Mangling Chennai’s street names and distorting history

The regulars at Madras Musings are having a field day discussing the latest name change announcements of the government. Is it necessary, ask many. Some argue that it is all an eyewash with no change at ground level as far as attitudes to caste are concerned. I subscribe to that theory and believe that even the removal of caste suffixes in the 1980s served only to erase history. B. Narasimham, in my view, is not the same person as B.N. Reddy. 

But it was Ramesh C. Kumar who sent in what would be a prize-winning response. What is the purpose in renaming streets he asked, when even existing street names cannot be printed properly on signboards by the Chennai Corporation? He cites Rajachar Street in T. Nagar as an example. It is spelt in three different ways on the signboards of the Corporation at three intersections he writes – Rajachar, Rajachari and worst of all, Raja Sir. 

All three signboards were made at the same time and this is despite the earlier painted wall signs still surviving, all correct. 

After chuckling over this email (what else can we do?), I applied to Karthik Bhatt who immediately came up with who the person behind the street name was. S.N.V. Rajachar was his name, and he was from Coimbatore.

Born in 1869, he studied at the Madras Christian College and joined government service as a clerk in the Nellore collectorate and from there rose rapidly, becoming, in 1917, a Presidency Magistrate in Madras, a position he served till 1920. He also acted as the Chief Presidency Magistrate for a while. Awarded the Rao Sahib in 1921 and the Rao Bahadur in 1922, he was made Dewan of Venkatagiri estate and later served as Collector, South Kanara and Additional District Magistrate Thanjavur. In 1925, he was Dewan of Bobbili. Retiring in 1929, he passed away in 1935. 

Karthik then added that I was clearly not the sharp man I was, for how could I forget I had a photo of the man in the Illustrated Souvenir of the Indian Officers’ Association, 1925? So, I went hunting for that volume and soon ran Rajachar to the ground. 

If we are to go by the latest decision of the government, this road will soon be either Raja Sir (no caste here, only a colonial title) or plain Raja Street. If the former is chosen, it will commemorate either Raja Sir Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliar or Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar. Apparently, music director Ilaiyaraaja is not far off and so that may well be given as the reason if the latter version is adopted. The tragedy is that the real person commemorated is forgotten. 

Why is he commemorated in T. Nagar? That great housing colony and present-day urban nightmare was, if you recollect, developed in the 1920s. Most of the Justice Party leaders were commemorated in road names there and then, in a move that would be unthinkable today, for you need to be associated either in politics or films to receive such an honour, several civil servants too were commemorated, almost all of them living. Presidency Magistrates were included too. For instance, Lodi Khan Street in T. Nagar commemorates P. Muhiuddin Khan Lodi, who was third Presidency Magistrate while Rajachar was the fourth, between 1917 and 1920. He is now Lodi Khan and would not recognise his name, if he were to return. 

As Ramesh suggests, the Corporation would do well to correct the existing street names rather than changing them.

(Sriram V. is a writer and historian)