There is this fact to be mentioned. That the Travancore kingdom actually could never find any persons capable enough to administer the nation as its bureaucratic chief. However, this was not actually an issue of capability. It was more connected to finding the right person who could run the show from a platform of English communication and mental standards.

The traditional system would be Tamil; Tamil being the traditional language of Travancore. Tamil is a very terrible feudal language; quite near to the savagery found in Malabari, Malayalam and other Indian languages can be found in Tamil also.

This discernment with regard to the non-availability of good standard administrators was first mentioned in the words of Rani GOURI LAKSHMI BAYI who wrote that “there was no person in Travancore that she wished to elevate to the office of Dewan and that her own wishes were that the Resident should superintend the affairs of the country as she had a degree of confidence in his justice, judgement and integrity which she could not place in the conduct of any other person”.

There is this quote from this book:

QUOTE: The people of the country acted less from principle than from feeling and short-sighted views of interest. END OF QUOTE

This is only an observation of what was seen. However, it does delineate as to what was the machinery that worked to create such fiendish mental attitudes.

As of the Rani, there were naturally different issues to be cautious about. One was the rank inefficiency of the individual. In a feudal language social system, a person who is seen as meek and obedient, the moment he is given a status and rank could very easily become pompous and haughty. The verbal codes are designed to make this change.

The second issue was he could very easily get upset by the over-lording posed on him by other members of the royalty. This issue cannot be understood in English. It is simply that the verbal codes are continually changed to suit each side. A person can literally go unsettled in the mental oscillation created by this.

Such persons immediately try to overthrow their benefactor and usurp the throne. Not necessarily due to any kind of ingratitude to the benefactor, but due to compulsions caused by the verbal distortions done by the others. These are things that cannot be understood in English.

If the reader here also cannot make a head or tail of this theme, he or she can read my book: An Impressionistic History of the South Asian Subcontinent. A very detailed delineation of the various attributes of feudal languages is given there.

Col. Munro, an official of the English East India Company was given the post of Dewan. Actually he was not an Englishman, but was a Scott. However, being part of the English company helped. In the sense that his own native land Celtic language mentality could be avoided. However, he did go beyond his brief, actually. But that is another theme.

It is seen that over the years afterwards, the Travancore royal family did have a penchant for recruiting officials from the English East India Company ruled locations. There was a general apathy for recruiting local Travancoreans in crucial positions. For instance, in the newly-formed judicial set-ups and in the post of the Dewan, the officials were natives of the subcontinent who were officer-cadre employees of the English East India Company. When the British Crown usurped the sovereign power from the English East India Company, the recruitment continued from that officialdom.

In fact, only for a very brief period was a local Travancore man posted as the Dewan after this policy was brought in. His tenure was quite brief. Very soon, he was replaced by an employee from the English officialdom-class native-of-the-subcontinent.

The English-background natives-of-the-subcontinent officers who were recruited into the Travancore Kingdom’s bureaucracy were a group which could interact and work without igniting much jealously and mutual recrimination. Moreover, they could very easily interact with the native-English officials of the English supremacy. All of them were of quite high standards in English.

Yet, the native-English were quite naive and stupid. They were more or less guiding the native-kingdoms as well as the populations under them in the presidencies towards higher achievements.

In feudal language social system, improving a lowly person has been understood as literally taking a venomous reptile from the fence and placing it on the neck. It is simply that the lower-positioned persons who had been surviving on the lower-indicant verbal codes of the language (Thoo, Nee, Inhi – all lowest of the You) when suddenly allowed to grow up, would literally try to trample down their benefactors with the same verbal codes. May be they themselves would not do it. But then there is nothing to stop their family members and descendants from doing such things.

It is very clearly seen from both Malabar (Manual) by William Logan as well in Travancore State Manual that the English administrators of the Presidencies were fully bent on transferring the complete knowledge, skills, technical acumen, industrial knowhow, international connections and almost everything that belonged to the antiquity of pristine-England to the South Asian Subcontinent.

It is seen that there was no long-term thoughts or policy on where all this would lead to. In fact, they were acting more or less similarly to such persons like Bill Gates etc. in that they were giving the technical skills of their nation to social systems which could in days to come become quite cantankerous competitors. But then in the case of Bill Gates and such, they had capitalistic aims, at denuding their nations of financial stability. However, in the case of the English administrators in the English Colonials areas, what motivated their actions were totally foolish altruistic motives.