British Society in Guntur during the Early Nineteenth Century

Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History

British Society in Guntur during the Early Nineteenth CenturyAuthor(s): Robert Eric FrykenbergSource: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Jan., 1962), pp. 200-208Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/177748 .

Accessed: 08/05/2014 21:46

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Cambridge University Press and Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History are collaborating withJSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Comparative Studies in Society and History.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 21:46:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup

http://www.jstor.org/stable/177748?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


BRITISH SOCIETY IN GUNTUR DURING THE EARLY

NINETEENTH CENTURY *

That a similarity underlay local diversities of British society in India during the early 19th century is shown by Bernard S. Cohn's description of the British in Benares. A century ago, George F. Atkinson, in his Curry and Rice, observed:

Let me remind you that, while there are numerous races, each with a different creed, caste, and language, so there are customs and manners peculiar to each: and this variety is not confined to the natives; for the habits and customs of social life among the English in India likewise present their petty diversities; and the "Qui Hye" of Bengal, the "Mull" of Madras, and the "Duck" of Bombay, adhere to and defend their own customs with jealous warmth of feeling ... but there are [some ways of life] such as are common to the whole of India.'

While many of Cohn's conclusions about the British in Benares might apply to the British in Guntur, differences between these two communities seem to have developed out of circumstances which were peculiar to the local area of each. British society in Guntur was different from that of Benares, different in degree if not in kind, because of (1) its Madras orientation and (2) its Indianized character.

I. MADRAS ORIENTATION

It is important to understand how the British in Guntur were related to the whole of British society in South India. Madras Presidency, oldest of the three presidencies of India, was the hub around which the livelihood and

well-being of this society revolved. Remote and isolated from the more dramatic tide of events flowing in the north, this "Cinderella of the East"2 long had shifted for herself, with little outside help or interference. Within a

* Research for this commentary was done at the India Office Library (London) and at the Madras Record Office under a fellowship from the Humanities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation.

G. F. Atkinson, Curry and Rice, On Forty Plates: The Ingredients of Social Life at "Our" Station in India (London, 1859), preface. ? John Norton, A Letter to Robert Lowe on the Condition and Requirements of the Presidency of Madras (Madras, 1854), p. 179.



BRITISH SOCIETY IN GUNTUR

vast territory of 132,000 square miles, over 1000 miles long and divided into twenty districts, all of which were three and four times the size of districts in

Bengal and Bombay, there was an exceedingly small number of British

persons.3 In 1800, out of roughly 1300 non-military Britons in Madras, less than

200 persons "of the better sort" and a slightly larger number of covenanted civil servants formed the upper strata of society (together with military officers).4 Scarcely a third of this society, almost exclusively official, with a sprinkling of businessmen and missionaries after 1820, were in the mufassal (interior) at a given time. Since tenures of British district officers were very short and constantly rotating and since superiors were more permanently ensconced at the Presidency, it seems clear that Madras was the focal point of British society. Non-official Europeans, particularly those who composed the

upper-class business community in Madras, would appear to have decreased

during this period while the number of Madras civilians remained much the same.5 Until 1855, the influence of Madras over the British in South India was not seriously rivaled.

Those Britons who lived briefly in Guntur were not "one local society in India" such as that which developed around Benares. The British officers stationed for short periods in this district were too few in number to think of themselves as more than a tiny part of a small British society scattered throughout South India. Until 1842, when an American Lutheran missionary arrived, the European community in Guntur consisted of from three to six officials with their families.6

The Huzur ("Presence"), who was Collector and Magistrate, was the

supreme authority over Guntur District, the pivot for all State concerns in the area, and the guardian of the local population. He was helped either

by a Head Assistant or by an Assistant; and occasionally he was saddled with an inexperienced trainee, called a Junior Assistant. Sometimes there was a Civil (or Army) Surgeon. For a few weeks in each year, an Engineer visited

3 Henry Ricketts, Report of the Commissioner for the Revision of Civil Salaries and Establishments (Calcutta, 1858), I, 161-165. 4 Henry Dodwell, The Nabobs of Madras (London, 1926), p. 125. 5 The Madras Almanac for 1813 listed 136 non-official Europeans; that for 1832 listed 114; and that for 1834 listed 110. During the 1840's and especially during the 1850's, the number of non-official Europeans again increased. The average number of military personnel between 1800 and 1850 ranged between 10,000 to 14,000 Europeans and between 15,000 to 25,000 Indians. See: House of Commons. Return on Total Europeans and Natives employed in Madras Presidency: 1800-1851. Parliamentary Papers, 1853 (I.C.S. Sessional Paper No. 366, Vol. V, No. 16). 6 Even "unsettled" or ryotwari districts like Tanjore and Cuddapah rarely held more than 15 officers. Military cantonments (e.g. Bangalore and Secunderabad), of course, had their own kind of society, quite distinct from society in the districts. Details on all Europeans may be found in Guntur District Records. Six volumes of Madras Civil Servants are the official establishment lists. Also see: Drach and Kuder, The Telugu Mission (Philadelphia, 1914), on early missionary activity.

201



ROBERT ERIC FRYKENBERG

Guntur. A Judge, an Assistant Judge, or a Registrar, but rarely more than one judicial officer, was stationed in Guntur. The local garrison was under a British commandant.

A fort, originally erected by the French, was situated across the bund

(dam) of a large tank (reservoir) from the village of Old Guntur. A stiflingly hot district office lay within the ruins of this fort. A few small bungalows occupied by British officers and their families were scattered at hundred-yard intervals about the fort. A court-house, a mosque, a traveler's bungalow (for Indians), and houses of zamindars, district officers, and prominent Indians were also located nearby. The town of Guntur, with a population of 28,000 in 1830, was steadily growing.7

A fascinating but hardly surprising characteristic of British society during this period was the small-town (or small-community) atmosphere which

developed over the huge expanse of the peninsula. Among these tiny and isolated pockets of officials, each person hungered for the latest gossip and

thought himself to be his brother's keeper. At a deeper level, there was a constant struggling for power and prestige and patronage. Surreptitious letters Home (to England), backstairs conspiracy, and outright jobbing were the order of the day. Within the trappings of Madras bureaucracy, influence was gathered and dispensed in whispers out on the verandah and in scratching pens under the punkah (manual ceiling-fan).8

Probably the most perceptive commentary on this period was written by Julia Thomas, the widow of a Rajahmundry Collector, whose letters from the mufassal were anonymously published. She distinguished between civilian and military ladies as follows:

The civil ladies are generally very quiet, rather languid, speaking in almost a whisper, simply dressed, almost always ladylike-not pretty but pleasant and nice- looking-and give one hard work in pumping for conversation. They talk of "the Governor", "the Presidency", "the Overland", and "girl's school at Home", and always have daughters of about 13 in England for education. The military ladies are always quite young, pretty, noisy, affected, showily dressed with a great many ornaments, chatter incessantly, twist their curls, shake their bustles, and are alto- gether what you may call "Low Toss". They talk of suckling babies, scandals, the "Officers", the "Regiment"; and when the gentlemen come into the drawing room, they flirt with them furiously.9

As can be seen, relations between military and civilian officers were not

7 Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of Kistna District (Madras, 1883), p. 183. From 1859 to 1904 Guntur was part of Krishna District. Census figures are found in annual Jamabandi Reports of the Guntur District Records, as well as in letters concerning the Guntur Kazi between 1826 and 1848. 8 Influential Indian as well as non-official European communities became involved in this intrigue. 9 [Julia Thomas], Letters from Madras: 1836-1839 (London, 1846), Feb. 16, 1838. Also: Hilton Brown, The Sahibs: The Life and Ways of the British in India as Recorded by Themselves (London, 1948), p. 129.

202




always harmonious; however, in the districts, when outnumbered and outside their normal sphere, military officers became less difficult. Indeed, loneliness

probably did much to ease strained relations. "Indian hospitaliy" was the convention by which those at district stations

were obliged to accommodate and entertain European travelers. Some idea of what social life must have prevailed after a tedious day of heat and office work, when local residents and guests came together, may be discerned from the following description:

After dinner the company all sit round in the middle of great gallery-like rooms, talk in whispers and scratch musquito-bites. Concerning the company themselves, the ladies are all young and wizen and the gentlemen are all old and wizen... I am sure India is the paradise for middle-aged men. While they are young, they are thought nothing of-just supposed to be making or marring their fortunes-; but at about forty, when they are "high in the service", rather yellow and some- what grey, they begin to be taken notice of, and are called "young men". These respectable persons do all the flirtation too in a solemn sort of way, while the young ones sit by looking on and listening to the elderly gentlefolks discussing their livers instead of their hearts.10

Wives talked of "ayahs and amahs" (children's nurses), of babies, of servant

troubles, of scandals, and of social precedence. Their husbands returned

constantly to discussions of "employment" and "promotion" in the "establishment". In the words of Julia Thomas:

Whatever subject may be started, they contrive to twist it, drag it, clip it, and pinch it, till they bring it round to that; and if left to themselves, they sit and conjugate the verb "to collect"; "I am a Collector-He is a Collector-We shall be Collectors-You ought to be a Collector-They would have been Collectors"; so, when it comes to that, while they conjugate "to collect", I decline listening."

Still, a repetition of boring conversation was often better than complete solitude.

Many officers in the mufassal consumed their energy and time trying to

get transferred down to the Presidency while, at the same time, other officers in Madras did their best to stay where they were. For example, between 1790 and 1850, only five Collectors stayed in Guntur for more than five

years. A host of officers managed to escape from Guntur after only a few months. Between 1831 and 1837, ten Collectors (in 15 transfers) shuttled in and out of Guntur, no single tenure being more than 11 months and the

average being nearer 4 to 5 months. Often there was no judicial officer in Guntur.12 As the many gravestones would indicate, life in the districts was filled with overwork, hazard, loneliness, and heartbreak.

10 [Julia Thomas], op. cit., December 21, 1837; H. Brown, op. cit., p. 136. 1 H. Brown, op. cit., p. 127.

12 Walter Elliot [Report on Guntur District] to Government of Madras (para. 96), April 17, 1846: Madras Revenue Proceedings and Consultations (India Office Library [abbr: IOL]: range 280: vol. 20: p. 7635), No. 39 of Dec 6, 1847, "Chart of Officers ..."

203




Among the many who squirmed their way out of the interior, Malcolm Lewin, Alexander Bruce, and Alexander Maclean were notorious. Maclean

spent 31 years in India without a furlough. After early service at the

Presidency, he managed to stay away from his districts (first Chingleput and then Cuddapah) by a series of acting appointments from 1835 to 1848. His intrigues were met with remarkable restraint until, finally, he was forced to resign or face prosecution for nefarious financial transactions with the Nawab of Arcot.13 Both Lewin and Bruce escaped from Guntur and stirred

up trouble in Madras. Lewin spent several stormy years on the Sadr Adalat before returning to England to agitate against the Madras Government. Bruce was a drone who would not be content with the Post-Master Generalship.14

II. INDIANIZED CHARACTER

The British in South India commonly referred to themselves as being "Indian- ized". By this they meant that they had acquired the character of a local colonial society. The British in Guntur were not just a part of a British

society in South India; rather, they were part of a British society of South India. The process by which British became Anglo-Indian society, and by which it adapted itself to its local environment was implied in this term. The Indianized British not only developed customary relationships with each other; they also evolved a tradition of relationships with other Indian communities. As rulers of South India, it was necessary for them to maintain close connections with the subordinates whom they ruled, the former (Muslim) rulers and the still dominant (Desastha) administrators of South India, not to mention a whole hierarchy of other castes and communities.

The elite of Madras were drawn from two groups and were bound by ties of friendship, marriage, and common interest going back over several genera- tions. Among the wealthy commercial families were such names as Arbuth- not, Parry, Binney, Sewell, Griffiths, Norton, Forbes, Story, Ashton, and Marriott. Names such as Savage, Bird, Casamajor, Sullivan, Cotton, Lushing- ton, Dalrymple and Elliot were prominent among the civil and military services of Madras during this period.15

"a Lord Elphinstone-Maclean Correspondence, Elphinstone Collection (IOL: Eur. Mss. F. 87), Governor's Letters Received File, Vol. VI, Nos. 44, 51, 55, 57 (Box 2-E) and Letters Sent File (Box 3-A). Elliot to Elphinstone, Aug 20, 1844, Jan 14, 1845: ibid (Box 10-D). Lord Tweeddale to Lord Haddington, Jan 25, 1845: Tweeddale Collection (IOL: Eur. Mss. F. 96), Home Letter Book II., p. 35. Many other letters may be cited. 14 Letters on and by Lewin and Bruce in official records and in the Elphinstone and Tweeddale Collections are too numerous to be detailed here. 15 These names have been gathered from newspapers, The Madras Almanac, private writings, personal records of officials, and monographs. Hilton Brown's Parrys of Madras (Madras, 1954) is an example of one such family.

204




Civilians without deep roots in Madras usually became Indianized and were absorbed by Madras society by the time they attained seniority. Usually it took twenty years to become a full Collector and much longer to enter the extremely limited number of high positions in Madras.16 Below these highest posts, central administration was surfeited with entrenched and time- serving bureaucracy. Jobbing and intrigue resulted in governmental paralysis, administrative timidity, and personal frustation. Offices were multiplied so as to make drones as harmless as possible.17 In a letter to Lord Ripon, one Governor complained:

You cannot be aware of the difficulties I have met with since I have been here from intrigue and still have to contend with. Madras has long been so favored and well it deserves the name. They have got into such habits and have so lost European views of Government that one is obliged always to be on his guard.18

Officers with thirty years in the mufassal, even those with short up-country experience, showed the marks of a lifetime in India. Having arrived as

youths, unmarried, impressionable, and full of energy, they matured in an Indian environment and were far from immune to Indian habits and customs.

They formed lasting attachments with their Indian colleagues and subordinates. Youthful ambition and reforming zeal waned with the years so that

many became cynical, conservative, and attached to their mode of life in India. Many even dreaded the prospect of leaving familiar surroundings and friends of a lifetime for a half-forgotten homeland.

Guntur, like the country in general, possessed anything but a homogenous society. Its population was communally dissected and stratified. The British in Guntur were one among many self-contained and semi-isolated communities. Below them in the social hierarchy were the Desasthas, a small Maratha Brahman community, who for nearly three centuries had administered the district, still preserved their Marathi language and customs, and sent

away for their sons' educations and for marriageable girls. A Muslim com-

munity of considerable size lived in the towns of the district, preserving their Urdu language, their religious institutions and their social viability. Many other Brahman and high-caste groups held positions of influence at various levels within the district and its villages. Even the lowest menial castes

preserved their social identities with tenacity. Like the British, Indians of respectable caste and position (not to mention

those of other castes) remained isolated behind their community barriers in

'l Ricketts, op. cit., pp. 161-165. 17 Norton, op. cit., wryly remarked that promotion should depend more on merit and less on senility, that drones were "pitchforked" into the judiciary (a "Refuge for the Destitute"), that hanging a witness instead of a prisoner by mistake could still bring a Post-Master Generalship, and that, in "the casting net of centralization ... the up- country Collector dare hardly shave without a circular order" in the Gazette, pp. 319-322. 18 Lord Tweeddale to Lord Ripon, Oct 2, 1844: op. cit., Home Letter Book I, pp. 360-361.

205




such matters as food, dress, marriage, and religious observance. Nevertheless, these highly placed Indians were no more loath to develop and nurture profitable contacts than were their rulers. Thus, while Maratha Brahmans were in some respects as much removed from lower levels in the social hierarchy as were the British (at times, even more so), they formed friendships among the British, they became involved in the intrigues which divided the British or they were able to involve the British in their own factional contro- versies, and they assiduously cultivated their knowledge of the English language.19

Personal background and behavior, as well as longstanding and intimate local contacts with Indian leaders, reflect the Indianized character of British officers in Guntur. From 1788 to 1793, Robert Hughes and his associates in Masulipatam entrusted their administrative work to and shared in a clever system of fabrication and embezzlement operated by Venkata Rama Rao and Accalamanti Narsiah.20 George Ram and Atmuri Venkatachallam ruled Guntur together until they were dismissed in 1800.21 Thomas Jarrett leaned heavily upon Tandanki Lakshmi Narain Rao and, at the birth of his son, received 2000 pagodas and a costly jewel from Manur Venkata Krishna Rao, the Chilkalurpet Zamindar.22 Francis Robertson's sympathy for the faction of Sabnavis Kasava Rao led to his removal from Guntur.23 Thomas Oakes (Guntur: 1811-1821), an officer who was born in Rajahmundry and appointed from Madras, was removed from the district by Sir Thomas Munro because he permitted his Sheristadar to accept a legacy from the Zamindar, Malraju Gopal Rao.24 John Whish (1821-1831) took such an interest in the district and fostered such relations with local leaders that, in the typically Indian fashion, he bequeathed a choultry (rest house) for Indian travelers.25 John Goldingham, another person who was born in and appointed from Madras, ruled for five years (1837-1842) but was censured for allowing his attachment for Sabnavis Venkata Krishna Rao to arouse the enmity of other Desasthas and to disrupt Guntur administration.26 Finally, Walter

19 A fascinating example is found in V. Venkata Gopal Row, The Life of Vennelacunty Soob Row (Madras, 1873). Soob Row was born in Ongole and grew up in Guntur, ultimately attaining an important office in Madras. 20 Elliot Report, op. cit., para. 60. 21 M. Ruthnaswamy, Some Influences that made the British Administrative System in India (London, 1939), p. 87. 22 Robertson to Revenue Board, Sept 11, 1811 (para 18, end. I): Guntur District Records (vol. 385: pp. 303-320). 23 Mackenzie, op. cit., pp. 346, 358. Elliott Report, op. cit. (Appendix C). 24 A. J. Arbuthnot, Selections from the Writings of Sir Thomas Munro... (Madras, 1886), pp. 521-527; Biographical Sketch, Personal Records, XVII, 285-357. 25 Goldingham to C. R. Cotton (para. 8), Dec 13, 1839: Madras Revenue Proceedings (IOL: range 280: vol. 6: p. 2461). This bungalow was later converted into a Lungar- khana (hospital) for treating Indians. 26 Goldingham to Revenue Board, Nov 24, 1837: Guntur District Records, Vol. 5393, pp. 221-227; Writer's Petitions, Vol. 31, no. 4,

206




Elliot frankly gave the credit for his remarkable investigation of Guntur in 1845 to his able Sheristadar, Appa Rao.27

Nyapati Shashagiri Rao serves as a typical example of a Desastha who was closely associated with the British in Guntur. Born in the year that the British took control of Guntur, he entered government service in 1810, became Manager of the Magistrate Department in the early 1820's and Huzur Sheri- stadar of Guntur in 1837. Whish took a kindly interest in him, even going as far as to advise him against attending the "god's feasts" of the Sattanapalli Zamindar lest "an indirect connection with public business be inferred thereby".28 James Bell wrote to him and kept him supplied with English literature (including Shakespeare). Both Patrick Grant and Archibald Mathi- son wrote him friendly letters. Malcolm Lewin and Alexander Bruce took personal interest in his career, keeping up their correspondence with him from Madras. Bruce conveyed warm greetings to other Desasthas and credited Shashagiri Rao with producing some of the best officers in local administration. When Shashagiri Rao came down to Madras in 1845, he was invited to call upon Lewin whom he had not seen for almost ten years.29

CONCLUSION

Two kinds of relationships were maintained by the British in Guntur. First, a very small number of officials, closely interrelated by background and common values, looked to Madras for their social orientation. They preferred the hard realities which they knew to a vaguely remembered and perhaps idealized homeland of their youth. While perhaps their years in India were a "moral exile", their sojourning in mufassal stations was probably an exile from Madras which was more severe.

Second, close relations between Indian officers and zamindars and the British seem to have continued to a later date in South India, lasting at least until the end of the Company period. That the British should regard Indians as totally different from themselves was not strange to the country. Restricted contacts between Indian communities were a fact of life to which the British adapted themselves. This adaptation to the country was part of being "Indianized" and of becoming a colonial society in India.

The degree of Indianization, or accommodation to life in India, varied with the amount and the nature of British-Indian contacts. Julia Thomas could ridicule the music, dress, and customs of a Rajah's household; but she knew much less of the domestic life of her peons (guards) whom she put to 27 Elliot Report (paras. 100-105), op. cit. 28 Whish to Shashagiri Rao, enclosed in Huzur Sheristadar's Petition to Government, December 23, 1845: Madras Revenue Proceedings, range 280, Vol. 72, pp. 7335-45. 29 Ibid. All these letters (dated from 1827 to 1845) are enclosed with Shashagiri Rao's Petition to Government.

207




work in her flower garden. Naturally, it was more interesting to converse with an English speaking Sheristadar than to talk with an illiterate sweeper. British businessmen contacted local business communities (e.g. Komartis, Chettis, Armenians, and Muslims); and missionaries, by their very work, found themselves more often among the poorest and lowliest of communities (e.g. Malas and Madigas).

To some degree, the difference between the numbers of British in Guntur and in Benares determined the nature of their orientation to wider circles of British society and the extent of their adaptation to local environment.30 The British residents in Benares were more numerous and more permanent. Guntur did not gain a larger European society (e.g. American, Swedish, and German missionaries; British and American tobacco and cotton interests; and an expanded official establishment) until the last quarter of the 19th century. By then, however, a few educated Indians were beginning to penetrate this society, insofar as communal restrictions would permit.


University of Chicago

30 For comparisons in Bengal and Bombay, see: [Anon.], Life in the Mofussil; or, The Civilian in Lower Bengal (London, 1878); Iltudus Pritchard, The Chronicles of Budge- pore (London, 1893); Robert Carstairs, The Little World of the Indian District Officer (London, 1912); and Evan Maconochie, Life in the Indian Civil Service (London, 1926). For South India, see: J. W. B. Dykes, Salem, an Indian Collectorate (London, 1853). Note: Some scorn for the British in South India seems always to have pervaded the opinions of the British in the north, perhaps because of their Indianized character.

208



Documents

British Society in Guntur during the Early Nineteenth Century