Ivory Throne

by Manu S. Pillai

21. T.K. Velu Pillai, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 165.

  22. Ibid.

  23. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 617.

  24. See Bundle No. 403, File No. 453 (KSA) and T.K. Velu Pillai, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 166.

  25. Ibid., pp. 168–72.

  26. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1930).

  27. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 611.

  28. Ibid., p. 618.

  29. T.K. Velu Pillai, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 166.

  30. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1930).

  31. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1932).

  32. Maurice Dekobra, The Perfumed Tigers, p. 118.

  33. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, No Elephants for the Maharaja, p. 6.

  34. Report on the Administration of Travancore for 1926–27, p. 138.

  35. Report on the Administration of Travancore for 1928–29, p. 175.

  36. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 613.

  37. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1930).

  38. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 7, p. 325.

  39. M.A. Oommen, ‘Rise and Growth of Banking in Kerala’ in Social Scientist, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1976, pp. 28–29.

  40. K. Varkey Joseph, Migration and Economic Development of Kerala, p. 86, and T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual, Vol. III, p. 20.

  41. K. Varkey Joseph, op. cit., p. 86.

  42. The smallest denomination of currency in Travancore was the copper ‘kasu’. Sixteen kasus made one chuckram. The kasus were so small that they could not be counted individually and were scattered over a wooden board with sixteen tiny holes. Four chuckrams made one panam or fanam, and seven panams made one Travancore rupee, while a half chuckram more made a British rupee (which was the colonial state’s way of showing their superiority).

  43. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 616.

  44. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol VI, No. 5, pp. 257–58.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Report on the Administration of Travancore for 1924–25, p. 72.

  47. C.M. Ramachandran, Problems of Higher Education in India, p. 100.

  48. Resident’s speech at the investiture durbar of the Maharajah on 09/11/1931 (IOR/R/2/887/186).

  49. P.R. Gopinathan Nair, ‘Education and Socio-Economic Change in Kerala’ in Social Scientist, Vol. 4, No. 8, 1976, pp. 33, 37.

  50. Ibid. p. 42.

  51. Daniel Jivanayakam, Training Teachers for English Schools in Travancore, pp. 45, 56, 58–59.

  52. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1928).

  53. Ibid.

  54. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 615.

  55. Dewan’s Addresses to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1931 and 1932).

  56. Supplement to the Western Star dated 19/11/1928.

  57. Report on the Administration of Travancore for 1925–26, p. 95.

  58. Ibid., pp. 121–22.

  59. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1926).

  60. Report on the Administration of Travancore for 1929–30, p. 34.

  61. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1930).

  62. T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual, Vol. IV, p. 158.

  63. Report on the Administration of Travancore for 1927–28, p. 138.

  64. Resident’s speech at the investiture durbar of the Maharajah on 09/11/1931 (IOR/R/2/887/186).

  65. K. Narendranath quoted in Mary E. Clark, In Search of Human Nature, p. 400.

  66. Viceroy’s speech in The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. IX, No. 4, p. 193.

  67. Rajyashree Kumari Bikaner, The Maharajas of Bikaner, p. 85.

  68. India House Report on Rukmini Varma’s Exhibition in 1976 (TRF).

  69. Indira Varma’s note to the author on her mother.

  70. Letter dated 14/12/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to her mother (MSS EUR F32/60).

  71. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. X, No. 12, p. 604.

  72. Letter dated 07/01/1931 from Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer to the Palace Special Office (TRF).

  73. Letter dated 27/09/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to her mother (MSS EUR F232/60) Dick Kooiman in the introduction to No Elephants for the Maharaja says Louise only met the Junior Maharani in 1931, but this letter shows they had their first meeting in 1929. See Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, No Elephants for the Maharaja, p. 9.

  74. Letter dated 26/08/1929 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/886/177).

  75. See Caroline Keen’s Princely India and the British for more about these subjects.

  76. Report for the Second Half of August 1927 (IOR/R/1/1/1644).

  77. Letter dated 14/08/1927 from the Resident to the Maharani Regent (Raghunandan, pp. 258–59).

  78. Letter dated 03/08/1927 from the Pvt. Sec. to Viceroy to the Resident (IOR/R/2/886/177).

  79. Viceroy’s note on his meeting with the Junior Maharani on 03/08/1927 (IOR/R/2/886/177).

  80. This was also mentioned in letter dated 25/07/1927 from the Resident to the Pvt. Sec. to Viceroy (IOR/R/2/886/177) indicating that Mr Cotton already knew about this decision.

  81. Letter dated 05/12/1927 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/886/177).

  82. Ibid.

  83. Letter dated 03/01/1928 from the Pol. Sec. GOI to the Resident (IOR/R/2/886/177).

  84. Ibid.

  85. Letter dated 16/08/1928 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/886/177).

  86. See letters dated 06/12/1936 and 13/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F153/22 and F154/23).

  87. A. Raghu, CP: A Short Biography, p. 22.

  88. Author’s interview with Advocate Vijayaraghavan.

  89. A. Raghu, op. cit., p. 27.

  90. Report for the First Half of January 1928 (IOR/R/1/1/1746).

  91. A Raghu, op. cit., p. 30.

  92. Letter dated 11/10/1928 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/L/PS/13/1283). The words recall Sir T. Madhava Rao who also served for long years and was known to hanker not for money as much as for fame.

  93. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 121.

  94. Letter dated 23/04/1929 from the Resident to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1828).

  95. Ibid.

  96. Pol. Sec. GOI’s note dated 08/05/1929 (IOR/R/1/1/1828).

  97. Ibid.

  98. Ibid.

  99. Letter dated 26/08/1929 from the Resident to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  100. Letter dated 29/08/1929 from D. Sankaran Iyer to the Valiya Koil Tampuran (Raghunandan, pp. 373–75).

  101. Letter dated 26/08/1929 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  102. Letter dated 05/09/1929 from the Junior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  103. Letter dated 05/09/1929 from the Resident to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  104. Letter dated 18/09/1929 from the Junior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/1828).

  105. Ibid.

  106. Letter dated 20/09/1929 from the Resident to the Junior Maharani (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  107. A. Raghu, op.cit., p. 30.

  108. Pol. Sec. GOI’s note dated 27/09/1929 (IOR/R/1/1/1828)

  109. Letter dated 04/10/1929 from the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/1828).

  110. Ibid.

  111. Memorandum to the Viceroy (IOR/R/2/886/178).

  112. Ibid.

  113. Ibid.

  114. Ibid.

  115. Ibid.

  116. Letter dated 17/01/1930 from the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI to the Resident (IOR/L/PS/10/1118).

  117. Memorial to the Viceroy dated 02/09/1929 (IOR/L/PS/10/1118).

  118. See IOR/R/1/1/2037.

  119. Memorial to the Viceroy dated 02/09/1929 (IOR/L/PS/10/1118).

  120. Letter dated 27/09/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to
her mother (MSS EUR F232/60). I am also grateful to Rosscote Krishna Pillai for telling me a story about Rama Varma who was ‘firm but not unprincipled’, telling how, since everyone presumed he was the power behind the throne, his father A.R. Pillai once wrote to him asking if he could have the position of Director of the zoo and public museum in Trivandrum. ‘The Valiya Koil Tampuran told him politely that he could not oblige and asked him not to write to him with similar requests again.’

  CHAPTER 12: MOTHER AND SON

  1. K.M. Panikkar, Malabar and the Dutch, p. 22.

  2. Susan Bayly, ‘Hindu Kingship and Origin of Community’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1984, p. 190.

  3. Robin Jeffrey, The Decline of Nair Dominance, p. 281.

  4. Ibid. pp. 103, 101.

  5. Ibid. p. 13.

  6. Nagam Aiya, Travancore State Manual, Vol. I, p. 361.

  7. Nagam Aiya, Travancore State Manual, Vol. II, p. 277.

  8. Robin Jeffrey, op. cit., p. 4.

  9. Susan Bayly, op. cit., p. 189.

  10. K.M. Panikkar quoted in Robin Jeffrey, op. cit., p. 4.

  11. Susan Bayly, op. cit., p. 209.

  12. Robin Jeffrey, op. cit., p. 33.

  13. Ibid., p. 129.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Ibid., p. 126.

  16. Ibid., p. 192.

  17. Ibid., p. 207.

  18. Robin Jeffrey, ‘Matriliny, Marxism, and the Birth of the Communist Party in Kerala’ in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 1978, p. 84.

  19. Robin Jeffrey, Decline …, p. 192.

  20. Ibid., p. 110.

  21. Ibid., pp. 179–80.

  22. M.J. Koshy, K.C. Maammen Mappilai, p. 84.

  23. Robin Jeffrey, Decline …, p. 194.

  24. K.V. Joseph, Migration and Economic Development of Kerala, p. 151.

  25. Robin Jeffrey, Decline …, p. 246.

  26. Ibid., p. 247.

  27. Ibid., p. x.

  28. Samuel Mateer, Native Life in Travancore, p. 353.

  29. K.V. Joseph, op. cit., p. 131.

  30. Report for the Second Half of November 1929 (IOR/R/1/1/1819).

  31. Author’s interview with J. Devika.

  32. Lakshmi Raghunandan, At the Turn of the Tide, p. 313.

  33. Dick Kooiman, ‘Political Rivalry among Religious Communities’ in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 28, No. 7, 1993, p. 288.

  34. Ibid., p. 289.

  35. Ibid., p. 292.

  36. K.R. Ushakumari, Changanassery Parameswaran Pillai, Appendix IV, p. 148.

  37. Letter dated 28/04/1930 from G. Sankaran Nair to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  38. Letter dated 28/06/1930 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  39. Letter dated 22/04/1930 from G. Sankaran Nair to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  40. Letter dated 12/08/1930 from G. Sankaran Nair to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  41. Author’s interview with Divakara Varma.

  42. Letter dated 12/08/1930 from G. Sankaran Nair to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  43. Letter dated 28/06/1930 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/L/PS/10/1118).

  44. Mr Nair’s complaints were dismissed along with the previous memorial against the Regency sent in 1929. See IOR/R/1/1/2037.

  45. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 373.

  46. Letter dated 16/03/1931 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  47. Letter to the Editor on Travancore Politics in the Princely India dated 20/07/1932.

  48. Letter dated 16/03/1931 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985).

  49. Letter dated 01/01/1930 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  50. Ibid.

  51. Report for the First Half of January 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  52. Letter dated 31/08/1929 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  53. Letter dated 03/09/1929 from the Resident to the Maharani Regent (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  54. Letter dated 04/09/1929 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177, and Raghunandan, p. 382).

  55. Report for the Second Half of September 1929 (IOR/R/1/1/1819).

  56. Report for the First Half of April 1928 (IOR/R/1/1/1644).

  57. Letter dated 27/09/1929 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177). Some of the names suggested were K.S. Srinivasa Achariya, Rao Bahadur Gopalaswami Iyengar, and Rao Bahadur U. Rama Rao, K.C. Manavedan Raja of the Zamorin’s family, and Rao Bahadur P.T. Srinivasa Achari.

  58. Letter dated 03/10/1929 from the Resident to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  59. Letter dated 02/11/1929 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  60. Letter dated 01/10/1929 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177, and Raghunandan, p. 383).

  61. Letter dated 30/12/1929 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  62. Quoted in Letter dated 09/04/1929 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1849).

  63. Letter dated 04/09/1929 from the Resident in Travancore to the Resident in Mysore (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  64. Letter dated 17/01/1930 from the Pol. Sec. GOI to the Resident (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  65. Letter dated 10/02/1929 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1905).

  66. Letter dated 26/01/1930 from the Resident to the Junior Maharani (IOR/R/2/885/177).

  67. Ibid.

  68. Report for the First Half of April 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  69. Letter dated 09/07/1930 from Sir CP to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1905).

  70. Report for the Second Half of April 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  71. Report for the First Half of June 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  72. Letter dated 04/10/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to her mother (MSS EUR F232/60).

  73. Report for the Second Half of August 1930 (IOR/L/PS/10/1118).

  74. Report for the First Half of July 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  75. Ibid.

  76. Ibid.

  77. It is normally said that he was compelled to abdicate because he corresponded with Germans, but his descendants in a biography have dismissed these stories.

  78. I.K.K. Menon, The Rajarshi of Cochin, p. 24.

  79. Report for the Second Half of July 1928 (IOR/R/1/1/1746).

  80. I.K.K. Menon, op. cit., p. 260–61.

  81. Report for the First Half of October 1927 (IOR/R/1/1/1644).

  82. Report for the First Half of July 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  83. Ibid.

  84. Ibid.

  85. Report for the Second Half of July 1930 (IOR/R/1/1/1889).

  86. Telegram dated 11/04/1930 from A.S. Menon to the Pvt. Sec. to Viceroy (IOR/R/1/1/1905).

  87. Letter dated 22/02/1930 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1905).

  88. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1931).

  89. See Report of the Economic Depression Enquiry Committee.

  90. P.J. Thomas, ‘India in the World Depression’, The Economic Journal, Vol. 45, No. 179, 1935, pp. 469–70.

  91. Ibid. p. 473.

  92. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1931).

  93. Quoted in Report of the Economic Depression Enquiry Committee. p. 10.

  94. Quoted in Ferdinand Mount, The Tears of the Rajas, p. 306.

  CHAPTER 13: LA REVANCHE

  1. See S. Gopal’s ‘Drinking Tea with Treason’ in William Roger Louis ed. Adventures in Britannia (pp. 145–158).

  2. Ibid.

  3. S. Gopal, The Viceroyalty of Lord Irwin, p. 1.

  4. S. Gopal, ‘Drinking Tea with Treason’, op. cit.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Piers Brendon, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, pp. 383–84.

  7. S. Gopal, ‘Drinking Tea with Treason’, op. cit.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi, p. 327.

 
10. Sankar Ghose, Jawaharlal Nehru, p. 68.

  11. Ibid.

  12. K. Natwar Singh, The Magnificent Maharajah, p. 255 (2009) (Delhi: Rupa) (Google Books).

  13. Ibid.

  14. See Jaswant Singh, Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence (2009) (Delhi: Rupa Publications) (Google Books). It is likely Jinnah’s dislike originated in a personal grudge. A story goes that his wife, Ruttie Jinnah, once wore a low-cut dress to a banquet at the Governor’s house when Willingdon was the Governor of Bombay, and Lady Willingdon, not very subtly, asked an ADC to bring a wrap ‘in case’ Mrs Jinnah felt cold. Jinnah stood up and said, ‘When Mrs Jinnah feels cold, she will say so and ask for a wrap herself.’

  15. K. Natwar Singh, op. cit., p. 255.

  16. V. Sriram, ‘Madras’s Pushy First Lady’, The Hindu dated 23/10/2013 at http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/madras-pushy-first-lady/article4023512.ece (accessed 01/10/2014)

  17. T.N. Kundra, Glimpses of Indian National Congress: From Inception to Attainment of Freedom (1885–1947), p. 92 (1996) (Delhi: Regency Publications).

  18. Rajmohan Gandhi, op. cit., p. 327.

  19. Philip Williamson, National Crisis and National Government, p. 167.

  20. S. Gopal, ‘Drinking Tea with Treason’, op. cit., and Rajmohan Gandhi, op. cit., p. 328.

  21. Arthur Herman, Gandhi and Churchill, p. 375.

  22. Piers Brendon, op. cit., p. 387. As it happened, by 1935 he was compelled to admit the genuine aspirations of India’s people, leading to the Government of India Act of 1935, allowing Indians a role in the administration.

  23. Saroja Sundararajan, Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, p. 272.

  24. Ibid.

  25. T.N. Gopinathan Nair, Avasanate Naduvazhiyude Amma, p. 46.

  26. Shankunthala Jagannathan, Sir C.P. Remembered, p. 83.

  27. A. Raghu, CP: A Short Biography, p. 30.

  28. T.N. Gopinathan Nair, op. cit., p. 46.

  29. Marthanda Varma, Travancore: The Footprints of Destiny, p. 107.

  30. Shankunthala Jagannathan, op. cit., p. 84.

  31. Marthanda Varma, op. cit., p. 108.

  32. Saroja Sundararajan, op. cit., p. 272, and see IOR/R/2/885/177 Vol. III.

  33. Letter dated 23/06/1931 from Pol. Sec. GOI to the Resident (IOR/R/2/886/186).

  34. P.K.V. Kaimal, Revolt of the Oppressed, p. 127.

  35. A. Raghu, op. cit., p. 30.

  36. Saroja Sundararajan, op. cit., p. 223.

  37. Shakunthala Jagannathan, op. cit., p. 83.

  38. Pol. Sec. GOI’s note dated 18/06/1931 (IOR/R/1/1/2071).