Madras 20 gorgeous photos of the city over 100 years

Indian women volunteers carrying flags parading through the streets of Madras, demonstrating for home rule for India, quaint streets dotted with colonial architecture, a Kalashetra dance teacher correcting the position of the body of one of his pupils at a dance institute in the 1950s - this is a Chennai you've lived in all your life but haven't seen it through the eyes of an everyday photographer documenting history. The seductive, sultry Madras of colonial times was a thing of beauty, unmarred by urbanisation threatening to choke the entire city. As Chennai goes to polls on April 24, 2014, don't miss these wonderful archival images of Madras over 100 years. This is part of our city series. See the black and white photos of Delhi and Calcutta here and here.

A woman operates a large cotton weaving machine, circa 1930. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

28th May 1966: A young boy gazing at an 11th century Indian figure from Madras, at the exhibition 'Indian Art' at the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

2nd April 1929: A demonstration in Madras, calling for a boycott of the Simon Commission. The demonstrators are carrying black banners with the slogan 'Simon Go Back'. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

11th July 1944: A young girl from Madras holding a statuette of the Buddha. (Photo by Tunbridge-Sedgwick Pictorial Press/Getty Images)

Circa 1925: The nursery of Lack Mary Strickland's home with chintz curtains and various toys, including a doll's house. (Photo by Sasha/Getty Images)

Circa 1950: Men bringing in man-drawn rickshaws to be added to the large number of them stacked up in front of the Deputy Commissioner of Traffic's office at Madras after a ban forbidding their use. They are to be replaced by cycle rickshaws, a combination of rickshaw and bicycle. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Circa 1955: The large pool near the temple at Madras where the faithful come to bathe. According to local folklore, this pool will never go dry. (Photo by Richard Harrington/Three Lions/Getty Images)

January 1961: A view down Netaji Road in Madras, southern India. (Photo by Haber/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Circa 1950: A temple by a river near Madras. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

1958: A hairdresser in Madras, India tends to her customer's coiffure in the street, enabling them both to work at the same time. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Circa 1950: The Assembly Building in Madras, India, formerly the Senate House. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Circa 1954: At the Kalak-Shetra dance school near Madras where the dancing master positions the body of one of his pupils. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

6th November 1945: Indian women volunteers carrying flags are parading through the streets of Madras, demonstrating for home rule for India. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

Circa 1955: A street in Madras. (Photo by Siegfried Sammer/Three Lions/Getty Images)

1863: British General Augustus Ritherdon (1823 - 1899) playing concertinas with his family in Madras. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Circa 1865: Lieutenant Colonel Augustus William Ritherdon (later General Ritherdon) plies a sewing machine in Madras, watched by his daughter. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Circa 1863: The daughter of British General Augustus William Ritherdon in Madras. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

St George's Cathedral in Chennai (Madras), India, circa 1865. Designed by J. L. Caldwell of the British East India Company, the Anglican (now Church of South India) cathedral was built in 1815. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Marble Halls, Luz, Chennai (Madras), India, 1871. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Indo-Saracenic style Chepauk Palace in Chennai (Madras), India, circa 1880. The palace was the official residence of the Nawab of Arcot from 1768 to 1855, when it was bought by the Madras government. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

DL: hillol.sarkar@ago-inc.com