A Judge in Madras: Sir Sidney Wadsworth and the Indian Civil Service, 1913-47

305 Pages·2020·3.205 MB·English

by  Caroline Keen

A JUDGE IN MADRAS

CAROLINE KEEN
A Judge in Madras
Sir Sidney Wadsworth and the
Indian Civil Service, 1913–1947
HURST & COMPANY, LONDON
First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by
C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,

41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL
© Caroline Keen, 2020
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United Kingdom
Distributed in the United States, Canada and Latin America by
Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016,
United States of America.
The right of Caroline Keen to be identified as the author of
this publication is asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781787383241
This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable
and managed sources.
www.hurstpublishers.com
CONTENTS
Author’s Preface vii
Map viii
Introduction ix
Sir Sidney Wadsworth Timeline xv
List of Illustrations xvii
1. The History of Madras 1
2. Madras 1913 11
3. Vellore 1913–14 25
4. Gudur 1916–17 35
5. The Secretariat 1918–19 53
6. Two Interludes 1920–21 61
7. Madanapalle 1921–24 69
8. Political Warfare: Godaveri 1921 87
9. The Board 1924 97
10. Below the Lighthouse 1925 107
11. Chingleput 1926–28 121
12. Scouting 135
13. Madura 1929–33 143
14. Some Criminals 155
15. Thieves, Usurers and Snake-Catchers 163
16. Kodaikanal 175
17. Chittoor and Bangalore 1934–35 187
18. The Honourable Mr Justice 1935–47 195

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CONTENTS
19. Gardening in South India 211
20. Madras at War 221
21. Envoi 235
Notes 245
Bibliography 271
Index 277
vi
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
The core of the book is obviously the Wadsworth memoirs which, due
to Sidney’s ability to bring people and places to life, provided a fine
base. I have added biographical details of some of the people with
whom he worked in Madras and, as a backdrop to his career, included
a broad sweep of the highly significant events which were occurring
across India as a prologue to independence. I have also added excerpts
from the private papers of other members of the Indian Civil Service
based in Madras during the first half of the twentieth century to give
some different perspectives on life in the province. All otherwise unat-
tributed quotations are drawn from Sidney’s memoirs.
It has been a great pleasure to follow Sidney’s Indian progression. I
was blessed with the most interesting and entertaining subject, and I
am very grateful to Simon and Tim for giving me the opportunity to
explore a major part of their grandfather’s life.
Caroline Keen, August 2019
vii

INTRODUCTION
In 1947, my grandfather Sir Sidney Wadsworth retired from his posi-
tion as a High Court Judge in Madras, India. Along with many mem-
bers of the former Indian Civil Service (ICS) who retired at or around
Indian independence, he retired to the UK, and in his particular case,
to the Isle of Man, where the parents of his wife Lady (Olive)
Wadsworth had lived. During the first long winter he spent in retire-
ment he hand-wrote his lengthy (375-page) memoirs of his time in
India, and had them typed and annotated. He evidently decided that
there was limited demand at that time for his memoirs in book form
(there were obviously many retirees from the ICS who had similar
ideas!). So at some point he consigned the manuscript to the bottom
of the Library of the Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge
University, his alma mater.
Fast-forward sixty-three years to 2009, and I was in the process of
retiring from full-time employment. One day I idly Googled the
name ‘Sir Sidney Wadsworth’, and much to my surprise up pops a
record of the manuscript; I was able to obtain copies, and promptly
sent them to his two daughters, to my mother (my father, Robert,
was Sidney and Olive’s only son and died in 1998), and to my brother
Tim. Much to my surprise, none had any idea that my grandfather
had written the manuscript.
Several years passed during which I showed the manuscript to
acquaintances with academic backgrounds and with an interest in Indian
history, and most found the manuscript to be fascinating. I also read it,
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