Old Madras

WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI

MUSINGSVol. XXV No. 11 September 16-30, 2015

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INSIDE

• Short ‘N’ Snappy

• The Leather King

• 4 pages on Madras Week

• Story of Madras Cotton

•A trainer & an umpire

Know your Fort

better

(Continued on page 12)

What’s heritage,and what’s not...

� by The Editor

...but must people livein fear of it?


The past few years have seena spate of writings on heri-

tage, accompanied by a lot ofmedia attention. This has natu-rally resulted in a huge amountof interest concerning old build-ings, especially among thereading public, though this hasadmittedly not resulted in muchaction on the ground. It has, ofcourse, created an enormousdislike among the bureaucracyabout what it terms ‘heritageactivism’. That body of officialswould be most happy if therewas no opposition to the com-plete demolition of all heritagestructures, to facilitate theirreplacement with modern high-rise. Unfortunately, this hosti-

lity is only enhanced by thosewho, even if in a well-meaningfashion, brand any reasonablyold structure as heritage andbegin questioning its removal.This makes any heritage activ-ity appear obstructionist. Thelatest in this series is a newspa-

per article that mourns the pro-posed pulling down of the Es-planade police station.

A careful reading betweenthe lines would reveal that thestructure in question was builtonly in 1961. It is a modernPWD building that replaced an

earlier structure even then. It isthis 54-year-old structure thatthe Government proposes to re-place with a modern building.What is the heritage value ofthe existing structure? Noneprobably. And whatever therewas earlier probably vanishedwith the demolition in 1961.

What cannot be denied,however, is that a police stationhas existed in the area since1856. This needs to be com-memorated. The Tamil NaduPolice has in the past displayeda sense of history – it has notonly preserved its headquartersby the beach, it has also re-tained the old bungalow in

� By A Special

Correspondent

There are three reactions toheritage – some love it, and

these are most often those whohave no stake in it; the secondvariety is completely indiffer-ent, this is largely the Govern-ment that sadly controls most ofit; and some would rather wishit away, these are the privateproperty owners who find them-selves saddled with somethingthey do not want and, more im-portantly, something they can-not profit from. Last month sawmatters coming to a head atPallavaram where residents pro-tested against the heritage sta-tus that they feel has been im-posed on their neighbourhood.A lot can be done by the Gov-ernment to dispel any fears, butby keeping silent, it is only flam-ing discontent with heritage be-ing the ultimate victim.

This matter in Pallavaramhas been pending for over sevenyears now. It was in 2007 thatplots of land were sold topeople, all of them having pur-chased properties with the in-tention of developing them for (Continued on page 2)

residential purposes. The saledeeds were all registered as perdue process. But when the pur-chasers began making plans toconstruct houses, they wereasked to get No Objection Cer-tificates (NOC) from the ‘ap-propriate authority’ which inthis case is the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI) as theland falls under the AncientMonuments and Archaeologi-cal Sites and Remains (Amend-

the ASI were informed that theissue of NOCs could be consid-ered only after the ASI con-ducted a joint survey of the areaalong with the revenue officialsof the Kancheepuram District.A date was fixed for this in 2011but matters made no headwayas the residents, not under-standing clearly as to what thisimplied, protested and pre-vented the survey from happen-ing. Matters have been hangingfire since then and the residentsapproached the High Court ofMadras, which in March thisyear ruled that it was necessaryfor the joint survey to be done.The Court directed the peti-tioners to file a request beforethe Collector of Kancheepuramwho, on receipt of such a re-quest, was to organise a meet-ing of the revenue officials andthe ASI. This has not happenedthus far.

It would appear that theGovernment is missing a goldenopportunity to promote privateparticipation in heritage. What

The ECHS Hospital (Picture: Ramakrishnan Mohan).

� We have in the last two episodes focussed on two principalbuildings on Charles Street – the Great aka Admiralty aka CliveHouse and Wellesley House. This extremely broad thoroughfare hasvery few buildings on it today. Between Clive’s and Wellesley’shouses is a large edifice belonging to the army and accessed throughan arched gateway. This must have in its time been an importantbuilding. On the opposite, i.e. the eastern, side runs a long colon-naded building for most of the street’s length. This is today the Ex-Servicemen’s Contributory Health Service (ECHS) Centre of theFort, but in its long years of existence has served several functions,most notable of which is that of the Town Hall for Madras. Thiswas where the important residents of the Fort met to discuss anddecide on important matters concerning the city. But this was notthe only building to serve this role in the Fort. It was also till re-cently the embarkation headquarters for the Southern Commandof the Indian Army.

Charles Street ends at the San Thome Gate of the Fort, anarched structure with alternating bands of white and black. This istoday closed to the public but gets its name from the fact that it isthe southern entrance to the Fort, the pathway from it leadingalong the sea to the once Portuguese settlement on San Thomè. Inits time it must have been a busy thoroughfare with much comingsand goings between the two settlements, of which, of course, SanThomè was the older and bigger. But by the time Fort St. Georgebegan growing, this once prosperous Portuguese settlement hadseen better days and many of its residents began moving into theBritish town where they settled at the northern end, a place thatcame to be called Portuguese Square and which we shall deal within detail later. Others commuted from San Thomè every day towork in the Fort or visit relatives. This influx of people must havehappened via the San Thomé Gate.

Today there may be only so many visible reminders of thehistoricity of Charles Street, but in its time this was a very busythoroughfare. While we wander along it, it may be worthwhile topause a while and reflect on the various buildings that do not exist.But before that the broad width of the street also has a history.This was once two parallel streets running north to south, fromParade Square to the San Thomé Gate. The western one wasCharles Street and its eastern counterpart was James Street. These,and the easternmost street of the Fort, named after St Thomas,were all connected at the northern end by the church of St Mary’sand at the southern end by road across which lay San Thomé Gate.

ment and Validation) Act2010.

The entire area, according tothe ASI, is a centrally protectedsite, with ‘megalithic cairns andcists, showing clear structuralpostures’. However, as to whatthis actually implies has notbeen spelt out clearly by theASI and the organisation hasdone precious little by way ofactually protecting the place.

The owners on approaching

2 MADRAS MUSINGS September 16-30, 2015

Looking back onMad Rush Week

Yet another successful edi-tion of Madras Week has

wound to a close and everyoneis singing its praise. FromAmbattur to Zion Colony,Madras Week is the buzz. TheMan from Madras Musings alsojoins in this raucous chorus ofjoy.

MMM and his good lady(also known as She Who Mustbe Obeyed) did the rounds ofthe events and it must beacknowledged that the audi-ence numbers are growing,year after year. While MMMrestricted his role to chiefly gu-bernatorial tasks – shakinghands, smiling graciously and,if strictly demanded by duty,occasionally kissing babies –his good lady was more thecareful observer and possess-ing as she does an eye likeMars, to threaten and com-mand, little escaped her atten-tion.

Chief among these was thebehaviour of some of thepeople who came to eat at thelectures that ye olde journalMadras Musings organised. Asto their eating habits and plategrabbing tactics MMM will saylittle, as he has waxed eloquenton the subject in the past tovery little effect beyond a let-ter or two from irate readerswho consider such mass feed-ings to be among the publica-tion’s activities. If the highestin the land can offer subsidisedfood in their names, why canMadras Musings not give it freeis their opinion. MMM doesnot wish to quarrel with themon this and respects them fortheir views.

But to get back to the pointat issue, namely what the goodlady saw. Hovering around thefood riots that were happeningat a venue, she found one at-tendee doing rather well withthe liquid refreshments. Andby that MMM does not meanthe bar, for we at MadrasMusings stay clear of the stuffthat cheers, but plain waterbottles. The hotel that hostedthat evening’s programme hadopted to put out bottled waterinstead of filling glasses andone of the guests had decidedthat this was where he shouldstock up a month’s supply. Hewas loading the bottles into arather capacious bag whileMMM’s good lady chancedupon him. Not a word was ex-changed as MMM was latergiven to understand by thosepresent, but such was thepower of MMM’s good lady’seye that the man meekly put allthe bottles back on the rackand sauntered off, no doubt tofocus on the knives and forks.

The next evening featuredyet another event, at a differ-ent venue. This time, too,MMM and his good lady werein attendance. And this time,she caught another man, stuff-ing his bag with tea bags!

These too were disgorged afterthe good lady had bestowed herX Ray vision on the modernday Raffles.

Sad though such occur-rences are, MMM would gowith the Chief’s point of view,namely that such events areorganised for everyone, irre-spective of their table manners,to participate and so it cannotbe just for those who knowhow to behave like gentle folk.And let MMM tell you herethat some of the latter too arenot above helping themselvesto a coaster or two when ittakes their fancy.

Other stories

Who would have thoughtour own stinky river

would emerge the hero ofMadras Week? Yet, this wasundoubtedly so. Journalistsjotted entries on it, talkerstalked, walkers walked andcyclists cycled along its banks,

all with a view to bringing focuson its pathetic condition. Itonly now remains for a film staror two to adopt parts of it.Success will then be assured inits clean up. Presently, TheMan from Madras Musings is ofthe view that it was those whowere tasked with the clean-upwho cleaned up big. How elsedo you explain the completelack of results as far as the riveris concerned?

But let us pigeon-hole theCooum clean-up for the nonce.What MMM wanted to writeabout was an event that washeld at one of the oldest libra-ries of the city, which alsostands on the banks of theriver. The speaker for theevening was a person whomMMM had known practicallyfrom the cradle, and so MMMtoo was present. The weatherwas sultry and during much ofthe presentation MMM’sfriend sweated profusely. Atthe end of it all he asked theaudience if they had any ques-tions when an elderly gent,who had all along been ratherrestless, stood up and launchedinto what promised to be a longstory on the life of a fameddubash who after deathbecame a philanthropist. It al-most gave MMMthe feeling thatthere were twospeakers thatevening. It was invain that theorganisers triedto catch the pre-tender’s eye andget him to sitdown. But he,like the AncientMariner, was

immune to it all. On and on hewent. This was until someonedropped something or theother with quite a loud noise inthe vicinity. The speakerpaused and MMM, realisingthat this was where he didsome good to society at large,prised the microphone fromthe budding Demosthenes,thanked him profusely andbrought the event to a close.

A similar situation was wit-nessed by MMM at anotherevent, which focussed on theEmergency of the 1970s. Heretoo was a heckler of sorts, intowhose soul the iron appearedto have entered in a big way.Halfway through a rathererudite summing up of theEmergency by two seniorjournalists, he stood up andbegan to deride them for notmentioning anything about thedeath during the Emergency of‘Sitty Babu, sitting yumpee’. Ittook quite a while beforeMMM realised that the manwas referred to a sitting legisla-tor who died under ratherstrange circumstances duringthe Emergency.

But all this paled into insig-nificance besides the behaviourof the wife of a retired bureau-crat. One of the programmes,involving a famed actress, whowas present in person to hearan actor-turned-film historianspeak on her film career, wasscheduled to begin at 7.00 pm.The hall had filled up by 6.30.The better half of the retiredbureaucrat walked up to MMMand demanded that the eventbegin at once. She had to go fordinner she said at 7.15 and soit would be good if MMMadvanced the starting time sothat she could hear a good partof the presentation and yet behome in time to receive guestswhen they arrived. MMMrefused politely and the eventbegan as scheduled. Whatintrigued MMM was that thelady in question stayed on till9.00 pm when the programmeended. What happened to herguests is what MMM wouldlike to know.

T’Nagar style

The banner reproduced be-low was put up with good in-

tentions, but MMM wasamused by the MadrasianEnglish.

– MMM

What’s heritage,and what’s not(Continued from page 1)

BEING AFRAIDOF HERITAGE?

(Continued from page 1)

MADRAS MUSINGS ON THE WEBTo reach out to as many readers as possible who shareour keen interest in Madras that is Chennai, and in re-sponse to requests from many well-wishers – espe-cially from outside Chennai and abroad who receivetheir postal copies very late – for an online edition.Madras Musings is now on the web at www.madrasmusings.com

THE EDITOR

Egmore that served as the Po-lice Commissioner’s Office evenafter a multi-storeyed buildingcame up alongside for the same.It is to be hoped that when itconstructs a new police stationat the Esplanade, the depart-ment will put up a plaque com-memorating the history of theplace. That would be more thansufficient.

While on the subject of newbuildings for old, it must bepointed out that the Police hasa chequered history when itcomes to their stations. The oneat Flower Bazaar made way fora tasteless piece of modernity.The Mount Road station wasdemolished but replaced by anew structure that vaguely re-calls the architecture of the oldSpencer’s showroom. TheGrame’s Road station was re-tained in full, as there was suffi-cient space to the rear, where anew building has come up. Themost fortunate among all ofthem is the Triplicane Stationon Wallajah Road. This heri-tage structure, once the langar-khana of the Nawabs of Arcot,

has been splendidly restored,ironically when all heritagebuildings surrounding it – Gov-ernment House, Cooum House,the bandmaster’s house, GandhiIllam and Kalaivanar Arangam –were all demolished!

Hanging fire is the fate of theRoyapettah station which wasalso slated for demolition buthas not yet gone under. Alsofacing an uncertain future is theHarbour station. Both thesebuildings are undoubtedly heri-tage structures that date to overa hundred years. They certainlyneed to be preserved. If the Po-lice needs to expand its activi-ties in these two stations, itwould be better off looking fornew buildings in the surround-ing areas rather than demolishthese two to make way forhighrise. While the Royapettahstation is in use, the Harbourone is at great risk. It has beencordoned off and is now devoidof maintenance for over fiveyears. The media would be bet-ter off highlighting the plight ofthese buildings rather than rais-ing a hue and cry over struc-tures that are of dubious heri-tage value at best.

is happening is that the ownersare getting increasingly frus-trated over the continuedstonewalling. What is on theother hand required is a publicmeeting to be called so that theprocess of the joint survey andwhat it proposes to find can beexplained to the stakeholders.This is to make the latter a partof the survey, which ought thento be undertaken without delay.The findings of this need to bepublished immediately thereaf-ter.

What is likely to emergefrom this is that not every prop-erty owner is sitting on a mega-lithic cairn or cist. Those thatare not affected ought to be al-lowed to get on with their con-

struction. The affected owners– whose interests need to bemet with and their concerns as-suaged – can either be offeredland elsewhere or they can bepermitted to construct on partsof their properties that do nothave these remains. Lastly, theentire colony ought to be taughtthe importance of the pre-his-toric finds and how they needto be proud of what they pos-sess. The residents can be madea part of a committee that ad-ministers these sites and helpspromote tourism in the area.Revenues from such activitiescan be used for improving thelocality and maintaining therelics.

All this calls for someenlightened thinking. Can weexpect this from our Govern-ment – and citizens?

SHORT ’N’

SNAPPY

September 16-30, 2015 MADRAS MUSINGS 3

Such men should be remembered...Forgive me for saying this: I feel dejected thatour fellow citizens of Madras take pride incelebrating the birthdays of movie stars. I donot wish to find fault with that. But in thatprocess they forget and even ignore theimmense and prolific contributions made bygreat men and women, such as M.S.Swaminathan. At least journals like MadrasMusings must think of such great men andremember them with gratitude.

A scientist of remarkable calibre, a distin-guished son of India, a great and clear

thinker and most importantly, a Madrasresident, Monkombu Sambasiva Swaminathan(b. August 7, 1925), completed 90 years of agerecently. Scientists all over the world havecelebrated, and are celebrating, this event byshowering tributes and encomiums on thispeerless agricultural scientist of India.

It will be too hard to recall all of Swamina-than’s achievements in this space. Most of usknow that he is one of the few men of sciencewho made great impacts on the science andmanagement of Indian agriculture. It is a greatfortune for us – citizens of Madras – that hedecided to live in Madras and establish hisresearch institute.

Born in Kumbakonam, the son of M.K.Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal,Swaminathan made great strides as a studentof crop genetics in the late 1940s-early 1950s.He earned a B.Sc. (Agriculture) as his seconddegree studying at the Madras AgriculturalCollege (now Tamil Nadu Agricultural Univer-sity), Coimbatore, and subsequently moved tothe Indian Agricultural Research Institute(IARI), New Delhi, for his Master’s.Swaminathan expounded the genetics ofSolanum (potato is a Solanum) for his doctoraldegree at the University of Cambridge. Hereturned to India soon after to accept the

position of an academic-research scientist at hisalma mater, the IARI, and was closely associ-ated with the internationally famous roseenthusiast and geneticist Bipin Peary Pal,whom Swaminathan sees as his mentor-teacher. The rest of Swaminathan’s story is wellknown to most of us.

He rose to be the Director of IARI, sub-sequently the Director-General of the IndianCouncil of Agricultural Research (ICAR),concurrently holding the position of Secretary,Department of Agriculture, Government ofIndia. Later, he moved to the InternationalRice Research Institute, Manila, as its Direc-tor-General. As the Director-General of ICAR,he pioneered reforming and enabling ailingIndian agriculture by marshalling and extend-ing Norman Borlaug’s concept of the GreenRevolution, teaming with the dynamic CentralMinister for Food, Chidambaram Subrama-niam, and his Secretary, Sivaraman. Thisassociation indeed changed the complexion ofIndian agriculture dramatically in the next fewyears.

After his stint on Manila, he decided toestablish the M.S. Swaminathan ResearchFoundation in Madras, which, since then, hasbeen rendering yeoman service to Indianfarmers and farming by spreading the messageof eco-friendly farming tactics and offeringeducation in no small measure.

The whole world salutes this gentle giant forhis substantial contributions to Indian agricul-ture. We need to take pride in the fact thatSwaminathan is a fellow citizen of Madras,whose presence and work have added an inimi-table sparkle to the city and the State. Let ussalute Swaminathan wishing him many moreyears of achievement.

– Dr. A. [email protected]

Question of identity

Greek history started withthe City-States of Athens

and Sparta and the birth of Ma-dras is as good a reference pointas any to celebrate the historyof our city including the oldervillages which it comprise. Theslur on Madras Week, targetedas anti-national has more to dowith identity than with history.Identity and self-respect areclosely linked, hence the cre-ation of linguistic states afterIndependence or, for that mat-ter, the creation of Pakistan.

The history of colonial Ma-dras, what some see as an un-

healthy fascination with allthings British, from forts tobuildings to erstwhile rulers, isseen as a threat not so much tonational identity, as to regionalidentity. The renaming of citiesand now of streets is an attemptto reinforce this identity.

The danger lies in the factthat while history is non-threat-ening, a sense of identity can getnarrower and narrower, break-ing down into caste, sub-caste,community, language, etc.When this happens the regionaland, in extension, a nationalidentity, and the Indian psycheitself, gets fragmented and it isnot the celebration of historythat is a threat to nationalism.

Dr. Beatrix D’[email protected]

Street Life

� An occasional column by a British freelance writer on her eight years in Madras

It’s early morning in Kotturpuram and the residentsof my street are beginning to stir. Security guards,

roused from sleep, drag reluctant pedigree poochesaround the block, watched by street dogs who raise adesultory eyelid, and then return to slumber. Thedawn mosquitoes square their shoulders in prepara-tion for the first walkers and from the nearby mosquethe muezzin proclaims the greatness of his god.

Babblers, little birds that fly in tightly packedgroups, twitter and follow each other like insecureteenagers flitting from hedge to lawn as the sun riseson another pile of garbage in our street. Unperturbed,a cow on the corner grazes on plastic bags and crisppackets from the pile of litter cascading out of thebins.

A man wanders the street crying “Peepers!” Formany years I thought he was selling something until Irealised that he collected old newspapers and was call-ing out ‘Papers’ in the local accent. This is recyclingIndian style, and one man’s rubbish is another man’sliving.

Likewise, a barefoot old crone sifts through thecontents of the bin extracting cardboards which shefolds into neat bundles and carts away on her head. Askinny urchin picks out plastic bottles and, packingthem into a tattered jute bag, strolls off to find thenext rich pickings.

But things are changing. The more affluent inhab-itants of our street are fed up with the piles of litter,the cows, the smells, the crows and the recycling ur-chins. The idea is that all the houses have bins, a blueone for ‘dry goods’, and a turquoise one for ‘wetgoods’. These are put out early in the morning andcollected daily. The head of the project tells me:

“It is the big houses that are the worst offenders,they leave it to their staff to do the segregating andput out the bins and the staff do not understand sothey do not do it.”

But all improvements start with education. It isgood to hear that children in Madras are now beingtaught about harm of littering and the impact it hason the ecosystem, but thwarting those improvements

is a government that is not prepared to pay the pricefor a clean city. The steady decline in cleaner streetswas obvious when one cleaning firm’s contract was ter-minated in exchange for a cheaper deal some years ago.

Time moves on and the overture of car horns be-gins, gradually reaching a crescendo as the school op-posite opens its gates. Impatient drivers and harassedparents late for work hurry to drop off children. Whatwas once a large house and lush peaceful garden is nowthe concrete school playground where instructions arebarked out through a loudspeaker and the children aremarched into class to the accompaniment of a bassdrum and whistle blowing.

Next door to our house, the mali sweeps the leavesfrom an immaculate, verdant lawn and washes the dustoff the mock-Grecian statuary that adorns the luxuri-ant garden. For many years this was a field wherepeople relieved themselves and the only inhabitantswere a family of cobras. It is now a super swanky pad,the inhabitants of which are rarely seen; its LeCorbuisier style concrete blocks dominate the skyline.

Down the road another empty plot develops into ablock of flats. Adjacent to a slum around the corner,so-called “dream apartments” are mushrooming.Houses are no longer financially viable when land is sovaluable and I hear that, eventually, when we leave,our house is destined to become a casualty of develop-ment.

All these expansions begin to take their toll onthe environment. More people need more electricityand water. Although we regularly have recourse toour generator, for the first time in nine years our wellhas run dry and we are forced to buy water fromtankers.

Progress has been slow in other less financiallyremunerative areas. The street we live on is still a massof potholes and has never been properly made. In themonsoon the drains overflow and the road becomes asmall lake and a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

In 1989, a dreamer called M.B. Nirmal founded anon-government environmental service calledExnora. The word derived from Excellent, Novel andRadical and it was designed to solve environmentaland civic problems by involving those who causedthem. There is no longer an Exnora in my district. Asalways in India, sustainability became an issue. I imag-ine that enquiries to local government councils wouldbe a bumpy road in itself!

As the morning progresses, the heat rises. Two girlsstroll down the road carrying tiffin boxes in a basket.They are dressed in beautiful pink and orange sarees,their hair adorned with jasmine. A street dog jogsjauntily past them. Taking care to avoid the cow, thedog has a quick sniff at the garbage and enjoys thefreedom its pedigreed descendants behind gates mightenvy.

The chai seller comes on his bicycle, stops for achat with a security guard, and gives the old lady sit-ting half naked on the curb a paper mug of tea. Chil-dren from the slum around the corner contrive to turna rag into a blindfold and play at pirates with the in-ventive creativity of the poor. The paper collectortakes away a pile of our newspapers and bottles to re-cycle somewhere and keep his family fed. The daydrifts on.

I love this street, this district, and this crazy city.For all the physical changes, good and bad, it is stillMadras and its people, the essence, steeped in tradi-tion, will, I think, be slow to change.

CHENNAI HERITAGENo. 5, Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

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The Leather KingThe book* is a fitting celebra-

tion of the legacy of A.Nagappa Chettiar, a pioneer ofthe leather industry in India.

Nagappa Chettiar, it is sur-prising to find, was not even amatriculate and “spoke halt-ingly in English”, to quoteretired IAS officer Dr. G. Sun-daram, and yet was a trailblazerof the leather industry. The dis-tinct look of Chettiar, alwaysclad in white shirt and whitedhoti, even in the presence ofsuited-and-booted foreign visi-tors, subtly speaks of his convic-tion to stick to his roots.

Born in Melsivapuri inPudukottai district on August6, 1915, Nagappan lost his fa-ther very early. As was usualwith Nattukottai Chettiars, hejoined the banking business ofM. Narayanan Chettiar inCeylon, when he was just 15. In1937, he launched out on hisown into leather trading. Atannery was operated fromrented premises in 1938. Theleather industry was in a na-scent stage in Ceylon at thetime and Nagappa Chettiar andhis partner adopted a scientificmethod of processing leatherusing vegetable tanning withwattle bark extract to save costand time. Building on qualityand timely delivery, the firmcreated an export market de-mand for its products. The riseof his business was meteoricand, by 1943, a new tannery wasbuilt in Himbutuwelgoda nearColombo. During World WarII, his firm supplied raw mate-rial to be used in boots for theArmy.

Acting on the suggestion ofthe then Indian Agent inCeylon, M.S. Aney, to set upoperations in India consideringthe future political scenarios,Nagappa Chettiar, along withother directors, established anagency, Palaniappa Chettiar &Co. in Madras and also tanner-ies in Pallavaram and Dindugal.

At that time, East Indiatanned hides and skins (knownas EI tanned leathers), pro-duced through tanning usingvegetable materials and indig-enous barks and, later, wattleextract, were in high demand bythe British for export to the UKfrom India. After Indepen-dence, sensing that the demandfor tanned leather from Indiawould grow considerably, Nag-appa Chettiar along with otherdirectors from his communityestablished the India LeatherCorporation Private Limited(ILC) in 1948. Under thiscompany’s name, many tanner-

Nagappa Chettiar with R. Venkataraman at ILC Stall, Paris.

A historic institution Nagappa Chettiar acquired.

A. Nagappa Chettiar.

ies under the independent man-agement of its directors were es-tablished in Salem, Pallavaram,Vellore, Trichy, Madhavaramand Red Hills near Madras andGudiyatham. ILC also bought atransport company in Banga-lore to meet its transportationneeds.

The first major break-through that Nagappa Chettiar,as Managing Director of ILC,achieved was convincing theJapanese to buy higher grade ofleather in place of their lowgrade imports. This was duringhis visit to Japan in 1953. As aresult, ILC was supplying one-third of all Japanese leatherneeds in the 1950s. He also vis-ited the UK and Europe to es-

tablish direct contact with buy-ers. Buyers in Europe were get-ting their leather through auc-tions in the UK. What NagappaChettiar did changed the for-tunes of the leather industry inIndia. Instead of going throughthe auction system, he directlyreached out to the buyers. ILC’sexports exceeded Rs. 2.5 croresby 1957 and ILC became thelargest single foreign exchangeearner in the Southern Regionin the 1950s.

As export market demandfor leather increased, ILC

moved into its own building in1958, the India Leather Man-sion at Davidson Street. The of-fice also housed an electric bal-ing press, electric hoists, a test-ing laboratory, an exhibition ofproducts of EI tanned leather, atechnical library and a canteen.Nagappa Chettiar appointedagents for ILC in France,Belgium, Italy, Germany, USAand Japan. ILC offices wereopened in London, Paris,Milan, Madrid, Frankfurt, NewYork and Tokyo. The com-pany’s activities also expandedbeyond Madras state into Co-lombo, Calcutta and Cudda-pah. He was hailed as the‘Leather King’ by his customersabroad.

Next, in a bold move, ILC in1965 bought the ailing ChromeLeather Company (CLC),which had a large estate and anintegrated leather centre. Thiscompany of repute had beenstarted by the British and wasbeing managed by Ida Cham-bers, an Australian and a mem-ber of the founding family. Heturned around the company,but due to Reserve Bank ofIndia’s policies, lines of creditfor the company began to expire

by 1972. Nagappa Chettiarnevertheless sustained the com-pany.

Nagappa Chettiar was close-ly associated with the CentralLeather Research Institutesince its inception in 1948. Hewas Chairman of the Institute’sGoverning Council and also amember of the research councilat various time periods. Heenjoyed a good rapport with itsillustrious director, Dr. Y.Nayudamma, in the 1960s, andthe directors who followed him.His lasting contributions to the

Institute are visible even today.It was he who mooted the ideaof International Leather Fair inMadras and was successful inorganising the first fair at theCLRI premises in 1964 withable support from Nayudamma.The Tanners’ Get-Together,which started at the fair, hasbecome the Leather IndustryGet-Together (LERIG) from1991. The international fairand fashion show, which is apart of the fair, has since1986 been organised by IndianTrade Promotion Organisation(ITPO), Government of India.

Chettiar donated Rs. 51,000to set up the Footwear ResearchCentre inside the CLRI campusin 1972. It has morphed into theshoe Design and DevelopmentCentre (SDDC) today and un-dertakes consultancy services tothe industry. He also donatedRs. 1 lakh to set up a LeatherMuseum inside the CLRI cam-pus. Although the building iscomplete, it is yet to see theideal of Nagappa Chettiar ful-filled. But it is fitting that hisstatue was installed in theInstitute’s premises near themuseum in 1988.

His significant contributionto the leather industry is chang-ing the paradigm from export-ing wet skins and hides of lowerquality and semi-finished lea-ther into fully finished leatherand value-added leather pro-ducts to other countries. Hiscollaboration with academiaenabled him to look for innova-tive ways to improve the qualityof leather. He was awardedPadma Shri by Government ofIndia in 1967 for his contribu-tions to the leather industry.

Apart from product innova-tion, Nagappa Chettiar was alsoinstrumental in bringing theleather industry together. He,along with his colleagues in the

industry, persuaded the Gov-ernment of India to institute aLeather Export PromotionCouncil (LEPC) which tookshape in 1956 at Marble Hall inPeriamet, Madras. Dr. G. Sun-daram, IAS, was Secretary ofLEPC from 1971 to 1974. Hepays handsome tribute to Nag-appa Chettiar who was Chair-man of LEPC at that time,pointing out that Chettiar hada sharp mind despite lack of for-mal education. Many importantchanges took place when theChettiar-Sundaram combineencouraged switching fromsemi-finished leather to finishedleather for export. Necessaryclearances for acquiring ma-chinery were also streamlined.

Despite his towering achie-vements, Chettiar remainedhumble. Always clad in khadian a true Gandhian, he alwaysrecalled Mahatma Gandhi’s la-ment in The Harijan as early as1934 – that hides worth Rs. 9crore exported from the coun-try returned as manufacturedarticles, representing a materialas well as intellectual drain.This inspired Chettiar to lookfor ways to improve the situa-tion. He donated liberally toeducational causes and also totemples.

A postcard from BuenosAires to his daughter (addressedas Miss Yegu Nagappan) in1961, featured in the book, re-veals his concern for her and hiswife from far afar when instantcommunication was star yearsaway. In the Foreword to thebook, Yegammai says his fatheralways found time for the familydespite his pressing business in-terests. This pioneer of leathertrade in India breathed his lastin 1982, aged 67. His death wasa great loss to ear industry inparticular.

– K. Venkatesh

* J. Prasad Davids, Leather King Padma

Shri A. Nagappa Chettiar: Inspiring

Legacy of His Success – in Management,

Public and Personal Life, Nagappan

Foundation, Chennai, 2015.


A 4-page special feature on Madras Week

The Justice Partyin Triplicane

– A walk duringMadras Week

� bySriram V.

‘Mylapore and the Freedom Movement’ was the theme of a walk led by Sriram V during Madras Week. The walkincluded stops at C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar’s residence in Alwarpet (top) and the Andhra Mahila Sabha campus where thewalkers paused at the statue of its founder Durgabai Deshmukh.

It was documentary film-maker and photographer S.

Anwar who first introduced meto Govi Lenin of Nakkeeranpublications and his associatePrince Ennares Periyar. Theywere greatly interested in doinga walk connected with theJustice Party, he said, andwanted to know if MadrasMusings would lend its name toit. I had a meeting with themand found that they had tworoutes in mind – one aroundT’Nagar where many of thatparty’s leaders are commemo-rated by name, and the otherthrough Triplicane, wheremuch of the party’s history ac-tually took place. After a briefdiscussion we decided on thelatter route for August 16th andagreed that it would be one ofthe walks done by MadrasMusings for Madras Week.

The morning of the walk sawa fine drizzle, which kept many

of the registrants safely in bed.But a few of us made it and wereglad that we did, for the tour ledby Govi Lenin brought to lightseveral nuggets of Madras his-tory, long forgotten. We beganat the City Centre Mall,Radhakrishnan Road. This wasonce Raju Gramani Thottamand it was here that the Non-Brahmin Manifesto of theSouth Indian Liberation Frontaka Justice Party was released in1916. This year, therefore,marks the centenary of Dravi-dian politics, for it was with thatparty that the movement began.

We walked down NatesaMudaliar Road, which connectsMylapore to Triplicane. This isnamed after Dr. C. Natesa

Mudaliar (1875-1937), thefounder of the Non-Brahminmovement. He was a prominentmedical practitioner of the cityand in 1912 helped found theMadras United League that fo-cussed on improving the lit-eracy of non-Brahmins in thePresidency. Though sidelined in

later years, it cannot be deniedthat much of the initial impetusfor the movement came fromhim.

Natesa Mudaliar Road leadsto Irusappa Gramani Street, a

thoroughfare that commemo-rates the Gramani community,several of whose members werefollowers of the Justice Party.Ma. Po. Sivagnanam (1906-1995), the Tamil scholar andalso a Gramani, lived here. Heplayed an important role in theagitation that led to Madras be-ing retained as part of MadrasState (later Tamil Nadu), dur-ing the linguistic division thatled to the formation of Andhra.Ma Po Si was a Gandhian butin 1967, successfully contestedthe Assembly elections on aDMK ticket, winning from theT’ Nagar constituency.

Our next stop was the houseof Subramania Bharati (1882-1921), on Tulasinga PerumalStreet. Now a well-maintainedmuseum, this was an apt placeto consider Bharati’s view of theJustice Party movement.Though he was a revolutionaryin his strong dislike for the castesystem, Bharati opined that theJustice Party, focussing as it didonly on the local political move-ment, diverted attention fromthe greater good – the national-ist movement and the freedomstruggle. The Justice Partywhen it came to power in themid-1920s, would ban hisworks, a proscription thatwould end only in 1948.

From Tulasing PerumalStreet we went to the Trip-licane Tank. The waters of thistank and their maintenancewas to see a bitter debate in theearly 1900s in the Madras Cor-poration. In his capacity asCouncillor for Triplicane, Dr.T.M. Nair (1868-1919) orderedthat washing of clothes in thetank should be stopped forth-with and that the locals betaxed for the maintenance ofthe water. This was strongly op-posed by Sir Pitti TheagaroyaChetty (1852-1925) and in thevote that ensued, Dr. Nair wasdefeated. He resigned from theCorporation and this was toembitter his relations with SirTheagaroya. Matters wouldhave remained thus and therehad not Dr. C. Natesa Mudaliarbrokered peace between the

two in the interests of the non-Brahmin movement. The twocame together by 1914 and,from then on, worked closely inthe Justice Party. Dr. Nair wentto England in 1919 to representthe non-Brahmin interests atthe Houses of Parliament anddied suddenly during his travel.

One of the earliest moves bythe Madras United League un-der Dr. Natesa Mudaliar wasthe establishment of a hostel fornon-Brahmin students. Therehad existed no such facilityprior to this and its creation wasto greatly encourage many non-Brahmins from the mofussil toenrol in the colleges of Madras.We, therefore, travelled next toAkbar Sahib Street, whereNatesa Mudaliar’s hostel onceexisted but is untraceable now.

A coffee break en route atAdyar Ananda Bhavan was agood spot for a discussion onthe electoral fortunes of the Jus-tice Party. It came to power fol-lowing the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms that al-lowed for a limited electoralfranchise for the LegislativeCouncils. The Congress optedto stay out, citing MahatmaGandhi’s non-cooperation prin-ciples but it spawned severaloutfits such as the Swarajistswho contested the elections.The Justice Party came topower in 1920 with A.Subbarayulu Reddiar becomingthe first Premier of Madras. Heresigned shortly thereafter,making way for the Rajah ofPanagal under whose leadershipseveral landmark legislationswere to be passed. The Commu-nal GO of 1921 introduced pro-portional reservation of jobs onthe basis of caste and religionand can be considered the be-ginning of the reservationpolicy in the whole of India.The Hindu Religious andCharitable Endowments Boardwas set up and took over the ad-ministration of all temple lands.This was opposed by the ortho-dox elements but receivedwholehearted support from theParamacharya of Kanchi. The


Lenin (second from left) at the Subramania Bharati’s house.


A walk in the rain atKelambakkam...

... & on a search for butterflies

The Madras Naturalists’Society’s Kelambakkam

Nature Walk, a part of MadrasWeek 2015 celebrations, pro-vided participants sightings of43 different birds: Despiteheavy rain before and duringthe first half of the Walk, therewere 21 ‘bravehearts’ whothroughly enjoyed both the rainand the sightings, the big bonusbeing the three Greater Flamin-gos in all their glory. SivkumarHariharan led the walk: TheBird List of sightings is:

Spot-billed Pelican; PaintedStork; Asian Openbill; LittleGrebe; Spot-billed Duck;Fulvous Whistling-duck; Com-mon Coot; Large Egret; LittleEgret; Cattle Egret; GreyHeron; Black-crowned NightHeron; Striated Heron; BlackBittern; Whiskered Tern;Black-headed Ibis; Glossy Ibis;Greater Flamingo; Green Bee-eater; Purple Swamphen; PiedCrested Cuckoo; Eurasian Cur-lew; Snipe sp.; Common Reds-hank; Little Stint; Black-

winged Stilt; House Crow;Large-billed Crow; Red-wattledLapwing; Ashy Prinia; Com-mon Myna; Indian PondHeron; Common Moorhen;Black Drongo; Pied Kingfisher;White-breasted Kingfisher;Red-vented Bulbul; SpottedDove; Blue Rock Pigeon; LittleCormorant; Great Cormorant;Shikra; and Tailor Bird.

VijayMadras Naturalists’ Society

Winners all!

party, though outside office butlending support to Dr. P.Subbaroyan’s ministry in 1927,played a crucial role in helpingDr. Muthulakshmi Reddy tableher anti-nautch Bill in Legisla-ture.

We then moved to what istoday Sangeetha Café onBharati (Pycroft’s) Road. Thiswas once Murali Café thatproudly sported a board thatclaimed that entry was only forBrahmins. Those of other castescould take away food but couldnot eat there. This was wherewe remembered the role ofPeriyar E.V. Ramaswami Naic-ker (1879-1973) in the historyof the Justice Party. He left theCongress in 1925 and by 1934was firmly in the Justice Party’sfold. By then the party’s greatdays were over. It was steadilylosing to the Congress and itwas Periyar who transformed itinto the Self-Respect move-ment, launching the DravidaKazhagam. The Justice Partyfaded away thereafter. In the1950s, Periyar was to get hisfollowers to agitate against theBrahmin tag of Murali Cafe. Ayear-long legal battle, picketingand violence was to follow. Itwas the Paramacharya ofKanchi who finally convincedthe owner of the hotel toremove the offending word.That ended the matter.

Our next stop was the houseof Chinna Kuthoosi aka R.Thyagarajan (1934-2011) atVallabha Agraharam, oppositethe erstwhile Star Talkies.Though a Brahmin, he was tobe a staunch member of theSelf-Respect movement. Hewas a journalist and ideologue,who was widely respected by allelements in Dravidian politics.We ended the walk outside TheHindu’s old office at 100 MountRoad. From there, you get agood view of Periyar’s statueand also that of C.N.Annadurai (1909-1969). Thelatter, a staunch follower ofPeriyar, would break away fromhim and his DK on account ofPeriyar’s decision to marryManiammai, a woman severalyears his junior. Anna’s splitwould see him launch the DMK

in 1949 and become Chief Min-ister of Madras in 1967. Hewould legislate to have theState’s name changed to TamilNadu and the rest is a story weall know.

Periyar may have been anatheist but this was somethingthat many of the Dravidianpoliticians chose to be ambiva-lent about. It was perhaps ap-propriate that our breakfast,which saw an animated discus-sion on the future of Dravidianpolitics, was at Saravana Bha-van, where we ate surroundedby pictures of Murugan, theTamil deity, and of his – ardentdevotee Kripananda Variyar.

The Justice Party inTriplicane


The annual Madras Quiz for Tamil medium city schools was held on August 22nd at a hall in the P.S. School campus,Mylapore. The quiz master was R. Revathi. The first prize was won by the team from Rani Meiyamnai Girls’ School, R.A.Puram – S. Aishwarya, M. Suganya. The second place was the team from St. Antony's Girls’ School and 3rd was theteam from Raja Mutaiah School, R.A. Puram.

Kombai S. Anwar, documen-tary film-maker and photo-journalist, presented the first prizeto the PSBB, T.P. Road,T. Nagar team, which won theannual Madras Day Power PointPresentation Contest at SastriHall, Luz. The theme this yearwas Heritage Churches ofMadras. Mylapore Timesorganised this event too.

... at the Tamil Medium Quiz...

... and at thepower pointpresentation...

The ‘Butterfly Walk’ at the AdyarTholkappiar Poonga during Ma-

dras Week was the first one ever con-ducted by the Madras Naturalists’ Soci-ety. It was led by Dr. R. Bhanumathi,Environmental Educationist. The walkbegan with an introduction on butter-flies, morphology, role in our environ-ment and tips on watching in the wild.The 25 participants were taken aroundthe Poonga in small groups and intro-duced to spotting butterflies with theiridentification marks, wing patterns andflight behaviour. The two-hour walk re-sulted in spotting and identifying 24species of butterflies (listed below)including the not-so-common ones like

The Kelambakkam walk ... in the rain.

the Black Rajah, CommonGrass Dart and Bush Hopper.The butterflies spotted were:

Common Mormon (Papiliopolytes); Lime Butterfly(Papilio demoleus); CrimsonRose (Atrophaneura hector);Small Grass Yellow (Euremabrigitta); Common Emigrant(Catopsilia Pomona); SmallSalmon Arab (Colotis amata);Common Albatross (Appiasalbino); Psyche (Leptosianina); Blue Tiger (Tirumalalimniace); Striped Tiger(Danaus genutia); Plain Tiger(Danaus chrysippus); Com-mon Crow (Euploea core);Black Rajah (Charaxes solon);Tawny Coster (Acraea violae);Common Leopard (Phalantaphalantha); Common Sailer(Neptis hylas); ChocolatePansy (Junonia iphita); LemonPansy (Junonia lemonias);Forget-me-not (Catochrysopsstrbo); Lime Blue (Chiladeslajus); Common Banded Awl(Hasora chromus); CommonGrass Dart (Taractroceramaevius); Bush Hopper(Ampittia dioscorides);Parnara Swift (Parnana bada)

Black Rajah. Common GrassDart.


At the Madras Christian College exhibition... explaining exhibits and interacting with the visitors ... and the crowd to see how the trains run.

Vestiges of Madrasat MCC

The Department of History,one of the oldest depart-

ment in Madras Christian Col-lege, organised a two-day exhi-bition, “Vestiges of Madras”, tocelebrate Madras Week. Takingplace in early September, theexhibition helped make it whatmay be called a Madras Month.Exhibits, diverse in character,showcased the growth of Ma-dras from its founding. On dis-play were personal collectionsof maps, portraits, stamps, rarebooks, etc. of DwaraknathReddy, Managing Director,Nippo Batteries, D.H. Rao,Winston A. Henry and RolandNelson.

The Archaeological Surveyof India – Fort Museum,Chennai Circle – Chennai PortTrust, Department of Archae-

ology, Government of TamilNadu, Department of History,MCC, Government Museum,Chennai, Indian Air Force Sta-tion, Tambaram; IntegralCoach Factory, Chennai, MCCArchives, and Madras Veteri-nary College, Chennai, all hadcontributed a variety of exhib-its. The most attractive featuresof the exhibition were a runningmodel from the railways, amodel of a Mirage 2000 fromthe IAF, a speaking canon fromthe Fort Museum, and shipmodels from Port Trust.

Special lectures were deliv-ered by D.H. Rao and WinstonHenry on Buckingham Canaland Tramways in Madras, re-spectively. A food court with avariety of traditional cuisineswas also organised.

Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetti,Chairman Nalli Silks, while in-augurating the exhibition,shared with a sense of nostalgia,his experiences of the city, par-ticularly of T’Nagar. S. Muthiahdelivered the valedictory ad-dress and hoped the exhibitionwould have made visitors proudof Madras’s history.

The target group of the ex-hibition was students and, asexpected, it drew a lot of visi-tors from schools in theneighbourhood. Student fromover 20 schools (about 2000students) enjoyed the exhibitswhich some called a lifetime ex-perience. Students and stafffrom Madras Christian Collegeand other city colleges also hadthe same view.

Highlighting builtheritage

Exhibiting the past

The billboards on the Marina with which Inner Wheelers 323 highlighted thecity’s built heritage during Madras Day.

Students and faculty of the Sociology Dept of Sri Kanyaka ParameswariArts and Science College for Women, Audiappa Naicken Street, George Town,hosted a half-day Madras Day exhibition of old photographs and homeaccessories used in years gone by. It also featured photographs of KotwalChawadi and the Sowcarpet/Mint area shot by the students. A few traders fromthe Moore Market/Lily Pondy complex also displayed old coins, gramophones,vinyl records, etc.

On thetrailof nuns& temples

A walk themed on the ‘Irish nunsin George Town’ (on right) was led byVincent D’ Souza (in cap on right)during Madras Week.

* * *

Andhra Bank, Mylapore branch,organised a ‘Seven Sivan Temples’tour in the Mylapore area to markMadras Week (below).


The Marina was indeed theperfect setting for the

screening of the documentaryThe story of Madras....Chennaion the evening of August 22nd.As the waves lashed the shoreand the stars twinkled thatnight (the rain Gods were mer-ciful) history came alive for theduration of the film. For wasn’ton an extension of this sandystretch that Francis Day of theEast India Company arrived376 years ago to found a newsettlement. After braving thearduous journey by ship and aneven more treacherous masulaboat ride, Day arrived in whatjournalist, author, and well-known chronicler of Madras S.Muthiah calls no man’ssand.!!!!!

The film, which has beenproduced by the INTACHChennai Chapter was an ideaconceived by its Convenor Ar-chitect Sujatha Shankar a fewyears ago. The major highlightof the film is the commentary byS. Muthiah. It encapsulatesover 300 years of history deftlyand neatly, tells us about themany firsts that Madras scored,its institutions, its buildings andits glorious heritage and muchmore. No matter how manybooks on Madras you read thereis simply nothing like hearing itfrom Muthiah, a man whoknows the city best and who hashistory at his finger tips. Bring-ing to bear his knowledge andexpertise honed by years and

years of research Muthiahspeaks as well as he writes andnarrates the commentary in achatty, conversational style.For someone like me who hadbeen a Journalism student ofMuthiah at Bharatiya VidyaBhavan it was a throwback tothose days when he would holdstudents in thrall with his lec-tures and have them hangingon to his every word. It was awealth of information that herecalled so effortlessly that leftmany a viewer dumbstruck.“Imagine he has put in more

ings, old images, photographsand portraits to make the storycome alive. Although it was re-leased last year on Madras Dayat the Amir Mahal by the Princeof Arcot, Mohammed AbdulAli (the first copy was receivedby Mrs Y.G. Parthasarathy,Founder, Dean and DirectorPadma Seshadri Bala BhavanSenior Secondary School, andcopies distributed to severalschools) the film has unlimitedshelf life and is a great watch atany time. The visuals (BhagatSingh and R Murali) and themusic blended neatly and addedvalue and meaning to the film. Talking of the crowd responseSujatha Shankar describes it inone word, “awesome. Aroundseven hundred people watchedit during the screening on Au-gust 22nd, and inspired by theoverwhelming response a sec-ond screening was also held thesame evening. Since copies ofthe film had been to severalschools, those institutions tooscreened it for their students.

A Heritage map of Madrasdesigned by Sujatha Shankarwas also released on the occa-sion by Dr Rani VedamuthuChairperson, School of Archi-tecture and Planning, AnnaUniversity, and the first copywas received by the Prince ofArcot, Mohammed Abdul Ali.The map which was made pos-sible by TTK Healthcare is afoldable, pocket-sized map.“When you are somewhere in

The Story of Madras

� By A SpecialCorrespondent

than thirty years of research togive us this and that in a dayand age when there were nocomputers, no Google, nointernet, gushed a viewer. Amotley crowd of history buffs,heritage lovers, architects, stu-dents, bureaucrats and otherVIPs happily sat cross ¨Cleggedon the sands and watched thefilm.

Talking about the making ofthe film, Sujatha Shankar dis-closes that the original plan wasto record the commentary in astudio, but Muthiah preferredto talk to a live audience .Thusit was that the talk which wasdelivered at Madras Club to itsmembers was seamlessly con-verted into a documentary bySujatha with intelligent inter-spersing of visuals map draw-

Madras that is Chennai andhave some time to spare, themap will help you explore thevicinity, Sujatha says

The film is a must watch forheritage lovers, history buffs,students of architecture andhistory and anyone who caresabout Madras that is Chennai..

It gives plenty of reasons to letour hearts swell with pride for,after all, wasn’t it in Madrasthat the seeds of modern Indiawere sown .Such initiatives areindeed laudable as they help tokeep alive, preserve and protectour natural heritage and builtheritage.

OUR ADDRESSES

For matters regarding subscrip-tions, donations, non-receipt ofreceipts etc.: CHENNAIHERITAGE, 5, Bhattad Tower, 30,Westcott Road, Royapettah,Chennai 14.

Madras Musings now has its ownemail ID. Letters to the editor can besent via email [email protected].

Those who wish to intimate changeof address can also do so providedthe subscription number is quoted.For non-receipt of copies, changeof address, and all other circulationmatters: Madras Musings, C/oLokavani Southern Printers Pvt.Ltd., 122, Greames Road, Chennai600 006. On editorial matters: TheEditor, Madras Musings, No. 5,Bhattad Tower, 30, Westcott Road,Royapettah, Chennai 600 014.

No personal visits or telephonecalls, please. Letters received willbe sent from these addresses everycouple of days to the personsconcerned and you will get an an-swer from them to your queriesreasonably quickly. Strange as itmay seem, if you adopt the ësnailmailí approach, we will be able tohelp you faster and disappoint youless.

ñ THE EDITOR


Story of MadrasCotton

Cotton (qut’n, qujun –Arabic, cotoun – Anglo-

Norman, coton – old French,karparsa – Sanskrit) has been apart of Indian heritage for long.The earliest reference to cottonoccurs in the Srauta Sutra ofAsvalayanã (estimated 8thCentury BCE), in which thecotton fibre is compared withother fibrous materials usedby humans, such as silk andhemp. Herodotus (c. 450 BCE)indicates that cotton materialis the customary wear of Indi-ans: ‘India has wild trees thatbear fleeces as their fruits ... ofthis the Indians make theirclothes.’

Marco Polo, the Venetiantraveller who travelled in Indiain the 13th Century, refers toMasulipatnam cotton materialas the finest and most elegantfabric known in any part of theworld.

The bulk of the cottonfabrics imported into Europefrom India in the 18th Centurybore hand-printed floral de-signs. White cotton materialswith prominent floral motifsparticularly were popular, espe-cially among the wealthy. Flo-ral ‘sprig’ designs with tiny mo-tifs on pastel backgrounds werecheap and, therefore, werepopular among the less wealthyEuropeans. In France, theseprinted fabrics were generallycalled ‘les Indiennes’ (‘the Indi-ans’). In England and in theAmerican colonies, similarterms prevailed: calico, derivedfrom Calicut, was a generalname for Indian cotton fabric,including plain, printed, stain-ed, dyed, woven with colouredstripes or checks, and chintzwas from the Hindustani‘chint’.

Historical references to cot-ton in India speak of ‘tree’ cot-ton, which should be Gossypiumarboreum. Throughout theworld, three other economicallyuseful species of Gossypium areknown: barbadense, hirsutum,and herbaceum. From the earlydecades of the 19th Century,from the time of the governor-ship of Thomas Munro (1761-1827), the Government of Ma-dras was determined to culti-vate G. barbadense (the bour-bon cotton) in Salem andCoimbatore, and entrusted theresponsibility to J.M. Heath,Commercial Resident inCoimbatore. Heath communi-cated with George ArthurHughes in Tinnevelly who hadbeen engaged in the cultivationof G. barbadense there for long.Heath, having obtained in-structions from Hughes, suc-ceeded in growing G. barbadensein Coimbatore.

Shrub Cotton (Gossypium Barbadense)

The traditional l8th Century Indian method of deseeding.

Four cotton farms of 400acres each were established inTinnevelly, Coimbatore, Masu-lipatnam, and Visakhapatnam.The produce from Coimbatore,500 bales of 300 lb each, ship-ped by Heath to England, weresent to China for sale.

One vital issue for Indiancotton was its inability to matchAmerican cotton in quality. Be-cause the cotton wool producedin India included seeds, theCourt of Directors of the EastIndia Company obtained pat-terns of the most popular ma-chines that were in use in Geor-gia and Carolina in America forseparating cotton wool fromseeds. They engaged an Ameri-can, Bernard Metcalfe, in 1813,who for some years had workedas a cotton-cleaner in Georgia,to work on this, but Metcalfe,after working in the southerndistricts of Madras Presidency(Tinnevelly?) for some time,

found that his efforts to encour-age Indians to use Americanmachines were futile and re-turned to America.

The Northern Circars (mod-ern districts of Godavari, Visa-khapatnam in Andhra Pradesh,and Ganjam in Orissa) on theCoromandel Coast was long theseat of extensive production ofcotton fabric, which was popu-larly known as ‘calico’ (the ‘Ma-dras’ long cloth) until the1830s. In Masulipatnam, dyedhandkerchiefs and scarves wereproduced for sale in Africa andin the West Indies. The dyedfabric from Masulipatnam suf-fered a setback in the 1830s,because of the finished cottonthat was mass produced inManchester and Glasgow. Be-cause the cotton grown in theNorthern Circars was neitherabundant nor good, the weav-ers depended on raw materialbrought by the nomadic peoplefrom the Mahratta land (mod-ern Maharashtra), where betterquality raw cotton of betterstaple length grew. The East In-dia Company had established

factories for the spinning of longcloths and salampores in thesouthern districts of the MadrasPresidency. Unreliable rain pat-tern in the southern parts ofMadras Presidency influencedthe price of finished cotton torise and, therefore, cotton ma-terials from southern MadrasPresidency were dearer thanthose from the northern dis-tricts (the Circars). Gossypiumbarbadense and Brazil cottonwere cultivated by East IndiaCompany servants and by a fewprivate residents in Tinnevelly.

By the late 1830s the de-mand for cotton fabric was in-tense in Britain; in the words ofthe Minute writer, importerswere “almost bent on stormingIndia House unless a supply ofcotton were immediately ob-tained from India.”

The Court of Directors ofthe East India Company, be-cause of repeated previous fail-

ures with cotton cultivation inMadras (and after other parts ofIndia), decided that the intro-duction of American cottonand procuring information onthe cultivation of cotton in theSouthern States of America wasthe solution. They deputedCaptain Thomas Bayles of theMadras Army, who was then onfurlough in Britain, to proceedto America to secure cottonseeds and details of cultivation,with an intent to engage peoplequalified for the purpose of in-structing and superintendingIndians in the cultivation ofcotton and the proper methodsof cleaning it by machinery.This mission entrusted toBayles was committed to se-crecy. Bayles was instructed torecruit 8 planters and 12 super-visors (for cleaning and pack-ing) from America and theywere to arrive in India no laterthan December 1839. One ofthem was Thomas JamesFinnie. The outlay for thisproject was £100,000. The Tas-manian newspaper Courier ofOctober 13 (1840) reported

that the boat Great Western hadaboard seven experienced cot-ton planters from South Caro-lina, Georgia, and Mississippi,who had been engaged byBayles and were proceeding toIndia. The same newspaper alsoindicated that three more wereto follow with cotton seeds,gins, and agricultural imple-ment.

Between 1848 and 1858, thesoil types suitable for cottoncultivation were scientificallyestablished in the Districts ofCuddapah, Madura, Tinnevellyand Coimbatore. A generalconsensus was reached that theNorth and South American va-rieties were of superior qualityto Indian native cottons interms of staple length and soft-ness of fibres. While referring tothe highly-prized long stapledG. barbadense (South Sea Islandvariety), Talboys-Wheeler re-

cotton in the Madras Presi-dency. After his return to theUK in 1853, Wight published aseries of short articles inGardener’s Chronicle and Agri-cultural Gazette of London refer-ring to his cotton experimentsin Madras, and also a book re-ferring in detail to his Madrasexperiments in 1862. Fierce sci-entific debates occurred be-tween the American cottonplanter Thomas Finnie, then lo-cated in Tinnevelly, and RobertWight in Coimbatore.

Although I have referredhere to Wight’s experimentswith cotton, we need to recog-nise that a significant section ofthese experiments was carriedout by the American farmers(planters, seed cleaners), whowere recruited for this purposeby the East India Company.During the governorship ofLord Elphinstone, cotton ex-perimental farms were esta-blished in Madras. Americancotton was cultivated andAmerican saw gins were trialledfor their efficiency, under thesuperintendence of Wight atthe Coimbatore experimentalfarm. Finnie, in Tinnevelly,continually evaluated the reac-tions of local farmers to his cot-ton cultivation trials and inter-preted how each year’s crop per-formed. He concluded that theAmerican cotton varietieswould never perform desirablyin this part of India. On thecontrary, Wight considered theclimatic factors of Mexico, theoriginal home of the NewOrleans cotton. He could see asubstantial level of similarity inclimate between Mexico andIndia. Hence he strongly advo-cated continuation of experi-ments. Nevertheless the yieldswere unimpressive and thefarmers could not be convincedto grow American cotton.

These unsuccessful out-comes matched with the suc-cession of Henry Pottinger to


� ‘Pages from History’by DR. A. RAMAN

Charles Sturt UniversityOrange, New South Wales

Australia

marks: “...very beautiful muslinsare still manufactured by thenative weavers at Dacca andArnee.” Whereas Dacca muslinis well-known, a note on Arneewould be in order here. Arni(Arnee) is a township in Tiru-vannamalai District about140 km southwest of Madras.From the days of James Ander-son in Madras, who experi-mented with silkwork produc-tion and mulberry cultivation inMadras in the 18th Century,Arni has been in the limelightfor the manufacture of silkfabrics, which were of a uniquequality, known popularly asArni silk and this townshipretains its reputation to thisday.

Around the same period,Robert Wight extensively ex-perimented with cultivating


(Current Affairs questions arefrom the period August 16 to31. Questions 11 to 20 pertainto Chennai and Tamil Nadu.)

1. On August 18th, whichsouthern Indian city’s airportbecame the first in the world tooperate completely on solarpower?

2. Name the respected Kannadawriter and Sahitya Akademi awardrecipient who was tragically shotdead recently.

3. Who was awarded the RajivGandhi Khel Ratna on August29th?

4. Name the ‘Waterman of India’conferred with the prestigious2015 Stockholm Water Prize onAugust 26th.

5. The Union Government’s newtelemedicine initiative, incollaboration with ApolloHospitals, to provide healthcarefacilities in rural areas is called...?

6. According to scientistsbelonging to various researchorganisations, gene THSD7A hasbeen identified as primarilyresponsible for what worryinghealth condition in Indians?

7. Which famous road in NewDelhi, named after a Mughalemperor, has been renamed aftera former President of India, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam?

8. Name the micro-financecompany that recently became thefirst in India to start operations asa full-fledged scheduledcommercial bank.

9. Who on August 21st wassworn-in as the Prime Minister ofSri Lanka for a fourth time?

10. What is the aim ofwww.vidyalakshmi.co.in launchedby the Government recently?

* * *

11. Which striking edifice in FortSt. George was built by Coja NazarJan, a rich Armenian, in the early18th Century?

12. Where in Mylapore did theJustice Party release its first non-Brahmin manifesto in 1916?

13. Which institution had itsgenesis in the Madras HandloomWeavers’ Provincial Co-Operative Society?

14. Which respected industrialistof Chennai is the author ofT Nagar, Andrum Indrum, a booton the bustling locality?

15. Which distinctly-colouredstructure on Mount Road wasonce called Lawley Hall?

16. What did Cochin House, nearEgmore, become in the 1960s?

17. What was held for the firsttime in Spur Tank, Chetpet,between December 26 and 31,1927?

18. Whose motto is SwadharmeNidhanam Shreyaha (It is a glory todie doing one’s duty)?

19. If Vippore became Vepery,which was Kiliyur anglicised to?

20. Which church in Madras isdedicated to Our Lady of Health?

(Answers on page 12)

Committed to creatingChampions

� Two pages

It is a long drive to the Parry’sBus Terminus. The buses do

not seem so huge out on theroad, but there in the neighbour-hood, we feel small and helplessas the big guys roll past! Just asone loses hope of finding the des-tination, a signboard is visibleand we enter the compound thatencloses the Prime Sports Acad-emy.

It is early in the afternoonand the sun shines straight intothe eyes , but some of the young,prospective athletes of India arealready at it – some doing shortand brisk run-ups alternatedwith long-stride walking; somehang inverted from bars and dostomach crunches and still oth-ers stretch their muscles inpreparation for the day’s train-ing. The brightly coloured jer-seys emblazoned with their teamor school names add a splash ofcolour to the dusty runningtracks. It is not noisy and throb-bing with energy; quite the con-trary, the youngsters work but atan almost meditative pace; thenthere is a sudden burst of speedand all eyes turn to the clay trackin the centre, as two sprintersrace, raising a load of dust, andjust as abruptly ends with someverbal exchanges, hand-shakingand some good-natured back-slapping. The atmosphere ofmentorship and mutual admira-tion brings a smile to the lips ofspectators. There is such joy insports!

Far enough from the dust andgrime is a small cluster of treesunder whose shades sits a groupof dedicated fathers and moth-ers. Snacks boxes and coffeeflasks do the round, as do tips onhealthy diet, fads in runningshoes and some snippets of infor-mation on the latest in the fieldof athletics. The one thing thatthese parents have common isthe dream they cherish of seeingtheir young one competing invarious athletic meets and oneday representing the country.And the man who has broughttogether all these people, hotsummer notwithstanding, is thefounder of Prime Sports Acad-emy – Coach P. Nagarajan.

The St. Joseph’s College busrolls in and we are joined shortlyby the coach himself. A few stepsbehind him is the college Trackand Field team and greetingsand pleasantaries are ex-changed. Coach rattles out a fewinstructions to his boys and thendirects his attention towards thenon-college trainees. He echoesthe same thought, “There is suchjoy in sports!”, but in the samebreath rues the fact that India’saccomplishments in the Olym-pic arena do not match the tal-ent that is available.

He has spent every moment

P. Nagarajan

of his last 24 years trying to makethe difference and ten of thoseyears were spent here at PrimeSports Academy that hefounded. The Academy has seena few athletes who have heldnational records and around 40athlets who have competed ininternational meets. PSA is aprivate coaching academyfunded entirely by St. Joseph’sEngineering College which alsopays the rent for the trainingground besides maintaining it.Most of the trainees here arefrom the weaker sections of thesociety and can ill-afford to payfor the coaching, much less af-

ford high quality running andtraining gear. Nevertheless,there are those who do pay aprincely sum of rupees fifty to-wards membership. With afairly large network of talent-hunters, especially in the ruralbelts, the numbers are ever in-creasing. The alumni of PSAtoo play an active part in keep-ing the academy going – proofof this is seen on the Facebookpage of the academy.

Coach Nagarajan was bornin Arundavapuram in Thanja-vur district. Born into an agrar-ian community, he did not findtoo much support among familymembers, though his sports-skill did fetch him a career inCentral Excise where he is now

a Superintendent. The passionfor athletics soon transformedinto a passion for coaching. Heformalised this by completing a10-month Diploma in coachingfrom the National Institute ofSports, Patiala, and began his ca-reer in coaching with the SBOACollege and School. He has beena favourite among athletes ofschools like Velammal andPachaiappa’s College HigherSecondary School, some ofwhom continue training withhim at PSA. Some of his re-nowned trainees include K.N.Priya and Revathi of St. Joseph’sEngineering College; Shanthi

and Neelaveni were identifiedfrom schools in rural belts andbrought to Chennai by coachNagaraj and went on to repre-sent India at the Common-wealth Games. These girls havesince passed out of college andare grateful for his guidance.Similarly, Kumaravel Premku-mar of Thanjavur too found hisway into Coach Nagarajan’s foldand has since competed in thelong jump event at internationalmeets. He won the bronze in theindoor category at the AsianAthletic Championship inChina in 2012 and the silver inthe same event last year in Pune.G. Gayathri and Dipika arecurrent favourites in the sprinthurdle events.

According to Coach Nagaraj,the most crucial aspect of sportstraining is understanding thephysical attributes and psyche ofthe trainees and what to expectfrom them in terms of technique.He begins by saying that thebody is a framework related to acertain genetic make-up; thebest sport suited to one bodytype may not be suited to an-other – “simply said, a middledistance runner cannot hope tobe a sprinter.” What is of primeimportance is the field or cat-egory under which one is likelyto perform best, and where thereis a better likelihood of winningmedals. This, he says, requirestremendous understanding. It isnow provided by research onhuman biodiversity. Apart fromthe information, the athletemust trust his coach who knowsfrom experience! He laments thefact that with the arrival of theinternet, information is availableto one and all which has led tothe deterioration of the coach-trainee trust – in such cases, un-hurried diplomacy to communi-cate with youngsters is anotheraspect that influences coach-trainee bond.

“Training for athletics andtraining athletes are two verydifferent things and, believe me,it takes a lot of mental strengthto be objective as a coach; bodyconstitutions being different,people perform very differentlyin varied climatic conditions,”he says. Both trainers and train-ees need to have a good rapportand trust in one another, in or-der to give the best. He explains,citing the example of athletesfrom mountainous regions likeSikkim, having trained underlow oxygen conditions even intheir peak physical and mentalfitness, how they fail to deliverin the plains where the oxygenconcentration is high.

In recent years, he has seencultural differences play havocwith his own athletes. His star

Getting of the blocks...while training.


of Sport

hurdler was to train at a camp inPunjab and then in the US. Hermetabolism that worked aroundrice and lentil or, in other words,a moderate protein diet, did notco-operate with a differed pro-tein-rich diet followed by strenu-ous weight training. CoachNagaraj says that, though di-ploma programmes for coachesmention this in theory,sensitisation to these aspects oftraining is something that takestime to acquire. In this respect,he says that there is need for

� by A Special

Correspondent

more regional institutes like NISPatiala so that athletes can workcloser home and in more suitabletraining conditions.

G. Gayathri, who completedher MBA two years ago, has stillnot found job-placement andsays with resignation, “Thosewho interview me on account ofmy qualification feel my sportpursuits may oveshadow mycontribution to their business.Perhaps they are correct!” Withregard to this, Coach says that intraining centres the world over,there is intense specialisationand technological advancementin the field of Sports Medicine,

Biomechanics, Physiotheraphyand Psychology. “Strike whilethe iron is hot!” he says.Sportspersons should also begiven performance incentiveslike aid to study sports-relatedsubjects where they can con-tinue to contribute even aftertheir prime. This is something heis very passionate about andhopes to bring about some posi-tive change with the help of hiswife Dr. Mrs. Grace Helina, whois the Vice-Chancellor of TamilNadu Physical Education andSports University. His next mile-stone is to start a sports academythat would offer short term cer-tificate courses in the above-mentioned categories in addi-tion to Sports Administration.“Those who know the pain andtears that go into training willunderstand the disappointmentof rejection at boot-camps on ac-count of poor administration. Asfor others who have no prospectsafter their performing days areover, we have to bring about ahuge change.”

“Each and everyone of us hasbeen put in this world with anintent and purpose. We havebeen given unique talents to ful-fil this purpose. We just need tosearch within ourselves to iden-tify this and go after it! We caneach be leaders in our ownright,” he says with great confi-dence and is an exemplar of this.P. Nagarajan, with his unrelent-ing work as a coach, mentor andone who is trying to bring abouta mass transformation in the at-titude towards sport, is a fittingchampion of Chennai. – Cour-tesy: Champions of Chennai, KSATrust).

It’s been nearly 12 years sincean Indian was on the Inter-

national Cricket Council’s(ICC) panel of Elite Umpires.One of the country’s, and morespecially Chennai’s, distin-guished cricketers-turned-um-pire Srinivas Venkataraghavanwas the last Indian on thatprestigious panel. Now, coinci-dentally, a second Chennai um-pire has been chosen from Indiato be on the ICC’s elite panel.He is the 49-year-old S. Ravi, aformer club and university crick-eter.

A post-graduate from Pachai-yappa’s College, cricket was al-ways a part of his life. An open-ing bat and a left-arm spinner, herepresented the Universities. Healso became a respected crick-eter in the TNCA first divisionleague. He first played for YMA,then switched to ICF beforemoving to Reserve Bank, playingfirst division from 1983 to 1991.Those were some of the stron-gest teams of the period.

By 1991, Ravi had qualifiedas an umpire and was appointed

An elite umpirefrom Madras

� by A Sports Correspondent

to supervise games in the FirstDivision. “When I umpired infirst division here in 1992-93,”Ravi recalls, “the standard wasso high that it almost matchedthat of the Ranji Trophy.Umpiring in those matchesmade my transition to first classcicket easy.”

Ravi umpired his first Ranjigame in 1999. Along the way, hewas guided by two former firstclass umpires from the city, R.Radhakrishnan and R.V.Ramani.

Ravi has had interactionswith Venkat who had taughthim to be relaxed while being atthe centre of the pitch andadvised him to give decisions“with conviction and confi-dence.” This was evident in theSecond Test at HeadingleysLeeds, when England playedNew Zealand. Ravi came upwith a decision endorsed appre-ciatively by Third UmpireMarais Erasmus who remarked:“Great decision Ravi!”

Ravi has spent sessions withcelebrated Australian umpireSimon Taufel which has also hada huge influence on him. De-scribing Taufel as his mentorand coach for the last threeyears, Ravi adds: “He is my idolas an umpire.” As an ICC Train-ing Manager, Taufel had advisedRavi that in order to be a goodumpire, “you had to be a good

human being.” The one thingthat umpiring had taught himwas to be humble.

But that does not mean thathe meekly submits to seniorplayers on the field. He told abewildered England fast bowlerJames Anderson, who hadcrossed 400 Test wickets atHeadingleys, pointedly how hewas treading on the “dangerarea” of the playing surface.Television replays showed how

correct Ravi was. But thewarning was given to the playerwith serenity and calmness andAlastair Cook, the England cap-tain was forced to change endsfor Anderson.

Use of technology does putmore pressure on umpires,according to Ravi. “You have tobe focussed and learn to takethings in your stride. There willbe days when you may make acouple of errors. You can analysethem after the match and getbetter. There will be times wheneverything goes your way too.”

Ravi agrees that instinct doesplay a part in umpiring as thereare times when there is a lot ofnoise on the ground and youhave to take the cricketer’s bodylanguage into account. This isparticularly in the sub-conti-nent, where there is a lot of noiseand appeals for catches close tothe wicket.

According to Ravi, fitness isessential for an umpire as he hasto stand on all five days of a Test.“I do some gym work, running tokeep fit,” he adds.

On preparations for a matchor a series, Ravi looks at a lot ofthings like the venues ofmatches, the conditions to beexpected, the teams and theplayers. “And the weather, ofcourse. I factor in these elementsand have a fair idea on what toexpect,” he says. Ravi found um-

piring in the recent England-New Zealand Test at Lord’s andLeeds “wonderful.” He found “somuch importance for traditionsand values. Umpiring in Englandcan be hard because of theweather and late swing.”

Ravi is among four Indianumpires – Vineet Kulkarni, C.Shamshuddin and Anil Chau-dhary being the other three –who are serving on the ICC’s in-ternational panel of umpires, thelevel immediately below the elitepanel. He is now convinced thatmore people can make the gradeand credits the experience of of-ficiating in the IPL over the lastfew years as the reason for im-proved umpiring standards. “Inthe last five-six years, Indianumpires get to work with eliteumpires and referees from differ-ent countries. They get to inter-act with international players,coaches, support staff and otherstakeholders. All these thingshave made Indian umpires bet-ter. A couple of them (Indianumpires) are now nominated forthe World T20 qualifiers inScotland and Ireland. That’s abig tournament for them. If theydo well, they can get on to theemerging panel and move up theladder.”

Ravi has stood in sixTests, including the recentlycompleted series betweenEngland and New Zealand, 24ODIs three of which were duringthe 2015 World Cup – and 12T20s.

The experience gained fromthese high-profile assignmentshas made him realise thatintense scrutiny comes with theterritory.

“As umpires, who are umpir-ing at the highest level of thegame, we are bound to bescrutinised by the media, theplayers, and the captains,” hesays. “We should be prepared forthat. If you make an error, it willbe highlighted, technology willexpose you at some stage or theother. You should be preparedfor that, learn from that errorand move on. You can’t domuch about it.”

He has a lot of “respect andregard” for the late David Shep-herd of England, who officiated92 Tests and 172 ODIs over histwo-decade career. “He was agreat umpire and great personal-ity,” Ravi says, “The way he con-ducted himself and had such agood relationship with the play-ers is something fantastic.”

On his job commitments,Ravi will now need more time offfrom his day job as Special Assis-tant at the Reserve Bank of In-dia, where he has worked since1989. “The bank has been kindto me so far,” he smiles. Andwhat about his dreamassignment now that he findshimself among the world’s topumpires? “An Ashes Test matchat Lord’s,” he admits – (Cour-tesy: Straight Bat).

Umpire S. Ravi.

Till September 30: in/between the iexhibition of paintings and/Instal-lation by Thryambaka Karthik (atDakshinaChitra Museum).

Till September 30: A series of exhi-bitions by five artists were chosenand curated from the OstkreuzSchool of Photography, Berlin,and will be presented at theGoethe Institut in the forthcom-ing months. The first two artistsand their works are:

Arkanuam by Aras Gokten, fo-cusing on the relation of humanbeings to their urban environ-ment and architecture.

Aus der Nacht tiefdunklemSchatten by Katharina IraAllenberg. The work is aboutdreams, distant realities andmemories of them. With thevisualisation of these thoughts,she immerses herself into a worldwhich seems to be far from real-ism (at Goethe-Institut).

Till September 30: Dancingseaweeds, an exhibition byCatherine Lenior. Featured willbe her etchings and paintings onseaweeds and classical danceforms (at DakshinaChitramuseum).

Till September 30: Reflections of AnAutumn Sun: an exhibition ofpaintings by JMS Mani, knownfor his impressionistic style andthe Badami series (at Apparao In-finity)

Till September 30: Everywhere, Ev-eryday, an exhibition of artworksby different artists who explorethe five elements of nature and itsrelationship to the five senses ofthe human body (at The LeelaGalleria).

* * *

September 20-24: The Park’s NewFestival 2015 organised byPrakriti Foundation.

September 20: Book release:Until the Lions by Karthika Nair(at Alliance Francaise, 7 p.m.)

September 22: APEnsemble’s The Colliding WorldsProject. Musical dialogue betweenIndian classical and folk with jazzand hip-hop (at Sansara. ThePark, 8 p.m.).

September 23: EnFlighten-ment – A devised piece of physi-cal comedy by Rupesh Till (atSansara, The Park, 8 p.m.).

September 24: Torobaka – Adance duet by Akram Khan andIsrael Galvan (at Sir MuthaVenkata Subbarao Auditorium, 7p.m.)


Published by S. Muthiah for ëChennai Heritageí, 260-A, TTK Road, Chennai 600 018 and printed by T J George at Lokavani-Hallmark Press Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Edited by S. MUTHIAH.

Madras Musings is supported as a public service by the following organisations

Published by S. Muthiah, Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Printed by Anu Varghese at Lokavani Southern Printers Pvt. Ltd., 122, Greams Road, Chennai 600 006, and edited by S. Muthiah.

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KNOW YOURFORT BETTER(Continued from page 1)

Answers to Quiz1. Cochin International Airport; 2. Dr. M.M. Kalburgi;

3. Sania Mirza; 4. Rajendra Singh; 5. Sehat; 6. Obesity;7. Aurangzeb; 8. Bandhan Bank; 9. Ranil Wick-remesinghe; 10. To help students seeking educationalloans and ensure no student misses out on higher educa-tion due to lack of funds.

* * *11. Admiralty House, 12. Raju Gramani Thottam near

the present day Citi Centre mall, 13. Co-Optex, 14. NalliKuuppuswami Chetty, 15. The red Indo-Saracenic build-ing on Mount Road that houses the India Silk Houseshowroom, 16. Asan Memorial School, 17. The All IndiaMusic Conference that led to the birth of the Decemberseason, 18. The Madras Regiment, 19. Kelly’s, 20. LittleMount Church.

Sometime in the 18th Century, James Street vanished– the buildings that separated it from Charles Streetwere demolished and the two roads became one broadthoroughfare – known in early years as Charles andJames Street and, then, just Charles Street. Perhaps thiswas an early instance of renaming streets, somethingour city specialises in – in the early 18th Century, KingCharles II was revered in public memory but not hissuccessor King James II, who had been deposed in abloodless coup in 1688!

In the early years, when the Fort was nothing morethan the present area occupied by the Assembly andSecretariat, Charles Street had the Elambore Riverflowing along its western periphery. Difficult though itmay now be to believe, there was once a river wharf onthis street, with eight small guns mounted on it. Thiswas constructed in 1740, following a petition by thestreet’s residents. The river not being perennial “leftshallow grounds,” they said and added, “low swampswhich, by the heat of the sun, became a nuisance to theTown. Your petitioners, at very great expense andtrouble, have effectually prevented and remedied thesemischiefs by building a Wharf Wall upon a foundationof brick wells and filled up with lime stones and othermaterials for cement. Your petitioners have also facedthe said Wharf Wall with Iron Stone, and raisedthereon Brick Pallisades, to the great Ornamentationof the River and Beautifying the Prospect of the Town.”

Today, not a trace of the river or the wall survives.Also not traceable are several prominent landmarksthat keep surfacing in Company records. The mostcurious is ‘A Statue of the Goddess of Commerce’which was set up in a rectangle between Charles and

James Streets. It appears to have been there in 1734and vanished by the 1750s, most probably broughtdown by the French. The principal cloth godowns ofthe Company were also on Charles Street, the one atthe corner belonging to Thambu Chetty. Anotherdubash who owned a godown here was TepperumalChetty. These buildings were organised by function andbore names such as Calico or Sorting Godown, theEmbaling godown and the Import Warehouse. Missingtoday is also Jearsey House, a stately residence with along history. Built in the 1640s by Agent Greenhill andused as his residence, this was in 1699 acquired by theCompany for its Calico Beating Godown and Granary.By then, it had passed through several hands. WilliamJearsey had bought it from Greenhill and enlarged it. Aconsortium of which Elihu Yale was a member laterowned this building. In 1692, Sir John Goldsborougharrived in Madras to investigate charges against Yale.He was sworn in as President in Council (the equiva-lent of Governor), and eight months later, after a fullinvestigation, exonerated Yale. He then embarked ona tour of Cuddalore and Bengal, leaving his wife andchildren as tenants of Jearsey House. Six months laterhe was dead and his family moved out. By the 1710s,the building had become a Charity School. All we knowof this house today is that it stood close to the ‘GreatHouse on Charles Street’.

Among the most important residents of CharlesStreet was the Nawab of Arcot himself. In 1758, shortlybefore the French unsuccessfully laid siege to Madras,Muhammad Ali Wallajah petitioned his friend andGovernor, Pigot, for a house in White Town, where hemight “lay in a stock of provisions and himself retirethither in case of necessity.” The house assigned to himwas at the southern corner of Charles Street, onceoccupied by a Dr. Munro. On the approach of theFrench in December that year, Wallajah shifted in andremained there for some time. By the 1770s, with FortHouse being in a deplorable condition, Du Pre, theGovernor of Madras, shifted to Charles Street, as didhis successor Rumbold.

On the same side as the ‘GreatHouse’, but shown as standing furthersouth of it, which means it stood whereParade Square is today, was anotherstately building. This was by the 1790sowned by Andrew Ross, Secretary to theGovernment. With its front on CharlesStreet and its rear on Palace Street, it wasdescribed as having ‘offices, theaccommodation of a family, and largespaces of Ground (all of which open intothe Back Street where the Arsenalstands, as well as into the street in Front)’and was offered on rent of 80 pagodas amonth for housing the new Courts of Jus-tice. This office later moved to theChoultry Gate Street, which then came

to be known as Court House Street.Standing on Charles Street today, all this hustle and

bustle can only be imagined. But in its peace and quiet,we can easily conjure the procession that went down iton July 24, 1727, to the accompaniment of “civicauthorities, a foot company and with all Englishmusick.” This was to celebrate the firman of theMughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar granting the English thecontinued use of Madras.

– Sriram V

the gubernatorial position in 1849 and marked disasterto Wight and his cotton experiments in Coimbatore.The Court of Directors of the EIC approved termina-tion of Finnie’s Madras contract, but directed Pottingerthat Wight be reinstated as the superintendent of cot-ton trials. Finally, in 1853, the experiment was closedand Wight returned to the UK, retiring from active ser-vice. The Madras Government withdrew support tocultivating American cotton and the use of importedmachinery (e.g. saw gins). The experiments ceased.

However, cultivation of American seed was notwithdrawn completely. In the early decades of the 20thCentury, cotton cultivation in Madras Presidency hadstabilised with substantial effort made by generatingnew hybrids, particularly using what was then knownas the Cambodia cotton. The most critical weakness inmanaging the industry was that the co-operative creditsocieties in Madras were insufficiently developed totake up agricultural work; the envisaged improvementwould be if the Department of Agriculture sold selectedseeds on credit to farmers.

Madras Cotton(Continued from page 9)

San Thome Gate (Picture: Mukund Vedapudi).

Old Madras

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