Kutch · Arid Northwest
Kutch was a princely state with no British Indian district inside it, and unlike the Rajasthan states it produced no well-documented praja mandal or peasant movement before 1947 — the accessible record of organised political activity inside the state is genuinely thin, and it is more honest to say so than to construct one. What Kutch did produce, in keeping with everything else about it, was an expatriate politics. The region's most consequential figure in the freedom struggle left it as a young man and never worked in it again: Shyamji Krishna Varma, born at Mandvi, ran the most closely watched Indian political address in Edwardian London. The only armed resistance recorded here is earlier and dynastic — the state's own war with the East India Company between 1815 and 1819.
Risings and revolts
The Kutch state army was defeated near Bhadreswar on 15 December 1815 by combined British and Gaekwad forces, after a period of raiding and disputed authority along the Kathiawar border.
Outcome: Rao Bharmalji II was deposed in 1819, his infant son installed, and the state placed under a Council of Regency headed by the British Resident. Kutch remained a protected state until 1947.
Shyamji Krishna Varma, from Mandvi, founded the Indian Home Rule Society in February 1905 and opened India House at 65 Cromwell Avenue, Highgate, in July, as a hostel for Indian students and a base for nationalist publication. He funded fellowships for Indian graduates on condition that they not take employment under the colonial government, and published the monthly The Indian Sociologist.
Outcome: Varma left for Paris in 1907 to avoid arrest and was disbarred from the Inner Temple in 1909. After police action in 1909 the residents dispersed, and the house had ceased to function as an organisation by 1910.
People
| Name | Years | Movement | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shyamji Krishna VarmaMandvi, Kutch; later Bombay, London, Paris and Geneva | 1857–1930 | Indian Home Rule Society; India House; The Indian Sociologist | Sanskrit scholar, barrister and, in the 1890s, diwan of Ratlam and of Junagadh, which he left in 1897 after disputes with British officials. From 1905 in London he founded the Indian Home Rule Society and India House, endowed fellowships for Indian graduates, and published The Indian Sociologist, which argued for self-rule against the moderate constitutional position.Left Britain for Paris in 1907, moved to Geneva in 1914 and died there on 30 March 1930. His ashes, and his wife's, were brought to India in 2003 and placed at Mandvi. |
| Bhanumati KrishnavarmaMandvi and London | — | Indian Home Rule Society | Married Shyamji Krishna Varma in 1875 and lived with him through the London, Paris and Geneva years that produced India House and The Indian Sociologist. She was from a Bhatia trading family of Mandvi, the community whose money underwrote much of Kutch's expatriate life.Died before her husband; her ashes were returned to Mandvi with his in 2003. |
| Rao Bharmalji IIBhuj | reigned 1814–1819 | The Kutch war with the East India Company | Ruler of Kutch during the state's war with the Company; the Kutch army was defeated near Bhadreswar in December 1815.Deposed in 1819 when the state accepted British suzerainty. |
People from Kutch who resisted colonial rule, and the regional risings and revolts that shaped that resistance. (5)