27. Letter dated 26/01/1925 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1530 (2)).
28. The Jenmabhoomi quoted in Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 163.
29. The People dated 30/03/1925.
30. Letter dated 20/02/1925 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/884/147).
31. Chandy was a member of the Executive Council of Mysore and later became Vice Chancellor of Mysore University.
32. Report for the Second Half of March 1925 and letter dated 07/04/1925 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1531).
33. Report for the Second Half of March 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1531).
34. Letter dated 07/04/1925 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1531).
35. Letter dated 13/03/1925 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/884/147). She was not alone in these views. Changanassery Parameswaran Pillai, a prominent Nair, for instance, wrote that ‘in the present condition of the State, Watts is an ideal Dewan.’ See K.R. Ushakumari, op. cit., p. 40.
36. Quoted in letter dated 07/04/1925 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1531).
37. Ibid.
38. Letter dated 13/03/1925 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/884/147).
39. Reference is to Sir A.R. Banerjee and J.W. Bhore.
40. In his letter dated 04/05/1925, the Dewan of Cochin informed Mr. Cotton that the opposition was simply ‘seeking to assign some plausible reason for not bringing him in’ where there was none. See IOR/R/2/884/147.
41. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol IV, No 10, p. 432.
42. Information gathered from Linda D’Silva of the Watts family, K.R. Ushakumari, op. cit., p. 41, The Malabar Advocate dated 28/03/1925 and the Madras Mail for 09/05/1925. Mr Watts’s siblings, excluding Miss Watts, included a sister who was a doctor in Lucknow, another sister who was apparently a well-known musician, a brother who was a surgeon in Calcutta, and another brother who retired as a Forest Officer. One of his uncles, Maurice La Bouchardiere, was a professor.
43. Letter dated 16/05/1925 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1531).
44. See Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., pp. 162–64.
45. T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual, Vol. II, p. 756.
46. O.M. Thomas, Under the Knife, p. 67.
47. See Supplement to the Western Star dated 20/11/1928 and Kulathu Iyer’s Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi Tirumanasa Kondu.
48. Author’s interview with J. Devika.
49. Letter dated 02/04/1925 from Mr Watts to the Maharani Regent (Raghunandan pp. 165–66).
50. Letter dated 07/05/1925 from the Maharani Regent to Mr Watts (Raghunandan pp. 167–68)
51. Report for the Second Half of December 1924 (IOR/R/1/1/1583).
52. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., pp. 170–71.
53. He could not do much with the sword, since his religion prohibited access to the temple and participation in most of its ceremonies. On such occasions the Devaswom Commissioner would carry the sword on his behalf.
54. R.K. Varma’s letter to Kuttan Tampuran quoted in Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 173.
55. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol IV, No 10, p. 434.
56. Report for the Second Half of June 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1531).
57. K.K. Nair, By Sweat and Sword, pp. 22, 29.
58. Letter dated 23/11/1921 from the Governor of Madras to the Rajah of Cochin (File 61, ‘Entertainment of Travancore as Partner in Cochin Harbour Scheme’, NAI).
59. Letter dated 04/08/1921 from the Rajah of Cochin to the Governor of Madras (File 61, ‘Entertainment of Travancore as Partner in Cochin Harbour Scheme’, NAI).
60. Letter dated 14/09/1921 from the Dewan of Cochin to the Sarvadhikaryakkar of Cochin (File 61, ‘Entertainment of Travancore as Partner in Cochin Harbour Scheme’, NAI). Sir Robert would also remember in his Cochin Saga: ‘The old State rivalries and prejudices had not entirely died away; personal prestige still counted for much and Travancore was five times as big as Cochin and much richer in natural resources.’
61. To be fair, even the Rajah of Cochin wanted to leave but his Dewan insisted.
62. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit, p. 148.
63. Ibid. p. 369.
64. The Indian Express dated 27/06/1936.
65. C Unnikrishnan, ‘75 Years ago, Cochin Port happened’ at http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/05/26/stories/2003052600380100.htm (accessed 20/09/2012).
66. The Indian Express dated 01/04/1935.
67. See File No. 214, CE/34 and File No. 286, CE/35 (NAI).
68. A. Sreedhara Menon, Triumph and Tragedy in Travancore, p. 318.
69. C. Unnikrishnan, op. cit.
70. Sallyamma Job and Tomy Varghese, ‘Dynamics of Foreign Trade in Kerala’ in R.K. Mishra & Nandita Sethi eds. Rethinking India’s Growth Strategy, p. 556 (2008) (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company).
71. See http://www.cochincustoms.nic.in/revenue.htm (accessed 27/09/2012).
72. The Pioneer Mail and Indian Weekly News dated 19/06/1925, and Dewan’s address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly, 1927.
73. George Mathew, Status of Panchayati Raj in the States of India, p. 2 (1995) (New Delhi: Institute of Social Sciences).
74. T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual, Vol. II, p. 713.
75. P.D. Johnny, Decentralization of Power at the Panchayat Level in Kerala and the Gandhian Vision of Gram Swaraj (unpublished thesis submitted to the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, in 1994), p. 147.
76. These seven panchayats were Bhoothapandy, Nedumangad, Paravoor, Sambavarvadaka, Ayiroor, Ettumanoor, and Perumbavoor.
77. Jessy V. Mathews, ‘Origin of Local Self Government in Travancore’ in the Journal of Kerala Studies, 1989, Vol. 16, and P.D. Johnny, op. cit., p. 147.
78. P.D. Johnny, op. cit., pp. 148–49.
79. P.J. Cherian, William Logan’s Malabar Manual, Vol. I, p. 244.
80. K. Saradamoni, Matriliny Transformed, p. 61.
81. I.K.K. Menon, The Rajarshi of Cochin, p. 47.
82. Margaret Child-Villiers, Fifty One Years of Victorian Life, p. 170.
83. He admits that she ‘could not boast of anything which may be called beauty and she had nothing which might be considered accomplishment’ and that most of his cousins thought he was only trying to please the Rajah. See I.K.K. Menon, op. cit., p. 18.
84. Author’s interviews with Roscotte Krishna Pillai and J. Devika.
85. See K. Saradamoni, op. cit., p. 10. This lady was Janaki Amma and her third husband was C. Rajaraja Varma, the brother of Raja Ravi Varma.
86. Quoted in J. Devika, En-gendering Individuals, p. 55
87. Ibid., p. 60.
88. Robin Jeffrey, op. cit., p. 136.
89. Ibid. p. 157.
90. K. Saradamoni, op. cit., p. 65.
91. A larger portion of the debate, as Devika studies, focussed on women having to remove the loose upper-cloth they wore, much like a dupatta, when they were in the presence of high castes. However, what is forgotten here is that men had to do the same in the presence of higher-caste women as well. It was a salutation based on caste and not on sex.
92. Quoted in J. Devika, op. cit., p. 73.
93. Robin Jeffrey, ‘Legacies of Matriliny’ in Pacific Affairs,Vol. 77, No. 4, p. 650.
94. Robin Jeffrey, ‘Matriliny, Marxism and the Birth of the Communist Party in Kerala’ in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, p. 80.
95. Robin Jeffrey, Decline … op. cit., pp. 169, 305.
96. See Nair Regulation of 1912.
97. Quoted in ‘The Family Organization in the South-West of India’ by J. Puthenkulam in Tulsi Patel ed., The Family in India, p. 249 (2005) (New Delhi: Sage Publications).
98. J. Devika, op. cit., pp. 78–79.
99. As Augusta Blandford recorded in her ‘Mission Work Among High Caste Hindu Women in Trevandrum’ in The Missionary Conference: South India and Ceylon, p. 174, the ‘wise good [Rani] instead of yiel
ding to the entreaties of her friends and taking another consort, lives in strict seclusion’ and employed her time ‘profitably’ by reading the Bible, ‘especially the New Testament, which she much admires.’
100. J. Devika and Binitha Thampi, New Lamps for Old, p. 77.
101. Robin Jeffrey, Decline … op. cit., p. 227.
102. G. Arunima, There Comes Papa, p. 1.
103. Ibid.
104. Dewan’s Address to the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly (1929), p. 12 (TRF).
105. Report for the Second Half of October 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
106. Details of the tirumudikalasam are taken from K.V. Krishna Ayyar’s The Zamorins of Calicut, p. 32. That Sethu Lakshmi Bayi enjoyed the tirumudikalasam and all other ceremonies connected with the sovereign is seen from the fact that at the time of her retirement she requested the continuation of these, as will be seen later.
107. See the Madras Mail for 23/11/1925 and V. Narasimhan Thampy, Travancore Royal Family and Valia Kottaram, pp. 111–28 for a description of the ruler’s birthday processions.
108. Charles Allen & Sharada Dwivedi, Lives of the Indian Princes, p. 202. It was not just these women who lined the pathway, however. Poets would also wait there for the Maharani, as her granddaughter would remember, and recite verses from their eulogies, presumably in the hope of gaining some favour.
109. See Elizabeth Glover, Great Queens, p. 110.
CHAPTER 7: MALICE DOMESTIQUE
1. Report for the First Half of January 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Louise Ouwerkerk & Dick Kooiman, No Elephants for the Maharaja, p. 74.
5. Ibid., p. 74. Indeed, according to the former Dewan P. Rajagopalachari, she was ‘in every respect superior in intellect and ability’ to her cousin in Satelmond Palace. See Report for the First Half of January 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
6. Letter dated 19/09/1924 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1530 (2)).
7. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 74.
8. T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual, Vol. I, p. 31.
9. Letter dated 19/09/1924 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1530 (2)).
10. Ibid.
11. Letter dated 14/12/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to her mother (MSS EUR F232/60).
12. Kenneth J. Panton, Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy, p. 217 (2011) (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press).
13. Lucy Moore, Maharanis (Google Books).
14. Secret Note in IOR/L/PO/5/14 (1).
15. Ibid.
16. In a presentation at the Asian Art Museum in February 2012, the Junior Maharani’s granddaughter would refer to their ‘great’ friendship along with lively anecdotes.
17. Report for the First Half of December 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
18. These were initiated by the head of the Kilimanoor family and her husband’s uncle.
19. Recounted by her son Martanda Varma in Travancore: The Footprints of Destiny, p. 92.
20. Report for the First Half of February 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584). The Government of India assumed the position of guardians to minor princes.
21. Secret Note in IOR/L/PO/5/14 (1).
22. Report for the First Half of February 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Report for the First Half of January 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
26. Ibid.
27. The musician had already gone away on leave as soon as the scandal broke.
28. Report for the First Half of February 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
29. Ibid.
30. Letter dated 20/03/1926 from the Junior Maharani to the Maharani Regent (Raghunandan, pp. 226–27).
31. Letter dated 01/03/1926 from Dr. Pugh to the Junior Maharani (Raghunandan, pp. 227–28).
32. Letter dated 24/03/1926 from the Maharani Regent to the Junior Maharani (Raghunandan, p. 228).
33. Lakshmi Raghunandan, At the Turn of the Tide, p. 229
34. Letter dated 04/04/1926 from the Junior Maharani to the Maharani Regent (Raghunandan, p. 230).
35. Letter (undated) from the Maharani Regent to the Junior Maharani (Raghunandan, p. 231).
36. Letter (undated) from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (Raghunandan, p. 32).
37. Author’s interview, for instance, with P. Ramji, whose father Parthasarathy Iyengar was the Municipal Chairman of Alleppey in the early 1940s. He recounted general views of members of the royal house and of this perpetual comparison between the Maharanis. Other interviewees also spoke of this comparison.
38. Louise Ouwerkerk & Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 74.
39. This tikka would become popular in Kerala in its day as the ‘Regent gopi’.
40. Louise Ouwerkerk & Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 9.
41. A favourite image of this was an iconic 1924 photograph of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and her daughter. Clad in her regular white attire, with a protective arm around the infant Princess Lalitha, she looks out at the viewer with a warm face, wearing the slightest hint of a smile, her expressive eyes revealing sympathy and affection. For years this picture would hang in many households in Travancore, receiving prayers and sincere veneration from thousands every day.
42. Letter dated 09/04/1929 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1849).
43. See ibid.
44. I.K.K. Menon, The Rajarshi of Cochin, p. 268. Also, author’s interview with Robin Cotton, nephew of the Resident. The lady in question was Violet Mainwaring, the daughter of Sir Philip Mainwaring. The marriage, as it happened, was doomed right from the start.
45. O.M. Thomas, Under the Knife, p. 67.
46. Author’s interview with Dr R.P. Raja.
47. T.K. Velu Pillai, op. cit., pp. 717–18.
48. See The Baltimore Sun dated 24/03/1929.
49. Maurice Dekobra, The Perfumed Tigers, p. 121.
50. Ibid.
51. Quoted in Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 245.
52. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
53. See Bundle No. 226, File No. 2050/26 (KSA) In what is interesting, only eight hours before the birth of Princess Indira, the Maharani had passed a proclamation by which tenants of the Kandukrishi Crown Lands and of Sripadam were allowed to pay their dues in cash instead of in paddy, a longstanding demand that Mulam Tirunal had not satisfied in his nearly forty-year reign.
54. The Madras Mail dated 27/10/1926 .
55. Another custom the Maharani terminated at this time involved a grandee called the Vanjipuzha Pandarathil. This was a Brahmin aristocrat from Chengannur and in the days of Marthanda Varma, he had sheltered the Attingal Rani and her son, the heir. As a distinction it was announced later that the Pandarathil would have the ceremonial position of father to the royal family, and every baby was proclaimed as a child of the Vanjipuzha Pandarathil. Sethu Lakshmi Bayi ended this and everywhere it was announced instead that Princess Indira was the daughter of Rama Varma.
56. Quoted in Hector Bolitho, Victoria and Albert, p. 44 (1938) (London: Cobden Sanderson).
57. Quoted in Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 221.
58. Report for the First Half of December 1924 (IOR/R/1/1/1583).
59. Letter dated 19/09/1924 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1530 (2)).
60. Ibid.
61. Report for the First Half of November 1924 (IOR/R/1/1/1530 (2)).
62. Report for the Second Half of November 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
63. Report for the First Half of November 1924 (IOR/R/1/1/1530 (2)).
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. Report for the First Half of December 1924 (IOR/R/1/1/1583).
67. Report for the Second Half of January 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584), and Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., pp. 157–58.
68. Report for the First Half of January 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
69. Report for the First Half of February 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
70. See Lakshm
i Raghunandan, op. cit., pp. 224–226. It might be conjectured that the raise was given to keep the Dewan quiet after his blackmailing of Rama Varma. This does not appear to be the case as the Maharani did not grant him the amount he wanted, giving him only half the desired raise after prolonged negotiations and consultation with the Government of India. Also, at a later time when the Dewan would blackmail her with the threat of resignation, she would not tolerate it and would ask him to leave.
71. Report for the First Half of April 1926 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
72. Resident’s Note (IOR/R/2/884/157).
73. Letter dated 01/12/1925 from the Resident to the Valiya Koil Tampuran (IOR/R/2/884/157).
74. Letter dated 01/12/1925 from the Resident to the Maharani Regent (IOR/R/2/884/157).
75. Robin Jeffrey, The Decline of Nair Dominance, p. 219.
76. The United India and Indian States dated 31/07/1925.
77. Letter dated 01/12/1925 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/884/157).
78. Letter dated 01/12/1925 from the Resident to the Maharani Regent (IOR/R/2/884/157).
79. Some of the other papers in Travancore were Samadarsi, Malabar Advocate, The Standard, The Trivandrum Daily, the Sudarsanam, The Citizen, the Kerala Deepam, the Jenmabhoomi, the Desabhimani, the Prabhata Taraka, the Sree Vazhumcode, the Malayali, the Kerala Chandrika, Yuvakeralam, Veerakeralam, the Kerala Kaumudi, Amritha Bharathi, Swadeshabhimani, The Travancore Times, Keralabhimani, and more.
80. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 235.
81. Robin Jeffrey, ‘A Sanctified Label’ in D.A. Low ed. Congress and The Raj, p. 442.
82. P.K.K. Menon, The History of Freedom Movement in Kerala, Vol. II, pp. 585, 588.
83. Report for the Second Half of November 1925 (IOR/R/1/1/1584).
84. P.K.K. Menon, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 591.
85. Letter dated 11/10/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to her mother (MSS EUR F232/60).
86. Just as in independent India Prime Minister Nehru too would seek to curb ‘communal writing’. See Robin Jeffrey (2000), India’s Newspaper Revolution: Capitalism, Politics and the Indian Language Press (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 184.
87. Robin Jeffrey, ‘A Sanctified Label…’, p. 442.
88. See The Press in Kerala, pp. 3,7, 9.
89. Letter dated 01/12/1925 from the Maharani Regent to the Resident (IOR/R/2/884/157).
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