Dewan Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer standing next toHis Highness Sree Chitra Tirunal Balarama Varma the Maharaja of Travancore.
click on the photo to enlarge (photo courtesy Kerala police history.com)
Southern Kerala has not seen development since Travancore days, says former Royal (Click on Text to read)
It is the truth and nothing but the truth, what His Highness. Sree Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma, the Mharajah of Travancore said about Sir. C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, the erstwhile Dewan of Travancore. It is for the first time someone at his level or rather anyone at all is publicly praising Sir. C.P. I fully concur with HH. "C.P. should not have been mistreated".
The following is the comment I had posted in the blog about Sir. Mirza Mohammad Ismail - ‘Musings from Antique Origins’ http://muralirvarma.blogspot.com/2009/02/sir-mirza-mohammad-ismail-kcie-obe.html. “You are absolutely correct in your observation that the quality of administration of the princely states had been great with the contributions of men of exceptional caliber like Sir Syed Mirza Ismail and Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer. India and more particular Kerala suffer from lack of such able administrators. In my opinion Kerala is in this present state of morass may be because Sir. C.P. cursed this state for having tried to kill him.
The Communist parties of course have an understandable hatred towards Sir. C.P because he would have crushed them. But 'Malayala Manorama' the leading right wing daily in Kerala too have an animosity towards him. They state that he deliberately sealed the newspaper office and liquidated the National and Quilon Bank in which the present Chief Editor K.M. Mathew’s father Mammen Mappilai was a director. Not only that, he even incarcerated Mammen Mappilai. Recently I happened to see (couldn’t read) a book written by Prof. Sreedhara Menon, in which the actions of Sir.C.P. regarding the National and Quilon Bank is lauded. In the book it is written that but for his timely action the public would have lost their deposits in the bank.
The Pottamkulam family to which I belong too has an axe to grind with Sir. C.P. See the attached pages from our family history. But I always took the entire episode with a pinch of salt for two reasons. one, as a Diwan who encouraged economic and industrial reforms could a man of such high competence be communal and or jealous whatsoever, and two the lack of business acumen coupled with the legendary extravagant lifestyle of the people in the picture too may have contributed to the cause of the shut down.
I must point out that Mr. & Mrs. K.V.Thomas Pottamkulam (my great grandfather's brother)were supposed to be close with Kaudiar Palace especially with Amma Maharani Karthika Tirunal lakshmi Bayi. It was he who originally bought the Ammachy Kottaram (Regent's summer palace) at Kuttikanam, Peerumade, Idukki district, Kerala; from the Regent Maharani Pooradam Thirunal Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and made it his residence before selling it to its present owners the Kallivayalils (incidentally my maternal grandfather's brother).
I admire Sir.C.P. maybe because of the belief that he would not have allowed the communists to be anywhere near where they are now, keeping Kerala still in the socialist era . I also appreciated his call for independent Travancore (for which the State Congress too disliked him). But had Travancore been independent and in the course of time became a democracy, the communists when they come to power by rotation as it is happening now in Kerala, would have implemented the land reforms act much more stringently and none of the other parties would repeal it when they come to power for fear of loosing support of those who got the land for free. The plantation sector escaped the Kerala land reforms act because of certain control of Indian Parliament.
It is the truth and nothing but the truth, what His Highness. Sree Uthradom Tirunal Marthanda Varma, the Mharajah of Travancore said about Sir. C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, the erstwhile Dewan of Travancore. It is for the first time someone at his level or rather anyone at all is publicly praising Sir. C.P. I fully concur with HH. "C.P. should not have been mistreated".
The following is the comment I had posted in the blog about Sir. Mirza Mohammad Ismail - ‘Musings from Antique Origins’ http://muralirvarma.blogspot.com/2009/02/sir-mirza-mohammad-ismail-kcie-obe.html. “You are absolutely correct in your observation that the quality of administration of the princely states had been great with the contributions of men of exceptional caliber like Sir Syed Mirza Ismail and Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer. India and more particular Kerala suffer from lack of such able administrators. In my opinion Kerala is in this present state of morass may be because Sir. C.P. cursed this state for having tried to kill him.
The Communist parties of course have an understandable hatred towards Sir. C.P because he would have crushed them. But 'Malayala Manorama' the leading right wing daily in Kerala too have an animosity towards him. They state that he deliberately sealed the newspaper office and liquidated the National and Quilon Bank in which the present Chief Editor K.M. Mathew’s father Mammen Mappilai was a director. Not only that, he even incarcerated Mammen Mappilai. Recently I happened to see (couldn’t read) a book written by Prof. Sreedhara Menon, in which the actions of Sir.C.P. regarding the National and Quilon Bank is lauded. In the book it is written that but for his timely action the public would have lost their deposits in the bank.
The Pottamkulam family to which I belong too has an axe to grind with Sir. C.P. See the attached pages from our family history. But I always took the entire episode with a pinch of salt for two reasons. one, as a Diwan who encouraged economic and industrial reforms could a man of such high competence be communal and or jealous whatsoever, and two the lack of business acumen coupled with the legendary extravagant lifestyle of the people in the picture too may have contributed to the cause of the shut down.
I must point out that Mr. & Mrs. K.V.Thomas Pottamkulam (my great grandfather's brother)were supposed to be close with Kaudiar Palace especially with Amma Maharani Karthika Tirunal lakshmi Bayi. It was he who originally bought the Ammachy Kottaram (Regent's summer palace) at Kuttikanam, Peerumade, Idukki district, Kerala; from the Regent Maharani Pooradam Thirunal Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and made it his residence before selling it to its present owners the Kallivayalils (incidentally my maternal grandfather's brother).
I admire Sir.C.P. maybe because of the belief that he would not have allowed the communists to be anywhere near where they are now, keeping Kerala still in the socialist era . I also appreciated his call for independent Travancore (for which the State Congress too disliked him). But had Travancore been independent and in the course of time became a democracy, the communists when they come to power by rotation as it is happening now in Kerala, would have implemented the land reforms act much more stringently and none of the other parties would repeal it when they come to power for fear of loosing support of those who got the land for free. The plantation sector escaped the Kerala land reforms act because of certain control of Indian Parliament.
Click on photo to enlarge
(Translation) "If that K.V. Thomas is allowed to to grow and become successful like this, he'll become very rich" Sir.C.P. said to his secretary on their way to Trivandrum after inaugurating Travancore Wood Works with a Golden Key. The rapid raise of KVT was such that even the Dewan of Travancore became jealous.
Click on photo to enlarge
(Translation) In 1938 The then Dewan of Travancore Sir C.P. Ramasawmy Iyer himself came to inaugurate Travancore Wood Works which had about 1000 workers. Surprisingly on his return to Trivandrum he issued orders to stop cutting of trees within an area of 10 square miles of the factory and put pressure for foreclosure of all bank loans.
30 comments:
A very interesting post, as it revealed an aspect of CP Ramaswamy that I was not aware of. The excerpts from your family's history were fascinating - is this a published book?
Yes Kamini it is a published book circulated among family members only.
good work in revealing the other part of sir CP.The right wing news paper has played a major part in highlighting the so called negative side of CP's actions and now it became very clear what caused it to take side against him
Jibin, we can’t expect them to forgive C.P for incarcerating their family patriarch, can we? He was not alone though; there were other directors too to keep him company. But he came out sooner than later but that is another story in itself, quite controversial too.
Such a pity that I cant read Malayalam. But thanks for the translation and good article too :)
Thanks for stopping by Manu, I was pleasantly surprised. I was reading the comments between you and Gautham Padmanaban in INORITE while you were passing by.
There is a new comment on the post 'The Last Queen of Travancore'.
Author: Gautham Padmanabhan
Comment:
I was just going through this blog where I had a war of words with Shri Manu. Again, I got an opportunity to learn new facets of Travancore history.
I must congrajulate Shri Abhed’s knowledge about Sir CP and the Communist movement of that period.
But there are other points too, to remember. Sir CP was very dicatatorial and he played a crucial role in making the peasants and other workers enemies of the Travancore State. Sir CP used his Army and Millitary to crush the communist movement so cruelly. If he had shown some maturity, the communists would not have recieves such support from the Public.
On that day, when Sir CP was attacked by the Shri KCS Mani Iyer of RSP, CP was on the throne of pride and power. My friends’s grand uncle was there in Music College and he noticed that Sir CP had sat on the very Chair where HH the Maharaja sat. Infact, he occupuied the Royal Chair as soon as the Maharaja left to the Palace. This led to irritating whispers among the public which was present there and they all were very unhappy at CPs behaviour. Suddenly, the lights went off and the mishap occurred.
It was but a necessity that CP should have expelled from Travancore like that, because he was very much cruel and all communities except certain
fanatic brahmins were against him after 1947.
Not doubt CP was a visionary and preacher of Sanathan Dharma, but he was madly arrogant and dicatatorial to the core!
Dear Nebu George,
Greetings from Riyadh,KSA !;--found your blog/posting when I googled for C P Ramaswami .[your blog link comes 3 or 4th after the Wikipedia article. [I was writing to a friend of mine about suitable icons for a proposed new political party [ values= Capitalism/Free-Enterprise /Ayn Rand’s political philosophy].
Maybe it is high time for the current [Malayala Manorama] generation to make peace with the legacy of C P Ramaswami; and focus on the positive side of his tenure;-maybe Kerala would have seen a totally different economic scenario if Sir CP had been successful in his attempt to stem the leftist tide. It is unfortunate that the leading newspaper family of Kerala still harbors a resentment against a pro-capitalist [laissez-faire], pro-American icon of our history. [may I suggest that you can take this initiative to bring about a change of attitude,-considering your social / family contacts in /around Kottayam !]
[Needless to add, I cannot say that MM is a “right-wing” newspaper;----for the past 60 + years, they have been kow-towing to the Nehru-Gandhi/Congress party model of socialism /planned economic growth etc (blinding themselves to the fact that the Congress party’s value system is only a diluted version of the marxist-communism)---I would love to see them re-engineer themselves as an advocate of capitalism & related values.]
Incidentally, - I have met Pottalulam / Kallivayalil family members during my years with IFCL [Chennai/Cochin;-1980’s-early ‘90’s]. Have visited them at Kanjirapally also.//
Regards & have a nice day.
Sasy Kumar.
3-July-2010
Very interesting blog. Many of the decent roads and major buildings of Trivandrum, were built during the tenure of Sir CP, while the quality of those recent origin can hardly be mentioned at all.
Not doubt CP was a visionary and preacher of Sanathan Dharma, but he was madly arrogant and dicatatorial to the core!
That is just an image that Manorama and communists have given him. His letters are a proof of the fact that he was not dictatorial or power hungry. He had to do what was expected of him. What should he have done when an armed fight was being organised against the state ?
Sir CP's vision would have been for a better Kerala, but the stupid Congress and Communist could have let the KErala being a independent nation instead of licking the feet of Indian Masters. Travancore would have been far better country than India.
Sir CP's one of the fault was that he was against Chrisitan prosperity, he should not have harassed KVT who was trying to contribute for the Travancore's economic growth. But we could have thrown him out in future course but it was a great mistake to joined India when the Patel threatened with military attack on Travancore.
Even now a malayalee is a pariah in the North Indian minds.
Nebu, a very fine article.being from mundakayam, i was thinking,what would have been the present mundakayam,if the factory was still there.
varghese mathew
ThankQ Sasi Kumar,Code, Kenny Jacob, www.atomjaya.com & Varghese Mathew for stopping by to go through my post and posting your comments. I appreciate it.
Varghese, you say you are from Mundakayam. Pray where in Mundakayam? Do you know me or my house? Are you based presently in Mundakayam if not Where?
Sir CP was the man behind industrialisation in Kerala. The setting up of FACT with total initial cost of USD 2 million - a big sum at that time. Such decission and getting a sum sanctioned from British Govt at Delhi is a very difficult thing. The only favourable verdict on Mullaperiyar dam was on account of Sir CP only. The pallivasal project, the power house in trivandrum are dream come true of a diwan. The unification of river was suggested by this Diwan, which is still to be considered by Govt of India. The suggestion to have United States of India rather than India was suggested by this great man... but the history ditched Sir CP...for wrong reasons.
great, i didnt know these stories...
Sir CP might have been an excellent administrator. But he is also the perfect example of abuse of power. Infact his contemporaries (secrataries of state) have only continued his abusive policy of nepotism and misuse of power. Coercing businesses to include him into partnership or outrightly buying them off through threats from his proxies was something CP did often. He was akin to the present day karunanidhi family of TamilNadu. CP was a capitalist as long as it served him. He is the perfect case study of why checks need to be put in place to prevent politicians/ bureaucrats from engaging in businesses where there is an obvious conflict of interest.
@ Jay Nair.
Is it possible for you to further expand your criticism of the late Dewan. Please don't quote from popular gossips propagated by communists of the time.
''Infact his contemporaries (secrataries of state) have only continued his abusive policy of nepotism and misuse of power.''
- Could you further explain this pointless statement.I wish to particularly know about this since one of my great grandfathers and a great grand uncle were permanent under-secretaries of state during the stewardship of Sir CP and I have studied detailed accounts of administration from their memoirs.
''Coercing businesses to include him into partnership or outrightly buying them off through threats from his proxies was something CP did often.''
When did Sir CP buy a business?
Even though Sir CP was a capitalist,let's say for sake of argument,is that against the law?
We have seen what socialist development is in Kerala by now,haven't we?Most insustries that still thrive are those started by this great man.
Dear Mr George,
I have always understood,the leading figures withinthe State Congress weren't against the idea, when the prospects of Independant Travancore was first announced in public.
Infact Pattom Thanu Pillai is suppossed to have met the Diwan and persuaded him not to let the Maharajah change his mind at any cost.
To quote a first-hand account from a 97 yr old Lawyer & council member living in Trivandrum and the son of HH's Personal Secretary ; Mr Pillai is supposed to have told them that the North-Indian politicians were uncivilised(who never shaved or even cleansed their teeth) and a developed state of Travancore cannot deal with them in post-independence.
And A.Narayana Pillai who was even prosecuted by Sir CP before in the 30s for his political activities in the state congress was in favour of the idea.
The turn of events probably led them to adapt to the political climate and the widespread propaganda by the communists
(also supported by the red giant) against the American Model constitution(I have some really hilarious cartoons with me- Sir C P riding a bull etc.) False propaganda said the Dewan had the position akin to the President of the US but someone who knows about the nature of US politics which the Malayalis didn't at the time would know perfectly well how a president can't easily make law!
Very important that present day generation know about Kerala history, Travancore, state, maharaja reign...etc...keep writing..!Keep sharing!
I was delighted to see the post. There is memoir written by Nallamuttam Padmanbhan Pillai in Manorama to the investigation of attack on Sir CP. He was the sub-inspector in charge of the investigation. Also there was a counter writing by one of the congress politician or by Mammen Mappila himself. I read these t may be 40 years ago. The conclusion there was that this was an inside job from the palace. Sir CP was stealing from the palace not only money but queens too.
I also feel the attack against CP was an insider job not a left wing activist.
Because, left was shy in taking responsibility of the attack. There was a public function supposed to be given to the attacker Mr.KCS Mani. But later CPM back tracked and dropped the idea.
Attacker was a known Gunda of Kumbalath Shanku pillai who is a local Zamindar. So lot of questions arises...
Anyway he was no doubt an excellent administrator and a speaker..Won many cases for this state...RIP
Before travancore's occupation, these regions were part of thekkumkoor, a small kingdom. vadakkumkoor covered northern areas like muvattupuzha,kothamangalam. both these areas were worst affected after the occupation of these kingdoms by marthanda varma, who is from southern tip of subcontinent a small kingdom. travancore reaped the benefits from both thekkumkur and vadakkumkoor-especially. people hear about poverty in aikkaranad during travancore occupation because, the more richer areas where under vadakkumcoor which were destroyed by Travancore kings who levied huge taxes on this areas.
vadakkumkoor is samanthas of Kochi kingdom and people of vadakkumkoor shared cultural link with kochi including language and religious practices.
Pottamkulam,Kallivayalil(are they originally bharanganam Kokkattu family?) are infamous for their adventure in desecrating and burning sabarimala temple during 1930s, IF you haven't heard about this - that is.
thx
please read autobiographies of different people before reaching a comment,biograrphy of cp, boiography of mammen mathew and many other people who lived in that time which are easily available in and trust worthy historical research is a serious thing if you have not done that please dont create history through blogs every man had good and bad cp had also positive and failure
Yes...CP was very Anti Christian
i visited this site with the hope that being a member of the pottankulam family there would be something about Mr. K.V.Mathew Pottankulam. He, it is read in an article, came to limelight when he led a strike of plantations labourers against his own brother and uncle. As I could not get any other material even on High Range Plantation Workers Union I am still in the dark about the trade union activity in mundakayam/Kuttickanam/Idukki etc.
I do not know your relatons with K.V.Mathew Pottankulam.
Your article, of course, is an eye opener and equates with that of Acama Varkeys reminiscent of her own uncle reading the Mangala Patra on CPs birthday while they were in the cauldron of struggle.
I am a writer by chance and author of Chavu thullal, now on my second venture for which I wanted the information.
Raju K.Vasu
K.V.Mathew Pottamkulam.
The post on Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer was not intended as a history of the Pottamkulam family. It was intended only as a peripheral view of the contacts between Sir C.P and the Pottamkulam family more particularly with K.V. Thomas Pottamkulam.
Shri K.V.Mathew Pottamkulam is my great grandfather's brother's son (my great grandfather's nephew or my grandfather's 1st cousin brother).
Shri K.V.Mathew organised the plantation workers against the European planters in 1952 under the banner 'High Range Employees Union' which can be credited as the ancestor of the present INTUC.
He was offered the Peermade-Devicolam assembly seat by the congress in the general election after Independence but he proposed A.K. Pachupillai in his place.
This invited protest even from his own father who submitted nomination to contest against A.K. Pachupillai which brought the father and son head on against each other. Later his father withdrew the nomination.
As he passed away at the age of 52 in 1968 when I was only 8 years old I am not aware of his organising labour strikes against his uncle and brother as you have mentioned in your comments. The family history book too is silent on this aspect.
His youngest brother K.V.Kurien represented Kanjirapally constituency in the legislative assembly for three terms 1965,1970 and 1977.
His son George J. Mathew was the MP from Muvattupuzha in 1977 and Kanjirapally MLA in 1991 and 1996.
Thank you for the valuable information. The reference of conflict of Late K.V.Mathew I got from a doctoral thesis on Trade Union Movement in Kerala. It was observed that many such references were not true. Sorry to bring it to you. However, I am profoundly thankful for the information given by you.
Raju K.Vasu,
Karad, Maharashtra
19/07/2015
George J Mathew was elected also in 2001 to the State Assembly from Kanjirappally
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