21 private sector banks were taken over by the government in 1969 and 1971.

The seeds of this historic decision were possibly sown exactly ten years earlier at Ooty at the All India Congress Committee, Sub-Committee Planning Seminar held on May 30-June 5, 1959. The meeting was attended by all top leaders of the congress party as well as economists like Dr.V.K.R.V.Rao. Nehru inaugurated the seminar. Indira Gandhi had just then taken over as the President of the Congress party. The seminar mostly reflected her hard line views on socialism.   

The Seminar envisaged a continuous expansion of the public sector. Private sector was cautioned against ‘any exploitation and misdirection of resources’. The proceedings of the seminar upset the market sentiment of the country. Traders regretted that ‘Congress leaders cannot easily dissociate politics from economics’.

On June 10, Nehru had to clarify in a press meet in Delhi. He denied that it had been decided in Ooty seminar that only certain specified industries should be in the private sector and residuary industries should be in the public sector.

The seminar was also of the view that public sector enterprises need not be profit oriented. Economist like Dr. Rao strongly prophetically objected saying if the public sector units were not profit oriented they would  eat away public resources.

If Nehru had been alive probably the banks may not have been touched. But with Nehru not in the way Mrs.Gandhi wasted no time in pushing through her agenda no sooner than she assumed office. Fortunately for her the economic conditions of the time were favorable for a rapid expansion of banking and her decision was vindicated. 

Nilgiris Documentation Centre

The first ever bank in India was started in Madras in 1683. In 1805, Governor Sir William Bentinck set up the first government bank called the Madras Bank, which was also called Government Bank.  This bank served the new settlement in the Nilgiris in the initial years.

In 1843, The Bank of Madras was formed as a joint stock company with the amalgamation of Madras Bank, Carnatic Bank,   the British Bank of Madras and the Asiatic Bank. Bank of Madras had a branch network spread into all the major cities and trade centers of south India including Nilgiris.

Thus, the first bank established at Ootacamund was the branch of the Bank of Madras, which was opened, on the 16th September 1866, at Hiram in the West, (near the Hill Bunk). Mr. R. Darling being the first Agent. From there it moved, on the 1st July 1868, to Bombay Castle (now Mount Stuart Hill); then, on the 1st October 1876, to Montauban on Etienne’s road.; and lastly, on the 1st April 1884, to the building, near the Library, now occupied by it.

Prior to the establishment of the branch, cheques were cashed by native tradesmen at discounts.  A planters agency, Messrs. Virtue and Minchin, also used to cash approved cheques.  Messers Oakes and Co and Spencers and Co and Bayly and Brock (where my grandfather was the Head Clerk) were also in the trade of discounting cheques.

By the end of the 19^th century other banks such as the Agra Bank and the Oriental Bank Corporation were also actively lending and foreclosing loans in the district.

In 1921, the three presidency banks including the Bank of Madras were amalgamated into the Imperial Bank of India as suggested by the famous economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1955, after independence it became the  State Bank of India.

Many SBI stalwarts were associated with the Nilgiris. Nayampally Ramananda Rao joined the bank as a clerk in 1937 and rose to become its Managing Director. He worked as an Accountant in the Ooty branch in 1945.

Late Vajifdhar, a leading citizen of Ooty, was the last of Treasurers of the Bank.

Shri. Vijayaraghavan, who had a house in Kotagiri for long, was the last General Manager of the Bank when it had single general manager for the whole bank.

After nationalization, Nilgiris became the one of best banked centres with the presence of almost all the banks including private banks. Nilgiris has the distinction of having more than 100% CD ratio for many years.

Today Nilgiris is an overbanked centre with too many  loans chasing too few credible borrowers.

Nilgiri Documentation Centre

When the British opened up the Nilgiris in 1820 what struck them as most unusual was that the native people, though semi-naked in the biting cold, never suffered from influenza and never knew of any intoxicant. ‘Liquors of an intoxicating quality are never distilled on the hills  nor drunk  by any of the castes’ noted Caption Macpherson who made the early roads to the hills.

When the British residents started producing beer from 1826 in a small way, the local Badagas took an immediate fancy for it. However, generally locally made liquors were unknown to them  till 1834. Only after breweries were established in Ooty, Kotagiri and Coonoor after 1850 that beer was freely available to them. Hard liquor which was available in departmental stores in the towns was also consumed by some. By 1847  Ootacamund was the capital  of ‘widespread and continuous drunkenness amongst low class natives’.

Lt.Co. John Ouchterlony, who first suggested the Wellington Barracks, recommended also brewing  on the hills ‘ to keep the ordinary soldiers away from spirits’. “ Independent of the importance, both in a moral and economic point of view, of supplying to the troops a liquor which, from its goodness and cheapness, will induce the majority to prefer it to ardent spirits”, he reasoned.

The Nilgiri Brewery Company (present YWCA Anandagiri, Ooty) was the oldest in South India which later passed into the hands of ‘Tonga’ Browne. It was followed by The Castle Brewery, Aravankadu ; Nilgiri Brewery, Ooty ; -Rose and Crown at Yellanhally and the British Brewery at Ooty. Samuel Honeywell  was the pioneer  professional beer-brewer in 1857 at his Castle Brewery. But when he started producing ‘stronger’ stuff, the government ruled in 1872 that no beer could contain over 8% alcohol. Later these and other breweries were bought to form the United Breweries. 

Opium intake and drinking habit among Nilgiri natives increased significantly in the second half of the last century when the mountain society came under basic changes. One, British legislations on land use brought serious restrictions on grazing and farming which were the traditional occupations of the natives. The native population was also growing rapidly during this period. There was also a heavy inflow of migrant labour  to work in plantations and public works. Secondly, unlike in the past the natives were subject to a series of natural calamities like famine, drought, epidemics (small pox, cholera, typhoid and plague) and even earthquakes.

Drinking became such a problem around 1900 that  in 1905 some Badagas near Kotagiri decided that their whole community was being ruined by drinking and pledged themselves to their goddess Hette to give it up and to excommunicate everyone who refuse to give up the habit.  

To control the problem the British government introduced partial prohibition in 1924. Sale of any kind of liquors to hill tribes was prohibited except on medical certificate. However, as a government report in 1928-29 showed, prohibition only encouraged the consumption of other intoxicants like denatured spirits. The report said hill tribes – at a rather higher cost- were able to get liquor through middlemen from the towns and adjoining districts. 127 cases were booked in that year. Demand increased for denatured spirit diluted with water and added with lime juice and sugar. The report concluded that it was doubtful if the hill tribes had benefitted from prohibitions.

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Finally, total prohibition was imposed on October 1, 1937 when the first Congress government assumed office under Rajaji in the Madras Presidency. It lasted till 1971.

Nilgiri Documentation Centre

The establishment of Ooty as the Summer Capital of the Madras Presidency in 1870 brought rapid developments to Ooty and attracted many Europeans who were in need of a place for gathering and entertainment. One of the businesses which thrived after 1878 was the horse drawn ‘Tonga’ service  which replaced the  grueling practice of native runners taking the mail at day and night. The Brownes made  a monopoly of the trade earning the sobriquet ‘Tonga’ Browne.

The Brownes had stables all along the route from Mettuplayam  with halts at Coonoor and Yellanalli. Their office was at where Shinkows and other establishments are today.

The Brownes were one of the biggest realtors of  their time  owning  among others Assembly Rooms, Lawley Institute, Simpson company     (which was their home), Clifton cottage,  Shoram  palace and Oriental Buildings opposite Collector’s office.

The Brownes were very active in public life. John, who was in the original Garden committee along with McIvor, was  known to swear fluently in Tamil and English.

The  Brownes built the present Assembly Rooms evidently in 1886 closer to where they owned several houses including their house. But the Rooms did not do well as it was found difficult to get performing artists and troupes. But regular fund raising events were held to help government hospital and other public causes.

The Brownes fortune ended with the death of Harriat in 1899 of cancer at the age of 52. Tonga Browne died three years later at the age of 59. Their only son, a popular veterinary surgeon in Ooty lived up to 81. Both are buried at St. Thomas Church, Ooty.

The Browne papers have been donated by their granddaughter to the Cambridge University archives.

An obscure road behind Assembly Rooms is named after Tonga Browne.

• Nilgiri Documentation Centre