AO Hume, Wayanad and a gold rush in 1878

Hume had never been to Kerala, but his curiosity is believed to have been piqued by accounts from British surveyors and prospectors in the region

Wayanad saved the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi, the blushes in 2019, when its voters exercised their franchise overwhelmingly in favour of the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha election – he lost his family borough, Amethi – ensuring that he stayed in Parliament. He won from the constituency again in 2024 – and also from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, his mother’s former constituency – but decided he would retain Rae Bareli and vacated the seat. Now, his sister,

Hume wrote to Master that the Governor-General had deemed it necessary to thoroughly examine the gold-bearing rocks and deposits in Wayanad and Nilgiri and that he (Hume) was assigning mining engineer Brough Smyth to investigate. (Wikimedia Commons)