Visakhapatnam, dearly called Vizag by its denizens, has a long list of monuments, age-old sites, and vintage architectural structures etched in its history. Despite being proud symbols of the past and historic events, most of them have been forgotten and undermaintained for a long time now. Often, the very own sons and daughters of this city are puzzled at the mention of most of these sites due to lack of awareness. One such monument which is still standing yet goes unnoticed is the Scandal Point of Vizag. John Castellas, a Vizag aficionado, narrates the lesser-known story of the scandal point.
Every colonial town had its scandal point. Bombay, Madras, Simla, Cochin, Rangoon, Colombo, Singapore as well as Vizagapatam. The obelisk on the rock was a boundary marker that separated Vizag from Waltair, from locals and Europeans and also the town from the jungle that was in Waltair. The earliest photograph of the scandal point is by the first photographer of Vizag, C Moonesamy Mudaliar who released images on early postcards in about 1900.
The Beach Road was first built in 1847 when Sir Arthur Cotton conceived the idea of groynes to protect the beach erosion and save the town of Vizag and needed road access for the bullock carts to carry the rock blasted from Ross Hill for this project. The scandal point marked the end of the road along the seafront and terminated at this point. It was the main carriageway for the growing European population to access the beachfront.
It was an urban myth that most memsahibs with an army of servants and abundant time for leisure, would meet at the scandal point in the cool of the evening, and their chief occupation was, of course, gossip. In other parts of the world, people talked about things but in colonial India, a socialite would talk about people. The exchanges were all personal – what Mr This said to Miss That, and what Miss That said to Mr This, and gossip about marriages, elopements, scandalous affairs and ladies flirting.
Newly arrived damsels from Madras or Calcutta visiting a sister or aunt were hot topics for discussion, and their age, height, features, dress and manners came under scrutiny as also their prospects of finding husbands. At Waltair, the scandal point was also described where memsahibs gathered in the cool of the evening to discuss the affairs of the day like… who danced with whom and who is likely to wed, and who is charged with murder or theft, and who is brought to bed…
The Madras Mail reported in 1890 that… The beach at Scandal Point is generally in the sole possession of nurses, ayahs and their charges during the afternoon, so I am surprised on this occasion to find it tenanted by a swarm of schoolboys, who were paddling, shouting, climbing the rocks, and enjoying themselves…the boys of St Aloysius School in the Fort are apparently well cared for in the matter of amusement as well as their studies as they are in the care of Father Bonaventure and another clergy. The boys seemed to be having a thoroughly good time, but they gathered together in a moment at the sound of a bell and marched homeward with soldier-like precision.
Vizag then had several army regiments, a society of nice people, bands to play at Scandal Point, and amusements of every description, such as you will find in any other station. These officers had offices in Vizagapatam, a horse and carriage ride three miles off, rather far for business but they lived in Waltair. By the 1890s there were no bands, only nurses and ayahs with their young charges frolicking on the beach. The palm groves extended to the shoreline and occasionally along the shore from Dolphin’s Nose, the eye travels past crowded bazaars half hidden in masses of palm trees which almost touch the sea to Scandal Point – erstwhile the resort of music and fashion when the station possessed a band, but now a playground for babies and ayahs.
In 1896, the Maharajah of Vizianagram funded the extension of the Beach Road from Scandal Point to Waltair and Hanumanta Vanka Nullah (Lawson’s Bay) and Maharani Lady Gajapathi Rao funded the building of the road from Maharanipeta to Scandal Point and clearing the overgrowth of prickly pear in Waltair. Waterfront homes were constructed by the Zamindar for a short-term lease to Europeans working in Waltair. Additionally, the Bobbili, Kurupam, Vizianagram, Jeypore and Vizag aristocracies built summer palaces along the Beach Road and the first motorcars in Vizag were owned by the same individuals. The Lighthouse, Town Hall, Masonic Centre, Municipal Offices, Minerva Talkies and the Ivory Works were also built as landmarks along the Beach Road.
During World War II, the military established coastal defences that cut off the continuous beach road from Dolphin’s Nose to Scandal Point and Palm Beach. In the 1960’s authorities, at last, agreed in principle to readjust the seaside barbed wire fencing of the coast battery in Vizag to leave enough space for the municipality to lay a 60 feet wide beach road avoiding the circuitous diversion of the road through the Jalaripet slums. The Commissioner and Special Officer of the Municipal Council, Mr Ajit Singh, was able to convince the military authorities and overcome the prolonged public agitation on this subject.
Scandal Point remains a forgotten monument of Vizag’s heritage and an era when it was claimed that local gossip circulated from this point with the magic swiftness of the just started wireless telegraph and no man had a secret from his neighbour (has anything changed?). Today, it is but another curiosity on the ever-popular RK Beach, where youth climb the rock at low tide to scribble their graffiti on the marble plaque that is engraved with … SCANDAL POINT This ancient Monument is renovated and rededicated to the citizens of Visakhapatnam by HW Mayor on 3.6.1989, DV Subba Rao. SP Singh, Commissioner — (and other defaced inscriptions).
Written by John Castellas whose family belonged to Vizag for five generations. Educated at St Aloysius, migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1966, former General Manager Engineering at Boeing & Qantas Airways, in retirement Lecturers in Aviation Management at Swinburne University and is a Vizag aficionado. He can be contacted at [email protected]
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