RAMYA KANNAN
The reign of the Nawabs of Arcot was characterised by their amicable relationship with their Hindu subjects.
More than three centuries ago, when Zulfikar Ali rode down to the fertile plains of the Carnatic, at the head of a strong Mughal army to conquer the region for his Emperor, Aurangazeb, little did he realise that he would be establishing an aristocracy in the South that would last the ravages of both war and time.
Zulfikar Ali quelled the rising Marathas and set up the hegemony of the Emperor below the Vindhyas. Thrilled with the development, the Emperor rewarded his loyal emissary with the title of the Nawab of Carnatic/Arcot in 1692. From him then begins the story of the Carnatic Nawabs, an interesting and essential part of the history of South India. For the house of the Nawabs, the city of Chennai, its seat for a long while, is part of living history. At every corner, one encounters small vignettes of the history, be it Chepauk Palace or the Wallajah Big Mosque in Triplicane that helped turned the pages in the voluminous history book of the Nawabs of Arcot.
Important period
The period of their rule continues to be an important period in the history of South India, marking the tumultuous age when the suzerainty of the grand Mughal empire waned in the face of a stronger conqueror — the British. The Nawabs have yielded enough riches to fill several thousands of books on the institution and its many rulers.
However, this would have been a different story indeed had Zulfikar Ali’s line not been interrupted. The second dynasty of the Nawabs of Arcot began with Nawab Muhammad Anwaruddin Khan (1744-1749), who descended genealogically from the Second Caliph of Islam Hazarath Omar-e-Bin Khattab. It is from this hoary lineage that the present Prince of Arcot, the Eighth Prince, Nawab Mohammad Abdul Ali comes.
After the death of Nawab Muhammad Anwaruddin, there was a dispute for succession between Muhammad Ali and Husein Dost. In this quarrel, the French and the English, then competing for influence in the Carnatic, took opposite sides. The British supported Muhammad Ali and after their victory, established him as the Nawab of the Carnatic/Arcot over part of the Carnatic till his death in 1795. The British continued to play a significant role in the fortunes of the House of Arcot over the years.
In 1801, the British took over the military and civil administration from the Nawab, who was reduced to being a titular head of the Carnatic. Azim-ud-Dowla was installed by British Government on July 31, 1801 and he administered his private endowments and the properties comprised therein. There is an online record (http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/arcotsdiamonds.html ) of Nawab Azim-ud-Dowla gifting Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III, some brilliant diamonds, the largest of which is said to be a 38.6 carat stone.
In 1855, enforcing the Doctrine of Lapse after the last Nawab Ghulam Muhammed Ghouse Khan died without an heir, the British government took over much of the property of the Arcot Nawab. Two years later, the British built a university (Madras University) and a Senate Hall on Palace lands. The Senate Hall itself came up on the site that once housed the Artillery Park of the Nawabs, from where cannons were fired to greet visiting dignitaries.
Another interesting vignette that Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali recounts is that it was the personal bathing pavilion, established at the south end of the Cooum River, for Nawab Wallajah that subsequently became the residence of Governors Clive and Wellesley. After a few years, the British granted the perpetual title of “Prince of Arcot” to the uncle of Ghulam Muhammed Ghouse Khan, Azim Jah, who staked his right to succeed his nephew. In this upheaval, the family of the Nawabs lost its seat, the Chepauk Palace, a fine exposition of the Indo Saracenic style of architecture. Parts of the edifice, subsequently used by the State of Tamil Nadu to house its official buildings, have collapsed and this ancient monument now cries for attention.
The attention, for instance, that Amir Mahal, the present residence of the Prince of Arcot, is getting. Restoration work is on at the Amir Mahal, undertaken by the Central Public Works Department. Like most other similarly-aged buildings in this part of the country, the Amir Mahal that currently houses 600 people including the royal family, also comes with an interesting tale.
During the time of Prince Azim Jah Bahadur, the first Prince of Arcot, it was the Police court that functioned in the present campus at Royapettah. The present Prince of Arcot, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, who took over in 1993 says the Government of India, which was maintaining the building, wanted to make a gift of it to his grandfather, Nawab Ghulam Mohiuddin Khan in 1957, and desired that he and his successors-in-title continue to hold possession of the house and maintain it in future. However, the then Prince of Arcot represented to the Government that he and his successors would not be able to look after the upkeep and repairs of the palace and to pay the taxes, including wealth tax and municipal tax. He requested the Government to maintain status quo and the government agreed.
The premises where the present Egmore Court is situated were purchased by the British Government for Rs.45,000 and the Royapettah Police Court was shifted there. The older building, subsequently known as Royapettah House, was converted into a residential building after making certain alterations and improvements for the use and occupation of the Prince of Arcot. The second Prince of Arcot, Prince Zahir-ud-Dowla Bahadur, was the first in the family to occupy the building in 1876, by then renamed Amir Mahal at the request of the first Prince, his father, Azim Jah Bahadur.
Technically, it is Azim Jah Bahadur who begins a new chapter in the history of the royal house of the Carnatic. On April 12, 1871, a grand ceremony was held in the Banquet Hall (Now Rajaji Hall) to present the first Prince of Arcot with the title. Earlier, in 1867, Azim Jah Bahadur, the uncle of the last Nawab of Arcot, Ghulam Muhammad Ghouse Khan, was nominated as the Prince of Arcot by the British and granted an annuity of Rs. 3 lakh of which parts were to be paid to his heirs in perpetuity.
The 1871 function, full of pomp and splendour, befitting the occasion, was attended by the then Chief Justice of Madras, the Members of Council, the Provincial Commander-in-Chief, the principal Civil and Military officials of the Presidency, and many prominent residents of Madras. The Governor of Madras conferred the title of Prince of Arcot, or Ameer-i-Arcot in India on Azim Jah Bahadur and the right of succession to his male heirs, and presented to him the Letters Patent issued by Queen Victoria. Today, the Prince continues to enjoy certain special privileges, honours and courtesies accorded to him by the Government to the Prince of Arcot since the late 1800s. He has also been accorded a very high protocol by the Governments of India and Tamil Nadu in the Warrant of Precedence and his rank is on a par with State Cabinet Ministers.
The chief characteristic of the reign of the Nawabs was the amicable relationship that they enjoyed with their Hindu subjects. Coming in for special mention in this case is the most popular and long-serving Nawab of the family of Arcot Muhammad Ali Wallajah, titled “Amirul Hind Nawab Wallajah”. He administered the area in South India comprising Palghat in Kerala on the West and Kanyakumari in the South and Bidar in Karnataka and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh in the North from 1749 to 1795 A.D. He founded the Big Mosque and the Anwari Mosque at Triplicane and the Mamoor Mosque at Angappa Naicken Street in Chennai, besides several other mosques in the Carnatic. Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, the current Prince, recounts that Nawab Wallajah’s personal assistant was a Hindu, Makhan Lal, whose name is inscribed on the walls of the Big Mosque right below a piece calligraphed by him. Even today, he adds, a significant proportion of the administrators of the estate and trusts of the House of Arcot are Hindus.
Nawab Wallajah used to send carpets, chandeliers and oil lamps to the Holy Kaabah in Mecca and the Prophet’s Holy Mosque in Medina. The Nawabs established the Muhammedan Public Library that was recently refurbished and the ‘Langar Khana,’ known today as the Muslim Women Widows Association. They also donated vast tracts of land to Christian Missionaries in Tiruchirapalli. Subsequently these grounds came to house two important landmarks in the Tiruchi landscape – St.Bishop Heber College and St. Joseph’s College. In the Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, a famous Hindu shrine in the south of Tamil Nadu, even now the garden is called “Nawab Thottam” (Nawab Garden).
Many other temples in the South stand on lands gifted by the Nawabs. Nawab Wallajah’s philanthropy was so celebrated that a road in Chennai (Wallajah Road in Triplicane) and areas in Tamil Nadu, Wallajahbad and Wallajahpet, and a gate in Fort St.George were named after him.
Nawab Wallajah started a Madrasa in 1761, as a school for the education of the children of the Royal family of the Carnatic. Its scope was widened by Nawab Umdatul-Umra Bahadur and admission was also given to the sons of the noble men and officers of the State in the early 19th century. Nawab Ghulam Ghouse Khan Bahadur, the last Nawab of the Carnatic, threw open its doors to all children without any restrictions and for the development of Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages. It was after his poetic name “Azam” that this Madrasa came to be known as Madrasa-I-Azam on the arterial Anna Salai, in Chennai.
Bronze coins from the Arcot era stand further testimony to the Nawabs’ sense of secularism. On one side of the coins are inscriptions in Tamil or Arabic — Nawabu, Wala, Anwarudu, Chanda Sahib. On the other, the symbols of Islam —crescents and mosques — cohabit the greening bronze with animals, birds and Hindu deities. “Apparently, there were even coins with Lord Muruga on his peacock and Anjaneya,” Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali says, rueing that these coins are no longer in the possession of the family.
Landmarks
Another prominent landmark in Chennai, The Thousand Lights Mosque, also owes its existence to the Nawabs of the Carnatic. It was built by Nawab Umdat-ul-Umrah in the year 1810. The name derives from the tradition that 1000 and more oil-lamps used to light up an Assembly Hall that once occupied the wedge between Mount Road and Peter’s Road that is now occupied by the Mosque. Land for the construction of the Kapaleeswarar Temple tank in Mylapore was donated by the Nawabs. Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali says even today, as per an agreement reached by his ancestors, on the 10th day of Mohurram, Hindus allow their Muslim brethren to use the waters of the tank.
The Prince of Arcot continues in the tradition of his forefathers, focussing his energies on secularism and philanthropy. This two-time former Sheriff of Madras is involved in a number of social causes, providing support to economically poorer sections of his community and society. He started Harmony India in 1990 to promote secularism, communal amity and national integration. On the advice of his father, the seventh Prince of Arcot, Nawab Ghulam Mohammed Abdul Khader, he revived the ancestral Wakf property at Mecca to benefit Hajj pilgrims from Tamil Nadu in Mecca by buying a new Wakf property in Mecca close to the Grand Mosque, Holy Kaaba.
And the link with his hoary past still remains strong as Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali manages to persuade the past to visit the present. He continues to administer his ancestral religious charitable endowments, The Prince of Arcot Endowments, through which he maintains several mosques, madrasas and graveyards in Tamil Nadu, besides providing for poor feeding. The administration of it is still regulated by the Madras Act II of 1923 and U.M. Khalilullah, chartered accountant, is the agent to the endowments.
Since 1911, the Collector of Madras has been the paymaster to the Carnatic stipends, also acting as the liaison between the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Prince of Arcot.
The Carnatic Family Association, formed nearly seven decades ago, was re-registered 15 years ago and continues to provide scholarships and financial help to family members. The mother of the present Prince of Arcot Jeelani Begum is the president of the Association and co-ordinates its activities which include conducting sports tournaments and celebrating major festivals with members of various religions.
Even as the Prince of Arcot and his wife Sayeeda Begum occupy the top of the hierarchy in the family, their eldest son Mohammed Asif Ali, a businessman, is being groomed to succeed his father. His little son Mohammed Ibrahim Ali, only a babe in arms, is yet too little to be instructed about the role befitting a Prince, but he will, in due course, extend the organic link between the past and the present.