Once the Madras Presidency was extended from the South Kalinga Coast to the Arabian Sea shore of Malabar and South Kanara. The Capital, Madras City was a Conglomeration of different languages, diverse cultures, and lifestyles. Its Cosmopolitan character was monumental. The territory of the three major Princely States of Travancore- Cochin, Mysore, and Hyderabad put together was smaller than the Presidency. The Orion Districts of Koraput and Ganjam were ceded from the State in 1936 and became part of the newly formed Province of Orissa. After the Constitution came into force on 26th Jan 1950, along with all other units Madras became a State in the Union of India.
The Remainder of the state was bifurcated and the first linguistic State in post-independent India, Andhra was formed on 1st Oct 1953. Till then, the Capital of the State, Madras City was not only a ‘good old city but a City of Destiny for the whole of South India. The State shrunk further with the reorganization of the States on 1st Nov. 1956. In course of time, when the Dravida Munnetra Kazagam (DMK) Govt came to power, truncated Madras State became Tamilnadu and Madras City, Chennai, the Capital.
My nostalgia for Madras is through my teachers in schools and colleges. I was born in pre-independent India in South Kanara District on the West Coast. I had my school education in South Kanara and then migrated to Kurnool in A.P. Almost all the high school and college teachers had their higher education in Madras.
After Tippu Sultan was defeated in the Fourth Mysore War in 1799, both South Kanara and Kurnool became parts of the Madras Presidency. Though there were Universities in Mysore, (1916) Osmania in Hyderabad (1917), Andhra in Visakhapatnam (1926), and Kerala University (1937), Madras was the Kashi of Modern Education for the whole of South India. Apart from the 165 years old Madras University, (1857), there were prestigious institutions imparting even postgraduate studies. The students were known by some nicknames; Viz. Lords of Law, Gentlemen of Christian, Yogis of Vivekananda, Slaves of Loyola, butterflies of Queen Mary’s, Princes of Presidency. Each of the students from all over South India used to study. Apart from English and Hindi, almost all the colleges had well-established postgraduate departments of all the four South Indian languages; Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.
Home away from home, i.e. hostels were catering different mouth-watering native cuisines of the respective regions, like Tamil, Andhra, Malabar, and South Kanara. Friends from other hostels were invited as guests for feasts on the occasion of festivals. E.g. Tamil New Year Day occurs on a different day; Onam is special for the Keralites and Dasarah for the Andhras. There were only two Teachers’ Training Colleges in the Presidency; Madras (Saidapet) and Rajamahendravaram. Madras Teachers’ Training College is now The Institute of Advanced Study in Education, (IASE) Chennai, popularly known as Teachers’ College. It is the premier Teacher Training institution in our country & the first of its kind in Asia. IASE is also the largest Teacher Training Center in Tamilnadu. Its origin is to be traced back to the Government Normal School started in Vepery in 1856.
KC Kalkura
There were two Physical Training colleges in the whole Presidency, both in Madras; the Govt Physical Education College at Saidapet, and the YMCA College of Physical Education, Nandanam, founded in the year 1920. The Govt Physical Education College is now The Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University established by an Act of the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2004. It is unique and the first of its kind in India as an affiliating University, exclusively for Physical Education and Sports. It is a rare coincidence that the University has started functioning in December 2005, declared by the United Nations as an International Year for Sport and Physical Education. Whenever I pass through these institutions, I am overwhelmed with emotions and sentiments. I adore them. I admire them. I revere them. My teachers were taught there.
Passengers from the Andhra region, Western districts of Erode, Salem, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Malabar, and South Kanara, and the neighboring states used to arrive in the Central Railway Station through Broad gauge and from the Southern Districts in Egmore through Meter gauge. Celebrities of the National Movement, including, Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Prakasam, Rajaji, Rt. Hon Srinivasa Sastry, Sathyamurthy, Kamaraj, Ramaswamy Naikar were traveling by train only. Regular Air travel started only after independence and that too after the 60’s and the ’70s.
Intellectual celebrity, Sir Cuttamanchi Ramalinga Reddy, protesting against the victimization of the Salt Sathyagrahis in 1930, resigned from the Justice Party, a political outfit that was supporting the British Raj. When he got down in the Madras Central, press reporters surrounded him. Known for instant and extempore satire and sarcasm, Sir C R, as he was well known, told them; “I need a ‘porter’ in the Railways Station, not a ‘Reporter’. Hundreds of such anecdotes were told about all the VVIPs who landed in Egmore and Central.
My first visit to Madras was way back in 1966, to take care of my brother-in-law, Kodanada Rama Madhyastaha in the nationally reputed Govt General Hospital, Opp. Central, under the care of Dr C.S.Sadasivan, then one of the three Cardiothoracic Surgeons. (Dr Cherian of Christian Medical College, Vellore and Dr N.Gopinath of All India Institute of Medical Sciences -AIIMS- New Delhi were the other two). Sadasivan was a great human being. He removed an Iota Tumor weighing 8 k.gs. But my brother-in-law did not survive. Sadasivan accompanied Annadurai, who went to the USA for treatment. I am told he died of Leukemia.
Another age-old institution of International repute is the Madras High Court. Such greats as Bhashyam Ayyangar, Sir Sankaran Nair, Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer, and Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer led the Bar. Such eminent Jurists as Varadachari and, Patanjali Sastry, who became the Judges of the Federal Court, the latter the Chief Justice Of India, Koka Subba Rao who became a Chief Justice of India and P.V.Rajamannar, the first Indian Chief Justice of the Madras High Court adored the Bench.
Purandaradasa, the Kannada Saint poet was the creator of Carnatic Music. Telugu scholars and poets like Thyagaraj, Muthuswamy Dikshitar, and Shyama Shyama Sastry nurtured it. It is preserved by the Tamilians. The credit goes to the Madras Music academy. The Music Academy, Madras is a landmark institution in the history of the fine arts. It emerged as an offshoot of the All India Congress Session held in Madras in December 1927. A music conference was held along with it and during the deliberations, the idea of a Music Academy emerged. Inaugurated on August 18, 1928, at the YMCA Auditorium, Esplanade by Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar, it was conceived to be the institution that would set the standard for Carnatic music.
In the process, it began in 1929 the practice of hosting annual conferences on music, which in turn spawned the December music festival of Madras, one of the largest cultural events of the world. Its annual award Sagitha Kalanidhi is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Carnatic Music.
Madras has become Chennai. Many institutions have changed the name of the place. . e.g. Presidency College, Chennai, Law College, Chennai. But the Madras University, Madras High Court, Madras Music Academy, and Madras Christian College, remain the same. In the days of yore, all South Indians were known as Madrasis. It was a brand; known for efficiency, honesty, and integrity. A majority of the Steel Frame, Indian Civil Service (ICS) men were Ayers, Ayyangars, Nairs, and Raos from the Madras Presidency. Constitutional Advisor to the Constituent Assembly Sir Benagal Narasingh Rao was from South Kanara. Out of seven, four members of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayer, Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, T.T.Krishnamachari, Nyapathi Madhav Rao hailed from the Madras State.
Let me conclude with one example of perfection in administration. The Board of Secondary Schools Examination, Madras used to conduct the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) Examination. The examination used to commence on 15th March. If it was a Sunday, on 16th. Question papers used to be set in English, translated into the vernaculars of the State, printed in Govt Printing Press, Madras, dispatched to the respective examination centers by post, kept in the custody of the Superintendent of the Centre, invariably the Head Master of the School and distributed to the examinees as per time table. The whole world knew the process. There was not a single instance of leakage of question papers.
After the examination, the answer papers used to be posted to Board, from there to the valuers, back to the Board, manual tabulation, results announced on 6th June, the Certificates received in respective schools on 9th June and distributed to the students on 10th. The Certificate was a book costing seven annas. It contained our performance in extracurricular and sports activities in IV, V, and VI forms, corresponding to 9th, 10th, and 11th Classes.
Can the New/National Educational Policy (NEP) enforce such punctuality, discipline, efficiency, honesty, and integrity? It requires character.
If wealth is lost, nothing is lost.
If health is lost, something is lost.
If the character is lost everything is lost.
This theory was repeatedly practiced by our teachers, trained in the Temples of Learning in Madras, in the Macaulayan System.
(K.C.Kalkura, Social Activist & Advocate, Kurnool. 518004)
