In standalone mode

In standalone mode

At one point in history, the people of Bangalore Cantonment didn't want to be part of Bangalore city

The Hindu

Believe it or not, the people of Bangalore Cantonment were against the merger of their area with the rest of Bangalore. In 1933, out of 1,34,113 people who resided in the Cantonment, about one lakh people were born in Mysore. Others came from places such as Malabar, South Arcot, Salem and Hyderabad. About 2,200 were Englishmen, 150 Europeans, 132 Africans, 114 Americans and 15 Australians.

Model administration

The idea of retrocession was realised as a possibility by the Mysore Government only in 1923, when Viceroy Reading refused the request of the people of C&M station for representation in the Imperial Legislatures, stating that it could not be granted as the tract was on Mysore territory. At the same time, they could not send representatives to the Mysore Representative Assembly, as the place was not administered by Mysore. On January 29, 1933, Diwan Sir Mirza Ismail submitted a memorandum to the Viceroy Willingdon on behalf of Maharaja of Mysore in which he said that it was incompatible with the dignity and prestige of His Highness to have a rival administration set-up within his own capital. This is a reflection upon a government whose administration had been described as a model to the whole world, that it was not considered fit to administer a portion of its own territory.

But the idea of retrocession of C&M station to Mysore was opposed by a large section of the society there. The Muslims of C&M station submitted a Memorandum to the Resident, which was signed by leading Muslim citizens, secretaries of various anjumans and mutuvallis of mosques in the station. In it, they accused the Maharaja of Mysore of receiving the Mysore throne from the British, which should have been handed over to Tipu's descendants. They said that their culture, religious institutions, language and traditions were at stake in Mysore. The memorandum also accused the Mysore Government for allowing monuments of Muslims to decay, imposing Kannada on Muslims, not providing separate electorate system to them and merging of Muslim community with the non-Brahmin community for the purpose of reservations and opposed retrocession of the station with the state of Mysore.

Many leading citizens of Mysore like S.G. Mohiyuddin of the Daily Al Kalam and Mohammad Abbas Khan denied the above allegation and said that the Muslims of the State were happy under the rule of His Highness and were not being discriminated against. They said vested interests were spreading malice. His Highness had laid foundation stones for mosques as freely as for temples. Mohammed Iqbal, Dr. Ansari and other Muslim personalities had been accorded a warm welcome by the State. The Muslim community was getting representation in Legislative and local bodies and a number of them are represented in the state bureaucracy with a Muslim occupying the highest post of Diwan.

Protest

The Anglo-Indians and even the Congress Party unit of C&M station were opposed to retrocession. The Memorandum of Bangalore Traders Association protesting against the proposed retrocession of C&M station to Mysore figured in a debate in the House of Commons in Britain on May 7, 1934. Sir Alfred Knox suggested reconsidering the "policy that would place thousands of Europeans and Anglo-Indians unwillingly under the rule of an Indian state". Sir Samuel Hoare replied that there were negotiations about the civil station but none about the military station, which would not be retroceded.

In case of partial retrocession of the station, the Anglo-Indians and the Europeans demanded some safeguards, like not replacing the European curricula of education for the children of their communities by those of state university and the continuance of non-Indians as tutorial and inspection staff of their educational institutions.

The Mysore Government was quite magnanimous in its response. Diwan Mirza said the durbar was willing to accept any arrangement that might be necessary. For instance, it was willing to have a European Superintendent of Police and other European officers to deal with the troops coming within the civil area. He also gave an impression that a British magistrate would also be acceptable. Speaking at a function organised by the Mysore Chamber of Commerce in April 1933, Mirza dismissed as baseless, notions that trade would suffer, land price would depreciate and that discipline and efficiency in administration would suffer in C&M station after retrocession.

World War

The Second World War broke out in September 1939 and went on up to 1945. Meanwhile, the British showed signs of leaving India and under these circumstances, the Maharaja of Mysore did not press for retrocession. Finally, the British did leave India and the retrocession of C&M station took place in various stages. On August 15 1947, Walter Campbell, the Resident of Mysore left for England. The retrocession brought a thorough dismantlement of all artificial barriers that existed between C&M station and the rest of Mysore State.