Was the Pazhassi Raja Set Up? Part 2.

At the end of the war in 1792 the EIC administration had set up the Malabar Commission to reach a Revenue Agreement with the local Raja’s. The Pazhassi Raja felt that the EIC had not treated him fairly in this agreement and that he was not receiving a sufficiently high share of the Revenues.

 From Extract Political Letter from Bombay 18th December 1796. “By subsequent advices from the commissioners, dated the 23rd of August, we received a Copy of Colonel Dow’s Report of his Deputation into Wynaad, containing very interesting information relative to the former circumstances of the country, and conveying his ideas, as to the political importance of it. The colonel commences by observing that the Wynaad, when viewed merely as an object of Revenue, appears to be inferior. Consequences as that Territory, as well as the Possessions above the Ghauts, in general, had been laid waste, and depopulated, and must therefore require a continued state of tranquillity and careful management, before any considerable supplies could be drawn from them, but that abounding in a fertile soil, and producing several Articles Valuable in Commerce, they would in course of time become ample Funds of Wealth.”

The report goes on to record that Col. Doveton, who had escorted Tipu Sahib following his defeat in 1791, had written that: - “Tippoo had received 90,000 Rupees in revenues from the Wynaad” (before 1791.)

 The Raja Koorminaad had collected the Wayanad’s Revenue after Tipu’s retreat, and quite possibly whilst Tipu had controlled the area: - “for which he must of course have been accountable to our Government.” In 1791 “Tippoo withdrew his Troops from the District in question, and established his advanced Post at Intacotta, which being situated on the borders of our Territory became his proper Frontier.”

 The Political Letter then goes on to describe events in 1792. ““That during the war, the People of the [Pyche] Raja seized on the Wynaad as part of their ancient Territory and were at the Peace in possession” and the lasted quoted address to Bombay of June 1792 continues to state “That on the 6th of May 1792 a message arrived from Tellicherry from the Raja of Cotiote, stating that an officer from Tippoo had sent to the person in charge of Wynaad to deliver it up as the right of Tippoo and that similar letters had been sent by the same person to the Raja making the same demand.” Mr. Farmer not having then left Tellicherry, the Chief and Factor requested his ideas and directions on the subject, when he advised that the Raja should instantly send word, that the country being yielded to the English, he the Raja, could give no answer till he had informed the Chief of Tellicherry, but that, as Wynaad was certainly not including in the Grants of Tippoo, it could not consistently be retained, and that therefore the Raja must order the People to withdraw to the Boundaries of Wynaad, there taking a stand, and advising the Chief; if Tippoo’s people presumed to encroach beyond that boundary which the Bombay Commissioners then believed we had no claim to the Eastwards of, in so much that on the 9th of August they wrote to Tippoo’s Subahdar Hurry Purwae apprizing him “that as at the time mentioned by the Treaty we do not find Wynaad to have been under Calicut, we do not mean therefore to detain what was granted to the Company;"

Writing on 2nd March 1797. “the late untoward Events in one of the Northern Districts in the Malabar Province which it grieves me sorely, to have to relate, howsoever much they may appear to have primarily and in a great degree unavoidably flown, from the Rivalry and Dissentions between two Cousin Germane called the Raja’s of Coorimnad and Coltiote, the former progress and fortunate issue of which stand already narrated in the Revenue letter from this Presidency of the 18th of December last, as does their unexpected Renewal in my late address to the Secret Committee of the 12th of January of which a Duplicate is herewith sent—“ “2 You will Gentlemen already know from the first report of the Commissioners that all the Malabar Rajas feel and have indeed all along felt rather uneasy under the degree of Restraint and Submission that we have since the Peace with Tippoo Sultaun endeavoured to subject them to, among these none has been so turbulently impatient all along as the Raja of Cottiote, otherwise called for distinctions sake, and as being indeed his more proper designation the Pyche Raja, one of the members of the family of the Raja’s of that District who having during the late War with Tippoo remained in the Jungles when his other & Senior Relations fled for refuge to Travancore acquired thereby such a footing in the affections of the people, that even after his services returned at the Peace he maintained his influence, so as to have been considered by the first Joint Commissioners from Bengal and Bombay & Treated as the effective or at least the acting Raja, at the same time that, on his behalf & with his consent they settled most or all of what related to his District with the Raja of Coorimnad the son of his Mothers sister (all heirship amongst these Chieftains going in the female line) and who whom as his senior, he professed at all times the greatest deference so as to consider himself to be only the manager under his orders; but yet his conduct was on the whole so turbulent & refractory that in the year 1794 Mr. Stevens then the Supravisor concluded the five years settlement of the Coltiote District not with him but directly with the Coorimnad Raja his relation as being at the head of the house of Cottiote whereas there are several between him and the Pyche (By misnomer called by us the Cottiote Raja) in order of succession not withstanding which the Pyche Chieftain has ever since the conclusion of this quinquenial lease proved extremely restless and jealous that it became soon after my entering on my present charge a serious and pressing consideration how to proceed in regard to him, in as much as he forcibly prevented the Coorimnad’s making the Collections under the quinquennial lease, to such a degree that the latter declared he could not pretend to go on with them without a force of 5 or 600 men of our Troops, in view to all which and also to enable us in pursuance of a Recommendation to that effect, from the Bengal Government to bring him (the Pyche) to account for his conduct in having put some Mapillas of his own Authority to Death, the commanding officer on the coast / General Bowles) was not only instructed to afford the Coorimand Raja the necessary support – but it was left to the last mentioned commanding officer and to the acting Supravisor Mr Handley (comprising the Civil and Military Superior Authority on the spot) to consider whether it might not be advisable in view to saving effusion of Blood if the Pyche Raja’s person be secured so as to prevent his protracting an insurgency by betaking himself an insurgent to the Jungle."

The Rajah was able to harness the grievances of the peasant farmers, who felt that they were being over taxed, to his own. Together with the Raja, the peasants began attacking the British forces. Several battles took place, during which EIC officers and sepoys were killed. In 1797 a temporary peace was agreed with the Raja, but it broke down once again in 1799. Francis Buchanan who travelled through the region during 1800 and 1801 described the local conditions that were to play such an important role in Thomas Baber’s life over the coming years: - "January 1st 1801 – In the morning I went nine miles to Tamarachery. The country resembles that which I came through yesterday, but much of it is waste. At Tamarachery there was a house belonging to the Pychi Rajas; and as it was on the road to one of the principle passes leading up to Karnata, Tippoo established in its neighbourhood a strong colony of the ruffian Moplays; and until lately, a constant petty warfare has been continued between them and the Nairs."

The Moplays or Moplahs were a Muslim people who had lived in the area for 500 or more years, and were the descendants of Arab sailors and soldiers who had settled in the area. Francis Buchanan recorded that: - “under Hyder Hindus were tolerated, but under Tippoo Islam was the sole religion and the Moplays were brought to prominence."

During the Mysore War under Lord Cornwallis many Hindus were circumcised by force and others fled into the jungles to wage war on the Muslims. The descendants of the Rajah’s were invited to join the EIC armies and after the armies of Tippoo had left the Naires returned from exile in Travancore. The rebellions and unrest became so severe that the EIC took the administration of the Malabar Coast away from the Bombay Presidency and put it into the hands of the Madras Presidency in July 1800. A Major McLeod was appointed as Principal Collector of Malabar to try to reform the district. Thomas Baber was one of his assistants. McLeod introduce a new exchange rate for the local coinage in August 1802, and increased the revenue assessment. This left most of the peasants in arrears, which could only be recovered by force. The wars had badly affected the local economy. The production of pepper fell, as did the price of pepper in the market. With the capture of the nearby French and Dutch settlements there was no alternative market within which the farmers could dispose of their produce. The EIC could set the prices.  

William Ewer writing in 1797 offers us a short description of Mahé. "Mahe. This is a beautiful little place four miles from Tillicherry, taken from the French this war; & if possible it ought to be kept; it was at all Times; when in their Hands a place of Political Intrigue & gives them a footing in the Coast; it is a Residence of Foreign Merchants out of Controul of the Company who interfere very much with the Company's concerns. The Road to the southward is through it, be sides this; the French will always have it in their Power to create & encourage Disturbances amongst the Natives. "

 The British had taken over the tax assessments made under Tipu by Canarese Brahmans. These assessments were too high to be sustainable for the farmers when set against falling prices and production of crops. In a good year 8,000 Candies of rice could be grown in the Tellicherry area, of which 4,000 came from the Pyche Raja’s territory.

In 1800, the Raja’s crop had dropped to 2,500 Candies. The situation quickly became very tense. A later official William Logan described the state affairs had reached: - "The accounts were fabricated, actual produce was over assessed, produce was assessed that did not exist, and assessments were imposed on the wrong men".

When the EIC took over the province, they took over the existing revenue assessments. They also used many of the existing native revenue officials to carry out the collections. This caused considerable problems. Hyder and his officials had been fairly brutal in his methods of collecting taxation. With falling pepper prices the collection taxes at these levels of assessment was not sustainable. As was the case elsewhere in the native ruled provinces of India, the taxation was assessed at a high rate, and farmed out to local collectors.

Its collection was however usually often very inefficient and sporadic, so that the actual sums collected were often much smaller than the theoretical amounts available. Murdoch Brown a local planter explained the taxation situation to Francis Buchanan in 1800: "Mr Brown thought that prior to Hyder’s invasion the natives of Malabar had had reserves of precious metals etc. which Hyder extorted. He used Canarese Bra’hman’s to assess and extract the money. These reserves rapidly diminished partly because the Petty Raja’s connived with the Bra’hmans to hang onto the money."