The call of ancestry

Heritage walk

Last week a resident of Scotland, Nicholas Graves met the general manager of South Central Railway to trace his ancestral roots. His great grandfather James Theadore worked as a loco fitter in the Nizam State Railway in the 1930s. The answer to Nicholas Graves’s search could well be hidden in one of the graveyards in Secunderabad where hundreds of Englishmen lay buried.

Every now and then people from England visit Secunderabad in search of their ancestors. Col Don Blewett who worked on creating a database of the people, especially British officers buried in the St John’s Cemetery at Parade Grounds says, “A couple of years back, a person from England approached us to trace his great grandfather’s grave.

There are a couple of hundreds of men, women and children buried in the cemeteries in Secunderabad.” James Samuel, a committee member of St John’s Church said last year too a couple had approached the church authorities to find out about their ancestors who worked in the British unit in Bolarum.

The Secunderabad-England connection is best exemplified in Lallaguda which was not so long ago called ‘Little England’ as many Anglo Indians who worked in the Railways settled down in the quaint town. The fascinating encounter with India’s past brings writers, historians and even the common man with a strong feel for nostalgia. In 2011 when William Dalrymple the author of ‘White Mughuls’ came to Hyderabad said that one of his fore-fathers had worked in Hyderabad. James Samuel says, “There is a tomb of one James Dalrymple who commanded the East India Company’s forces, died on Dec 9, 1800 at Secunderabad. He was 44-years-old at that time. We do not know if he is related to William but the probability is high.”

Hundreds of British soldiers died on duty in Secunderabad and were buried in the British Military Cemetery at Trimulgherry, Chilkalguda Cemetery, Mount of Olives Cemetery at Sainikpuri besides the St John’s Cemetery at Parade Grounds. There are more than thirty graves of British soldiers who worked for the British regiment in pre-Independent India in the Mount of Olives Cemetery alone.

The graveyards are not just places where the loved ones are laid to rest but the intricate work on the graves, the inscriptions, decorations and epitaphs on gravestones give us a glimpse of the days of yore. The cemeteries are historical artefacts and great remnants of colonial history. They are a last link to the people of both countries and each epitaph tells about how life was like during the past. These massive pyramids, pavilions and memorial plaques are relics of the raj that stand still, reminding one of a link that is slowly fading away.

By T P Venu