My recent visit to this famous building of Robert Clive,popularly known as "Garden House",left me spell bound.The beauty of this has been destroyed due neglect over the years.I couldn’t refrain myself from collecting information and writing about this great structure here on Groundreport.
THIS is the house in which Robert Clive lived while in Cuddalore. The coastal town in Tamil Nadu was an important centre of trade and military activity in the first half of the 18th Century. The stately mansion — "Garden House" — which tells a tale of steady neglect over decades is now being renovated. Set in 7.5 acres in Manjakuppam, the official hub of Cuddalore, it was built in 1702 on the site of an earlier building, also called "Garden House". Occupied by the officers of the East India Company, it was home, in 1756, to Robert Clive who is considered the architect of British power in India. Later, it became the official residence of collectors of the district. "Garden House" was the scene of skirmishes during the Anglo-French wars in the mid-18th Century.
The architect of power
Clive with his military skills and administrative abilities enabled the East India Company to lay the foundations of the British empire in India. Clive hardly showed promise as a child and was in fact rebellious and difficult. He came to India when he was just 18 and became a writer in the East India Company. By a turn of circumstances, he became a soldier of such stature that he was later described as "a heaven born general" by the British Prime Minister William Pitt.
Despite his military success in Bengal and his rise to eminence following the Battle of Plassey, Clive had to face an inquiry when he returned to England on the wealth amassed by him and reply to charges of corruption. He complained of being treated like a sheep stealer and was a very bitter man. Like Joseph-Francois Dupleix, his brilliant French rival, Clive too was rejected by the nation whose interests he strove to further (while incidentally serving his own). While Dupleix died in penury, Clive died by his own hand when he was not yet 50.
Now a camp office
The ground floor of "Garden House" now serves as the Collector’s camp office. After a portion of the roof on the first floor fell one night in 1984, the then collector moved to the ground floor. Funds were sanctioned by the Government for a fairly large building which rose close to the original one in 1993, and this has been the home of successive collectors since then.
A rather short driveway leads to the portico. Its 300-year-old pillars are propped up by iron supports. In a gesture to history, a circular plaque has been put up in the verandah which says, "This house was occupied by Robert Clive afterwards created Lord Clive, circa 1756".
The four impressive staircases at the four outer corners of the structure lead to the first floor. Walk up the wide steps (whose balustrade is broken) and you come to a huge hall, the scene of banquets and dances during Clive’s time. Public Work Department (PWD) engineers are busy with the task of restoration. The wooden beams, a characteristic feature of the architecture of the period, will however be replaced by cement structures. The first floor dining area has white ceramic tiles, so beloved of new age restorers whether of residences or more sacred places, pasted in a row across the walls.
An extra room that is totally out of sync with the gracious spatial lines of the building was added somewhere in the 1980s. "When former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran came here," says one of those who shows you around. "No, it was not then," contradicts another. Conflicting versions but the result is the same — a room that strikes a highly discordant note with the rest of the architecture.
`Modern’ havoc
But this can almost be overlooked in comparison to the "modern" havoc unleashed on the ground floor some years ago.
You enter the deceptively well-preserved façade and the shock is almost physical. Bright green tiles line the walls of the interior and the floor is covered almost by acres of bright spartek tiles. The tile virus is in evidence in all the rooms prompting the wife of a collector to call it a "huge bathroom without taps". A false ceiling completes the picture.
An estimate of Rs. 30 lakhs has been submitted for the purpose of restoration. The building was constructed at a cost of Rs. 27,429 in 1702.The PWD Department waves the pictures taken before the work began in front of you (and promise that as far as funds will allow, the restoration will be true to the original). One hopes the "after" will be as happy.
Cuddalore revisited
FOR aficionados of the Raj and history enthusiasts, Cuddalore is worth visiting.
Cuddalore played a major role in the history of the East India Company. The coastal town was the main settlement for the British in the 18th Century after the French captured Fort St. George. They had built Fort St. David in Cuddalore and they raised an army here and began their ascent to power. When the French and English locked horns in a battle for supremacy, Clive was one of the commandants of the English army which fought the French forces in the Battles of the Carnatic.
When the French captured Fort. St. David, they razed most of it to the ground in 1758. They returned it to the English in 1785. But it was never again a military post.
The backwaters are a sheet of stillness behind the fort. It is easy to imagine Clive making his way by boat from here to Devanampattinam, the Old Town which was the centre of business and administrative activities during his time. And then to his residence Garden House.
There are other associations in Cuddalore with Clive. The church in St. David School is said to have been visited by Clive on Sundays. The headmaster’s residence, a nearly 300-year-old building, is also in urgent need of repair. The caretaker Ebenezer tells you that Clive came here for his honeymoon. You gape at him in disbelief. Why should a man who had amassed enough money for a king’s ransom choose such a modest place? He also tells you with all the raciness of an American Western how Clive would descend from the staircase and leap on to his waiting steed. He shows you the steps ostensibly constructed for the purpose. Whether fiction or fact, it all adds up to the Clive legend in this town.
A legend that finds substantial tribute in the street is named after him. The churchyard has tombstones of the officers of the East India Company and their wives. A decrepit hospital constructed during those days still serves the town.
Leave Your Comments