19th Century Cinnamon Plantation

This short, illustrated post is mainly for Tea and Rubber Planters who might find it interesting from a historical point of view.

Visit to Malabar Dec 2023

I recently visited Kannur District, which hosts within its land area, Mahé district of the Union Territory of Pondicherry (Puducherry). This Union Territory was originally the headquarters of the “French East India Company (or “Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales” in French).

The Union Territory of Pondicherry consists of four districts: Puducherry district, Karaikal district, Yanam district, and Mahé district.

Pondicherry or Puducherry is located approximately 160 kilometers south of Chennai (Madras) when traveling by road.

Other French possessions were Karaikal, 150 kms south of Pondicherry and Yanam, 822 km north of Pondicherry.

Mahé was the sole French possession on the West coast of India and became a district of Puducherry on the East coast of India in 1954.

Mahé is an enclave within Kannur District (on the northern and eastern sides), Kozhikode District on the southern side and the Arabian Sea on the western side.

This blog is not about Mahé, but about a small town in Kannur called, “Anjarakandi”.

More about Mahé in the next post.

Anjarakandi in modern Kannur District came under the influence of the East India Company (EICo) after the Treaty of second Anglo-Mysore War in 1792.

Anjarakandi

The first item on my bucket-list was Anjarakandi, about 16 kms from Kannur.

It is not altogether clear what “Anjarakandi” means. One suggestion is that it is derived from the Malayalam for a forest (“Kandi” – possibly Malabar Malayalam dialect) washed by five rivers (Anju Aaru).

“Anjara Kandi” could also mean 5½ “Kandi” where Kandi is a unit of weight (no longer in use) in Malayalam. [Requires more study].

Cinnamon

Although pepper was the most sought after spice from the Bombay Presidency which controlled Mangalore, Thalassery, Calicut, Kochi and Anjengo, Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) had emerged as an important spice used in sweet and savoury dishes.

The name Cinnamomum zeylanicum suggests that its original home was Ceylon or Sri Lanka. The cinnamon found in the forests of the Eastern Ghats is known as Cinnamomum cassia and has a bold taste which is different from the delicate flavour of Ceylon Cinnamon (C.zeylanicum and C.verum).

The Dutch invested heavily in Ceylon Cinnamon and tried to cultivate it in other areas under their influence like the Moluccas or Spice Islands.

The East India Company tried to establish Cinnamon in Malabar. Wikipedia gives an earlier date for establishing the spice plantation.

According to Wikipedia:

“Anjarakandy Cinnamon Plantation is located in Thalassery, India. It was established by the British East India Company in 1797 and was the world’s largest cinnamon plantation at that time. The plantation is spread over nearly 200 acres and is considered the largest cinnamon plantation in Asia. Originally, the plantation was a mixed plantation of cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and other spices, but today it specializes in cinnamon and the oil that is extracted. Visitors are permitted to view the process of preparing cinnamon spice and extraction of oil.”

Another source credits “Murdoch Brown”, an European planter with having established the first Cinnamon plantation in the Malabar in India, at Anjarakandi “in the 1800’s”.

He bought “about 250 acres of land in Anjarakandi and started a cinnamon plantation.”

This date (1800’s) is more credible than 1797, as the Third Anglo Mysore War resulting in the death of Tipu Sultan ended only in 1799. The Malabar District was ceded to the EICo only in the early 1800’s.

“The exact year of Malabar being made a district of the Madras Province can be pinpointed to the early 19th century, and it was part of a broader process of administrative reorganization by the British East India Company.” [Chat GPT]

Murdoch Brown

The name Murdoch Brown is also associated with the FIRST CHRISTMAS CAKE in India and the date given is 1883

“Murdoch Brown and Mambally Bapu are known for their contribution to the history of Christmas cake in India. In 1883, Murdoch Brown, a British planter who owned a cinnamon plantation at Anjarakkandy, visited Mambally Bapu’s Royal Biscuit Factory in Thalassery, Kerala. He brought a rich plum cake from England and asked Mambally Bapu to taste it and bake one just like it. Mambally Bapu agreed to the challenge and created the first Indian-made plum cake, which was certified by Brown as the best cake he had ever had.”

[See: https://storytellerslore.medium.com/anjarakandy-land-of-weaved-history-a7ca8a147b93
Murdoch Brown might have been an early planter in Tellicherry District and colourful enough to have become a legend.]

Murdoch Brown reminded me of a Scottish Tea Estate Manager under whom I trained in the early Seventies on Wentworth Estate, Cherambadi PO, Nilgiris TN.

This manager was Clyde Walker Murdoch Lawrence. Assistants claimed his initials CWM actually stood for “Collide With Murder”…

Clyde was a legend in our corner of Nilgiris District and had the nickname, “Thakkali Dorai” (Thakkali is Malayalam for “Tomato” and indicated the colour of Clyde’s face when he was excited – which was most of the time!)

The Plantation Concept

The idea of a plantation to concentrate production of cinnamon in a single area with centralised management would have revolutionised spices production, eventually leading to plantations of other agricultural products like tea, rubber, coffee, banana, cocoa and oilpalm.

Economies of scale including coordinated processing and packaging would reduce overall costs.

Most of all, in an emerging political environment, producers have fewer community leaders, feudal authorities and State Officials to deal with.

Although monocrops and centrally managed plantations could be more vulnerable to pest and disease attack, preventive and control measures can be planned and administered easily.

Centrally managed monitoring and control, together with application of fertiliser and pest and disease control measures assist in prompt surveillance and appropriate action.

Data collection and analysis supports better informed decision-making.

Consolidated Marketing and Distribution: Products from centrally managed plantations can be marketed and distributed more efficiently. The central authority can negotiate better deals with buyers, manage inventory, and oversee distribution networks, ensuring a smoother flow of products to the market.

Plantation management would have shown the way for traders to take control of many of the weak areas in seasonal collection, primary processing and packaging for sales.

Centralised management can respond swiftly to market trends, environmental changes, and emerging technologies, fostering long-term sustainability.

Cheap Labour

The Plantation industry developed on the availabiliry of cheap if not (wage) free labour (slavery).

As labour wages increase, plantation production costs will reflect this cost and affect output.

Labor-intensive methods are employed for tasks such as plucking, pruning, and processing tea leaves. The labor costs associated with these activities can make up a substantial portion of the overall production costs.

In the tea industry “…It is not uncommon for labor costs to account for a significant share of production expenses, often exceeding 50% of the total.” [Chat GPT]

In Malabar District, certain castes (Cherumar and Paraya) worked for landlords under feudal relationships.

Slavery was officially abolished in the territories of British India, including British Malabar, through the Indian Slavery Act of 1843. This legislation declared that no person should be held in slavery or servitude within the territories of British India. [Chat GPT]

Social evils, usually coupled with personal gain are difficult to eradicate overnight and exploitation of wage labour continued well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

My Visit to Anjarakandi – 13/12/2023

I travelled in an auto from Thottada Beach to Anjarakandi – a distance of 18 kms. The File Info on the photograph with a signboard of the Kannur Medical College (DSC_0566) tells me the date was 13 Dec 2023 and the time 0819 hrs.

The auto driver, Renjit, told me that the land on which the plantation was established centuries ago had been encroached by powerful politicians. The Kannur Medical College was established there now, so there is no looking back.

At the Medical College campus, Renjit introduced me to another auto driver who enthusiastically offered to show me the spices plantation.

I changed to his auto hoping this was not a ripoff and sat calmly through the bumpy ride. We came to a densely forested area where the auto driver stopped and pointed to a densely forested area with thick thorny undergrowth.

The Cinnamomum zeylanicum trees were plainly visible although choked by the undergrowth. I plucked a leaf, crushed it and smelt it… unmistakable Vazhana in Malayalam or the Cinnamomum tamala tree, also known as Indian bay leaf in English (tejpata).

I do wish I had plucked a couple of leaves to press in a thick book… to remind me of the Kumbil Appam my mother used to make when we were children…

The auto driver brought me back to where he had picked me up and refused to take any money from me. I got into Renjit’s auto and asked him to stop somewhere where we could get traditional Kerala food.

I was hoping to find a place with “Kumbil Appam“.

“Kumbil Appam” is a traditional sweet snack within Kerala cuisine. It is a steamed sweet dumpling flavored with bay leaf. The dish is made with a mixture of wheat flour, mashed bananas, and cardamom powder. The mixture is then wrapped in vazhana or therali (also known as “edana“) leaves and steamed until cooked. [ChatGPT]

Ranjit stopped at a one-room restaurant run by an elderly couple. I ordered pootter and ayala vevichathu (mackerel red fish curry), while Renjit asked for Poori masala. The food was tasty and moderately spicy. We washed up and were soon on our way to Kannur.

“Taught to Speak Exactly”

When I first went to school in Ketti, Nilgiris in 1955 (eight years old), I couldn’t speak English. There was no one in my “House” (OLDHAM) who could speak Malayalam… Many friendly students and staff tried Tamil with me… Although there are similarities, spoken Tamil and spoken Malayalam are poles apart… It may have taken me three months to be able to communicate with schoolmates and teaching staff in broken English…

I am doing some informal research on Indian English accents and came across a concept called, “Language Interference”.

I discovered that, “the concept of language interference is where the structures or sounds of one language affect the production of another language.”

“Individuals may carry the pronunciation patterns of their native language into the new language, resulting in an accent.”

So by the time I finished school in 1962, had I lost my Malayalam accent and developed a “posh” English accent?

No… I had a perfect Madras Presidency Anglo Indian accent… If you are as old as I am and as curious, you would know the difference between the three Presidency (Madras, Bengal and Bombay) English accents. Today, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi have further asserted their domination over English in a natural evolutionary process. Modern ubiquitous communications technology (TV, Social Network Videos) and a prolific Indian language cinema industry have brought about some uniformity in accents. For example, the Malayalam Accent of Malabar, influenced by Tulu, Kannada, Tamil and Arabic has become less singsong and less amusing to the Central Travancore ear.

In Madras State, (after Independence) to my ears, there were four distinct English accents:

1. a “pariah” (English) accent, peppered with profanities,
2. a Railway Colony accent (a somewhat singsong, expressive accent), and…
3. … an educated accent [like our Ketti school teachers… “Her English is too good he said, which clearly indicates that she is foreign…” (MY FAIR LADY) … “She’s been taught to speak exactly, which English children aren’t.”] The perfect sentence construction and careful pronunciation “clearly indicate that she’s foreign…” So learning English at a good school is not the solution!
4. An “Upper Class” educated Indian English accent with minimum or no trace of native language structure, intonation or direct translation resulting in incorrect idiomatic English.

(We see that learning to speak “perfect” Wren & Martin English will still not be good enough, because that isn’t how educated English men and women speak…)

Col. Douglas McKenzie our Headmaster in 1958 taught Geography and a course in what might today be called, “Creative English Writing”.

I remember writing an essay on “Wildlife Conservation” for which I actually used a dictionary to select ostentatious words which I thought would be impressive and set my essay apart.

Pop Mac (Col. McKenzie) hauled me over the coals in front of the whole class for using such pretentious and pompous language. “This is ‘Babu English’ and you don’t want to be identified as belonging to a “Writer” (Clerk) class because of your language! The purpose of language is COMMUNICATE, NOT TO IMPRESS …

Who spoke with an upper class Indian English accent? This accent reflected the self-confidence that comes from advanced education and regular use of the language… like that of an Oxford educated uncle of mine… or ascribed and indisputable status … like that of a Malayali, pipe-smoking ICS officer I met in Delhi in 1957.

During the Sixties and Seventies and even now, there was a notion of “Fraud [English] Accents”. It is likely that an attempted reproduction of an American accent with a twang and comical sentence construction was the most popular… I have rarely heard anyone trying to copy a British accent…

My university years helped me to improve my written English and acquire a fairly handy vocabulary.

I still speak an Indian accented English, but foreign acquaintances I meet do ask where I studied English.

I decided that in view of the Constitutional definition of “Anglo Indian” I should define a new category called, “Indo-Anglian”.

The term Anglo Indian is defined as per the article 366 (2) of the Indian constitution; “a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is a native of India.”

I rejoice today, having access to AI tools to constantly improve my written English. I try my best to keep my spoken English simple and descriptive.

Image from the internet

Pazhan Kanji and Red Fish Curry

2 Dec 2023

This blog was inspired by Sayilen Radhakrishnan’s interesting WhatsApp post about “Porotta“

Parotta

uh… its “Porotta neendanaal vaazhatte” taking advantage of a spelling mistake, just to find a way to join in the conversation…

In Kottayam where I was born the Parotta (not Porotta) was relatively unknown in my childhood years. It so happened that my mother had studied in the Bombay Presidency, graduating from Wilson College. This accident of history meant that we would be introduced to Chappathies, and Maharashtrian Palaharams called, Puran Poli (which Malayalees call, “Bolly”), Nan Kattai, Padar Peni and the like.

My mother getting to experience Suriyani culture in her adult life, soon developed a fondness for tapioca or Kappa, and pazhan kanji or the previous nights rice gruel which is allowed to ferment a little…

Pazhan Kanji

In Tamil, fermented rice is called, Pazhaya Saadam”, while in Oriya it is called Pakhala and in Bengali, Panta Bhaat.

Pazhan kanji or Conjee in “Hobson Jobson” English was discovered by me on buffet breakfast tables in upmarket hotels of Shanghai, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

The Far Eastern presentation, no doubt heavily influenced by modern Hotel Management finesse is far superior to the presentation (or non-presentation) in India. There seems to be an awkwardness to offer pazhan kanji to guests, although, we were offered the dish in Vietnam, where it is called Pho (pronounced Fer or Fuh – Vietnamese being a tonal language) with all kinds of accompaniments to enhance the taste of the gruel.

Red Fish Curry

In Kottayam we grew up with sardine red fish curry which is the “recognised, traditional” complement of boiled tapioca. I remember my mother buying 100 sardines for a rupee… but that’s almost 70 years ago! There were times when there was a glut of sardines in the market, and they were bought as fertiliser for coconut trees…Sardines are a good source of NPK and Ca (Calcium).

The red fish curry is cooked in spices like red chili powder, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and curry leaves. Kodampuli or Garcinia gamboge is used as a souring agent. Never, never (unless you have no other option) make Meen Curry with tamarind. If you ever do, you will wonder why you are getting puzzled stares from others at the table, too polite to say anything.

Coconut milk could be added to enhance the richness of the curry gravy. Sardines, Mackerel and (at the high end) Seer Fish are the varieties of fish commonly used for this curry.