They were only a couple that Sriram V, storyteller and Madras and Carnatic music buff, told recently when his A Guide to Fort St George was released. But take it with you around the Fort — “no access problems if you say the magic words ‘Church, Museum’ to Security” — and you’ll catch up with more while gazing at the 30-plus historical buildings in that “must visit” citadel, he urged his audience. And, he added, publisher Chellappan of Palaniappa Brothers and I have kept the book slim, so that you can easily twist it any which way to catch up with those stories while you walk in the Fort, “one of the most fascinating historical precincts in modern India”.
Wallajah Gate
Most of the stories deal with the East India Company Governors of Madras, each a law unto himself. The first recorded encroacher of public space in Madras was probably Edward Winter, who lived on Middle Street. The Fort’s records of March 1674 state, “Resolved also that y’ Streets between Middle & the Choultry Gate which Sir Edward Winter in his Agency walled up and appropriated to his own use, be again opened and the wall thrown down, it appearing by certificates that it had been a free street, and of great use.” Which, to a degree, it still is.
Then there was the Marquis of Tweeddale who had his own road rules. Wallajah Gate, through which you can walk in and out of the Fort nowadays (once, I used to drive through it), was in the past often one-way. In 1845, it was for entry only. One evening that year, a rule-conscious civilian entering through the gate was confronted by a speeding coach going the other way. It was the Governor who insisted on his right of way, only to hear the civilian cite the road rules. Whereupon, in a “mighty wrath”, Tweeddale ordered the guard to unyoke the civilian’s horses — that were refusing to budge — and push aside the offending carriage, which His Lordship, before leaving, further instructed be impounded by the Town Major. It was some days before the pedestrianised civilian could get it back — no doubt with loss to pocket.
Asked for a story or two not in the book, Sriram recounted how General Thimmayya, then a young officer living in King’s Barracks, entertained a young woman in his room and promised her a multi-gun salute when she left. At midnight, he kept his promise. Hauled up for enquiry the next day, he cited that day’s orders to test the guns; midnight, when he’d disturb no one, was the best time to do so, he successfully argued!
Rev. George Pittendrigh
It reminded me of a favourite story of my teenage, just after World War II. Flying to London with numerous halts, we were put up one night at famed Shepherd’s Hotel, Cairo. This story was narrated at dinner. During the War, the hotel’s rooms were occupied by officers, who one night heard screams in a corridor. Rushing out, they saw a sweet young thing in déshabillé being chased by a man in the nude. Countering the charges, the young officer’s legal representative quoted the King’s Regulations: “An officer in His Majesty’s Army must always be suitably dressed for whatever sport he is engaged in.” And that was that — even if it had not happened in Fort St George:
Tailpiece: Another question was whether Muthuramalinga Sethupathi, Ramnad’s last ruler, was imprisoned in the Fort and where? Yes, from 1795 to 1801, but Sriram hadn’t found out where. I know rooms below the eastern ramparts of the Fort, now occupied by dhobis, tailors etc, were once prison cells. But even the Raj wouldn’t incarcerate a Raja in them in post-Black Hole days. Would it?
City’s sports history
I’ve recently been trying to trace the history of various sports in Madras and have not been getting very far. For games like cricket, hockey, football, tennis, squash, rowing, sailing and golf there’s some early history, and a little about their development after Independence is known. For other sports, there seems to be precious little except the most recent. It’s time the Madras branch of the Indian Olympic Association began to do something about this.
The thought struck me when looking for more about Harry Crowe Buck (Miscellany September 11, 2006) who did so much for Madras and Indian sport in the 1920s. It was in 1924 that at Sir Dorabjee Tata’s invitation he joined him in founding the All-India Olympic Association. It sent out India’s first team to the Games, in Paris, and Buck was responsible for much of its training.
Serendipity is the name of the game. That’s what happened when searching for the above; I found an earlier addendum to Madras sports history. There was apparently a Madras Physical Training and Field Games Association founded in 1881. By whom, not known, but the Reverends CA Patterson and George Pittendrigh of Madras Christian College were officebearers, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Principal William Miller had something to do with it; it was during his years that most sports associations were founded at MCC.
Pittendrigh himself was an active sportsman, a qualified gymnastics trainer and a good tennis and golf player.
The chronicler of Madras that is Chennai tells stories of people, places and events from the years gone by and, sometimes, from today
