Chandu Lal

The title of this article is ambiguous. The one described is not to be confused with the film director Chandulal Shah

Chandu Lal (* 1766 ; † April 15, 1845 ) was an upstart who, with the support of the British, succeeded in becoming a strong man in the Indian princely state of Hyderabad .

Life path

Chandu Lal came from the simplest of backgrounds in the Punjab. He earned his living as a seller of stamps and as a copyist ( naqalnavis ). When he came to Hyderabad, he wrote letters in front of the Charminar at prices ranging from 1 anna to 1 rupee each. The Amir-i-kabir took him into the service of the customs administration. In addition, he succeeded by skill as moneylenders ( Sahukar angliziert Shroff ) success to have.

After Raja Rajindra became executive divan in 1804 , he faced the resistance of the new resident Thomas Sydenham (* 1780, † 1816) in 1806 . On the instructions of the Governor General, the latter demanded that Mir Alam be reappointed. After the latter died in 1808, the nizam, who did not (yet) want to degrade himself to the second-rate ally of the British, ran the official business himself for about six months before appointing Munir ul-Mulk . The British did not like this, they wanted Shams ul-Umara instead . As a compromise solution, Chandu Lal, who had meanwhile risen due to his good connections to financial circles, was added as peshkar to the Diwan as “advisor”. Through his unconditional submission to the British, he could always be sure of the support of the resident who had to agree to a change of office. Both Asaf Jah III. and Munir ul-Mulk, played on the wall, withdrew from active involvement in state affairs and lived a lavish luxury life in their palaces.

During Chandu Lal's tenure, buying offices and corruption reached enormous proportions, even by oriental standards. Offices, for example as tax collector of a district ( talukdar ) for one year, went to the highest bidder, whereby the winner could not be sure whether the office would not be sold a second time. Also for payment he sold (without authorization) fiefdoms , tax-exempt jagirs (fiefdoms awarded by him after 1840 were later only recognized if the legal fief was proven by further documents.) A judicial system worthy of this name did not exist, judgments went in favor of the one who had (paid) the more influential patron.

In 1812 the troops made available to the British were reorganized at the request of the resident Henry Russell . These forerunners of the Hyderabad Contingent were also at the expense of the state treasury. In 1816, with the approval of the Governor General, the minister took out a loan from the Hyderabad-based company Palmer & Co., which brought the country into debt bondage . A second loan in 1820 was not approved when, after examination by the new resident Charles Metcalfe, it was found that nearly £ 1 million had been borrowed and wasted at rates up to 24%. Further borrowing was forbidden, the income of North Circars was used for debt servicing and only 6% interest was paid. Palmer & Co. soon went bankrupt. However, waste and debt remained. Until the reforms from 1855 onwards, state finances were administered by a group of five bankers, and there was no orderly bookkeeping. The debt accumulated during Chandu Lal's tenure was still the subject of legal proceedings and the investigation of the Hyderabad Debt Commission, which was active from 1890 to 1912, at the end of the century.

Chandu Lal bought a plot of land ( Nanak Ram ) behind the Charminar . There he left from 1822 to 1830 for 150,000 Rs . build the magnificent Ram Bagh Palace (also popularly known as Bagh-i-Ram ). The garden was so large that the products grown in it brought in an annual sales revenue of Rs 10,000.

Chandu Lal was never officially appointed divan even after Munir ul-Mulk's death (1832), but he held the relevant powers in his hands. Probably the only social reform of his tenure was the ban on trafficking in children in 1833. The financial situation was so bad that British tax officials were appointed at the district level.

On September 6, 1843, he gave up his office. He received a pension of HRs 30,000 per month .

Descendants

The family was the only non-Muslim in the ruling circle. His nephew Ram Baksh succeeded him in office (1843–46 and September 1849– April 1851). His grandson Maharaja Narender Pershad Bahadur, was at the time of Salar Jung I. the private secretary of the Nizam and the chief administrator for one year. With the inauguration of Asaf Jah VI. his political career was over. Kishen Pershad , the third largest landowner in the country at the time, was prime minister from 1902 to 1912 and from 1927 to 1937.

literature

• Karen Leonard: Banking Firms in Nineteenth-Century Hyderabad Politics. In: Modern Asian Studies. Volume 15, No. 2, 1981, pp. 177-201.
• Server ul-mulk ; Yar Jung (Ed .; Ex .; Son): My Life: Being the Autobiography of Nawab Server-Ul-Mulk Bahadur. London sn [approx. 1900; Orig. Urdu] (there as "Chundoo Lall") pp. 107-109.
• Peter Wood: Vassal State in the Shadow of Empire: Palmer's Hyderabad, 1799-1867. Madison 1981. (Diss. University of Wisconsin)
• Zubaida Yazdani: Hyderabad During the Residency of Henry Russell. Oxford 1976.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ which then was to become a divan from December 1848 to February 1849.
2. ↑ On the circumstances: Hyderabad (Deccan) under Sir Salar Jung. Bombay 1886, volume 3, chap. VIII: Historical Sketch of the Administration of Justice.
3. ↑ necessary according to: Act 37, Geo., Cap. 142 from 1796
4. ↑ corresponds in today's purchasing power to £ 64,715,641. Details of the affair in: Henry G. Briggs: The Nizam. London 1861, 2 volumes.
5. ↑ cf. Leonard (1981)
6. ↑ Overview: The Englishman. June 29, 1847, cit. in Seyed Mahdi Ali: Hyderabad Affairs. Volume IV, Bombay 1883, p. 20.
7. ↑ Strictly speaking, the regulation only prohibited the police chief ( kotwal ) from certifying such transactions. Hyderabad (Deccan) under Sir Salar Jung. Bombay 1886, Volume 3, p. 324.