouting expletives. What the spectators saw next was Sunny Master hoisting up his umpiring coat and running for dear life. He ran into a nearby cemetery and hid behind a tomb, thus escaping the wrath of the fishmonger. This incident epitomizes the spirit of cricket and makes it the great game that it is. The fishmonger was from Tellicherry and was a huge supporter of his team. Yet he felt that the spirit of cricket had been vitiated. He wanted his team to win but by fair means.

Talking of fishermen, did you know that Sunil Gavaskar, who was born in 1949 in Mumbai, was swapped by a fisherman's newborn child? It was Gavaskar's uncle who in horror realized that the child was not Sunny. After a frantic search through the area, the uncle managed to locate Sunil who was at the time in a fisherwoman's crib.

An 1843 report in the Colonial Magazine mentions that in the winter season, Europeans are wont to resort for amusement to the athletic exercise of cricket; for which the indolent natives, by the bye, look upon them as absolute maniacs. The latter specially abominate this sport, as being the acme of drudgery; and, egad, so it must be in the tropics! It was capricious fashion who introduced cricket into the country, and not the bona fide inclinations of his silly votaries. Whilst we are alluding to cricket playing, it may be mentioned, en passant, that a Hindoo has seldom or ever been known to catch a cricket ball; when desired to stop one and deliver it, he usually runs alongside the ball till its volant power is spent, and then as warily avoids contact with it, as anyone would avoid a red-hot poker.

There was, however, a few years back, known to Calcutta cricket players, a native enjoying the soubriquet of "Mutton," who, though not much of a dabster at "catching," " bowling," or "batting,' would intercept the flying ball with rare courage, interposing his person in a very grotesque position, rather than the ball should enjoy its mid-air career. "Mutton" was consequently considered a rara avis. Cricket associations abound; that at Calcutta being the principal and giving tone to all others. Wickets are pitched on the Calcutta ground, and matches of consequence are frequently played, throughout the months of November and December. Some idea of the facility with which cricket is played in the tropics may be formed by reading the descriptions of the sport written by resident writers in the Indian papers.

Maddy’s ramblings, Historic Alleys – Related stories

Canterbury week at Calicut
Malabar European Club
Ratnavelu’s tragic story
Those 22 yards
Good Ole Choyi
Kannan Bombayo

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A Royal Proposal

Kinnaird, a matrimonial proposal, and the Christians of Travancore

I mentioned this incident in the TNB bank article, and as you study this story, you may, like I did, consider the whole thing preposterous. But when you sit back and digest it, you will realize that it was not so, for in history, all across the world, there have been alliances and marriage proposals for the sake of political or monetary convenience, often concluded under threats and pressure. This one can fit into any one of those categories and was probably planned by the British higher powers, in the first place.

Saroja Sunderarajan, in her exhaustive biography of Sir CP, covers the involvement of a British woman named Emily Kinnaird, who meddled in certain matters concerning Travancore. Though Saroja details aspects related to issues faced by the palace from the Christian missionaries, she does not delve into the proposal as such, and so I thought it a good idea to air this story.

Interestingly it started as a marriage proposal for the young Maharaja, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, then about 20-23 years old. What commenced with a curt exchange of letters regarding a marriage proposal for the Maharaja, between Lady Kinnaird and CP, continued as a barrage, involving personnel from various parts of the British Empire, namely London, Madras, Delhi, and powers such as the Viceroy, the resident, the archbishop of Canterbury and many more. Kinnaird tried at first to cajole and persuade Sir CP, but seeing his resolute stance, went on to threaten him. The discussions then shifted from the marriage proposal to the treatment (by the sircar/regency) of the Travancore Christians and other high-handed activities related to the state congress etc.  CP was equally curt in his replies, for Kinnaird’s accusations were far-reaching and prejudiced, as you will see.

Emily Kinnaird the daughter of Mary Jane Kinnaird, who established the YWCA, was a staunch Christian missionary, quite active in India. Kinnaird and her sister worked at the school carrying the family name at Lahore. During the First World War period, she teamed up with the Young Men’s Christian Association to set up many centers for Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps workers, and after the war, founded the Indian Student’s Union and Hostel. Quite a formidable and outspoken woman, she was regarded highly in the British hierarchy and a CBE recipient.

Sir CP at Travancore

Sir CP’s involvement in Travancore started with his recommendation to the Viceroy in support of the young Chithira Thirunal succeeding his deceased uncle as the Maharaja of Travancore, in 1931. The Viceroy acceded to the request on condition that CP remain by the Maharaja’s side as an adviser. He then served as Legal and Constitutional adviser to the prince from 1931 to 1936. Becoming a good friend of the Royal family, especially the Junior Rani Sethu Parvathy Bayi, CP took over as the dewan of the state and worked together with the new King and his mother, in administering Travancore through a tough period, until Indian independence, after which the kingdom devolved to become a state within the Indian union. During this period, CP working from his offices at Bhakti Vilas was a tough administrator, who brought about several good changes to the Kingdom, but at the same time alienated many factions within the state, due to his high-handed activities.

Princess Sethu Parvathy Bai was the mother of Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the last King of Travancore and was titled the junior regent, while her cousin Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (the subject of Manu Pillai’s Ivory Throne) was the regent and senior Rani. CP and Setu Parvati Bayi worked together to persuade Lord Willingdon who became the Viceroy of India in 1931, to terminate the regency and grant reigning powers to the young Maharaja.

Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma – The last Travancore Maharaja

Chithira Thirunal was the eldest son of the junior regent Sethu Parvathi Bayi, popularly known as "Amma Maharani", or the Queen Mother of Travancore. He became the Maharajah of Travancore, at the age of 11, after the death of his maternal great uncle Sree Moolam Thirunal, on 7 August 1924. From then onwards, he ruled with the assistance and guidance of Sir CP and his mother Sethu Parvathy Bai.

Travancore intrigues & Christian movements

This is a large topic but suffice to say that the Travancore royals had a long history of antagonism with the many Christian missionaries who worked with and tried to convert and ‘liberate’ the lowest of classes, resulting in many revolts that we discussed earlier. The palace was at loggerheads not only with the missionaries but also with some of the British residents who leaned towards their co-religionists – a phrase we will see uttered again, as connected to this story. It was obvious that the British administration directly encouraged missionary activities and conversion, which the Royals and their Dewans objected to. We had covered some of these in the TNB and the Ouwerkerk stories, and are not brought up again, though they figure prominently in the Kinnaird assaults.

M R Govinda Kaimal was the person who desired to get one of his two daughters married off to the Maharaja, and to further his cause decided to team up with the Church, the British residency and associated bureaucracy, as well as the offices of the Dewan Sir CP, to forward this alliance to the Maharani and her son the Maharaja. Whether it was a wish, a whim, or a desire, Kaimal was quite persistent about this and tried to muscle this through to the Rani and Raja for over 6 years! Though his ancestry and standing are still not quite clear, by his admission, he seemed to have some past connection to the Champakassery Rajas, an aspect we will try to analyze later in this article.

The Champakassery Principality

The area comprising Ambalapuzha and portions of Kuttanad was merged some centuries ago into a separate principality ruled by a Namboothiri ruler titled the Chempakasssry Raja. The kingdom was known in history as Purakkad, Ambalapuzha, or Chempakassery, and seems to have been formed with the help of a few iterant soldiers of the Zamorin of Calicut. The tract from Kumaranellur to Kudamalur in Kottayam thus came under the sway of the Chempakassery King. The Raja being quite tolerant, sponsored the building of the Kudamaloor church, and was a patron of not only the Syrian Christian community settled there, but also many Muslim families. Dutch factories existed in Purakkad from the 17^th century, after they obtained a monopoly following the defeat of the British. It was after this and the Portuguese influence that the churches of Kudamalloor and Purakkad were built, as well as at Arathunkal Palli in the Karappuram area. The Rajas were later termed the Deva Narayanas. During the Dutch period, the area was termed Porca, in their records.

The Devanarayanan Rajas ruled wisely, and during their reign, art thrived, Ottam Thullal was formulated, and Kunjan Nambiar composed his Thullal’s. The state was also famous for its unique rowing boat designs. During the 18^th century, the kingdom was overrun by the armies of Marthanda Varma led by his Dewan Ramayyan Dalawa, and the last King Devanarayan was taken to Anatapuram, as a prisoner, but was later sent back to Kudamalloor. Here he plotted revenge and was supported by his Christian subjects, as well as the Dutch, but again lost in a conflict with Travancore, and eventually retired to become an ascetic, spending his last days at Ambalapuzha. Interestingly, Marthanda Varma spared his life on both occasions, only due to the fear of being accursed for killing a Brahmin. Kunjan Nambiar was forced to move to Travancore.

The Cherthala region of the present day was then known as Karappuram and it comprised two small principalities, viz, Muthedath and Ileyedath. The Kaimals who were the chieftains of these areas were related and allied to the Raja of Cochin. The first instance of a Kaimal/Chembakassery war alliance comes from the 1528-40 conflict between Purakkad and the Portuguese, where the Karappuram Kaimal allied with Chembakassery. Govinda Kaimal’s origins may have been from one of the two Kaimal factions (the last Chembakassery Devanarayan had no offspring). Alternatively, he may have belonged to the Aymanam Kaimals, the military commanders of the Chempakassery Rajas.

Kinnaird’s initial contact with Sir CP

It is not clear if the Kaimal proposal was already known to the Junior Rani as early as 1933 (mind you, the boy was just 20 years old), but there are indications from Kaimal’s letter that he had broached it to the Raja’s grandfather Kilimanoor Kerala Varma in 1933 or so, who seemed to find it agreeable. Whether the Queen mother or the Raja objected to it right away is also not clear, but we hear of it come up formally through Emily Kinnaird who wrote to Sir CP in 1937. The 1938 file states that earlier papers on the subject are not traceable.

Kinnaird wrote to CP from Lahore on 16th April 1937 that in the best interests of the state, which she had a long connection with, she wanted CP to meet and introduce MR Govinda Kaimal, a person popular with his neighbors and whom she had met several times, to the Maharani and thence to the Raja, with an intent to get one of Kaimal’s daughter’s married to the young Raja. In addition, she wanted CP to recommend another young boy for employment with the Sassoons as an intern. She intended to write directly to the Maharani on this matter later, with CP’s support.

CP replied on 23^rd April 37, expressing his surprise and making it clear that it was quite inappropriate of Kinnaird to contact him, that he did not have the remotest idea who Kaimal was and how and why Kaimal in the first place thought it a good idea to make this contact with others (the Royalty), through him. He curtly closed the correspondence stating that he could not be of any assistance in either matter.

Unbeknownst to CP, Kinnaird had written directly to the Viceroy six months earlier about finding a suitable consort for the King, and the Viceroy replied to her stating that it did not fall within the range of his responsibilities.

Kinnaird’s retort

Kinnaird was incensed, to say the least, she when she got her chance, wrote to CP in Feb 1938 pointing out that Travancore was persecuting Christians in the kingdom, that CP was taking the state back to the dark ages, and pointed out that those persecuted were co-religionists of the Viceroy! CP replied that Kinnaird on 15^th Feb that his government was very tolerant, and that she was being prejudiced, making unfounded accusations without basis, and that he shall take no notice of its contents.

CP later forwarded his correspondence as well to the Political Secretary Glancy on 17th Dec 1938. Glancy took note and pointed out to the Viceroy’s private secretary G Laithwaite that he was surprised to see Kinnaird’s role included that of a marriage broker to the prince’s market! He agreed that CP’s replies to Kinnaird were not exactly conciliatory, but that CP had sufficient provocation.

Kinnaird had in the meantime contacted Patrick at the India office and complained about torture being resorted to on political prisoners, attaching a statement of Dr NS Pillai of Attingal, a doctor practicing in E Africa. Apparently when arrested he had some State congress papers and was rough-handled at the police station. Patrick and Lord Zetland upon checking on this found that there was no foundation to her suggestions, so also some other instances brought up by Kinnaird, and replied to her so.

A Nov 1938 noting reveals that Kinnaird continued her accusations of CP and accused the Resident CP Skrine of having been squared by the Dewan. In this case, the Maharaja ordered an amnesty for the prisoners, and the matter was dropped ending in the file comment – if possible, tactfully to indicate to her for a more careful scrutiny of the information reaching her.

The details of the proposal formed the content of the correspondence between Kaimal and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and this was forwarded by Patrick from the India Office in London to Glancy, in Jan 1939. The archbishop confirms that he had correspondence with Kaimal ‘some’ years ago about a matrimonial alliance and had written to the then Secretary of State Sir Samuel, in Nov 1933. The matter went dormant until 1939 when Kaimal again wrote to him. The archbishop wanted nothing to do with it and forwarded it to the Secretary of state!

Kaimal’s overtures

Kaimal had been in contact with the Pro India archbishop of Canterbury over this matter even before the arrival of Kinnaird. He explains in his 17^th Dec 1938 deposition to the archbishop that he belonged to a family of Dewans and Gurus to the Chempakassery Rajas, enjoying tax-free lands and other perks due to their high standing in society (which included the marriage of their daughters only with Namboodiries!). He adds that they were called Yajamans and the ladies Kunjamma’s and that owing to special historical antecedents, they had a special place in the Christian community of Chempakassery. Furthermore, he had been well known to the Travancore Royals, had stayed with the young Raja in Ooty, and the thought of getting his daughter betrothed to the Raja crossed his mind. Accordingly, he had approached the grandfather of the Raja with the idea of a matrimonial alliance. However, the old man, though in general agreement with the idea, replied that Kaimal should contact the family through some persons in a ‘high position’. The archbishop and the foreign secretary were contacted as suggested by the Malankara Church authorities. Further, it was thought that it would be a better idea to moot a formal proposal through ladies and hence he broached the subject to Lady Kinnaird. She (as Kaimal puts it) discussed the matter with Lord and Lady Halifax, the Zetlands, and even Lord and Lady Linlithgow.

A subsequent plan was made for Kaimal to meet the Viceroy, but this did not work out as Kaimal did not speak English, and eventually a meeting with Lord and Lady Erskine (Madras governor), was planned, which also did not pan out due to scheduling issues. Kinnaird then wrote to the Raja’s grandfather for his opinion, in 1936. The grandfather replied to Kinnaird stating that the consorts of the Travancore Raja were made from the Nair community, and this being a Kaimal (elevated in caste), may be far better. Kinnaird came and met the Kaimals in 1936 and expressed her opinion to the Viceroy that the prospective couple looked like ‘Brother & Sister’ (perhaps to mean alike in general looks or suited to each other).

Kaimal added that all these details had also been submitted to Sir CP and the Maharani, Sethu Parvathy Bai, through the grandfather, but that no decision had been made, as he felt the Dewan and the Rani were not too sure how it would benefit them in future!

To sway their mind, and perhaps show them the potential benefits, he entreated the British powers (as responsible persons) to show and declare their interest in this negotiation!!  To quote Kaimal “If they come to know that responsible persons are interested in this union, and that it will do them good in the future, I am sure that this marriage will take place in no time!!

The Chaplain confirmed to Kaimal that they notified the Marquis of Zetland and Kaimal wrote to Zetland a month later asking for details of any progress. He ends his letter with the sentence – May your Excellency be blessed to see India working its way to peace! Now what did he mean by that? Was he connecting the addressee to the disturbances current to Travancore then?

The “Responsible Persons”

Lord Linlithgow (VA John Hope) - Viceroy to India
Secretary to the Viceroy – Gilbert Laithwaite
Marquis of Zetland (John Lumley Dundas) - Secretary of State
Bertrand James Glancy – Political Secretary to the Viceroy
Lord Irwin – Previous Viceroy, in 1938, the foreign secretary
Lord Erskine – Governor of Madras Presidency
C.P. Skrine - Resident – Travancore
William Cosmo Gordon Lang – Archbishop of Canterbury

The result

Nothing seems to have helped, CP and the Maharani dug in their heels and the proposal went nowhere. No further information is at hand on the Kaimals.

The political situation in Travancore deteriorated quickly in the latter part of 1938 due to various other issues well known to us. Abdul Karim took over the police. CP became increasingly unpopular, his relations with the British went downhill after he muzzled the Manorama and the Mano Mohanam press, and his handling of the TNB case exacerbated the issue further. In 1939, Britain got into the forefront of WW II. The marriage proposal was the least of their worries and died out.

How did all this come about?

There is one more matter to consider - The Kaimals and the Raja were not equals, regardless of the caste levels of potential consorts. The reason why word got around was that the junior Maharani had at some time mentioned that she was against a bride from Travancore because it could lead to relatives and others trying to meddle in local politics, form patronage networks, etc. So, the idea was to get the Maharajah married to a Malayali from outside Travancore. Perhaps word reached Kaimal that there was a possibility and Kaimal tried to play the Christian card, to further his case, which presumably upset the Amma Rani. We do know from KOC Pillai's accounts that the Queen and the Raja were considering multiple proposals for the Raja and that none worked out, though there is a comment that the boy was rather shy.

Maharaja’s consort

Chithira Tirunal did not officially take a consort.  Whether he had one or not and if he had any issues from such a consort, official or unofficial, are not quite clear, though many rumors float around, as they usually do, in Trivandrum.

Kinnaird & Gandhi

Kinnaird was a persistent lady, she was 86 years old when she met Gandhiji on July 20, 1940, and had a very interesting dialog with him on religious matters, this can be read in the Harijan of August 4, 1940 (Vol. 72 p. 297-299).

Whatever was said and done, Sir CP was an outspoken man and did not cow down to British authority or pressure. He was quite rigid in his stance and somewhat arrogant at times but kept the best interests of his principals and employers, the Royals of Travancore, foremost in his mind and actions, as their paid servant and Dewan. That he could not match his actions to the aspirations of his subjects at Travancore, was his unfortunate failing.

References

Political department File 739, 1938, Travancore affairs

Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, a Biography - Saroja Sundararajan

Padathalavan – Parameswaran Pillai

 

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A Quid Pro Quo

Revisiting the Nanavati Case

The case has been talked about often, there have been a few books, numerous articles, and no less than 3 movies as well as a TV series based on the story. The latest book by Bachi Karkaria uncovers quite a few gaps and makes it heady reading. Nevertheless, there could be a few who are still looking for some finer details, and I intend to cover those today.

Nanavati’s Navy background & stay in the UK

Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, a Parsi, was born in 1922 and educated in Bombay, and later joined the Royal Indian (British) Navy in 1942, after which he was sent to the UK for training. During training, he was identified as OLQ – Officer like quality material and was pushed rapidly through the ranks, a decision proven wise with his 16 ½ years of meritorious service through WWII serving in both the European Anzio (Russian convoys – see my article on the Luckenbach) campaign and the Burmese Arkan assaults. Nanavati was considered a blue-eyed boy to the Naval brass, rose to become a lieutenant commander on INS Rajput, INS Delhi, and a few years after Indian independence in 1952, found himself posted back to London as a Naval attaché (Deputy Naval advisor) reporting to the new High Commissioner VK Krishna Menon. Perhaps they built a good rapport, and this was to stand him in good stead as we will soon see. It was during his UK training sojourn, that he met and got married in 1949, to an English girl Sylvia. The couple were blessed with three children in quick succession and returning to Bombay around 1953, were welcomed by the close-knit Parsi community of Colaba. In 1956, he was sent back to the UK to bring home the INS Mysore (rechristened from HMS Nigeria), as second in command to HM Nanda. Just before the tumultuous events that took place in 1959, Menon had earmarked him for a promotion to DG of the Naval dockyard scheme.

Krishna Menon had returned to India and was working in the Nehru cabinet, and by 1956, was appointed as the defense minister.  During the late 50’s and early 60s, Menon campaigned in Bombay and was elected as the Member of Parliament from Bombay. The Parsis as well as the film fraternity joined hands and ensured that he won with a thumping majority, so Menon was well known there.

A quick run-through of the case

Nanavati’s case is quite well known to Bombay's old timers but is now only remembered by movie buffs and a few following the history of the teeming city. After his INS Mysore stint, Kawas Nanavati got back home for his routine furlough, and it became unhappily apparent to him that Sylvia was distant, cool, and disinterested. Upon questioning her, Nanavati came to know that she was in the middle of a hot affair with Prem Ahuja, an automobile dealer, a person well known in the Malabar Hill circuit for his elan and his parties. Ahuja was quite popular with women and when Nanavati understood that his wife was in an amorous affair with him, seems to have lost his cool.  After dropping his wife and children for a film, Nanavati went to his ship, and signed out a revolver and 6 rounds, informing the storekeeper that he was going on a road trip, or to shoot birds (according to Jethmalani). He then proceeded to Ahuja’s office, but not finding him there, to his home, where Nanavati accosted Ahuja in his bedroom, and a heated argument ensued. It appears that Ahuja said he had no intention of marrying Sylvia or taking care of Nanavati’s children when asked so point-blank by Nanavati, following which a physical scuffle is said to have taken place. Memmi, Ahuja’s sister who was sleeping through a migraine had heard the visitor coming in, and had seen him proceeding to meet her brother, now heard three gunshots, the sound of a body crashing on the floor, and rushed to see what was going on. She saw a bleeding Ahuja, (two bullets had struck his chest and one his head) towel-clad, on the floor, and a silent and calm Kawas standing over him with a 0.38 Smith & Wesson in his hand.

Nanavati left quietly, then visited the Navy Provost Marshall MB Samuel, got directions to the police station, and going there, surrendered to CID Inspector John Lobo, stating that he had shot Ahuja. Sylvia was informed of the happenings at the theater where she and the children were watching ‘Tom Thumb’, and shocked, she shot up, screamed, and collapsed.

After parleying by the Naval brass and ‘higher ups’, it was decided to place Kawas in Naval custody even though this was a civil case. Nanavati was thus confined to the Naval detention quarters on shore, part of the INS Kunjali complex at Colaba, also home to the fledgling naval aviation and helicopter fleet. Here he cooled his heel for a few months, while outside, all hell had broken loose. Meanwhile, Sylvia and Kawas had come back to terms and decided to fight the upcoming case, together, as the family moved and settled at Nanavati’s parents’ house.

Kunjali IV in whose name this complex had been built, would have smiled wryly seeing all this, for it was all a far cry from the days when his paroes played hide and seek and fought the Portuguese with flaming arrows and guerilla tactics. The only fight he would soon see would be verbal calisthenics in a courtroom, pitting naval folk and politicians against the judicial system.

The Navy and the Parsis lined up behind Kawas, and Menon the powerful Defense minister who had Nehru’s ears, pulled the strings. Karanjia, who ran the tabloid Blitz, Menon’s steadfast supporter, ensured Bombay’ites were kept up to date with explosive and salacious details, so written by RP Aiyer.

Prem Ahuja was a partying, well-spoken, Bombay socialite from a rich Sandhi family, hailing from Karachi. He was considered discrete, ready to lend his ear to any attractive lady who started a conversation with him. He came across as an ‘am admi’, a common man, not a posh Parsi speaking with a clipped British accent.

The Navy wives felt he did right in shooting Ahuja but added that he should then have shot Slyvia and committed suicide. While the vast majority were on Nanavati’s side, the Sindhi community was quite hurt when snide comments were made about them, by the Parsi-led media, as Ahuja was a Sindhi. In any case, the air was thick with all kinds of rumors, and when the case came up for trial in the sessions court, the Judge had a tough time reigning in the ‘Tamasha’ as he termed it. A few Brits still hanging around in Bombay, felt that it was a travesty to justice, and grumbled seeing Nanavati coming to court, resplendent in Navy whites. They felt that in the Blighty, Nanavati would have been found guilty and jailed for life.

The trial took place at the sessions court at Flora Fountain in Sept 1959, and huge crowds gathered to witness it. The case pitted the posh and well-settled Parsis against the Sindhis who were by now rising as equals to them, in business.  True, there was competition between the two trading communities, but the feelings simmered and bubbled when Parsis painted Sindhis as adulterers. The Gujaratis sided with the Parsis as fellow Banias. Shouts of ‘Nanavati Zindabad’ rang in the air, as the meticulously uniformed Nanavati walked in and out, his medals glistening in the sun. Outside Ahuja towels “which won’t fall off’ and Nanavati toy pistols were being sold by enterprising hawkers.

The defense plan by lead counsel Kandhalwala was to make it clear that the navy and the defense ministry were squarely behind their man, and that it was all an accident, that the gun had gone off during a scuffle. Khandalwala was assisted by barrister Rajni Patel and SR Vakil. Public prosecutor CM Trivedi was accompanied by Sindhi Ram Jethmalani, there as an observer, on Mammie Ahuja’s request, while Judge RB Mehta presided. Nanavati pled ‘not guilty’, and the defense argued a case of accidental death. During the examination, Kawas admitted having surrendered but mentioned that he did not shoot to kill and that it was all an accident. Chief of Naval Staff RD Katari testified on Kawas’s impeccable character, while Dr. AV Baliga poked holes in the testimony of the medical witness Dr Bhaganay. SM Nanda, who together with Nanavati had just brought INS Mysore from Britain to India also testified in Kawas’s career. Sylvia who was called to the stand mentioned that Ahuja had promised to marry her and that he had a gun (which was the reason why Nanavati took out a gun when he went to see him).

The jury verdict

A jury of 9, pondered over the results of examination and cross-examination and decided 8-1 by the end Oct 1959, that Nanavati was ‘not guilty’. The Sindhis were furious, seeing how the case was getting fixed, murmuring that the jury had been bought. At this point, one should take note that Jethmalani’s observation that it was simply impossible for a towel not to fall off during a tussle, cast considerable doubt on Nanavati’s cooked-up ‘accident story’ and the defense strategy. The agitated judge disagreed with the jury verdict and ordered a review by the high court. Nanavati was sent back to INS Kunjali for further detention.

Much to contrary belief, this was not the last jury case or the case (many blamed Blitz) that stopped the use of the jury in India (I was also under that impression until I read Jaffe’s paper). It had been a perineal problem, due to the difficulty in obtaining qualified jurors. As Jaffe explains, Jury trials survived well into the 1960s. Courts with original jurisdiction over criminal cases, and several high courts continued to employ juries long after the Nanavati trial, as did many sessions courts, especially in Bengal, but not as often, until 1973. It was not until the passage of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, that the jury was written out of the criminal trial in courts of session by simply stating, "After hearing arguments and points of law (if any), the Judge shall give a judgment in the case." It was thus by an act of omission rather than an act of commission that trial by jury finally was ended in sessions courts. The common juror, according to the judiciary, was thought of as ‘wild’, ignorant, illiterate, and corruptible. That is, they were ‘not the right people’ to perform the juror’s role.

The high court case & the governor’s pardon

The case was heard again at the High Court, in Feb 1960, where the state was represented by YV Chandrachud., with the defense led by ASR Chari. Justices Shelat and Naik took apart the flimsy defense arguments and pronounced Nanavati guilty of murder under sections 300 and 302, sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment, following which a warrant was issued for his arrest. Within four hours however, Nanavati’s sentence was suspended by the Maharashtra Governor Sri Prakasa (after discussions with the CM), under article 161, while Nanavati appealed to the Supreme Court. The case was discussed again on appeal and Kawas continued his detention at INS Kunjali.

Meanwhile, in Delhi, the parliament was in uproar, and Nehru as well as Menon had to field questions on why Nanavati was provided Rs 10,000/- government assistance, to fight the case. Nehru replied to heated questions, stating that intervention was at the behest of Chief of Navy Staff Katari. But it becomes clear that the person who threw all the weight behind the order was none other than VK Krishna Menon who in an interview with Max Lerner mentioned that he had talked to Sri Prakasa – telling him that the stain of turpitude should not destroy the career of a promising young officer.

This was the first test for the Indian constitution and the first time an Article 161 pardon was implemented. While the legal community was aghast at the order, the public was jubilant. For Nanavati, the situation was tricky because if found guilty, he could be dismissed from service per the regulations, and lose many benefits. The unhappy judiciary decided to contest the governor’s obstruction to justice, as they saw it. HM Seeravi appeared for the state, while Nani Palkhiwala joined the defense. The constitution is dissected and examined, together with the powers of the governor, and the logic in confining Nanavati in a naval goal. After much deliberation, they decide that the governor's order shall stand, leaving the legal community quite unhappy.

Supreme Court it is

Nanavati’s team meanwhile filed a couple of special leave petitions in the Supreme Court against the HC ruling. The Supreme Court taking up the issue, objected to the Governor usurping the court’s rights. A majority decision was reached and Nanavati’s requests were dismissed and he was asked to appear and pray to the court for the return of the writ and warrant. Nanavati during these periods was shuttled between INS Kunjali and the Arthur Road civil prison. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court decided that Nanavati had without any doubt, intentionally shot & killed Ahuja. They also threw out a possibility of culpable homicide and confirmed life imprisonment for the defendant.

Blitz went on an overdrive, publishing mercy petitions from Sylvia and their elder son Pheroze. As the uproar grew in Bombay, the children were sent off to Lovedale in Ooty. At the Arthur Road jail, Nanavati was given a special room, but was moved to the Yervada jail in Pune, developed chest pains, and was treated at the JJ hospital. He was discharged from the Navy in April 1962, and Nanavati applied for parole on health grounds. This was granted, and he moved to a bungalow in Lonavla.

On 16^th March 1964, Nanavati was pardoned by the new Maharashtra governor and Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi (Nan) Pandit. Interestingly Nan knew Nanavati for had succeeded Krishna Menon as HC in the UK and had taken formal possession of the INS Mysore. This was made possible by the strangest of possibilities, so let me stop here and take you through the story of another individual, Bhai Pratap Dadlani.

Bhai Pratap and the Sindhu Resettlement Corporation

Bhai Pratap a good friend of the Indian freedom movement, a personal friend of both Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, had decided to resettle the Sindhis who had trudged to Bombay, after a painful partition. On the 15,000 acres of land donated by the Raja or Kutch, he started the town projects at Adipur, Khandla, and Gandhidham. In 1954, a fellow Sindhi accused Bhai of wrongdoing and this started a witch hunt and a legal case which he lost, so also the appeal that followed, after which he was jailed. He fell sick in jail and struggled with multiple heart ailments.

According to the parliament Q&A, Bhai Pratap, the Managing Director of the Sindhu Resettlement Corporation Ltd., was convicted of offenses of conspiracy and cheating and/or abetment thereof under section 120-B and section 420 read with section 109 of the Indian Penal Code for dishonestly inducing the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports to issue three import licenses on the plea that they were required by the Corporation for the development of the Kandla Port and sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 4,000.

The case alleged disposing of in the black-market electric goods worth several lacs of rupees obtained under an import license and intended for use in the development of Gandhidham, which as you will read on, was proved wrong. According to the transport minister, he was not lodged in jail but remained as an in-patient in St. George Hospital, Bombay, till 13-12-1961 when he was released on parole.

The quid pro quo settlement

The Jethmalani book provides us with the story of the settlement – Bhai Pratap was a close associate of Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and Patel. Bhai Partap was a wealthy businessman who had moved to Mumbai after Partition and had become the driving force behind the movement to provide a homeland for homeless Sindhis in Gandhi Dham. Bhai Partap's businesses included importing various goods. A complaint had been filed against him for the misuse of these goods in the early 1960s. He had originally engaged Jethmalani to defend him but was later advised to engage an older, better-known lawyer.

Unfortunately, Bhai Partap was convicted and sentenced to eighteen months of rigorous imprisonment. Despite having employed a prominent lawyer, not only was his subsequent appeal rejected, but his sentence was also increased to five years. Thanks to his political influence, he was able to apply for a mercy petition to Mrs Vijayalakshmi Pandit, who had become governor in 1962. Unlike most other such petitions, his (petition) was scrutinized closely by two diligent secretaries, B.B. Paymaster, and R.L. Dalal, who discovered that he had been unjustly convicted and was, in fact, innocent. The public prosecutor had withheld from the court important information that proved his innocence. He, therefore, deserved a pardon.

Around the same time, there was also pressure on the government to grant a pardon to Nanavati, who had by then already served a few years in prison. However, the government was aware that pardoning Nanavati would antagonize the Sindhi community. One evening, there was a knock on the door of Ram's apartment at Panchshila, and he was surprised to see Rajni Patel, one of the defense lawyers in the Nanavati case and now a power broker of the Congress Party, and the beautiful Sylvia outside his door. He was hard-pressed to guess what the visit was about. Patel immediately came to the point and explained that the government was prepared to pardon Bhai Partap and, simultaneously, wished to do the same for Nanavati. But, before that, they needed the concurrence of the Sindhi community. In this case, the one person who mattered was Prem's sister Mamie whose concurrence would end all controversy.

They were aware that Ram (as a prominent Sindhi, and well-known to Mamie) alone could prevail upon Mamie. They told him that such a joint pardon would be in the interest of both communities. Ram gave in and convinced Mamie to give in writing the fact that she had no objection to Nanavati's pardon.

Nanavati and Bhai Partap were pardoned on the same day, 16th March 1964.

Canada it is

A few months following the pardon, Nanavati and his family obtained immigration to Canada, seemingly as an emotional refugee, and over time became the Marketing director of Laurier Life Insurance, (some say backed by JRD Tata’s recommendation). There was a large Parsi community in Toronto and Nanavati blended in easily and seems to have done very well in his job. Nanavati, as he admitted, chose to forget that sorry part of his life. They were certainly not low profile and the Nanavatis did make a few visits to Bombay. They moved to Burlington in retirement and Nanavati passed away in 2003, Sylvia from what I last read had moved to an assisted living community.

It was such a volatile case and the first time the Indian constitution was also put on trial, with so many luminaries involved. Ram Jethmalani made his name from the case, Chandrachaud and others rose to become chief justices of the Supreme Court, Sri Prakasa, YB Chavan, Rajni Patel, Acharya Kriplani, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Nehru and Menon were all well known for their political lives. BS Soman and SM Nanda became Chiefs of naval staff, Krishnan who took over from Nanavati at INS Mysore, commanded INS Vikrant and became Chief of Southern Command, to oversee the sinking of the PNS Ghazi and the 1971 Pak surrender, while many others including Inspector Lobo wrote books or recounted their memories for others. Bhai Pratap did not live long after the pardon, the great man who built the busy Kandla port moved to London and passed away in 1967.

In 1962, Menon beat Kriplani in the Bombay elections, and Rajni Patel was the key person for him at that time. Jethmalani became Menon’s translator for his campaigning speeches in 1962 and rose to become one of the finest lawyers in India. Menon’s career graph tumbled south after the Chinese incursions and he left the political main stage, soon after.

When you look back, this case became what it was, as RD Pradhan reasons, only because of Krishna Menon’s strong sense of loyalty to a serving officer. But when the China event happened, many who served under Menon in the armed forces ganged up in revolt, made him a scapegoat, and ensured his removal from the ministry. Menon did not utter a word about all this, other than saying good things about his peers and subordinates. That is life, I guess….

The trial according to Jaffe - was significant in Indian legal history not because of popular politics or its sensationalism. These were nothing new in India. And it certainly should not be famous for being ‘the last jury trial in India,’ which it was not. Instead, the Nanavati trial perhaps should be better remembered as the culmination of decades of anti-jury rhetoric, especially among the judicial establishment.

The book by Bachi Karkaria is a must-read for those who want to delve deep into this case, and I thank her for filling the many holes in the story. Thanks also to Saaz Agarwal for providing much information on Bhai Pratap, an individual who did not get a second life after the fateful pardon, but died soon after, with I am sure, a broken heart.

The bad blood between the communities had dissipated by the time I started working in Bombay in the mid-80s. I knew many Parsis and Sindhis from my office days in Bombay, I fondly remember Nena our Sindhi receptionist, and Noreen, our Parsi stenographer, who arranged a Parsi dabba lunch for me right through my years there.

And without a doubt, I miss Bombay, now ‘Mumbai’…I will go back someday soon if only to walk through those streets which I once traversed - treading on foot, the BEST double-deckers and the suburban trains if only to relive those days …

Until then…..

References

In Hot Blood – Bachi Karkaria
Mumbai Fables – Gyan Prakash
Commander Nanavati & the Unwritten Law – Emily Hahn (The New Yorker Nov 1960)
RS and LS debate records, High Court & Supreme Court rulings
After Nanavati: The Last Jury Trial in India? - James Jaffe
‘Not The Right People’_ Why Jury Trials were Abolished in India -James Jaffe
Sensational Love Scandals and their After-lives: The Epic Tale of Nanavati - Sabeena Gadihoke
On the Case of the State Against Kawas Maneckshaw Nanavati – Ashok H Desai
A Chequered brilliance: the many lives of V.K. Krishna Menon – Jairam Ramesh
Ram Jethmalani – Nalini Gera
Bare acts – The honorable murder – Arathi Sethi
Never a dull moment – RD Pradhan
Love, death, and scandal in Bombay – Murali M Menon
Bhai Pratap, Tribute to a Forgotten Hero (Sahapedia) – Saaz Agarwal

Trivia

Dishoom, the cookbook introduces a cocktail, named Commander after this case, made with navy strength gin, pepper, absinthe, kamm & sons ( a spicy London aperitif)

"Quid pro quo" is a Latin phrase that means "something for something" or "this for that". It is used to describe an exchange of goods, services, favors, or money, where one transfer is dependent on the other.

Turpitude - is a legal expression designating an act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community, i.e. one that is contrary to justice, honesty, or morality and one which shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile, or depraved.

 Pics - Wikimedia, and Google images - thanks to all the owners and providers

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Good Ole Choyi - The man about town!

 Choyi Butler of Cannanore, his hotel, and other stories…

Once upon a time, over a hundred years ago, there lived an interesting man called Kottieth Choyi. Though many of his time remember the colorful man who lorded a large family, Choyi Butler, as he was known, was more connected to his hotel by the sea, in Cannanore. Today a pudding is attributed to him, and only a few know that he is survived by a large family and that many of his progeny were illustrious persons. We will meet some of them in this article, and tread the path he did, for a little while, to understand the times long gone, of a period when the Englishmen lorded the land and when caste ruled Malabar. Indeed, Good Ole Choyi was a colorful man, that I can guarantee!

Choyi’s antecedents are not known, but his surname suggests that the ancestors could have come (Choyi in colloquial Malayalam, at that time, meant foreigner) from a foreign land. Choyi’s were somehow connected to Jogis, mendicants, etc., so it is not quite clear what this sub caste under Thiyya, actually did for a living, in the past. This comment may not be relevant - See Notes#1 below

He is mentioned in history as the son of Nadukudi Kaunan (Kannan?), which possibly points to Nadukudi - a place name in Andhra or at Mannar in Sri Lanka.

In an 1886 court case, Kottieth Choyi filed an appeal contesting an excessive claim of arrears/damages by the area collector. It appears that Choyi obtained an Abkari license for Chirakkal and had instead of operating the arrack/toddy shop under the license, opened more, and sublet them to others. I will provide a quick brief only since it provides some background information on Choyi and because the great William Logan was involved!

The license stated -  W. Logan, Esquire, Collector of the District of Malabar, being duly authorized by the Board of Revenue, hereby license you, Kottieth Choyi, son of Nadukudi Kaunan, residing at Cantonment, Cannanore, to manufacture and vend arrack and toddy for the tract specified below in the Taluk of Cherakkel from the 1st day May 1885 to the 31st day of March 1886, subject to the following conditions and limitations to be observed by you, the said Kottieth Choyi. You shall sell liquor under this license in one shop for arrack and toddy combined. Such shop or shops shall be under your personal management. If you desire to open more shops, or if the above shops are not under your personal management, you must obtain a separate license for each such shop. The Collector may, whenever he thinks fit, direct shops other than those managed by you to be closed, or permit transfers of shops from one place to another, or direct new shops to be opened and a sufficient supply of spirits to be maintained in all sanctioned shops…

Justice Gopalan Nair who heard the original case decreed that Choyi should pay arrears, and Choyi appealed to the higher court where Muthuswamy Ayyar presided. The collector maintained that the original licensee was responsible for running just one shop and had to obtain separate licenses for any others (Choyi closed some of the shops). Choyi claimed that he could in effect open more shops and sublet them, and that the many orders to that effect, were arbitrary, that he suffered many a loss on that account, and could therefore not pay the Rs 11,433/ levied. It is all complicated, so I won’t get to it, but Choyi lost the appeal.

Cannanore in those days was quite different. As a German visitor mentioned - Cannanore is nothing more than a large village of twelve thousand inhabitants, who live in groups in small houses. Through wide beautiful avenues with gigantic bread trees, from which long aerial roots hang down, in an hour you arrive at the old barracks of the fort on a wide esplanade near the beach, from where you can see the forts and a lighthouse with the British flag. At the moment, I passed, some English soldiers, who were half-dressed and stretched out on the ground, were engaged in casting the sun's rays into the eyes of the passers-by with a mirror, a work which seemed to interest them very much. The beach was a sandy plain, bordered by coconut trees and fishermen's huts, where the fishing boats were currently resting.

When one leaves the bungalow to go to the fort, after passing through some gardens and walking through beautiful avenues, one comes to a lot of mud huts, where poverty abounds. Then one gets to see the long, shady avenues, where occasionally in the background of English landscaped gardens are the houses of the officers, with the names of the tenants and the designation of their company on the pillars at the entrance. Flowers and strange plants everywhere, baskets full of climbing plants and colorful hedges, from which wonderful scents rise.

Whether it was before or after this, Choyi served as a butler in the Esplanade hotel run by an Englishman. When the Brit decided to go back (or died) the hotel was given to Choyi and soon after that, Choyi married again, this time, his partner was the Anglo-Indian Thottathil Amma, who was somehow connected to the Hotel. Others mention that Choyi built the hotel and married Cheruvari Kalyani, the Anglo-Indian. The Geni site mentions that Kalyani was the daughter of Lord Strickland (It can’t be Walter Strickland the Anarchist – I wonder who this Strickland was) and his consort Chirutha (Charlotte Smith). Interestingly, Chirutha’s sister Korambi was the mother of Justice Sir Cheruvari Krishnan. Krishnan had informed his colleagues at Madras that his grandfather was a British Duke. I did not get any further on this matter, though.

We understand from an account provided by his grandson (Hartland by Hari Baskaran) that the Cheruvari line offspring as well as the Anglo-Indian mother were not initially allowed inside the ancestral Kottieth house in Kannur, but after Choyi passed away, the ice was broken, and the two sets of families came together. Choyi he says, owned all the land from Payambalam beach to Kanathur Kavu and built houses for his children in large holdings, where they stayed and reared their own families. He presided over his large extended family like an ancient patriarch. Choyi’s English wife stayed in an elegant and spacious house called ‘The Gardens’ situated on the road to Payambalam beach. Choyi Butler had a very romantic image, or so we understand, and he was a tall man and of military bearing. The “white” side of the family flourished and did very well.

Choyi was considered akin to an uncrowned king of Cannanore, a grand old man who ruled over his mammoth family. The main tharavad home, the Kottieth House, was a large nalukettu building, situated in a heavily wooded compound in the choicest location of Cannanore. The homestead was mostly constructed with wood, except for the outer walls. There was a grand hall upstairs which the Cannanore Free Masons used as their temple, till they moved to their premises.

The Madras Railway Co in its 1902 guide states - There is a very good Hotel in Cannanore called the “Esplanade Hotel” and kept by a sharp, intelligent Tiyan by name “Choyi”—the traveller will find this little hotel one of the most comfortable in India and also remarkably clean. Mr. Choyi, of the Esplanade Hotel, Cannanore, can make arrangements for the jutkas to Baliapatam and the boat onwards to Hosdrug. The Tahsildar at Kasaragod will arrange for carts from Hosdrug to his own town, and onwards to Ullal on the river Netravati, where a boat can be got without difficulty across the water, where conveyances will be found to take the visitor into Mangalore.

Now we get to the delicious dessert named after Choyi, otherwise called "Choyi's pudding”, made from ripe small bananas. In North Malabar, this delicacy was usually served at the beginning of a meal and not at the end. Bananas were kneaded, the soft pudding was shaped into a round patty, ghee was smeared over it, sugar liberally sprinkled all over, and finally salty crunchy crushed pappad was layered on top and the resulting dessert was served as Choyi’s Malabar Pudding. It has been popular ever since.

Coming to the hotel - An 1889 article mentions that the proprietor of Esplanade Hotel was K Choyi. The hotel was very popular and the only well-appointed one of that period, frequented by well-heeled visitors, especially Englishmen and other foreigners. The Choyi’s seaside Hotel as it was also called, was built in one of the most idyllic sites in Cannanore, atop a hill overlooking the Arabian Sea. Choyi did well, the hotel prospered, and he was soon the owner of much land in the region. The wealthy Choyi sired some 20-odd children through 4-5 wives of his (you can get a listing from the Genie site).

The hotel was Choyi’s mainstay. From the 18^th century onwards, it boasted many prime amenities – a mile from the Railway station, with lock-up garages; private Sea-bathing arrangements; an open garden; a typewriter on request; babysitting; a small Library; a hairdresser; laundry ..and what not! There were 20-bath attached rooms with 32 beds in all, with hot and cold running water, and serving European, Indian, and vegetarian cuisine. Single rooms cost Rs 5/-, double Rs 7/ and meals were an extra Rs 6/-or 7/-. The private beach was, of course, especially appealing to European visitors.  

Among the many illustrious visitors to the hotel was the famous poetess Laurence Hope - writing from Cannanore to her sister-in-law Carrie, she mentions it as a cheap and nice hotel, with good food, and a kind obliging manager. She wonders – How he makes it pay, I don’t know! Choyi made special arrangements with boats and boatmen for estuary and sea fishing too, if someone wanted that diversion! Another account mentions - Choyi's Hotel has been a familiar name for many decades and Choyi himself well known to West Coast visitors. His son now carries on…Eric Stracey (INA Cyril’s brother) of the Madras Police relives his memories of happy camps in Cannanore and family paddles on its lovely beach below Choyi’s hotel (who does not know Choyi’s – he asks) where we sometimes stayed.

A Harper’s magazine article mentions - Perhaps the greatest hotel bargain I found was in Cannanore on the Malabar Coast , where I had my own cottage at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea for $2.50 a day, including very good meals. Another review stated – Bags of character in this super clean old-fashioned complex of bungalow cottages set around a lawn. The hotel was previously the exclusive British Cannanore club, according to some old-timers. Upto 1921 it was a hotel frequented only by Europeans.

But things were starting to get a little rough -An article from 1920 mentions - The situation of the hotel facing the beach was ideal, but sanitation appeared the one word missing throughout the place. As we had written to the management and had received their confirmatory reply, we had expected to find everything spick and span, the moment we alighted. A disagreeable surprise awaited us, for we were greeted at the entrance by a cow, who roamed at large throughout the halls and verandah. She mowed as loudly as she could, giving us a warm welcome in the absence of those concerned, and inviting us to share with her the wonderfully clean surroundings for which unwittingly she had been responsible. Whether this beast was considered sacred or lucky we could not conjecture, but from the way she peacefully roamed about the premises at her sweet will and fancy she certainly appeared to be the pet mascot of the entire hotel staff, which by the way consisted of an old deaf proprietor, an assistant to match, a limpy butler who had his own ideas about his dignity and an invisible cook, who was an adept in the art of cooking all varieties of inedible fishes. Though we had heard volumes about Cannanore being a very healthy station and renowned for its sea-bathing, yet we were considerably disappointed with the town, which affords no singular sight for the tourist, except the old Portuguese Fort on the promontory facing the beach.

I was passing Cannanore, driving down after seeing the Bekkal fort, and going about the St Angelo’s fort nearby. Unfortunately, the Arakkal Palace was closed to the public, being a Monday, and try as I did, I could not find the location of the Choyi Hotel at Payyambalam or its remnants. Some opined it was the Choice homestay place, others said it became the Choice hotel, and some sent me to the Savoy hotel, but I never found the old Choyi hotel or its remains, though the Savoy seemed to fit my mental bill, in style. Still, it was way off the beach and not it.

Choyi during his lifetime, was very active indeed, with many social causes. He seems to have been the first to start a girls' school in the area and granted space for it, as well as employing a Gurukkal (teacher) for the 10 or so students who studied there. He was also involved in community matters especially the Sree Narayana Guru visit –VK Kunhi Kannan decided to bring Sree Narayana Guru to Cannanore and consecrate a temple there. The Guru agreed to it and a committee comprising prominent Thiyya’s including Choyi Butler, was formed then. Sree Narayana Guru thus visited Kannur in 1907 and stayed at the home of Kottiyeth Choyi. The Sundareshwara temple construction started in 1909 and it was inaugurated in 1916.

Choyi's family - from first wife

Now let’s look at a few of his offspring, especially some of the luminaries. CK Bharatan looked after Choyi’s hotel, after the patriarchs’ death. Considering that it remained with the CK branch, it could be that Kalyani Amma held the title of the hotel.

CK Lakshmanan - Lakshmanan was born on 5th April 1898 in Cannanore, Kerala. He had his early education in the Christian College, Madras. He passed his L.M & S from Madras Medical College and was a noted all-round sportsman. During his college days, he captained the Madras University Cricket Team, won many Trophies in Tennis and Athletics, and represented India in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924.

Beyond sports, he was a member of many professional organizations and continued his medical education at St. Bartholomew's Medical College & Hospital, London, taking his MRCS, DTM & H, and DPH in the U.K. Lakshmanan was commissioned in the Indian Medical Service in 1925 and continued in military service up to 1935. He held various responsible civil positions in the Government of India. He was the Director of Public Health, in Bengal, and Director and Professor of Public Health Administration at the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta. He was Director General of Health Services, Government of India, for six years from 1952. He was the Honorary Surgeon to the President of India from 1957-58. After retirement from Government, he joined the Indian Red Cross Society as its Secretary-General in July 1958 and continued in that capacity until April 1969. He was made Honorary Major General in June 1960 and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1967.

KC Kausalya was no less. Kausalya completed her BA in 1910 from the Madras Presidency College, perhaps the first Malayali science graduate among women or at least the first to graduate in botany. Obtaining a Licentiate in Teaching in 1913, she joined the Government Girls’ High School, Cannanore as an Assistant. After her return from England in 1924, she was appointed Professor of Natural Science at Queen Mary’s College (QMC). Quoting Savithri Preetha Nair, she was the first Indian woman to visit the institution as a volunteer worker, Kausalya was at this time pursuing a second BSc degree at London’s Bedford College for Women (today’s Royal Holloway College) as a government scholar. The petite Kausalya would spend a year in the United States, but it does not appear this was in the capacity of a Barbour Fellow. In June 1933, she would visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the purpose of her visit was rather than botanical, a direct influence of the proceedings of the AIWC (1931). Kausalya wished to begin ‘home economics extension work’ in India similar to that in America. She also visited Redlands in California, where at a Forum Club meeting held at Beach City (Laguna Beach), to which she had been invited as guest, she spoke about the customs of her country. By May 1934, Kausalya along with her young niece, Miss Vimala Karunakaran were homeward bound on the Hakozaki Maru, heading for Colombo, from where they would travel by boat and then train to reach Madras.

C.K. Vijayaraghavan who was educated at Madras Christian College and Law College; joined the ICS, and served in Madras as Asst. Collector and magistrate, Collector of Tanjore, etc. and became the first Indian IG of Police of the undivided Madras Presidency, in 1947. He was later to become the Home Secretary in the Government of Madras. Interestingly the IG post was first offered to Pulla Reddy who however declined stating that he did not have the “necessary build” and so recommended the appointment of C.K. Vijayaraghavan, ICS to the post. He died in 1950.

Many children on the Kottieth Adiyeri and the other branches also rose to prominence, there are simply too many to recount. Some examples are Kottieth Anandan, Sub judge Kunhikannan, Deputy Collector Mukundan, etc. So many of the progeny also shone in the armed forces and in the administrative services.

People may wonder why I write about such characters, well, my friends, it is quite simple – they are the ones who rose from nothing to something, and that is the most important thing in the journey of life, lessons others can learn from. Choyi in those caste-ist periods in Kerala history, was placed in the lower rungs of society, see how he and his family made a place for themselves, in the annals of history!!

NB: The title for this article comes from the mouth of an 89-year-old family member of the Adiyeri line with whom I had a very interesting conversation. She told me about the vast family and narrated that in her lifetime, and family discussions, she often heard of many a thing - starting with – In the days and time of Choyi Butler.

I wish my friend Murkoth Premnath had been still alive, he would have recalled and narrated a few more legends, which could easily fill a few more pages…

References

Chromosome woman, nomad scientist E. K. Janaki Ammal, A Life 1897–1984 - Savithri Preetha Nair

Hartland – The spirit of a family – Hari Baskaran

Obituary Major General C.K. Lakshmanan – TB Association of India

Family members and friends of the Choyi family may suggest corrections if any under comments and I will gladly oblige. Thanks to Nikhil, Akhil for their help and Tushara and her grandma for the nice conversation.

Input # 1 - Adiyeri member - She informs me that Choyi is his first name and not a caste name. The Chirakkal Raja had apparently entrusted the prominent Kottieth family with supplying grain to his 35,000 soldiers, and hence their importance. It is also mentioned that Choyi owned one half of the land in the Payyambalam region and the other half was owned by his nephew Kottieth Ramunni vakil. The Choice hotel took over Choyi's hotel.

Photo from http://sreesundareswara.com/Administration.aspx, Adiyeri member

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