The Malabar European Club – Calicut
Posted by Labels: British Calicut, British club Calicut, malabar Club Calicut
A long time ago….
Some 500 years or so into the past, Calicut was not quite mired
in obscurity. It was as one intrepid traveler wrote, ‘on the way to everywhere’.
Traders and travelers vied to make their way to the spice capital of the world
and write about the strange ways of the people, the spices in the markets and
the riches on display. Some even wrote about the honesty of the rulers and the
cosmopolitanism they saw. The Portuguese, the French, the Dutch, the Danes and
of course the British made their presence felt at this entrepot as time moved
on, if only to profit. Years passed and soon it was stripped off all its glory
as the British, who like many others, also entered India through its gates at
Calicut, moved North and established the metropolises at Bombay, Calcutta and
eventually Delhi. The new order had no place for lowly Calicut, but a few
enlightened souls still came by, now and then. They all had mainly one place to
stay and lodge at, the Malabar European Club, facing the Arabian Sea.
A couple of them wrote lovely accounts while ensconced in that motley club, with a handful of rooms and a small library to boast. We discussed one of those travelers - Edward Lear, some years ago, and I read about another who supposedly stayed there and wrote a masterpiece, the writer being Somerset Maugham, and the masterpiece being The Razor’s edge. I found that a bit unlikely, for I did know SM had been to Travancore, but did he ever set foot in Calicut? I decided to check this and so, let us go there and check the club out, if only for an hour or so, what do you say?
So, for the Europeans, a smattering of British, French and
perhaps a Dutch or two, this European club was where they could come, wet their
beaks and play some cards, have some continental food, peruse a book or two,
the Punch magazine or newspapers from London or play some billiards. Couples
could dance, and if so required, stay at one of the Club’s few rooms. Sometimes
a traveler landed there and stayed for a while, partaking in the little
entertainment the club had to offer while he went about his work be it writing
or transacting business. Tennis and cricket were played, so also golf, all
reserved of course for the white man. There was one exception though, Parsees (perhaps
just one) gained admittance to this exclusive club otherwise known as the
Malabar European Club of Calicut.
Let’s go back in time and pass through the doors, nod curtly
at the doorman clad in white, turban and red cummerbund and get into the
ambience of the hall, get seated and gaze at the serenity presented by the
glorious Arabian Sea with the setting sun a beautiful reddish orange silhouette
and the horizon as its backdrop.
Lear in 1874 wrote lovingly of his stay there – Drove to
the travelers’ bungalow, but found it very bad form, no butler, low as to
position, dirty, damp; and the only decent-sized room tenanted by an old
planter of by no means prepossessing appearance, who advised me to go to the
club. So I drove thither. It is close by the seaside; boats and coconuts ad
lib. Some little difficulty ensured on account of my not being a member, and I
had to shew letters, etc.; when two or three good natured members allowed me to
take two rooms. Gazing out, he sees bare breasted (he complains they were old) women
ambling along, picking this and that from the beach, fishermen getting off
their boats. Off to the right, half a mile to the North was the lighthouse and
the screw pile (kadal palam) snaking into the sea. Next door is the French Loge.
He mooned about those beautiful lanes and roads, the exquisite vegetation which
beat all chance of description, but complained often of the ‘crow-be-bothered
club at Calicut’, firmly stating ‘The crows here are a bore!’.
Lear added - There are
worse places than the Malabar Club. I wrote and read, and enjoyed the bright
sun and broad shadows and lovely air. I remember I disliked many things in
Malabar on my first visit here; but now, after Ceylon, Malabar seems Elysium.
The Beypore road is undoubtedly one of the model wonders of beauty in this
world; nothing can be lovelier than that river scene with the far hills. He
concludes - I wrote and read, and enjoyed the bright sun and broad shadows and
lovely air.
A gentleman visiting Wynad in April 1881 mentions - The Malabar Club there is as the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land, and possesses one refinement of luxury which
considerably astonished me. I do not allude to the two lawn tennis courts, nor
even to the excellent racket court, but to the swimming bath of fresh water
which is kept always in perfect condition. It was a great boon to a stranger
like myself to be able to put up at the comfortable club chambers there,
instead of going to a traveler’s rest house, or inflicting myself upon a
private bungalow on the strength of a 'letter of introduction’.
Let us go further, to 1883 – we read of the grand sendoff dinner
given at the club for W Logan, collector This was just as he was moving out of
Calicut and to Travancore as resident (now that was news to me!). A
correspondent at Calicut writes to a Bombay paper (Homeward Mail from India,
China and the East - Wednesday 23 May 1883):
A large dinner has been given at the Malabar Club to Mr. Logan, our popular
Collector. Covers were laid for sixty, and fifty diners sat down. The ladies of
the station were invited and graced the entertainment with their presence. The
town band was in attendance, playing during and after dinner. The rooms of the
club and the dining-room were very tastefully decorated, and the arrangements
altogether did credit to the gentleman who undertook to carry them out. After
dinner our local musical talent was to the fore, and subsequently all adjourned
to the lawn tennis court, on which the younger folks danced till an early hour
of the morning. The dinner was a farewell entertainment to Mr. Logan, who
proceeds to Travancore as Resident, much to the regret of the district of
Malabar, where he is respected and loved by all classes. The entertainment
clearly indicated the universal esteem Calicut (indeed Malabar) society has for
him.
An 1898 report states - The
annual general meeting of the Malabar Club came off on Monday evening, Sept. 5,
about twenty members being present. The report and accounts were laid on the
table and were formally adopted. Mr. E. E. Davies was elected honorary
secretary for the coming year. The members afterwards sat down to a grand
dinner, at the conclusion of which several toasts were drunk amid great
enthusiasm.
Many an Englishman gave his address in Calicut ‘care of the
Calicut club’ and we see a report of one KF Tarrant, working for a Rubber
company in Calicut, originally hailing from Cheltenham filing for divorce - due
to his wife’s dalliance with another man, in 1927. We also read that in 1931,
the secretary of the club, one GH Bull committed suicide by shooting himself with
his seven chambered revolver, sitting by the verandah (perhaps after lifting a
final toast as a goodbye to the Arabian Sea)!
We can read a curious argument by one Capt Rigby who is
indignant when a visitor Mr Palmer scoffs that Calicut had but one road which
is only 3 miles long. Rigby maintains that the entire state is traversable by
road and that he himself had done thousands of miles from Travancore to
Cannanore and beyond in the first decade of the 20th century. He
adds that the Malabar Club provided the latest papers from Britain and that the
Madras Mail was but one day late, in availability.
From Raghu Karnad’s marvelous book ‘Farthest Field’, we can
see that a prominent Parsi - Dr Khobad Dhunjibhai Mugaseth of Calicut was the
only non-white member of the club. Dr Kobad Mugaseth for those who don’t know, was
among the most respected medical practitioners and it seems his treatment of a
choking elephant was a story dutifully (I don’t know the story, as yet!) recounted
to each succeeding generation in Calicut. CHF had introduced him in an article
some years ago.
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| The Beach Hotel Today |
The Malabar Club then moved to the new building (the Beach Hotel
these days) on the same Beach Road, which was built in 1890, and by then it
comprised some 200 members, inclusive of married men whose wives were also
eligible for membership. Beach-facing rooms had bathtubs and secluded verandas;
all the rooms were tastefully furnished and had plenty of character. At the previous
location, a nursing school was built. Soon, it boasted of six stately rooms
with polished wooden floors, soaring ceilings, while the ground floor rooms
were garden facing rooms.
The 1866 rulebook provides more information – To be a
member, you had to be a resident of Malabar, the Neilgherries, Coimbatore, or
Palghaut. We see that the rules were quite strict, and late payment or nonpayment
defaulters were shamed on the notice board placed in the Public room, and had
to pay double to get back. The club house was available for receptions to members
between 6AM and 2AM, a member could book rooms only for a maximum period of 14
days, with prior reservation. When one person vacated a room, it was aired and
cleaned for a whole day before being let out again, meals had to be eaten in
the restaurant, some supplies were sold at the club, no club servant could be
reprimanded by a guest, tips or gratuity were banned, dogs were not permitted,
horses had to be parked in proper places, music was prohibited, members could
not bring their own liquor, no games/play was allowed in rooms and on Sundays. Games
at the Billiards table were chargeable. A large number of members seemed to be
planters from Wynad. The Club had an entrance Fee of Rs.100. The annual
Subscription was Rs.12 for members resident in Malabar and Rs.6 for
non-resident members; The Monthly subscription was Rs.10 for singles and Rs.12 for
married couples.
Later on, in 1898, the Cosmopolitan club was founded by Jamshedji
Mugaseth, as a meeting place for the native gentry, stated to be open to persons
of over 20 years of age. Entrance fee for gentlemen Rs.25- and monthly
subscription Rs.3-. It appears there was another club as well, the Catholic Union
Club.
Now let us get to a quick runover of Maugham and his trip to
India. In 1938, W. Somerset Maugham on his visit to India met with Ramana Maharishi
at his ashram south of Madras. After a month touring holy sites in the south,
Maugham arrived in Madras, where at a cocktail party Christina Austin, the wife
a senior British civil servant, offered to take him to meet Ramana Maharshi.
The meeting did take place during which Maugham fainted, later met Ramana for a
few minutes and Maugham departed. In an essay entitled “The Saint”, published
in 1958, Maugham wrote that while he had been touched by Ramana’s humility and
dignity he had reservations about what he regarded as the guru’s acquiescent philosophy.
Nevertheless the whole event seems to have influenced him a lot. Some insist
that Maugham modeled his fictional guru around Ramana in The Razor’s Edge.
But did Somerset Maugham ever land up in Calicut or sit at
the Club’s verandah, overlooking the Arabian Sea, to pen his ‘Razor’s Edge’, as
claimed by some? I am not at all sure and I doubt it, for even after scouring
through his diary and notes, I could not find any mention of Calicut. He did
stay at Travancore and Cochin though. I checked with Lady Selina Shirley Hastings
who had after extensive studies on SM, written a lovely biographical account on
Maugham’s secret lives. She got back with this comment - I never came across any information about Maugham staying at Calicut,
but of course it’s entirely possible that he did!
My search and study had been completed, though the question had
not been satisfactorily answered. I have not read Razor’s Edge as yet, maybe
someday, but for now, it is time to move on….
Ah! this trip took us to another era, when life was
different, for those were the lazy and serene days when the contemptuous Burra
sahib was sitting on his high horse, lording a colonial town, governing the outlying
estates while at the same time crawling slowly towards industrialization, as
the subjugated natives groveled on the ground and watched through tired and sleepy
eyes.
Life is decidedly better these days, but it is always interesting,
to say the least, to look back and see how it once was, to appreciate the today
we live in. For some it would be nostalgia, for others a dark age which they prefer
to forget.
References
The rules of the Malabar club – 1866
Edward Lear’s Indian journal – Ed Ray Murphy
Somerset Maugham and the guru – Mick Brown – Telegraph, 10
Aug 2014
Notes:
Razor’s edge - It
tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his
experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning
in his life. He finally finds his way to India, where Larry has significant
spiritual adventures before returning to Paris. He is introduced to Advaita
philosophy and eventually goes on to realize God, thus becoming a saint—in the
process having gained liberation from the cycle of human suffering, birth and
death that the rest of the earthly mortals are subject to. The novel's title
comes from a translation of a verse in the Katha Upanishad -The sharp edge
of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation
is hard.
Ramana Maharshi –
Venkatraman Iyer, a sanyasi, had his ashram west of Tiruvannamalai, south of
Vellore. Since the 1930’s his teachings have been popularized in the West,
resulting in his worldwide recognition as an enlightened being. He approved a
number of paths and practices, but recommended self-enquiry as the principal
means to remove ignorance and abide in self-awareness, together with bhakti
(devotion) or surrender to the Self. Although many claim to be influenced by
him, Ramana Maharshi did not publicize himself as a guru, never claimed to have
disciples, and never appointed any successors, he never promoted any lineage.
Interestingly, he spoke Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam!
Pic - Courtesy Beach heritage - Calicut
2 comments:
A very interesting post. We still need to find out whether Maugham did indeed stay at the Club. But, one thing is certain. The place has some attraction for writers. We can recall two writers in recent times who stayed here and researched/wrote in the peaceful environs provided by the Beach Hotel. One is Aravind Adiga, the Man Booker Prize winner who has stayed here more than once. The other is Virginia Jealous, the Australian poet and writer who recently published her book on Laurence Hope, titled 'Rapture's Roadway'. She writes: 'In Calicut/Kozhikhode I stay at the Beach Hotel, built in 1890 to house the British Club. Laurence Hope and the General would probably have stayed while they looked for a house to rent in 1904'.
If no evidence exists for Maugham having stayed here, we will have to invent the evidence... and the onus is on you, Maddy!
Thanks CHF..
yes indeed, I am sure it must have been the perfect setting to let loose your thoughts and imaginations and then put them into paper. One could of course assume that Somerset wanted to see where Laurence Hope lived or perhaps research on what ended up as a story on Adela titled 'Colonel's lady'. Nevertheless, while many other illustrious people may have visited and lived at the club/Beach hotel, Maugham may not ventured to Calicut.. So it is, until further evidence surfaces..
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