66. Letter dated 28/09/1939 from the Resident to the Senior Maharani (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
67. Letter dated 22/10/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Viceroy (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
68. Letter dated 30/09/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
69. Letter dated 09/10/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
70. Legal Opinion of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru dated 25/09/1939 (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
71. Letter dated 27/08/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3371).
72. See the whole correspondence on this matter in IOR/R/1/1/3371 Annexure B
73. Letter dated 13/10/1114 ME from the Sripadam Karyakkar to the Sarvadhikaryakkar (IOR/R/1/1/3371). Also see Annexure C of the same file.
74. Letter dated 27/07/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3371).
75. Letter dated 14/10/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
76. Letter dated 22/10/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Viceroy (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. Letter dated 19/10/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Telegram dated 20/10/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Viceroy (IOR/R/1/1/3371).
83. Letter dated 29/11/1939 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec., G.O.I. (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
84. Ibid.
85. Author’s interview with Dr R.P. Raja.
86. Legal Opinion of Kuttikrishna Menon dated 29/11/1939 (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
87. Ibid.
88. Telegram dated 19/12/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Viceroy (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
89. Letter dated 09/12/1939 from the Pol. Sec., GOI to the Dewan (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
90. Letter dated 26/12/1939 from the Viceroy to the Senior Maharani (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
91. Hugo s’Jacob, The Rajas of Cochin, p. 84.
92. Letter dated 28/11/1810 from the Resident to the Chief Sec. Madras (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (2)).
93. Letter dated 12/06/1813 from the Resident to the Chief Sec. Madras (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (2)).
94. S.C. Mukhopadhyaya, The Career of an Indian Princess, pp. 6–7.
95. Caroline Keen, Princely India and the British, pp. 112–14.
96. Ibid.
97. Saradamoni, Matriliny Transformed, p. 68.
98. Ibid. p. 18.
99. Ibid.
100. Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Lords Appointed to Enquire into the Present State of Affairs of the East India Company (1830), Part I, p. 394, available on Google Books at https://books.google.co.in/books?id=e5hRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Minutes+of+Evidence+taken+before+the+Select+Committee+of+the+House+of+Lords+appointed+to+enquire+into+the+Present+State+of+Affairs+of+the+East+India+Company+%281830&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMI7pvFm5HdxwIVzKCUCh2_pAig#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed 02/10/2015).
101. Saradamoni, op. cit., p. 68.
102. Caroline Keen, op. cit., p. 117.
103. Ibid., pp. 110, 112.
104. Ibid.
105. Ibid., pp. 25, 27.
106. Ibid., pp. 30–31.
107. Letter dated 12/06/1813 from the Resident to the Chief Sec. Madras (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
108. Ibid.
109. Ibid.
110. Letter dated 13/08/1813 from the Resident to the Chief Sec. Madras (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1).
111. Letter dated 03/09/1813 from the Governor General, Fort William to the Governor General, Fort St George (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (2)).
112. Letter dated 04/10/1814 from the Chief Sec. Madras to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (2)).
113. It was thus that the Maharajah was not allowed to become Karnavan aged 16 in 1928, for instance, and also why the late Elayarajah’s objections to the adoption in 1900 were dismissed.
114. Note dated 10/02/1927 by H.R. Lynch Blosse of the Political Department, GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
115. Ibid.
116. Quoted in ibid.
117. Quoted in Appendix to Notes by J.P. Thompson of the Political Department, GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
118. Note dated 10/02/1927 by HR Lynch Blosse of the Political Department, GOI (IPR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
119. Letter dated 28/09/1926 from the Acting Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
120. Ibid.
121. Letter dated 24/11/1927 from the Viceroy to the Secretary of State (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
122. Letter dated 25/06/1928 from the Pol. Sec. GOI to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
123. Telegram dated 23/01/1940 from the Resident to GOI (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
CHAPTER 17: THE VILLAIN OF THE PIECE
1. Letter dated 20/09/1938 from Princess Lalitha to the Senior Maharani (TRF).
2. Author’s interview with Parvathi Varma.
3. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
4. Author’s interview with Dr R.M. Varma.
5. Lakshmi Raghunandan, At the Turn of the Tide, p. 417.
6. Letter dated 25/09/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
7. Author’s interview with Indira Varma.
8. Author’s interview with Divakara Varma.
9. Letter dated 22/11/1939 from the Maharajah to the Senior Maharani (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
10. Letter dated 20/12/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Resident (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
11. Letter dated 27/12/1939 from the Senior Maharani to the Viceroy (IOR/R/1/1/3372).
12. Report for the Second Half of February 1940 (IOR/R/1/1/3499).
13. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 418.
14. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
15. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 418.
16. This person does not wish to be named.
17. Bharani Tirunal Uma Bayi Tampuran (b. 29 December 1941); Rohini Tirunal Parvathi Bayi Tampuran (13 February 1943); and Makham Tirunal Lakshmi Bayi Tampuran (b. 12 April 1946). They are named in the final Travancore almanacs and government directories, and the rest of Princess Lalitha’s children were born after Independence and the integration of the princely states.
18. Their names are Pooyam Tirunal Gouri Parvathi Bayi Tampuran (b. 7 September 1942) and Aswathi Tirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi Tampuran (b. 4 July 1945).
19. Letter dated 24/11/1944 from the Resident to the Sec. to Viceroy (IOR/L/PS/13/1285).
20. He was the son of the Valiya Koil Tampuran’s sister Ambalika and the very candidate Princess Lalitha had refused to marry in 1938.
21. The Indian Express dated 15/05/1945.
22. Report for the Second Half of August 1945 (IOR/L/PS/13/1298). Radha Devi was actually a sister of Mrs Pandalai. She and Col. Pandalai adopted her youngest sibling, who was many years her junior. Col. Pandalai had a famous temper. The story goes that once in the army a British officer behaved badly towards him, to which when he came on another occasion for an examination, the Colonel put him on a stretcher and had him branded! He then produced evidence during a court martial that branding was a legitimate method of treating mental imbalance. His wife originally came from Kayamkulam but grew up near Kovalam. Col. Pandalai was one of five brothers who were all sons of a Tampuran from the Mavelikkara family. The first and third were judges, the fourth an engineer, and the youngest looked after family affairs. Col. Pandalai was the second. I am grateful to Divakara Varma for these family stories and details.
23. Letter dated 24/04/1944 from the Resident to the Sec. to Viceroy (IOR/L/PS/13/1285).
24. In 1932 Ila Devi, the Princess of Cooch Behar and daughter of the Junior Maharani’s friend Indira Devi was considered but the proposal fell through when it was realised the bride would never be a Maharani (see letter dated 29/11/1932 from the Resident to the Under Secretary to GOI in IOR/L/PS/13/1283). Then in 1936 the Junior Maharani interviewed a girl from the family of the Paliyath Achan (see Report for the Second Half of March 1936 in IOR/L/PS
/1283). Finally in 1944 also a proposal was under consideration but the death of his nephew, apparently, put the Maharajah off any plans to marry (see letter dated 24/04/1944 from the Resident to the Sec. to Viceroy in IOR/L/PS/13/1285). In what was a bizarre case, one Govinda Kaimal also tried to lobby to have the Maharajah marry one of his daughters and tried to influence the Maharajah’s grandfather to enable this, even submitting a proposal to the Junior Maharani (IOR/R/1/1/3218).
25. Letter dated 24/04/1944 from the Resident to the Sec. to Viceroy (IOR/L/PS/13/1285).
26. Nilkan Perumal, The Truth about Travancore, p. 74.
27. John Paton Davies, China Hand, p. 83.
28. Gouri Lakshmi Bayi, Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, p. 162.
29. Letter dated 29/06/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Letter dated 05/04/1938 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/3080).
33. Letter dated 29/06/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
34. Letter dated 13/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
35. A. Sreedhara Menon, A Survey of Kerala History, p. 293.
36. Letter dated 13/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
37. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, No Elephants for the Maharaja, p. 135.
38. Memorial dated 08/01/1939 from All Subjects of Travancore (IOR/L/PS/13/1283).
39. Statement of Dr N.S. Pillai of Attingal (IOR/R/1/1/3218).
40. T.M. Mathew, Dr G Ramachandran: A Historical Biography, p. 209 (2010) (Thesis submitted to the Mahatma Gandhi University’s Faculty of Social Sciences).
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., p. 217.
43. Letter dated 10/08/1939 from Mahatma Gandhi to the Dewan (IOR/R/1/1/3316).
44. Letter dated 15/08/1939 from the Dewan to Mahatma Gandhi (IOR/R/1/1/3316).
45. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 153.
46. Letter dated 13/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
47. The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore Vol. II, p. 832.
48. Letter dated 13/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
49. Letter dated 23/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
50. Letter dated 30/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
51. Letter dated 23/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
52. Letter dated 13/09/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
53. Ibid.
54. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., pp. 176, 200.
55. Ibid. p. 204.
56. Mahadev Desai, The Epic of Travancore, p. 94.
57. Letter dated 12/08/1930 from G. Sankaran Nair to the Dep. Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1985) and Report for the First Half of December 1929 (IOR/R/1/1/1819).
58. Note dated 04/09/1936 from the Political Secretary (IOR/R/1/1/2859).
59. Letter dated 11/10/1938 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI. (IOR/L/PS/13/1283).
60. Author’s interview with P. Ramji, son of 1940s Alleppey Municipal Chairman, Parthasarathy Iyengar.
61. Letter dated 11/10/1938 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/L/PS/13/1283).
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 72.
68. Ibid., p. 74.
69. Ibid., p. 9.
70. Report for the First Half of November 1940 (IOR/R/1/1/3500)
71. Notes on the Present Position of Christians in Travancore by the Travancore Peace Bloc (1946).
72. Letter dated 15/03/1936 from the Maharajah to the Viceroy (File No. 7, 195-H/36 in the National Archives, Delhi).
73. The author could not independently verify this.
74. Report for the First Half of December 1942 (IOR/R/1/1/3786).
75. See Gazette Extraordinary dated 12/11/1936 and Tony McClenagham, Indian Princely Medals, p. 252.
76. Letter dated 06/12/1936 from A.C. Lothian, Representative of the Government of India, to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/L/PS/13/750).
77. See also Dick Kooiman, ‘The Guns of Travancore or How much Poweder may a Maharaja blaze away?’ in Indian Economic Social History Review Vol. 43, No. 3, 2006, pp. 301–22. Travancore originally had a 17-gun salute till 1867 in which year it was raised to 19. It had a local 21-gun salute but this was not recognised by the Government of India, much to the consternation of successive Maharajahs. What Chithira Tirunal wanted was a recognised dynastic permanent gun salute of 21.
78. Marthanda Varma, Travancore: The Footprints of Destiny, p. 101.
79. Letter dated 24/04/1944 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/L/PS/13/1285).
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Ibid.
83. Report for the Second Half of July 1943 (IOR/1/1/3927).
84. Letter dated 11/09/1944 from the Resident to the Sec. to Viceroy (IOR/L/PS/13/1285).
85. Letter dated 21/02/1945 from the Viceroy to the Secretary of State (IOR/L/PS/13/1285).
86. Penderal Moon, Wavell: The Viceroy’s Journal, p. 112.
87. Shakunthala Jagannathan, Sir C.P. Remembered, p. 86.
88. Marthanda Varma, op. cit., p. 135.
89. Letter dated 28/02/1938 from C.P. Skrine to his mother (MSS EUR F154/23).
CHAPTER 18: RIVERS OF BLOOD
1. Rajendra Prasad, Asif Jahs of Hyderabad, pp. 90–91.
2. Ibid. p, 86.
3. Kanhayalal Gauba, His Highness, pp. 32–33.
4. Ibid. p. 142.
5. Life Magazine dated 21/04/1947.
6. Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, Freedom at Midnight, pp. 173–74.
7. Michael O’Dwyer quoted in Clark Worswick, Princely India: Photographs by Raja Deen Dayal 1884–1910 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf), p. 42.
8. Memorandum to the Butler Committee (1928). See also A. Sreedhara Menon, Triumph and Tragedy in Travancore, p. 225. At the time the princes had also tried to argue that Paramountcy depended on the treaties, which the Butler Committee rejected, stating that Paramountcy was to be Paramount, even if it went beyond the purview of the treaties. However, the claim of the Maharajahs that their subordinate status could not be transferred to anyone else from the British Crown was accepted. See Ambedkar’s ‘Paramountcy and the Claim of the Indian States to be Independent’ at http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd/51.%20Paramountry%20and%20the%20Claims%20of%20the%20Indian%20States.htm (accessed 15/09/2014).
9. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, No Elephants for the Maharaja, p. 4.
10. Robin Jeffrey, ‘India’s Working Class Revolt’, Indian Economic Social History Review Vol. 18, No. 2, 1981, p. 107.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., p. 108.
15. Sekhar Bandopadhyay, From Plassey to Partition, p. 435.
16. Robin Jeffrey, ‘India’s Working Class Revolt,’ op. cit., pp. 105–06.
17. Ibid.
18. Joseph Tharamangalam, Agrarian Class Conflict, p. 74.
19. Ibid. p. 75.
20. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
21. A. Sreedhara Menon, A Survey of Kerala History, pp. 293–94.
22. See http://www.cpimkerala.org/eng/struggles-72.php?n=1 (accessed 14/10/2014).
23. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 246.
24. A. Sreedhara Menon, A Survey …, pp. 292–94.
25. Joseph Tharamangalam, op. cit., p. 75.
26. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 248.
27. Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, op. cit., p. 63.
28. Ibid. p. 65.
29. Ibid. p. 68.
30. Ibid. p. 41.
31. Ibid. p. 110.
32. Sir CP’s statement (IOR/L/PS/13/1842).
33. A. S
reedhara Menon, Triumph…, p. 261.
34. Ibid. p. 378.
35. Report for the First Half of June 1947 (IOR/L/PS/13/1299).
36. A. Sreedhara Menon, A Survey…, p. 294.
37. Statement dated 06/07/1947 (IOR/L/PS/13/1842).
38. Thanu Pillai’s telegram dated 10/07/1947 in B. Krishna, India’s Bismarck, p. 102.
39. Note dated 21/07/1947 by the Deputy High Commissioner (IOR/L/PS/13/1842).
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Viceroy’s report dated 25/07/1947 (IOR/L/PO/6/123).
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. A.G. Noorani, ‘C.P. and Independent Travancore’, Frontline, Vol. 20, No. 13 dated 04/07/2003 at http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2013/stories/20030704000807800.htm (accessed 15/10/2014)
47. A. Sreedhara Menon, Triumph…, pp. 233–34.
48. A.G. Noorani, op. cit.
49. A. Sreedhara Menon, Triumph…, pp. 388–89. Also see A.G. Noorani, op. cit.
50. Viceroy’s report dated 01/08/1947 (IOR/L/PO/6/123).
51. A.G. Noorani, op. cit.
52. Ibid.
53. Quoted in letter dated 10/09/1947 from Sir Terence Shone to Sir P.J. Patrick (IOR/L/PS/13/1842).
54. P.G.N. Unnithan was the son of a Harippad Tampuran from the Valiya Koil Tampuran’s family, and his sister was married to Rama Varma, the son of Raja Ravi Varma. Their daughter, Manorama, in turn was married to Sethu Lakshmi Bayi’s older brother, R. Martanda Varma, whom she called annan.
55. A. Sreedhara Menon, A Survey…, p. 294.
56. B. Krishna, op. cit., p. 103.
57. A.G. Noorani, op. cit.
58. Ibid.
59. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 77.
60. Ibid.
61. B. Krishna, op. cit., p. 103.
62. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 280.
63. A.G. Noorani, op. cit.
64. Ibid.
65. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, op. cit., p. 271.
66. Lakshmi Raghunandan, At the Turn of the Tide, pp. 418–23.
67. See letters dated 20/08/1941 from the Sarvadhikaryakkar to the Senior Maharani’s Karyakkar, and his reply dated 08/09/1941 (Raghunandan, pp. 424–25).
68. Author’s interview with Advocate Ayyappan Pillai.
69. Author’s interview with Divakara Varma.
70. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
71. Ibid.
72. Author’s interview with Divakara Varma.
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