And his involvement in Travancore affairs - Marthanda
Varma’s reign
The Umbrella Riots
Posted by Maddy Labels: Laccadives, Malabar Various, The outlying islands, Umbrella riot
Out at the islands, long ago - Lakshadweep
The Malabar European Club – Calicut
Posted by Maddy 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.
The tragic story of Pulicat Ratnavelu Chetty - ICS – Palghat 1879-1881
Posted by Maddy Labels: British Calicut, British club, Palghat, Ratna Velu Chetty
The first covenanted ICS officer of the Madras Presidency
This story was lying in my drafts folder for a long time, as
I was not able to establish the identity of the character involved. It was only
after reading a relatively recent blog post by Murali Rama Varma who had been
away for a while, that I got it resolved. First, thanks Murali for coming back,
your posts have always been refreshing and secondly, for helping me identify
the person involved.
A Cultural or
political boundary?
I think most of us will recall that in the past, we had some strict rules when it came to marriages. People from Malabar would not marry
from families down South or up North. Let us take a look at that rule or custom
and see what it was all about during and after the days when the Calicut
Zamorins feuded with the Kolathunad rulers.
One can always argue if it was a rule or a custom, perhaps
the latter is a more appropriate usage, we shall soon see. The details come out
in various clarifications sought during the long discussions held to formulate
what is known and the Report of the Malabar Marriage Commission of 1891. It is
not my intention to discuss the practice of a Sambandham marriage, for it is a
complex and vast but totally misunderstood subject, so we can get to it some
other day.
China Kuttiali Marakkar
Posted by Maddy Labels: Chinna Ali, Chinna Kuttiali, Chinna Kutty ALi, Malabar - Portuguese, Marakkar
Chinna or China?
The exact identities of the various Marakkars have continued
to confuse me throughout my Malabar studies. We all know Kunhali IV and his
story, especially the final stages when
the Portuguese managed to capture and behead him, to ‘apparently’ bring an end
to the line of Malabar corsairs and admirals of the Zamorin. But there is one Marakkar
who has slipped the cracks as they say, in history books and got lost or
miscast. He was the most notorious of the lot, perhaps the most powerful, yet
he is mentioned only briefly. Why so? Let’s uncover his story.
Ottoman links to Medieval Calicut
Posted by Maddy Labels: Constantinople, Hadim Suleyman, Malabar - Portuguese, Ottoman Calicut, Turkey
Pre Khilafat Turkiye Malabar
Connections, ante 1919
Some years ago, I had touched on the connections between
Malabar and Turkey in relation to the Khilafat movement of the 1920’s and how
and why it all fizzled out, culminating with the terrible days of the 1921
uprising. But Ottoman Turkey did have a link with the muezzins of Calicut and the
clergy at Ponnani even before all that. I may have touched on the subject while
writing about the Fathul Mubeyin, but let’s now see how it all adds up.
Hari Singh, Haider Ali and the Zamorin
Posted by Maddy Labels: Calicut - Mysore sultans, Haider ali, Hari Singh, Wodeyar Calicut
A Punjabi adventurer and Calicut 1756-58
It is certainly a point of interest to note that a Punjabi adventurer in the employment of Devarajaiya the ruler of Mysore had something substantial to do with the eventual fall of Calicut in 1766. Not may are aware of this sub plot in the advance of Haider towards Malabar and how Haider usurped the Mysore throne. Let’s take a look.
The Moplah Rifles (1902-1907)
Posted by Maddy Labels: Malabar - English period 1900 -1950, Malabar Moplah, Moplah rebellion, Moplah rifles
A Short Lived experiment
Many have asked me why I continue to use the word Moplah,
and not the word Mappila. I have no real answer to that, perhaps it is because
it is more often used in historical text and finds more results in searches. I
have also never been a great supporter of changing well accepted names like
Bombay to Mumbai and Madras to Chennai, but then I should not digress. We will
spend some time today studying the creation and the untimely disbanding of the
Moplah Rifles in the British Army.
The Kummatti at Kunisseri
Nestling between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is
the rice bowl of Malabar, todays Palakkad. Its strategic location and rich agricultural
tradition was a cause for many a battle. Primary was its produce being important
for expanding populations and secondly because it was the entry point of the
Tamilakam trade route, i.e. the Palakkad gap. Carts and animals of trade
carried produce back and forth through a domestic highway of sorts. As time
went by and the kingdoms in North Malabar became more and more affluent and
populated, and as import of rice from the Konkan and Coromandel rice traders
came under threat, the southern rice producing areas became even more important.The
Palghat rajas, whom we talked about in the past, were not always the overlords
of the entire district as we know it today, since some parts of it were either
under the suzerainty of either the Zamorin or the Kochi raja.
Napoleon, India and the Russian intrigues – Part 1
Posted by Maddy Labels: French conquest India, French India, Napolean
The Oriental conquest for the Golden
Sparrow 1801
We are all so used to speaking English
these days, but can you imagine a prospect of a French speaking India? Well it
could have happened if Napoleon had followed on with his oriental dreams of
acquiring the golden sparrow and won the battles with the British. Napoleon was
quite vocal about his desire to conquer the East from the very beginning, as he
remarked after his first Italian Campaign: ''My
glory is already at an end; there is not enough of it in this little Europe. I
must go to the East; all great glory comes from there." While his loss
at the battle of Waterloo is apparent to most, the Indian aspirations of
Napoleon are not so well known.
The Mystery of the Zamorin’s Coronation Stone
Posted by Maddy Labels: Zamorin, Zamorin coronation stone
And its Chinese connections
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)