A Queen who knew governance

Queen Sethu Lakshmi Bayi with her daughter

A former student of mine asked me whether I would write a post on an issue that particularly vexed her. There is a bus stop in her hometown which cost no less than Rs40 lakh to the state exchequer. Worse, the construction is of no use whatever to the commuters. Whether it is raining or shining, the commuters will have to use their umbrella for protection. Then my student came across another bus stop at a nearby town which was constructed at the cost of Rs122,700 and that is an appropriate construction. This second one was built with funds collected from the people of the place. The first was built with money from the MPLADS.   

There are infinite such instances of corruption in this country so much so I wouldn’t think of writing a post on them. Like most other citizens of this country, I too have accepted corruption as an integral part of politics here. Under the present regime, corruption has assumed a different dimension altogether. The latest instance of subtle corruption is the removal of the words ‘secular socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constitution of India. A few days back, the name of India was altered to Bharat without any democratic discussion. Now, India ceases to be secular and socialist, without any democratic discussion again. This sort of corruption – getting one individual’s or political party’s way at the highest level of governance, by hook or by crook, using devious and dubious methods – is the most heinous form of corruption possible in democratic politics. Such a process stifles democracy brutally and silently.

What are a few lakhs of rupees when we as a nation are being led to doom by a Pied Piper whose music is psychedelic?

So, my dear student, I shall not write about corruption. I shall tell you the story of a queen who governed our own land precisely a century ago, a queen whose reign was a paragon of governance, a queen who can teach much to today’s leaders who claim to be visionaries and global gurus. Coincidentally, her name is very similar to yours: Sethu Lakshmi Bayi.

Rani Sethu Lakshmi ruled the kingdom of Travancore from 1924 to 1931. She was a Regent queen, in fact. Yet she gave our ancestors the best possible governance.

Bear with me as I tell you more about Queen Sethu Lakshmi. Under her leadership, the revenue of Travancore increased by 28% in just five years. Trade flourished and the government’s cash balances escalated like never before. Prosperity was conspicuous even in the daily lives of ordinary citizens who had better roads, more amenities, higher incomes, new conveniences, and so on.

She built highways and railways, schools and hospitals, bridges and irrigation canals. Telephones were made available to the public. True, in 1910 the Indian Telegraph Department had already set up the state’s first connection, but under Queen Sethu Lakshmi services were thrown open to the rank and file. The city of Trivandrum was illuminated with electric lights in 1929. Soon the power of electricity reached the public, thanks to the Queen.

Medical facilities in the kingdom improved. Dispensaries proliferated. By 1929, not less than 1.65 million of the total five million subjects of the state had access to the government’s health amenities and the modern medicines supplied there.

Agriculture, on which 54% of the population depended, witnessed an impressive scale of developments. Contrast that, my dear young friend, with the farmer suicides of today: more than 10,000 every year!

I can go on and on. Such was our very own Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi of Travancore. But I don’t want to keep you too long with me. I know you are a busy scientist now.

One more thing, however. I’m sure you will be amused to know that the Queen was probably the first feminist in Kerala. It is Sethu Lakshmi who elevated Dr Mary Poonen Lukose, Travancore’s first woman graduate and a doctor educated in the west, as the head of the Medical Department of Travancore. She was eventually nominated to the Legislative Council too by the Queen. Ms Elizabeth Kuruvilla was also nominated to the Legislative Council in 1928. The Queen opened up the study of law to female students and soon Miss Anna Chandy became the first woman judicial officer not only in Travancore but also in the entire Anglo-Saxon world.

This Queen was a visionary as well as a revolutionary. We were governed by such eminent leaders. Our Maveli was, probably, not just a myth.

What has happened to us and our leaders now?

That is the corruption that I would like you to think of, my young friend. We are far worse off now than a century ago. I’d really love our leaders to take us back to the good ol’ past!