How one battle dealt a deadly blow to a colonial power from which they never recovered !The Battle of Colachel was fought on 31 July 1741 between the kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch East India Company, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to India! Reason for the Battle 1 Almost all the pepper that the Dutch imported into their country came from the kingdom of Kayamkulam 2 On the pretext that the Rajah of Kayamkulam was involved in certain conspiracies against him, Marthanda Varma began a military campaign against Kayamkulam with the aim of incorporating the kingdom into Travancore 3With this threat to their commercial interests in view, the Dutch Governor of Ceylon Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff wrote to Marthanda Varma demanding that he should end the aggression against Kayamkulam. Marthanda Varma wrote back to Van Imhoff, ordering him not to interfere in matters that did not concern him! Battle : On the 31 July, 1741 both the armies met in battle and Marthanda Varmas Nairs won a decisive victory over the Dutch, capturing a large number of Dutch soldiers; apart from the rank and file, 24 officers including Eustachius De Lannoy and his second in command, Donadi were taken prisoner! Aftermath : Here lies the greatness of the Travancore Maharajah ! Instead of killing or torture , Eustachius De Lannoy and his second in command Donadi,took up service with Travancore and modernized the Travancore Army ! He carried out his orders with such sincerity and devotion that he rapidly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Valia Kapitaan (Commander in Chief) of the Tranvancore military and was given the Udayagiri Fort, locally known as the Dillanai kotta (De Lennoys fort), near Padmanabhapuram, to reside.A key element of the Rajas army during the battle of Colachel was his personal guard, known as the Travancore Nair Brigade or locally known as the Nair Pattalam. This unit was later integrated into the Indian Army as the 9th Battalion Madras Regiment and the 16th Battalion Madras Regiment in 1954. Another direct outcome of the event at Kulachal was the takeover of the black pepper trade by the state of Travancore The Indian Post Department released a Rupee 5 stamp on April 1, 2004 to commemorate the tercentenary (300th anniversary) of the raising of the 9th Battalion of Madras Regiment
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:31:44 +0000
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