01. Discussing Travancore

02. Explaining America

03. Selective disparagement

04. Back to Travancore

05. A goldmine called government service

06. Atrophying the system

07. Parameters of personal opinion

08. A digression into a story

Discussing Travancore

Now, there is this question. Wasn’t it a good thing that the independent status of Travancore was demolished by the Indian government? Well, it is not an easy thing to answer. For, the population that came into existence after the takeover by India are the present-day occupants of the place. To make a total assessment of whether the deed was good or bad, one needs to compare the present population there with another population that would have come up there, had the Travancore nation been allowed to exist independently. Only by taking a comparative look at the states of these two peoples, can one say for sure if the joining of India had improved the nation and its people.

This theme takes us to the history of a particular person who I believe did purposefully aim to create an improvement in the lives of the people of Travancore. However, momentous historical displacements initiated by a fool in England more or less made him seem like a villain. The person I am referring to is Sir. CP Ramaswamy, the erstwhile Diwan of Travancore. I do not know much about him other than what has been mentioned about him by his detractors. What impressed me in the various things said negatively about him was the claim that he was trying to bring in an American Model of administration in Travancore. It was quite impressive in that I discerned that the perfectly swindled people of Travancore had no idea what this meant. The paradox lies in the fact that there would be many persons in current-day Travancore who would to go the extreme of simply escaping to the US if given a miniscule of chance.

Usually the communist leaders make a lot of noise about ‘American Imperialism’. However, the content of what this America did stand for was never mentioned nor understood. Here, I need to digress to what America means. The Americans themselves have a very stupid idea about what the United States of America is.

Explaining America

Negatively-speaking people including shallow historians mention it as a nation that was build up by exploiting and misusing the native Red Indians by the people of Europe. Here itself there is a lot of misunderstandings. This general idea has been many times used as a powerful point against the British. However, it is a very confusing point. Europeans cannot be identified with the British, if one were to study the British antiquity closely. Great Britain was a small island that stood quite close to the continent of Europe (actually only 22 kms from the shores of France). However, it was the place that withstood the assault of European raiders, attackers and besiegers for more than 1000 years. So to identify Great Britain with European actions is actually a misleading theme.

The next issue is that the United States of America is not a European creation, but a creation of British people. What has to be mentioned and clearly understood is that the American continent was ravaged by Spanish and Portuguese Conquistadors for less than 300 years. The Red Indians were mercilessly subordinated and destroyed by them. {The reason for why this happened could be traced to the Red Indian native languages. However, I cannot take that up for discussion here}.

It was the coming of the English that more or less that gave some respite to the severely dismantled Red Indians. Even though the Englishmen who went into the West were to face the brunt of the pent-up Red Indian antipathy, the English government at home was set on protecting the traditional rights of the Red Indians. This was enforced by the creation of Reservations for the Red Indians where the colonising people had limited rights of entry. It may be seen that the British were quite lenient in the way they gave a definite right to the Red Indians. It must be stressed this was totally different from what the Spanish and Portuguese invaders gave them. And possibly more than was extended by the Red Indians themselves to those groups among themselves who they subordinated or dominated.

Selective disparagement

In all historical evaluations, one needs to use a comparative stance. In a land where everyone are killing animals by the halal method of slaughter (a terrible mindboggling method of killing animals for food, in which the animal is literally made to suffer for a long period), one group says that killing animals for food should be done humanely. Now, imagine that after a few centuries, many such animals on this earth get the ability to learn English, use computers, drive cars and read English classics.

Looking back at their own history, they should not put their full focus on the group that did not use the halal method of killing and go on screaming, ‘Oh, they killed us for food!’ This statement is a stark stupid one, for it simply ignores the huge mass of human population that killed the animals then in a terrible manner. Moreover the word, ‘us’ also has not much of a meaning. The killed animals are not the same as the later age English speaking, computer savvy, car driving and English classic reading beings. The latter beings are those who should be grateful to the section of the human race that developed them to this state of intellectual elevation, wherein they can identify themselves with the higher beings.

Now, coming back to the thread, I want to categorically state that in spite of tremendous claims of being different from England, the actuality is that what the United States of America experimented with and also worked with, was English historical experiences and the tremendous amount of personal liberty, dignity and equality that lies embedded in the English language. Even the claim of there being a different version of English, called American English is just the wayward mental claims of silly and shallow scholars, who abound everywhere. The fact remains the essential codes of communication that is there in the US English is more or less the same thing that is there in pristine English.

However, with a lot of uneducated persons barging into English and creating a cacophony there, the quality of English there has suffered. Yet, instead of admitting that the uneducated persons of US has despoiled English, the silly persons who have barged inside and installed claims on US antiquity have managed to declaim that they have created a new language. The fact is that the difference in English between Pristine English (England) and the US English is so little that it cannot be mentioned as different. For, the fact is that if I can understand the accent and words of BBC, then I can very well understand the same in VOA and CNN (US).

At the same time, some fifteen years back, the Malayalam spoken in interior Calicut wouldn’t be understood beyond a distance of 150 kilometres south. If this be the case, what is this great difference that the US claims to have created in their English? When I was a child, I was quite aware of persons who were not properly educated in English using a particular kind of spelling for English words. For example, these persons would be using the spelling COLOR for colour. Flavour would be FLAVOR and such. Now, later in life I understood that this uneducated version of English spelling is identifiable with American English.

The Founding Fathers of the US were men who were quite well-learned in English, and their scholarship and profundity in English literature could be indisputable. It is this profundity that they encrypted into the US Constitution.

The basic stance of English that all citizens are of equal dignity and stature is there in the pristine English of England. That is the basic social communication tenet of the US also. However, the newcomers to the US from other nations, who literally ran out of their own stifling national and social features, are not willing to concede this.

Even though these persons escaped from their native nations and wouldn’t want to return to be the citizens of their native nation, they express a disdain for British contributions. This is only a pointer to their own inferiority complex with regard to their own national accomplishments. They are ready to accept the fact that the people from Europe had ravaged the American and African continents, in a sly manner to encase the British also into this definition. However the fact remains that Great Britain is not a synonym of Europe, but rather an antonym.

In the American civil war that led to its break from Great Britain, most of the Red Indian groups stood by the English.

Back to Travancore

Now coming back to Travancore, Sir CP Ramaswamy wanted to bring in an American Model administration. Well, what could that have meant? I do not know. However, it could only mean a slow shift to English social communication. Otherwise any sane man can understand that it is impossible to bring in an English system of administration in a Malayalam ambience. However, it is quite easy to mislead the people. The communist revolutionaries and also the small-time congress leadership took up the issue. It was naturally a competition between the communists and the congress, as to how to make a better use of an idea that could be easily misinterpreted.

Slogans, which are the life and blood of revolutions in feudal language social systems, were soon made to the tune of ‘Throw the American Model into the Arabian Sea!’ Americanmodel arabikkadalil! Well, the fact is that the communists have made a goldmine out of the American imperialism over the years. The Congressmen have made the same with their passionate reference to how they made the British run for cover!

However, the fact remains that if one looks dispassionately at the historical events, it would be seen that it is possible that it was Sir CP who had a genuine aim to improve the people. The Congress leaders and the Communist leaders send their children to Great Britain or to the United States of America, after they make money here, to escape from here and to become citizens in the very nations which they decry.

Well, the fact is that all this is pure deceit. Cheating of their followers, the people and the nation! I have heard that about one communist leader who had been the chief minister of Kerala. His greatest achievement as a political leader includes the fact that he could compulsorily change all the English names of the local places into Malayalam, when he became the Chief Minister. Another accomplishment of his was his ability to get the government officials a lot of undue financial benefits. I am told that his son is in the US; the very nation he attacked in most of his speeches.

Now, why couldn’t Sir CP make the people understand the benefits that he was trying to bring in? Well, the issue is complicated by the fact that there were low castes who were not allowed to get government employment, above that of the menial work. Now, how could he get to cure it? Well, it is not an easy issue. It is connected to securing the efficiency, quality and calibre of the government machinery. It is not just a matter of saying, ‘From now on everyone can be government employees!’

For in feudal languages, a government job is not a job, but a social position. It is literally cutting and pasting a lower caste man into a higher caste position. There are many issues involved. The whole thing is complicated by the fact that everyone speaks in Malayalam, in which the very using of a name of another person by a lower person can induce homicidal mania in the affected person! I am not speaking in an allegorical manner. I am being downright factual. Murder can take place, unless there is a very crude police machinery, with more maniacal powers, to dissuade it.

The truth is that just after the nation was amalgamated with India, the quality of administration went down. One very aged businessman, who was running a laboratory chemical distribution business in Trivandrum, once told me,

‘My first experience with being an Indian was this. When I entered my business place one day, I saw one man loitering inside, looking closely at every nook and corner. When I asked him, what he was doing there, he identified himself as an Inspector from the Fire Department. He asked me as to whether we had this and that things in place. When I told him that I did not, he immediately threatened to initiate prosecution charges on me, in a very crude manner. He simply wanted money, and when it was later paid to him in his office, there were no charges placed on me’.

Well, I can’t say for sure what the quality of administration was before the nation joined India. I can recount this story that I have inserted into my earlier book: MARCH of the EVIL EMPIRES: ENGLISH versus the FEUDAL LANGUGES. I heard it in Travancore area around 1980:

A goldmine called government service

One man from a noble family went to the King and asked for a job. The King, taking into consideration his family status, asked him what job he could do. After hearing it, he could not find anything suitable for a person with no other personal qualification other than his family name. On being pestered by the man for a job, the King just said sarcastically, “What job can I give you? The only thing you can do is to count the waves.” Immediately on hearing this, the man jumped up and said that this job would be enough. And pay is not important, only the job is required.

The job was formally given to him. He immediately went to the harbour, and put up a board of Office of the Chief Wave Counter of the Sovereign of Travancore. He posted a few people to do the counting.

Now, when the ships started moving, these people, who naturally became ‘officers’, went and ordered the ships to stop moving. When enquired why, they said, “You have to get the permission of the Chief Wave Counter.”

When the Captains of the sea faring vessels approached the Chief Counter with meek obsequiousness, they were informed that when the ships and other boat moved across the waves, the waves became cut, thereby distorting the counting. So, all ship movement was to cease during such and such time of the day. If there was any hurry to move, then they have to pay a penalty for causing the government so much trouble and expenditure.

Actually, this could be a fine reflection of what is known as government in most of the feudal language countries. Yet, the people subside and survive, because they are born with ingenuity; not to reform, but to rhyme with the system. So, it may be said that in these countries, the people survive, not due to the efforts of the government, but in spite of the government.

Atrophying the system

Travancore public service was corrupt to the core. That is what Travancore State Manual testifies. Now, about the larger question of allowing entry to lower castes to government jobs. What has to be done? There is a gross injustice in that a major part of the population had no rights to be government officials. However, such thoughts of every member of the population having a natural right to be part of the administration were really a new concept that disseminated from the British ruled areas outside this nation.

However, in the British areas, this concept was strictly done on a filtered basis by which only people of real inner elevation through English education and deep profundity in that subject could become officers of the administration. The others had to remain as clerks. This brought in a focus on English qualities, of the right of precedence, civility to the common man, fast processing of official files, places of conveniences for the members of the public to relax etc.

Now, implementing a blanket change of the centuries old social system without anyone of quality to: control the intake into the bureaucracy, filter out on the basis of certain elevated standards, train the codes of behaviour to the common man, impose English standards etc. was actually a national suicide. However, once the nation amalgamated into India, these things do not have any more value, for the erstwhile nation becomes a miniscule part of the huge landmass of India. There is no one and no way to think about maintaining a higher quality or at least maintaining the erstwhile quality of the place.

Parameters of personal opinion

The question raised here cannot be answered from the perspective of a person who is part of the new system. For, his perspective will definitely be stained by his own achievements in the new system. A person who has gained from the new system will only need to eulogise the changes. It will be just like asking a black man in the US being asked as to whether the cessation of segregation inside that nation was good or bad. It is more or less certain that his stance would be that it has been good. Otherwise where will his position be? However that is not the way to see things.

A digression into a story

I once had this very curious experience. Once I was asked by a particular department Inspector grade (‘officer’ grade Inspector, not something like a state ‘Health’ Inspector), to give him our jeep for a particular official trip for himself and his friend, a Factory Inspector. The former was associated to me in two different manners, one personal link, second as my own business-connected-department Inspector.

Since I was free and wanted to experience the journey, I myself took the jeep and went to meet the officials. They were a bit uneasy in seeing me. They actually had thought that I would send our driver, whom they knew as a nice handyman. However I mumbled an excuse about him being elsewhere, and that I had no problem in accompanying them.

Actually, it was they who had problems. They were going in for a ‘collection drive’ and naturally they could use the driver as an agent. However nothing could be done about it, and we moved. In the morning hours, we went to so many business concerns connected to the first official’s department. He knew what to search for or query for. He would very soon find a delinquency which was punishable as per the rules. He would put on a show of going to register a case. As per the rules, some of these silly delinquencies were punishable with life imprisonment. Then the other man would come into the picture and manage a mediation. A correct sum would be mentioned, which he would pocket, placing himself at a distance from the other official. Since I was in the car, they would not openly talk about the takings. Nor was I invited to view the proceedings. However, both of them were quite nice to me, even though my presence was a distress to some extent.

In the afternoon hours, the aim was to raid a few handloom factories. Some of them reasonably well-furnished ones. The Factory Inspector did seem to have a grudge about one particular factory owner. He said, ‘Avane namukku onnu othukkanam!’ (We need to crush him [lowest indicant Him]!’) I could understand that this antipathy was basically connected to the Malabar communication standard of that time of using the word Ningal (You) to officials as word of polite interaction. In Travancore, only the word Saar is acceptable. Ningal was not acceptable. Both these officials were from Travancore.

We stopped outside the factory and these two persons entered. In the veranda, a reasonably well-dressed boy was sitting and doing some small stitching work. It was quite obvious that he was not a regular worker. The work he did was also of very minor labour and effort. The Factory Inspector ran and took hold of his hands. He simply told his companion, ‘ethu mathi’ (This is enough).

He questioned the boy in a soft tone, as to what he was doing. The boy in wonder and surprise at the sudden attention he was getting, answered that he was stitching something. He said that he comes there at times, when he had no school.

At that time the factory owner, a reasonable looking middle-aged man came out. The Factory Inspector immediately told him that he was going to register a case against him for indulging in Child Labour. The factory owner answered in a very pleasant tone that there was no exploitation or hard labour. When the boy has time, he comes here and does these things, for which he gets a pay. There was no compulsion or any other thing.

However, there was one single issue. The factory owner used the word Ningal in addressing the Factory Inspector. The Factory Inspector said, ‘I don’t want any explanation from you. I will put you in jail.’

At this point, the factory owner simply stated, ‘Oh, you do what you want!’.

I mentioned this incident to denote the tragedy of giving a pocket book of rules and laws to rank crooks. They use it to make money and to garner respect. In India.

And also the question as to who is this idiot called Clement Atlee to hand over the people of this geographical area into the hands of such dirt-like politicians who give such draconian powers to rank dacoits.