Chennai, formerly known as '
'Madras'' during the early colonial rule and later under the British Raj, is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu and is India's fourth largest city. Located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal,
it has an estimated population of 8.9 million (2014), the 400-year-old city is the 31st largest metropolitan area in the world. It is one of the important IT as well as major automobile manufacturing centers in the world. In August 2014 the city celebrated its 375 years of its existence.
Chennai has a long history since the establishment of the East India Company followed by the British Crown to its present growth. Incidentally, Robert Clive, who was instrumental in establishing the great British Empire, had begun his humble life as an ordinary clerk in the corridors of power in East India company's office here in Ft. St. George.
Francis
Day and his superior Andrew Cogan were considered as the founders of
Madras who had constructed Fort St George
on a strip of beach on 23 April, 1640 the company leased from the native ruler. The lease was signed a few months earlier, on August 22, 1639.Same year houses for their employees came up. They wanted to protect their settlement and their warehouses inside the fort. Their small fortified
settlement quickly attracted other East Indian traders and, as the
Dutch position collapsed under hostile Indian power, they also slowly
joined the settlement. the city that was born in north Madras, it had begun to grow southwards. By 1646, the population in the settlement had
reached 19,000 with Portuguese and Dutch populations substantially more.
To
further consolidate their position, the Company combined the various
settlements around that area an expanded Fort St. George, which including its
citadel also comprised a larger outside area surrounded by an
additional wall. This area became the Fort St. George settlement. As
stipulated by the Treaty signed with the local Nayak ruler, the
British and other Christian Europeans were not allowed to decorate
the outside of their buildings in any other color but white. As a
result, over a
period, the area came to be known as '
'White Town''.
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| 1805 Law College George Town, Chennai, TNupload.wikimedia.org |
According to the
treaty signed, only Europeans, principally Protestant British settlers were
allowed to live in this area and outside of this confine, non-Indians
were not allowed to own property. However, other national groups,
chiefly French, Portuguese, and other Catholic merchants had separate
agreements with the Nayak ruler which allowed them in turn to establish
trading posts, factories and warehouses. As the British East India Company,
controlled the trade in the area, these non-British merchants made agreements with the Company for settling on Company land
near "White Town" as per agreements with the Nayak.
Over a
period of time, native Indians also arrived in greater numbers and soon outnumbering,
the Portuguese and other non-Protestant Christian Europeans. Following several outbreaks of violence by various Hindu
and Muslim Indian communities against the Christian Europeans
domination and their over stepping on their religious belief, White
Town's defenses and its territorial charter w
ere e
nlarged to
in
clude most of the areas which had
developed around its walls
thereby incorporating most of its Catholic European settlements. In its wake
, they resettled the non-European merchants
along with their families and
workers, almost entirely Muslim or of various Hindu nationalities
outside of the newly expanded "White Town". This was also
surrounded by a wall. To differentiate these non-European and
non-Christian area from "White Town", the new settlement
was called
"Black Town." It grew along the northern perimeter of the fort into a busy township often known as Chennapatnam by the natives. The European called it Madraspatnam. Collectively, the
original Fort St. George settlement
- "White Town", and
the new settlement "Black Town" were called Madras. An important fact was initially
, this planned settlement with mutual consent did not carry any racial connotations. Black town was mostly occupied by natives who had links with the construction of the fort but also by those who catered to the needs of the sahibs, barbers, washer men, servants, etc.
The French was in control of the Black town briefly. When the British got it back in 1749 as part of a deal with them, the British flattened a portion of the Black town and converted into an esplanade (part of it now called N.S.C. Bose Road) covering Muthupet and Peddanaikenpet villages in the late 1700s as part of their military and defensive strategy in order to have a clear line of firing to deal with future invaders. They erected 13 pillars in 1773 along the flattened area (now, only one is left). New black town (now George town came up beyond the 13 pillars and the old black town was in the place where now stands High Court complex. The stretch between the pillars and high court is now NSC Bose Road. Old black town - first Indian town was north of Ft. St. George. However the new Black Town continued to supply goods to the merchants of the Fort, ‘White Town’ In 1911 the black town was renamed George Town in honor of king George V (earlier Prince of Wales) who was crowned as the Emperor of India who in the same year attended along with his wife the greatest show on earth - The Delhi Durbar.
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| king George V. George Town, Chennai. |
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| 1914 old image. king George V. George Town Madras |
Other suburban areas such as Triplicane, Teynampet, Nungambakkam, Royapettah and so forth were only villages and later were acquired by the British. It was along side of Ft. St. George - the earliest British Settlement, the present metropolis of Chennai originated from the Black Town.
(Modified : October 20, 2023)
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