Corruption and Scandal in Old Madras: The James Macrae Saga (1723-1727)

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

William Dalrymple in his best selling The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pllage of an Empire had prodided a narrative of the rise of the East India Company as it faught, intrigued and bludegeoned its way to hegemony even acquiring the Diwani rights over Bengal which gave the Company an income wich was more than the National Income of Engalns at that time. Even before the grant of the Diwani of Bengal, Madras was seen as the "Pagoda Tree" which had to be shaken in order to garner wealth which the "nabobs" invested in Parliamentary seats, estates, faux castles and follies and general upgradation of social and political class. Scotland, after the Union of 1707 was uniquely palced for social and political experiment as the East India Company largely due to the patronge of Henry Dundas provided ample opportunities for young men, rarely women of Scotland, employment in India. the East is a Carreer as Disraeli famously remarked and indeed it was for James Macrae (1677-1744) about whom the History of the County of Ayr vol II records rather inelegantly, "After amassing a huge fortune in India, he came home" and this Macrae was related to th Darlymple Clan through marriage.

Pirate Edward England, James' Ship in the picture

Equestrian Statue of King William III presented by Macrae

James Macrae was a social zero but his 40 long years in India had equipped him with both the means and the ability to rise up the social ladder and in that his life in India is instructive. Eventually his family married into the Campbell Clan becoming powerful both in Scotland and in West Indies. The Records of the Slave Compensation Commission show at least three Macrae names among the beneficiaries. James'mother was not rich and a "fiddler" of unknown origin took an interest in Macrae and got him educated. James Macrae joined the Navy and served as a Captain of the ship that ran into the most notorious pirate of the day, Edward England off the coast of Madagascar. Arriving in Madras, James Macrae joined the lower ranks of the East India Company and became the Deputy Governor of Fort St. David at Cuddalore.

Fort Saint David Cuddalore

The Records of the Fort Saint George published by Talboys Wheeler contain interesting materials  on James Macrae and we have culled details of his Administration fromVolume II. The chronicler of Old Madras was so ipressed or struck by the egresious scale of corruption that flourished under this Governor that he had the history of his Adminstration issued as a separate Volume. The Company, at this point in time was still a commercial enterprise and the buying and slling of cloth was its main task. The Company signed contracts with weavers who were setted within the "Bound Hedges" denoting the limits of the territorial limits of the Company and the Company Officials were tasked with certifying the quality of the ware. Bribes were routinely collected for such certificates and weavers had to pay the Company officials to have their cloth accepted by the Company. If Broad Cloth was rejected by the officials the weavers had to endure considerable hardship. Weaver settlements like Mutialpet and Chindradipettai were targets of particular interest as they were literally at ghe mercy of the Company. Extortion was the chief occupation of the Company Officials and in this nefarious task they used "Natives" The "Dubash" employed by James Macrae called Guda Anacona,obviously a Beri Chetty, was the instrument used for extrotion and we have a Petition signed by Sunkah Chetty, Tambi Chetty  Nina Chetty, Rajappa Chetty,Nina Kumara Chetty,and Mummudi Chetty (names modernised) detaiing several instances of corruption indulged in by Guda Anacona who enjoyed the protection of his Master as the Petionin was admitted only after the removal of the Governor when Pitt took charge as the Governor of Madras. Immediately after the removal of the Governor, Anacona was placed under arrest s it was feared that he would escape and seek refuge with the "Country Government" the several contending indigenous principalties and chieftains.

Anacona is stated to have forced merchants like Muta Chetty, Muttappa Chinnan, Annada Chetty to sell goodgrain to him at the rate of 40 pagodas when the going rate for the same quantity was 90 pagodas. Another merchant complained that the Dubash extorted Rs 12,000 form him in the form of Arcot ruppees and forced the same merchants to buy the silve rcoins back at the rate of Rs 310. The arbitrage on Silver coins of the East India Company and Arcot Ruppee was the cause of many speculative ventures and the Dubash engaged in this practice perhaps under the protection of James Macrae, the Governor. The Dubash took a cut from the silver that was brought to Madras for being minted into coins and from the records it appears that Macrae himself forced the merchants to buy a stock of gold taht he held. Often these extra legal or illegal extortions were accompanied by threat of cutting off the ear and lashing at the Market by peons specially appointed for this purpose. Petty despotism seems to have been the rule, the norm during the early days of the Company. Diamond merchants were deprived of their stones and were released only after the payment of a ransom of 8000 pagodas. The list goes on and in the end the Dubash had to pay 20,000 pagodas to the merchants who had brought the charges against him.

As for James Macrae he left India with 100,000 pagodas and arrived in Scotland back after 40 year absence. He used his huge fortune to set himself as a respectable burgess by presenting an equestrian statue of William III which still stands in Glasgow. During his last days inOffice, Macrae met Colim Campbell one of the promoters of the South Sea Company, a Stock Holding Company which traded in Slaves along with the Royal African Company. Excessive inflation of its stock value led to the collapse of the South Sea Bubble and Colin Campbell as stated in the record. "came to Madras to retrive his fortune".

The immense fortunes made in India, and in this case we have seen 100,000 pagodas in just four years goes to prove that even before the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the English East India Company had started despoiling India. Such studies are important as they expose the hollowness of post colonial approaches to Imperial History which is structured on Ideas, Ideologies and Identity.

Raya: Krshnadevaraya of Vijayanagara

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Raya:Krishnadevaraya of Vjayanagara
Srinivas Reddy
New Delhi: Jaggernaut, 2020

Raya Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara

Srinivasa Reddy, a scholar of South Asian Literature trained in USA has tried his hand at writing history after a fairly successful run as a trasnslator. His earlier work Giver of Worn Garlands was an excellent translation of the putative work attributed to the Tuluva ruler Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara. The present work presents itself as a historically informed biography of the ruler but in reality it is a readable but badly researched work mixing legend, popular tradition and even cinematic renditions to create a pastice of historical narrative. Of course he has come with the proper credentials displayed prominently on the dusk jacket. It is certainly "engaging" but is it "exemplary" is a differnt question altogether.

Vijayangara history is complex in that it self consciously procalimed a template of Statecraft that was predicated upon the negation of the disruptions wrought by the onset or invasions of the turushka. In fact the trope of destroying the turushka appears even in the inscriptions of Krishnadeva Raya and to ignore the underlying political ideology animating Vijayanagara statecraft is merely a surrender to the kind of identity politics India has seen in the years follwing Independence. Turushka meant Turk and did not imply a religious identity at all and to shy away from this issue on the grounds that it may be offensive to present day sensibilities of political correctness is not merely being anachronistic by historically inaccurate.When Vijayanagara began its slow but steady march toward Empire it projected its raison d'tre as the Restoration of Worship in temples destroyed by the turushka. The raids of Kafur and the Tughlaqs had resulted in a virtual collapse of the moral order. The language of Apoclypse is deployed in an early Copper Plate Inscription: "When the sun. Prataparudra set, the world was enveloped in the turushka darkness".

Srinivasa Reddy begins his narrative biography of Krishnadevaraya with the famous Hampe Inscription which was trasnlated by Eugene Hultzsch in Epigraphia Indica Vol I. Generally recognised as a danasasana, issued on the occasion of his coronation the Inscription states in its 11th verse that Krishnadeva Raya connquered the Chera, Chola, the proud Pandyas, the brave Turushka, the Gajapathi king and others. This claim of conquest of the Gajapathi or for that matter even victory over the Turushka is merely rhetorical, a statement of intent rather than of accomplishemt an Krishdevaraya took control over the Empire upon the death of his half brother, Vira Narashimha in 1509 and there is no evidence that he had participated in any major campaign with his fater Narasa Nayaka. Again there is no hstorical evidence to suggest that Gandikota, Vinnukonda and Nagarajakonda were suggested as likely targets of Vijayanagar acquisition by Narasa Nayaka. Srinivas Reddy cannot resist the temptation of including an intersting myth, story fable even cinema  dialogues. Thus he accepts the story of Vidyaranya ad his association with Harihara and Bukka even though there is compelling evidence that this myth came to the fore only in the decades after 1565 as shown by Hermann Kulke. A historian will not allow an intersting story to structure his narrative.

The most impressive part of the book are the chapters dealing with the conflict with the Gajapathi rulers of Orissa. Reddy keeps harping on the "low caste" status of Krishnadevaraya. He calls him "dasi putra". There is absolutely no historical evidence to show that caste perceptions in any way influeced the conflict. Gajapathi, Narapathi and Ashwapathi remained the trypych around which the polity of the medieval South Indian empire revolved. And the Gajpathi king himself came fom a dynasty of usurpers and so would not have thow such caste laden invective against Krishnadevaraya. It appears tht identity politics of today and caste laden social sciences inflused with identity politics makes such outlandish interpretations not only possible but academically rspectable. The fact is that such labels were unknown in the Vijayanagara period.

Krishnadevara raya presided over an Empire that was linguistically diverse, complex in terms of religious and sectarian composition and the social structure of the Vijayanagara polity was certainly stratified. However caste was still not the deciding factor as the very diversity of the Great Captains, the amaranayankara-s. demonstrates. Only one Historian has attempted a prosopographical study of Nayakas. Krishnadevaraya bore the biruda, Hindu raya Sutrranna or Sultan of HinduKings a title which underscores the tremendous influence of the Islamic political formations of the Deccan.

The book under review is certainly interesting. But its claim to be History can be contested.