Victoria Gowramma by C.P. Belliappa

 An Indian Victoria

When the Raja of Coorg turned renegade, the (English East India) Company deposed him, grabbed his kingdom, and exiled him to distant Benares. The Raja’s ancestor had invested over one million rupees with the Company, in an instrument, which in these days would be called non-convertible debentures. This investment obliged the Company to make periodic interest payments. Even these payments were ended by the Company. The Raja decided to sue the Company. But there was a problem. He was required to be in London to start the proceedings, and Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General refused him permission to travel.

The wily Raja, kept his intentions a secret, and appealed over the head of Dalhousie to the Court (Board of Directors, in current parlance) of the Company for permission to travel. The reason? He wanted his daughter, Gowramma, to be converted to Christianity! And, raised as an Englishwoman.

The evangelists in England salivated over this offer. The business of conversion had been the second oldest profession in India, but had had little success. The brown washed oriental heathens were spectacularly refractory when it came to seeing the Light of God. Decades of evangelical labour had resulted in a single desultory Christian settlement at Fatehgarh (90 miles from Cawnpore, now Kanpur), and even these Christians were converted at pain of starvation during the periodic deadly famines that swept the plains of India. Those who agreed to convert, starving orphans mostly, had been first baptized, and then fed.

Imagine the potential of the Raja’s offer. Duleep Singh, son and successor of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, had settled down in Fatehgarh after the annexation of Punjab. He had voluntarily converted to Christianity. If Gowramma could be converted and married off to Duleep Singh- a union of two Royals, the whole of India would follow suit and the kingdom of God could be spread over the whole subcontinent. Queen Victoria was delighted over these prospects. Dalhousie’s skepticism was overcome, and the Raja of Coorg came over to London with his entourage. Gowramma was baptized in the presence of Queen Victoria herself, who became her Godmother, and named the little girl after herself. Princess Victoria Gowramma! She was placed in charge of an English couple chosen by Queen Victoria herself. With this obligation out of his way, the Raja promptly sued the Company in the Chancery Courts in London much to everybody’s annoyance.

And then the Evangelists’ dream unraveled: Duleep Singh refuses to marry Victoria Gowramma. There was no empathy between them. She has an affair with a man-servant! And he with a series of women below his rank. The Union of Royals remains a distant dream. As though this was not enough, the Sepoy army rises in revolt in India, and the settlement at Fatehgarh is completely destroyed.

How Gowramma’s life is cut short tragically, and how the Raja of Coorg faces his future in London before dying there, makes a fascinating story. Belliappa’s narration is tight and gripping.

The story of the Raja of Coorg has been immortalized by Masti Venkatesha Iyengar in his Jananpeeth award winning (Kannada language) historical novel titled ‘Chikka Veera Rajendra’.