The Quilon Mutiny Of 1812-FROM G'S BLOG

The Quilon Mutiny Of 1812-FROM G'S BLOG

In 1812, a full seven years after the Pazhassi Raja’s death in the jungles of Wayanad, a conspiracy was uncovered in Quilon to overthrow the British subsidiary forces in Travancore and to confer the sovereignty of Travancore to the Pazhassi Raja’s nephew ([1], [2]). Here’s an account of the events [1]:

“On the night of the 24th May 1812 the existence of a conspiracy at Quilon having for its object the destruction of the European officers and men of the subsidiary force in Travancore was brought to the knowledge of Lieutenant and Adjutant Cox 2nd battalion 14th regiment by Jemadar Iyaloo of the same battalion to whom it had been revealed by a private of his company”

“On the morning of the 25th Colonel Hall and the officers in command of battalions met at the Residency and it was there arranged that a general parade of the troops should be ordered for that afternoon and that the principal conspirators should then be seized while the Resident Lieutenant Colonel John Munro took steps for the apprehension of such inhabitants of the town and vicinity as were believed to be implicated.
These measures were successfully carried out. Jemadar Shaik Hoossain of the 14th together with 2 havildars and 22 men of that battalion were called out of the ranks and placed in confinement the troops behaving with perfect steadiness.
Womanah Tumby ex-Dewan of Travancore, an individual claiming to be the nephew and representative of the late Pychy Rajah and several religious mendicants were seized at the same time by the Resident’s people as being the chief instigators.”

“The result of the enquiries made by the Resident which occupied some time led him to the conclusion that Womanah Tumby, the pseudo-Pychy Rajah, and Jemadar Shaik Hoossain of the 14th, had been the originators of the conspiracy.
The design was to confer the sovereignty of Travancore upon the Pychy Rajah. The Jemadar was promised the office of Dewan, but this in all probability, was really intended for Womanah Tumby. The pay of all sepoys as might join in the plot was to be raised to Rs 10 per mensem.
The chief body of conspirators consisted of discharged sepoys fakeers and disaffected natives of the province. The European officers were to have been attacked while at dinner, and the barracks set on fire at the same time in order to distract attention, after which the public treasury was to have been given up to plunder.”

Did one of the nephews of the late king actually go to Travancore to start a revolt? Or could it have been one of the distant relatives of the Pazhassi Kovilakam (the kings of Mavellikkara had close relationships to the royal houses of north Malabar)? Or did the British accounts get it completely wrong, with the memories of the “Pyche Rajah” still so strong that a local revolt was ascribed to him?
Notably, an Indian account of the same incident (P. Shungoonny Menon’s A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times) makes no mention of any Pazhassi prince [3]:

“During the interval, the ex-Dewan Ummany Thamby incurred lasting disgrace by plotting certain measures against the life of the Colonel. The treachery having been discovered, Ummany Thamby was banished the country and was taken to Chingleput and detained there as a State prisoner.”

What happened to the rebels next was not surprising [1].

“Jemadar Shaik Hoossain and Private Salabut Khan of the 14th were tried in a summary manner by a board of officers, of which Major Fraser 2nd battalion 9th was President. Both were convicted, and sentenced to be blown from a gun, which sentence was carried into execution on the evening of the 28th May at a general parade of the whole force.
Two havildars, one naigue, and twenty six privates of 14th, of whom 19 were Mahomedans, and 10 Hindoos, tried by ordinary court martial, and sentenced to death. Of these two privates were pardoned, the rest were either shot or hanged, the sentences being carried into execution at Quilon, Cannanore, Seringapatam, Trichinopoly, Vellore and St Thomas Mount respectively.”

“Womanah Tumby and the Pychy Rajah were tried by the Court of the Travancore Government. The former was sentenced to death but this sentence was commuted to banishment and he was removed to Nellore. The Pychy Rajah was banished to Chingleput, but he was released from confinement in 1815.”

And as for the loyalists,

“On the 16th February, 1813, Jemadar lyaloo of the 14th was promoted to be Subadar and presented with a palankeen and an allowance for bearers. He also received a gold medal and a donation of 1,000 rupees. On his decease, his nearest heir was to be allowed a pension of 35 rupees per mensem.
Vencatram, the sepoy who had informed the Jemadar of the plot was pensioned on the pay of a Jemadar a received a donation of 600 rupees.
Private Hoossain Khan who had given information to Captain Ives of the same battalion on the 24th May but in rather an incoherent manner was pensioned on the pay of a Havildar”

Remembering the Battle of Delhi

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The anniversary of the Battle of Delhi goes largely unnoticed. R.V. SMITH sheds light on the events leading up to the battle more than 200 years ago

Today is September 10, the anniversary eve of the Battle of Delhi, fought 209 years ago. There have been many battles of Delhi, starting from 1191-92, including those between Muhammad Ghori and Prithviraj Chauhan, the battle of wits between the Mongols and Alauddin Khilji, Taimur’s rout of the forces of Mahmud Tughlaq at Loni, then the three battles fought at Panipat between Babar and Ibrahim Lodi, Akbar and Hemu (not counting the Karnal skirmish between Muhammad Shah and Nadir Shah, the Persian invader) and the Maratha confederacy and Nadir’s successor, Ahmed Shah Abdali. Though referred to as the battles of Panipat, they were really for the possession of Delhi and as such linked with the fortunes of this imperial city. In all these battles (save the first one between Prithviraj and Ghori) the invaders were victorious, though Alauddin succeeded in chasing away the Mongols camping below the very walls of Delhi by not losing his nerve. During Shah Alam’s reign, 30,000 Sikhs under Baghel Singh camped at Tis Hazari with the intention of invading Delhi but were prevailed upon to withdraw, thanks to the sagacity of Begum Sumroo, who saved the emperor the indignity of capitulating to the besiegers, and thus earned for herself the honorific of “the emperor’s beloved daughter”.

However the only “Battle of Delhi” recorded as such in history is the one between Scindia’s Marathas and the British, with the former pretending to fight on behalf of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. But Shah Alam was wavering between support to the two parties as he knew that he was caught between the devil and the deep sea. This battle was fought on September 11, 1803 in what is now East Delhi, with Patparganj being the main arena of action and thus the battle field.

To quote from Percival Spear’s Twilight in Delhi, The British Governor-General, “Lord Wellesley’s object was to secure the prestige of the Moghul name without any admission of its superior authority; Shah Alam’s to maintain the imperial pretensions at the cost of any conceivable practical concessions. Lord Wellesley’s agent was the British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Lake, and his agent in Delhi was the Sayyid Reza Khan. During July and August Shah Alam’s letters wavered between appeals for help (against the Marathas who had made a virtual prisoner of him, keeping him in a golden cage as it were) and complaints of his treatment by the British as the fortunes of war ebbed and flowed. On 27 July, 1803, Wellesley, in a personal letter, assured Shah Alam” that if he accepted the asylum which he had directed Lake to offer, “then every respect and degree of attention would be shown to him and his family and adequate provision will be made on the part of the British Govt for the support (ease and comfort) of your Majesty, your family and household”.

But as Spear also thinks, the Governor-General’s assurances were those of a forked tongue for, besides promising respect, dignity and personal security, he wanted Lake to “urge Shah Alam and the heir apparent Akbar (later Akbar Shah II) to reside at Monghyr in Bengal” (now in Bihar). However, Sir Charles Napier, the conqueror of Sindh who famously said “Peccavi” (Latin for “I have sinned”, punning on Sindh), was of the view that the emperor should be sent to Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar the Great’s deserted capital, which was closer to Delhi and hence perhaps more acceptable to the blind emperor.

Shah Alam asked for British support on August 29 and on September 1, under French dictation, announced that he would take the field against the British “whose invariable custom it is, in whatever country they are allowed to reside under fixed stipulations, speedily to seize upon that country”. Despite this assertion he welcomed Lord Lake five days after the general had won the battle.

As for the battle itself, there was not much to it. It turned out to be more of a skirmish, with the Marathas, more used to guerrilla warfare, failing to carry the day. Their French commanders and the freewheeling local soldiers of Delhi, who had raised the cry of “Deen Deen (Faith) and come out to give battle to the pork-eating infidels” from the galis and mohallas of the city with antique swords, spears and matchlock guns, were the first to retreat, despite individual acts of bravery.

The women of Delhi, the able-bodied men who had stayed at home, the emperor, his son and begums in the Red Fort waited for some miracle to happen but their hopes were belied and the British finally put their seal on Delhi, which was to last till August 1947 when Lake and his troopers, as also Shah Alam and his harem, were dead for more than a hundred years. It is that event that will, as usual, go unnoticed in Delhi this year too, except for some British tourists coming to pay homage to their ancestors who died in that battle and on September 19, when the firangis recaptured Delhi, 54 years later, in the war of 1857.