Chennapuri: Part 5

Continued from here

Madras had not changed much when we returned from Manjeri. The centre of activities was the Esplanade,
First Line Beach, Mount Road and the Fort area from which the government functioned. The Fort was a magnificent sight with a tall flag pole with fluttering Union Jack. Every evening exactly at 4 o clock a gun was fired- the sound was heard quite a distance away. The Marina extended from the Fort to San Thome with a beautiful drive way.

Every evening the whole city seemed to be on the Marina.On the southern end after the Presidency College you saw some vintage cars driving at a snails pace for the owners to take the air and enjoy the sea breeze. Before the war memorial it was people like us who came to enjoy the breeze and the sea - either on foot or in a jutka. There was barely any traffic and we could do so. We flew kites, ate the sundal and ground nuts and enjoyed the music from the public radio.

Madras had a number of parks all over the city, well maintained, where we could relax. Alas towards the end fifties they became shabby and unsafe. The whole city was covered with trees, especially rain trees, and these also disappeared by the sixties. Fortunately in the twenty first century Madras has started becoming green again.The parks are also being revived by the corporation with private help. 

Evening diversion for the British and civil servants were the clubs where you played games and billiards and had your chota or bada pegs. As soon as the business of wars was over, the British set up clubs in the city. The Madras Club was very exclusive and at the top of the pecking order. This club is has managed to survive to this day and is still the premier club in Chennai .The membership is very exclusive, occupies the beautifully maintained Mowbray’s Garden buildings facing the Adyar river and still insists on shoes and socks in the main buildings. All the clubs set up by the British are now thriving. The Gymkhana Club on the banks of the Cooum river catered to sports .The Boat Club on the Adyar river, to rowing. The Yatch Club in the harbour, to sailing. The Race Club in Guindy took care of horse racing. The beautiful Madras Cricket Club in Chepauk took care of their favorite sport of cricket in ground reminiscent of grounds in rural Kent and Sussex. Alas the original club building and ambience have gone with a new concrete monstrosity in its place. 

The cricket club was the venue of three presidency matches between Europeans .It was a beautiful ground with trees all round and you could see the Chepauk palace in the background. The English team played their match against India on these grounds which have seen memorable feats of batsman and bowlers. After the war, teams from Australia,West Indies have played some memorable test matches on this hallowed ground.


Madras Cricket Club: 1930s

Racing and betting were a big activity and fortunes were made and lost. Gemini Vasan made a huge fortune and managed to keep it. He became a movie moghul and built the finest house in Madras to rival the British mansions. This house stood till a few years ago opposite to the Music Academy. Sports were a big activity in Madras. 

Cultural life for the British consisted of plays in the Pantheon Road complex where there was a lovely theatre (still extant).The Connemara Library next door was famous for its stock of books. This lovely building has recently been renovated. Balls and dances were held at the clubs and the governor banqueting hall now called Rajaji Hall. After the take-over of the Tanjore kingdom, the patronage of Carnatic music and dance by the rajas there came to an end. Fortunately this activity shifted to Madras and there were sponsors to nurture them to greater heights. The Music Academy, Rasika Ranjani Sabha and the Parthasarthy Sabha arranged music concerts in December and these have become an annual feature of present-day Chennai. The abolition of the devadasis led to a new efflorescence of the dance and to its revival as Bharatha Natyam by stalwarts and innovators like Balasarawathi and Rukmini Devi Arundel. 

Then there were the Tamil pictures which entertained people with their buxom heroines and lovely music and dance. Mythologies were the most popular. Music and dance were an integral part. M.K.Thiyagaraja was a very popular actor with a golden voice, with hair hanging to the shoulders and mesmeric eyes capable of seducing heroines on the screen. He was involved in a murder case and when he was acquitted the whole of Madras turned up in the high court grounds to greet him! Sixty years down the line, the filmy crowd, who were not accepted by the genteel society, had the last laugh as three of their group became chief Chief Ministers. The film industry has become a very thriving industry today and in keeping with the current trends the heroines tend to less buxom! Dramas were also very popular. Socially-conscious themes started coming into vogue. For the religious minded there were innumerable discourses in temples. Temple festivals attracted large crowds-especially the float festival in Mylapore. 

There were innumerable temples and churches and mosques to cater to the spiritual needs of the populace. The big mosque in Triplicane was a magnificent sight till it got crowded out. The Thousand Lights mosque has in recent years received a big face lift. Two of the old churches still retain their pristine beauty- namely St. Thome in Mylapore and St. Andrews in Egmore. The old lady of Mylapore reigns supreme.

Old Mosque - Triplicane

The printing press was introduced in India by the Christian Missionaries and soon newspapers both in vernacular languages and English appeared. You had a wide variety starting with the yellow press to political papers. The British had their own Madras Mail. The Madras Mail building still stands proudly in
Mount Road though the paper closed long ago. Not to be outdone, there was the Swadeshimitran in Tamil and the famous Hindu in English. The Hindu was started by G. Subramaia Ayyar as a counter to the Mail to express critical views of government and this it did stridently, getting into trouble with the government very often. .The Kasturi Iyengar family bought over the Hindu from Subramania Ayyar and the paper became very cautious in criticizing the Government. The Hindu has a magnificent office in
Mount   Road and is today the leading paper in the south, with a Marxist tint. Ananda Vikatan was a Tamil magazine started by the famous Vasan and was noted for its sarcasm and wit. Kalki started by Krishnamoorty was a more serious Tamil magazine. 

Education was looked after by a number of excellent schools and colleges mostly run by the Missionaries and some by the government. The saying went as follows-  Lords of Presidency College, Queens of Queen Mary College, Slaves of Loyola College, rogues of Pachiappa College and the Gentlemen of Christian College. You can guess where I studied! The missionary schools and colleges had excellent teachers of repute. The Government Presidency College has two Nobel Laureates among their alumni. The Missionary colleges admitted all students and were not parochial. 

Winds of change were in the air and Gandhi with his no-cooperation movement was a force to reckon with. A road in Madras was named Gandhi Irwin road after the agreement between Gandhi and the Viceroy. E.V. Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar) started the self respect movement for social reform in Tamil Nadu. The justice party was very active and was able to bring changes, the after-effects of which are still being felt today. The British Imperium accepted that change had to come but they took steps to delay as much as possible. Lots of Indians were educated in Britain and they got exposed to ideas of freedom and democracy. British domination was questioned. The rise of Nazi Germany in the west, Japan in the east and the growth of the industrial power of U.S.A raised doubts about the unquestioned dominance of the world by the British.

Comments

[shakuni]

Hello! This is a nice post. In fact, most of your other posts were quite interesting, too.

[Raja Ramakrishnan]

Thanks shakuni.More on the way depending on my energy level!
Ramakrishnan