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Molony's Mixture!

I was sure someone would turn up with a copy of J. Chartres Molony's A Book of South India(Miscellany, January 16) -- and sure enough someone did with a 2004 Asian Educational Services reprint of the 1926 book.

And I've ever since been thoroughly enjoying Molony's whimsical, often tongue-in-cheek style of writing about the South India of the first quarter of the 20th Century (though not always agreeing with him on the Sahib's view of India). I wish I could reproduce chunks from the book for the delectation of readers -- but then I'd have to leave out much else. Rest assured, however, that from time to time Molony's words will find a place in this column.

More pertinent to what I have been writing about him is the fact that he was indeed connected with the Corporation of Madras. He was in 1914 appointed president of the Madras Municipal Corporation as it was then known. It was a government appointment and he was a sort of Mayor-cum-Commissioner heading a Council of 36 members, 20 elected by the city's 20 wards, eight nominated by representative bodies like the Chamber of Commerce, and eight nominated by Government. In 1919, the constitution of the Corporation was changed and Pitti Theagaraya Chetty became the first elected president.

In Molony's time, as now, the water supply from Red Hills was inadequate for the city -- even though Madras's population was only a little over 500,000.

A daily supply of only 12.5 million gallons a day was possible for all purposes, against a much greater demand necessitated by street-watering and industrial use. But even to supply this there were problems. The engineers stated they required 21 filter beds to ensure this supply in filtered form. But the Corporation's parlous state of finances allowed only 14 filters to be built. I'll let Molony continue the story:

"There were three courses open and possible: the first, a voluntary restriction by the citizens of their consumption to the amount of filter water that could be supplied; the second, an intermittent daily supply; the third, an admixture of unfilteredand filtered water. (May I interrupt to say that nothing ever changes in Madras?) The first course demanded a degree of foresight and civic patriotism which, possibly, does not exist in any city, and certainly did not exist in Madras. The second course, which is open to serious theoretical objection, was tried, but it proved a failure. Those at the head of the system helped themselves to all the water that was flowing, and the tail was left waterless. The Corporation finally opted for the third course. With this mixing of filtered and unfiltered water my name is likely to remain long and unhappily associated owing to a bon motof Sir P. Rajagopalachariar, then Member of Government in charge of Local and Municipal Administration. He christened the brew `Molony's Mixture', and the name stuck." Sir Rajagopalachariar was a member of the Indian Civil Service and Molony describes him as "one of the ablest Civil Servants I have ever known."

Of him, more anon, but for now let us remember him as the first Speaker of the Madras Legislature established under the Montague-Chelmsford reforms -- and, according to Molony, Perungavur Rajagopalachariar helped to make the Madras Council "the most efficient, the most dignified, of the new Councils in India."

S. MUTHIAH

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