MADRAS DAY

• It was on this day in 1639 that the town of Madrasapatnam, which later expanded and developed into modern-day Chennai, was purchased by the East India Company (EIC) from local kings. This would be a step in the establishment of the British Empire in India for the next few centuries
• After the British rule ended in 1947, the state and the city continued to be referred to as Madras
• It was carved out of the larger Madras presidency that had covered parts of other South Indian states
•  In 1969, the state was officially renamed Tamil Nadu and in 1996, the capital city of Madras became Chennai

• The British arrived on Indian shores in the early 17th Century, in the form of the East India Company (EIC)
• Its goal was to acquire the right to trade in India, and it did so through a victory at Swally Hole (near Surat) in 1612 over another colonial power – the Portuguese.
• The latter controlled the pilgrim sea route from western India to Mecca and were resented by India’s Mughal rulers.
• As a result of this victory over the Portuguese, the embassy of EIC under Thomas Roe secured an accord, through a farmaan or order from the court of Emperor Jahangir
• Under this, the English secured the right to trade and establish factories in India in return for becoming the Mughals’ naval auxiliaries who would provide them protection
• Beginning with Surat on the western coast, the EIC established trading posts that were often called Forts that were further developed.
• On the eastern coast, it went to Masulipatnam in 1611 for the same purpose. A base here would also benefit trade with Malaya (now Malaysia)
• The Dutch were also situated nearby, in Pulicat, and this was a source of tension. Francis Day, the Company’s representative at Armagaum and a member of the Masulipatam Council, then proposed that he should be allowed to look for another spot for a fresh settlement. This led the EIC to a town called Madrasapatnam.

• One theory says a fisherman named Madresan implored Day to name the city after him, but some sources claim that the name had existed before the British arrival, too
• Another theory suggests that a Madrassa located nearby, or a church by the name of ‘Madre de Deus’ (French for Mother of God) might have influenced it
• In the past, Madrasapatnam had seen Pallava and Chola rule
• According to the district’s official website, before the British arrival, it was under Vijayanagar rulers, who appointed chieftains known as Nayaks for overseeing their territories
• Damarla Venkatapathy Nayak, an influential chieftain under Venkata III, who was in charge of the area of present Chennai city, gave the grant of a piece of land lying between the river Cooum, almost at the point it enters the sea, and another river known as Egmore river to the English in 1639
• This was Madrasapatnam, and it was “on this piece of waste land” that Fort St. George was founded by the British, it adds. Andre Cogan, an officer of the EIC, transferred the seat of the Agency from Masulipatnam to here in 1641.
• Venkatapathy Nayak controlled the entire coastal country, from Pulicat in the north to the Portuguese settlement of Santhome
• In honour of his father Chennappa Nayak, the settlement which had grown around Fort St. George was named Chennapatanam. This would be the inspiration behind ‘Chennai’.
• Madrasapatnam was to the north and the intervening space between the two came to be populated soon enough, leading to the towns becoming almost combined
• Over the next few centuries, the city grew from its Fort and the Black and White towns (restricted settlements for Indians and Europeans, respectively)
• During the regime of Governor Elihi Yale (1687-92), the institution of a mayor and Corporation for the city was formed.
• More areas, such as Egmore and Tondiarpet, were acquired by the British as part of the Madras province.

• After independence, the Madras province came to be known as Madras State. The demand for a change in name to Tamil Nadu had been raised by some politicians and scholars for a while
• In 1956, Congress leader K P Sankaralinganar began an indefinite fast. One of his demands was the renaming of the state to Tamil Nadu
• After 76 days of his protest, he died on October 13, 1956. This led to the cause gaining more attention.
• On May 7, 1957, the DMK brought in a name change resolution in the State Assembly but the resolution was defeated.
• It was again brought up in January 1961 by Socialist Party MLA Chinna Durai. A month later, the resolution failed again after it was tabled, without the support of the ruling Congress party.
• In 1961, a Member of Parliament and Communist leader from West Bengal, Bhupesh Gupta, moved a Bill in Parliament for renaming Madras State as Tamil Nadu
• At that time, CN Annadurai, who was a Rajya Sabha member and would go on to become the last Chief Minister of Madras and the first Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, supported the move. But this was also defeated due to a lack of a majority.
• Later in 1967, once his party DMK was in power, Annadurai moved a resolution in the State Assembly
• He argued that a capital city (Madras) cannot become the name of a state and said that the name Tamil Nadu had been used in ancient literature
• Parties, including Congress, welcomed the resolution. Since the renaming needed a Constitutional amendment, both Houses of Parliament approved the Bill in November and December 1968 respectively.
• The state government later issued a gazette notification to bring the name change into effect on January 14, 1969