Chapter VII – Vorago
An Uncertain Future
Radhabai passing away in March 1939, caused the big house in Baroda to be thrown into a turmoil.
Bal – 1939
Sunderben's services were no longer required as a caregiver, and I am certain that the underlying currents about her continued presence and debatable position in the house would have caused consternation not just within the immediate family members, but also adverse reactions from Panemanglor and Hosangadi families, amongst others.
That may have been the reason that KNP
made the shocking decision to hastily marry Sunderben within six months of
Radhabai passing on.They were married at Somnath - likely at the Old Somnath Temple or Ahilyabai Temple.
With Sunderben having been a (sort of) family member for so long, this lady seems to have taken over the running of the household quite seamlessly, possibly also because Nalini was in Madras then. One fact may be pointed out here: this lady was fiercely protective of KNP, who appears to have become cowed down by the new wife, and allowed her to take important decisions regarding his family's affairs including the children and finances.
KNP with Sunderben – circa 1940, Chhota Udepur
There were to be repercussions, however – some family accounts say that the new Gaekwar – Maharaja Pratapsinh – (who knew KNP very well) – was very annoyed by KNP's unseemly behaviour in remarrying so soon and that KNP was made to retire from the Baroda State Service in 1940. However, the Dewan Sir V. T. Krishnama Chari may have been instrumental in KNP being employed early 1941, as the Naib Dewan (Revenue Member/Officer), in the Princely State of Chhota Udepur [Ch.U. here on] – around 107 km away from Baroda, close to the Gujarat border with Madhya Pradesh. Maharawal Natwarsinhji Saheb Chauhan (entitled to a 9 gun salute) was the ruler of Ch.U. and had studied in and passed out from my Alma Mater – Rajkumar College, Rajkot.
In the meanwhile, things were not going too well in the big house in Baroda. In the last quarter of 1939 – Nalini was in Madras at her parent's place confined for the delivery of her third child. Anuradha (named after her grandmother Radha) was born in Nov 1939. Anandrao (universally called Dada) had been working in Baroda since his return from England in 1937, most likely in one of the Mills in Baroda as Director of Engineering. (cn) . In 1939-40, Dada applied with the Bombay Government for a job connected with the war effort. During this period, Kamala (Kamli here on) was in Calcutta with KB Rao.
Bal, reeling from the shock of his mother's loss and acquiring a new stepmother, was told by his father that he would henceforth have to follow Sunderben's instructions.
KNP's financial status was quite precarious and further exacerbated by now being pensioned off. Sunderben made no secret of the fact that the purse strings were going to be kept tight. She bluntly told Bal that owing to the financial situation, KNP would not be able to support a fancy college education for him. In a fit of rebellion, Bal informed his father that he would pay his way through college in Bombay by working part-time, and requested his father to help him get a part-time job with Bank of Baroda.
In 1940, KNP's brother in law - Shivshankar Hosangadi had been promoted to Chief of Baroda State Police. KNP's cousin Shankar K Nayampalli had retired from Baroda State Service in 1938, and went on to get employment with the Nawab of Palanpur for two years. Subsequently, he was appointed Revenue Member with the Kutch State in 1941 and then later went on to become Dewan of this principality in 1944. He was accorded the title Dewan Badhur in 1946 and remained Dewan of Kutch till this State had joined the Indian Union.
Urbs Prima in Indis – The Gateway of India - BOMBAY!!
From a Portuguese trading outpost in the 16th century, Bom Bahia or Bombaim (or Good Bay) – the island(s) were ceded as part of Catherine de Braganza's political dowry when she married King Charles II of England in 1661. In fact, the contentious area actually consisted of an archipelago of seven islands (Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Bombay, Mazagaon, Parel, Worli and Mahim) with most areas in between being entirely submerged, whilst others were swamps or mangrove forests and tidal flats. The treaty transferring the dowry of Bombay, was vague regarding the actual lands transferred and was cause for much tension between the two nations for the next few decades. Owing to the initial hassles encountered, these islands were leased to the East India Company in 1668, for £10 per year by the British Crown. Bombay was then just a trading post trading in coconut, coir & Cadjan (thatch), as well as allowing access to the spice route.. The Company immediately set about the task of opening up the islands by constructing quays, warehouses, commercial establishments, roads, setting up of a Mint, fortifications and establishing a proper port. Throughout the 18th & 19th centuries, land reclamation was undertaken via various projects (both government and private), with construction of embankments and causeways, closing the breaches etc - to unify the islands, allowing additional areas for food cultivation, setting aside space for residential areas, the railways etc. The EIC encouraged migration to Bombay, including Gujaratis, Parsis, Jews, Armenians as well as people of all communities - aimed at encouraging trade. Subsequently, some enterprising families of Parsis, Gujaratis, Khojas, Marwaris, and other migrant communities started trading (and making their fortunes) first in opium (on the China run) and later in raw cotton during the American Civil War which had resulted in scarcity of cotton in England. With the cotton trade, these merchant princes then mainly shifted to setting up textile mills in Bombay. Many would go on to become famous philanthropists: Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, David Sassoon, Jamsetji Tata, Premchand Roychand, the Wadias, Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas, Currimbhoy Ebrahim, to name just a few. These luminaries would build hospitals, educational & research institutions, causeways, bridges, hotels, in power generation, other industries and bequeathed numerous endowments in various fields – thus enriching the lives of the Bombay dwellers.
By the 1860s, with the British firmly in control all over India, the fortifications of Bombay were no longer required & were torn down.
The area was converted into the
central district of the (now) Fort area. A collection of public buildings built
in the Victorian Neo-Gothic style (City Court buildings, The Bombay University
buildings & Rajabai Clock Tower, Elphinstone College etc) & Edwardian
Neoclassic style (Standard Chartered Bank building, Institute of Science (now
Cawasjee Jehangir Hall), Army & Navy Bldg etc.), sprang up on the Esplanade
and in the city centre.
These were complemented by buildings like Victoria
Terminus, the BB & CI Offices and many others.
However, owing to the continuing influx of migrants, there was ever shortage of land for development which resulted in a scarcity of housing, large slum areas and poor living conditions and with plagues thrown in. The Backbay Reclamation Scheme in the early 20th century was an ambitious project – originally planned to reclaim a large portion of Backbay from Malabar Hill to Colaba. Rail tracks (2' 0") were laid out and stone & earth for the reclamation were quarried at Kandivali and brought to the dumping grounds in wagon trains drawn by industrial locomotives. But poor planning and execution, delays and cost overruns with irregularities ended up with only four of eight phases being completed.
Original plan was to fill in 1500 acres of land but, only 440 acres of land were finally reclaimed – of which a little more than half was bought by the Defence Ministry. Marine Drive and the reclaimed land to the west of the (present) Churchgate station presented new opportunities for Bombay to expand to the west with Art Deco residential, commercial and cinema buildings. The Oval Maidan (earlier close to the seashore) with the collection of Victorian Gothic buildings on its eastern side, then saw some handsome Art Deco buildings coming up on its western side from the mid-1930s onwards. With reinforced cement concrete being introduced, an amazing set of buildings were coming up, designed with linear looks, aesthetic blended traditional motifs, new building materials, long curving balconies and the iconic use of primary colours and geometric patterns, ziggurats, motifs and friezes etc.
Bombay had the second largest number
of Art Deco buildings in the world. Cinema theatres: Regal, Liberty, Edward,
Eros and others; The New India Assurance, Lakshmi Insurance and Cotton Exchange
buildings; the NM Petit Fasli Agiary; the various Courts, Villas & Mahals –
and so on.
There are many Art Deco buildings which came up in other parts of Bombay – including at Nana Chowk – where there are these two large curving Art Deco building complexes: the bigger Ness Baug & smaller Ishwardas Mansion.
Our very close friends Sushi & Sudhir Karnik have a lovely quaint apartment in the C block, on the 3rd Floor of Ishwardas Mansion, which forms the curve between Kennedy Bridge and the road to Girgaum. The chowk has sadly been desecrated by an metallic skywalk – a complete white elephant, if ever there was one.
Now 80+ years later, sadly, many buildings today are in a state of decay or have even given way to redevelopment…
(This is a completely and vastly different topic and I will not digress further).
New Beginnings
(My daughter – Naina Panemanglor – a filmmaker and a fascinating story-teller – had made an audio recording of my Papa's way back in 2010, when she was on one of her film projects. We just re-discovered the recording and it proved to be a trove of information for me and helps me embellish Bal's part in my tale)
Bal arrived in this melange called Bombay beginning of 1940, which by then had become a vast garrison and supply-ground for the Imperial war effort. The Rationing Scheme had already been implemented since enormous amounts of manpower (soldiers), war materials and food were being shipped out from Bombay, besides other ports in India.
Putting up with his uncle Shivrao at Pannalal Terraces, Bal started working part-time at the
He had got admission to Sydenham College - the first college of commerce in Asia.
Initially called The Government College of Commerce, in 1916 it was renamed after Lord Sydenham, the ex-Governor of Bombay, who had helped raise finance for setting up the institute.
The college changed its location three times (originally from Elphinstone College, it moved to Whiteway & Laidlaw building at Fort [now the Khadi Bhandar] and then shifted to J. J. School of Architecture) before shifting to the present building (B Road) in the up-market (reclaimed) area of Churchgate in 1955. In 1940 when Bal started attending, the college was still on the premises of the present-day Sir J. J. College of Architecture in Fort, opposite the Victoria Terminus Railway Station.
Kamli had come down from Calcutta to Bombay for her confinement, as she was expecting. With the war on, KB was not comfortable with Kamli being in Calcutta. Kamli delivered a healthy baby boy - Vivek– on her own birthday in Sept 1940.
Some months later, Nalini had delivered their third daughter Sunila at her parent's place (Madras), in Jan 1941. When she came back to Baroda with the children mid-1941, KNP had already started at his new post as Naib Dewan (Revenue) at Ch. U. Daughter-in-law Nalini had been running the big house prior to Radhabai's demise, however now the status had changed. In this new scenario, Nalini just couldn't get along with Sunderben; there were many acrimonious confrontations between the two ladies, and Dada realised that they would have to live separately for any peace to prevail in the house. He had applied for and secured a job with the Indian Govt. Department of Supplies, as Assistant Controller (Purchase) – first with Munition Production, then later in other departments. Coincidentally, a few months later, KB had also applied and had joined the Govt. Stores Department as Deputy Controller . So, both the brothers-in-law were posted in Bombay end 1941/early 42.
Meanwhile, Bal was finding it very difficult to study in college whilst working part-time. After just a year's studies at Sydenham, Bal decided to take a drop and started working full time at Bank of Baroda. He was then earning Rs 40/month, plus Rs 5 as Bombay Compensatory Allowance. He had shifted from his uncle's place and moved in with Dada and family – who had moved to the ground floor section of a large house - Deepak, just off Linking Road in Santa Cruz.
Bal used to commute to work with another youngster who lived close by in Santa Cruz (or Bandra?) – Eustace(?)/Edward(?) (cn) D'Sousa– who also worked in the same BOB branch. These two became very good friends. In late 1941, D'Souza had decided that he would apply for the Army War Commission to join the Indian Army; he procured the application forms and talked to Bal about it.
(Assumed) Bal's photo submitted with his application 1941
According to Papa's audio recording, Bal decided to play a prank and during the lunch break, correctly filled in the application form with his own details & put it back in D'Souza's desk. Apparently, D'Souza decided to teach Bal a lesson – and he went ahead and mailed Bal's application forms to the authorities! A few weeks later, Bal received visits from some Army Intelligence personnel – Bal was asked if he had any close relations who were communists. His first cousin – Vasant Panemanglor and his wife Kamal were both communist activists – and for the authorities, there were some initial misgivings about accepting Bal for officer training.
In any case, Bal was called for several tests, medicals & interviews at the Collector's Office in Bandra as well as the Selection Board in Poona, and finally admitted for induction into the Indian Army. The family was very apprehensive and anxious about the youngster joining the Army during wartime. Around Feb 1942 Bal had to proceed to Lahore and report to Datta Officer Training School, where the group of 200 trainees went through a brutal regime of discipline, physical training, map reading, getting familiar with firearms - essentially a boot camp for two months and would earn the sobriquet of Gentlemen Cadets. Till then, Bal's only exposure to some sort of discipline was when he was in the Baroda Boys Scouts. This was the pre-induction course prior to joining the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun. From the 200, quite a large number were weeded out – but Bal made it through with around 50 others.
Physical training, drills, weapons & explosive training, character building, and leadership development formed the focus of the training. Sports, field games, cross country runs, endurance marches, close quarter battle techniques, night exercises, learning to drive different types of vehicles, survival exercises etc., were an important part of the training imparted.
Bal with a couple of his course mates at IMA. I am not certain whether his friend D'Souza was in the same course as Bal. If he was, then it's likely to be the lad on the extreme right of Bal – who described D'Souza as handsome and very athletic.
We do know that E. D'Souza also joined the Army. An "Eustace D'Souza" from Bandra also joined the IMA in 1942-43 after doing the pre-induction training at Lahore Datta OTS. This D'Souza was commissioned in the Army in June 1943 – joining the Maratha Light Infantry. He would have a brilliant career, was a superlative athlete (hockey) and retired as Maj. General. What I am not certain about, is if this was the gentleman who was Bal's friend from Bank of Baroda – and indirectly responsible for Bal joining the Army!
On completing the arduous course at IMA, Bal and some 200 others were commissioned – Gentlemen Cadet one day – and Second Lieutenant the next. During the war years, the Passing Out Parade was dispensed with, so there was no jubilation or celebratory euphoria. No families to see their pride & joy…
War!
Bal was commissioned on 14th March 1943 and assigned to the First Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment, which was at Sialkot, Punjab.
Arriving at Sialkot, Bal – now henceforth being referred to as Pani – found that the battalion had shipped out just two days previously to Assam and that he would have to follow them there. Passing through the Army bureaucracy, Pani finally joined the 1st Bn, 16th Punjab, at Dhubri (Assam) which lies on the Brahmaputra.
The regiment was part of the 33rd Indian Corps, which in turn was later included in the Fourteenth and then the Twelfth Army.
Pani with fellow officers at Dimapur 1943
The battalion moved from Dhubri to Karimgunj (Assam) and then to Dimapur (today's Nagaland) where many weeks would be spent, preparing & training for the big counterattack that was in the pipeline, as both sides tried to probe each other's strengths and weaknesses, after so many months of stalemate.
Starting with the mid-Dec 1941 attacks on British positions and sinking of the battleship 'Prince of Wales' and the battlecruiser 'Repulse', the rapid Japanese advance through Indochina and Malaysia and the Allied military disasters in South East Asia resulted in the humiliating capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore on 15th February 1942. This was a decisive Japanese victory with the largest ever surrender of British-led forces in history (80,000+ British, Australian & Indian soldiers). Soon after, over forty thousand Indian POWs joined the Indian National Army under the leadership (initially) of Rash Behari Bose and fought alongside the Japanese, who continued their sweep into Burma and by May of 1942, the Japanese had already overrun the country. Thousands of Indian civilian refugees and the remnants of the defeated forces from Burma trekked into north-eastern India by way of the Kabaw and Hukawng valley tracks.
The British were completely on the back foot, not just with the debacles in the East, but also in India, where (with the failure of the Cripps Mission) the Quit India movement had taken violent turns, and the Administration had to deploy large numbers of troops for suppressing the movement. Some months later, in 1943, there was the tragic man-made famine in Bengal where an estimated 3 million people were supposed to have perished in Bengal alone. This was not due to drought during this period, but poor and inefficient planning where a rash, short-sighted scorched earth policy was carried out in Eastern Bengal - to deny the Japs food (in case Bengal was invaded from Burma), besides a completely callous response from London/Churchill, with no staples & relief supplies being diverted to feed the millions dying, but instead sent to Europe to buffer stocks there. More deaths occurred through starvation, disease and exposure.
The combat period of three years ten months in the Burma campaign is the longest uninterrupted period of fighting in any of the World War ll theatres. The terrain was absolutely dreadful with leech-plagued jungles, steep mountains without any infrastructure, torrential monsoons and disease in this region of India and these factors dominated the operations – which could only be carried out the dry season of around 6 months. The atrocities committed by the Japanese army were extreme. Estimates of up to a million civilians are supposed to have been killed.
This was a terrible war. The casualties in this theatre from 1941 to 1945 were around 207,000 for the Allies (British Empire, USA and Chinese Forces under Chiang Kai-shek) of which around 80+ thousand perished. For the Axis (Japan, Thai Payap Army, the Burmese Independence Army and the Indian National Army), the casualties were over 210,000 out of which the Japanese alone lost around 150,000 soldiers, with another 7500 or so from the other forces.
The details of the campaign are too numerous to go into, and I present a scroll which was issued by Lt. Gen. Sir Montagu Stopford, KBE, CB, DSO, MC – which indicates the scope of the achievements of the XXXII Indian Corps:
Unfortunately, the 2nd document has been misplaced... I do recollect seeing it in the past.
Red Letter Day
Meanwhile, in the western part of India – KNP continued as Naib Dewan (Revenue Member) in Chotta Udepur. He held this post from 1941 till early 1947 when he retired. He appears to have completed doing his LLB, since that shows up in some records. By end of 1946, he was starting to keep indifferent health.
Recently, only some weeks ago, my cousin Usha, showed me a letter written by KNP to Dada – where he had written a really heart-warming letter to his eldest son. KNP's handwriting is surprisingly bad – more like what one would expect a Doctor's prescription lettering to look like!
Written from Camp Bodeli, Chotta Udepur on Sat 24th Feb 1945, I will transcribe a portion of same:
"My dear Baboo,
Hope you got my previous letters & that dear Nalini also (???) letter.
I am glad to say that for the first time in my life since I was 18 yrs old and was working in Bombay as Tutor etc, today I have been able to clear (all) my debts. So I can say today is a Red Letter Day and we all and we mutually are to be congratulated. I shall give the details of my (40 years) Loan Life later on, but during the last 4 months, I have managed to pay with your (??) + my cooperation + Gods Blessings:
1. Govt. Foreign Loan balance of Rs 3350/-
2. Bank of Baroda about Rs 2000/- (All fully paid up)
3. One Vesma(?) Navsari – old acct of Rs 1000/- I write this for your + N's info
4. + one Petlad old loan acct Rs 1250/-"
The rest of the letter is about how relieved & happy he is, going to seek the blessings of Ranchhodraiji at Dakor temple, wanting to go to Bombay and hoping that Bal will return soon from the wars, to find a suitable girl for Bal's marriage etc. etc.
What KNP does not mention in the letter is that he had sold a portion of the Baroda property in the previous four months of writing that letter, to pay off his debts and likely have some surplus funds & savings in hand, after a very long time! A Patidar (Patel) business family had bought that portion of land and subsequently put up a boys' hostel there.
Shortly after receiving this letter, in mid-1945, Dada was posted to Delhi as Deputy Director of Supplies in the Directorate General of Industries and Supplies. KB was still in Bombay and he, Kamli, Vivek, as well as KB's parents and sister Vatsala, had moved to a large bungalow on Linking Road called "Sunshine", which was very close to Deepak, where Dada, Nalini & children were staying.
One cannot help but feel sympathetic for KNP – one who had started life in a lower-middle-income but educated family in the mofussil town Kundapur, who by dint of hard work, effort and some luck, ended up in the company of one of the most prolific Maharajas of the Indian Princely States. In his own way, he established himself close to the seat of power in Baroda State. Unfortunately, he seems to have had a proclivity for being generous beyond his means.. between 1915 and 1935, he spent for his family very liberally, which included violin lessons for Bal, piano lessons for Kamala, a carriage and horses, a convertible, besides other things. I believe that his brothers working in Banks – all advised him to be more prudent with his finances & spending, but the counsel appears to have fallen on deaf ears. As had stated in an earlier chapter – this was very likely since he must have wanted to maintain his standing as a courtier with the Gaekwar, and also overcompensating his children & family because of his long absences from home owing to his foreign trips. As can be seen from the letter, KNP was plagued with the burden of debts since he was still in his teens.
In later years, this would affect my Papa's philosophy: throughout his entire career – Bal refused to take any loans, and managed on whatever he earned in the Army; he got me admitted in Rajkumar College at Rajkot when I was just over 7 years old, where the boarding & tuition fees alone would consume more than 1/3rd of his salary at the time of his retiring. An instance of his sacrifice: even when he was commanding the 1st Sikh L.I. at Ferozepur 1963-1965 – he only had a bicycle as his private transport, whilst his 2IC had a car, and other junior ranks had 2 wheelers...
And on this note, this last but one chapter comes to a close. The final curtain call will follow….
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