Brown’s defence of “the rebels”

Describing himself as a British subject, a landholder, and a Justice of the Peace, Brown wrote to the governor that the “feelings which overwhelmed me labouring for utterance, betrayed me into an undue warmth of expression…it was my duty to speak…having for my object to arouse and, if possible, to arrest the Government in its career of spreading universal hatred and abhorrence of the British name.”

Brown was convinced that “a few wild, untutored men, dwelling in their jungles and mountains, who never heard of the name of war until three years ago, when they beheld their Swamee, their God as they called their Rajah, the Rajah of Coorg, hurled in three days from his throne by the British power, as an elephant tramples down a worm, that such men could have worked themselves up to face that power, unless goaded on by the sense of some intolerable wrong or oppression.”

Brown was clearly unimpressed by the government’s response during and after the event. He did not believe that the Kodavas constituted a significant threat, and deprecated the government’s terming them as traitors and making every attempt to arraign poor farmers for treason, and designating them as “despicable in the extreme, as to means, numbers, and resources.”

Brown made a fervent plea to the governor “to suspend his judgment” and to review the records of both the civil and military trials conducted at Mangalore. He further requested him to depute to Kanara some functionary of high and commanding character armed with plenary authority, to thoroughly probe and expose the whole truth.

Brown cited two entirely credible witnesses to establish rebel numbers at 200 men at the upper limit, and about 200 or 300 farmers. The first was Devappah, the head sheristedar of Kanara, who, with several others, was detained at Puttur for nearly a month by “the rebels”. The same information was given on April 3 by a respectable merchant from Kumble, who had just returned from the rebel camp.

Having driven the sepoys from Puttur, “the rebels” showed no intention of proceeding beyond Bantwal, until the 5th. The decision to abandon Mangalore undefended, however, was taken on the 3rd. On the following morning, the treasury was emptied and loaded on boats to the hootings and derision of the towns-people. Some of the sepoys returned to their barracks because of the lack of boats.

On the 5th, hearing Mangalore had been abandoned and there were no troops to defend the treasury, the Kodavas advanced with shouts from Bantwal. However, a little musket fire was sufficient to put them to flight. The government’s response made it out to be a great victory. On May 9, 1837, it praised the garrison and asked for the names of those who had particularly distinguished themselves “by their zeal and gallantry at Pootoor, during the retreat, and in the defence of the cantonment at Mangalore.” Brown sarcastically describes the contest as between 350 firelocks handled by trained and disciplined men against 200 matchlocks, 500 clubs, sticks, and bill-hooks (coithas), and 10,000 shouts. It then commissioned a court martial headed by the very same officer, “nearly an entire stranger both to the people and to the country”, who had been in command, giving him sweeping powers to confirm the sentences passed upon the prisoners by the court martial, and to carry those sentences into immediate execution, without reference to Madras.

Quoting from the letter of the native from Bolar, he stated that the war-cry at Mangalore in the days before the attacks, "The Devil Apparainpara is coming", had induced general panic and flight. This was exacerbated by widely circulated copies of a government proclamation, which Brown himself had received offering Rs 10,000 reward  for the apprehension of Apparampara and Rs 5,000 for  Kallianappa, the two proclaimed ringleaders of the insurrection. During this time and throughout the insurrection, both “the two arch rebels” were prisoners in jail, hundreds of miles away from Kanara.

In support, he cited the confession of the prisoner, stating that Apparampara had been confined in jail at Trichinopoly, and Kallianappa at Bangalore. This was corroborated by an official report, apparently military in nature: “Mangalore, 29th April…Perhaps you are not aware that the real apparam is in jail AT Trichinopoly… 30th April.— How mortifying that all this alarm should have been created by Apparam's shadow! The true Kallianapa is said to be IN JAIL AT Bangalore.”

Brown stated recent developments in Coorg had created great unrest, bitter hatred, and resentment among the Kodavas. Apparampara was first cousin of the deposed Rajah of Coorg, and the rightful heir, and beneficiary, along with other members of the last Rajah’s family, of about Rs 12 to 14 lakhs, which had long been invested with the East India Company. Kallianappa, though not directly related, belonged to the nobility.  These two men were seized, transferred from jail to jail, and confined without trial, as felons.

The second Kallianappa was a poor, ignorant, simple-minded young man, who, having been born to one of the palace concubines, had been made a puppet Rajah. He was brought to Mangalore, and paraded on a horse. When his followers had been dispersed, he was captured, court martialed, condemned, and, without reference to Madras, executed.

Finally, on May 31, “feeling it in my own case impossible to remain longer silent under the reproaches of my conscience, which accused me”, Brown wrote to the governor, seeking mercy for “these ignorant, unfortunate, misguided creatures.” Until a proper, unbiased investigation could be undertaken, he pleaded that the public executions be stopped. He reproduced a letter written in Mangalore on May 9th which accused the army of resorting to looting and plundering villages, and talked of people fleeing. The great number dying in jail at Mangalore had no one else but himself to undertake their cause, or say one word, “not in their defence, but in revelation of the real facts of the case.” To enable this, he pleaded that the governor would grant time for thorough investigation by impartial, unbiased men of rank and character deputed to the spot, and suspend his belief in the guilt or innocence of prisoners until he had read details of their trials.