Commentary on
William Logan’s ‘Malabar Manual’
VED from VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS
Photos and pictures of the Colonial times
It is foretold! The torrential flow of inexorable destiny!
There are many pictures in circulation as of now, depicting scenes from the English Colonial times. In most of them, the natives are seen in very wretched conditions. This is then taken as a proof that under the English rule, the natives of the subcontinent were in wretched conditions.
Actually the analysis of the pictures is done in a totally erroneous manner. The pictures that is thus shown are the real conditions of the lower-placed populations of the subcontinent as seen by the English officials. It is these persons who were slowly placed on a platform for improvement. However, when doing this, the English officials had to face the wrath and antipathy of the higher classes of the subcontinent.
The next mischievous pictures are those that show good quality households and other buildings owned by the English officials in British-India, and the missionary buildings in the native kingdoms.
Actually the great quality seen in them is the natural quality of the English language ambience. The English dressing standards, though simple, was beyond the conceptions of a lower caste man or women in the subcontinent. For, they stood under the weight of a number of social layers pressing down from above.
What is missing in all these kinds of pictorial depictions were the pictures of the higher castes and classes of the subcontinent. Their supreme position in the land cannot be understood by merely looking at their dresses. For instance, when a big man wears a mundu or dothi, there are hidden social codes of ‘respect’ and derogation encrypted in them. Just by looking at a man wearing a Mundu, one cannot take up the understanding that he is a non-entity or a nondescript man. He would very well be a most powerful feudal lord.
And by looking at a tiled house of a landlord, it would be quite foolish to say that he is poor. For, there would be an immensity of dependents of his who live in thatched huts, with bare conveniences.
The fact is that if an English household were living near them, the whole social system would change, by the very sight of the Englishmen and women standing, conversing, walking &c. with a totally different bearing. For, such a higher stature human body-language was not commonly seen in the subcontinent. Just viewing the English native of those times was a high-content education in human potential enhancement.
These are things which insipid history textbooks written by equally dullard Indian academicians would not dare to mention.
Now, we come to the various picture of White men and women in forest scenes showing them having killed or shot dead some wild animal.
There are multiple issues in these pictures. For one thing, there might not be enough evidence that these men and women in a specific picture were from England or Great Britain. For, there were other White populations from Continental Europe also nicely enjoying the secure conditions provided the English rule.
Even before the secure installing of the English rule, the French, Italians, Portuguese etc. did also do all these things. These white people did fight on the side of the ‘freedom fighters of India’ against the English.
Next items for scrutiny would, did these shootings take place inside British-India or in the native-kingdoms. The native kings and other ‘Indian princes’ were involved in the shady business of inviting native-Brits to their kingdoms and conducting wildlife shooting expeditions.
There is another wider aspect to the inspected. Some rich people from India go to Britain and take their guns and go in for shooting the animals and birds there. What would happen?
It is very much possible that they would be arrested or restrained or taken into custody and sent back home. However, instead of that, if the native officials in Britain invite such people from outside and give them all encouragement to shoot any animal they like, then the blame cannot be placed on the outsiders.
Now, this was what was restrained in British-India. The forest department in British-India would have stood for protecting the forests and its resources, while in the native-kingdoms, it would have been scene of inducing the foreign guests to take part in such forest parties, as a sort of native entertainment. And in later years, the whole blame would be placed on England. And not on the native kingdoms.
1. My aim
5. The first impressions about the contents
7. An acute sense of not understanding
8. Entering a terrible social system
9. The doctoring and the manipulations
10. What was missed or unmentioned, or even fallaciously defined
11. NONSENSE
12. Nairs / Nayars
15. Content of current-day populations
16. Nairs / Nayars
18. The terror that perched upon the Nayars
20. Exertions of the converted Christian Church
23. Keralolpathi
24. About the language Malayalam
25. Superstitions
26. Misconnecting with English
27. Feudal language
29. Piracy
30. CASTE SYSTEM
31. Slavery
32. The Portuguese
33. The DUTCH
34. The French
35. The ENGLISH
36. Kottayam
37. Mappillas
38. Mappilla outrages against the Nayars and the Hindus
40. What is repulsive about the Muslims?
41. Hyder Ali
42. Sultan Tippu
43. Women
45. Ali Raja
46. Kolathiri
47. Kadathanad
48. The Zamorin and other apparitions
49. The Jews
50. SOCIAL CUSTOMS
51. Hinduism
52. Christianity
53. Pestilence, famine etc.
54. British Malabar versus Travancore kingdom
55. Judicial
56. Revenue and administrative changes
57. Rajas
58. Forests
59. Henry Valentine Conolly
60. Miscellaneous notes
61. Culture of the land
62. The English efforts in developing the subcontinent
63. Famines
64. Oft-mentioned objections
65. Photos and pictures of the Colonial times
66. Payment for the Colonial deeds
67. Calculating the compensation