Their Histories, Our Memories: The Posthumous Fate of a Colonial Dubash

This paper explores some of the ways in which a late-18^th century “Madras dubash” or intermediary Pacchaiyappa Mudaliar (1754?-1794) has been memorialized in Tamil prose, poetry and pictures over the course of the past century or so.  In the colonial archive, he appears in rather dubious terms as a rapacious moneylender and behind-the-scenes wheeler-dealer, a member of that hated class of “Madras dubashes,” a “most diabolical race of men.” In contrast, Tamil memories of Pacchaiyappa since at least the 1840s have differently (re)constituted this shadowy 18^th-century figure.  He emerges in such narratives as a benevolent benefactor whose vast wealth posthumously enabled the setting up of one of the earliest schools in the city of Madras financed entirely by a native.  Rather than offer an exposé based on the colonial archive of what Pacchaiyappa was “really” like, I explore the ethics of Tamil memorializing activities in order to argue that such narratives teach modern Tamils how to lead exemplary and philanthropic lives in our times.  My goal is to figure our how to write narratives that lead us out of the epistemological and ethical impasse that follows when “their” histories get in the way of “our” memories.