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The recent insstance of police brutality in Tuthukodi, in which a father and son, Jebraj and Bennix were brutally tortured by the Tamil Nadu police leading to their death has rightly drawn widespread condemnation and the President ot the State Unit of the BJP rightly stated that such crimes cannot be tolerated. Coming as it did within days of the killing of George Flyod in USA which led to widespread loting and rioting in which around 20 Black lives were lost dd lead to a lot of questioning by the public. Is this the only case of Police brutality. No. Is this a unique case. No. Will such crimes be repeated. Yes. I am reminded of the classic line in the film Casablanca in which the Police Officer, Renault, on the orders of the Germans closes down the Cafe Rick's saying. "I am shocked, shocked that gambling in going on here" even as he pockets his daily bribe. Liberal posturing will not really help. And History shows that brutality is built into the very system.
Policing in Madras has its roots in the pre conquest era when vilages appointed talaiyari from the dominant caste to function as watch and ward of the village, urnattam. He ensured that there was no theft in his village as he had to compensate the victim in case of theft. After the East India Company took control it added its own flavour to this ancient office by appointing the peddanaik, to function as the head of a rudimentary police force with around 50 peons under him. His methods were crude as we know from the Vestiges of Old Madras. Beating, Mutilations, burning and Scarring were the general practices and since the Company Gowdown was under his charge the Governors generally turned a Nelson's eye to his many inquities. And these practices continued after the introduction of the Ryotwai settlement when the Police and Revenue functions were combined and the revenue officials at the local level like the shretidar, the amildar, the karnum were vested with power to collect the land tax or kisht.
Complaints about the use of torture to extract the land tax began reaching London, the headoffice of the East India Company and trouble was kicked up by two MPs from the House of Commons: Hon,ble Blackett and Hon.ble Donby Seymour. Though the Mutiny of 1857 had not broken out yet, Britain was going though a phase when it was wallowing in Moral Righteousness. Slavery had been abolished and the Bittons celebrated it as a gret moral achievement forgetting the fact that they practice Slave Trade and got rich by that trade for 300 years. Similarly these two Liberal MPs started a campaign in London, and the as now, Human Rights abuses, real or imagined made good copy. "Torture in Madras is universal, systematic and habitual" they thundered in the House of Commons forcing the Government of the day to institute what historians now call the Torture Commission which gave its Report in 1856 to Lord Harris, the Governor of Madras Presidency. Donby Seymour was an earnest member f the India Reform Society, a whig outfit that beleived that British rule was necessay to uplift the benighted heathns to a state of tolerable civility.
The Composition of the Torture Commission was rather strange' It included J B Norton, the Correspondent of an influential English periodical published from Madras, the Atheneaum. He was a vigorous and animated critic of the Madras Government and Hon ble Seymour collected all the information about police excesses from him when he visited India.
The Chief Magistrate of Madras E F Elliot and H Stokes, a Civil Servant were the other two members. As per the termes of reference it was free to call records, investigate revenue and police records, call witness and take statements on oath and after 2 years they presented their findings in a Report of nearly 469 pages. Ufortunately this valuable piece of documentation exists only in the madras Archives. As theu themselves stated, the "records of every Court and public office was thrown opento them". The Commission did a superb job in documenting the various types of excesses that were committed by the police and Tamil nadu Police of today is in good company. Most of the complaints were based on cases heard by the Foujdari Adalat, the Criminal Court set up as part of the judicial reforms carried out by the Pitts India Bill.
Wide publicity was given about the Torture Commission and within a mere three months 1959 complaints were received by the Commission in Madras. Some were in the venacular language and Elliot was well versed in both Tamil and Telugu and so could provide ready translations of the petitions. The published Report has reproduced some of the petitions and it will be ectasy for the post colonial woke liberal subaltern "historian" to read them. Oppression, Torture, Racism, Indian Lives Dont Matter ect ect can all be read into that Report, But that would be disingenous as we cannot read our politics into the past. Though the Torture Commission was not a judicial commission empowered to punish or redress the complaint, it went about its job in a highly professional and unbiased manner.
The Commission was not without humour. At one place, writing about the Nattanmakkaran-s, the Commission observed that they carry the instruments of torture as "insignia of their office" and they go on to document the various kinds of torture routinely practiced by the police in the mid nineteenth Century adras Presidency and we can say that with the advent of Democracy nothing has changed except the person involeved. Sir Thomas Munro who introduced the Ryotwari Settlement was aware that many "irregularities are used". The Fort St George authorities chose to ignore the compalints as their masters i London were only interested in the Revenue.
Torture was routinely aplied to extract revenuse, the Land tax and the corrupt local official,with impunity could use torture to extract bribes as well. The commission found that "personal violence (is) practiced by the native revene official and police officials throughout the Presidency. Of the ABC Districts or Ceded Districts--Ananthapur, Bellary and Cuddapah--the last provided the maximum number of complaints. But we cannot infer that things were better in the other two districts. In Bellary,the entire local administration and police was in the hands of Deshasta Marattas who perhaps managed their areas with less gratuitous violence. As a policy measure the Commission recommended the separation of Revenue and Police functions. What were the tortures used that were documented by the Commission. I give a few examples:
Raghava Ayyangar complained that kittee was applied on his thighs and fingers till bood started oozing. This was a thumb screw appied to delicate parts of the body.
Thambi Mudali from Arcot a ryot was tortured by making him stand in the hot sun for several hours with a huge stone on his back. This was the most common form of torture,
Venkaiah another ryot was flogged till his back was red with blood and the "switches" frayed.
Venkata Chella Raju and his son were tortured for a bribe of Rs 10. The father died as a result of his torture.
Sabhapathi Pillai complained that his heads and legs were died together and he was made to stand in the hot sun
Nallandi Naik, his wife and son were arrested on suspicion of being "thieves" as they belonged to a nomadic community. They were tied to a tamrind tree and beaten till the woman died of her injuries.
The Report makes depressing reading. But read we must as it provides insight into the mind of the Englisg elite of the time. Interestingly the official English attidude is clear. These uncivilized practices were handed down from the "less civilized government" the preceded us and like a true born liberal conclude that "under s (meaning the civilized whites) torture is steadily declining in "extent and severity"/
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| The notorious Head and Foot stock |
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| Documents that reached the Commission |
The recent insstance of police brutality in Tuthukodi, in which a father and son, Jebraj and Bennix were brutally tortured by the Tamil Nadu police leading to their death has rightly drawn widespread condemnation and the President ot the State Unit of the BJP rightly stated that such crimes cannot be tolerated. Coming as it did within days of the killing of George Flyod in USA which led to widespread loting and rioting in which around 20 Black lives were lost dd lead to a lot of questioning by the public. Is this the only case of Police brutality. No. Is this a unique case. No. Will such crimes be repeated. Yes. I am reminded of the classic line in the film Casablanca in which the Police Officer, Renault, on the orders of the Germans closes down the Cafe Rick's saying. "I am shocked, shocked that gambling in going on here" even as he pockets his daily bribe. Liberal posturing will not really help. And History shows that brutality is built into the very system.
Policing in Madras has its roots in the pre conquest era when vilages appointed talaiyari from the dominant caste to function as watch and ward of the village, urnattam. He ensured that there was no theft in his village as he had to compensate the victim in case of theft. After the East India Company took control it added its own flavour to this ancient office by appointing the peddanaik, to function as the head of a rudimentary police force with around 50 peons under him. His methods were crude as we know from the Vestiges of Old Madras. Beating, Mutilations, burning and Scarring were the general practices and since the Company Gowdown was under his charge the Governors generally turned a Nelson's eye to his many inquities. And these practices continued after the introduction of the Ryotwai settlement when the Police and Revenue functions were combined and the revenue officials at the local level like the shretidar, the amildar, the karnum were vested with power to collect the land tax or kisht.
Complaints about the use of torture to extract the land tax began reaching London, the headoffice of the East India Company and trouble was kicked up by two MPs from the House of Commons: Hon,ble Blackett and Hon.ble Donby Seymour. Though the Mutiny of 1857 had not broken out yet, Britain was going though a phase when it was wallowing in Moral Righteousness. Slavery had been abolished and the Bittons celebrated it as a gret moral achievement forgetting the fact that they practice Slave Trade and got rich by that trade for 300 years. Similarly these two Liberal MPs started a campaign in London, and the as now, Human Rights abuses, real or imagined made good copy. "Torture in Madras is universal, systematic and habitual" they thundered in the House of Commons forcing the Government of the day to institute what historians now call the Torture Commission which gave its Report in 1856 to Lord Harris, the Governor of Madras Presidency. Donby Seymour was an earnest member f the India Reform Society, a whig outfit that beleived that British rule was necessay to uplift the benighted heathns to a state of tolerable civility.
The Composition of the Torture Commission was rather strange' It included J B Norton, the Correspondent of an influential English periodical published from Madras, the Atheneaum. He was a vigorous and animated critic of the Madras Government and Hon ble Seymour collected all the information about police excesses from him when he visited India.
The Chief Magistrate of Madras E F Elliot and H Stokes, a Civil Servant were the other two members. As per the termes of reference it was free to call records, investigate revenue and police records, call witness and take statements on oath and after 2 years they presented their findings in a Report of nearly 469 pages. Ufortunately this valuable piece of documentation exists only in the madras Archives. As theu themselves stated, the "records of every Court and public office was thrown opento them". The Commission did a superb job in documenting the various types of excesses that were committed by the police and Tamil nadu Police of today is in good company. Most of the complaints were based on cases heard by the Foujdari Adalat, the Criminal Court set up as part of the judicial reforms carried out by the Pitts India Bill.
Wide publicity was given about the Torture Commission and within a mere three months 1959 complaints were received by the Commission in Madras. Some were in the venacular language and Elliot was well versed in both Tamil and Telugu and so could provide ready translations of the petitions. The published Report has reproduced some of the petitions and it will be ectasy for the post colonial woke liberal subaltern "historian" to read them. Oppression, Torture, Racism, Indian Lives Dont Matter ect ect can all be read into that Report, But that would be disingenous as we cannot read our politics into the past. Though the Torture Commission was not a judicial commission empowered to punish or redress the complaint, it went about its job in a highly professional and unbiased manner.
The Commission was not without humour. At one place, writing about the Nattanmakkaran-s, the Commission observed that they carry the instruments of torture as "insignia of their office" and they go on to document the various kinds of torture routinely practiced by the police in the mid nineteenth Century adras Presidency and we can say that with the advent of Democracy nothing has changed except the person involeved. Sir Thomas Munro who introduced the Ryotwari Settlement was aware that many "irregularities are used". The Fort St George authorities chose to ignore the compalints as their masters i London were only interested in the Revenue.
Torture was routinely aplied to extract revenuse, the Land tax and the corrupt local official,with impunity could use torture to extract bribes as well. The commission found that "personal violence (is) practiced by the native revene official and police officials throughout the Presidency. Of the ABC Districts or Ceded Districts--Ananthapur, Bellary and Cuddapah--the last provided the maximum number of complaints. But we cannot infer that things were better in the other two districts. In Bellary,the entire local administration and police was in the hands of Deshasta Marattas who perhaps managed their areas with less gratuitous violence. As a policy measure the Commission recommended the separation of Revenue and Police functions. What were the tortures used that were documented by the Commission. I give a few examples:
Raghava Ayyangar complained that kittee was applied on his thighs and fingers till bood started oozing. This was a thumb screw appied to delicate parts of the body.
Thambi Mudali from Arcot a ryot was tortured by making him stand in the hot sun for several hours with a huge stone on his back. This was the most common form of torture,
Venkaiah another ryot was flogged till his back was red with blood and the "switches" frayed.
Venkata Chella Raju and his son were tortured for a bribe of Rs 10. The father died as a result of his torture.
Sabhapathi Pillai complained that his heads and legs were died together and he was made to stand in the hot sun
Nallandi Naik, his wife and son were arrested on suspicion of being "thieves" as they belonged to a nomadic community. They were tied to a tamrind tree and beaten till the woman died of her injuries.
The Report makes depressing reading. But read we must as it provides insight into the mind of the Englisg elite of the time. Interestingly the official English attidude is clear. These uncivilized practices were handed down from the "less civilized government" the preceded us and like a true born liberal conclude that "under s (meaning the civilized whites) torture is steadily declining in "extent and severity"/
