As many of the citizens of Madras that is Chennai get ready to celebrate the 375th birthday of their city, the thought struck me that though the Corporation of Madras, the oldest in what were once British territories outside the United Kingdom, did little to celebrate its 325th birthday last year, it’s not too late to celebrate it this year by joining the birthday bash. On September 29, 1688, Nathaniel Higginson was inducted into office as the first Mayor of Madras with pomp and pageantry. We could do with a bit of that pageantry when recalling that historic occasion this year.
The Corporation’s beginnings were in a three-man team that advised the Agent, the head of the East India Company’s Council that initially governed the new settlement. The team comprised the Adhikari (Administrator), the Kanakkapulle (Accountant), and Pedda Nayak (Law Officer). In the late 1670s, Governor Streynsham Master converted this arrangement into a more formal one that began collecting taxes and licence fees. Master, being the masterful figure he was, began ignoring the wishes of the ‘Chairman’ of the Company in London, Sir Josiah Child, and drew up his own plan for municipal governance of the town, with almost all power in his hands. Child addressed King James II on the state of affairs prevailing in Madras and on December 30, 1687 the King issued a Royal Charter constituting a Corporation of Madras as conceived by Sir Josiah. Among the twelve Aldermen of the newly created Corporation were three Indians, Chinna Venkatadri (younger brother of Beri Thimmappa, one of the forgotten trio who founded the city), Mudda Viranna, and Alangatha Pillai. The city was divided into eight wards. The Corporation first met in what was called the Town Hall in Fort St George, a building neighbouring St. Mary’s Church to the south. Now the Army’s main office is in the Fort, the building is in reasonably good condition.
From its founding till 1856, the Corporation kept feeling its way, with considerable changes in its rules and regulations. A more formalised institution began acting as a Council in 1919 and P Theagoraya Chetty was the first to be elected its President, other Indians to hold the post, T. Raghaviah (acting), T. Vijayaraghavacharya and Muhammad Bazullah, had earlier served briefly as Presidents, but nominated under different constitutions. The mayoralty was re-instituted in 1933 and Kumarajah M A Muthiah Chettiar became the last President and the first new Mayor.
Early estimates of the population the Corporation served show considerable variations, throwing doubt on all the numbers. In Master’s time, the figure given was 50,000, up seven times from the figure when Fort St George was built without any foundations in 1640. Thereafter, between 1681 and 1800, the figures fluctuated considerably between 100,000 and 300,000. The first reasonably accurate early figure arrived at was during the first Imperial Census in 1871 when the population of Madras was stated to be 397,522. This rose to about 780,000 in 1941 and 1,400,000 in 1951 and has not stopped climbing since till the close-to-5 million it reached in 2011. Time they all celebrated what this city has given them and their forebears over the last 375 years.
Madanapalle’s Madras links
The obvious link is that once Madanapalle in Chittoor District was once part of the Madras Presidency and then part of Madras Province/State. Today, the town may be in Andhra Pradesh, but its links with Madras remain strong, two of which will be remembered in their 100th year. Reminding me of this and sending me a wealth of pictures — which this column just will not have the space for — has been reader Ramineni Bhaskarendra Rao.
Taking it first, only because the Presidency’s Governor, Lord Pentland, inaugurated it first, before moving on to the second opening ceremony, I look back on the beginnings of the Besant Theosophical College. The College was founded by Annie Besant and was opened on July 19, 1915. In that first year, it welcomed students from all over the Madras Presidency as well as from the princely States of Pudukkottai, Mysore, Travancore and Hyderabad as well as from Bombay, the United Provinces, Burma and Ceylon. Work on permanent buildings for the institution was started in January 1916. The first Principal was M N Moore, his Vice Principal was C S Trilokekar and the Head Master was C.Ramaiya. But the only recognisable names I found in the Staff list were James and Margaret Cousins. He taught English Literature, she English Composition. After a visit to the College in 1919, Rabindranath Tagore sent it an English translation by him of Jana Gana Mana. It was set to music by Margaret Cousins and sung by the students.
From the College, Lord Pentland moved on to inaugurate the Union Missionary Tuberculosis Sanatorium, now called the Arogyavaram Medical Centre. Starting with 109 beds, the bed-strength was increased to 397 in the 1950s and 450 in 1965. It is the largest TB Hospital in India, set in an area of about 300 acres in Arogyavaram, about 7 km from Madanapalle.
Set up by eight multi-denominational missions, the lead for it was given by the American Arcot Mission founded by Dr. John Scudder who had begun his mission in India with the American Mission in Madras before moving to Arcot. Rev.Dr.L R Scudder, a kinsman of his, was the convener of the Executive Committee that was in charge of establishing the sanatorium and another Arcot Mission member, Rev. B. Rottschaefer, led the Building Committee convened in 1912 to begin work on the Arogyavaram campus.
Both institutions contributed significantly to education and healthcare in the Madras of yesteryear.
Mystery in a church
I’ve no answers to a pretty poser reader K R A Narasiah has sent me, but intriguing as it is I offer it to readers perhaps one of whom might like to take it further. Reader Narasiah is one of the few persons I know of who has a copy of J J Cotton’s List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in the Madras Presidency and he likes to sometimes follow the trail of some of the references in that invaluable record. The trail he most recently has been following is that of Francisco Muthu Naicker who was buried in St. Mary’s Church in Armenian Street.
Of Naicker’s tombstone Cotton recorded: “Francisco Mudu Naicker son of Babu Naicker of the Kavarais of Madras, departed this life on the 29th day of Aipisi (or the 11th of November) of the year 1751, aged over 50 years. Offer an `Our Father’ and a `Hail Mary’ for the repose of his soul.” This is Cotton’s English translation of the Tamil inscribed on the tombstone. But that tombstone is no longer in what is now the Co-Cathedral of Madras.
Instead, there is the crudely inscribed slab that is featured as an illustration with this item. In it, the dates of death of ‘Francisco Mudu Naicker’ and ‘Nina Margareth Arathoon’ are interchanged. According to Cotton, Mudu Naicker’s tombstone dating to November 2, 1751 was the oldest surviving in the church when he first compiled the record for publication in 1905.
Reader Narasiah’s footnote in his letter states that the Kavarais are the Balijas of the Telugu country. As for Arathoon, it is the name of one of the early Armenian families to settle in Madras and many of them worshipped in Roman Catholic churches. Whether she was an Armenian or married an Arathoon I have not been able to trace, but burial in St. Mary’s on Armenian Street would have only been because she was Roman Catholic.
The monumental work of Julian James Cotton ICS was first published in 1905. Notes he subsequently compiled were purchased by the Government of Madras in 1928 and entrusted to C.W.E. Cotton, ICS for the purpose of bringing out a revised edition. On C.W.E. Cotton’s death in 1931, the work was entrusted to P. Macqueen, ICS. When Macqueen retired from office in 1935, the work was taken up by Dr. B. S. Baliga who in a 1946 edition incorporated not only the notes left by J J Cotton but also information collected from various other sources.
