Submitted by

Rajeesha. M, Mattappadan (H), Phone: 9745582732,

Email – rajeesha.kumar@gmail.com

Submitted To

HOD, Department of History. SSUS Kalady

TITLE : Transitions in Civil Associations and Articulations of club life In Colonial
kerala

Clubs in India are colonial transplants so the brief history of clubs before they reached
India is in order. Clubs or similar forms of association can be traced back to the time of
romans. Associational life continued to grow and become refined into Europe’s Middle
Ages with the rise of fraternities and guilds. By the early modern period, types of secular
academies had opened in Italy. It was from these the French were inspired. France
witnessed an associational boom at this period, its own forms of associational life
intermingling with those in other parts of Europe such as Germany and the Netherlands.
In India clubs began to appear from Britain. In Britain clubs began to appear in the early
17th century. But these clubs have been less influenced by those in France or the
continent, rather were the products of Britain’s own associational life. By the mid-
seventeenth century, coffee houses dotted London’s landscape and new types of coffee
clubs developed. This Seasonal hunting (which became pig sticking in its Indian form). ,
reunions, special holidays, and more all might attract members to join such occasional
clubs. In the early eighteenth century, India related associations began to form in
London. These took their names from occasions familiar to those who had worked in
India and beyond; the Calcutta club, the madras club, the Bombay club, the shikar club,
and the china club. These early London based clubs were, as the Victorian club
observer ralph Neville noted, more associations rather than formal clubs, with limited
breadth of service, hours, and offerings.

India has a separate, vibrant, and long history of forms of associational life. From the
later Vedic period a new form of association took place. These were various forms of
associations, meetings, assemblies, councils, sabha, samajas, samitis, parishads,
vidathas and later addas. These forms of association’s changes over time but some of
the nomenclature continued to be used to the present. During the Buddhist period
another form of association called sangham arose. Further the arrival of Islam in the
subcontinent brought its own forms of associational life, from local madrasas. In
addition up to and throughout the nineteenth century India had other forms of
associational life in coffee houses, bazars, and locations where people met to listen,
converse and probably share some sense of community. This associational milieu
seems to have been limited in breadth , and thus it would be difficult to call the pre 19th
century forms a civil society in the same way we see a kind of civil society emerge in
the 19th century . By the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century , as Partha
Chatterjee has suggested for sociability in Bengal , associational life was not only alive
and well , but a marker of south Asia’s early modern period . Some of these included
the Asiatic society (1784), the brahmo samaj (1828), all of which originated in Bengal.
These types of associations as carry watt has argued, were in effect making the Indian
nation. One associational form recognized as a kind of precursor and informal parallel to
clubs comes from Bengal. The region has long been famous for its nightly discussion
groups held in private homes, the adda. As clubs opened in Bengal, they were
recognized as being, in some ways, a more formalized extension of the adda. The
Dhaka club (1911) made such a connection. As CA BAYLY argued that Britons
information order being established on the foundation for associational life predating
British rule, and being built upon with the addition of associational forms like the club.

At the end of the 18th century, members of the East India Company began to open clubs
including the Calcutta cricket and football club (1792) and the royal western India turf
club (1810). The year 1827 was vital in the history of associational life and India’s
clubland, for in that year the Bengal club opened. From that time until 1857 – the year of
the Indian uprising- Britons in urban centers followed Calcutta’s lead and opened their
own clubs. Some didn’t admit Indians as full members but did have varying degrees of
Indian participation. At the same time, it is possible that some Indians opened their own
clubs. Some clubs opened immediately after 1857 served the very purpose of
encouraging social intercourse that is a form of bridging between Indians and the
Europeans. For this purpose in Calcutta hosted a union club, established in 1859, whose
purpose was to promote friendly social intercourse, between European and native
gentlemen. It has been suggested that Indians and Europeans pursued a sort of
separate but equal practice in their social spheres, including clubs, without coming
together in the same institutions, but clubs like the union club and others put such
assertions in need of resentment .

After 1857, Indians also began opening their own clubs. These clubs, like their British
counterparts, were opened for a variety of reasons. For some, being rebuffed from
admission to a British club roused the desire to open an Indian counterpart. Sir
Rajendranath Mukherjee, an industrialist, was not admitted to the Bengal club and
decided to open a new club where Indians and Britons would have equal access, this
became the Calcutta club (1907). In the Deccan, officials in the infamy of Hyderabad’s
government opened their own club, the Nizams club (1884). Nizams club served as an
alternative and counterpart to the largely British secunderabad club (1878). The period
from 1900-1947 witnessed club growth in new areas. Many women’s clubs opened in
these decades. By this time Indian women’s increasingly participating in India’s public
sphere. The Begum of Bhopal opened the Princes of Wales club (1909). In the south
women like Radhabai subbarayan opened clubs like the ladies recreation club in
madras (1911) , The Nilgiri ladies club of ootacamund and others . After independence
a period of consolidation and stability seems to have occurred. The final period of club
periodization might be seen to start in the mid 1990s after the country’s economic
liberalization.

In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a variety of association forms emerged
across south Asia, of these clubs were just one type, and when taken as a whole, they
formed a super network of association’s life. A club may be broadly defined as an
association of individuals sharing some common interests and goals. Its members were
admitted by ballet and in this way clubs are different from voluntary organizations,
where membership is less controlled. There are clubs with different natures, some are
social and others are sports in nature. They opened in
different areas, large urban clubs in the colonial centers; hill station clubs; clubs in
princely states; and clubs in dusty country side towns. They often had a dining room,
library, reading room, bar, lounge, billiards room, and sporting facilities. Three of the
earliest earliest and largest social clubs were the Bengal club (1827) in Calcutta, the
madras club (1832), and the Byculla club in Bombay (1833). Sporting clubs were also
numerous. They were frequently referred to by the name gymkhana, which derives from
the Hindi name gend- khana (literally ball house, referring to European racket courts).

Many cities and towns hosted both a social club and gymkhana club. In Bombay, the
Byculla club served as the dominant British social club, but the city also boosted the
Bombay gymkhana club. Over time more specialized clubs arose. At simla , individuals
who didn’t return to Delhi in winter provided a reason to organize the simla winter
amusement club , which maintained an ice rink and organized tobogganing and indoor
badminton for its members . In some locations, drama clubs were freestanding, such as
India’s oldest Simlas amateur dramatic club, dating from 1837.

Some transnational organizations had branches or clubs in the world, especially in south
Asia . The freemasons (1390), the rotary (1905), the lions club international (1917), as
well as the YMCA (1844), and YWCA (1855). Seringapatanam in south India was also
home to a branch of the Jacobin club that was in operation from the late eighteenth
century. The united service club was another category. Their members came from the
East India Company and the British military service. The congress party’s club-like
origin can be seen in its circular issued in March 1885.

In Kerala we can see networks of clubs. Elite clubs, presidential clubs, arts and sports
clubs, drama clubs etc….. All these have their own histories. One of the old clubs,
Cochin club, was formed by the British. In which the membership was limited to the
English citizens, and the members were the plantation holders. Indians get an
opportunity only after the independence. another category of clubs are the clubs in the
presidential states like Thrissur (Banerjee 1914 ) ,
kochi (Ramavarma club, 1897) , Kottayam ( Rama varma union , 1893 ) , Trivandrum
(Trivandrum club , 1890 ), Malabar European club(1864), Cosmopolitan club of
calicut(1898), Catholic union club,lotus club(1931). In Malabar most of the clubs are
local arts and sports clubs . These clubs came as part of the library movement after the
1950s . The areas of Malappuram , Kannur , Vayanadu , Kozhikode comprised many
arts and sports clubs like that of lions club , brothers club , Pulary arts and science club
, friends club etc…. their activities are largely differed from that of the elite clubs and
presidential clubs . These local clubs are more social and political in nature than other
clubs. The history of the formation of these clubs are less traced. The book named
library movement in Kerala mentioned about the public library of Trivandrum initially
organized in the form of a private club like that of the book clubs in Briton, and in 1959
the intention of the government was to organize a separate department to look into
social education, libraries, arts clubs so on... during that period certain libraries have
started to function with kala Samithies , children's club and mahila section . The
facilities for sports clubs were also provided by almost all the libraries.
Another mention of local clubs can be found in Kerala Yuvatha magazine of 1997. In
which I get some information about a popular arts club of the 1950s. Later it connected
to part of the library. Another mention about the Olympic sports club. Hence it is clear
that the local clubs originated from the year of 1950 onwards. Some have the opinion
that these clubs are the transplants of social clubs in the Soviet Union. In the 195os we
can also see these clubs promoted communist ideologies through dramas.

Clubs contributed to India’s colonial associational life , and at the same time brought
together individuals who had a shared interest , Robert Putnam has called
associational identity consolidation bonding whereby people with similar tastes,
interests , or backgrounds bond together in the context of an organization . Clubs
opened in India to foster such bonding, yet socialism has a downside. Associations
formed around shared interests can harden identities and lead to violence against other
groups with different identities. Ashuthosh has shown the ways in which communities in
Hyderabad, having bonded with communal lines, were prone to violence. Some clubs in
India were created to bridge the Indian and British communities and promote social
intercourse; others to bridge gender divides, intentionally seeking equal members of
men and women; and still others not to promote a particular community, nor to bring
together different communities, but rather to create a new identity based around that of
the club itself. Members of Madras Cosmopolitan club were both Indian and British, and
joined the club to partake in its social amenities rather than to consolidate an external
identity.

When they served as bridge associations, clubs expanded understanding about the
differences between communities, the position of minority communities, and the
responsibilities of the majority community. Putnam has argued for the benefits of such
associational life: voluntary associations and the social networks of civil society
contribute to democracy in two different ways: they have external effects on the larger
polity, and they have internal effects on participants themselves. Associations are
places where social and civic skills are learned. Clubs were one part of south Asia’s
associational life, and as such they helped demarcate a public sphere and played a role
in creating civil society. The public sphere is that realm where associations are largely
free to organize and where they may or may not engage with the state or the home. If a
sizable number of associations exist, then in all likelihood, by their existence, they
signify the presence of a public sphere. In the 19th century, India witnessed the growth
of associational life in this realm, of which clubs were such one component, and thus a
form of colonial public sphere came into existence.

Central to debates over the public sphere is its relationship to associational life and civil
society. Over time, the mix of revolt, revolution, and democracies born anew has
generated multiple and contested understandings of what exactly civil society is, or
might be. The idea of civil society has intellectual roots that run long and deep. In his
1821 elements of the philosophy of right, George Hegel, clarified the elements of civil
society which debate has largely continued since that time. Hegel identified the dialectic
within civil society between the state and the family – two entities at opposite ends of
the associational spectrum. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805- 1859) in his democracy
in America (1835) argued that individuals who came together in associations would not
only ward off the perils of isolationism and individualism , but that associational life build
a civil society not dependent on the state . For Gramsci civil society was an agent of
resistance against dominant norms. The American and German philosophers John
Dewey (1859-1952), and Hannah Arendt (1906- 75) , these scholars and many who
followed them, focused on the links between a public sphere and democracy. When
there is a healthy public sphere , one in which associations and individuals are able to
debate , discuss, and challenge each other and the state , then democracy can flourish
. Thus by this stage in its development, the idea of civil society had gained two important
components: the public sphere and democracy. the relationship between , and among ,
civil society , the public sphere , and democracy were further specified in the work of
Jorgen Hagerman’s (1929) , who argued that individuals democratically construct civil
society through the public sphere .

If political society occupies the space between the associational world and the state.
Clubs in India, for Indian or British members, have always served as pseudo – homes.
These associations were not primarily political in that their purpose, foremost, was
social. They occupied a middle ground that made them home like, but not the same as
one’s home. As colonial transplants, clubs map topically new terrain in the exploration
of civil society. The presence of clubs demarcates a public sphere; they also help to
shape public and private space. Space means the physical areas that comprised the
typical club: the lawn and garden, sitting and dining rooms, bedrooms, libraries

Clubs also transformed their spaces by granting women access. Yet this access was not
without its limits. The sound club, for instance, confined women to areas considered
appropriate for women’s activities. Dining, drawing, gossip. When women had their own
rooms within men’s clubs, these were often known as the mooghi khana. Princes of
wales club Bhopal was entirely for Bhopal's Muslim population also, Hindu, British
women’s was there. Begum was progressive; she recognized that establishing a club
would provide a chance to socialize. Helps to improve Hindi, Urdu language.

Helped Muslim women gain experience in political organization, familiar with voting
governance, public speaking, organizing for a particular event. They get practices for
spinning, games and how to manage children. Women's club supplied valuable
transferable skills to move from the private club land to the public world of politics and
nation building. K. Radhabai subbarayan from Nilgiri ladies club, she participated in the
round table conference (1930-31), other prominent women were Cornelia sorabji,
Sarojini Naidu. From Lyceum club. This includes members of different communities
bonding together across race, class, religion, gender, and colonizer/colonized lines.

AREA OF STUDY

Colonial Kerala (1850- 1947)

OBJECTIVES

● To understand the forms of civil Associations in India

● To understand social role of civil Associations
● To understand the Background for the emergence of clubs in colonial kerala.
● To understand The types and transformation of elite clubs.
● To understand the social role of these clubs.
● To understand cultural contributions of clubs.
● Exploring the caste identity in club life in Malabar
● Understanding the gender role in these clubs.

JUSTIFICATION
Since the start of the pandemic Clubs and other related civil associations have been
proactive in helping people all across kerala. These organizations are embedded in the
sociocultural and economic segments of the region, and they continue to influence
them. But there are only a few works which look upon these organizations as a subject.
And there is a lack of awareness about the emergence of these organizations from a
historical perspective. So I decided to conduct an extensive study on Clubs and related
Civil Associations in the region of kerala.

RESEARCH QUESTION
● What are the earlier forms of civil Associations in kerala?
 ● What is the historical background for the emergence of these clubs?
● How did these elite clubs influence society?
● Why colonial malabar witnessed less of elite clubs compared with princely
travancore and cochin.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The review of literature comprises several primary and secondary (published as well as
unpublished) works regarding the history of clubs and its social engagements in the
public sphere. Writing about clubs in Britain, scholarship began with antiquarian – style
histories of individual clubs. Studies on clubs and societies from 16th to the 18th
centuries include those who view clubs as a part of a growing associational world.
While further studies had located clubs in the greater urban British milieu. The works
on clubs in the nineteenth century may be
composed of small groups, beginning with scholars, some of them argue that
clubs were centers of drink and entertainment. Other categories of studies
analyse the role of clubs in creating the public sphere, and its social role in
creating a civil society.

Peter Clark in his British clubs and societies 1580- 1800;The origins of an
Associational World, in which he says that the Americans are ceasing to create the
voluntary associations that constitute civil society. Because England's associational life
distinguishes the English from Americans. He focused on the ecology of voluntary
conditions and organizational structures that help these associations to appear and
then to flourish. Clark tests every generalization about these clubs for variation in

England’s region, Scotland, Ireland, and Britain’s 18th century empire.

Purushotham Bhageria and Pavan Malhotra have crafted a coffee – table book on
the elite clubs in India. In photographs and prose they provide a layman's tour of
many clubs. Many clubs have themselves either written their own histories or asked
someone to do it for them. S.muthiahs work on the madras club was a fine example of
this. Older clubs celebrated their 50th and centenary anniversaries before the British
left India, and those accounts serve both as histories of the club itself and also as
forms of colonial historical writing.

Story of the Sind club by j. Humphrey deals with the narrow history of Karachi. At
that time of the 1850s the English population of the station was made up almost
entirely of officials; either civil, military. In this work he traces the establishment of the
Karachi club.

Latest work in this category was In the club, Associational life in colonial south Asia
by Benjamin b Cohn. According to him clubs in India are often regarded as antiquarian
institutions left over from a bygone era with little to teach about the past or present. Yet,
in the club presents a different picture on Indian club land. This books offers a
comprehensive examination of social clubs across in India. It argues that clubs have
been key contributors to India’s colonial associational life and civil society, and remain
important nodes in public culture today. He used government records, private club
records, and club histories themselves.
There are other works related with the formation of the Public sphere and Middle class
in Indian society, these topics are actually interrelated. Sanjay joshi and his Making
of a middle class in colonial north India.This book describes the rise of a middle
class in colonial India. Using Lucknow as a case study, the author demonstrates ways
in which the making of the middle class in British india was closely tied to both
'modern' and 'traditional' imaginings and constructions of class, community, nation,
and gender relations.K.N panicker in his Culture, Ideology and Hegemony explains
how the colonial ideologies influenced the indian people.In his Ideologies of the raj,
Thomas metcalf says that clubs in were formed by the british officials to isolate them
from the native population so they created clubs in the hill stations.Sreejith k in his
work, The middle class in colonial malabar a social history deals This book explores
the social history of the middle class in the region during the British period on the basis of
these writings in combination with archival sources. It delves into how they conceptualized
domesticity, forged new friendships cutting across caste, and sometimes, even racial lines,
and the new forms of leisure they envisaged. The author also analyzes the dilemmas the
group faced as it responded to the changes unleashed by colonial modernity at their
workplaces, in the public sphere, and inside homes, where they desperately clung on to
tradition even while accepting much of what the West had to offer.

All across south Asia, from small hill stations to bustling urban centers, one finds a wide
variety of clubs. Many of these clubs date from the early nineteenth century and once
catered to Indian and British clienteles, yet they have largely escaped scholarly
attention. These clubs, old and new, are forms of associational life and add to south
Asia’s civil society.

When it comes to the history of clubs in Kerala no historical works come under this
category. Only Cochin club have mentioned in the book in the club.Public library
movement in Kerala by A paslithil give mentions about the Trivandrum public library
was established by sree moolam thirunal and the library managed as a private club,
and it was established in a pattern similar to the British book clubs. During 1956-1957
these libraries were attached to kala Samithies, and they formed drama clubs.
Records preserved in clubs allow us to view colonial and post-colonial India through new
lenses. Historical scholarship is often linked to archives and what records they contain.
But these records themselves raised the problems. Organizations and individuals
directed what information was to be collected and archived, hidden, or destroyed.

METHOD AND METHODOLOGY

Methods used for the study are Interviews,survey, field works, Literature study etc..

TENTATIVE CHAPTERIZATION
1. Early forms of associational life in Kerala
2. Emergence of clubs in Colonial kerala.
3. Socio – cultural role played by these elite clubs
4. The role of gender and caste identity played by elite clubs
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Sources are limited for the Study

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Auerbach, Stuart. End of prohibition brings new life to Indian clubs, The
Washington post, 14th February 1982.

2. Paslithil,A.public library movement in Kerala, kalpaz publications, Delhi, 2006. 3.

Cohn, B Benjamin. In the club Associational life in colonial south Asia, Orient
Blackswan , New Delhi , 2015

4. Allen, Charles. Plain tales from the raj. New York :Holt ,Rinehart and Winston,1985
. Allen j , Robert. The clubs of Augustan London,Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1933.

6. Baillie, Alexander F. The oriental club and Hanover Square, London: Longmans,
Green, and Co., 1901.

7. Banjera,D. J. ‘A Short History of the Calcutta Club Limited ’, Calcutta Club,

2005. 8. Bhageria , Purushotham , and Pavan Malhothra. Elite Clubs Of India
,New Delhi : Bhageria foundation , 2005
9. Bhaktavatsala , M .A. Clubs world Bangalore : Bangalore Club ,1993 10.
Bhargava, Rajeev, and Helmet Refiled, eds. Civil Society, Public Sphere and
Citizenship,
New Delhi: Sage, 2005.

11. Bharuch , Perin, Mahabaleshwar. The club 1881-1981. Bombay: Asian

printers, 1981. 12. Buchanan, James M, An Economic Theory of Clubs, 1965.
13. Clark, Peter. British clubs and societies 1580-1800,The origin of an associational
World. 14. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.
15. Delhi Gymkhana club Ltd, Articles of Association .Delhi: Kapur Electric Press,
1996.