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Journalism of Courage
Written by Srijana Siri
A harbour on the Malabar coast is blocked by ships of the Dutch forces who have seized the fort at Colachel. The European troops fire relentlessly at the Travancore army. Four-hundred-odd houses are burnt down even as heavy rains, strong winds and rough seas batter the coast.
This is a snippet of what happened in 1741 when King Marthanda Varma fought the Dutch East India Company commanded by the famous Admiral Eustachius De Lannoy. The Battle of Colachel is of huge significance in the history of India and Asia. It was the first time that an Asian kingdom had defeated a European power. Not only were the Dutch forces decimated, but also their colonial ambitions in India stalled.
The battle also had far reaching consequences for the Travancore state. De Lannoy, who was captured in the battle, managed to earn the trust of King Varma and was made the senior admiral in the Travancore army. It was De Lannoy who trained the Travancore army in modern warfare and helped realise the King’s long-cherished dream of a united Travancore state.
Although in the present context, it is useful to see the Battle of Colachel through the lens of nationalism as an Indian ruler defeating a European force, it must be remembered that this was also the story of the territorial ambitions of a small princely state. Travancore, originally called Thiruvithamcode, was part of a rough network of the south Malabar temple states and settlements. Mark de Lannoy in his book The Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore: History and State Formation in Travancore from 1671-1758 (1997) explains that it was far from being a united state. “It lacked both a centralised form of revenue collection and a standing, centrally commanded, army,” he writes. Instead it was a patchwork of different chieftaincies.
Roughly speaking, the Travancore state consisted of three parts: Venad, Jayasimhanad, and Odanad. Different branches of the royal family ruled from these places. Relations between the different arms of the family were fraught, often attacking each other.
From the early 17th century, Travancore kings such as Aditya Varma and Ravi Varma made several efforts to unite the kingdom and establish a centralised administration but failed miserably. The constant fear of more attacks and lack of trust in governance systems only created more divisions. However, with the rise of Marthanda Varma, Travancore found its leader who in a set of strategic moves united and developed the kingdom.
Born in 1705, Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma was the son of Aditya Varma’s sister. To expand the kingdom, Marthanda Varma kept a keen eye on the failing alliances between neighbouring rulers. He eliminated internal opposition, annexed many neighbouring regions and set a strong foundation for a centralised state.
Historian MO Koshy in his book Dutch Power in Kerala (1989) writes that King Marthanada Varma’s speed and focus on expansion threatened rulers in the neighbouring Kayamukulam, Kollam, Attingal and other regions. As a result, they tried to turn the Dutch East India Company, which was looking to secure its trade interests in the region. Upon annexing several of these states, Marthanada Varma had refused to honour the monopoly contracts of the Dutch with the local kings. Consequently, the Dutch decided to prepare their forces at Colachel near Quilon for immediate action.
Just like the neighbouring kings, the Dutch too were perturbed by Varma’s ambition to expand the kingdom. There were also rumours that the King had military relations with the English. Mark de Lannoy writes that the English supplied gunpowder, lent artillery and three ships to Varma. This further strained the relationship between the Dutch and Travancore.
However, it was not just the English connection that enraged the Dutch. They also had internal conflicts which were charged enough for some officials to just leave the Dutch army and join hands with Tranvanore. De Lannoy suggests Carl August Duijvenschot was one such German-Dutch official.
Meanwhile, the rulers of Cochin and Kayamukulam started to instigate the Dutch against Varma. Since they were not equipped to handle Varma’s army, they wanted the Dutch to distract Varma as a means of protecting their own borders.
In February 1741, the Dutch landed a fleet of soldiers from their colony in Ceylon at Colachel and began attacking many villages and the Travancore army. Describing the confrontation, historian P Shungoony Menon in History of Travancore from the Earliest Times (1878) writes, “They committed many depredations and atrocities, plundered all the valuables in the bazaars and houses of rich people”.
Hearing about the attack, Marthanda Varma deployed his military commander, Rama Iyer Dalawah to take on the Dutch. Menon believes the Dutch even wanted to attack Varma’s palace at Padmanabhapuram, but were “frustrated by Dalawah’s arrival where he reinforced the regular infantry”.
A furious Varma shot off written complaints to the Government in Batavia — the Dutch East Indies — and the Government of Cochin. Not to miss the opportunity, the French joined hands with Varma and supported him against the Dutch in exchange for some commerce in Travancore.
On June 6, 1741, the estranged Dutch officials and the English also attacked the Dutch company at Colachel. Dujivenschot who had joined forces with Travancore trained all the Englishmen there and “supervised the siege of Colachel”. De Lannoy writes, “the siege was carried out in a European way with batteries, gabions, trenches and casemates”.
Regular attacks and the long siege at the Colachel Fort depleted the Dutch supplies and manpower. The soldiers were tired, without food and arsenal. Hundreds of soldiers were being dispatched but Varma’s keen eye did not miss the dire situation of the Dutch.
With the Dutch on the backfoot, the Travancore army began to make its way into Colachel. Koshy in his book describes that on August 5, “a burning hot bullet of the Travancore forces hit the gunpowder barrel by accident.” There was a huge explosion and the flames gutted the food provisions. The fire raged on for two days and finally on the second day the Dutch surrendered.
Only 24 Dutchmen made it through the battle and were sent to “Udayagherry and taken great care of”. There is still mention of nine prisoners from this war in accounts. On August 31, the Travancore army sieged Colachel fort to which “389 muskets, with a few pieces of cannon and a number of swords were taken”, writes Menon.
Although largely missing from popular records of the episode, there is a special role that the fishermen community in the region, locally known as the ‘Mukkuvar’, played in the victory of Travancore. De Lannoy in his work has explained that the Dutch needed the Mukkuvar’s help to build fortifications, trenches, makeshift sheds and storerooms to be able to continue with the war. For this the Dutch are known to have offered the Mukkuvar pots of money. The non-cooperation of the fisherman owing to their steadfast loyalty to the Travancore king is what led to the ultimate defeat of the Dutch. Members of the Mukkuvar community are also known to have delayed Dutch reinforcements from reaching Colachel.
The victory at Colachel affected and provided resilience to Varma’s expansion plans and resistance to colonial rule. As for the Dutch, they never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat in India. A decade later, in 1753, the Dutch signed the Treaty of Mavelikkara with Varma, thereby officially ending their political and commercial dominance on the southern Kerala coast. Henceforth, the pepper trade was taken over by the Travancore state.
Some historians though hold the view that the episode does not merit the kind of glorification attached to it. Koshy, for instance, writes “available military records do not warrant the use of the term ‘battle’ to describe what happened at Colachel.” “Beyond an accidental shot, nothing like a continuous exchange of gunfire had taken place. It would therefore be more apposite to use the term confrontation rather than battle. The Dutch forces were compelled to surrender because their provisions had run out due to the fire.”
After the war though, Varma treated the Dutch prisoners respectfully and made them a part of his army. Most of them served as majors, captains in Travancore. Eustachius De Lannoy trained the sepoys of Travancore in the European styles of war. Varma was very pleased with De Lannoy and he was asked to supervise the construction of the fort at Udayagiri. He was conferred the title ‘Valia Kappithan’ (senior admiral) and served Travancore for 36 years before he died on June 1, 1777.
Further reading
M. O. Koshy, The Dutch Power in Kerala, 1729-1758. 1st ed, Mittal Publications, 1989.
M.O Koshy, ‘The Trade Monopoly Of Travancore 1743-44’. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Indian History Congress , 1989.
Mark de Lannoy, The Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore: History and State Formation in Travancore from 1671 to 1758, Leiden University, 1997.
P. Shungoonny Menon, History of Travancore from the Earliest Times , Asian Educational Services, 1998.
