{"id":2356,"date":"2016-08-25T17:19:34","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T11:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jodi365.com\/singledout\/?p=2356"},"modified":"2020-10-19T17:04:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:34:49","slug":"celebrating-madras-week-revisiting-chennai-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodi365.com\/singledout\/celebrating-madras-week-revisiting-chennai-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Madras Week, Re-Visiting Chennai’s History"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all hardcore Madras-lovers, Chennai is merely a city and Madras is an emotion. \u00a0A sleepy city until the 1980s, even while being the 4th largest in India, Chennai today is a bustling blend of the traditional and the contemporary. \u00a0Popularly known as the land of temples and filter coffee<\/a>, Chennai is also the largest cultural, educational, and economic center in south India. \u00a0It\u00a0was the only Indian city to feature on The New York Times\u2019 list of 52 Places to Go in 2014<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(it was #26), on Lonely Planet\u2019s list of Top Ten Cities for 2015<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(#9), and National Geographic\u2019s recent list of the Top 10 Food Cities<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(#2) in the world.<\/p>\n

\"Mylapore<\/a>
Kapaleeshwarar Temple | \u00a9 Vinoth Chander<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With rapid modernization, especially in recent decades, Chennai\u00a0may be home to\u00a0numerous IT hubs scattered across the city (the most notable being the IT Corridor along Old Mahabalipuram Road). \u00a0Yet, it is also where you will routinely see software professionals going to work with\u00a0vibhuti <\/em>(a sacred, white ash) applied on their foreheads after morning prayers. \u00a0You will see PYTs hitting nightclubs in their LBDs and also sari-clad women heading to work with flower in their hair, alongside colleagues in fashionably faded or torn jeans. \u00a0People rightly associate Chennai with being socially progressive and accepting\u00a0of religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity.<\/p>\n

\"Marina<\/a>
Marina Beach, Chennai | \u00a9 Darshan Simha<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chennai is also India’s first municipality and also, for better or worse,\u00a0the pioneer in Western-style education in India. \u00a0(Madras University was established in 1857. \u00a0For perspective, lest people forget, Nalanda University<\/a> was a renowned center of learning<\/a> from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE.) \u00a0Chennai has been spewing out educated professionals for many generations. \u00a0After all, it is home to numerous reputed educational institutions such as Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; College of Engineering, Guindy; Kilpauk Medical College; Madras Medical College; Institute of Mathematical Sciences; Stella Maris College; Loyola College; Madras Christian College; and Great Lakes Institute of Management, among others.<\/p>\n

\"Madras<\/a>
Madras University (estd. 1857), c.1902, via British Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chennaites aren’t just an educated lot; they get culture, too. \u00a0There is the the Kalakshetra Foundation, which is dedicated to the preservation of traditional dance and music. \u00a0The annual Margazhi<\/em>\u00a0music festival not only\u00a0keeps\u00a0alive Carnatic music traditions but also draws many music connoisseurs to the city every December. \u00a0Chennai’s theater groups (Tamil and English) and numerous art galleries are further testament to the people’s being culturally inclined.<\/p>\n

\"Chennai<\/a>
Chennai Margazhi Masam Performance | \u00a9 Praveen Kumar<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Madras Week and Its Origins<\/h1>\n

It is out of the love for the city and its glorious history and vibrant past that a bunch of journalists, historians, and ordinary people came together and decided to celebrate the day the city came into existence. \u00a0What began as a half-day celebration 13 years ago has now become a month-long event with August 22\u201328 being called Madras Week. \u00a0For the present generation, Madras Week provides a glimpse into the sepia-tinted Madras that their ancestors lived in and loved.<\/p>\n

Given\u00a0the Indian penchant for invoking and revering events from the bygone era, it is surprising that people know little about how a mere piece of land on the Coromandel Coast turned into the\u00a0vast and ever-growing metropolis that Chennai is, today. \u00a0On the 22nd of August, 1639, the area where Fort St. George is currently situated\u00a0was bought by the East India Company from Damerla Venkatapathy, a viceroy of the Vijayanagar Empire. \u00a0Francis Day and Andrew Logan, key colonial administrators for the East India Company, bought the land to build a fortified warehouse. \u00a0After an exemption from import tax was announced for people residing in the proximity of the fort, throngs of weavers, dhobis, <\/em>and artificers settled in the area surrounding the fort. \u00a0A bustling township known as Black Town soon developed and grew southwards over the next few centuries to become Chennai as we know it today. \u00a0The area was renamed George Town in 1911 after George V, Prince of Wales was made the Emperor of India.<\/p>\n

\"Ripon<\/a>
Ripon Building, Chennai | \u00a9 Karthik Tripurari<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Madras Week commemorates the beginning and expansion of the city of Chennai, making it possible for the present generation to look back and see how it all began. \u00a0In 1989, to make the 350th anniversary of the city’s founding, a commemorative monument known as Madras 350 was built at the intersection of\u00a0Poonamallee High Road and New Avadi Road. \u00a0In the same year, the Murugappa Group, a business conglomerate, along with the Mylapore Times, started the Madras Quiz, which has since become an annual feature in the city’s calendar.<\/p>\n

The group also commissioned S. Muthiah, a famous historian, to write the book Madras \u2013 The Gracious City. \u00a0<\/em>The combined effort of S. Muthiah , historian V. Sriram, and journalist Vincent D’ Souza is responsible for creating Madras Day, the focus of which is the city’s historical past and present. \u00a0V. Sriram, an engineer by profession, is also credited for rekindling the public’s interest in Chennai’s heritage through his app Chennai Past Forward, a virtual arena to discover Chennai’s past.<\/p>\n

During Madras Week, heritage walks to the numerous architectural wonders of the city, food walks, film screenings, public talks, exhibitions, poetry reading sessions, dance performances, and various other contests are organized all over the city. \u00a0Madras Week gained popularity in 2007, the same year in which a postal cover commemorative of Madras Day was issued. \u00a0It received nationwide coverage upon its 375th anniversary in 2014 when more than 100 events were organised from 10th August to 14th September. \u00a0The Madras Song <\/em>was also composed and released (by the Murugappa Group) in 2014, as a tribute to Madras.<\/p>\n