KOCHI: In the early pages of his most recent book, Cochin: Fame and Fables, former journalist M K Das forewarns the reader that his work is not a comprehensive history of the city. “It is more a historical narrative that seeks to recall the past that has seldom been presented,” he writes.
If you meet him in person, he would tell you that he is not a ‘historian’. But discerning readers of the book will be quick to point out that this is exactly how a history book should be written.
Indeed, his over four decades of experience as a journalist has invariably instilled in Das, a former editor of Express, the rare gift of telling a good story without bogging down the reader or boring them to death.
In Cochin: Fame and Fables, Das puts this gift to great use and lays bare Kochi, his hometown, with all her blushes and blemishes in the light. He charts her trajectory — from a cluster of fishing villages on the edge of nowhere to a booming metropolis — by inviting the readers to have a closer glimpse into the machinations of great people and institutions of that time.
Until now, there had not been a book of its kind on Kochi. Though several had tried, their works only offered patches of the story and not the whole. Some others wrote only in broad strokes as getting into the nuances of Kochi’s history was both a cumbersome and fruitless endeavour, primarily due to the unreliability of sources.
The fact remains, for years, the best sources on the history of Cochin were still the writings of travellers, explorers, merchants and bureaucrats. Ultimately, it took a journalist of Das’ experience to sift through all the material and put together a cohesive and comprehensive account.
For this alone, Das is a historian. For Kochi. Much like how we have William Dalrymple for Delhi and Manu S Pillai for the state capital.
In his latest work, Das talks about three great events that changed the face of Kochi. The game changers, he calls them. They are the setting up of the port, the railway line and with it, electricity and other utilities, and the airport. He gets into the real meat of each subject, the administrative to-and-fros of the matter, thus lending a unique perspective into the politicks of the time.
Discerning readers might find some repetition of ideas within the pages. These seemingly unavoidable reiterations are symbolic of the interconnectedness of the happenings of the time, glued together by the ink of administration.
Indeed, the efficiency of its administration was one of the hallmarks of the erstwhile Cochin state. In documenting this, Das’s work could also be termed an ‘administrative history’ of Cochin.
Furthermore, Das, at 86, in trying to find his way into the labyrinths of the past has paved a road for others to follow in unearthing the legacy of Kochi. In fact, he is one of the persons responsible for ending the bizarre practice of seeking permission from an office in Thiruvananthapuram to access Kochi archives. He admits that there’s more work to be done.
Now, to accommodate the arts and cultural aspects that were inevitably dropped in the making of this book, the reluctant historian is mulling a sequel.
Some gems from the book
The credit for attracting passenger liners to Cochin should go to Sir Robert Bristow. It was at his initiative that an operator, Bibby Line, agreed to operate a service provided its two conditions were fulfilled — proper lighting of the outer channel and a proper hotel accommodation at the port. In October 1934, the Madras government agreed to construct a ‘port hostel’. It was completed in four-and-a-half months at a cost of Rs 2 lakh. It was officially opened on March 8, 1935. Thus began the legendary Malabar Hotel, now owned by the Indian Hotels Ltd of the Tata Group.
The fort in Fort Kochi, the first European-built fort in the country, was constructed of stems of coconut tree in two lines and filled with sand with a moat all around. It was later rebuilt with masonry walls and several bastions fitted with cannons.