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How an Irish soldier’s dream pioneered India’s gold rush
When Tesla Motors decided to set up an office in India, the location selected was on Bengaluru’s Lavelle Road
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When Tesla Motors decided to set up an office in India, the location selected was on Bengaluru’s Lavelle Road.
Tesla, a pioneer in its own right, setting up its office on Lavelle Road was poetic as the road is named after another pioneer — Michael Fitzgerald Lavelle — the man considered as father of India’s gold rush.
Lavelle, a retired Irish soldier from the British Army, wanted to make the second chapter of his life worthwhile. Little did he know, his quest will lead to the discovery of world’s second deepest goldmine — Kolar Gold Fields (KGF).
In 1871, Lavelle came across a four-page article from the 1804 Asiatic Journal. The article was based on a report by Lt John Warren, who was serving His Majesty’s 33rd Regiment of Foot.
As per the report, in 1799, after Tipu Sultan was defeated in the battle of Srirangapatanam, a deal was struck to hand over all the land seized from Tipu’s empire to the Mysuru princely state.
Prior to this handover, a survey of the lands was ordered, and Lt Warren was a part of the team. As he was heading for the survey, he began hearing rumours about presence of gold in Kolar. Villagers turning up with bullock carts filled with mud and later washing it to isolate gold dust intrigued the officer, following which he ordered an investigation. The probe found that for every 120 lbs or 56 kg of earth, one grain of gold could be extracted using the villagers’ crude methods and with the help of professionals.
Excited about the 67-year-old report, Lavelle left for Kolar to try his luck. “During his stay at New Zealand, he got acquainted with the gold mining process there,” said S Srikumar, author of Kolar Gold Field: Unfolding the Untold. “He visited the present KGF area in 1871 to do some preliminary investigations and successfully prospected certain locations, but kept the results a secret,” he added.
In 1873, he wrote to the Maharaja’s government seeking a licence to mine. “Should I be successful in my search, it will be of greatest value to the government; in case I fail, it will cost the government nothing as the only assistance I require is the right to mine…” he wrote in the letter to the chief commissioner Mysore and Coorg.
After securing a 20-year lease to mine in the Kolar, on 2 February 1875, Lavelle started the era of modern mining in India. Over the years he began running out of funds while conducting the gold mining operations. However, a novel written on Lavelle’s ventures came to his rescue. His vision of creating fields of gold had become the premise of the novel – Living Dangerously by FE Penny. Owing to the novel’s popularity in 1877, one Maj Gen Beresford of the Madras Staff Corps in Bangalore came to support Lavelle’s business. He along with three others – McKenzie, Sir William and Col William Arbuthnot – formed a syndicate with several other army officers called ‘The Colar Concessionaries Company Limited’, which took over the mining operations.
The syndicate roped in a company that brought state-of-the-art mining engineering to India. The arrival of these engineers from Norwich, England started the golden era of KGF. Following this, Lavelle retired from mining and returned to Bengaluru.
His successful expedition and the resultant prosperity made him a popular figure in the Bengaluru English circuit and the British Commandant renamed the street where he lived as Lavelle Road. He was rewarded with a grant of seven acres between Grant Road (now Vittal Mallya Road) and Lavelle Road.
Lavelle built a bungalow over two acres on Grant Road. The property was called Oorgaum House in memory of Lavelle’s village where he had started the first mining expedition. In 1918, Lavelle left for England and sold this building to Peter George D’Souza, a high-ranking civil servant in the provincial government of Mysore. Even though the building made way for apartments over the years, Lavelle’s name remained the one constant.
