The Social Landscape of Peddanaickenpet in Old Madras: Land, Power and Society

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The earliest Map of Peddanaikenpet

The abandonment of Armagon, as the pre emminent emporia for the trade of the Coromandel Coast by the East India Company within a mere 15 years after the establishment of the settlement and serach for a new site, a task accomplished by Francis Day and Codgan, has not been explanined adequately. From the records that survive, Armagon was doing well and its trade was flourishing. Except for some tension with the rulers of Golconda, it did not face any major threat and the pressure from Golconda followed the Company even to Madras. By 1639 the site, three miles broad along the Coromandel Coast had been bought and the Factory and Fort name for St George, the patron saint of Englnd was built. While the Governor and his Council and the Chief factors, agents and merchants lived within the Fort, the native poplation was clustered around the Fort walls and we can trace the Native settlement by follwing the fortunes of one important part of Old Madras: Peddanaikenpet. The Map of Madras illustrated above is a good place to start. The map was drawn by a Dutch cartographer whose brother was an employee of the East India company establishment at Madras, Hermann Moll. It was obviously drawn after the survey made by Pitt as the social composition of the settlement reflects the changes that took place durng the early part of the Eighteenth Century.

When the Fort was established around 1639, the popuaton of Armagon or at least the importnat weaving community, the kaikkolars migrated and were given lease over Company Land. We also have migrants coming in from San Thome, Pulicat and Triplicane. A socially diverse community grew up around the vicinity of the fort. In 1766 a large area of the Company land was assigned for the creation of two native settlements: Peddanaikenpet and Mutialpet. Interspersed in these settlemnts were large Gardens which were on 51 year lease or greater. In  the early days of the Company efforts were made to take over leased property but with mixed success. The topography of the area has changes considerable and it is difficult to imagine what Madras may have looked like during the days of the Company. Within the fort itself was ituated large structures which were imposing and though built with native Chunam other traditional material were European in execution and design. Here we have a fine example and is an illustration from the ink and pen sketches drawn by Gantz.

The sea front by Gatz c 1764

Since the whole area is now restricted it has not been possible for this Historian to search for traces of Eighteenth Century structures within the fort area. The most important part of the Fort was of course the Governor's Mansion and the Sea Gate which faced the Ocean and was heavily armed. Other sections of the fortifications included St Thomas Point, Half Moon, Fishing Point and there are references to a Choultry Gate that provided access to Peddanaikkenpet from the Fort. A River flowed around the City like a garland and though there is no trace of the River now, the Historical Documents give us some idea and in the Map given above (left) we have clear evidence. The Elambore River skirted the entire settlement, almost creating an Island whose location now is indispute due to several changes in Land Use over te past two centuries. Canals from the River fed water to Garden Houses and we have references to several Garden Houses. Streynsham Mastee established a Company Garden in Peddanaikkenpet in the land Langhorn had given to the Washermen of the company. Permission was sought and obtained for a "handsome structure" in which to receive "native envoys". This reception hall was located in the Island and Talboys Wheeler identified the site where the statue of Sir Thomas Munro stands today as the site where the reception hall/building stood.  Buckley's Garden was also part of Peddanaikkenpet.

Ekambareswara Temple

Malikeswara Temple, Peddanaikkenpet

The temple marked as Allingals Pagoda on the Map can be easily identified unlike some of the other temples found therein. It is the Ekambareswara Temple. Another important temple going back to the early days of the settlement, located in the area designated as Peddanaikkenpet was the Malikkeswara Temple. In some of the early records the temple figures as Malikarjurna Temple. And after the riots of 1652 and more particularly after the 1707 Rebellion of the right hand castes, this temple was assigned exclusively to the Left Hand and should there be any breach of the agreement the Right Hand would have to pay a fine of 12,000 pagodas.  The temples in Peddanaikkenpet were sites of immense tension and was the outcome of a society in change: the social and economic policies of the East India Company guided by its commercial interest favoured the weavig and mercantile castes and groups leading to cosiderable friction with groups having ascriptive rights over temple resources. There was another major temple situated in Pedanaikkenpet, the Chenna Keshava Perumal Temple. Unfortunately this important shrine was pulled down duing the French Attack and on the site of the temple stands the High Court of Madras.  Leading merchants who traded with the Company such as Sunku Rama, Bala Chetti, Kalavai Chetti and Kalasri Chetti and their dubashes lived inthis sector.

The organization of social space in the area followed the traditional Indian pattern with occupational segregation of habitation. Thus we have streets set aside for weavers, potters, garland makers and palenquin bearers etc'. Paupiah Brahmny who formed the ubject of an earlier blog was also an inhabitant of this settlemnt. A temple for Kalyana Varadaraja was also established. By and large theRight hand groups lived in Peddanaikenpettai while the Left hand in Mutialpettai. This distinction was sharply enforced intheEighteenth century but i the 19th as memories of earlier rivalries and tensions gradually receded the settlements became more inclusive. One feature that we notice is that Christian, Jewish and Armenian cemetries were all located in Peddanaikenpet.

A number of streets are named in the Records dealing withPeddanaikenpettai. Elambore Street, Peda Naick Street, Great Bazzar Street, River Street, and Elephant Street are some of the streets we come across. The Venetian traveller who visited India in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century lived in Peddanaikenpettai during the time when Pitt, the Governor, acquired the famous Pitts' Diamond. In the Map that I have given above there is a alrge Garden named Manucci's Garden obviously named after the Venetial jeweler and traveler who lived in Madras at that time. Cornelius Garden and Co Co Garden lay in the immediate vicinity of Nicolo's Mansion.

Peddanaikenpetai was quite a cosmopolitan settlement as we have the houses of Armenians, Jewish merchants and the English traders in this part of Old Madras. There are references to a large tomb constructed on Company lease land in this area, known as Rodrigues Tomb. This Jewish Merchant named Bartholomew Rodrigues died in 1692 and his tomb was constructed within his garden and the Company permitted that to happen. In 1711 the lease on his Property expired but the Company sold the site on condition that the Tomb be maintained. Unfortunately no sign of the structure now exits. It has been surmised that the Tomb may have been located west of the KachalesvaraTemple nearTucker's Church.

In order to have a better undestanding of Madras in the Eighteenth Century, its mostformative period, it is necessary for Historians and Archaeologists to come forward and study the Historical Documents, testimonies culled from Travellers' Accounts, Company Records both in the Egmore Archives and in London and make a more detailed analysis. I have shown that there is lot of work to do.

Social Conflict and Caste Warfare in Old Madras: Urban Space and the East India Company

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1733 Map after the Caste Survey by Governor Pitt

The Chronicles of Old Madras particularly the four volumes of Vestiges of Old Madras by D H Love, provide startling evidence of a series of violent social conflicts between the Right Hand and Left hand castes. The emphasis of historians has been largely on events that traspired during the Gvernorship of Richard Pitt starting from the the recitation of the Vinayaka adoration by the Right Hand caste before the temple of Vinayaka located on Devaraja Mudali Street.

The social and economic aspects of the Caste conflict, may be seen as an off shoot of the policies pursued by the Madras Administration rather than a sudden dramtic assertion of caste loyalties. We may dadd that the Eighteenth

The Vinayaka Temple at Devaraja Mudali St

Century violence was a continuation of a trend that began nealy a century earlier. When Madras was founded by the East India Company, weavers, painters, labouring folk, palanquin bearers were invited to settle in the City from areas as afar as Pullicat, San Thome, Armagon,Triplicane ect. Settlers came in from the outlying areas of the Bound Hedge such as Nungambakkam, Egmore, Puruswakkam and Trivottriur. And when the settlement was stablished the Right Hand and Left Hand Castes were given separate areas of the City fr their settlement. The Map enclosed above drawn after the Pitts' Settlment shows the urban space allocated to the caste in 1653 when AAron Baker was the Governor. The area around Mutialpet of George Town of present day Chennai was handed over to the Left Hand Castes and Peddunaikenpetta to the Right.'

Keshava Perumal Temple George Town

However, certain changes made in the procurement policies f the Company with regard to the purchase of Textiles created the immediate conditions for a major flare up between the two castes. Pitt, in consultaion with his Council, decided to change the system of procurement of Textiles for export from Madras. Hitherto, thetextiles were bought on behalf of the Company by middlemen who contracted the production and purchase of Textiles on behalf of the Company and weavers in Chindradipettai were under contract to produce textile like Chintz, Pallores, Calicoes and Pallores, for the Company and middle men belonging to the Right Hand Castes were mainly involved in this task.This system known as dadni or advance, was in the hands of rich merchants like Casa Verona, Sunka Chetty, Bala Chetty and others became enormously wealthy as a consequence of th near monopoly they enjoyed and the control over the weavers and their looms. The Company decided tha the weavers could bring their textiles to the Bazzar near the Sea Gate and the company will be in a position to buy the textiles directly. This change in policy was obviously to the advantage of textile merchants from the Chetty community to the disadvantage of those from the Commatti taders who lelonged to the Right Hand caste. A member of the Council, Fraser, seems to have championed the cause of the Right Hand communities and was consequently removed from the Council and sent back to England.

The immediate provocation for the Conflict was a provocation by the Right Hand castes who proceeded to the Vinayaka Temple located in the streets occupied by the Left and sand the Addoration of Vinayaka before the Temple. In normal circumstances this even may have gone un noticed. But tension was in the air over the changed procurement policies and there was a further complication caused by the Portuguese Administration in Goa making an attempt to take over the Fort by using its hold over parts of San Thome.The Right Hand Caste started rioting and attacked a Wedding Procession of the Left Hand community which was taking place in one of the disputed streets of Pedanaikenpettai. Apparently the violence was put down by the soldiers posted in the Fort. June 1707 saw the beginning of this cycle of social tension in Fort St, George.

After the outbreak of hostilities between the Two caste a feeble attempt was made to broker peace. The residents of both communities living in areas not belonging to their respective caste were order out and they wee told to sell their houses only to memberes of the caste entitle to live in that particula area. A stone inscription giving the details of the boundaries was set up and the Right Hand Castes took this to be a grevious infringemen of their liberty and dignity and dcided to desert the town and lve in San Thome and given the suspicious of the Catholics and the alledged intentions of the Portuguese this desertion was deeply resented. With the departure of the Right Hand Castes from madras the production of Cloth and Textiles needed for export fell rather sharply.

The Administration on the intevention of the Armenian Merchants gave time up to September 1707 for the return of the Right Hand castes from San Thome where hey had sought protection. The only concession given t the Right hand caste was the exclusivve right to their area of the Black Town. The Procurement Policy which was at the root of the conflict remained unchanged. Pitt blamed his suspended Council member Fraser for the instrangience of the Right and even made preparations fr an armed attack on San Thome to kill the rebels of the Right Hand caste. Fortunately Pitt was dissuaded from carrying out his disastrous plan by the Armenians wh acted as intermediaries in the dispute between the company and theRight Hand groups:"treacherous collusion with Right Hand Caste" was the accusation against Fraser.

The Right hand cates returned after Pitt issued a general pardon and the disput simmered on till 1717 when Governor Collet made certain important changes. A new Weavers settlement was established at Collet Pettai. The Commattis were henceforth forbidden to sing the adoration of Ganesha before the Chidari Pillaiyar now located in the Devaraja  Mudali Street of George Town.

The caste dispute that took a turn towards social polorization in early Eighteenth Century Madras stemmed from economic disputes triggered by changes in the procurment policies of the Company. It is also clear from the record that the company offcials had ested interest in different caste gropus as indeed was the case ith Fraser.

Strange Justice in Old Madras: Paupiah and Reddy Row as litigants and victims and the ConsolidatedFund of Arcot

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Sir Thomas Strange, Chief Justice of Madras

A street view of Fort St. George in the early 19th Century

The Nawab of Arcot and his debts seem rather quaint today. However in the secod half of the Eighteenth Century and in the first decade of the nineteenth, the scandal surroundinghis debts became the suff of high politics. The House of Commons debated about the debts, the Court of Directors and the Government of Madras were all deeply involved in the debates policies or possessed a vested interest as "creditors" in them. Edmund Burke made scathing attacks on the Company for alowing what he termed as "clandestne and collusive practices" between the awab, the Company Officials and the political establishment in England. He charecterised the Consolidated Fund of Arcot as a massive fraud both on the people of Englenad who paid for the Fund and the people of India who were cheated out of their livlihood and legitimate earning. One can certainly say that Burke was the original inventor of the famous Drain of Wealth theory which was propagated by Dadabhai Naoroji as the cause of the improverishment of India,

The most ironic aspect of the whole Scandal is that the only people who were ever convicted during the long years this scandal unfolded were two "natives", Indians who were punished for the cimes committed by Company Officials often colluding with the Governor of the day. George Pigot rrefused to play the game and was arrested by his Council and imprisoned and died in a prson located somewhere in Madras' St. Thomas Mount. Sir George Barlow though occupied with the Revolt of the Madras Army (see earlier blogs) was careful in placating the various interests involved in the huge scandal surrounding the Arcot Debts. What exactly is the origin of this debt and how did it assume such a gigantic propotion that at one point threatened to put an end to the Company or at least its pretentions of sovereignty. Burke in fact labeled the Company the "incubus of oppression" and if we study this tragic episode in the history of the Raj, we find that Burke was right.

The Nawab of Arcot, Mohhamad Ali of the Walajah family was an ally of the East India Company in its wars against the Mahrattas and the Mysore userpers, first Hyder Ali and later Tipu Sultan. He pledged support to the Company and promised a Cavalry force reaised for the purpose of fighting the wars of the Company. However the problems was finance and to finance the military project, Mohmmad Ali turned to the rich Delta of the Kaveri, the rice bowl of South India. The evenuse of this territory alone could help finance the wars of expansion and provide fiscal muscle to the emreging Carnatic Nawabdom. Unfortunately for the Nawab, Tanjare was under the Mharatta ruler Tulaji who was an ally of the Company. Tanjore was not part of the carnatic Pyanghat, the Nait of Mohammad Ali but a section of the Company officials colluded with theNawab and had the Rule of Tanjavur removed so that they could access the rich revenue of the Tanjore Kingdom. tulaji was removed and the Nawab was proclaimed the ruler of the Kingdom, The London Court of Directors ordered the restoration of the ruler Tulaji and to give effect to the order Lord Pigot was sent back to India on a second tour of duty as the Governor of Madras and he reached India in 1776 and in 1777 he was killed/died at the hands of those who supported he claims of the Nawab over those of Tulaji,

From this point onwars the tragedy of Arcot and Tanjore rivalry gets lot more murky. The Nawab of Arcot, who himself came to the throne by killing a young ruler decided to make quick money by issuing tanccuas or receipts for loans whih would be paid against exorbitant rate of interest from the prospective revenues of Tanjore.  This was a brilliant strategy on the part of the Nawab as he made the entire Company and its Madras and London officials acquire a vested interest in him and his political fortunes. A large number of speculators entered the market and Arcot Nawab's Revnue promisory notes became the hottest cake in the market. The rate of interest offered varied from 12 to 30 percent and it kept fluctuating according to the political fortunes of the Nawab'

Now enter Avadanum Paupiah and Reddy Row one a Niyogi Brahmin with roots in Nellore and the other a Mahratta brahmin, probably of Desheta background and both accused each other of trading forged bonds. By the end of the Eighteenth Century the Debts had mounted to 30 million pounds and it was well beyon the capaciy of the Madras Government to redeem the Bonds.Englishmen who worked for the Company like George Stratton and Paul Benfield made a killing by trading the Arcot Bonds. Like Junk Bonds of the Twentieth Century, the Arcot Bonds circualted under the shadow of expectation that money lay at the end of the rainbow. Once matters reached London, there was pressure from the creditors on the British Exchequer to honour the bonds issued to privae creditors by a Nawab who was not in possession of the revenue that he assigned to his creditors. As long as the American War of Independence occupied the English mind during the Government of North, the clamour over the debts was muted. The ministry of Lord Rockingham tried to intevene in the affairs of the Company using the Debt as the fine end of the wedge to prise the tightly organised web of profit and patronage that the Company had become by then. But it was defeated and the Fox Ministry tried to bring in the Regulating Act and other measure. Except for appointing Commissioners for the Carnatic Debt the Fox Regime did little.

In the Elections of 1784 Fox and his Policies were soundly rejected and Pitt came to power and more than 30 "India Interest" MPs were elected who ensure that a sum of 5 million pounds is set aside for the liquidation of the Carnatic Debts. Now came the more difficult question of recognizing the bonds that were legal and those which were forged. A Commission of 3 was appointed to ascertain the genuine bonds and identify the forged ones. This Commission became a battlefied of opposing interests: Paupiah and Reddy Row supported different claimants and both had powerful supporters. When Paupiah was convicted by the Commission for forgery on the basis of evidence supplied by his nemesis Reddy Row, he promptly filed a counter suit against Reddy Row in the Mayors Court. Reddy Row had the support of George Barlow and Paupiah the support of a number of Company officials who made a huge forture speculating on the funds. Barlow retaliated by punishing all the officials involved in the procecution of Reddy Row. The eagerness with which the vested interests protected its creatures is worth noticing. Similarly when Holland became the Governor Paupiah who had become very powerful by then engineered the fall of the President of the Board of Revnue who opposed the Betel and Tobacco Monopoly enjoyed by one of the friends of dubash; In the end, Paupiah was brought to trial on the charges of forgery of the very bonds that the Three Man Commission had declared valid and Sis Thomas Strange found his guilty and was sentenced to 3 year prison term. He died in 1809.

The Scandal of Empire as one post modernist Social Science man has termed is mch more than a scandal. It was a crime and the only person who understood the depth of depravity that the Debt Scandal represented was Edmund Burke' Like the Slave Compensation Commission of 1834, the Arcot Debt represents public charge for prvate greed and many English officials returned home as Nabobs thanks to their ill gotten wealth in India and the only ones who paid the price for British greed were tow hapless Indians.

Lord George Pigot, the Nawab of Arcot and the Pillage of the South India PART I

i

Lord George Pigot (1719-1777)

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

PART I

There is a curious episode in the History of Old Madras that still remains a mystery. The death of a Governor of the Presidency, at the hands of his jailors who happened to be members of his own Council. Historians have neglecte this event largely because they felt that the events surrounding the deposition and subsequent death of George Pigot is so murky that it is best left to linger in that NeverNever Lnad between Hstorical Reality and imagination, The perpetrators would have gotten away with the crime but for the fact that the Governor's brother Sir Hugh Pigot, who comanded the British Forces at Bumker Hill, was a Member of the Hous of Commons and demanded a trial of all those connected or associated with the removal of the Governor. Sir Hugh Pigot was supported by Edmund Burke, the great Stateman of  the eighteenth century. The trial of George Straton anf John Call the two main conspirators was presided over by the Jusrist whose name is remembered till this day for the Judgement he gave in the Somersett Case: Lord Mansfield. Though they were tried for the capital offence of murder, they were acquitted of the charge of murder but were convicted of other henious offences and were ade to pay 1000 punds to the famiy of Lord Pigot.

Pondicherry after capture by the EIC

George Pigot came to India as a young lad of 17 and worked his way from the lowly position of a writer to the position of Governor of Madras Presidency. He served in madras and in Fort St, David and by all accounts he was an efficient administrator. From 1776 till his elevation to the Governorship of the Presidency, Pigot organized the "warehousing" ie, the manufacture and acqusition of Cloth and their coleection in the warehouses of the Comapany located in Fort St, George. Apart from textiles and other kinds of merchandise, Pigot was also involved in military duties as he had command over both Tamil and Portuguese having spent almost his entire adult life in this region. He became the Governor in 1755 and the first major challenge he face was the invasion of Dupliex, the French Governor of Pondicherry. He defended the city of Madras and took the battle right to the door step of Dupliex when he ordered Sir Eyre Coote to capture Pondicherry. The town was captured and raised to the ground. A contemporary print shows the total destruction of the town. The fortification walls first erected in 1654 by the Dutch were pulled down and the East India Company had planned to keep Pondicherry. However, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle forced the Company to return the town.

The Carnatic Wars caused huge loss of life and property in the region and essentially had three major protagonists: The Nawab of Arcot, the infamus Mohammad Ali, the Ruler of Mysore, first Hyder Ali and later his son, Tipu Sultan and the East India Company. Hoewever a large number of mnor actor crowded the stage and one of them was Tulaji the King of Tanavur and a host of smaller rulers who are known as Palaiyakkararars of Polygars, particularly in the dry region of the extrme south of the Peninsula where the name Kattaboman still resonates. The East India Company, at least at this point in time, preferred to clock its territorial and political claims behind a fascade of legitimacy derived from the pre British political order and hence the Nawab of Carnatic as the representative of the Nizam who in turn was an appointee of the Mugh ruler of Delhi, was vital to the designs and ambitions of the Company.

(Will be continued in Part II)