‘Mother and Child’ by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), one of his paintings of the women of Travancore. Between 1810 and 1829, two Queens regnant, Rani (Queen) Lakshmi and her younger sister Parvati, carried out far-reaching reforms in Travancore, and Parvati brought up Lakshmi’s sons to be equally progressive rulers, who blended East and West together in one of the best-run states of the Raj.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1809 the Kingdom of Travancore was embroiled in a unsuccessful rebellion against Colonel Colin Macaulay, the East India Company’s Resident there.* A year later the Raja, Balarama Varma,* died, leaving his troubled kingdom to his nineteen-year-old niece Lakshmi.* Her sex told against her at first, and a distant cousin and court favourite almost supplanted her; but Colonel John Munro, the new Resident, ensured that Rani Lakshmi ascended the throne on November 7th, 1810.
Already signs of change were evident. Lakshmi welcomed Munro to the palace, which (as Europeans were low caste) no predecessor would have done, and defied expectations of women by giving a gracious public speech at her durbar. She then dismissed her Dewan (Prime Minister), on the grounds of corruption, appointed Munro in his place, and embarked on a sweeping reform of the Kingdom. Taxes were cut or abolished, and long-standing debts forgiven. The justice system was overhauled, the national debt cleared, and trading in slaves abolished;* and in 1813, the Rani became the first patient in a kingdom-wide vaccination programme.*
Colonel Colin Macaulay (1760-1836), a Scottish soldier who served the East India Company in India, fighting in the Battle of Seringapatam and spending two years as one of Tipu’s prisoners. He returned to England in 1811 and joined his close friend Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, in campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade.
Avittom Thirunal Balarama Varma (?1782-1810) succeeded Dharma Raja Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma in 1798.
Maharani Ayilyom Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi (1791–1815), who ruled from 1810 to her death. Her prince consort was Raja Raja Varma Koil Thampuran, one year her senior, who advised her ably throughout her reign.
By Royal Proclamation on December 5th, 1812. As in Britain, trading in slaves was abolished before slavery itself: that was ended in Travancore by Rani Lakshmi’s son Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma (r. 1846-1860), through his Royal Proclamations of 1853 and 1855.
General John Munro (1775-1858), 9th of Teaninich, went out to serve in the Madras Army in 1791, and was appointed British Resident in Travancore and Cochin in 1810, assuming the role of Dewan (Prime Minister) from 1811 to 1814, and then playing an advisory role until he retired to his family home, Teaninich Castle in Ross and Cromarty, northern Scotland, in 1819.
Vaccination was a British invention. See Jesty and Jenner’s Jab.
Précis
In 1810 the throne of Travancore passed to Lakshmi, who inherited a kingdom in turmoil over the role of the East India Company. The new Queen, who was just nineteen, asked the Company’s resident, Colonel Munro, to help her steady the kingdom, and their policies included lowering taxes, halting the slave trade and improving healthcare. (54 / 60 words)
Part Two
General John Munro, pictured in 1843. Munro ensured that Lakshmi duly inherited her uncle’s throne as Queen regnant in 1810. Thereafter, he helped her and her sister Parvati implement the blend of traditional and progressive policies they wanted until he returned home to Scotland in 1819. The two queens very much knew their own minds, and Munro was no puppet-master. That however did not deter Ummini Thampi, Lakshmi’s disgraced Dewan, from trying to assassinate him.
MUNRO, always uncomfortable with his dual role, stepped down in 1814 to make way for an Indian Dewan, and Rani Lakshmi died in 1815. Fortunately, her thirteen-year-old sister Parvati continued her reforms.* She encouraged the cultivation of coffee beans and other industries to boost the economy, repealed discriminatory legislation and taxes based on caste or religion, and by her historic Rescript of 1817 placed at least two state-funded teachers in every school. Hers, Munro told the Company, was an ‘intelligent, liberal and ingenuous mind,’ and such was Parvati’s standing that two years later Travancore was allowed to raise an army for the first time since the troubled days of Balarama Varma.*
Parvati had always regarded herself as a Regent, and duly resigned the throne in favour of her nephew, Lakshmi’s son Swathi Thirunal, as soon as he turned sixteen in 1829.* He quickly capitalised on the efforts of his aunt and mother, to make Travancore one of the best-governed states of the whole Empire.
In 1804, Balarama Varma’s Dewan, Velu Thampi, cut spending on Travancore’s army, prompting a mutiny. The British quelled it, disbanded the army, and then demanded the Raja pay for British soldiers instead. Velu Thampi, who had been pro-British, feared loss of sovereignty and did not pay up; eventually he raised a revolt, which ended in defeat at Quilon in 1809.
Uthrittathi Thirunal Gowri Parvathi Bayi (1802–1853) ruled from 1815 to 1829, when she stood aside for her nephew Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma.
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma (1813-1846) ruled from 1829 to his death.
Vaccination was a British invention. See Jesty and Jenner’s Jab.
Précis
After Queen Lakshmi died in 1815, her sister Parvati succeeded her. Though just thirteen, she drew on Munro’s experience to continue her sister’s reforms, abolishing discriminatory legislation and introducing state-funded teachers to Travancore’s schools. Parvati resigned the throne in favour of her nephew Swathi Thirunal, Lakshmi’s son, in 1829, who carried on the two Queens’ progressive policies. (55 / 60 words)
