The Discovery of Brazil

Cabral, Pacheco or ?

Recently, I was discussing history with a Brazilian colleague of mine, and I mentioned Cabral's voyage to India, noting how he veered off course and ended up in Brazil, thereby being credited with the discovery of Brazil. My colleague, Ricardo, frowned after listening patiently and said that the issue remained contested, with differing opinions on the matter, and added that it was a topic frequently debated in Portuguese academic circles. Until then, I hadn't really stopped to think about the discovery of Brazil or studied the subject in depth. However, after hearing Ricardo's comment, I started reviewing and gathering information for a study. As expected, I found plenty of material, much of it in Portuguese; however, the English works were sufficient to get me started and understand the basics, which I can now share with you for further reading.

In 1095, Pope Urban II issued the papal bull Terra Nullius (empty land), which declared that all land controlled by Christian empires was legally theirs. This was followed by several papal pronouncements (papal bulls) that collectively became known as the Doctrine of Discovery. Later, in 1493, the Inter caetera was issued, granting Spain and Portugal ownership of all lands west and south of a line drawn from pole to pole, 100 leagues west and south of any of the Azores or Cabo Verde Islands. This bull was modified in 1494 with the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas, which established that any newly discovered lands outside Europe, along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands off the West African coast, would belong to Portugal. Later, a document called the ‘Compact of 1495’ was created, in which Portugal agreed to delay marking the lines until some island or mainland could be discovered in the Portuguese or Spanish sections of the Atlantic. This was due to a disagreement over the exact location of the 370-degree longitude, as there was no method of determining longitude by measurement at that time.

In this context, it is important to note that Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer, is famously known for his voyages across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, which led to European contact with the Caribbean islands through his four journeys, marking the announcement of the discovery of the New World. Although the claim that he discovered the mainland during his third voyage was disputed, it was later accepted after the 1513-15 trials. Spain had thus already made numerous discoveries, and following the treaty, amicability existed between Spain and Portugal, so there was no real need for secrecy. However, considering that private finance was involved, some level of competition always existed between them.

We all know the basics - Brazil was officially "discovered" in 1500 when a fleet led by the 32-year-old Portuguese noble Pedro Alvares Cabral, en route to Calicut, ended up at Porto Seguro, between Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. His appointment as the leader of the second fleet, despite limited navigational and sailing experience, was seen as a political move by the King. However, the reader should remember that he was accompanied by more experienced navigators such as Bartolomeu Dias, Diogo Dias, and Nicolau Coelho.

As we know, the fleet departed from Lisbon on March 9, 1500, passed the Canary Islands five days later, and arrived at Cape Verde on the 22nd. The equator was crossed on April 9, and for some unclear reasons (some scribes mentioned a fierce storm), it turned westward, following the Volta do mar technique perfected by Portuguese navigators. Instead of sailing directly against the wind and current, ships first sailed west, away from the coast, to reach the westerlies (winds blowing from west to east); then, they turned east and were carried back toward their destination. On the 22nd, the ships arrived at Monte Pascoal, on the northeastern coast of present-day Brazil. After this initial contact, they studied the Indigenous people, exchanged gifts, restocked the ships' supplies, and built a large cross, while the fleet's supply ship hurried back to Lisbon to announce the discovery of the new land. According to Cabral's calculations, the land was east of the demarcation line established in the Treaty of Tordesillas. The territory was within Portugal's designated area, and a large cross was placed to mark the event and reinforce Portugal's claim to the new land.

After confirming that this land was indeed along a long coast and not an island, Cabral and his fleet sailed to India around May 2nd or 3rd. Twenty days later, they encountered a fierce storm, and Bartolomeu Dias's ships were lost. The battered remnants of the fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope and eventually stopped near Soffola, then proceeded to Malindi by August for repairs and refurbishment. The fleet arrived in Calicut on September 13. The rest of Cabral's story was recounted in earlier articles, i.e., his meeting with the Zamorin, the issues with the Arabs, the violence, and the bombardment of Calicut that ensued.

Cabral sailed to Cochin in December 1500, a place that had become friendly with the Portuguese after Vasco da Gama's first visit in 1498. After securing a shipload of valuable spices, the fleet next moved to Cannanore and then started its long voyage back to Lisbon in January 1501. The ships once again got separated and arrived back in Lisbon separately, six months later. Although only five ships had been fully loaded, two sailed empty, and six ships were lost, the cargoes on the five were quickly sold, resulting in a healthy profit for the Portuguese Crown.

King Manuel quickly organized the next voyage with Cabral to command what was known as the Revenge fleet, aiming to deal heavy damage to the Zamorin of Calicut, who had rejected Portuguese demands for a pepper monopoly. Strangely, six months after preparations started, Cabral was removed from command, and Vasco da Gama was appointed as the fleet's admiral. Cabral fell out of favor with the king and went into virtual exile, never regaining the monarch's favor. Perhaps his sins at Malabar caught up with him, as he fell ill and eventually retreated into a mostly secluded private life, dying unrecognized in 1520. Cabral, a person who should have benefited greatly from the incredible discovery of Brazil, received little acclaim and then vanished from history for nearly 300 years.

After its discovery, the official Portuguese name for the land was the "Land of the Holy Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz). However, it was popularly known as Brazil, named after the Portuguese word for the red brazilwood, a tree that once grew abundantly along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word Brasil commonly believed to derive from the phrase "red like an ember," formed from brasa (meaning 'ember') and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).  Terra da Santa Cruz was thus replaced by Terra do Brasil. The Portuguese expanded their holdings in Brazil, and by 1750, this wealthy territory was considered Portugal's most important part of its far-reaching maritime empire.

It took a long time for Cabral to re-enter historical discussions. When Brazilian historian Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen (later Viscount of Porto Seguro) found Cabral's long-forgotten tomb in Santarém in 1839, historians and politicians were shocked by the explorer's misfortune, which caused a public outcry. While Cabral’s discovery was widely accepted until then, a controversy emerged toward the end of the 19th century when Emperor Pedro II of Brazil posed a question during a meeting in 1854: whether the discovery was actually ‘accidental’, as everyone had been led to believe, or if it was ‘intentional’. By ‘intentional’, the assumption was, of course, that Portugal knew about a large landmass to the West.

Why would Portugal continue to promote the 'accidental' theory? Telma Alancar argues that Brazil had about seven million indigenous people in 1500, and it was not an empty land ready for colonization. Therefore, framing Brazil's colonization by Cabral and others as ‘accidental’ allowed the Portuguese to avoid ethical and moral questions about the domination of its land and people. However, those who believe it was ‘intentional’ point to the "Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis" by Duarte Pacheco, which implies that Cabral's visit was planned. The contents of this work were kept secret from the public for nearly four centuries by order of King Manuel I, and parts of it, including maps and notes, have since been lost. Pacheco claimed in his Esmeraldo de situ Orbis that the King of Portugal sent him to discover land to the west in 1498, two years before Cabral's landfall. Let’s now take a look at this explorer.

Duarte Pacheco Pereira was a Portuguese sea captain, soldier, explorer, and cartographer. He traveled extensively in the central Atlantic Ocean, west of the Cape Verde Islands, along the coast of West Africa, and was later sent to India. In 1503, he set out for India as captain of the Espírito Santo, one of the three ships in the armada led by Afonso de Albuquerque. In 1504, he was put in charge of defending Cochin, a Portuguese protectorate in India, against a series of attacks between March and July of that year by the Zamorin of Calicut. Using his skills, considerable luck, and deep knowledge of the tidal patterns in the Cochin backwaters, he managed to defend Cochin heroically for five months, despite having a much smaller army compared to the large army and navy of the Zamorin of Calicut. Duarte Pacheco was celebrated by the Raja of Cochin for this effort and honored by King Manuel I of Portugal with public festivities upon his return to Lisbon in 1505.

But what connection could he have to the discovery of Brazil? Between 1505 and 1508, Duarte Pacheco Pereira wrote a book, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis. It was never finished, but was published only in 1892 (with the English translation in 1936). There was much debate about the meaning of the term Esmeraldo, and one theory suggests that Pacheco's name is related to the Malayalam word for green, implying that he was being compared to a unique green emerald stone. The book mainly covers cosmography and navigation, with three parts completed and a fourth left unfinished.

In the Esmeraldo de situ orbis, written from 1505 to 1508, it is stated that in the third year of the reign of D. Manuel (therefore in 1498), the King ordered him to "discover the western part, beyond the greatness of the Ocean Sea, where a very large landmass is found and navigated, with many large islands adjacent to it", which extends from the equator to 70º N. and from the same equator to 28º S.; and in this last part "much fine Brazil" was found.

Studying the case, Capistrano de Abreu concluded that the first text refers to a trip to the Northern Hemisphere, and it is likely that Duarte Pacheco went with one of the Corte Real brothers to Canada and Newfoundland. As for the continentality of America and the existence of brazilwood south of the equatorial line, he claims this was already known at the time the Esmeraldo was written.

In his book, Pacheco proceeds to argue that the recent discoveries of the Portuguese in the western Atlantic, which he regards as having initiated, provide fresh evidence of his contention. The immediate interest of the passage for us lies in the fact that Pacheco believed this "large continent" to be continuous from north of the Arctic Circle to south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Morrison, who discusses this aspect in great detail, agrees with Capistrano, stating that it was simply a widely accepted hypothesis at the time and that no solid proof actually existed. It was just a concept articulated by Pacheco.

The ‘intentional’ side argues that Portugal knew, but suppressed the information under 'the conspiracy of silence' when censorship was severe, maps and travel accounts were suppressed, to maintain Portugal's ocean superiority and to keep interlopers away from Africa and Asia. Navigation charts were sometimes only loaned to navigators by the India House, and at the end of a voyage, they had to be returned to that institution. The Esmeraldo was possibly banned from circulation, censored, and sections were subsequently suppressed for national policy reasons. Approximately 18 maps of the world and numerous unique sketches were lost, along with the originals, in the Lisbon earthquake/fire of 1755, and only two copies still exist.

Although the western swing in the Cabral voyage seemed justified, as it is now confirmed to be a good navigational technique recommended by da Gama, no reason for it was given in any of the contemporary accounts of the voyage or by any reliable historians of the period, except for João de Barros, who states that the fleet went westward to avoid the Guinea calms. Many subsequent voyages to India followed this route, some to land on the coast of Brazil for wood, water, and supplies, and others because, although this course was longer, it offered better sailing conditions and ultimately allowed faster reach of the destination. Morrisson, on the other hand, believes that Cabral followed Gama's advice and took the suggested route to India, which has since proven to be the fastest then and now.

Morrison writing in 1965 argues that Pacheco must have either been an observer on the third voyage of Columbus, as Greenlee supposes, or that Pacheco indeed explored lands in the Portuguese-allocated area but failed to find any. However, he believes that Pacheco later provided enough information in his own maps, which were used to prepare the Cantino Planisphere. The idea that Pacheco had discovered Brazil before Cabral has since been rejected; it is now believed that Pacheco traveled to North America instead.

Charles Nowell, writing in 1936, concentrates on the missing sailing orders. He states - Unfortunately, the royal instructions to Cabral are only partially available, and the surviving fragment remains silent about the first and, for us, most crucial part of the voyage. Because of this, we must speculate about the nature of the orders. The fact that only a part of Cabral's instructions still exists might be significant. Manoel's fragile relations with Spain and his fear of offending that country could have led to the immediate destruction of the initial part of the orders; if they concerned any part of the New World, it would not have been safe to make them public.

There is a question whether Vasco da Gama heard about islands or landmasses to the West from Arab sailors he encountered during his voyage to India. Was that the reason he gave specific directions to Cabral to head west? Gama's secretary records – 'This is the way which it seemed to Vasco da Gama that Pedro Alvarez Cabral should go on his journey, it pleasing the king.' If he turned west to gather wood, food, and water, then he certainly knew there was land there.

Another clue appears in Mestre João's letter to the King after Cabral's discovery. Concerning the location of this land, Senhor, if your Highness will send for a map belonging to Pero Vaz Bisagudo, your Highness will be able to see there the location of this land; but the map does not state whether this country is inhabited or not; it is an old map and your Highness will find that Mina is shown on it. Mestre João, a scholar, believed and trusted the ‘old’ Bisagudo map, which suggested a pre-Columbian voyage to Brazil by the Portuguese. The Bisagudo (Cunha) map which featured the Castle of São Jorge da Mina in addition to the island of Vera Cruz, has never been found!

Portuguese historian Duarte Leite objects to the claim by Pacheco, thus - "if Pacheco did discover areas east of the Line of Demarcation and did bring back news of his to [King] Manuel [of Portugal], the reason which induced Don Manuel to keep secret. . . such an important discovery escapes me. As soon as Cabral returned in 1501, Manuel announced the discovery of Brazil to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Why would he not, in 1499, after the return of Vasco da Gama, make a similar announcement if Pacheco had already discovered Brazil? No objection could come on the part of Spain, given the division made by the Treaty of Tordesillas, as indeed none came in 1501 when Cabral's discovery was announced. I am persuaded that Pacheco neither discovered Brazil in 1498 nor was present two years later at its discovery by Cabral.

A comment in American professor Charles Nowell’s paper suggests an answer to the question - In October, 1497, a marriage of state occurred between King Manoel and Princess Isabel, daughter of the rulers of Spain. This, coupled with the death of Prince Juan, the brother of Isabel, made Manoel, through his wife, heir to the thrones of Castile, Aragon, and Leon. In 1498, the pair made a journey through Spain, being acclaimed as future King and queen. These circumstances, in the very year of Pacheco's exploration, explain its secrecy, for Manoel was naturally reticent about giving offense to Spain, of which he hoped soon to be King. Yet even this did not prevent him from looking to Portugal's interests. The line of Tordesillas had not been adequately located, and there was a growing Spanish interest in the southern Atlantic, as evidenced by the voyage of Columbus in that same year. Obviously, the time had come to act upon the late King João's knowledge of a land to the southwest. Hence, the voyage of Duarte Pacheco and the secrecy which attended it.

De Souza, analyzing the Venetian cartographer Andrea Bianco, focuses on the mention of "Ixola Otinticha" in Andrea Bianco's map and identifies it as the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde Archipelago, thus asserting that it was indeed known to some navigators well before Cabral's discovery.

Now that we have a better understanding of the two main contenders, let's examine the other claimants, if only for completeness.

Spanish explorers, other than Columbus

The possible landings of the expeditions by Spanish fleets under de Ojeda with Amerigo Vespucci (1499), Guerra, and Yáñez Pinzón (1500), and Diego de Lepe mention lands south of Columbus's discoveries. Pinzón is the strongest contender and did provide proof of having passed the shores, and was, as such, recognized by Spanish historians.

There is some evidence that two Spaniards, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Diego de Lepe, traveled along the northern coast of Brazil between January and March 1500. Pinzón sailed from what is now Cabo de Santo Agostinho (in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco) to the mouth of the Amazon River. There, he encountered another Spanish expedition led by Lepe, which reached as far as the Oyapock River in March. The reason Cabral is credited with discovering Brazil, rather than the Spanish explorers, is that the visits by Pinzón and Lepe were brief and had no lasting impact.

Portuguese historians, such as Leite, when studying these voyages, believe that all these claims are questionable. They argue that these explorers possibly saw the mouth of the Orinoco, not the Amazon, and stayed near the Caribbean, not further south. Leite also believed that some maps associated with these voyages might have been altered after 1500.

St Brendan

Then comes the story of St. Brendan, the Irish navigator who discovered Ui Brasil, part of what they called Greater Ireland. St. Brendan (Brendan the Navigator) is credited in the Irish annals with the earliest discoveries on the New World shores, which he called "Greater Ireland." With the Irish Culdees, he is said to have visited Iceland, Vinland (New England), and traveled southward to Florida and Darien, then to Brazil. In a 1375 map, Brazil Island appears with a shape and position similar to South America. Historians do not give much weight to this claim and dismiss it as a Celtic myth.

There are many more leads, such as the evidence offered by Estevao Frois, who suggests Portuguese presence at Pernambuco in 1492, João Coelho (a partner of Corte-Real) sometime in the 1490s, and João Ramalho from Beira, a Portuguese settler at Sao Vincente in Brazil since 1490, who was perhaps a degredado or shipwreck survivor.

The arguments will continue, and debates will rage. However, despite a certain amount of mystery remaining due to the paucity of resources, even after a century of investigation, Cabral continues to be the top contender for being 'The man who discovered Brazil'.

References

Portuguese voyages to America in the fifteenth century - Morison, Samuel Eliot
The Discovery of Brazil-Accidental or Intentional? Charles E. Nowell
Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis - Duarte Pacheco Pereira. Tr. G. T. Kimble
The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India – WB Greenlee
Silencing the Doctrine of Discovery in Brazil: Accidental "Discoveries", Secret Manuscripts, Imaginary Lines and Myths - Telma Alencar
A Supposed Discovery of Brazil before 1448: Thomas Oscar Marcondes de Souza

Those who desire to study the Bianco map may peruse this paper: 1448 Andrea Bianco Portolan Chart – Cartographic Evidence of the Pre-Columbian Newport Tower - Patrick Shekleton

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The Japanese Monsoon missions, and the I-29

And its involvement in Indian affairs

During the early 40’s, as the world was engulfed in a great war, pitting the Allies against the Axis, the battles drifted Eastwards, and the skirmishes in the air and over the seas intensified. Frigates churned the waters and bombers roared overhead in many war theaters, while submarines prowled the depths waiting to pounce on enemy warships and merchantmen plying the waters above. German U-boats, Italian Sottomarini, and Japanese Sensuikan competed with British and American submarines in outmaneuvering each other, while radar-equipped B-24s scanned the waters, to swoop down like eagles and bomb them as they surfaced. Through this melee, two Axis submarines, one from Japan and another from Germany, moved in opposite directions, and at each other, intent on a secret mission somewhat connected to the liberation of India.

In the previous article, we followed the fortunes of the American cargo ship Paul Luckenbach, read about its sinking off the coast of Madagascar, and checked the fate of its survivors, who ultimately ended up in Calicut. The latter story of the submarine I-29, which fired its torpedoes at the Luckenbach, is equally interesting due to its subsequent connections to India. Let’s spend a few minutes checking it out.

Recapping, we saw that those Japanese submarines and their support frigate groups had moved out of the Pacific Ocean and relocated to attack Allied merchant ships plying the Indian Ocean, preventing supplies from reaching Allied front lines, circumventing blockades, and augmenting German Axis efforts. Many of the submarines involved in these shipping attacks moved out from European bases to Penang after the Japanese took Singapore, Malaya, the Andaman Islands, and later, Burma.

U-boat Base - Penang

As we read previously, U-boats became the most significant peril to maritime shipping since the War started in 1939. Wolfpacks roamed freely underwater and sank many a ship destined for the West. While the subs roamed the seas, the Allies were perfecting their submarine search-and-destroy techniques from the air. By February 1942, Singapore had become part of the Japanese-controlled territories in Southeast Asia. As the Japanese joined up with the Germans to form the Axis powers, the Kriegsmarine, i.e., the Third Reich’s navy, decided to create an Eastern base in Penang. Strangely, it remained somewhat of a secret, and few locals were aware of this establishment. It was also a base for Japanese submarines during the remainder of the war. The Japanese 8th Flotilla, commanded by Admiral Uzuki, which participated in the Yanagi transport missions, used Penang as its staging base, while Singapore remained the repair base.

The base was established at George Town, at a former British seaplane station in Penang. Japan was 3500 nautical miles away, and Singapore was 415 nautical miles from the base. It was certainly strategic, located on the Swettenham Pier, and covered the northern end of the strategic Malacca Strait, through which shipping destined to the West had to pass. Not a full-fledged base, it was at best a repair depot and a home base for the crew.

From the German side, the U-511 was the first to arrive at Penang, which was then sent to Kobe, allowing the Japanese to model new submarines around it for the future. Wilhelm Dommes, the captain of U-178, arrived to set up the U-boat base in August 1943. From there, he would oversee the U-boat operations at Penang, Singapore, Surabaya, and Kobe.  Thus, this became the home for the Monsunboote or the Monsoon boat program. Initially, 11 German U-boats were deployed, but during transit, 4 were destroyed, two were converted into supply boats, out of which one sank, and five got through to Penang. As these U-boats arrived towards the end of the monsoon season, they were called the Gruppe Monsun or the Monsoon group. Three Italian submarines were also stationed there, but they were primarily used for transport. Over time, U Boat combat missions were reduced and converted to Yanagi transport missions.

Another reason for the move out East was that the war in the Atlantic, where the U-boats had wreaked havoc, was now tilting in favor of the Allies. Although the concept was sound, the problem was that Penang was far away, and secondly, supply boats were scarce.  It was certainly not a great arrangement; the Japanese and the Germans (who considered themselves vastly superior) quarreled incessantly, and therefore, the sharing of authority between them proved to be quite difficult.  Also, around this time, Allied SIGINT had cracked the German Enigma codes and were finding it easier to track the movements of these U-boats.

Yanagi missions

The Axis powers needed supplies badly to continue on with the War, and these had to arrive from diverse sources. Germany needed rubber, tin, tungsten, copper, and bismuth, as well as medicines such as quinine, while the Japanese needed steel, mercury, and optical glass. It also became clear that Japan and Germany should exchange military technology, including military hardware, prototypes of new weapons, and research data. The only corridor for exchanging the above information was underwater, using submarines, simply because air transport was no longer viable.

The naval and air power of the Allies made overseas blockade-running shipments difficult. German Admiral Karl Dönitz conceived the idea of utilizing refitted submarines for this purpose. The Japanese Navy agreed to build twenty large cargo submarines for the Yanagi missions (the significance of the U511 transfer via Penang). This was how the Yanagi Sakusen started, namely a series of submarine voyages undertaken by the two navies to exchange technology, skills, and materials with Nazi Germany.

The Japanese Submarine I-29

The 8th Submarine Squadron, part of the Japanese 6^th Fleet, was thus relocated from the Marshall Islands to Penang in 1942 and remained there until late 1944. These Japanese subs were involved in offensive raids and sank many ships, participated in Yanagi missions, and were also involved in transferring IIL spies and saboteurs to Indian shores (see articles on the Swaraj School).

Many submarines (I- followed by two digits such as I-10, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, and through to 30) participated in the missions, and perhaps the most famous was the B1 class I-29, named Matsu, launched in 1940. Commissioned on 27 February 1942, into the 14th submarine squadron and commanded by Izu Juichi, it was involved in many daring raids, the famous reconnaissance of the Sydney harbor before it was attacked, sinking of quite a few ships, including the Paul Luckenbach on Sept 22, 1942, plus a few others along the way. The I-29 returned to Penang after a successful run on 5th Oct 1942 and went on to have a remarkable wartime record for a Japanese submarine, sinking even more merchant ships. It also did multiple successful Yanagi missions to Germany (Juichi Izu was part of many more exploits before losing his life in another submarine that was sunk by the Allies).

In April 1943, it was tasked with a Yanagi mission by Masao Teraoka, the commander of the submarine flotilla. She left Penang with a cargo that included two tons of gold for the Japanese embassy in Berlin and was additionally tasked with a secret mission, to bring back a couple of mechanics from Berlin.

Berlin - Germany

Bose arrived in Nazi Germany in 1941, where the leadership offered little support and mostly sympathy for India’s independence. German funds were nevertheless provided to open a Free India Centre in Berlin. A 3,000-strong Free India Legion was recruited from among Indian POWs captured by Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps to serve under Bose. As we saw in the Jai Hind article, Bose had Abid Hassan and NG Swami assist with recruiting of key personnel from this group to team up with the Germans in an attack on the Afghan border, a project which was eventually shelved. Bose was then asked to travel to Japan and discuss arrangements to collaborate with the Japanese and plan resistance from Southeast Asia.

Continuing discussions with German authorities, Bose also met (May 29, 1942) with Adolf Hitler to cement his proposals. He desired to move as soon as possible to SE Asia and direct the free India operations from as close to the Indian border as possible. Hitler agreed to find a way of sending Bose to Asia, and suggested traveling in either a German or a Japanese submarine. Things were not going well for the Germans in the war, and Bose’s plans did not receive any urgency from that point on, so he attempted to persuade the Italians to assist him in flying to Burma. On a personal level, Emilie was pregnant with Bose’s child and nearing the delivery date. The flight plans were delayed for various reasons, while Emilie delivered Anita in Vienna.  Eventually, Bose’s submarine voyage to Japan was finalized in January 1943. Though intending to take along Swami, Hassan, and Vyas, Bose had to contend with just Hasan, as space was limited in the submarine. Bose and Hasan thus started preparing for an arduous submarine trip to Japan.

The submarine they boarded was the U-180 with its forward torpedo tubes removed to create space for cargo. Overland, meanwhile, the war was starting to turn. After their rapid advance into Russia, the seemingly invincible German army was defeated by the harsh Soviet winter and a determined, resolute Red Army in Stalingrad in February 1943. Mahatma Gandhi was undertaking a hunger fast in India, and the Quit India Movement had been crushed.

U 180

On 9th February 1943, the submarine sailed from Kiel, headed towards the Indian Ocean. On the eve of their departure, cargo destined for Japan was loaded onto the submarine, and eventually, the supercargo arrived – two Asian-looking gentlemen. The crew was not told who the two strangers boarding the U-Boat were, only that they were machinists. One of the sailors recognized Bose and mentioned that it was the Indian Adolf, who had been with Hitler, as he had seen the press report and the photographs. But the U-boat’s commander, Musenberg, assured them that the two men were two specialist engineers going to help in a submarine bunker construction in Norway.

Abid Hasan recounts the voyage in his interviews and notes, he remembers that everything smelled of diesel, omnipresent within the hull. Bose was given a bunk along the passage, and the spartan meals served were chunks of beef and dank bread. Hasan managed to find some rice and lentils, which, much to Hasan’s dismay, Bose shared with other sailors. He then helped Bose make revisions to his work “Indian Struggle”, drafts of many speeches, as well as the plans to create a women's regiment. The long voyage was dangerous and adventurous, and had a close shave when the U-180 had to make a hasty dive to escape a British frigate speeding up to ram them. After a two-month voyage, the U-boat circumvented the Cape of Good Hope in April 1943 and lay in wait for the Japanese submarine headed their way.

Meanwhile, the I-29 had departed Penang, carrying a small reconnaissance aircraft, 17 torpedoes, a 14 cm gun, and a crew of 94. The crew had been having a torrid time, for the subs had no air conditioning, and with a range of some 16,000 miles, they had been at sea for a long time. Eventually, the I-29 rendezvoused with the U-180 near Madagascar.

Even though the waters were rough, the transfer was completed on April 26, and rafts were used to ferry cargo back and forth, as well as the two Indians. Two Japanese naval officers sent to study U-boat construction and 2 tons of gold were transferred to U-180. The I-29 took a path far away from the British sea patrols and changed their destination to Sabang, in Sumatra. On May 29^th, the I-29 docked at Sabang, and Subhas Bose, accompanied by Abid Hasan, stepped ashore after a 90-day voyage under the seas. Following a few days' rest, accompanied by Admiral Yamamoto, Bose flew to Tokyo. Both submarines returned safely to their bases.

“It took us three full months.” Abid Hasan said, “To travel from Berlin to Sumatra, every minute of which was full of dangers. We were taken in two submarines, one arranged by the Germans and the other by the Japanese. The long time taken for the journey was due to the fact that we had to remain submerged throughout the day and could only travel at night, as all along we were going through dangerous zones”. When we boarded, we found that the U-boat had space enough for only one bed. It was a small room where the entire crew, the doctors, and we all sat together. We sat up all 24 hours, and we sat there motionless. There was no elbow room at all. We felt cramped; it was like solitary confinement. Even in jail, the living conditions would be better.

Penang Submarine Base

The U-boat base at Georgetown ceased to exist as a functional base after October 1944, when all U-boats transferred to either Djakarta or Surabaya due to intense Allied submarine activity off Penang, accompanied by aerial bombing and mining, since it was within range of both Kharagpur-based B-24 Liberators and B-29 bombers. A raid by mine-laying Liberators in October 1944 blocked the harbor entrance. The last submarine to leave was the German U-843 in December 1944. After the transfer of the two Indians to Japan, the I-29 continued on and dropped many Indian revolutionaries, saboteurs, and radiomen on Indian shores, on other voyages, as we discussed previously.

The I-29 left for Europe in November. Arriving off the Spanish coast in March 1944, the submarine and her escort of four German torpedo boats and eight German Junkers aircraft came under attack by the RAF and US Liberators. The Allied code breakers had been tracking the I-29 and located it off the Spanish coast.

The I-29, then commanded by Kinashi, survived the attack and arrived at Boudreaux in occupied France, where Kinashi received an Iron Cross from Hitler. The I-29 departed Lorient in April 1944 with a significant amount of German technology, including a Walter rocket engine and plans for the jet-powered Me 262, as well as a rocket-powered Me 163. It is also mentioned (HistoryNet - Hackett) that it carried a quantity of Uranium Oxide (it is not clear whether it was for a bomb or other Japanese research) though it seems unlikely. Loaded with vital military plans and hardware, and 20 Enigma machines, the I-29 departed Lorient on April 16. It arrived in Singapore on July 13^th. The blueprints and paper cargo were flown to Tokyo.

Desperately tracking the U-boat and with some knowledge of what the submarine was carrying, the Allied code breakers waited for the I-29 to break radio silence. On July 20^th, Kinashi transmitted their plans to Tokyo, which were intercepted by a US Navy radio unit. Orders were passed to Commander Wilkins, who was sailing the USS Tilefish in tandem with subs Rock and Sawfish.

On July 25^th, the I-29 surfaced, and that was when Commander Alan B. Banister’s Sawfish sighted the sub. Banister fired four torpedoes at I-29. Three of them hit, and the Japanese submarine exploded and sank almost immediately. Three Japanese sailors blown off the sub, swam to a Philippine island and reported the sinking. Although the engine prototypes were lost, the Japanese, using the blueprints that had been air-dropped, developed the Nakajima Kikka (orange blossom) jets based on the Me-262 and the Mitsubishi J8M Shusui (sword stroke) based on the Me-163.

Despite the loss of the I-29, the Yanagi missions continued. While jet engine technology managed to reach the Japanese, Uranium oxides did not, fortunately.  Another story involving Japanese attempts to mine and ship the material from Thailand will follow later. While it is not established that the I-29 carried Uranium dioxide, other Yanagi subs, such as U 234, which moved a significant amount of strategic equipment and specialists, supposedly carried a large amount of Uranium dioxide stored in lead caskets, while Nazi Germany was collapsing and in its death throes.

The story of the U-234, which surrendered to America, is, for those interested, a fascinating read. Did the captured uranium become part of the payload of the ‘Little Boy’ dropped at Hiroshima? Joseph M. Scalia’s book Germany's Last Mission to Japan: The Failed Voyage of U-234 discusses the topic.

The story of Bose, who arrived in Tokyo, his work with the IIL, INA, and the creation of the Azad Hind Fauj with volunteers and Indian soldiers captured by the Japanese, is well known; however, there are many lesser-known details. We will uncover them along the way. The story of the girl who was involved in getting a Congress radio repaired (and which reported about the Japanese submarines prowling the Malabar shorelines) will be one of them and will follow shortly.

References

More than Merchants – Khoo Salma Nasution

His Majesty’s opponent – Sugatha Bose

Yanagi Missions – Bob Hackett

Abid Hasan Safrani: Netaji’s Comrade-in-Arms, Ismat Mehdi and Shehbaz Safrani

Relevant articles

On and Under the High Seas – Maddy’s Ramblings

The Indian Swaraj Institute (ISI) and the 5th column- Maddy’s Ramblings

The fate of the Penang ISI's 5th column- Maddy’s Ramblings

Those interested in seeing the innards of a U-boat, click this link

And the inside of a Japanese submarine – see this video

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The Story behind ‘Jai Hind’

A Victory slogan and Abid Hasan Safrani

Many articles and books mention that Champakaraman Pillai was the originator of the usage of “Jai Hind,” and I was also misled by it initially. Though Pillai was a hardcore patriot who fought for Indian independence from Berlin during the early WW1 years and until he died in 1934, he was barely involved with Subhas Bose and the INA. Pillai’s seminal work with the Indian Independence committee is somewhat misunderstood and exaggerated, and requires more research to be retold, which I promise to do another day, as it is still a work in progress. However, I had promised to clear the air about the slogan Jai Hind, and that is our topic for the day.

The term Jai Hind was surely the handiwork of Abid Hasan (Safrani), who was Bose’s 1940s confidante and fellow traveler for some years thereafter.  To get to the story, let us first retrace Bose’s trips to Europe and Safrani’s arrival at Berlin. Bose had, after a couple of arrests and jail terms, become quite sick and suspected to be suffering from Tuberculosis (potentially contracted in Mandalay prison in 1925), was advised to have it diagnosed and have it treated at a European sanatorium. It took a while for him to get permission to travel, following which he was packed off to Europe from the prison in February 1933, in a vessel bound for Italy.

After a few days in Rome and Venice, he was interned at the Furth sanatorium in Vienna, where the TB diagnosis was confirmed. In June, he traveled to Prague, and it was there that he met ACN Nambiar, who had been living there after being expelled from Berlin, following which Bose visited Poland. In July, he traveled to Berlin, where the ailing Bose met very few Germans of importance, and went back to Vienna to take care of an ailing Vallabhai Patel. His travels continued around Europe, and he visited Germany again in 1934, demanding an end to Hitler’s Anti Indian propaganda. Returning to Vienna, he met his future partner Emilie Schenkel, who became his stenographer. He then spent time dictating his work, ‘Indian Struggle’, and getting it proofed for his publisher. When an urgent telegram arrived informing him of his father’s illness, Bose departed for Calcutta in 1934, where his father passed away shortly thereafter. Returning to Vienna in April 1935, he underwent gall bladder surgery and spent his recovery time at Karlsbad and Bad Gastein (the thermal baths – or springs which supposedly had radioactive traces and curative sulfurous mineral water). Later, he visited an ailing Kamala Nehru, who was spending her last days at Badenweiler. Here he also met Nehru and Indira, who had arrived to be at Kamala’s side.

From 1933 to 1936, under watchful British eyes, he travelled around Europe, rebuilding his health and developing contacts with political movements of both right and left to further the cause of Indian independence. In April 1936, Bose returned to India.

It was during this sojourn in Europe that Bose met Abid Hasan, an engineering student at Berlin. Abid Hasan, a Hyderabadi, after schooling at the St George’s Grammar school, entered the Nizam College, only to leave and join Gandhiji’s Congress Volunteer corps in Bombay, and later moved to Sabarmati, where he was arrested and briefly imprisoned. In 1935, he left India to study engineering in Berlin. It appears that Hasan saw Bose in a meeting in Berlin in 1936, but they never met formally.

As we know and studied earlier, in 1941, Bose, who had returned to India, slipped out and went to Afghanistan, donning the guise of Italian Orlando Mazzotta, traveled across to Russia, Austria, and Germany. It was during Bose’s second trip to Berlin in the Italian guise that Abid Hasan met Bose for the second time. When his friend N ‘Gopu’ Swami told him that a strange-looking bloke was visiting Berlin and talking about India, Hasan decided to check him out.  NG Swami, then working with Siemens, brought along Abid Hasan to a meeting with Bose, and they hit off famously after that and started the Free India Center in Berlin. Abid Hasan and Swami offered their services, and when Abid mentioned that he could do more after finishing his last semester, Bose chided him for being selfish. Safrani and Swami later worked at Annaberg to recruit Indian POWs and create the Azad Hind Fauj, as well as receiving training in military and radio equipment. I will cover the interesting story of N.G. Swami in a forthcoming article.

During those days, the INA was in its formative phase. The flag was made up from the green, saffron, and white tricolor of the Indian National Congress. The springing tiger took the place of the Congress charka while Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana was chosen by Bose as the national anthem, as against “Bande Matram,” which he was not keen on (since Muslims would not accept Mother worship) and hence dropped, to ensure Muslim support. Nevertheless, the original Jana Gana Mana, being a Bengali song, took quite some time before its acceptance. It appears also that around that time, Abid Hasan took the surname Safrani after the saffron color, signifying Hindu solidarity.

In one of those meetings, Bose asked his team to find a common national greeting that would have a nice ring to it and would be acceptable to all religious communities. In a report quoting Hasan, I set about noting how each one greeted the other. We had the Garhwalis, Dogras, Rajputs, Sikhs, Muslims. . . . The Muslims were ruled out by their ‘Shalaam alekum’ and the Sikhs by their ‘Sat Sri Akal’. . . Some people who were supposed to be educated said ‘Namaskar’, but it was not a common greeting. Then I found that the Rajputs mainly greeted each other with ‘Jai Ramjiki ’. [This] ... is the common man’s language. So that began to appeal to me. Then I thought, why not ‘Jai Hindustan ki’? [then] why not ‘Hind’? . . . ‘Jai Hind’. Ah! That appealed to me.

There is also a mention that the initial suggestion from Hasan, who had an impish sense of humor, was “hello’ but as it was just a flippant remark, it was quickly discarded. According to Krishna Bose, Netaji immediately called MR Vyas and other Free India Center workers for a consultation. They kept saying Jai Hind to each other to get a sense and feel of how it sounded. Everyone liked it, and “Jai Hind” was approved.

In a speech/paper, ‘Netaji and the Indian Communal Question’ – Safrani, who penned it for The Oracle in 1979, explains the real purpose and implies it was a group activity that produced it. One serious hindrance in seeking emotional integration was the absence of a communal greeting. Namaste, Sat Sree Akal, Salaam, had all to be dropped, not finding common acceptance apart from the fact that each of these required the submissive bowing of the head, accompanied by the equally submissive movement of one or both the hands. We, on the contrary, wanted to stand erect with our heads lifted up when greeting even those much senior to us, as soldiers do when greeting their officers. Netaji prodded us on to find such a greeting, and we did so. “Jai Hind’ was spontaneously acclaimed, and it became our salutation and war cry common to every Indian.

A documentary titled The War of the Springing Tiger with voices of various INA personnel, including Abid Hasan, Lakshmi Sehgal, etc. (plus script from Illustrated Weekly March 1964) nails it –

Quoting Abid Hasan (time marker 15:50):

When I was called to Berlin one day, I told Mr. Bose: Sir, that we must have a national greeting.

He said: What is it? What is it?

I said: Hello. He was furious. He said: Hasan, I don't like cheap humor.

But he said: The idea is good. We must have a national greeting. You had better all think over it.

So, I thought of Jai Hind, and I tried it with a couple of friends of mine. They liked it.

So, I went back to Berlin and told Mr. Bose.

He immediately called everyone and said Try it out.

Everyone was saying Jai Hind, Jai Hind, Victory to India, Victory to India.

They liked it.

Soon enough, German reports termed the Indian legion units as the Jai Hind Volunteers and the movement the Jai Hind (Bose) movement.

Interestingly, Bose was always conscious of the need to have all communities working together. Abid Hasan led efforts to ensure that Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh soldiers dined together instead of eating in separate messes. Bose, when deciding to leave Germany and ally with Japan, had toyed with the idea of taking a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Sikh on his journey to Asia. When the German naval authorities told him that he could take only one aide, he picked Abid Hasan to be his companion. N.G. Swami, and four others with advanced training in wireless telegraphy, secret ink, and sophisticated radio transmitters, were to follow on MV Osorno in March.

Before we continue further with the story of Jai Hind, let us see the purported connections to Champakaraman Pillai, who was also a freedom fighter present in Germany and who passed away in 1934. When Bose tried to travel to Germany, Pillai, who was firmly entrenched in Berlin, had actively dissuaded the trip, believing that Bose would not be well received, which proved to be right. It is said that Pillai gave the slogan to Bose when they met in Vienna in 1933, but it seems unlikely. Moreover, though we have records of Pillai’s letter to Bose, the meeting in Vienna is unsubstantiated, as Pillai was quite ill at that time. They may have met in Berlin - MR Vyas mentions that Gen Werner Von Hentig met Bose through the good offices of Pillai.

Anyway, going by legends, Pillai coined the phrase in 1907 while schooling at Trivandrum, aged 16 years. Now, this is quite unlikely as Hindustani was never taught or spoken in Trivandrum during that period, and Pillai had little possibility of learning such terms (though in all fairness, he may have heard it much later at Turkey and from Arabs, who termed India as Al Hind or Hindistan), let alone coining something in such an alien language. Also, there are no mentions of the usage of Jai Hind being uttered or popularized between his coining it and the time when Bose used it in Germany. His letters to various people do not have the usage mentioned. But some reports, a couple of books, and speeches about him, much later, credit him with the usage, thus lending weight to the legend. I am convinced that Pillai was not the originator of the usage.

Jai Hind thus became the popular war cry during the INA years in SE Asia. However, during the war, it was considered a rallying cry and disapproved by the British. An INA archiver, Madan Gopal, states - When the British took Mandalay, they issued an order that no Indian was to use the greeting 'Jai Hind’. The result of this order was that boys and girls of our Balak Sena in Mandalay came out in the streets and greeted British officers with Jai Hind. After the INA debacle and demobilization post WW II, the usage was popularized by Congress and other Indian leaders.

Gandhiji was not too keen with the usage but waffled about it when asked by the United Press of India (Jan 1946), whether Jai Hind could be appropriately adopted in a non-violent scenario since it was coined as a war cry and replied - It does not follow that because Jai Hind was devised by Subhas Babu as a war cry in armed warfare, it must be eschewed in a non-violent action. On that basis, even Vande Mataram may have to be given up because there are instances of people committing violence with this cry on their lips. If a thing is essentially an evil, it becomes a positive duty to abjure it. In my opinion, Jai Hind and Vande Mataram have almost the same meaning. In one, we make obeisance to Mother India and thereby wish her victory; the other merely wishes her victory. There is no question of singing the two together. As I have said before, Jai Hind cannot replace Vande Mataram.

Interestingly, Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Gandhiji, listed in his manifesto (point 84) his disgust with Congress for appropriating Subhas’s INA slogan ‘Jai Hind’ and pretending to like INA and Subhas, resulting in the Congress election victory in 1945-46.

Nehru was asked this question once (Note that Nehru also knew Pillai and they had met in Berlin) by BC Roy, when traveling to the DVC together with Lady Mountbatten – He said – Yes, it was used by Subhas and the INA people. I used it for the first time in a meeting at Lucknow, about the time the INA was in the news, and it caught on marvelously. It is short and compact and conveys an idea – Victory to India, a New India. He also complained that Rajendra Prasad was, however, fond of using the alternate Jai Bharat!

Later, it became a standard utterance at the end of most nationalist and political speeches, and is a standard usage in the Indian armed forces.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi explained it succinctly – I call upon you to join me in raising the great slogan given to us by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. This slogan represents our strength, so join me in raising this slogan three times. Your voice is the voice of a great nation; it should reach the far-off mountains and every nook and corner of India. It should inspire courage and self-confidence in every Indian, Jai Hind, Jai Hind, Jai Hind.

Safrani was a man of the world, and many referred to Abid Hasan as ‘Jai Hind Safrani’, after the event. But Babu Rao, writing about Telangana heroes, states - One of the controversial issues was the designing of the National Flag. The Hindus wanted a saffron flag, while the Muslims insisted on Green. Later, the Hindus gave their insistence. Hassan was impressed by this gesture that he decided to append Safrani to his name. Since then, he became known as Safrani. I will, as I mentioned earlier, get to the South Indians around Bose, a subject skimmed over in most Bose and INA books, in more detail in forthcoming articles.

After his INA days and a prison sentence, Abid Hasan joined the IFS and over a long diplomatic career, served as the first secretary or Ambassador in several countries, including Egypt, China, Switzerland, Iraq, Syria, Senegal, and Denmark, before retiring in 1969 and settling back in Hyderabad. He passed away in 1984, unheralded and unsung.

Many years later, Gandhiji had become famous and was frequently associated with the loincloth he wore. Gandhiji’s wedding gift for Elizabeth’s and Philip’s royal wedding in November 1947 is even more interesting as he presented them (on Mountbatten’s recommendation) with what is termed as ‘fringed lacework cloth made of yarn spun by the donor on his spinning wheel’. The royal family was reviewing the presents later, and Queen Mary was horrified when she saw it, mistaking it for Gandhiji’s loincloth!! She stated to her lady (Pamela Hicks, Mountbatten’s daughter, confirms this event in a Telegraph article) in waiting – ‘Such an indelicate gift, what a horrible thing’!! Prince Philip stated that it was not and that Gandhiji was a great man, but Queen Mary had by then moved to stony silence…

This 12”x24” tray cloth (I thought it was 12” square) read "Jai Hind," and according to Pamela Hicks "Before we left, my parents saw Mahatma Gandhi and he told my father, 'I so want to give Princess Elizabeth a present, but I have given all my possessions away.' My father, however, knew he still had his spinning wheel, and he told Gandhi, 'If a cloth could be made from the yarn you have spun, that would be like receiving the Crown Jewels'.

Gandhiji wrote a note to accompany the gift. It stated- Dear Lord Mountbatten, This little thing is made out of doubled yarn of my own spinning. The knitting was done by a Punjabi girl who was trained by Abha’s husband, my grandson. Please give the bride and the bridegroom this with my blessing, with the wish that they would have a long and happy life of service of man… Yours sincerely M K Gandhi….

Despite what she thought the special gift was, Queen Elizabeth held onto it for years, and it popped up in royal exhibitions, but with a wrong translation – “Jai Hind- long live India”. The cloth was regifted by Queen Elizabeth to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited the UK in 2018.

References

Netaji: Subhas Chandra Bose's Life, Politics & Struggle - Krishna Bose

Abid Hasan Safrani: Netaji’s Comrade-in-Arms - Ismat Mehdi, Shehbaz Safrani

Legendotes of Hyderabad – Narendra Luther

I Was Nehru's Shadow: From the Diaries of KF Rustamji (IP) Padma Vibhushan - Ed P.V. Rajgopal

Orlando Mazotta - the Adventures

The real Orlando Mazotta

Champaka Raman Pillai – The forgotten Freedom fighter 

Gandhiji’s Jai Hind gift – image courtesy Hindustan Times, and note transcript from Rebecca English’s photo of it. Abid Hasan - Siasat

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The King Who Never Returned

 A Raja Rani Story

Raja Ravi Varma, the great painter, on assignment to the Tondaiman palace for a month, could not have imagined that the little eleven-year-old sitting across from him, modeling for a remarkable painting (which you can still see and admire at Google Art), would go on to create waves across many continents after he grew up. The painting itself shows a demure little boy, resplendent in royal robes and jewels, wondering why he was being forced to sit through all this instead of playing in the royal courtyards. The story of that boy, will, without doubt, take you places. From the ancient principality of Pudukkottai, this tale will take you to England, Australia, New York, and France, places where the characters stayed during their tumultuous lifetimes.

Pudukkottai & Kallars

But before we get to all that, let us locate Pudukkottai, the Tondaiman rulers, the Kallar subjects, and their place in history. Though these rulers have connections to the ancient Pallava and Chola rulers and were involved with an area to the North of Madras, termed Tondaimandalam then, we are now focused on an area called Pudukkottai which came under their realm, much later. The Tondaiman (of Telugu extract) were the chieftains who ruled over Pudokkotai from the 17th to 20th century, an area gifted to them by the Sethupatis of Ramnad. As the story goes, Ranga Raya, a 17^th-century Vijayanagara king, was on his way to Rameswaram when one of his elephants ran amok. A local chieftain, Raghunatha Tondaiman at Karambakudi, managed to calm the angry elephant and was then bestowed with many an honor by the grateful Ranga Raya and given the title Avadai Raya Tondaiman. Later on, Raghunatha and his brother helped the Sethupathis of Ramnad in some regional conflicts, and it then that Pudukottai (some 1179 square miles of land), previously part of the Sethupathi domain, was gifted to them. After several wars against the Nayaks of Tanjore, Hyder Ali, Tipu, and so on, it became a British protectorate and eventually, a princely state of British India under the political authority of Madras Presidency.

The subjects were mostly Kallars, who were in those days, characterized as a tribe of thieves, though the Pudukkottai lot, in reality, were mostly cultivators. That they had an unsavory reputation even in the 19^th century, is quite clear in the definitions provided by Turnbull, Stuart, and Thurston, for British reactions to revolt or uprising resulted in the branding of these warrior class or watchmen (kavalkar) class of ‘Cullars’ or Kallars, thenceforth as dacoits, drunkards, devil worshippers, cattle thieves and blackmailers. These Kallars were experts in the usage of a boomerang-styled weapon called the vali or vellari thadi (bent stick) as well as indulgence in the sport of bull-taming called Jallikattu (much talked about these days). Among other legends, we can read that the Tirupati Tondaiman were also from the Kallar caste and originated from the union of Ahalya and Indra. Pudukkottai was the fifth princely state in the Madras Presidency, while the other four were Cochin, Travancore, Banganapalli, and Sandur! Another interesting reason behind the British alliance was due to the help they provided to the British in capturing the famous Kattabomman ( See article Cat, Kattappa and Dumby) in 1799. It was due to their unstinted support to the British, and their subservience that they obtained the privileged status of a princely state, without having to pay any tax or tributes to the British.  

Ramachandra Tondaiman

The Tondaiman royals seem to have administered their country reasonably well after the British resident William Blackburn helped them build the city, and accumulate considerable wealth during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Our story starts with the larger-than-life Raja Sri Brahdamba Dasa Raja Ramachandra Tondaiman Bahadur from the 19^th century and the attention he invited from his British principals, due to his wayward lifestyle which stirred up quite a commotion at Madras.

Taking a cue from the Travancore rajas who they maintained a very cordial relationship, the Kallar Raja decided to elevate his ritual status from the commoner and thus in 1882, Ramachandra Tondaiman, the Raja of Pudukkottai, took the title “Brihadambal Das,” the servant of the goddess Brihadambal. The court had already become a ‘go-to place’ for Carnatic musicians, percussionists, and dancers, much like Travancore. Ramachandra who inherited the throne very young, ruled under the tutelage of the previous resident Blackburne’s brother John, until formal accession in 1838. Things were not going too well with his subjects, an agrarian uprising and a palace revolt followed in 1854, resulting in a British warning that they would remove the honorific ‘his Excellency’ while addressing him.

The main reasons were the excessive expenditure and wayward life of the young Raja and his family, and a major influence of his shrewd second wife Janaki. The British tried to bring about a semblance of control by routing all requests for expenses through his Sirkele (Prime minister or Dewan), but the expenditure continued to balloon and the Dewan sanctioned most of the Raja’s requests, until 1878. Incredibly expensive clothes and jewels continued to be purchased, while at the same time, the British, especially the Blackburne’s profited from extensive Indigo cultivation. But the need for reform was felt in the upper echelons and thus it was that the previous Dewan of Travancore, the rotund and strict, convent educated Sashia Sastri, was virtually forced on Pudukkottai, through the recommendations of yet another Travancore administrator – Dewan Madhava Rao. Sastri accepted the position and proceeded to Pudukkottai, not imagining for a moment that he would soon be embroiled in all kinds of palace intrigues.

Sastri did not walk into a welcoming embrace and faced resistance from the young Tanjore-born second wife of the Raja, Janaki Subbamma, who was not only quick-witted but also quite forthright. She refused to allow the Dewan to change long-standing practices in place, such as reducing staff and celebrations and got on to the warpath when the Sastri took a moral stance against the palace Devadasis and their association with the Royals (especially the young prince). As for Sastri, the extravagant, non-vegetarian, and wayward life in the palace was not something he could stomach. Matters came to a head when he decided to seal off the door provided for the Devadasi’s private entry into the palace. The simmering fight exploded and the queen decided to take action, with a few of her priests (parasites according to Sastri) goading her on. Not only did she try legal means, by hiring a British lawyer, but she also decided to start using black magic to oust the Dewan. Among the methods she tried was a ceremonial sacrifice where 1,000 cobras were hung by their tails over a fire of ghee, and chants to oust the minister were sung (Read the fascinating story as narrated by Manu Pillai).

Interestingly, the Travancore and Pudukkottai royal families maintained good connections, the princes often went to the Travancore forests for royal hunts, musicians were exchanged (one or two Rajas even spoke Malayalam), and so on. How Raja Ravi Varma ended up in Pudukottai is an interesting story. Sastri had chanced on the painter Ravi Varma at a railway station and invited him to the Tondaiman palace in 1879, which resulted in the first set of paintings of the Raja, his wife, the adopted son, and other paintings including the Durbar. He followed up with a second visit in 1886, creating more paintings of the raja and his family and the adopted prince.  We can observe the changing figure and countenance of the second Ranee in two paintings done by Ravi Varma between 1879 and 1886.

The Tondaiman palace was a house of intrigue during those years, and we can read how Sastri remained firm and it became clear that sacrifices, magic, and threats would not budge the firmly seated Sastri. The Ranee accepted defeat and Ramachandra Tondaiman also agreed to reforms, deciding to adopt and appoint his nephew as his successor. He passed away in 1886 and thus the little prince Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman now aged 11, (untainted by the Zenana!) took over a titular position, though Sastri held the reins to the state and the palace, till the young fella attained majority in 1894.

It was a period when the British decided that they should take guiding control of local princes and have them educated in the British style and morality, under Christian tutors (check out the article on the De la Hey case), As we saw in many cases, it was not a very wise step and proved to be a failure.

Martanda Tondaiman

Martanda, the subject of the British experiment grew up on Sastri’s lap but was quickly moved under the care of a specialist British tutor FF Crossley, at Kodaikanal. Both Martanda and his brother  Dorairaja, came under the care of Crossley. Crossley and RH Farmer brought them up as pukka gentlemen, but it seems did not quite instill in them the abilities required for the governance of Pudukkkottai! A newspaper reported that Kodaikanal was a sleeping princess till the touch of the prince (Martanda) woke her to life. Martanda and Do lived at a cottage named Woodville from 1890 and moved later to another called Nutshell. While Martanda moved to Britain for higher studies, Do continued to live at Kodai.

He was brought up as a truly Western subject and became proficient in sport, attire, and manners, he played tennis, cricket, and golf, practiced shooting and hunting, rode horses and automobiles, played chess and the banjo, and violin, held a drink well, knew the ballroom, shot guns and cued well at the billiards table. He was what the British desired, a ’pukka’ subservient Brown Sahib. By 1913, accolades and honors such as the GCIE were accorded to him, and for all practical purposes, the knighted young man had set an example for his British principals. Perhaps Sastri was not too happy with all this, but that was how it turned out, and strangely Martanda had little interest in his land and his subjects. Sastri had by now retired, was eulogized as the maker of modern Pudukkottai, as the great and wise steely administrator who brought about Devadasi reform in the Madras Presidency and placed on the throne an educated and suave young raja, after a lengthy period of decadence, waste, and intrigue.

Martanda learned of the lavish ways at the European playfields, the glam and the glitz, the gorgeous women, and loved high society life in Paris, Cannes, and London. Though he spent short stints at Pudukkottai, far and few, between long forays in Europe, he made sure that the Pudukkottai palace was revamped. He employed no less than 924 servants and commissioned a new palace for himself (finished in 1924), complete with a wine cellar, but he was rapidly becoming a disappointment to his British bosses.

Over time, Martanda was associated with many white women and was even engaged to an American at one time. But the British were getting quite disturbed by all this, for this was against the British moral code, and their perception of moral and racial superiority. This became clear when the young Martanda decided that he wanted a polished white girl for a wife, a decision when conveyed to his ‘bosses’, rudely jolted them. The British tried to dissuade him from marrying a white woman; they tried to tell him that such a union would not be accepted by his subjects, and succession would not be guaranteed for any offspring of such a union. From dissuasion, they tried threats and even suggested that he court a North Indian ‘fair’ princess, but Martanda remained adamant.

It was a trip down under, in March 1915, to Australia, which changed everything. Martanda plunged head-on into the social scene, was a regular at the races and parties, and well, one fine day he spotted a pretty woman hanging around in the hotel where he dined, and cupid struck! Martanda had found the woman of his dreams, and wasting no time, the smitten prince went after the fair lady, intent on wooing her to the altar. Molly Finks, for that was her name, and her sister, actually brought to Sydney by her mother, so that they could find suitors, acceded to Martanda’s advances.

Martanda wrote to Lord Pentland (Governor of Madras) that he had decided to marry Molly and received a reply admonishing him for doing what he had been banned from doing, but Martanda would have nothing of it and proposed to Molly, who accepted and their union took place in Melbourne in August 1915. A white Australia frowned at the sight of a very brown Martanda, calling him the Rajah of Bong, immaculately attired, standing next to a demure Molly Finks in a white gown. King George and Viceroy Harding fumed, while the Australian Governor-General was wondering if Molly would have to contend with other women in a harem (which he assumed existed). The press speculated that she may even be forced to wear a purdah (in Pudukkottai??) and wear a belly dancer dress!! Their honeymoon was in San Francisco and a few months later proceeded to Pudukkottai, where the royal couple was introduced to the Kallar subjects in a lavish procession.

The British at Madras were incensed and gave them a cold shoulder, not recognizing him or the new Ranee of Pudukkottai, formally. Molly was not welcome for any state visits or occasions, and that was not acceptable to Martanda, who despite many faults was devoted to his wife. Very soon, Molly realized that she had become pregnant and was beset with morning sickness, which intensified. Martanda tried moving her to Trichy, but things did not improve, and it was rumored that she was being poisoned with Oleander. Martanda decided to move to Ooty, but the Madras government did not sanction the funds for a custom house, opining that Molly’s presence would alienate the other whites at Ooty.

Molly and Martanda eventually moved back to Sydney, where their son Sydney Martanda was born in July 1916. Soon it became clear that the British would not allow Sydney to ever succeed Martanda as the Raja of Pudukkottai, and with that, any interest Martanda had in his kingdom, waned. He was soon in negotiations with the British on leaving it for good and settled for 20 Lakhs (then £15,000) annual pension plus a big lumpsum and after installing his brother Ragunatha as regent, departed India for good, lock, stock, jewelry, and barrel.

After the war, Martanda and Molly moved in 1922 to Cannes and settled in their villa named La Favorite, and while Martanda continued with his passion – horse racing, Molly preened in the balls and parties held by European and English high society. They were extravagant and well-attired, with the Ranee of Pudukkottai, as she called herself, immaculately attired in one of her prized sarees. In 1927, Martanda was hospitalized with abdominal pains and passed away, aged 53. Madras refused permission for a ceremonial cremation at Pudukkottai, and the body had to be finally cremated in London. At Pudukkottai, under the regency of Raghunatha, Rajagopala Tondaiman took over as the last ruler of Pudukkottai.

Molly, the rich widow, had many admirers and suitors, including the Aga Khan, but she did not accept any of them and lived her flamboyant life in London, while Sydney was sent off to a boarding school in Switzerland. The future Shah of Iran was his best friend for life, and Sydney completed his studies at Cambridge. In 1938, Sydney was involved in a horrific car crash that left him with a limp, and the marriage that followed failed, after the girl ran away with somebody else. Sydney Martanda had many other issues, and a habit of kleptomania, to make things worse. 

Sometime later, both of them moved to the US, and Sydney even became a citizen in 1943, and joined the US Army, while Molly worked for a fashion house. Sydney was later arrested and imprisoned in New York for alleged theft. His citizenship was revoked (both of them were investigated by E Hoover and the FBI) and after a stint in Cuba moved back (seems his citizenship was reinstated in 1980) to London to live with his mother, who had by this time, become a recluse and an alcoholic, beset with severe depression.

In 1967, Molly, suffering from bowel cancer, returned to Cannes to spend her last dying days there (You can still see her clothes at the Bath Museum of Costume, and many of her jewels are being auctioned now and then). Sydney passed away in 1984. Many still believe that huge sums and jewels belonging to them are locked away in banks.

In the end, it was a social experiment gone wrong and became the sad story of a Raja who never ruled over his subjects. While they faced hatred and racism, it should also be borne in mind that their decadent lifestyle was enriched by the hardworking, impoverished peasants of Pudukkottai.  Adding insult to this, the British even implied that this was what mixed marriages end up as, producing offspring with the worst traits from both races!

Pudukkottai today is a district like any other, with tourists checking out the palaces, hosting destination weddings at its durbar, and its musical legacies being written about and compositions sung. It also comes up in discussions about Ravi Varma, who, during two visits completed a few glorious paintings and left one or two unfinished.

Rao Bahadur PK Kunhunni Menon (1924-28) was appointed as the Pudukkottai Dewan, and it was his efforts that resulted in the establishment of the Pudukkottai Electric Supply Corporation Ltd. That was one of the last appointments by Martanda Tondaiman before he left India forever. VP Menon in connection with Pudukkottai’s integration into India, says - I met the Rajah (Rajagopla) only once when he was invited to Delhi to discuss the future of his state. He was just twenty-six at the time and seemed completely overwhelmed when the proposal to merge his State with Madras was put to him. Neither he nor his adviser had anything to say. The agreement was signed on 29 February 1948. The palace served as a hospital during WW II. Handing over the treasury in its entirety, Rajagopala vacated the palace for the Collectorate in 1972.

Tondaiman descendants are doing well; some are excellent administrators or sportsmen, winning medals. I am sure they look back now and then, and often read about the days of Ramachandra and Martanda, of Janaki and the snakes, and of course wonder about the prince who never saw India or his inheritance – Sydney Martanda. Interestingly, when Sydney was told by a friend about the latter’s visit to Pudukkottai in 1967, Sydney expressed surprise that the place and the palace even existed!

Though Coralie Younger did not imply it, it was a classic case of the crescent-shaped Pudukkottai Vali thadi or the Indian Boomerang. By design, this top-heavy weapon was not capable of, or ever designed to return. It symbolized the story of Martanda Tondaiman, the king who never returned.

The story of Pudukkottai’s Devadasis is one that I will get to another day. Those desiring to study Pudukkottai further should at least read Waghorne’s and Younger’s works, as well as Manu Pillai’s False Allies, though I have listed below all relevant works that I have looked at.

The Villa La Favorite, originally built for  Maxime Outrey, a French ambassador, and occupied by the Tondaiman’s, was recently acquired by an American family, captivated by the timeless elegance and prestige of the iconic property.

References
Molly and the Rajah: Race, Romance, and the Raj - Edward Duyker, Coralie Younger
The Raja's Magic Clothes Re-Visioning Kingship and Divinity in England's India - Joanne Punzo Waghorne
Wicked Women of the Raj: European Women Who Broke Society Rules and Married Life – Caroline Younger
The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom - Nicholas B. Dirks
Joan of India – Suzanne Falkner
Courtly Indian Women in Late Imperial India - Angma Dey Jhala
The Indian Boomerang – Coralie Younger
A General History of the Pudukkottai State – A Radhakrishna Aiyar
Princely India and the British Political Development and the Operation of Empire - Caroline Keen
False Allies: India's Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma - Manu Pillai
Black magic and a bureaucrat (Mint Lounge - 05 October 2019) – Manu Pillai

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