Madras the Birth Place of British India

INTRODUCTION

Claim is made that British connection with Madras dates as far back as the ninth century A. D. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and to the further testimony of William of Malmesbury, King Alfred the Great of England despatched two ambassadors, Sighelm and Athelstane, in 883, with alms to Rome, and thence to St. Thomas in India. The identification of the latter place has never presented any difficulty. From early Christian times the old quarter of Madras, known as Mylapore, has been asso- ciated with the name of the “Doubting Apostle.” That St. Thomas visited the Court of the Indo-Scythian sovereign Gondophares, in the far North-West, is now generally admitted. The fact that a colony of Christians, styling themselves his followers, existed in South India in the fourth century may be held to confirm the belief that he also lived and laboured in that part of the Coromandel Coast, where his memory has so long been piously preserved.

At the beginning of the Christian era Mylapore is reputed to have been a large and prosperous city, the capital of a Hindu Raja. Tradition likewise asserts that the sea has since encroached some three miles or so, swallowing up the ancient metropolis, a disaster foretold by St. Thomas, who took the precaution to build his small Church well inland, on the site now covered by the large A miracle, whereby the Cathedral, which bears his name. Apostle restored the Raja’s daughter to health, when she lay at the point of death, so incensed the local Brahmin, that he fled to a cave on the Little Mount, near the mouth of the Adyar River. His retreat was speedily discovere He was attacked and wounded. Seeking refuge once more in flight he dragged himself as far as the Great Mount There he was finally despatched by a spear thrust on

December 21st, A. D. 68.

Early in the sixteenth century the pious associations of the place attracted a number of Portuguese settlers to Mylapore. After founding Churches, monasteries and convents on sites hallowed by association with the Apostle, they proceeded to erect and fortify the city of San Thome.

Material rather than spiritual considerations brought the English to Madras a century later. For them the neigh- bourhood possessed the coveted distinction of producing cheap and excellent muslins and printed calicoes. This induced Francis Day, the East India Company’s Agent at Armegam, the fortified English factory established in 1628 near Masulipatam in the territory of Golcondah, to urge its abandonment in favour of a more advantageous site further south, offered, in 1639, by the Naik of Chingleput. The latter wished to attract trade to his own district, hence the easy terme upon which he proposed to lease the small seaport town of Madraspatam to the merchants.

Acting largely on their own responsibility Andrew Cogan, the Company’s Agent at Masulipatam, and Francis Day proceeded to build a factory at Madraspatam and enclose it with a battlemented wall. They dignified the new establishment with the name of Fort St. George, England’s patron saint, inspired, probably, by the close proximity of the rival Portuguese settlement of San Thome, three miles to the south.

The small English community in Madras struggled on with, apparently, little encouragement from anyone. Blame rather than praise seems to have been their portion at home while, abroad, they were surrounded by enemies. Possibly this explains the hardihood of their growth. Immediately to south their boundary trespassed upon the Portuguese territory of San Thome. The dreaded Dutch threatened them from Pulicat, Negapatam, Masulipatam and Sadras. The last mentioned places were founded about 1610 and held by Holland until 1824, when they were finally ceded to England. In 1620 the Danes started to trade at Tranquebar. commercial, or political importance. ment consisted in establishing the missions in India. It was they who welcomed William Carey, the first Baptist missionary from England, and allowed him to settle at Serampur in 1799, under the protection of their Governor, Colonel Bie. Prior to this the English East India Company had refused to allow Carey to proselytize within their territories. Finally, the French began to erect and fortify Pondicherry, an advantageously situated seaport lower down on the Corothandel Coast. Founded by Francis Martin, in April 1674, it speedily grew into the handsomest European town in India.

They attained little Their chief achieve earliest Protestant Cities, like men, are the product of their past. How the merchant venturers at Fort St. George held their own against enemies at home and abroad, how they beat back the Moghuls, and the Marathas, and how, while merely seeking to extend their trade, they were, all unwittingly, building up an empire upon such apparently incongruous foundations as bales of cotton, and bags of spice, is the story of Madras. In the following pages I have endeavoured to outline the tale. In the very limited space of a little guide book I do not pretend to exhaust the subject but merely to arouse interest therein.

For information regarding the harbour I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Francis Spring.

MADRAS, April, 1919.

A. NEWELL,

LIRUT.-COLONEL, Indian Army.