Blowing in the Wind

A remarkable tale – The Japanese Fu-Go

There are some remarkable stories from the WW2 period, and this is one of those. Who could have imagined that a few schools girls participated in the mass production of the world’s first Intercontinental ballistic missile? And who could imagine that one of those early ICBM’s very nearly derailed the production of the very bomb which later flattened Nagasaki and hastened the end of the WW2? Who would believe that these ballistic missiles were all transported without any rocket power from Japan to America’s West Coast? Well, there you go, that is what we will read about today and it is all about the Japanese Fu-Go bombs, a subject the Americans kept under tight wraps right through the war, so much so that even though many hundred balloons landed, only one newspaper report was published at that time.

So much has changed since the war and the world is a different place, many good things came out of it, but I guess those who lived through those harrowing years saw things in a different way. Anyway we have to start with the Pearl Harbor event when a surprise Japanese attack devastated the naval base in Hawaii on Dec 7^th, 1941, drawing America into the war. The distances between mainland America and Japan were too great for retaliatory air attacks, and intercontinental missiles did not exist. But retaliation did occur and this was the ‘Doolittle raid’ carried out in April 1942 when 16 B-25 bombers took off from the USS Hornet positioned some 620 miles off Japan’s coast. The planes took off with an intent to bomb Tokyo and other industrial centers, without returning to their origin. 

The Japanese neither anticipated the raid nor detected the B-25’s as they swooped in and dropped some armaments on their targets, later flying on towards the Chinese mainland. None of these planes ever landed at the right destinations, but all the crews bailed out. It was not a very destructive mission, but it was one intended to strike a psychological blow and prove to the Japanese that they were not invincible. The Japanese lost a lot of ‘face’ in this incident and retaliated by attacking Americans near Midway islands but lost their naval carriers and the battle itself to some smart American air bombing.

Following this, the Japanese planned revenge and decided to attack the American mainland with a simple plan, launch balloons attached with incendiary and anti-personal bombs and land them in US cities and forests. It was easier said than done, with no precedence, and took two years of scientific work to create a solution. The concept was awe inspiring and its potential to start fires, even deliver chemical weapons with ease had the potential to affect US morale. Air raids happened usually after some advance warning, but balloon attacks would be silent, undetected by radar. The devilish concept had only one flaw, it depended entirely on what was not so well known to the rest of the world in those days, the existence of jet streams. The Japanese used the jet streams between Japan and America to swiftly deliver the balloons arbitrarily over 6,200 miles of ocean, to destinations on the US west Coast. The limitation was that these air flows occurred only during the latter half of the year when the US west coast experienced winter, and the forests were not necessarily dry enough for large forest fires. But let’s get to all that later.

The program was called the Fu-Go (it is assumed that Fu stood for Fusen meaning balloon). By March 1943, the first test balloons were tested, initially capable of covering some 600 miles, planned to be launched from submarines in the Pacific Ocean. During this period, they developed expansion valves to counter Hydrogen expansion and contraction due to day night temperature changes, but it was quickly clear that the subs were going to be diverted for other crucial purposes. The only method left was to use high speed jet streams 30,000 feet above, between Nov and March and the Japanese estimated that on an average they could achieve this transpacific flight in an average of 60 hours. The balloon size was fixed at 33 feet, and the skin was made up of glued layers of tissue paper. At its mouth, shroud lines supported a tray with the control mechanisms and the bombs, and a ballast comprising many sandbags dropped with explosive slugs triggered by slow burning fuse. 

The system itself was ingenious and some types battery operated and complete with telemetry, but I would rather not get into the finer details for they would quickly lull the lay reader into a deep slumber. The system also included a self-destruct mechanism after the balloon had completed its tasks and dropped the bombs. Two types were made, one made of paper, called Type A and a second by the navy using rubber infused silk, called the Type B, though the latter quickly became impracticable and unpopular with the scientists.

Mass production was the next challenge. The paper for the balloons came mostly from the kozo mulberry tree while the glue to stick paper layers came from a type of potato. Panels of paper so formed were glued to make the balloon envelope. All this work was done by some 150 plus Yamaguchi high school girls who were asked not to wear any hairpins, trim their nails and wear socks, and to work with gloves. After short class hours , they got together to prepare the balloons. The school girl team wore white head bands with the emblem ‘Student special attack force’. Even with this kind of raw material and labor, the cost of a balloon was still quite high, some $2000 each.

A regiment was formed and trained to launch the balloons from Honshu’s eastern shores. Between 3^rd Nov 1944 and April 1945, close to 9,300 balloons were launched, lesser than the planned number of 15,000. Each balloon carried close to 35 kgs of bombs. A few balloons had radios instead of bombs, and they were tracked by a radio unit, but that was possible only for about 30 hours of flight and not beyond.

The first balloon was sighted by the US navy two days later floating in the Californian coast waters. Starting from the very first sighting, followed by many more and after analyzing its potential effect on population morale, America decided to clamp down on any press releases or reports on this new weapon, using strict censoring laws. It was a brilliant decision.

Perhaps due to lack of spies in US as most Japanese persons in US had been interned following the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese balloon team had no choice but to scan for newspaper reports to check how their weapons fared. No reports reached them. As it transpired, the balloons did not create any havoc and there was only one recorded case of causalities, in May 1945.

By Dec 1944, the US military had started analysis and potential countermeasures. Initially there was disbelief, thinking they were weather balloons off course since the payload was radio equipment, but once the bombs were noticed on some intact balloons which came down, they knew it was a brilliantly conceived weapon riding the high winds. A couple of projects were instated with planes (firing special bullets) and spotters to ensure detection of balloons before they entered the US and Canadian land borders. Fear of forest fires and the prospect of biological warfare agents prompted this. Analyzing the sand bag ballast, they quickly established that the balloons indeed originated from Japan.

Interestingly even in 1945, the concept of using Jet streams and the fact that it was seasonal was not well known in the US, despite Japanese scientist Ooishi’s published papers on the very subject dating back to 1925.

But one eager reporter did report a Dec 1944 incident at Wyoming and this was repeated in a Chinese newspaper which the Japanese obtained, amid much exultation. They gleefully published several false news articles aimed at their readers stating how the Japanese had achieved thousands of causalities with their balloon bombs, how they had started fires in cities and farms, and how they would execute the next plan of using balloons to send millions of Japanese troops to conquer America.

The Americans were busy on the other hand, perfecting their secret weapon to bring about an end to the war. The Western fronts were coming under allied control, the Nazi’s were being clobbered and it was time to bring Japan to their knees. The race to build the A bombs was on.

Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, charged with the construction of industrial-size plants for manufacturing plutonium and uranium established the Hanford Engineer Works (HEW), codenamed "Site W". The B reactor manufactured by Du Pont went critical in Sept 1944 and the first batches of Plutonium was under production for a critical test being planned by Robert Oppenheimer and team at Los Alamos.

What followed relates to my field of work which is power systems protection and control. So, I hope you will forgive my enthusiasm with the forthcoming description.

The reactors housed at the Hanford facility were fed from the Midway 230/115 kV substation built in July 1942 located midway on the  double circuit lines from the Bonneville dam in Oregon and Grand Coulee dam in Washington terminating at this station. The substation is located near Vernita on the Columbia River Northwest of Richland. It was the existence of Midway s/s and the Bonneville-Coulee transmission lines which factored in the selection of the Hanford Site. By 1944, the Midway Substation began furnishing the Hanford Works with an estimated 75,000 to 150,000 kilowatts of electricity in what BPA personnel referred to as the "mystery load" because of the secrecy surrounding its ultimate use.

The HEW facility had been running round the clock and producing fissile material for the upcoming nuclear test. But what happened on March 10^th, 1945 was totally unexpected, considering that the site was top secret and no laymen knew of the detailed goings on at Hanford, including its workers (some thought it produced toilet or sand paper, until its secret was revealed later in August).

Let us go to the operator on duty at Midway s/s who witnessed a fault occurrence. He recorded thus after carrying out what he had been trained to do.

Quote

1523 hrs, A66 Bonneville #2 line relayed H.Z relay on A phase, 2 zone C phase, 1 & 3 zone, Line dead. 1523 1/2 Line hot. 1524 Closed OCB A 66. 1525 Reported to dispatcher Kirkman, cause of trouble unknown

Unquote

Without getting into engineering mumbo jumbo talk, I will explain what happened. A phase to phase fault on that power line, was picked up by the protective relay as it should, which then tripped the circuit breaker to clear the flow of fault currents. 30 seconds later, the remote end breaker which had tripped, was closed by BPA and a minute later, the Midway operator reclosed the local circuit breaker. The transient fault had cleared and things were back to normal on the high voltage lines. But due to the short system overload or disturbance, voltage relays at the reactor distribution system tripped, shutting down the plant.

At the HEW plant, it created a furor as the cooling systems shut down and the reactors SCRAM’d (emergency shut down). Furious telephone calls ensued between the top brass, nothing was recorded on paper while the reactors went out of service for an extended period. Some mentions can be seen that it took almost 3 days after the reactor’s shutdown, before they could get them back to normal production, though the largest of the three reactor outages was not more than 68 minutes.

Capt. Johnson reported to his boss Col. Mathias the same day of a statement from the FBI Agent in Yakima, WA, detailing that a farmer living approximately 15 miles south of Toppenish, WA, had reported that a balloon had struck a High Voltage line running across his property at about “3:30 PM.” Upon striking the wires, the balloon burst into flames. It was later concluded that this fault was, indeed, the 1523 hours event logged at Midway (But fortunately the balloons did not explode).

Col Mathias recollected thus in a 1986 interview to SL Sanger - Well that was enough, we had it rigged you know. If the power went off, the emergency rods that were suspended above the pile through a series of wells would drop down in and with the cobalt just knock out the radioactivity and the flux. And it shut down the reactor. And when I read about it the next day, I was delighted. They found out the reason was they knew what had happened and started the thing up again. It took about three days to get up to full speed again. But we never had guts enough to test that under a full load. We did not know for sure that that device we had as an emergency shutdown would work. So, this proved it for us. It did work. And I used to say, this is the first damage done by direct enemy action in this country.

The Japanese had struck a critical military installation, albeit unintentionally, at just the right time, but only just so and with little impact. Nevertheless, they would not find out that this had happened, it was not mentioned or investigated.

It was not the only balloon to land near HEW. A second balloon landed nearby, the very same day, two hours later in what was termed as the ‘Cold creek landing’. Quoting Burt Pierard who still conducts tours at the plant - one Hanford Security Patrolman and one U.S. Army MP whipped out their pistols and mercilessly gunned down a helpless, landed Japanese Balloon (although it was being dragged by the wind across the ground toward the same Transmission Line involved earlier).

The balloon settled down about 5:51 PM at a spot ¾ mile west of the Yakima Gate and ¼ mile south of the old highway 11A (Highway 24 today), near the headwaters of Cold Creek. The previously mentioned patrolman and MP were 2 of the first 3 people to arrive at the scene and observed the balloon dragging its apparatus toward the power line so they used their guns to deflate it. They then took up positions 300 yards away to keep other arriving personnel away and organize them into a circular guard position. They also had several workers heading home who stopped to see what was going on and were encouraged to move on and say nothing to anyone else. They held these positions until the Army arrived to take over, at about 8 p.m.

The Hanford works, surviving the ICBM balloon attacks, chugged on through the rest of the war, doing what it was meant to do, produce fissile material for A bombs. America was however worried that some of these balloon bombs might by sheer coincidence, land on critical targets such as the Boeing factory 200 miles farther in WA and hastened watches and counter measures as we read previously.

On the very same day, 10^th March 1915, Americans commenced firebombing Tokyo (Operation Meetinghouse). Approximately 15.8 square miles of Tokyo was destroyed, and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the operation. Sixty-three percent of Tokyo's commercial area, and 18 percent of its industry, was destroyed. An estimated 267,000 buildings burned to the ground.

On 5 May 1945, five of his children and Elsie, the wife of Rev Michel were killed near Lakeview, Oregon, by a balloon bomb which exploded as they dragged it from the woods. That was the first and last case of human causality due to the balloon bombs.

The balloon attacks stopped abruptly in May. After the war, the US rounded up many of the people behind the program and it became apparent that Hydrogen plants had been hit by American bombing in the first place, secondly there were paper shortages and finally they concluded that the entire Fu-Go program was continued only to keep the baying domestic populace in Japan satisfied of Japanese retaliation underway, after the humiliating Doolittle raid and more recent air raids. As the attacks in Japan increased, all focus was directed towards defending Japan while the Fu-Go operation tapered off and died.

From 4^th November 1944 to 8^th August 1945, 285 balloon "incidents" were recorded, including 120 balloon recoveries; 32 balloon recoveries including bombs; 20 balloons downed but not recovered; 28  independent bomb incidents; and 85 related incidents. Though brilliant in concept, the initiative failed as the balloon was an uncontrollable weapon. Some balloons are still out there in the deep forests and potentially active, one was discovered as recently as 2014. The NY times statement though ironic was on the dot, they said - For once the American kept their mouths shut. Japan was kept in the dark about the fate of the fantastic balloon bombs because Americans proved during the war they could keep their mouths shut. To their silence is credited the failure of the enemy's campaign.

In July 1945 the Trinity experimental nuclear explosion test was conducted, successfully using the HEW manufactured plutonium. Dr. Oppenheimer, on whom had rested a very heavy burden, grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed. For the last few seconds, he stared directly ahead and then when the announcer shouted "Now!" and there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief.

He explained later quoting the Bhagavad Gita - I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

The B reactor then produced the required weapons grade Plutonium for the ‘Fat Man’ Nagasaki bomb. On August 6^th 1945, a modified B-29 dropped the uranium (from the Oak Ridge works) based "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. Another B-29 dropped the plutonium based "Fat Man" on Nagasaki three days later. The bombs devastated their targets. Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15^th, six days after the Soviet Union's declaration of war and the bombing of Nagasaki.

The real reason for the surrender may not have been the bombs themselves, and we can discuss this another day. But imagine for a moment the consequences, if the balloon had landed by chance on the top secret Hanford plant and its breeder reactors!

References

Japan's H World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America - Robert C. Mikesh

Hanford B reactor museum association – Newsletter, Vol 20, issues 1 & issue 2 - 2014, Burt Pierard’s articles  - Midway s/s, Japanese balloon bombs

Fu-Go - The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America - Ross Coen

Manhattan, The army and the atomic bomb – Vincent C Jones

Power to the People: Construction of the Bonneville Power Administration's 'Master Grid', 1939-1945 - Craig Holstine (The Pacific Northwest Forum Second Series Volume I, Number 2, Pages 35-46 Spring, 1988)

With special thanks to Burt Pierard and his paper on the March 10^th event and the BPA network.

Note: Jet streams as I understood, blow in narrow bands with widths of a few hundred miles and thicknesses of less than 3 miles. You will observe that they blow from west to east due to Earth's west-to-east rotation, combining with its north-south temperature gradients. Commercial aircraft may opt at times to ride a jet stream and reach their Eastern destinations faster, using less fuel. But there are some problems as well, a consequence of encountering edges of a jet stream is what is known as clear air turbulence or CAT. The great circle route in the picture is the shortest air route between Japan and US.

The eccentric Japanese scientist Wasaburo Ooishi, who discovered it, chose to publish his many papers on the subject in the Esperanto language, which was unpopular and hardly understood those days. Jet streams were researched and re-documented by others, after the war towards the 60’s. For details, read OOISHI'S OBSERVATION - Viewed in the Context of Jet Stream Discovery, BY JOH N M . LEWIS

Pics
Midway s/s 1945 - http://www.bigbendrailroadhistory.com, courtesy vintage tri-cities
Fu-Go Balloon bomb, Jet streams – Wikipedia

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The Officer and his Batman

When my friend told me the story of the bench warmer tradition in his erstwhile battalion, I was somewhat surprised, though not astounded. The British implanted some queer customs during the buildup of the Indian armed forces, and if you search you can find many. This one comes from a station somewhere up North, where the winters can be biting cold, and where the Sikh regiment had been billeted. It was a long standing tradition from who knows when and the story of its origin had been passed down the proverbial grapevine, to the present day. The British CO (Commanding officer), he said, had a daughter who used to come in the mornings, to where soldiers fell in and congregated for morning prayers. I don’t know why she came often, but take it for a moment that she was genuinely interested and quite fastidious about attending these prayers, albeit from a distance. 

The bench overlooking the Gurudwara where she would sit every time she came was made of cement or granite, and the result of the meeting of a compact derriere belonging to this English lass wearing just skirts (my assumption), with a biting cold bench surface, can easily be imagined with a grimace. The CO, her caring pop, decided that matters had to be set right and so a Sepoy was selected (how one selects a man with the warmest arse, is not a question I can answer, but thou shalt not ask such questions when I retell these stories) to get there ahead of time and warm the bench. So he did and when the lady in question arrived, he would slink away to perform his normal duties.  As I understood, the tradition continues with a Jawan still being selected for bench warming duty, though there is no CO’s daughter any longer. Still there, it is just that, a tradition, followed perhaps for military decorum…. Now most sportsmen would perk up to mention that there are bench warmers even today, those who do not play a match, substitutes or just members of a team who sit on the bench at the sidelines, nevertheless this story of a real benchwarmer was new to me.

But the article is not about bench warmers actually, it is about the batmen. Worry not, I am not going to write about the comic strip character and his sidekick Robin, I am going to cover the batman in the British and Indian army. Today the position is almost on its way out after having morphed through many names. But we will get to most of them.  The gist of the matter is that the batman was a personal servant or valet of a British Indian army officer. Sometimes it was purely personal duties, sometimes, it overlapped to that of an orderly or even to carry out radio duties, but we will get to all that eventually. That it was a necessity then, a tradition or even a matter of prestige, needs no mention. But the name is a curiosity, how and where did it come about?

The batman had nothing to do with bats (unlike the comic strip) or bat caves, but actually originated with horses and the term can be traced to pack horses in the French army. In French the term Bat signified pack saddles and bat horses (baw hors or bor hors) carried the cooking utensils of a traveling army. The person assigned to look after these horses and utensils were the original batmen. Over time, they took responsibility for all baggage of the regiment, and went on to become the keeper (baw man or bor man or bat man) of the officer’s horse. They were paid, as you can conclude, bat money.  Batmen were common in all armies and you will find books from the past mentioning the term often, be it Russian, East European, British or French. It was a common concept, the assistant or servant of a high ranking officer, like a Man Friday and make note of the real old pronunciation, it was bawman, not BATman.

Now it is time for the curious one to pipe in and ask, so is that the origin of the term bata or daily bata in the Indian expense statements? Well, no, while BATA is an acronym for boarding allowance travel allowance, Batta is maintenance or traveling expenses of an employee. It evolved as a common term for an extra allowance paid on special grounds to British officers, soldiers, and others serving in India! Batta came from Bhatta (Kannada for paddy and bhat - boiled rice), the term for this allowance, which in addition to their ordinary salary, provided officers with money for field-equipment and other expenses when on the march. In south India, East India Company officers were paid half batta while in the North, full batta (about Rs 600 or £60) was paid monthly!

If you wonder why I brought up the definition of batta, you will soon detect a possible link. In the early EIC days, the officer in the EIC army was paid a fixed amount and a batta, and with it he had to manage his expenses, his horse and well his servant. So the batta was used for all that and I could also infer (wrongly) that the man maintained with a batta may have been the original Indian batman. Perhaps that was a given, and the Batman became an institution even with the horse and the batman directly paid for by the British Indian army. When the use of horses for conveyance tapered overtime and mechanized armies were housed in billets, the batman simply became the British officer’s servant. His duties were varied and he had to take care of all sundry matters while the office rested and cleared his mind for more important matters!

As time sped by, this small cog in the gigantic army machine got delegated to mere mentions in officer’s memoirs, though some of them batmen did go on to choose their own illuminating careers. Many of them followed their officers in retirement to work in their homes as butlers or secretaries. But let us spend a little while to check their lives and times.

As you may have inferred, all commissioned officers were therefore assigned a Batman who served as a personal servant and assistant. While there were assigned duties which we will get into, one can generally state that they acted as runners to convey orders from the officers, as drivers, as valets, maintaining the officer’s uniform, handled the radio at times and had various other roles such as limiting and regulating personal access to the officer during busy and testing times.  It was always considered a good role in the past, because batmen received better rations and often, favors from their officers. He had in the old times, that is, among other unsaid duties, more formal ones such as waking up the officer, getting his bed tea and breakfast ready, whipping up the shaving lather, lighting the fire and getting (upto an inch of hot bath water as they say, for the tin tub) his bath water ready, collecting rations, cooking meals, cleaning the quarters, handling his laundry, maintaining the officers personal effects and sometimes even sorting of mail and handling communications as a radio man. Sometime it was just a lots of drudge work such as being a dogsbody (a menial worker, lackey or a gopher – but not a dog walker) for his boss! Dog robber" is American military slang, dating back to the US Civil War, for an enlisted man who acts as an orderly, valet and all-around facilitator for an officer.

There are so many stories mentioning batmen, be it the Russian novels of acclaim such as ‘the brothers Karamazov’ or various British officer’s accounts from the first and second world wars. Some mention them in passing, some talk about heroic batmen they associated with, some talk about their sheer necessity. These foreign accounts mention British and Australian batmen, while Indian and old BIA officers mention Indian batmen. They are interspersed or mixed up with orderlies, aides, assistants, aides, in all a confusing glossed over compendium, to say the least. Interestingly, there were batwomen as well, and we come across stories of British and Australian women who worked in camp messes as well as Red army girls appointed as batwomen to Red Air Force captains, with various kitchen duties including that of procuring necessities. Kay Summersby who served for Gen Eisenhower is sometimes termed a batwoman, though she was actually his confidante, chauffer and later secretary.

But it should also be noted that during the great wars, the batman was sometimes voluntary as one officer stated - senior officers on the staff and in command positions were entitled to a personal staff, including a batman. It was usual to seek a volunteer from the senior officer's regiment who was detached from the regiment and posted to the senior officer's headquarters or unit. A batman was in British Army parlance an officer's uniformed servant or orderly, supposedly taken on as a voluntary extra duty, for which the officer paid for the service. In the trenches, a batman carried his personal weapon and often acted as a bodyguard, while the officer carried out his duties as a platoon, company or battalion commander.

James Belton and Ernst Odell explain in their WW memoirs - ‘Hunting the Hun’ - A batman is chosen by an officer to act as his orderly; his duties are many, and wherever the officer goes while in the trenches his batman accompanies him. The higher the rank of the officer the easier the work for the batman and the less the risk, although there are exceptional occasions when a commanding officer takes as much risk as the junior Lieutenant under him. When a platoon officer leads his platoon “over the top” his batman goes with him; he therefore takes the same risk as the other men in the platoon, but he has several privileges that the private has not, such as: after he has attended to the requirements of his officer when out of the line he may spend the balance of his time as he deems fit, he is exempt from sentry and fatigue duties, and as a rule he has a good standing with the boys.

Another Brit definition states - The batman's services consist principally in grooming the officer's regimental horses, and cleaning his accoutrements, but he sometimes goes on errands, and does anything else which may be required of him; the officer pays him a small weekly sum, fixed by the army regulations, and he is subject to all military duty, at the will of the commanding officer, and attends the parades; he also receives a soldier's pay.

The aide-de-camp in comparison is not a batman, but he used to be an officer on the personal staff of a very high-ranking military person, acting as his confidential secretary in routine matters. In modern times aides-de-camp are usually of junior rank and their duties largely social.

Radhika Singha who studied these subsidiaries (see references), explains - As the British entrenched themselves in India and availed of comforts, they too employed a number of servants, both in the army and in civil positions. However British officers in pre-war India, whether in the British army or in the Indian army were not allowed a British soldier-servant, that is a batman. The official reason was that the white combatant strength had to be kept up. By the close of World War one, the Indian service was said to be unpopular with British officers, so it was felt that they had to be offered more 'concessions in kind'. The Esher Committee appointed in 1919-20 to suggest army reforms proposed that officers of the British service be allowed a British soldier-servant (a batman) from the ranks when in India, as they were in the U.K., and British officers of the Indian service, a soldier-servant from the Indian ranks, deploying special enlistments if necessary. She adds that if high caste sepoys objected to 'menial' work, lower castes could be specially recruited as soldier-servants, clarifying also that British privates avoided the job and resisted the performance of 'menial' tasks in the sight of natives..

Officers received an allowance for a syce (grass-cutter and groom) and took him into active service as a 'private follower'. Thus we find the formal usage of the term orderly.  British Officers of Indian regiments were also assigned a sepoy as an orderly, who on active service took messages, cleaned his kit, found him food and a billet.

After the British left, the Indian army continued with the system, terming them buddies initially and later as the sahayak. The system became quite popular and lent prestige to a senior officer, so much so that when suggestions came to dispense with it as it was felt a demeaning activity and no longer a necessity for a modern army, there was marked discontent in the officer’s line. The Sahayak meanwhile was getting upset when some officer spouses would get him to do vegetable shopping, menial household work, baby sitting or even dog walking. Was that what he signed up to do in the army? Was it his choice? The discontent increased and the clamor to end a system that has been referred to as "an anachronism" and "a feudal practice", which has no place in a modern army, had become strident.

While the air force and Navy had disbanded the system long back, the army is still contending with some 30,000 sahayaks (and 41,000 officers). Looking at the Lok Sabha report, we see that the duties presently assigned to a Sahayak are: to provide personal protection and security, to attend to telephones, receive and deliver messages during operations, training and exercise, and in peace,to maintain weapons, uniforms and equipment of Officers/Junior Commissioned Officers in accordance with custom and usage in the Army, to assist in digging trenches, erect bivouacs and shelters during war, training or exercise, while the leaders are more busy in planning, coordination and execution of operations, to be of assistance during patrols and independent missions, to carry and operate radio sets, maps and other military equipment during operations, training cadres and outdoor exercises. In 2010 the defence committee recommended that the practice be abolished stating - The Committee expect the Ministry of Defence to issue instructions to stop the practice forthwith, as this lowers the self-esteem of the Jawan.

The army replied as follows - that the Sahayak is a comrade-in-arms to Officer/JCO symbolizing trust, respect, warmth, confidence and interdependence, which are the fundamentals of relations between the leaders and the led. The Sahayak is a solider who in addition to his duties provides the essential support to authorized Officers and JCOs, both in peace and war to enable them to fully attend to their assigned duty. He also provides leaders a direct contact with men and thus enables officers and JCOs to gain an insight into the state of morale and wellbeing of men. The Sahayak will be attached to regular Army units and provided proper living accommodation and messing facilities. The officers to whom Sahayaks are provided will ensure such facilities are arranged. And finally, that Sahayaks will not be employed for menial house-hold work.

In summary, The Ministry while defending the use of Sahayaks by Army officers only concluded that comprehensive instructions be issued to regulate the work of Sahayaks. They added that the Committee is not able to understand the necessity of having the services of Sahayaks by the Army officers particularly when sister services viz Navy and Air Force have abandoned this practice. Meanwhile, the system continued.

As I researched this topic further, I chanced upon the sad story of Gunner Roy Mathew and his death at Deolali in 2017, a case which brought out the worst side of the Sahayak or buddy system hit the press, and turned out to be complicated one, still under investigation.

The MOD added in a 2017 justification press release that during operations in the field areas, the sahayak and the Officer / JCO act as buddies in arms. One covers the movement of the other buddy and protects him in operations where support has to be total, whether mental or physical or moral. A Sahayak, in addition to his normal soldier’s tasks, provides essential support to officers / JCOs both in peace and war, which enables them to fully attend to their assigned duties. The buddy also provides an alternate contact with the troops, whereby the officer is made aware of grass root issues, albeit through informal means. Clarifying that they should not be used for menial tasks, reiterate that buddies are combatant soldiers and form part of the Army and perform operational tasks as well. Thus, there is no additional cost to Government exchequer.

The deliberations are perhaps still on, while Sahayaks continue to do what they did. The term batman meanwhile died a silent death, unheralded and unlauded.

But there were heartwarming stories too, especially those dating to the war days. O. P. Bahukhandi in his Army Oh Army, mentions the close relationship between the officer and his batman. During the 1962 Indo China conflict, Capt Basant Singh (who retired as colonel) of the Sikh light infantry, refused to abandon his wounded batman and humped him back to safety through the mountains and jungles of Bhutan, himself hungry, sleepless and with festering sores. Lt Col Desmond Hayde recalls how he was saved from certain death when his batman Kunwar lal rushed in to shoot down three Pakistani assailants in the 1965 war. And there is also the story of a batman who went on to become an MLA after retiring from the army, as mentioned in Brig Kuldip Singh’s memoirs.

Blackford in his book humorously talks about Mustaffa, who regularly brought him his chota hazri (breakfast), hot water for a shave, organized the emptying of his thunderbox (shitpot), took care of his bath, had the dhobi starch and iron his uniforms, polished his shoe and shin straps, kept his tent spic and span and served his food. For this the British deducted Rs 50 from his emoluments and in addition, he paid him directly a sum of Rs 30 plus a baksheesh now and then as the master pleased! He goes on to term the batman ‘the Jeeves in Uniform’ (Jeeves would be familiar to the rare PG Wodehouse fan still out there). Glorifying the batman, who could very well turn out to be a friend, philosopher and guide, he provides yet another term – the batman during peace times was a madadgar (helper) or a Johnny who sometimes kept and controlled the officer’s expenditure and accounts. An invaluable asset, he even provided advance warning of major events or shakeup’s in progress, tapping the batman network’s upper echelons.

He also recounts the story of Field marshal Claude Auchinleck’s (Auk) sudden arrival at his post. Auchinleck had heard about a particular unit’s posting in this area and expressed his interest to visit them, much to the dismay of its CO. The CO hurriedly passed orders down and in haste they decided also to send out a particular officer nick named Bhola, one with a very Indian outlook as explained by Blackford and somewhat of an embarrassment, on a long reconnaissance trip to avoid any problems when the FM came. As it turned out, the FM was there only to check on the very same Bhola, asking in his booming voice ‘where is my Bhola?’, who as it turned out, happened to be Auk’s ageing batman’s son. The FM wanted to see the young fella, and make sure he was getting along well. What happened when he found him missing is left to reader’s imagination and naturally did not bode well for the CO.

There is the story of Lord Ismay’s batman (from the times when he was a military man in India) - Ismay had, for more than twenty years, been supplementing his old Muslim batman’s Army pension with one of his own. Just before he arrived in India, his bank manager wrote to tell him that the pension hadn’t been collected for some weeks. He realized why when he reached Delhi. His batman, hearing of his appointment on the radio, had set out on foot and walked for weeks and was waiting in Delhi to serve him again. And then, there is Sam Gamjee, Tolkien’s famous creation, Frodo Baggins’s Batman familiar to young readers.

Servants are nothing new in India and define high position, even today. They have been there before the British arrived and though the batman is as we saw, a colonial vestige, like so many other remnants of the British, such positions would surely have been there in native armies of various princely states even before the Brits came and I am sure, will remain for a long time to come.

References

The world in world wars: experiences, perceptions and perspectives from Africa and Asia - Front lines and status lines: Sepoy and 'menial' in the Great War 1916-1920 -Radhika Singha

Searching for Pop - Michael R. Brookbank

One hell of a life – Capt Stan Blackford

Standing committee on Defence - thirty first report October, 2008, 4^th report 2010,

Note - While writing this I recalled a place from my Turkey days, located in SE Anatolian region of Turkey, named Batman after the Batman River. Nobody really knows how its name came by, perhaps it was a shortening of the Bati Raman Mountain located nearby (bati means west). Batman is also a unit of weight in Turkey! The unit of weight maund in India is somewhat equivalent to the batman in Turkey. Batman’s mayor Huseyin Kalkan once tried to sue Warner brothers for mental agony, and loss of identity, on the basis that there is only one batman, and that was in Turkey. Perhaps Kalkanbey has never heard of the Batmen in the armies…

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Once the Promised Land

The Anglo Indians and McCluskiegunge

The Portuguese Mestiços had established precedent, when they congregated in Goa though a few remained in little enclaves at Mattanchery at Cochin and Bandra in Bombay. The Moplahs (many claiming Arab descent) attempted to obtain support in creating Moplistan in Malabar but are now well integrated and scattered across Kerala today. The Anglo Indians also tried to establish their new homeland at Whitefield and Lapra (renamed later as Mccluskiegunge) in Bihar. While most people know about Goa and Whitefield, and some have heard about the Moplistan attempt, only a few know the details behind the creation of McCluskiegunge. There have been a few articles, a film and a handful of academic books on the town though. Though the town developed, thrived and declined over time, McClusckie, the person behind its creation is not very well known and usually mentioned in passing, so I thought it a good idea to peruse the story of his effort and spend some time writing about it. McCluskiegunge today is mainly a curiosity and not many people tread the old path leading to that forgotten town off Ranchi, nevertheless I can promise you a short and interesting historic aside.

Till the turn of the 20^th century, Anglo Indians were somewhat comfortably placed, working mainly in the Railways, telephone, schools and telegraph offices and the customs offices at the docks. They were quite well organized and lived in urban settings, though concentrated in certain locales and segregated to a certain extent. The church, schools, charitable organizations and their clubs kept them occupied. As government offices started to recruit more and more Indians, the Anglo Indians started to become more and more anxious about their future in India. After the 1920’s a sense of foreboding was apparent among the British and consequently in the AI community, that a departure date of the English was not too far into the future, as the nationalist movements perked up. Fears of discrimination, unemployment and an uncertain future for their progeny gnawed at their minds incessantly.

As Indianization speeded up, the AI’s pleaded for constitutional protection being a minority without a homeland, living in a nation where neither the British nor the Indian communities accepted them wholeheartedly. The feeling of insecurity and the sense of a lack of identity dogged the AI’s of that period. They had been loyal to the masters, religion and culture, but with the masters leaving, what would happen to them? That they were hardly concerned with or associated with the Indian independence movement was also an issue isolating them from the mainstream.  Ruled by two opposing complexes as McCluskie’s nephew Percevial Damzen observed, that of inferiority to the British and secondly a superiority to the native Indian, the community struggled to get along with changing times. It was under these circumstances that the concept of an AI homeland or AI ‘Mooluk’ were bandied about, and as you can imagine one of the pioneers was M T McCluskie.

Born in 1872, McCluskie was a well to do businessman in Calcutta and a representative of the Anglo Indian community in the Bengal legislative council. Living in a prestigious Park Street residence, he boasted of connections with the ruling British elite.

Around 1930 he had been to Bangalore and toured the profitable orchard run by AT McIssac at Gangenahalli, near Hebbal. Returning to Calcutta, he floated the idea of a scheme where a colony could be formed for the AI’s and appealed for a government grant of land and monetary support, which were straightaway refused by Delhi. He would not drop the idea and then proposed a cooperative in the lines adopted by the Young family at Newllano (previously Stables) near Leesville in LA, USA, (moving from llano Del Rio in CA). The idea of a ‘homeland’ galvanized the community and soon The Colonization society of India or CSI was formed with McCluskie as Chairman. But what he did not contend with was the fact that while the early settlers in America were hard working people regardless of their age, driven by a desire to succeed and create what they started out for, the AI’s McCluskie had been herding were mainly retirees or people close to drawing pensions, desiring only of quiet solitude and a place to peacefully spend their last days, akin to a resort. What McCluskie wanted was to create an independent nation state, one which was truly self-sufficient serviced by a hard working commune.

That McCluskie was dependent on the wealthy AI was clear since he could not obtain grants from the British Government. But naturally, the wealthy AI was advanced in age. That was something McCluskie consciously accepted in order to realize his single minded dream of creating such a homeland with agriculture as its mainstay and self-help as its motto. Whatever said and done, McCluskie had decided that this was the only solution, what with some 800,000 AI’s in limbo as India started to rise up and agitate against the British.

The drive to find a proper locale for the homeland was easier said than done. During the early 1930’s, he approached the administrators of Lahore, Madras, Central provinces, Bombay, Bengal and Assam, with no luck. He tried going to London to ask for allocations, but that also failed. Pendra Road looked like a potential site, but while everything else was right, there was no a good water sources nearby and so he had to give it up. A couple of sites located in Dehra Dun could not be acquired, and with a heavy heart McCluskie realized that no government would help him and that he had to turn to private land owners. He was nearly successful with a place named Palamau near Ranchi, but the registration process was rejected by the government on the basis that the land was unsuitable and secondly because the AI’s were not agriculturists.

It was finally in 1933 that he and his team managed to find and register an area around Lapra (which had a railway station and located in today’s Jharkhand) near Ranchi in Bihar, acquiring it from the Raja of Chota Nagpur, Pratap Odhainath Sahadev. Finally some 10,000 acres were obtained on a perpetual lease across 10 villages in the vicinity. The Damodar River flowed along the north, there was ample space for growth and future acquisition as well as ample grazing land for cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. The other sides also had rivers, there was a rail and road link, the city of Ranchi was nearby (40 miles away). An agriculturist AB Christicole concurred that it was a good place to settle and cultivate. Some 163 members booked about 2250 acres of land in 1934 and by the end of the year it had surged close to 4100 acres and some 430 members. 

As the pioneers drifted in to settle down, the settlers decided to rename Lapra to McCluskiegunge, in gratitude to their benefactor and founder. In 1935, the colony was formally inaugurated and renamed as the pioneers, driven by McCluskie’s encouragement got to the task of making their ‘mooluk’. For three years the colony grew, built amenities and farms, cultivating wheat, groundnuts and potatoes, flourishing as other colonies sprung up around India like Abbot’s Whitefield in Bangalore, Majra in Dehra Dun. There were talks of others such as a prospect in the Andamans, dismaying McCluskie who wanted only one Mooluk for the AI’s. Strangest was the proposal to settle AI’s in Mexico, as Margaret Miles proposed or Papua and New Guinea as suggested by one Mr Ward! What most people may not know is that the settlement at Lapra was originally called Erin’s isle since its shape resembled Ireland! Most called it the Gunge.

But let us get back to the leadership. The dream and the idea of the homeland was mooted and driven forward incessantly by McCluskie. Soon after the inauguration of the homeland in his name, McCluskie the visionary passed away in Dec 1935.

One visitor Mc Gowan wrote in Feb 1934 - [McCluskiegunge] is like a beautiful dream, everything your own and in a lovely spot with no dogmatic treatment and no dread of the sack, and, above all, no streets and drains for latrines and spittoons, no dirty leaves, waste paper and mud chatties to be served in and to trample on of an evening walk, and, lo, no ... Dewalies, ...riots, and any fear of Dacoities and Bomb throwing. It would be just splendid: Farming, Commerce, and Industry, Dance Halls and Picture Houses for the money-maker…………….

As the community grew, there were record stores, cosmetics shops, we had a bakery, a butchery, a cobbler. The inhabitants would go on picnics and shoots, hunt wild boar and deer.  While the arms magistrate used to go from Ranchi to renew gun licenses because there were so many guns in McCluskiegange. They say it was a very sociable place in those days, where dances were held, stage plays and fancy dress parties organized while the staid played housie or bingo. Colonial bungalows and smart little houses with gardens dotted the landscape. It had thick forests around and streams flowing. People mentioned that it was like a mini England, a Chota Vilayet.

There were other minor problems, such as when Christians (of Portuguese origin from Goa), tried to move to McCluskiegange and the settlers complained of the menace of intrusions of outsiders posing as Anglo-Indians. But it held on and in May 1938, Gidney described McCluskiegunge as ‘A home for Anglo-Indians under the sun of India, their motherland, an effort at self-help which will command the respect and admiration of our compatriots, a colony worthy of the traditions of our forefathers, a concrete evidence of our affection for the land of our birth, a memory to the blood of our mothers and grandmothers which runs in our veins.’

Water which was in theory available all over, was actually a huge problem and we can find that no administrator or engineer worked out a decent solution for it showing a lack of initiative or insight with digging deeper wells and getting water up from a low water table. The Anglo Indian in Lapra was nether good at tilling the land nor commercially savvy and soon Bania shops and local labor took over the commerce and labor, setting to rest the idea of a self-driven, self-helping colony. Soon the settlers were driven by petty behavior, jealousy, non-cooperation and meanness. The complacent and somewhat isolated or marooned pioneers of Chota Bilayet or mini England were prey to all kinds of manmade and other types of problems.

By 1940 the bubble had burst and with a lack of leadership, increasing overheads and no light at the end of the dark tunnel, properties started going up for sale and settlers planned departure to far away destinations. In what way was McCluskie himself responsible for its failure? One classic reason stated is that he himself never left the comforts of Calcutta and settled down in Lapra. Other community leaders also stayed put in Calcutta and they all talked about their orphan child Lapra, from far away. Was it not a recipe for failure?

Two other factors can be attributed to the failure of a rebound by the fledgling colony. One was the Second World War and the second was the drive for Indian independence and its realization in 1947. Most of the Anglo Indians succumbed to the first of the complexes, insecurity and fled to Australia, Canada and England. It is not right of course to lay all the blame on the fleeing AI, for the native Indian was also to blame, for not giving them a welcome, albeit wholeheartedly. The Indian complained that the fleeing AI did not think themselves as Indians in the first place, so why should they have any fondness for them? There were other reasons, the resurgence and concentration of Maoists in nearby villages, not to forget the collapse of the Colonization Society of India in 1955 and the drift of its youth to other locales.

Sadly, the colony declined rapidly through the post-independence years and is a relic of what it once was with not much left of the dream of its founder. It is today a destination for a certain kind of tourist while remaining Anglo Indian descendants do not take kindly to prying eyes, fed up with articles detailing its failures and glorifying its past. But it is what it is and unless a new generation of AI descendants come back to refurbish it, the ‘mooluk’ or Chota Bilayet would crumble away to remain only in articles. The town itself is not dead nor one which has to die, it just needs fresh leadership and a new objective and a different kind of entrepreneurship drive to keep it going.

As the 1990’s approached, we saw that most dwellers had left and the population finally dwindled to some 50 residents. But a savior came by. Alfred George deRozario, an Anglo Indian (and his wife Dorothy), pained by the plight of the settlement established the Don Bosco Academy in April 1997. It soon became a prestigious institution and today boasts a school with classes upto the 10^th and strength of more than 1,300,The Don Bosco School did provide an opportunity to the old timers who converted their homes as hostels for students, but I think all agree that it not surely a permanent solution.

The persona of McCluskie other than being a founder of the colony in Lapra is not clear to many people, so let me tell you what I could unearth. Ernest Timothy was the son of an Irish father and an Indian mother. According to a contemporary and writer Harry Hobbs, McCluskie used to work as a tie fitter in an outfitters shop and once won a lottery with which he set himself up as a land agent and worked his way to success. I think his home was once at 5 Park Street which is today location of the Park hotel. Kunta Lahiri mentions that it was 22 Park Street in which case it is the home to a shop called twigs and Tales as well as a medical center! McCluskie is generally described as having been a successful real estate house broker and land agent in Calcutta and his first claim to fame was the printing of the  ‘The Calcutta directory and guide” in 1906. In 1907 he complied and released the McCluskie's Indian Directory & Guide. Commercial & Official. While McCluskie did create the Gunge, he was not part of it for long. Though not often mentioned, he visited the Gunge just once! Perhaps it was due to his failing health. The Statesman headlined his obituary calling him 'A Great Leader and a Worthy Citizen', which was perhaps just right. Other than this little amount of information, nothing else has been put to words or published, to my limited knowledge.

In the opening pages of Vikas Kumar’s novel, Denis McCGone is wistful – He is infuriated with his wife who is upset with Denis always thinking of his homeland and McCluskieGunge. He retorts Hell…? Lisa, in this naughty world, the connectedness with one’s soil, the sense of our own roots, is really felicitating. Each and everything is fallacious in this prosy life. But the root always steers the life, it can’t die easily. I know I have to carry the weight of a fool, you can’t understand Lisa, the pull of the rootless people…..

As Lord Irvin said, ‘God made British and God made Indians, but we made the Anglo Indian’. It is as Jha explains, the AI is a paradox, neither British nor Indian, neither fair nor dark, they ate not just English dishes, but loved the ladoos, and they were like the veritable Indian coconut, brown outside, white inside. McCluskiegunge is still the only place AI’s can continue to claim as a homeland, so someday somebody will come back, as they say, it is still a leftover of a dream for independence.

Post-independence, it was not uncommon to see Anglo Indian secretaries in most large offices, and perhaps men found more competition at the work place. But this was not applicable to every Anglo Indian. A huge number of them lived, remained and thrived in post-independence India. A classic case is that of Cyril Stacey an INA colonel, whom I had written about earlier. There are so many more and I have come across and knew a few in Madras and Bombay. In hindsight, one can always say that fears are fears and they tend to grow until one is forced to act, only to realize much later that it was perhaps not so bad, after all. Do the Anglo Indians scattered across the globe think so? Maybe, maybe not!

The story of Bangalore’s Whitefield is equally interesting and I will get to some of it someday, and probe into that oft mentioned juicy rumor of Churchill’s visit and trysts with a certain Rose Hamilton at the Waverly Inn.

References

In search of a homeland – The Anglo Indians and McCluskiegange – Kuntala Lahiri Dutt (1990)

Domicile and Diaspora – Alison Blunt

Anglo Indians and minority politics in South Asia – U E Charlton-Stevens

McClusckieGunge – A novel by Vikas Kumar Jha

A lovely ode to the Gunge by Usha Utup  with reworded ‘what a wonderful world’

Note: Most people today spell McCluskiegunge as McCluskieganj, perhaps for convenience. The former is the spelling used by the founders. It was sometimes referred to as Gunge in correspondence. Lapra is still valid, but largely forgotten. 

I am obliged to Kuntala Lahiri and Alison Blunt for the original work which forms the backbone of this summary and count myself lucky for having had the opportunity to access and read their theses.

Anglo Indian memories

COLONEL CYRIL J STRACEY - I.N.A – A REMARKABLE MAN 

Pics

McCluskie plaque courtesy Soumyendu

ET McCluskie pic courtesy Malcolm Hourigan

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The Chatans of Malabar

Driving lazily last weekend, en-route our local desi grocer, I passed by the Chatam street. We do have several towns and places in the East Coast of America named after locales of old Britain, and Chatam must have come from the ancient Chatam port in Kent. That set me thinking about the name, but I got sidetracked to the Chatans of Malabar and the famed Chatan cult, a topic that our revered historian KV Krishna Ayyar himself spent many a day on. I remembered also the first Indian 3D movie ‘My Dear Kuttichatan’, and our childhood frenzy to get to the theaters to see one, using disposable glasses in spite of widespread rumors that those newfangled glasses were carriers of the dreaded Madras eye (conjunctivitis) affliction. Anyway, I thought I would research a bit and tell you what I gleaned, without any kind of judgment or conclusions.

The diminutive child demon or poltergeist of Malabar seems to have been a remnant drawn from the Buddhist traditions which once existed in Cheranadu and up north. Chathan seva (Worship of Chathan) had originally been confined to the lower castes. As time went by, his fame elevated him as the guardian of villages and even as the God of hunters. He ended up as a person of honor, his miraculous powers were in demand to ward off enemies and as time went by, the masses linked him to the Shasta or Lord Ayappan. That passage of this legend over time presents an interesting and sometimes stimulating study.

Before we get to all that, let’s see what our little friend or Kutti Chatan as he is more popularly known as, does in these village towns. As you can gather, he is considered a little comic imp or household elf, not definitely a ferocious adult ogre with gnashing teeth and blood thirsty eyes, out with an intent to kill.

A little intro to his activities can be gleaned from an interesting introduction by KM Panikkar in his paper - Kutti-Chattan (sometimes merely Chattan. Kutti means boy, a term of endearment; Chattan is supposed to be a corrupted form of satan), is in no sense a god. He is something like Puck, much inclined to mischief. He is supposed to be a dwarf, though he can assume any other form, or remain invisible, as he chooses. He never goes out of his way to harm anyone, though if anybody injures him once, Kutti-Chattan never forgives, and keeps on troubling him for life. His favorite method of annoying anybody is by throwing stones at the house or dropping unclean things in the food. He may do so without interruption, which would render life almost impossible. He is supposed to have no fingers, and therefore his vices can be thwarted by people who know it. For example, he cannot pick up things if kept in a place high above his reach, unless, of course, there is something nearby on which he could climb. He cannot untie a knot, as he does not possess fingers, though he can open the strongest lock. What rich people do to keep their money out of his reach is to tie a knot on the purse and keep it locked in a safe, the latter precaution being necessary against human hands that possess fingers. Kutti-Chattan can, of course, be tamed by magicians, and bribed to do whatever his patrons liked.

Thankappan Nair emphatically states that Chatan was a colloquial usage of Sastha, clarifying that it is not Satan as KM Panikkar and some others felt. He goes onto explain that Kuttichatan is not a dwarf, but always a well-nourished 12-year-old boy. It was believed that the one who propitiates him at home in secrecy would gain health, wealth and fortune. Kutti­chathan can work wonders; but "this most mischievous imp of Kerala demonology, is of sterling honesty and demands complete submission of his devotees”.

He continues - Chata Seva (worship of Chathan) is confined to the low castes. Those who want to wreak vengeance upon their enemies let loose Chathan. Pelting of stones and appearances of feces and urine in foods and drinks are caused by Chathan, as it is believed. The poltergeist pelts you with pebbles, brings abominable substances, and decamps with cash and valuables from locked-up safes and cupboards mysteriously. “As remuneration for his services, Chathan want nothing but food. It is said that the malignity’s inflicted through their instrumentality recoil on their masters who die childless after undergoing physical agony" said Mr. L. A. Krishna Iyer, the octogenarian anthropologist of Kerala. The life of the victim as you can see is made miserable and whenever there is any harassment and unnatural happening, people attribute its cause to the malevolence of Chathan in Kerala. Dr. Gundert in his Malayalam Dictionary, written about a century ago, has defined Chathan as the deity of hunters. The worship of Sastha as their god of hunting is confined to the Hill tribes of Kerala, especially among Kanikkan, Malayarayan, Urali and Mannan. Velans and Pulayans are the accredited Pujaris of Chatan and seemingly, he changes his color according to the class of people who worship him.

All very interesting, and as the imp’s believers increased, the desire to worship him resulted in the construction of Kottils (improvised places of worship) dedicated to Kuttichathan all over Kerala. There is as you can see, a reputed Chatha Seva matham at Triprayar near Trichur and if you need his favor, you have to propiate him with constant invocation and gifts, especially food. His food habits are non-vegetarian and everything else consumed by normal people in the sly (those days) and so offerings to him comprise chicken, mutton, arrack, ganja etc. which are relished by him.

But what was surprising to me was the documented experiences of KV Krishna Ayyar and the family of L Anantha Krishan Ayyar, which will tell you how prevalent the belief was in the early and mid-20^th century Malabar.

KV K Ayyar details his personal involvement with a case in Calicut which details the mystery. Quoting him - In September and October last there occurred in a family living in Calicut (India) certain extraordinary incidents which the common folk regard as the work of Chathan or the imp of mischief in South Indian demonology. One morning some human excreta were noticed on the outer side of the kitchen door leading to the backyard of a certain house. This did not arouse any suspicion, as it was thought to be the trail left by some bandicoot in its nocturnal rounds through gutters and latrines. Next morning the same thing was noticed in the same place. The womenfolk were alarmed, but the father of the family pooh-poohed their fears and went to his work as usual. But the third day the filth was found within the kitchen, in the hearth itself.

The hand of Kutti-chathan was unmistakable, for is not, night soil the most favourite weapon in his armoury? From that day, for the space of nearly two months, the family was subjected to the most harassing torment that human mind could conceive of. There was a horrible uncertainty hanging about the whole house; there was no peace, no sleep; they knew not whether and when they could enjoy a meal. The lot of Tantalus seemed to have fallen to them. They dared not open the water pot lest they should find filth in it. Sometimes, when everything was ready for the runner and the hungry children had taken their seats, the cruel disappointment would come, for the distracted mother had just detected the ubiquitous filth in the carefully-cooked dish. As a variety, Chathan would sometimes substitute human hair, charcoal and cow dung. Water mixed with turmeric and saffron-a vicarious offering for blood considered to be the most favored drink of the denizens of the spirit world-would be found spilt here and there in the house. Squares, circles and other patterns by which lndian women usually decorate their floor were also drawn in the various rooms of the house.

To expel the devil, an image of St. Anthony, reputed to possess power over spirits, was brought into the house. But an hour had not elapsed before it was found lying in the compound. One day Chathan developed into an incendiary. Jackets, petticoats, straw and dried palm leaves were suddenly found to be in flames. Inanimate objects seemed to quicken into life; pictures and mirrors were heard to fall from the pegs on which they had been hung and broken. Pottery, china and cooking utensils of bell-metal, brass and copper, were violently flung about the rooms.

On the day when I paid my visit to this haunted house the Chathan had become more aggressive than usual. He had removed the bangles from the wrist of the baby of the house, broken them and concealed them under the roof. An old lady of the house had become the target of Chathan's violence. Stones, small pots, dried cakes of cowdung, had been hurled at her in the morning. I was standing near with my back to her when suddenly she uttered a. cry of pain, and I turned only to see a brass lamp falling to the ground after hitting her. I was told that that particular lamp had been kept locked in a trunk. But locked doors and boxes were not proof against Chathan. The only way of preventing him from opening boxes and scattering their contents was to tie them with ropes or strings. For the devil has no thumb, and without it he cannot untie the knot.

My visit was very opportune in that I was able to witness one of the methods of expelling the devil. It is the peculiar characteristic of the people of Malabar not to do anything without ascertaining the will of the gods about it. The astrologer occupies a unique place in Malabar society. He is in demand everywhere and for everything. He had been consulted. From the stars the astrologer had been able to read the particular Chathan (for according to popular belief they are twelve brothers) who had chosen to visit the house, the reasons for his visit, the person against whom he had been set in motion (the Chathans have no will of their own and are the absolute slaves of those who have them in their power), and the person who could expel him from the house.

Here we come upon another feature of Malabar society. Certain families are considered to possess influence over spirits. Of these, the most notable are the Nambudiri families of Kallur and Kattumadam, and the Parayans of Tolanur. The former are at the top, the latter at the bottom, of the social ladder; the former a.re the descendants of the Aryan immigrants to South India, the llatter of the aborigines ; the former use their power for good, for casting out devils, and charge no fee, the latter generally for blackmail and mischief.

In this particular case the stars pointed to Kallur as the person who could deal with the devil. But he could not come on account of a pollution. So he wrote a letter in the following words; "Kallur Nambudiripad to Kuttichathan" (" It is our desire that you do desist from all your activities till we come to you"). This letter was solemnly read by the head of the house after purifying himself by a bath. But it had no effect. At last a disciple of Tolanur was called in, and I am told that the trouble has ceased.

Such incidents as these are by no means uncommon in Malabar. In almost every village, folk can tell you of some person who had fallen a victim to Chathan's pranks or point to you some house deserted on account of his activities. This Chathan, a faithful and obedient slave to his master but a perpetual worry and nuisance to those whom he may be sent against, is a god worshipped by the Pulayas, Parayans, and other castes, low in the social scale. His worship by the Brahman Nambudiris incidentally illustrates the process by which South Indian demonology has grown up; the gods of the vanquished aborigines have been recognized and given a place by the successful invaders, but as devils and spirits.

After ruminating on some possible theories, he lays the question to the public - it will be interesting to know whether such phenomena as these have been noted among other peoples and races. I did not come across any replies.

Prof Bhagyanath (Actress Vidhubala’s father) the famous magician explaining this topic to the scholar and Magician Lee Siegel provides details - Kerala is the place of black magic. It's the home of Kuttichathan. Do you know about him, about the tricks he plays? He tries to prevent people from performing penances, since it is through such practices that you can gain control over Kuttichathan, that you can become a real magician. Let us say, for example, that you, in hopes of acquiring magic powers, stand neck-deep in the waters of some tank, river, or lake. That is when Kuttichathan takes the shape of a crocodile and comes for you. One minute a crocodile, the next a striped snake or a dog, a crow or an eagle, a goat or a pig! If you are afraid, your fear will make the illusion real, and then the crocodile will devour you. But if you are without fear, the magic can't work, and Kuttichathan is foiled. The priests of Kuttichathan are all magicians. And they worship him at midnight. If you make an offering to him, an offering of flesh and blood, you might entice him. He has, you know, one weakness—he has no thumbs. Yes, no thumbs, and so he cannot undo knots! And so if you can tie him up, he can't get away. Then he'll bargain; he'll offer you magic powers in return for his release. But be careful! Never trust a magician!"

But the most astounding write up on a real life adventure with the Kutti Chathan comes from L Ananta Krishna Iyer, the son of LK Ananta Krishna Iyer. LAK Iyer was an Indian Anthropologist and a writer of several books on the subject, following in the footsteps of his father, the doyen of Anthropology. His article Kuttichathan – Confessions of a sufferer documents the event and provides the reader a detailed account of the indignities suffered by him at Quilon.

It was about the middle of September, 1931 that affairs of State took me off from Aryancavu, where I left my family. After 3 or 4 days it so happened that the Office-key which was hung up on a nail in the portico was found missing in the morning. Search was of no avail. A fresh key was again made the same day, and hung as usual on the same nail, to be found lost the next morning. Thus four keys were successively made, to be found lost the next morning. This aroused the suspicion of Mrs. K. who experimented on a useless key, which was hung up on the same nail. After a few hours it was found missing.

The hand of an unseen agency was suspected. The next evening the Bungalow was under the watch and ward of 4 watchers and a Police Constable. Two keys were suspended on the same nail in their presence. When they were in an unguarded moment, the keys were found missing in the twinkling of an eye; everyone got panicky, and no one slept- till daybreak. The next morning, there' was a great flutter’ in the household, as Miss K. found that her gold chain was missing- from her neck The servants were at their wits’ end as to what to do. A diligent search was made, and the sweeper found it safely stowed underneath a lime plant covered with dry leaves. It was observed that things were getting out of hand, and it was decided that the master of the house should be written to; Mrs. K. opened the box for taking: the fountain pen to write a few lines, but, alas, the pen was missing! The whole house was in consternation, and Mrs. K. decided to leave the place and went home.

As matters progressed, Iyer got home and employed the services of many exorcists to drive away the little imp, but all this was of no avail. Iyer continues…

A Nayar exorcist came and he informed us that we have incurred the wrath of Sastha (a Sylvan deity) and his satellite, Karuppuswamy. If they are appeased by offering two fowls and arrack,' the mischief will cease. His request was granted. As a result of his intercession, prayers and offerings, the unseen being was not in evidence for 18 days, after which he again reappeared.

He would remove my watch, fountain pen, inkbottle, bunch of keys, and others but they would be recovered from the compound the same day. The Nayar exorcist, was again sent for. He divined that we had incurred the wrath of Karuppuswamy who should be appeased with offerings. Karuppuswamy is installed at Kottavathukkal, one of the gateways of Travancore. There he remains as the ‘watch dog of Travancore. He accepted the offerings, and the trouble ceased, but again reappeared.

I was then informed of one Abdul Jabbar, a Muhammadan exorcist of Quilon, an adept in the art. A man was sent to fetch him. He sent word that it was not necessary that he should go to Aryancavu. He assured that, if his written prescriptions were adhered to for three days, the trouble will cease and we will be happy. It was desired that the paper should be folded and sent back to him by post on the fourth day,

The purport of his prescriptions is, “I am of opinion that this trouble at Aryancavu is due to a hierarchy of evil spirits whose wrath the occupants of the Bungalow have incurred. I order you all to leave the locality. May the inmates of the Bungalow live in peace”.

The instructions were that this should be read for three days in the morning in the presence of all those about me, and that, on the third day, a small quantity of frankincense should be put in the paper which should be folded and sent to him by post in a cover. The instructions were carried out for three days to the very letter, and I am glad to say that the mischief ceased and we continued to live in peace and happiness.

Ethno medical practices in Malabar show that many castes believed in propiating the Kutti Chatan to ward off the ill effects of a variety of ailments and occurrences such as scorpion bites or even barrenness in women. Another interesting aspect you would have gathered is that the Chattan was not restricted to the Hindus, they were also common as the ‘Chekuttypapa’ or Kanjirakudam among the Moplahs. PPA Razak explains in his paper that some Moplah homes had separate rooms and stools dedicated to such spirits.

There are so many such stories sprinkled in the accounts of real and educated people (KPS Menon also recounts a story in his ‘Many worlds’). Another interesting story is recounted by Saletore about a Jailor Amrit Rao of Mangalore who had dealt with a Moplah criminal wrongly or too severely. After enduring all this patiently, the man while leaving stated that the Jailor will suffer for all this. Within days the Kutti Chatan attack ensured and after enduring days of suffering, the jailor sought the help of a wizard from the Amin Divi (islands) to ward off the little devil.

The stories are many, the accounts seemingly real, but beliefs, legends and such myths are sometimes difficult to explain, spread across religions and are even more difficult to dispel if one is convinced he is affected. As Prof Bhagyanath stated, “If you are afraid, your fear will make the illusion real, and then the crocodile will devour you”.

References

Religion and Magic among the Nayars: K. M. Panikkar - Man, Vol. 18 (July 1918)

The cult of Chathan and Sastha Worship – P Thankappan Nair, Quarterly journal of Mythic society, Vol 60. 1969

Chathan: A Devil or Disease? K. V. Krishna Ayyar - Man. Vol. 28 (Sep., 1928)

Indian Witchcraft- Rajaram Narayan Saletore

Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India – Lee Siegel

Nâyars of Malabar - F. Fawcett

The Mysore Tribes and Castes – LK Anantha Krishna Iyer

From Communitas to the structure of Islam: the Mappilas of Malabar -P.P. Abdul Razak

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