Rare Earths and Travancore

A New Assessment

Some years ago, I had covered this subject, dwelling mainly on the connections between Travancore, Britain, Sir CP, and the new administration at Delhi, trying to complete the accession of all the princely states. It was not complete and lacked study of certain angles, and so, I am revisiting the study to add more asides to it after reading a recent Wall Street Journal (Dec 16-17, 2023) article ‘Hunt for Rare-Earth Supplies Accelerate”. Now, this article was all about rare earth magnets, and the search for non-radioactive sands containing the material required for production of such magnets. But it also dealt with having to look for such ore/sand at far away places such as Australia and Vietnam and wean the western world from China which holds a virtual monopoly (China refines 89% of the world's neodymium and praseodymium, the key metals for EV magnets) on such magnet production.

I have not seen Rocket Boys yet but read the interesting article by MG Radhakrishnan in Mathrubhumi which provides details of the supposed meetings between Delhi and Travancore and the arm-twisting of the young Travancore Raja by Homi Bhaba. Now what was the real story?

It all started with a very interesting UK-trained geologist working for Travancore, named Ezra Masillamani, brother of the famous CM Agur (Travancore resident’s office manager and author of the book - Church History of Travancore). The family, originally Parayas, converted and can trace their ancestry to the convert Vedamanickam of Mylady, from De-Lannoy’s period.

indications of the presence of rare earths in these sands had initially been reported by Schomberg, Tipper, Herbert, and Christie. In a report by Messrs. E. Masillamani and I. C. Chacko, State Geologists of Travancore, dealing with work done during the years 1907-10, reference was made to the occurrence of monazite in Travancore. Late in 1916, or early in 1917, a variety of thorianite was discovered by him, carrying something like 40 percent. of uranium oxide. In the same year, the same geologist discovered two other minerals in Travancore (Mr. Masillamani worked on a crystal of thorianite and a partial analysis of the mineral showed that it contains 32.27 p.c. of ThO2 and 39.86 p.c. U2O8). The most important deposit was located at the Ashtamudi Bar, where the sands are brought down by the Kallada River.

I had covered the subsequent involvement of various nations and Sir CP in controlling the sale of these Monazite sands in an earlier article but did not dwell too much on the discussions between the Delhi government and Travancore. It is quite interesting and tells you a different story of some of the arm twisting by the center, to force consensus. It will also become clear to the reader that there is quite a bit of misreporting these days while recalling such events. This one had a good trail to follow and check, but I dread the days when AI will make ‘stretching or faking news’ otherwise termed ‘inspired’, even more, complicated to decipher.

First the importance of the sands. While the initial sand exports to Europe were for the manufacture of gas mantles, the subsequent interest was its potential use in nuclear technology. European, German, and Americans competed for a share in these deposits with Travancore, and after the end of the First World War, the new crop of capitalists including Eapen, Masillamani, and Kesava Pillai came to the fore, with applications, only to see them rejected. In some cases, land purchase applications were rejected, and the land was acquired by the Circar. Eventually, a few permissions were granted but paid low royalties.

Sir CP was initially involved with Travancore as an advisor to the Maharani and later as the Dewan of Travancore, until 1947. Though involved in many pioneering schemes and developmental activities, he was seen as an autocratic administrator, loyal to the royalty that employed him. As the people’s movements geared up, Sir CP who was fiercely anticommunist, used an iron hand to put down any kind of protest or revolt, earning him a poor reputation. We have discussed all these and exemplified them in previous articles.

Later, as Ilmenite became popular for the manufacture of Titanium Dioxide, Masillamani again came to the fore in 1930, with an application for 958 acres of mining land, but the Travancore Circar looked at it as dubious he seemed to be fronted by American interests, approving just 50 acres. As time went by, CP Mathan also entered the fray, forming Malabar Minerals in 1936, but CP refused to register the mining lease due to their frayed relationship (see article on TN & Quilon bank). The situation dragged on until independence, with British and sometimes American companies involved in the fringes, and Travancore drew very little royalty in the export of these sands. The overall market and strategic outlook were not clear, but the importance of these rare earth sands remained paramount in the public sphere, with new applications for the metals coming about rapidly, not only in the nuclear industry but also elsewhere.

The techno-politics of Rare Earths, Sir CP

The importance of Monazite, a phosphate compound, is that it contains radioactive Thorium. As mentioned previously, it was originally used for gas mantle lamps (a technology patented by Germans, but with raw material (acquired from Travancore) monopolized by the British). With the pioneering research by Marie Curie and Carl Schmidt, its importance in radioactivity became clear and as the nuclear age dawned in 1945, its potential use to breed nuclear fuel became clear.

That the British would be on their way out of India was clear in the early years of the 40s and Sir CP, an avowed monarchist started to lay grounds for the state to remain independent of the new India. His arguments were persuasive and the state itself was more developed than most, relatively stable, and considerably wealthy. I have covered these at length in an earlier essay. For some strange reason, Sir CP did not play his critical pawn, the Thorium business, in his play, or so we thought.

This was the period when the US decided to try and control the global nuclear scene (after it had dropped the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945), by establishing a monopoly over all aspects of atomic research & production.  But naturally, the Thorium deposits at Travancore came up in discussions between the US and the UK. Until then and through WW II, sales of sands were embargoed by Britain. As the war ground to a close, Sir CP refused to lift the embargo and insisted that those who wanted the minerals had to establish production plants in Travancore, arguing its desire to become an industrialized state. The US was vexed at the turn of events, for 73% of the Monazite import was from Travancore. The British however, were not upset about this as they continued to control the overseas communication channels.

Covert communications, however, continued between the US and Sir CP, and they knew that the key to success was support for Sir CP’s visions of an independent Travancore. Thus, a tenuous link started to form between Thorium and Travancore’s independence. As late as July 1947, an official communique between the US Department of State and the US consul in Madras read - We must be careful to avoid giving the Dewan any opportunity to claim a special relationship with us, unless it should actually be our intention to establish one. At this particular time, I should imagine he would be particularly eager to see in the Consulate’s dealings with him, some explicit or tacit approval of his idea of Travancore independence, in advance of the time when we can take any decision on that question.

Sir CP knew about the nuclear significance of thorium and after the Nagasaki bombing, he wrote to the Maharaja in 1946- “If thorium can be utilized for the manufacture of atomic bombs (there is no reason why it should not be), Travancore will enjoy a position very high in the world.” He also made it clear to the newly minted CSIR, that Travancore was the sole owner of all mineral deposits and would only deal directly with interested parties. He went on to conclude a secret deal with the UK to export 9,000 tonnes between 1947 and 1950, in return for the establishment of a new processing plant in Travancore. The men in power at Delhi came to know the facts only after the reporter Bamzai, published the explosive article in Bombay’s Blitz.

Even though Homi Bhabha, the Chairman of CSIR seemed unconcerned, Nehru was incensed. Speaking to the Indian cabinet in April 1947, Nehru is reported to have said that he “would approve the ‘use of airpower against Travancore, if necessary, to bring them to heel. He then asked the head of CSIR, Sir Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, to travel to Travancore to obtain more information about the nature of Travancore’s arrangement with the British. Bhabha and Swarup traveled to Trivandrum in June 1947 and came back with an acceptable agreement, while the central government thanked Sir CP for his cooperation.

Itty Abraham in his lovely article, stops here, but the story had another angle altogether and for that, we must study the fascinating account provided by Sandeep Bamzai, the grandson of KN Bamzai, the intrepid Blitz journalist. Blitz did provide an expose of what was going on, behind closed doors, then. Bamzai explains that the printed version was one thing, but what was provided to Nehru by Blitz behind the scenes, had damaging information on Sir CP.

Now what could Sir CP have been up to or for that matter, how did Nehru outwit Sir CP using the Blitz investigative report? Here is where you can see the collective genius of Nehru, Patel, and Menon, working together before they deputed Sampath and Bhabha.

Though Sir CP found some support from Veer Savarkar, his master plan was to establish a direct communication link with Britain and sign the agreement with Thorium Ltd, where on the face of it, a plant would be established for processing the sands in Travancore (retaining natural resources within the country), but on detailed perusal; it turned out that a majority of the 9,000 tones would be directly exported, while only a small portion would be processed locally. This deal was unearthed by Bamzai, and its details were turned over to Nehru.

As Sir CP traveled to Delhi and met Mountbatten to argue his case on Travancore’s independence, Mountbatten refused to buy Sir CP’s arguments that Nehru was unstable and Patel was ruthless and asked him to deal with VP Menon. VP Menon, it is mentioned, reminded Sir CP that Travancore was the strongest breeding ground for communists in India. He asked CP what CP could do if the communists revolted against him after 15^th August, and this veiled threat discomfited Sir CP. As we know now, a personal attack on Sir CP would take place, sooner than later.

The counter was multipronged, and the sequence of events went thus.

-        - VP Menon mentioned the communist threat to the Dewan, per Bamzai’s account.

-       -  The Dewan returning from Delhi, asked the Maharaja to write that he would agree to the conditions, but the Raja delayed signing the letter. Mountbatten insisted on receiving a signed document.

-        - At the same time, the state congress agitation strengthened, and, in a few days, Sir CP was stabbed by KCS Mani at a public function.

-        - The Maharaja confirmed he would sign, and Patel called off the agitation.

-        - Blitz then published the one-sided agreement between Travancore and Thorium Ltd.

Now how did Sir CP establish channels with the British? He used the Nizam of Hyderabad to channel his communications through the Nawab of Bhopal – Hamidullah Khan, to Jinnah in Pakistan. Using his sleuths, Nehru obtained a copy of the Nawab’s letter to Jinnah. It signaled a confederation of these recalcitrant states either themselves or through Pakistan to establish links with Britain. It also became clear that Churchill was a party to this maneuver, through his secretary Gillatt. Eventually, Nehru exposed the complete plan to the powers in the center.

So much for Sir CP and his machinations.

Oppenheimer, Nehru & India

The involvement of Oppenheimer with India was twofold, and I had mentioned one of them in the past, his devotion to the Bhagavad Gita. As it turns out, when he ran afoul of Edgar Hoover and got into the bad books of the FBI, he was invited to India by Nehru, a sanctuary of sorts. Bernard Peters had by then moved to India to work at TIFR. Nehru’s missive was sent through a member of the Indian Consul General, inviting Oppenheimer to visit India for a month or two or even longer, perhaps for good. Dr Oppenheimer replied that he was deeply moved by the PM’s letter and invitation, mentioning that he would always have it in mind, that he did indeed hope to visit India, but that right then he thought his place was in the USA. The Indian diplomat assured Oppenheimer that no atomic bomb work was taking place in India, but Oppenheimer told him this wasn’t a consideration in his decision. Instead, Oppenheimer thought that ‘were he to leave the United States now, this action would be misconstrued in such as way as to be very dangerous and indeed harmful to the good relations between the two countries’.

But there is more to this as well – it turns out as Nayantara Sahgal narrates, that Oppenheimer attempted to communicate secretly with Nehru through Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, who was serving at the time as India’s envoy to Washington.

A chilling climax to her growing unease over the prevailing political climate in America came two weeks later with s telephone call from Robert Oppenheimer, the renowned physicist who had headed the experiment that produced the atom bomb. On 21 February 1951, she wrote to her brother,

Quote – Letter dated 21^st Feb 1951 VLP to JN (quoted verbatim as recent news reports have ‘massaged’ parts of it) though the veracity of its contents cannot be established as factual.

Two days ago, I had a phone call from Professor Oppenheimer from Princeton saying that he wanted to communicate something of a very urgent nature and that he was sending Amiya Chakravarti because he could not come personally for reasons I would understand. He sounded agitated on the phone. Amiya arrived next day and delivered the following verbal message, to be communicated to you as early as possible.

Oppenheimer wants you to know that work of a most horrible and deadly nature is being done on the atom bomb, that step by step America is 'deliberately' moving towards a war of annihilation. The recent promises given by Truman to Attlee regarding the atom have resulted in research for a weapon of the same deadly quality which will be kept very secret and used INSTEAD of the atom. This research is going on at a furious pace. Many of those engaged in this work are going to pieces as it is against all accepted standards of civilized decency, and the secrecy imposed on them is almost more than some of them can bear, Oppenheimer among them. For this purpose, more and more thorium is required and the U.S. desires to stockpile all available thorium. Oppenheimer has reason to believe that an approach will be made very soon to India directly, and through Britain. In fact, he believes that one reason why the Indian request for wheat has been so readily sponsored by the State Department is because of what they themselves require from India. The argument used for obtaining thorium will be that it is intended for humanitarian purposes. According to Oppenheimer NO such purpose can at present be achieved.

Oppenheimer 'begs' the Government of India not to sell any thorium to the U.S. voluntarily or through pressure. He thinks India holds the key to peace at present, but if India's vast resources of thorium are placed at the disposal of the U.S., the greatest war ever fought will be made possible. Secret talks have been going on between the U.S. and Britain.

Oppenheimer wants you to know that in spite of the general belief that Britain has the atom, the only bombs she has have gone from the U.S. That is the hold the U.S., has on her and it may be used to put pressure on India. In conclusion, Oppenheimer begs India in the name of humanity to maintain her present foreign policy and not be swayed by any pressure, national or international, to depart from it.

This remarkable letter marked Top Secret and never, to my knowledge, made public before, from the American scientist who knew what the ghastly consequences of a war worse than nuclear war would be, carries no hint or smear of betrayal, only a desperate bid to avert catastrophe. It appeals to a man whom Oppenheimer regards as the sole dependable advocate for peace in circumstances where preparations for a destructive war are proceeding behind a facade of peace.

Oppenheimer's messenger, Amiya Chakravarti was a Bengali poet and academic who had been closely associated with Tagore and Gandhi. At this time, he was Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton.

Oppenheimer's anguish over his part in the atom bomb had turned him to the study of Hindu philosophy and Gandhi’s doctrine of ahimsa. He had unbounded admiration for Nehru and had written to him in his search for comfort during his own period of soul-searching. Vijaya Lakshmi had once had lunch with him at Princeton and found him 'as rare a human being as he was a great scientist'.

The US deliberations

Well, remarkable right?? I should have written this before the article on Russell, Menon, and Nehru. But it tells you the way thoughts went in those Cold War days. Anyway, a lot of water has flown under the bridge and all these only raise an eyebrow. This is just yet another story from the past, of no real relevance these days.

The sands of Travancore are still coveted. The KMML and Titanium units, locations we used to wander around during our childhood days remain, mining rare earths, be they for magnets or whatever. Scandals concerning exports of these sands continue to sport headlines now and then. Interestingly while the treasures of the temple are dedicated to Lord Padmanabha, these precious sands don't seem to be!

As regards Oppenheimer & the Bhagavad Gita, I chanced on a lengthy paper on - The “Gita’ of J Robert Oppenheimer by James A. Hijiya, published by the American Philosophical Society, Jun 2000. It is a fairly complex but thought-provoking paper and requires careful study. That will remain a work in progress….

References

'Captains of the Sands' Metropolitan Hegemony in Mining in Tiruvitamkur, 1900-50 - K T Ram Mohan

Radioactive Minerals and Private Sector Mining – VT Padmanabhan

Princestan – Sandeep Bamzai

Rare Earths: The cold war in the annals of Travancore – Itty Abraham

Travancore’s Pakistan Intrigues, 1946-47

A Life in Twilight -Mark Wolverton

Nehru: Civilizing A Savage World - Nayantara Sahgal