News of Major Cameron's Defeat reaches Britain.

Major Cameron played an unwitting part in the story of Thomas Baber and this may have given an edge to Thomas Baber's later hunt for the Pyche Rajah.  The Major was the husband of Helen, who once widowed went on to become Thomas Baber's wife and who stuck with him throughout all his later troubles.

News of the Major's death which had taken place on the 18th of March 1797 reached Britain shortly  before the 28th of August 1797. It is a measure of just how serious an incident this had been, that the news was thought to warrant overland post.

Usually the dispatches to Britain went by sea, and would have taken many more months to have arrived in London. An overland dispatch had to go via the Red Sea to Egypt and on to London by ship via the Mediterranean, and would have cost approximately £400, a very large sum in those days, the equivalent of  annual salary of a senior official or Colonel, per letter.

The following report was picked up by the Reading Mercury, most probably from a London Paper published a day or so before.

Reading Mercury - Monday 28 August 1797

Friday and Saturday’s Posts.

EAST-INDIA INTELLIGENCE.

Yesterday a Court of Directors was held at the East-India house, for the purpose of reading dispatches received over-land from Bombay.

Their purport is understood to be of a disagreeable nature, but by no means so hostile to the peace of India as had been reported.

In consequence of some dispute between Tippoo Saib and the Rajah of Cotiote, respecting elephants, a detachment of our troops, consisting of a thousand men, headed by Colonel Dow, marched towards that province, for the sake of ending the dispute by treaty or arms; when, on passing Wynaad into Cotiote, they were attacked by the refractory Rajah Pyche.  On the early retreat of Colonel Dow, the command devolved on Major Cameron, who after a gallant resistance, fell at the head of his troops.  In this unfortunate action we lost 300 men. And great part of our ammunition.

The following is a list of the killed and wounded.

Killed.  Major Cameron, Lieutenant Nugent, Ensign Mudge, Ensign Ruddiman.

Wounded.  Captain Budden, Ensign Fallow.

In consequence of the above unhappy contest, Governor Duncan, attended by General Stewart, proceeded from Bombay to Tellicherry, in order to confer with the Ministers of Tippoo, leaving Sir Charles Malet and Mr. Page, in charge of Government.

The latest advices from Bombay state the agreeable news of Tippoo’s return to Seringapatam, from what had been termed a hunting party; and of every prospect of tranquillity being about to be restored to the Cotiote Province.[1]

A full report of the action in which these men were killed is given in my Blog of Wenesday 27th December 2006, The Death of Major Cameron. [2]

[1] From the British Library Newspaper Collection.

[2] http://malabardays.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/death-of-major-cameron.html

Palakkad [or Palghat] Fort] Early History 1757-1766 Part 1.

Figure 1. Palakkad Fort, Courtesy of Google Earth. [ Please click on this image and subsequent ones for larger images.]

For anyone with an interest in forts who travels to Kerala, Palakkad or Palghat Fort has to be one of the most interesting sites to visit.

This austere and irregular fort is however also a puzzle as it is neither entirely Indian in form, nor yet is it a "European" fort. It represents a sort of fusion or transitional fort featuring aspects of both Indian and European design.

Very little is recorded in readily available sources about the fort except its capture on three occasions by the British, and recapture on two occasions by the Mysorean's, and so although I have known about the fort for several years, I could find out very little about its history.

A couple of days ago however whilst researching other forts in Thalassery and Kannur, I stumbled onto some most fascinating documents in the British Library from 1797 and 1798.

These throw new light onto the history of the fort, and enable us to date several of the features in the fort, and to even detail how much they cost to build.

Figure 2. Palakkad's strategic position.

From Figure 2, it can be seen that the fort at Palghat occupies a very important location astride almost the only pass in the entire chain of the Western Ghats that can be easily passed by a cavalry army. There are other passes at places like Periah, but these are extremely steep and in Hyder Ali's time, were limited in use to Tribals and merchants carrying goods very largely by porters on what were little more than steep footpaths.

Hyder, the new Muslim ruler of the Deccan, tried to, but failed to break the stranglehold on the East or Coromandel Coast ports, controlled by hostile French, Dutch and English Companies, he hoped to break out to the west coast by invading the predominantly Hindu states on the Malabar coast.

Trade had been carried on for centuries from ports like Cochin, Calicut, Cannanore and Ponnani by Moplah merchants to the Gulf and Red Sea. Much of this trade in precious goods had travelled through the Palghat region.

An extremely good article on the importance of the Palghat Gap to trade in southern India during the period before 1770 can be found on Manmadhan Ullattil's blog post of 20th February 2010 in his "Historic Alleys" blog. [1]

Hyder's army was a predominantly cavalry army and it was experienced in using cannons to take the many forts that were dotted across the Deccan plains.

The coastal Rajah's armies in the 18th Century Malabar region were made up almost entirely of infantry, and these were mainly recruited from a caste of warrior farmers called Nairs.

The area to the west of the crest of the Ghats was thickly covered in dense forests or marshy valleys filled with Paddy fields. It was ideal for what is now known as Guerrilla warfare.

As the East India Company was to find out for itself, any army approaching the Ghats would soon find itself being ambushed by archers concealed along the forest edge and opposed at stockades built across passes.

The Malabaris don't appear to have built forts for themselves in the way that the other Indian states had before the arrival of the Muslims from central Asia or the later European's.

They relied on the forests, rivers and swamps for protection from invasion.

With the arrival of first the Portuguese and then the Dutch these coastal rulers experienced the power of European forts. The Travancore rulers were the first to adopt forts, using captured Dutch soldiers under Eustachius De Lannoy. [2]

Hyder knew however that in order to defeat the coastal Rajah's at Calicut, Cochin and Cannanore, he would have to defeat these Rajah's European allies.

Over the previous century the European's had built up a series of coastal forts, initially to protect their trade goods as these were assembled for the annual arrival of the trading ships from Europe, but which were increasingly being used to wage war on the other European settlements or to hold down client Rajah's as the balance of power subtly changed from the European's being present in Cochin, Calicut and elsewhere on sufferance, to their increasingly dominating affairs in these settlements.

Hyder would have to bring cannon and supplies for what was going to be a protracted campaign and process of colonisation.

He was going to occupy and establish his own Empire on the coast.

Palghat Fort's earliest history is little known. Before 1757 the area was ruled by the Palghat Achchan, and was nominally under the rule of the Zamorin's of Calicut. The Zamorin's were however becoming much less powerful than they had previously been. The Palghat Achchan seems to have taken the opportunity to try to break away, and faced by a counter attack from the Zamorin he appealed for support to Hyder Ali Naik, a rising military officer in the Mysore state.

In 1756-7, the Zamorin had advanced his forces into the Palghat area seizing an area he called Naduvattam. The Palghat Raja sent a deputation to Hyder Ali who was Foujar of Dindigul, a major fort about 95 miles to the south east of the Palghat gap.

Hyder sent his brother in law Mukhdum Sahib with 2,000 horse and 5,000 infantry and some guns to Palghat and these forces were able to push down the Ponnani Valley defeating the Zamorin's army. A fine of 1,200,000 Rupees was claimed from the Zamorin, and the Zamorin tried to stop Hyder by appealing to the Mysore Court over his head. They approached Deo Raju, who sent Rajput troops under Herri Sing to try to collect the monies owed to Hyder Ali from the Zamorin. On the 19th of June Deo Raj was killed at Seringapatam, and Herri Sing was killed by a force under Mukhdum Sahib a few days later. Hyder had removed one of the last barriers to his taking over power at the Mysore Court. He also had the pretext of the unpaid indemnity to use when he next wished to invade the Malabar again.

Hyder Ali [3] first seriously came to notice of the European's on the west coast of India in January 1763, when he attacked and captured Bednur and later Mangalore. The Muslim's on the Malabar Coast had at times a difficult relationship with many of the Hindu Rajah's. As the numbers of Muslim's grew they sort to expand out from the small settlements into Hindu areas. This led to petty covert wars and even overt warfare.

The Rajah's of Travancore and Cochin and the Zamorin from Calicut were also at war with each other in 1762.

This next invasion was not long in coming. When seriously threatened the coastal Muslim communities appealed again for support from their co-religionists to Hyder Ali. At this stage there is no mention of the presence forts at Palghat.

In 1766 Hyder invaded the Malabar in force, and it was in support of this attack which affected the entire coast from Cannanore to Cochin that I believe Hyder ordered the fort at Palakkad to be built. [4]

Hyder was aware of the improved military techniques that the French in particular were bringing to India. The Mysore forces contained a number of French engineering officers familiar with cannons and artillery fortifications.

By the 15th of March 1766 Hyder's army was on the boundaries of Cannanore and Tellicherry.

They entered Mahé on the 6th of April, and entered Calicut shortly after, causing the Zamorin to commit suicide by setting his own palace on fire whilst he himself remained inside.

The army under Hyder intended to stay, and Logan says that his forces established block houses called lakkidikottas or wooden forts. Hyder's advance slowed as he approached the Travancore Lines previously built under the instruction of De Lannoy.

Hyder then sent off east to return to his home territory before the onset of the approaching monsoon. He left a force of 3,000 men on the coast supported by a force from the Ali Raja of Cannanore. An experienced official called Madanna was left to leveé contributions from the area.

Shortly after Hyder's main force had left the region a rebellion or uprising broke out in which the local Rajah's, Nairs and others rapidly over ran the smaller Mysorean garrisons and forts.

Hyder's garrisons at Calicut and Ponnani were besieged and the routes back to Coimbatore were cut so that messengers could not get through.

Reza Sahib, Hyder's local commander eventually got a message out by paying a Portuguese sailor to navigate his way overland by compass, presumably so that he could cut across country to avoid the tracks that the Nairs would have under observation.

Hyder was forced to re-invade the country that autumn during the Monsoon. The Nairs built an entrenched camp near a village called Pondiaghari, which was in the Ponnani Valley. The attack on this village was led for Hyder by a mixed group of English, Portuguese and French soldiers and renegades from their respective countries East India Company forces.

Following a bitter battle lasting many hours the stockades around the village were stormed and Nairs defeated. Following this victory a campaign of oppression and reprisal followed with many Nairs marched off to Mysore and many others forced to convert.

Returning to Mysore Hyder, mindful of the recent uprising and the cutting of communications is believed to have instructed his officers to build the fort at Palghat.

In the next part, I will explore the forts construction by Hyder and the sieges it suffered.



[1] http://historicalleys.blogspot.com/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustachius_De_Lannoy
[3] For a good brief account of Hyder Ali's early years see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyder_Ali
[4] See William Logan's Malabar Manual, Volume I pages 399 to 437 for a veery good account of these events.

Tellicherry and its part in establishing the Silk Industries of Dharwar & Hubli

Thomas Baber was aware that the Malabar had become too dependant on the cultivation of pepper as a cash crop at the expense of other crops.

He knew also knew that the farmers could barely feed their families, even with the revenues from growing pepper and that they were unable to pay their taxes.

They badly needed other cash crops.

In 1813 he had seen the local families suffer famine brought about by the buying up of all the available rice. This had happened when the crops had failed in Cutch and the Konkan, leaving the inhabitants in and around Bombay in terrible difficulties.

Konkani merchants had descended on the Malabar Coast in order to buy up any available supplies of rice for sale in the north, and were moving inland up the roads from Calicut and Tellicherry buying up rice before it could enter the market in those towns driving up the prices and causing the townspeople to face severe shortages.

He appears to have decided to experiment with the growing of a number of alternative crops at Pallikunnu, the house he built in 1817 on the northern outskirts of Tellicherry in order to assess their potential, and as a demonstration of what might be possible.

This house built in 1817 stood in about ten acres of grounds, most of which were taken up with a large walled trial garden area on the northern side of the house facing the river.



From the kitchen garden looking into trial plantation area.

We do not know all the different types of plants that he experimented with, but amongst the trees ground at Pallikunnu were some Mulberry trees. Some of these trees survived until the middle of the twentieth century, before having to be cut down due to the arrival of a disease that affects Mulberry trees which had arrived in the town.



An abandoned processing building in the trial plantation area.


It is not clear where or when Thomas Baber first became aware of silk culture or Mulberry trees, but it is quite likely that this was during one of his many trips to Seringapatam, to which he had been travelling on legal business since 1806 connected with the trial of the adherents of the Pazhassi Rajah. Later as an Appeal Court judge he would go there once or twice a year.

Silk has been grown for many centuries in India, however Kerala was not one of the areas where silk was generally grown or produced.

Tipu Sultan had understood the importance of silk to the Indian economy, and it's potential as an export commodity to exchange for European goods.

As early as 1785 Tipu Sultan had sent Buhauddeen and Kustoory Runga from Seringapatam to Bengal to try to procure suitable high quality silk worms. Tipu had previously planted Mulberry trees near his palace in preparation for the arrival of these silk worms.

An area of land had been set aside behind the old palace at Seringapatam in which these trees and the worms could be developed.

Tipu had even sent emissaries as far as China and Muscat in his search for the best silk worms.[1]

I believe that Thomas Baber had become aware of the work that Tipu had done, and that he had managed to acquire Mulberry trees seedlings and silk worms from Seringapatam.

The experimental work at Pallikunnu began in 1815 and continued until 1817, as is described in Thomas Baber's evidence given to the House of Lords in 1830, and which appears below.

It would appear that Thomas had planted these trees before he had completed the construction of his house.

In the latter part of 1824, Thomas Baber was moved away from Tellicherry and into the South Mahratta Country to Dharwar where he became Principle Collector and Political Agent. Here he found himself responsible as part of his duties for the running of a large prison containing several hundred Mahratta prisoners.

These were often men who had spent all their formative life as Pindaris engaged in raiding and who had been opposed to the EIC during the Mahratta Wars.

They had no craft or way of making a living, as they did not possess any other skills besides those associated either with crime or war. They would of necessity return to their former violent means of earning a living if they could not be provided with an alternative.

Thomas appears to have decided to try to occupy them in gaol and to teach them a trade so that they could support themselves when they were eventually released.

At this time in Britain Penal Reform was a relatively new idea, and I have no idea if Thomas Baber took his inspiration from John Howard (1726 - 1790) who had published a book called The State of Prisons in England and Wales, in 1777, the year in which Thomas Baber had been born, or whether he had just reached similar conclusions to Howard from his experience of living directly over the gaol inside Tellicherry fort.

From whatever cause, he soon had approval from his colleagues.

William Chaplin, Tom’s superior recognised and encouraged his efforts. Writing from Poona he said: -


18th July 1825.

You will see from my official letter, that your cloth manufacture is very much approved. I should like much to get a model of one of your looms, if you could supply me, though I am not sure, when I have got it, that we should know how to use it, without sending some people to be instructed.

The origin of the models he had used to build these looms is fascinating. Thomas Hervey Baber's brother Henry Hervey Baber was Keeper of the Printed Books at the British Library, as well as a member of the Royal Society. This gave Henry Baber access to all the books in publication in Britain. He also was responsible for meeting, assessing and getting to know anybody who used the library.

At this period the scientic community was very small, and Henry must have known a great many of them. This must have enabled him to obtain a suitable model that would allow full scale versions to be built inside the gaol.

Thomas had written to his brother to ask that 1/5th scale models be made of the most efficient looms being produced at that time in Britain.

Having spent fortunes on developing silk weaving technologies and factories in Britain over the previous decades, it is highly likely that the British textile manufacturers would have objected very strongly had they realised that these models were intended to be transported taking their advanced technologies out to India.

Thomas Baber appears to have been setting out to redress the balance in favour of India.

Forover two hundred years highly Indian skilled handloom operators had produced silk cloth, which had been greatly prized in Europe.

These handcraft workers living in the Coromandel, Orrissa and Bengal regions had been profitably engaged in the market for centuries.

However after about 1760, they had lost their dominance, first because of the wars in India, and then because of the Industrial Revolution in England, which had seen water and then steam powered looms replace Indian textile workers in the production of silk cloth.

This had caused huge social and economic disruption in India where many thousands of weavers had lost their livelihoods.

It appears that Thomas Baber had realised this, and had decided to take matters into his own hands and to set up new factories in India that would allow the disadvantaged Indian's to regain their former industry.

Thomas later wrote in 1829: -


“I introduced European looms, and manufacture of numerous fabrics, quite new to the people. Vide my evidence before the Committee of the House of Lords. I also introduced Silk-worms, and European reels for winding the silk…..


He also set about using his prison labour force to grow and plant Mulberry trees: -


Large Plantations of which I had commenced upon, and also numerous manufactures, such as paper, canvas, carpeting, blankets etc, etc, all by means of my convicts.

His 1830 account given in evidence to the House of Lords Selct Committee on Indian affairs is set out below.

Are there any Silk Establishments in the Part of the Country with which you are acquainted?

Thomas: Not where I have been in Authority. I introduced one myself while I was at Dharwar, which succeeded remarkably well; it was entirely conducted by the Convicts of my Gaol.

Is the Soil suited to the Growth of the Mulberry?

Yes, the White Mulberry.

How long was it before you left India that you established it?

Two Years; that is, in 1815, 1816 and Part of 1817.

Does it continue to this Time?

I am afraid that my Successor has not taken the Interest in that and other new Manufactures and Cultivation I introduced; such as Indigo and Bourbon Cotton; also in weaving Cotton, Woollen and Hemp by means of English Looms, &c. &c.

Is there any Obstacle arising out of the Regulations of the Government to the Extension of Cultivation?

None whatever; but I do not think sufficient Encouragement is held out to the People.

It requires a considerable Capital to carry it on extensively, does it not?

No, I did not find that the Case with either Silk or Indigo; they appeared to me to be attended with very little Expence.

How long is it before a Mulberry Plantation is sufficiently productive in Leaves to make it repay for the planting?

A Year or Two, it will produce. After the first Year, I have had them gathered in my own Garden, and those Gardens planted by the Convicts; watering regularly every Day during the hot Months, they produce an abundant Supply.

Did you ever endeavour to induce any Persons having Property to undertake the Cultivation of the Mulberry?

I held out all the Encouragement I could, by inviting the People to look at my Plantations and Manufactures; I also sent Specimens of the Silk I had made all over the Country. I had periodical Sales of both Silk and Indigo. Whenever I went on Circuit through my Districts, I took with me Two or Three of the English Looms, to instruct the People in the Use of them. Those with the Flying Shuttle were made by Two Soldiers out of the European Regiment at Belgâm.

What do you conceive to have been the Cause that prevented Individuals embarking in it?

For Want of sufficient Encouragement, and competent Persons to undertake it.

Do you think it would answer to any British Subject possessing Capital to undertake upon a large Scale the Cultivation of the Mulberry?

I think it would be a very advantageous Speculation. My periodical Reports of the Labour of my Convicts, to the Government of Bombay, will shew the Extent to which I carried these new Speculations.

In what Part of the Country was it that you established this?

At Dharwar, in the Southern Mahratta Country.

Is that the Seat of the Local Government?

It is.

If any Individual had proposed to take Land on Lease for the Purpose of trying an Experiment of that kind, would he have obtained a Lease for that Purpose?

Certainly not, if he was an European.

Did any European ever apply for Permission to have Land on Lease for that Purpose?

The Two Soldiers, whom I had employed, and who had been Glasgow Weavers, after having been, I think, a Month, and just as I was sending them back to their Regiment, intreated of me to write to the Commanding Officer to obtain their Discharge, that they might carry on the Silk and Cotton Works. Those were the only Europeans I had an Opportunity of seeing. [2]

In addition to these plantations in his gaol Thomas also established schools founded for youths at Dharwar and Hoobly, where upwards of 150 youths were given an education, to fit them for public employment. Thomas wrote proudly in 1829 that twenty of these young men had already entered public employment.

At the time when Thomas Baber gave his evidence in 1830 he appeared to believe that his efforts had been in vain, however Thomas Baber's efforts seem to have borne fruit because Hubli and Dharwar have become and remain one of the largest textile manufacturing centres in India.

Hubli – Dharwar city in 1991 and a population of 648,000. The cities of Hubli and Dharwar, which were 13 miles apart, have grown to such an extent that they were incorporated as one city in 1961.

Dharwar is the district administrative centre for a rice- and cotton-growing area. Hubli is a trade and transportation centre, with cotton and silk factories, railway workshops, and a major newspaper industry. [3]

Dharwar is now the largest area of production of silk outside China, and Tellicherry played a significant part in starting it all off.

I would be fascinated to learn if either the original gaol survives in Dharwar, or any of the Mulberry plantations survive to this day. If you live in Dharwar, and know anything about these events, please contact me at Balmer.nicholas@gmail.com


[1] Mohammed Moienuddin, Sunset at Srirangapatam, published 2000, page 8.

[2] From: British History Online Source: Affairs of the East India Company: Minutes of evidence: 06 April 1830. House of Lords Journal Volume 62.

[3] The Columbia Encyclopaedia, Fifth Edition 1994, 1995 Columbia University Press.

Tellicherry Church Restored

Fig. 1. Thalassery Protestant Church under restoration, January 2009. Photo Jissu Jacob.

Like most of the descendants of English families who formerly lived in India, and who have recently made the long journey out to India to visit the places where our ancestors lived and died; I too have explored overgrown, mouldering churchyards, and collapsing churches.



Fig. 2. The decaying Protestant Church at Tellicherry, in 2006. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Gething.

My trip to Tellicherry was no different. I had arrived at the church yard at dusk, in December 2006 to find the churchyard so overgrown and difficult to access, that I had decided that I wouldn't risk entering it.[1]

Lindsay Gething who also visited the church in 2006, was however made of sterner stuff, as can be seen in the two photos that she took during her visit to Thalaserry.



Fig. 3. Tellicherry church, 2006. Lindsay Gething.

It is easy to understand that these churches are largely irrelevant to the vast majority of Indians and that they have far more pressing tasks in their lives than the restoration of some long over grown and redundant church. Indeed, one only has to see the state of many churches here in Britain to encounter similar neglect and decay, so it is hardly surprising that these churches are fast disappearing.

So it is with the greatest of surprise, pleasure and appreciation that I have discovered through the work of Jissu Jacob that this particular church is being restored by the local authorities. Jissu Jacob is a local tourist guide based near Thalaserry, with keen interest in local history. [2] We have been working on several research projects in the Thalaserry area over the past year. Jissu took the following photos that portray the excellent work being undertaken in January 2009.

I have not been able to find out who is responsible for this very thorough work. I would very much like to be able to find out in order to thank them formally. If you are able to tell who has undertaken this work, I would love to hear from you.[3]



Fig. 4. Tellicherry Church under restoration in January 2009. Photo by Jissu Jacob.

As can be seen from the photo above, this fine little church in the Gothic Revival style is coming back to life. Local tradition says that this church was built by Edward Brennan. Edward Brennan was appointed Master Attendant at Tellicherry responsible for the port, in September 1828. [4]

Brennan emulated his predecessor Mr. Oakes,in the post of Master Attendant, by becoming an important philanthropist in the town.[5] Both Oakes and Brennan must have become deeply involved and committed to the welfare of the many poor Indians in and around the town. They both devoted much of their free time and personal money towards improving conditions for these local people.

In 1862, Brennan founded a college, which he endowed with Rs.8900. "to give the boys of all castes, creeds, and colour a sound English education”.[6]

This college went on to become a very important college for the development of Indians who then went on to play a highly important role in developing Indian capability to rule effectively after independence. It survives to this day as a highly respected teacher training establishment.



Fig. 5. Tablet inside church recording Edward Brennan. Photo Jissu Jacob.

Edward Brennan's grave is believed to be located in this churchyard.




Fig. 6. The newly restored boundary wall between the fort and the church. Jissu Jacob.

It is clear that a graveyard existed on this site for a considerable period before the current church was built, because the earliest gravestone found to date comes from 1768.

The exact date of the churches construction is unknown to me at present.

However, it was probably built in about 1840, or shortly thereafter, judging by the style, which is based on that used in English Medieval churches built in the Perpendicular style between 1300 and 1550, and which had come back into fashion, following its rediscovery by architects like Pugin, in the 1830's.

There was a move away from the Classical styles used by an earlier generation, on the church like St. John's Church at Cannanore [7] and at other places in India like Skinners Church in Delhi.

During the 1830's and 1840's the Gothic Revival style was being used by emerging architects to construct many of new churches that were being built in the rapidly growing suburbs of the industrial cities in England, where a religious revival was underway during this period.[8]

The church had certainly been built by 1854, as is demonstrated by the passage below that was published in that year.

An anonymous writer who had travelled to Tellicherry, wrote an article that appeared in 1854 in the "Home friend, a weekly miscellany of amusement and instruction; By Society for promoting Christian knowledge", described a journey to Tellicherry. This trip appears to have taken place some years before the article was written, so it is possible that the church was built some ten to fifteen years before the account was published.

"Tellicherry Proper, or the town of Tellicherry, is built on a low ground, almost on a level with the sea. The town consists of some two hundred-irregularly built European houses; the bazaars; the market-place; a few so-called shops; an immense prison built on a lofty bastion facing the sea, which prison includes the dens for criminals and the debtor’s gaol comprising also a lunatic asylum; the Zillah Court, and a species of chapel. Besides these, there is a Catholic chapel and a Protestant church, and the burial-grounds of both creeds, situated on a high mound nearly overhanging the sea."[9]

Before the church was built it is probable that any religious services at Tellicherry will have been held inside the fort. It is very likely that the court building had served this purpose for the garrison.



Fig. 7. An aerial photo of the Tellicherry Church and Churchyard prior to restoration commencing. Courtesy of Google Earth.[10]

The earliest grave in the churchyard to survive is that of a Captain of Infantry, Gaspar Moritz Gleetz (1730 - 1768) from Quedlinburg. Quedlinburg is a city located in Anhalt-Saxony, in central Germany north of the Hartz Mountains, midway between Hannover and Leipzig.[11]

Germany was a fragmented region in those days consisting of many independent or semi independent states and principalities, each of which had its own army. These were frequently hired out to other rulers, including the English ones. Many of the minor aristocracy in these states entered into service with armies of neighbouring states.

Gleetz may have been a officer in either the English or Dutch East India Company. In the 18th Century many men recruited for the Dutch East India Company came from Germany, and many subsequently transferred or deserted over to the English East India Company, as the Dutch slowly withdrew their trading efforts from India to concentrate in the Dutch East Indies.

Tellicherry is close to Cannanore which had belonged to the Dutch at this period. The Dutch settlement was becoming less and less economically viable at this time and was sold off in 1772 to the Arrakal family. The Dutch at Calicut and Cochin were being pressured by Hyder Ali as well.

Others may have joined up directly into the EIC Army having previously served in the Hanoverian army, which was closely connected to the English one at this period. If you are able to provide any information about this gentleman, I would be fascinated to learn more about him.



Fig. 8. The earliest surviving gravestone in Tellicherry Churchyard. Capt. Gaspar Moritz Gleetz. 1730-1768. Photo Jissu Jacob.

Gaspar Gleetz must have been familiar with the view out to sea from the fort as he paced the ramparts of the fort. In those days, the area controlled by the East India Company was strictly limited to a couple of miles of shoreline along the coast, and to a hinterland extending at most three miles inland. It must have seemed a very long way from Saxony.

The following drawing taken from a series of coastal views published by Alexander Dalrymple in 1780, shows a drawing done aboard the ship America on the 17th of March 1761 at 9 a.m. in the morning. [12]



Fig. 9. Tellicherry Fort viewed from the sea in 1761. Click on drawing for larger version.


This drawing shows the fort with a mast and flag pole mounted over the North West bastion, close to where the lighthouse now stands. (See Fig. 6.) The fort is shown surrounded by a low crenallated wall, and the area between the walls is filled with smaller buildings built on the glacis of the main fort.

The following drawing is marked to show the outer wall to the fortified area that has subsequently disappeared. It is possible that the grave of Gaspar Gleetz was placed inside this outer wall, where it would have been protected.

By the 1820's this outer wall had been removed and the grave yard was extended down towards the end of the promentary. With the East India Company in firm control of the area, the needs for defence were becoming less pressing than before.



Fig. 10. Drawing of the fort and location of the graveyard marked up. Click on drawing for larger version.

It is quite possible that the line of this outer wall could still be discovered by a careful excavation to find its foundations. The following photo Fig. 11. may show the site of this wall, where the break of slope occurs running across the photo, in line with the tree to the left of the photo.



Fig. 11. View from the church back towards the fort walls. Photo Jissu Jacob.

The following photo from Google Earth is marked in red with my suggested line of the outer wall shown in the 1761 drawing made by members of the crew of the America.



Fig. 12. Possible line of the outer fort wall.

The grave yard contains many stone and brick monuments. The area is being resoiled, and it is hoped that any fragments of gravestones will be preserved and recorded, and not just tidied away.



Fig. 13. The churchyard showing the recently cleared graveyard. As can be seen many grave head stones and monuments survive. Photo Jissu Jacob.

For me personally the discovery that my great great great great aunt's grave remains undisturbed, as been a really welcome development. It is one of nearly fifty grave stones recorded. In the next few weeks I will tell the story of Helen Baber, and post pictures of as many of the stones as I have pictures.

In many cases the individuals named on these stones are easily identified, and I will attempt to explain who they were.



Fig. 13. The table tomb marking the grave of Helen Somerville Baber.


[1]http://malabardays.blogspot.com/2007/12/arriving-at-tellicherry-in-1830s.html
[2]See Jissu Jacobs blog at http://northkerala-images.blogspot.com/
[3]You can contact me on balmer.nicholas@googlemail.com
[4]Page 407. The Oriental Herald, and Journal of General Literature. Vol. XIII. April to June 1827.
[5]see http://malabardays.blogspot.com/2007/12/founding-of-tellicherry-schools-in-1817.html
[6] See http://www.gctetly.com/building.html
[7] See http://malabardays.blogspot.com/2007/12/st-johns-church-cannanore-jacob-joseph.html
[8] For Wikipedia article on Gothic Revival architecture see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_revival
[9] Home friend, a weekly miscellany of amusement and instruction; By Society for promoting Christian knowledge. Published in 1854. Pages 193 onwards. Although this article was only published in 1854, it appears to have been written by someone who was in Tellicherry during the 1830’s. It has proved possible to identify some of the people mentioned in the book.
[10] The church is located at 11 Degrees 44’ 51.78” N 75 Degress 29’ 09.34” E
[11] Quedlinburg. 51 Degs, 47' 30"N 11 degs, 8' 50" E. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quedlinburg
[12] Courtesy of British Library Collection.

A brief history of the Pazhassi Raja.

A Nair grave monument showing one of these fierce warriors, and dated about 1700 AD. [1]

Part 1

When the Pazhassi Raja finally decided to break with his English allies during the spring of 1797, it followed many years of conflict and encroachment into his and his family’s lands and entitlements by the East India Company.

Before about 1680, the Kolattiri family had controlled an area running inland from a point on the coast situated about twelve miles north of Cannanore [Kannur] and then in a line across heading in an easterly direction towards the base of the Ghats. Their inland territorial boundary had then run south along the base of the Ghats down to a point just north of the Kotta River, and from there along the northern bank back towards the coast.

Arab and Muslim traders had been visiting his ancestors coastal villages regularly for centuries, but these landings had tended to last for only a short duration whilst these overseas traders had bargained for pepper, cardoman and sandal wood.

The first European’s to arrive had been the Portuguese who were then followed by the Dutch. Although these traders had settled at Cannanore and had had posts at Calicut, they had not thought the Kottayam area important enough for carrying on these trades to have set up permanent trading posts or to have established permanent settlements in.

With the arrival of the French in the 1690’s this had all changed.

The Raja’s grandparents and great grandparents had been part of a divided family. Nominally headed by a matriarch, the real power was however wielded by the five senior men in the family. The Kolattiri had been the most senior, with the Tekkalankar (or southern regent) controlling the Mahe area, and the Vadakkalankur (the northern regent). These petty rajahs behaved like many modern day politicians constantly jockeying for power with their fellow rulers. They each had their own gangs of thugs and supporters, with whom they enforced their will on the local villagers.

To add strength to their cause during these power struggles, they had each individually begun to invoke the support of the powerful new arrivals along the coast. The Tekkalankar was one of first to do so, agreeing to a French request to be allowed to establish trading posts in his area.

The French built forts during the 1670 to 1685 period at Mahé, on Dharmapattanam Island, as well as a mud fort, sited on the beach located at a small fishing village that was later to become Tellicherry.

Due to lack of skilled staff, and because of its emphasis on building forts, they expended all of their trading capital, causing the French East India Company to be a poor trading partner. They had too high an overheads to be able to make a profit, and consequently the French company struggled to prosper and to extend its operations in India in the early years. Only the settlement at Mahé really succeeded to any great extent. This settlement was located in the Vadakkalankar’s territory, and he was the Tekkalankar biggest rival.

The English East India Company operated in a more commercial manner than the French in the early years, avoiding defended settlements with their expensive walls, whenever possible and garrisons that soon ate up any profits made.

The English had factories (warehouses linked to accommodation blocks) at Calicut, Cochin, and Anjengo, but faced with rapidly growing demand for pepper caused by the economic boom of the 1690’s to 1710 in northern Europe, they needed more and more supplies of pepper and spices, if they were to meet demand.

They could no longer afford to let the French gain unfettered control of the Kottayam pepper crop, and the valuable cardoman coming from the inland area of the Wyanad coming down the Periya Pass . Sandalwood from Mysore, was also reaching the coast from across the Wyanad.

The Tekkalankar had found the French poor allies, and needing a counter force to equal the Vadakkalankar’s French allies, he switched his allegiance to the English.

He reached agreement with the English and in about 1699 leased the site of the abandoned Tellicherry fort to the English. It was not however until about 1705 that the English started to built a fort on the site of the current fort.On the 20^th of August 1708, the Tekkalankar formally made over the fort to the English.

Over the following years the demand for pepper and other goods grew exponentially.

This caused huge tensions inside the existing Kolattiri family, as they fought amongst themselves over who should control the trade and the associated revenues.

The family’s retainers and attendant dependant castes were expected to adapt their cultivation to provide more and more cash crop pepper. This agrarian society with its strict caste system, and entrenched custom’s and practise based on subsidence farming, could not readily adapt to large scale agricultural practise required to meet demand. The trade and prosperity brought about by the protection of the English fort and ships increasingly attracted in large numbers of Muslim traders from the north.

The English East India Company officials received very low pay, and were expected to take part in their own country trade, to supplement their pay.

They were not allowed to ship directly to Europe, but the EIC did not mind them trading between different Indian and Asia ports.

Lacking the necessary capital and language skills to trade directly with Indian's, these officials allied themselves to Muslim’s from the north from Surat and Bombay.

In this way the Muslim’s benefited from English protection, as the Muslim merchants goods became “English”, thereby escaping many internal tolls.

The savings in tolls achieved were split with the English partner. In this way many EIC officials amassed a fortune far above their nominal salaries.

By about 1760, these Mopillas had become firmly established in Tellicherry as middlemen. They were establishing plantations and villages of their own.

They had discovered that there was an excellent way to force out the less well organised the Hindu farmers from their pepper gardens. These farmers would run short of cash for basic items like food in the run up to the pepper harvest.

The Mopilla merchants would lend these farmers cash based on the predicted forward price of the coming harvest’s pepper. If the money were not repaid, they would convert the outstanding amount into a mortgage on the Hindu’s land.

When that was in turn defaulted on, they would attempt to seize the lands.

In this way the Mopilla’s acquired more and more land beyond the boundary of the English settlement, and up towards the foothills of the Ghats.

The ousted destitute Hindu farmers would then appeal to their overlord or Rajah for support.

The Hindu’s lived in thinly scattered plantations, whilst the incoming Muslim’s built villages and especially Mosques.

These incoming Muslims were often aggressive and militant in their own right, and soon began to demand extra territorial rights.

This led to a series of wars, the overt ones between the Raja’s Nairs against the EIC, and a far more vicious low intensity conflict between the Moppilas and the Hindu Tiyars and Nairs in the villages in the fringes of the Jungles and plantations a few miles inland of the European settlements.

The Dutch, French, Ali Raja of Cannanore and Canarese all intervened in these conflicts, sometimes aiding one side and then another, and often trying to stop the wars because it meant that the pepper supplies often dried up.

In 1761 the Mysore Government also became involved in the dispute that had broken out between their co-regionists, and the Kolattiri Regent over a mosque built with a golden spire.

This golden roof was in contravention of a custom whereby only the Raja’s were allowed such roofs on pagodas. By 1766 the Kolattiri family’s possessions had been overrun.

Hyder Ali reduced them to vassals.

The European’s became involved in these wars, as first the Dutch, then the French and finally the English became intervened. In 1782 Tipu Sultan succeeded Hyder Ali.

Tipu was a very effective leader and a great reformer, and he intended to challenge the growing dominance of the English. He recognised that India had to reform many of its practises and industrial and agricultural methods if it were to develop to a point where it could beat off the European's.

As the French Revolutionary War’s commenced, the English were able to extinguish the other European powers factories one by one.

The Indian commodity producers now only had one customer, and this enabled the EIC to force the price paid to producers lower and lower in the confident knowledge that the farmer’s had no where else to sell their crops to.

Tipu understood the seriousness of the situation and aimed to break the EIC stranglehold on the Indian overseas trading routes.

Like Hyder Ali, he also understood that he needed to establish a viable route to the sea, and to do so he needed technical assistance, and alternative markets.

He first tried to force a route down to the Coromandel Coast, but in this he was unsuccessful, so he turned his attention towards the Malabar Coast and it's ports.

These routes had however to be captured from both the local Rajah's whose lands sat across the tracks down the Ghats to the coast, as well as from the European's who controlled the ports themselves.

A series of campaigns followed with attacks on Mangalore proving successful after a fierce siege.

Tipu needed support if he was to remain successful so he sent emissaries to the French at Isle De France, and to the Ottoman and Egyptian courts.

By doing this Tipu demonstrated to the British East Company that he represented a very real threat, and probably the only remaining credible threat to the EIC remaining in India.

This multinational company was expected by its shareholders to return a profit, but the constant wars were eating up any margin made on the trade.

The prices paid on pepper etc. had to be forced down if they were maintain a sufficient margin to be able to pay for these wars. Prices had to be maintained in Europe as well, and most pepper in Europe by now was travelling through London.

Competition had to be stifled if dividends were to be maintained.

The Director’s in London knew they had to destroy Tipu’s country before it became powerful enough to challenge their growing monopoly position.

It was the misfortune of the Pazhassi Raja that he and his subjects lived on the only alternative trade route from Tipu's Seringapatam to a coast.

When Tipu invaded the Wayanad and then the Malabar Coast, the English initially lacked the power to fight Tipu directly, and therefore sort to fight him asymmetrically by using local allies and by relying on the traditional defence of the peoples of the Malabar coast against the Mysorean’s and the other largely Muslim dominated inland people’s.

This defence was the forests of the Wyanad, and the Western Ghats. The monsoon and the rain shadow effect produced dense forests, ill suited to the cavalry dominated Muslim led armies. The Pazhassi Raja and his Hindu allies were ideally placed to fight a guerilla war of stockades, ambushes and forest warfare.

For previous generations, this had worked, for even if the armies of Hyder Ali had reached the coast, they could not remain there indefinitely due to their long supply chain, and the insurgent attacks on their posts and supply convoys in the rear.

Where Tipu differed from previous Muslim rulers was in his determination and ability to innovate. Learning lessons from the failure of his and Hyder Ali's previous campaign’s and learning from European advisers and deserters, he set out to build supply and gun roads across the forests, supported by a series of fortified posts like that at Sultan Battery. (The Sultan’s gun position).

By 1790 the situation for both the English and the local Malabar rulers had become critical. Tipu’s troops were raiding right up to the bounds of the settlements. Reinforcements were shipped down the coast and General Medows was appointed commander in chief.

Tipu’s rocketeers and cannon out gunned the Pazhassi Raja and the other Hindu’s.

Soon Tipu’s army, aided by intelligence from the indigenous and immigrant Moppila community was hanging Christian’s in Calicut, and slaughtering thousand’s of Hindu’s and brutally defiling many others. Hindu women were being gang raped and turned over as concubines to the Muslim troops.

On the April 25^th 1790 the English moved columns out of Tellicherry with cannon insupport of 3,000 Kottayam and Chirakkal Nairs. This force almost certainly included the Pazhassi Raja. Their target was the recovery of the stockade at Katirur and the Kottayam Raja’s Palace.

This palace was liberated with the assistance of a hurriedly brought up 18 pounder cannon used to smash down the stockade, where the lighter guns had tried and failed.

Throughout the following months leading up to the monsoon, the local armies increasingly supported by the East India Company took back town after town.

Tipu’s fort at Palghat was besieged by Colonel Stuart commencing on the 21^st of September.

With only two days provisions and an empty military chest, Stuart and his army was in a desperate condition. However the Nairs and others in the Malabar community realising that Stuart represented their best hope of ridding themselves of Tipu’s by now hated army brought in so much food that Stuart was able to capture the fort, and to leave its new garrison supplied for six months.

Tipu’s army was over stretched, and the East India Company was mobilising its Madras based forces, to the east of Seringapatam. He had to withdraw.

In February 1791 Lord Cornwallis led his army out from Vellore to Seringapatam.

Tipu was on the point of being defeated, when the EIC armies supply chain failed.

Cornwallis had to retreat, destroying his guns as he went.

When however Cornwallis and the Madras Army made a further attempt on Seringapatam in February 1792. Tipu submitted, rather than face defeat; he agreed to sign a treaty.

At this point the Pazhassi Raja along with the other Malabar local rulers had assumed that the English would return to their coastal bases, and that the situation would return to it’s previous state. The Raja hoped as the dominant new leader would become the Kolattiri and reap the rewards of power.

What he had not understood was that the East India Company was a multinational company, albeit one with a powerful government shareholder. It had to yield a dividend, and it had just expended a huge sum on driving out Tipu.

The Raja was just one of many petty rulers whose territory they had liberated.

The treaty with Tipu had handed over many of these rights to the East India Company. The EIC did not see why they should abandon these rights and lands that they believed they were entitled to by right of conquest.

Like a modern day oil company, whose oilfields have been the scene of war, and had to get oil back flowing again, the EIC had to get the pepper crop going again in this devastated land as fast as possible if it was going to recoup its wartime expenditure.

Due to the structure of the Raja’s community’s society, and the rigid caste system, it was impossible for the Raja to restore and re-develop the pepper plantations sufficiently fast, to meet demand. Only part of this Hindu population would consent to farming, whilst most would refuse for fear of losing their caste.

The EIC had obtained the rights to large areas of land in the treaty with Tipu including the Rangatarra district. This area had been the home territory of the Vadakkalankur (the northern regent). The Kurumbrand Raja was the Kolattiri, or most senior Raja. The Pazhassi Raja was his nephew, and under the complex traditions of the family, the person who was most likely to inherit the Kurumbrand lands.

The Pazhassi Raja may well have been trying to supersede the Kurumbrand Raja, who appears to have been disposed to pass the land on to his own children, in contravention of the customary practise.

The Kurumbrand Raja on more than one occasion seems to have gone out of his way to create conflict between the Pazhassi Raja and the EIC. The East India Company determined to get production up and going again, decided that their Muslim partners, with their more egalitarian society, and greater available working population, and access to capital, should be the means of increasing production.

Soon traders like the Mousa family began to take on more and more of the farms. This caused the Rajah and his increasingly marginalised community to greatlyresent both the EIC and the Mopillas. Soon reprisals commenced.

The Rajah used increasingly brutal ways to try to collect taxes from the Moppillas, and many of the later took to the forests on the foothills of the Ghats operating as bandits.

Kerala Varma Raja was by April 1793, Raja of the Padinyaru Kovilakam (or western palace).This was located at Palassi.

During this month he pulled down a Mopilla mosque recently built in Kottayam bazaar, and in September 1793, he went on to refuse the Mopillas of Kodolli permission to build a mosque.

When they went ahead anyway, he sent men to arrest the leaders. A fight broke out in which several of the Raja’s men were killed. The Raja in turn ordered all of the Mopillas in Kodolli killed.

A Commission had been appointed by the East India Company to try to administer the newly occupied lands. At first it tolerated the Raja, probably because of the fear of alienating him and his community.

They were aware that Tipu was preparing for another round of fighting, and did not wish to alienate the Hindu’s. The Pazhassi Raja was also connected by marriage to the Wyanad families who controlled the best of the pepper production.

The Pazhassi Raja realised that his only viable means of resisting the English was by passive measures. He was worried that the English were trying to arrest him, and so he refused to go to Tellicherry for talks.

In November 1793 he threatened to cut down all of his pepper vines if the EIC officials persisted in trying to count them.

Because the Kurumbrand Raja was more tractable, than the Pazhassi Raja, the EIC entered into agreements with the Kurumbrand Raja and ignored the claims of the Pazhassi Raja.

This proved to be a mistake because the Pazhassi Raja was in fact the younger and more able of the two. He was the emerging leader. By 1795 the Raja was being increasingly supported by people like Narangoli, a Iruvalinad Nambiar of the priestly caste, whose men had killed three Mopillas is response to a killing by a Mopilla of one of his retainers.

In June 1795 the Raja caused two Mopillas who had robbed the house of a Chetty to be impaled alive in the village of Venkad. Later that month he also shot a Mopilla through the body as he left a meeting where he had given the Raja a gift.

The EIC Commissioners finally felt that they had to act, and in August 1795, they issued orders for the Pazhassi Raja to be tried for murder.

Guarded by 500 Wyanad warriors, the Raja was too difficult to arrest, and despite troops sent to Kottayam and Manattana, he could not be seized.

Meanwhile the revenues that the East India Company had expected to raise were not coming in. The Kurumbrand Raja who had undertaken to collect them in return for a percentage, was unable to do so.

Tipu’s original assessment, which was being used, had proved to be far too high. The collections themselves were further alienating important sections of the community like the warrior Nairs, who had not previously been expected to pay tax.

The Pazhassi Raja acted as a focus to this opposition.

On April the 11^th 1796 a plan was formed to arrest the Raja.

On the 19^th of April this was put into effect when 300 men from the 3^rd Battalion of Native Infantry under Lieutenant James Gordon marched out from Tellicherry to arrest him. By chance, or possibly because he had been forewarned, the Raja had left for Manattana four days earlier.

The Raja no longer felt safe on the coastal plain so he moved into the fastness of the Wyanad.

[1] East Hill Museum, Calicut.

To be continued…. Nick Balmer 29^th December 2006. Revised October 2009.