Revisiting ‘Chatrams’: The Indic Dormitories That Were More Than Just That

To this day many Indians, intellectuals included, have internalised these views. There are also ideological vested interests – Hindu-phobia that forms part of the academic and political discourse in post-independent India has its roots in colonial aversion to Hinduism and Indian culture. So, while the Vivekananda-Gandhi school rejected and resisted the negative stereotyping of Hindu culture and spirituality by the colonial-evangelical school of social studies, in post-independent India, the dominant Nehruvian-Marxist school, which has a stranglehold on the academic and political narrative, embraced and reinforced the stereotyping for decades.

From the fabricated image of Theresa of Calcutta caring for those dying on the streets of Calcutta, flashed across international media, to movies of Kollywood and Bollywood showing Christian institutions as the only place of solace and hope for the downtrodden victims, the concept of Hindu deficiency in social service has been reinforced again and again.

The Sthala Purana has quite a few verses which showcase the way the poet looked at how an ideal society and state should function. In these verses, the poet mentions the kind of social services that should be rendered by both individuals as well as institutions. Here are a few:

When I first read these verses, I considered them as just poetic hyperbole – the product of the imagination of an ideal charity-based society. Even as imagination, the caring for those who in jail, caring for the welfare of the barbers and washermen etc. struck one as very noble deeds, far ahead of the time, not only in India but anywhere in the world. Even more puzzling was the mention of ocular medication. Ophthalmologists – eye doctors in a utopian imagination? That is a bit too much.

But the records of the Thanjore Marathas did speak of ophthalmologists and paediatricians rendering medical services. There were medical professionals stationed in the Chatrams, which were famous in the Chola province that was then under the Marathas, three hundred years ago.

In other words, the poet was not only describing an ideal vision but was also approximating his vision with the day-to-day reality of his times.

Though the exhaustive records available to us come from the Thanjavur Maratha period, the concept of Chatrams in Tamil Nadu itself was very old; inscriptions speak of social service institutions like ‘Athula Salai’ or medicine houses for all people from the times of the imperial Cholas.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century, dynasty intrigues and infighting made it possible for the British and Arcot Nawab to exert humiliating control over Thanjavur. By 1776, the kingdom under Thuljaji Bhonsle (1738–1787) had become a vassal of the British. Through the records, one can see how the British progressively choked the Chatrams. By 1799, the British resident-in-charge was reassigning the revenues for the Chatrams, often drastically reducing the financial support and hence the activities. By 1801, Thanjavur king Serfoji II Bhonsle (1777-1832) was writing a letter to the Resident requesting him to permit them to run the Chatrams. The letter provides an extraordinary insight into the manifold welfare activities that the Chatrams were undertaking. Here are a few excerpts from the letter:

The chatrams, this residential school as well as the Saraswati Mahal had many functional relations. For example, an 1827 document records that, 501 inscribing pen tools were sent from one chatram to Saraswati Mahal. Similarly books were lent to the schools run in the chatrams from the Saraswati Mahal.

When I decided to visit a chatram, as part of Swarajya Heritage documentation, I chose the Muktambal Chatram. Muktambal was the lover of Sarfoji II. They were in a live-in relation and she gave birth to two children, both of whom died during child birth. She too was not of good health and died at a very young age. As her last wish, she requested the king that a chatram be created in her name to serve people. By then, the decline of the chatrams had already begun.

Instructions for the management of the chatrams given by Neelakanda Rao Anandha Rao Jadav - one of the ceremonial military officials, in 1838 shows how the chatrams were experiencing increasing financial constraints. Yet, the stress on service to society still remains. Here are the excerpts:

This chatram, this chariot of education, food security and medical services was not run by the steam of surplus created through colonial extermination of other people. It was pulled by the hard work and honestly-earned-money of the local farmers and other communities.

Chatram institutions show that India not only created institutional social service but created an innovative model that never asked for any obligation, physical or spiritual in return nor did the model depend on surplus created through colonialism. Christian charity, on the other hand, was created through colonial surplus and the rendering of charity enforced on the beneficiaries through theological colonialism. In other words, Hindu social service is totally rooted in this world, aimed at removing the misery and increasing the welfare of humanity (and also all life) in this world. Yet, thanks to the strong propaganda and tyranny of institutional discourse, Hindus too tend to believe that their religion is deficient in ethics and social conscience.

One can even say that the British averted a lot of trouble for them by weakening the chatrams in Tamil Nadu, though their optimal functioning could have prevented the death of millions of Indians during the great famine of 1877. But what baffles one is, the continuous ruthless destruction of these wonderful cultural and social assets in Independent India.

Perhaps such destruction is necessitated by the present Nehruvian-Marxist-Dravidian cabal that continues the colonial-evangelical legacy in our academic, political and cultural spheres. So it becomes important for all those who love India and who belong to the legacy of India's fight for independence to preserve these endangered cultural assets and if possible make them functional again realising their cultural capital.

This article is part of Swarajya’s series on Indic heritage. If you liked this article and would like us to do more such ones, consider being a sponsor – you can contribute as little as Rs 2,999. Read more here.