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When the postman knocked
D.N. ETHIRAJ Mudaliar, the grandson of Arcot Ratnasabapathi Mudaliar of Royapettah who owned the Capper House Hotel (Miscellany, May 6), has been busy digging up more information about the transaction by which the property was acquired by the Government under the Land Acquisition Act in June, 1915. Three adjoining properties were acquired, namely eight acres comprising a sewage farm owned by the trustees of the Sri Parthasarathy Temple, Triplicane, and wasteland belonging to the brothers, Singaravelu and Munuswami Chettiar, and the nearly 16 acres of hotel and grounds then owned by Ratnasabapathi Mudaliar's widow, Lakshmi Ammal, and their minor son. A little over Rs.18,000 was paid to the temple trustees, a bit more than Rs.2,000 for the wasteland and Rs.80,220-6-0 for the hotel property. The purpose of acquisition was "for constructing The College for Women, Madras".
Reader S. Natarajan and others feel that the Mudaliar entry into the hospitality business had much to do with their tradition of hospitality and being renowned for their cuisine. With many of those Mudaliars being dubashes, these readers also suggest that their affluence and close links with the British led to this form of investment. I'm not really convinced by such sweeping arguments and look forward to a more convincing answer.
* * *
With the overlaps that there are between this column and my Madrascapes, I think it would not be out of place to occasionally use this space for briefer readers' responses to my Wednesday column. Reader M. Indiranathan thinks that Pachaiyappa Mudaliar (Madrascapes, May 9) was born in Kancheepuram and, after his father's death, was taken as a child to his maternal uncle's home in Periyapalayam, in the present Tiruvallur District, not the Thanjavur District. He seeks confirmation of this information - and I'm left wondering how to explain the Thanjavur connection.
Prof. T. Ramalingam, an alumnus of Pachiyappa's and president of its alumni body, clarifies that the commitment found in Pachaiyappa Mudaliar's will to the education of Hindu boys alone, was no bar to appointing outstanding teachers of other faiths. The College's first Indian Principal, he points out, was the scholar Prof. M. Rathnaswamy, a Christian. Another pre-Independence Christian appointment was that of R.N. Selvan, as Professor of Chemistry. Other readers remind me that the case in question was finally settled only by a ruling of the Privy Council.
S. MUTHIAH
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