Madras miscellany - Restored, then neglected

Forgive them, O Lord, for they know not what they do, is the Gandhian Biblical thought with which a reader concluded his letter to me after saying a few kind words about what I had written last Monday about that sore thumb in the Fort, the Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai. But those words would be even more apt if he had visited what is indisputably a heritage building one that I had a couple of weeks ago. To what a sorry pass the authorities have let Senate House, beautifully restored five years ago at a cost of around Rs.7 crore, come. When the long languishing Senate House was restored about 90 per cent, it was inaugurated with much fanfare as part of the University of Madras's 150th anniversary celebrations in 2006. A few days later the Vice-Chancellor responsible for the restoration was seen out of office with jeers and catcalls as the incoming Vice-Chancellor watched the fun and games. Once he was firmly ensconced in office, the new Vice-Chancellor not only forgot about the work still unfinished in Senate House, but also the need for some kind of maintenance, forget regular maintenance, and kept the internationally acclaimed Indo-Saracenic masterpiece closed. His successor, three years later, took his time to decide what to do with this first building of one of the three first Universities in the country and then decided he would create a museum and exhibition of the University's history in it, instead of putting the building to the variety of uses it had been put to in its historic past. And, so, there was a low key opening a couple of weeks ago — and as one who had in some small way played a part in the restoration, I hastened to see it. What I saw on the visit left me weeping. Forget the fact that no museum had been set up, forget the fact that the photographic exhibition was an amateur effort, which if only it had been professionalised could have been quite striking, and forget the fact that the little restoration that was incomplete had still not been completed. What can't be forgotten — or forgiven — is the state the interior of the building is in. Let's say it quickly and get it over with: Much of the painstaking work done on the walls has begun to crumble! Whatever the reasons for this, the fact is that it should not have been allowed to happen. At the first signs of deterioration, there should have been action taken to stop the crumbling from getting worse. But with a building locked for nearly five years, who is going to spend time opening it up and inspecting it from time to time for deterioration? Sheer callousness which kept the building locked and not regularly inspected and maintained has brought it to this pass. But there's worse. During that period of being under lock and key, Senate House was often used as a godown for University papers of all sorts. I now understand that its basement is chock-a-block with such papers. I sincerely hope not, but if it is, is this another fire victim in the making? It was in this connection more than anything else that I was delighted to hear that the Corporation of Madras is preparing to set up a heritage cell to help with the restoration of heritage buildings. In the first place, I hope the cell will have equal representation from officialdom, quasi-officialdom, and NGOs and experts among the public. But to take this thought one step further, may I suggest the Corporation set up a Chennai Heritage Trust, along the lines of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, of which the cell could be a part and with a similar composition as suggested above, to manage all major heritage buildings in the city for the owners. Of course, it's an idea wrapped in a plethora of complications, but where there's a will, there's a way, isn't there, Your Worship? ***** A forgotten compiler Two things which happened to me last week coincidentally touch on each other and have resulted in this item. Firstly, searching for an old book in a couple of boxes of old books I came across a 1954 issue of Ferguson's Directory published by the Lake House Group of publications in Colombo. This hoary annual provided a Who's Who of Ceylon, details of business organisations, and a wealth of statistical information about the island. It was a Bible of sorts to journalists of my vintage in Colombo when seeking accuracy. The other thing was a visit by a regular contributor to this column, V. Theetharappan, from whom I had not heard for a couple of months. I was sad to hear that he had been ill, but was happy to hear that he was back to his project of compiling a Who's Who of 1000 Madras luminaries of the past. His seed for that had been a Who's Who of the Madras Presidency of 1938 and which I had made reference to in this column on December 19, 2005. It was an annual brought out by T.M. Satchit of the Pearl Press, Cochin, from 1932; he had also been bringing out a Cochin Who's Who from 1927. He brought out both till his death in 1943 when he was only 50. Theetharappan's visit this time was to show me a tribute to T.M. Satchit that he intends to include in his own compilation and to give me a few more facts on someone whose publications in the 1930s and 1940s found a place in most reference rooms in the Presidency. Before he started the Pearl Press in 1926, in Cochin, where he arrived to put down roots in 1916, Satchit had been a peregrinating journalist. T.M. Satchidanandam Pillai, to give him his full name, was the son of T. Muthiah Pillai, a Police Inspector in Travancore. Even as a schoolboy Satchit showed an interest in journalism and, before long, became the Travancore Correspondent of the Madras Standard, the Indian Patriot, and, later, New India. He was also associated with the People's Weekly and Malabar Quarterly Review, Trivandrum. He then worked with the Central Publishing House and Wealth of India in Madras. After moving to Cochin, he started the Cochin News Agency, became a correspondent for the Associated Press of India and then The Hindu's representative. In 1935, he became the Editor of the Cochin Argus, a journal dating back to c.1869. In 1938, he added the journal and its printing press to his Pearl Press. But for all his journalistic activities, he was best known for his Who's Whos and his involvement with the cooperative movement in Cochin. As I flipped through Ferguson's and Satchit's Who's Who of 1938 once again, it occurred to me that I should repeat what I wrote in 2005: “No one today has been compiling a Who's Who of Madras city and Tamil Nadu. This is a popular type of reference book in many parts of the world and is often brought out by large newspaper houses.” Any takers in Madras? ***** When the postman knocked… *Captain D.P. Ramachandran, a military historian with a special interest in the Madras Regiment and the East India Company's campaigns in South India, referring to my piece on the Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai last Monday writes, “It's high time those in power concentrated their efforts to ensure that Fort St. George, and Madras in turn, gets its rightful place in the history of modern India. Thank you for giving voice to what, I'm sure, many right thinking people feel strongly about. I wish there was some sort of campaign on a large scale to achieve the ideal that you hope for.” I too wish there were more voices, especially from the Government and the Army, clamouring for Fort St. George to be declared a World Heritage Site. *Referring to my mention in recent columns of Buddhist viharas in Nagapattinam, Pradeep Chakravarthy wonders why Buddhism was more prevalent in the Chola and Pallava kingdoms than in the Pandya kingdom where Jainism was better established. Of course, he adds, there were exceptions like Mylapore in the Pallava kingdom which was a great seat of Jain learning. He also reminds readers that the Government Museum, Madras, has several ‘superb' bronzes of Lord Buddha from Nagapattinam and many more are to be found abroad. One of these, he adds, bears an inscription that indicates that “the perumpalli of Rajendra Chola” was the “great place of worship of the metalworkers” of all “the eighteen countries”. The ‘metalworkers' were presumably the goldsmiths, silversmiths and the makers of bronze icons. But countries? Anyone?