The Madras Presidency, officially designated as the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937 and later known as the Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of the Company Raj, British Raj and its successor, the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the Presidency included most of South India, comprising all of present-day Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, along with parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, and Telangana, in addition to Sri Lanka, from 1793 to 1815. The city of Madras (present-day Chennai) served as the official and winter capital of the Presidency, while Udhagamandalam (present-day Ooty) served as its summer capital.
In 1639, the East India Company purchased the village of Madrasapatnam and one year later it established the Agency of Fort St. George, precursor of the Madras Presidency, although there had been Company factories at Machilipatnam and Armagaon since the very early 1600s. The agency was upgraded to a Presidency in 1652 before once more reverting to its previous status in 1655. In 1684, it was re-elevated to a Presidency and Elihu Yale was appointed as president. In 1785, under the provisions of Pitt's India Act, Madras became one of three presidencies established by the Company. By 1793, Ceylon was incorporated into the presidency but was later separated in 1815. Thereafter, the head of the area was styled "Governor" rather than "President" and became subordinate to the viceroy in Calcutta, with Madras' titulature that would persist until 1950. Judicial, legislative and executive powers rested with the Governor who was assisted by a Council whose constitution was modified by reforms enacted in 1861, 1909, 1919 and 1935. Regular elections were conducted in Madras up to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1938. By 1908, the province comprised twenty-two districts, each under a District Collector, and it was further sub-divided into taluks and firqas with villages making up the smallest unit of administration.
Following the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms of 1917, Madras was the first presidency of India to implement a system of dyarchy, and thereafter its Governor ruled alongside a prime minister. In the early decades of the 20th century, many significant contributors to the Indian independence movement came from Madras. Madras was later admitted as Madras State, a state of the Indian Union at the inauguration of the Republic of India on 26 January 1950.
History
Before the arrival of the English The discovery of dolmens from this portion of the subcontinent shows inhabitation as early as the Stone Age. The first prominent rulers of the northern part of the future Presidency were the Tamil Pandya dynasty (230 BCAD 102). Following the decline of the Pandyas and the Cholas, the country was conquered by a little known race of people called the Kalabhras.Iyengar 1929, p. 535 The country recovered under the subsequent Pallava dynasty and its civilisation attained a peak when the chola kings started acquiring vast places in Tamil Nadu during the 10th century. Following the conquest of Madurai by Malik Kafur in 1311, there was a brief lull when both culture and civilisation began to deteriorate. The Tamil and Telugu territories recovered under the Vijayanagar Empire, founded in 1336. Following the empire's demise, the country was split amongst numerous sultans, polygars and European trading companies. Between 1685 and 1947, a number of kings ruled the areas that became part of the Madras Presidency.Thurston 1913, pp. 138–142.
The southwestern portions of the presidency, which together constitute Tulu Nadu and Kerala, has a distinct history, language, and culture from its eastern counterparts.
Early English trading posts (1600–1639) On 31 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) granted a group of English merchants a charter to establish a joint-stock company which became known as the East India Company.Hunter, 1908, p. 6Wheeler 1996, p. 5Wheeler 1996, p. 6Wheeler 1996, p. 7 Subsequently, during the reign of King James I (1567–1625), Sir William Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe were sent to negotiate with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569–1627) to permit the establishment of trading factories in India on behalf of the company. The first of these were built at Surat on the west coastWheeler 1996, p. 19 and at Masulipatinam on the country's eastern seaboard.Wheeler 1996, p. 26 Masulipatinam is thus the oldest English trading post on India's east coast, dating back to 1611. In 1625, another factory was established at Armagon, a few miles to the south, whereupon both the factories came under the supervision of an agency based at Machilipatnam. The English authorities decided to relocate these factories further south, due to a shortage of cotton cloth, the main trade item of the east coast at the time. The problem was compounded when the Sultan of Golconda started harassing the local officers. The East India Company's administrator Francis Day (1605–73) was sent south, and after negotiations with the Raja of Chandragiri, he obtained a land grant in 1639 to set up a factory in the village of Madraspatinam where the new Fort St George was built. An agency was created to govern the new settlement, and the factor Andrew Cogan of Masulipatinam was appointed as its first Agent.Roy 2012, p. 74 All the agencies along India's east coast were subordinated to the East India Company presidency of Bantam in Java.Chaudhuri 2006, p. 206 By 1641, Fort St George became the company's headquarters on the Coromandel Coast.Thorpe 2011, p. 94
Agency of Fort St George (1640–1684) Andrew Cogan was succeeded by Francis Day (1643–1644), Thomas Ivie (1644–1648) and Thomas Greenhill (1648–52 and 1655–58). At the end of Greenhill's term in 1652, Fort St George was elevated to a Presidency, independent of Bantam and under the leadership of the first president, Aaron Baker (1652–1655). However, in 1655 the status of the fort was downgraded to an Agency and made subject to the factory at Surat,Newell 1919, p. 18 until 1684. In 1658, control of all the factories in Bengal was given to Madras, when the English occupied the nearby village of Triplicane.Wheeler 1996, p. 281Wheeler 1996, p. 282
Expansion (1684–1801) In 1684, Fort St George Black Town was where the 'natives' lived. The White Town was confined inside the walls of Fort St. George and the Black Town outside of it. The Black Town later came to be known as George Town. During this period, the presidency was significantly expanded and reached an extent which continued into the early 19th century. During the early years of the Madras Presidency, the English were repeatedly attacked by the Mughals, the Marathas and the Nawabs of Golkonda and the Carnatic region.Hunter 1908, p. 251 In September 1784, by Pitt's India Act, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain to unify and regulate the administration of the territories of the East India Company, the President of Madras was made subordinate to the Governor-General of India based in Calcutta.Kulke 2004, p. 245 In September 1746, Fort St George was captured by the French, who ruled Madras as a part of French India until 1749, when Madras was handed back to the British under the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle of the previous year.Hunter 1908, p. 252
In 1801, the Nawab of Arcot, Azim-ud-Daula signed the Carnatic Treaty bringing the Carnatic region under British rule. In return, Azim-ud-Daula was entitled to one-fifth of the total revenue of the state and the honour of a 21-gun salute.
During the Company rule (1801–1858)
From 1801 until 1858, Madras was a part of British India and was ruled by the British East India Company. The last quarter of the 18th century was a period of rapid expansion. Successful wars against Tipu Sultan (1782–99), Maruthu Pandyar, Velu Thampi, and Polygars added vast areas of land and contributed to the exponential growth of the presidency. The system of subsidiary alliances originated by Lord Wellesley as Governor-General of India (1798–1805) also brought many princely states into the area militarily subordinate to the Governor of Fort St George.Hunter 1908, p. 254 The largest kingdom of the hill-tract region of Visakhapatanam was Jeypore and in 1777 it was conquered by Captain Matthews. The hill tracts of Ganjam and Visakhapatnam were the last places to be annexed by the British.Hunter 1908, p. 255
The period also witnessed a number of rebellions starting with the 1806 Vellore Mutiny.Read 1997, pp. 34–37 The rebellion of Velu Thambi and Paliath Achan and the Poligar Wars were other notable insurrections against the British rule, but the Madras Presidency remained relatively undisturbed by the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.Dodd 1859, p. 288
The Madras Presidency annexed the Kingdom of Mysore in 1831 on allegations of maladministrationKamath 1980, p. 250 and restored it to Chamaraja Wodeyar (1881–94), the grandson and heir of the deposed Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1799–1868) in 1881. Thanjavur was annexed in 1855, following the death of Shivaji II (1832–1855) who left no male heir.Kamath 1980, pp. 250–253
British Raj (1858–1947)
In 1858, under the terms of Queen's Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Madras Presidency, along with the rest of British India, came under the direct rule of the British crown.Hibbert 2000, p. 221 During the period of governor Lord Harris (1854–1859), measures were taken to improve education and increase representation of Indians in the administration. Legislative powers were given to the Governor's council under the Indian Councils Act 1861.Sadasivan 1974, p. 22 The council was reformed and expanded under the Indian Councils Act 1892,Sadasivan 1974, p. 40 the Indian Councils Act 1909,Sadasivan 1974, p. 54Sadasivan 1974, p. 55 the Government of India Act 1919, and the Government of India Act 1935. V. Sadagopacharlu (1861–63) was the first Indian to be appointed to the council.Muthiah 2004, p. 418 The legal profession was specially prized by the newly emerging corpus of educated Indians. The first Indian judge to be appointed was C. V. Runganada Sastri; in 1877, T. Muthuswamy Iyer became the first Indian judge of the Madras High Court despite strong opposition from the Anglo-Indian media.S.A. 1969, p. 14Tercentenary Madras Staff 1939, p. 223 He also acted as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court for a few months in 1893, thereby becoming the first Indian to hold the post.Pramanand 1985 In 1899, V. Bhashyam Aiyangar became the first Indian to be appointed Advocate-General of the Madras Presidency. A number of roads, railways, dams and canals were constructed during this period.
Two large famines occurred in Madras during this period, the Great Famine of 1876–78 and the Indian famine of 1896–97.Dutt 1999, p. 10 As a result of the first, the population of the presidency fell for the first time from 31.2 million in 1871 to 30.8 million in 1881. These famines and alleged partiality shown by the government in handling the Chingleput Ryots' Case and the Salem riots trial caused discontent among the population.
Indian Independence movement