| Specifications |
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Publisher: Aleph Book Company |
| Author V. Sriram | |
| Language: English | |
| Pages: 440 | |
| Cover: HARDCOVER | |
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9.5X6.5 Inch |
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Weight 540 gm |
| Edition: 2021 | |
| ISBN: 9789390652983 | |
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HBU590 |
| Delivery and Return Policies |
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Ships in 1-3 days |
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Returns and Exchanges accepted within 7 days |
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Free Delivery |
Our city officially declared itself Chennai in 1996 but, to
some it netmar Madras. Chennai is a city, Madras is an emotion is a Facebook
post that is liked and disliked in equal measure. But then this is an era where
you have to take a stand on everything and condemn anyone who dares to bold a
different view. The debate on the city's name has followed likewb those who
cling to Madras are branded elitist and Raj apologists. They, in turn, consider
the Chennai lobby to be renegade and fuelled by political considerations, with
scant respect for history. There are large chunks of truth on both sides of the
debate. The battle on the name of the city is taken up with fresh vigour each
August when Madras Week is celebrated. The event came about innocently when
three men-S. Muthiah, the city's indefatigable Anglophile chronicler, to whom
it was always Madras, Vincent D'Souza, the editor of Mylapore Times, a tabloid
dedicated to the eponymous suburb; and Sashi Nair, a journalist got together
and decided that it was high time that the city's birth was celebrated.
Muthiah, of course, had the details of Madras' birth at his fingertips and said
that since the city was founded in August, it would be best that the
celebrations took place that particular month. But was the city founded in
August? That has remained a subject of doubt ever since historians began
documenting the city's past. The British were the first to evince interest and
perhaps the best researcher among them was Colonel Henry Davison Love of the
Royal Engineers. He served as the principal of the College of Engineering (now
located in the southern suburb of Guindy and a part of the Anna Technological
and Research University) between 1880 and 1907. After retirement he went back
to England and there penned an exhaustive history of our city, in four volumes.
Published in 1913, the work titled Vestiges of Old Madras spans the period 1639
to 1800 and remains the best documentation of Madras/Chennai's past. A great
reference volume, its index is its crowning feature and with its help you can
mine some real gems of Madras-scandal, intrigue, or just some plain facts. Love
and other historians of the time have it that Madras was founded in 1639, by
Francis Day, chief of the settlement at Armagaon (present- Henry Davison Love,
Vestiges of Old Madras 1640-1800, London: John Murray, 1913. day
Durgarayapatnam in Andhra Pradesh). He had been asked to scout for a suitable
site on which a factory (chiefly a warehouse) could be built, and which would
serve as a base for purchasing and exporting textiles for which the region was
famous. Day negotiated with the nayak (chieftain) who ruled the part of the
coast that lay between the salt lake of Pulicat, around which the Dutch had a
thriving settlement doing business in cloth, and the town of San Thome, now a
part of Madras but then a Portuguese stronghold. The ruler, whose name is
variously given as Damarla Venkatadri/Venkatappa/Venkatapati/Vincatadra/Vintutedra/Vinkatedro/Venkatapate
was happy enough to grant the British permission. He confirmed this by way of a
deed or firman and that carried within it the seeds of all the confusion that
followed. Whereas Mr Francis Day, Captain of the English at Armagaon, upon
great hopes by reason of our promises often made unto him, hath repaired to our
port of Medrasapatam..." begins this document. From this it appears that
Madraspatnam or Madras was already in existence when Francis Day came to these
parts. If so, what is he really credited with founding? Second, was August 1639
really the month that Madras was founded, if founded it was at all? The
document referred to above is dated 22 July, on which date, as East India
Company (EIC) correspondence shows, Day was nowhere near Madras. He arrived
only on 27 July. It was therefore inferred by Love that July was an erroneous
entry and the correct date was probably 22 August. It is on these tenuous
grounds that the birth date of Madras was decided. Up until 1947, none of this
was disputed. All government publications carried this information as a matter
of routine for many years afterwards as well. In 1939, a Madras Tercentenary
Celebration Committee was formed under the presidentship of Sir Samuel Ebenezer
Runganadhan, the then vice chancellor of the University of Madras. A
commemoration volume, brought out by a sub-committee under the chairmanship of
Rao Sahib C. S. Srinivasachari, was released on 4 August. The chairman also
published an independent work, History of the City of Madras, for the same
occasion.
Chennai that was Madras is India's southern metropolis and
is considered by many to be synonymous with South India, It has the reputation
of being conservative, rigid, and unexciting. Chennai too plays along,
preferring to hide its history and heritage and downplaying its manifold
achievements. To set the record straight, Madras has a strong claim to being
the first proper city of modern India and boasts many debuts in that regard the
first regiment of the Indian Army was founded here, the city saw the formation
of the first urban corporation in the country, it is home to India's oldest
bookshop, railway station, and lots more. It is also the city where social
reformers fought for representation and equality for the most depressed classes
much before such movements gained ground elsewhere in India. In short, Chennai
is a city of flair, colour, creativity, and numerous distinctions. V. Sriram
takes us through various aspects of the city's history from the time when it
was just a set of scattered villages, through the years of the Portuguese,
Dutch, and British, to the (disputed) date of founding of the modern city, the
debates surrounding its two names. the institutions, systems, and structures
that were built by its rulers (from the Cholas to the Vijayanagar kings to the
nawabs of Arcot and the British), the Dravidian politics that came out of the
Self-Respect Movement, arguments and riots over the imposition of Hindi, and a
lot else besides. In addition to its history, he delves into the city's
delectable food, culture, music, dance, and cinema. Rounding off this portrait,
he looks at the city as a powerhouse of education, medicare, heavy engineering,
automobiles, leather goods, and software. He shows us what makes Chennai a
thriving city, one that effortlessly combines the old and the new, and pulses
with life, energy, and opportunities-all attributes of a grand city.
An entrepreneur by profession, V. SRIRAM'S passion is the
history and heritage of Chennai, which he has been documenting since 1999. Having
worked closely with the late S. Muthiah, the city's celebrated chronicler,
Sriram is now the editor of the popular fortnightly Madras Musings, which
espouses the cause of the city's heritage-built, cultural, and natural. Sriram
is also the pioneer of heritage walks in the city. which he started in 1999.
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