The 1837 Koot Uprising

On March 30, 1837, an agrarian mob of about 500 Kodavas armed with matchlocks, sticks, and bill-hooks (coithas), collected at Puttur, some distance from Mangalore. The collector, with 150 Sepoys, marched to Puttur, and took possession of the traveller’s bungalow. Though they had access to a perfectly defensible position with water and grain, they abandoned it and retreated to Mangalore at night, arriving on April 3rd.

Basel Mission Archives

Next morning, the civil and military authority decided to abandon Mangalore along with the sepoys, their families, and the treasury, and sail to Cannanore, 80 miles distant.  Government staff and sepoys with their families, and the treasury marched down to the beach for immediate embarkation. This was 36 hours before a single rioter from Puttur appeared.

The sepoys almost broke out into open mutiny when they learned, that due to a lack of boats, the families could not be boarded, and that they were required to leave them behind. Government staff and families, meanwhile, were sent off by sea to Tellicherry and Cannanore.  

No rioters were seen in the town before about 1 p.m. on April 5th. Meanwhile, such was the terror, panic, and total anarchy at Mangalore, that every inhabitant who could leave had abandoned the town. For the preceding three days, with no government staff left at Mangalore, every department had ceased to function. This general flight, was given as the chief reason for the resolution taken on April 4th for Government staff to abandon Mangalore, and leave those who could not fly to the mercy of "the insurgents, who were reported to be assembled in number about 10 or 12,000, and determined to take Mangalore.”

The official report to the Governor in Madras, made by the Criminal Judge of Kanara from Cannanore on the 6th, reported arson in several parts of the town, the blowing up of the magazine, and general massacre attended with a vast loss of life, both to the civil and military departments of the Government. Contrary to this report, Brown states that “not a hair of the head of one of the servants of the Government was touched, nor hardly a native life lost, nor the Magazine approached, during the two attacks of Mangalore, on April 5 and 7.” In fact, the rebels had fled and dispersed in all directions at the very first discharge from the sepoys. These overtook and slaughtered them in great numbers.

The judge’s official report reached the Governor in Madras on April 12th. The official dispatch from Mangalore dated 10th, reported the defeat and dispersion with great slaughter of "the rebels". It reached him on or before the 16th. It also reported the casualties sustained by the troops: "one Sepoy killed, three wounded, one since dead." This casualty list in itself should have been sufficient to reveal to the Governor the kind of enemies and assailants the troops had encountered. Yet, the governor, on May 9th, issued his General Order recording "much satisfaction" on the manner in which the garrison defended Mangalore against repeated assaults by superior numbers, and under the uncertainty of being reinforced or relieved. This, despite the fact that one European and of two Native regiments were then stationed at Cannanore, 80 miles distant (12 hours sailing time) from Mangalore. He then proclaimed martial law in Kanara. The very same infantry regiment which garrisoned Mangalore and had attempted to abandon the town was employed in enforcing martial law, and apprehending suspects. The President of the Court Martial was the same officer who had marched his troops to the beach for embarkation.

The power of confirming, and of carrying, without reference to Madras, into immediate execution the capital sentences passed upon the prisoners by the Court Martial, was delegated to, and vested in the hands of the Officer commanding the Provinces of Malabar and Canara, a stranger to the people, and generally to the country. This empowerment was done under Regulation VII of 1808 covering treason and rebellion. Those convicted were subject to "the immediate punishment of death, by being hanged by the neck till dead" and of the forfeiture "to the British Government of all property and effects, real and personal."

Judges were deputed from Tellicherry to Mangalore to try the prisoners spared by martial law.  In Mangalore, however, they were unable to get any information from the officer (a Bombay officer, an entire stranger) to whom they were officially referred for the information, what prisoners they were to try. The judges were assisted by the collector, magistrate, and their assistants, all of whom had abandoned Mangalore on April 4th. These functionaries were also the sole civil functionaries who were actively engaged in detecting, seizing, committing, and arraigning capitally, all persons accused of participation, overt or covert, in the disturbances. They were aided by the native officers of revenue and police, many of whom had disappeared for three days previous to the attacks.

On September 16th, the governor appointed a commission, consisting of a military and of a civil member to inquire into the causes of the insurrection. On October 20th, the military member was relieved from the Commission, and on December 1st, his replacement was permitted, citing ill-health, to relinquish his appointment. No replacement was made. On December 5th, the civil member was also relieved. None of the members had, till then, proceeded further than Bangalore.

The appointment of the commission was resented by certain authorities at Mangalore. They had accessed Brown’s letters to the governor. Brown heard from a reliable source that the town-crier was sent about the town with a proclamation prohibiting anyone from even speaking of the scenes and events they had witnessed, under pain of being immediately seized, and sent to jail.

References

Brown, Francis Carnac. 1838. Letters to and from the Government of Madras relative to the disturbances in Canara in April 1837. London