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The Indian independence movement had a long history in the Tamil-speaking districts of the then Madras Presidency going back to the 18th century.
The first resistance to the British was offered by the legendary Since then there had been rebellions by polygars such as the Puli Thevar, Veeramangai Velu Nachiyar, Muthu Vaduganatha Periyavudaya Thevar, Ondiveeran, Marudu brothers, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Veeran Sundaralingam, Oomaithurai, Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone Yadav, Chinna Alagumuthu kone, and Dheeran Chinnamalai and the sepoys of Vellore. Though there were no violent rebellions in the 19th century, still, there were continuous agitations by Indian independence activists such as Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty, John Bruce Norton, Eardley Norton, Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer, P. Rangaiah Naidu, G. Subramania Iyer, Sir S. Subramania Iyer, C. Jambulingam Mudaliar, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar, S. Ramaswami Mudaliar, T. M. Jambulingam Mudaliar, Tiruppur Kumaran, M. Veeraraghavachariar and C. Karunakara Menon. After a brief interlude of militancy in the early 1900s, independence activists from Tamil Nadu adopted the non-violent principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Some of the important Gandhian leaders of the region were C. Rajagopalachari, K. Kamaraj and S. Satyamurti.
Contemporaneous with the Indian nationalist movement, there were also pro-British political parties and movements, the most prominent being the Justice Party. Some important pro-British leaders were P. Theagaroya Chetty, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and Raja of Panagal. The first freedom fighter alakumuthu kon in thirulavali Kattamkulam
European travellers and traders have had contacts with the Tamil country at least since the 1st millennium
Following the negotiations which Sir Thomas Roe had with the Mughal Emperor Jahangir on behalf of James VI of Scotland and I of England, the British East India Company, founded by a charter in 1600, opened factories or trading posts all over India. The Masulipatnam factory, the first in the south, was opened in the year 1612. Later factories were established at Pulicat and Armagon. In 1639, due to harsh weather conditions, the Masulipatnam factory was moved to a site newly purchased from the Raja of Chandragiri. A planned administrative base, a fort and a few British residences were set up. The city of Madras, which grew from this new settlement, thus became the first British trading settlement to be established in the Tamil country. The agency of Fort St George set up in 1640, was upgraded to a Presidency in 1652 but demoted in 1655 before being upgraded once again in 1684.
In the initial years, the British in South India concentrated mainly on trade and not on territorial expansion and hence, rarely indulged in acts of military aggression. However, the rapid rise of French influence forced[ citation needed ] the British at Madras to interfere in local politics and assert themselves in the region through negotiations and alliances or through more forceful means. The French victory over the British and their conquest of Madras in 1746 compelled the British East India Company to set up a regular standing army though Madras was returned to the British three years later. Eventually, the French were defeated in a long series of battles known as the Carnatic Wars and their influence in India virtually disappeared with the fall of Pondicherry in 1774. Apart from eliminating the French, the Carnatic Wars also strengthened British prestige and influence in the region as they had set up military alliances with local princes in their bid to outmaneuver the French. One of the princes was the most important and powerful ruler in the Tamil country, the Nawab of the Carnatic, who became a debtor and eventually pensioner of the British East India Company.
The first British possession in the Tamil country, apart from Madras, was Fort St David, near Cuddalore, which was established in 1690. The British acquired taxation rights over Chingleput district in 1763 and South Arcot in 1781. The two districts, along with rest of the Carnatic kingdom, came under complete British control in 1801. The Baramahals comprising Salem, Coimbatore and western Tamil Nadu, were ceded to the British by Tipu Sultan in 1793 following his defeat in the Third Mysore War while Tanjore was acquired from the Thanjavur Maratha ruler Serfoji II in 1799.
Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone (1710–1757), from Kattalankulam in Thoothukudi District, was an early freedom fighter against the British presence in Tamil Nadu. Born into a Konar family, he became a military leader in the town of Ettayapuram, and was defeated in battle there against the British and Maruthanayagam's forces. He was executed in 1757 by British troops after a fierce battle and was captured and executed. In his memory, the government of Tamil Nadu conducts a Pooja ceremony every year on 11 July. A documentary film based on his life was released in 2012. After his death polygar of Avudyapuram, who, in 1757, led a confederacy of Western polygar chieftains in defiance against the Nawab of Carnatic's right to levy taxes on them on behalf of the British. The British responded by appointing Muhammad Yusuf, the governor of Madurai and Tirunelveli, and entrusting to him the task of putting down the rebellion. Yusuf enlisted the support of the Eastern polygar chieftains and eventually succeeded in reducing the rebels. Later, however, Muhammad Yusuf, himself, rebelled against the British and was captured and executed. During the 1780s and 1790s, Tamil chieftains like Dheeran Chinnamalai and the Maruthu Pandiyar brothers also fought along with Tipu Sultan against the British. The Marudu brothers defeated a powerful British force at Kollangudi near Sivagangai in April 1789 with Udhaya Perumal Gounder as Chief commander. Velu Nachiyar was one of the few rulers who regained her kingdom, and ruled it for ten more years. She formed an army and sought an alliance with Gopala Nayaker and Hyder Ali with the aim of attacking the British, whom she did successfully fight in 1780. When Velu Nachiyar found the place where the British stored their ammunition, she arranged a suicide attack: a faithful follower, Kuyili, doused herself in oil, set herself alight and walked into the storehouse. Velu Nachiyar formed a woman's army named "udaiyaal" in honour of her adopted daughter, Udaiyaal, who died detonating a British arsenal.
In 1799, Kattabomman Nayak, the polygar of Panchalankurichi, revolted against the British along with his brother Oomadhurai and a few neighbouring polygars. After a few successful skirmishes, Panchalankurichi was eventually besieged by Company troops and Kattabomman was defeated in a long, pitched battle. Kattabomman and most of his allies were captured and hanged and the fort of Panchalankurichi was levelled to the ground. However, the Maruthu Pandiyar brother and some of Kattabomman's allies evaded capture and along with Dheeran Chinnamalai, fought the Second Polygar War against the British. Though the rebels were initially successful and Chinnamalai inflicted a severe defeat on Colonel Makiskan, the rebellion was eventually put down in 1802 and all the leaders captured and hanged. The Maruthu Pandiyar brothers defeated the British troops at Virupatchi and repulsed an attack on Sivagangai but were defeated and captured at Cholapuram. The brothers were hanged in October 1801 along with other prisoners.
On 10 July 1806, a sepoy mutiny broke out in the town of Vellore, 130 kilometres from Madras. The sepoys of the Vellore garrison were displeased with a recently introduced law regulating the usage of Hindu caste marks or beards. Full-scale rebellion broke out after midnight on 10 July 1806 and Fateh Hyder, the second son of Tipu Sultan, who was imprisoned in Vellore Fort was crowned king. However, reinforcements arrived from the nearby town of Arcot within the next fifteen minutes and the rebellion was successfully quelled by Sir Rollo Gillespie. Over 100 captured sepoys were executed by blasting them with canister shots. William Bentinck, the Governor of Madras was recalled and replaced. The laws regulating Hindu religious marks was withdrawn.
During the 19th century, the British rulers of India were actively endorsing the activities of Christian missionaries and enacting laws to empower them and favour proselytisation. In 1844, a law was introduced amending Hindu law to make it possible for Christian converts to inherit property from their Hindu ancestors. At about the same time, Christian theology was introduced as a compulsory subject in the curriculum of the University of Madras.
Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty, a popular indigo merchant launched a campaign against these measures and presided over a protest meeting in Madras city on 7 October 1846. The protestors even petitioned lawmakers and social and political activists in United Kingdom and enlisted their support. The laws were eventually withdrawn. Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India and nominated to the Madras Legislative Council, the second Indian to be in the council. Chetty was also assisted in his efforts by Madras lawyer and Indophile John Bruce Norton whose own participation in the Indian National movement is significant.
The conversion of a Brahmin student of the Madras Christian College in April 1888 sparked severe protests from Hindus in the Madras Presidency. [1] The agitators resolved to start national schools to counter evangelistic activities in missionary-run schools and colleges. [2] [3] Most of the leaders were Indian nationalists who had recently founded the Indian National Congress.
Indian nationalists of the 19th century propagated their views and objectives by starting newspapers and forming social and political organisations. The first Indian-run newspaper The Crescent was started by Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty to counter Christian missionary propaganda and alleged British injustice. But the newspaper which played a major part in the history of the Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu was the English-language The Hindu which was started by Indian independence activists G. Subramania Iyer, M. Veeraraghavachariar and N. Subba Rao Pantulu in 1878 in support of the candidature of T. Muthuswamy Iyer as the first Indian judge of the Madras High Court. In the following years, The Hindu launched severe criticisms of economic policies of the government.
The Madras Native Association established by Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty in 1852 was the first Indian political organisation in the Madras Presidency. On 16 May 1884, the Madras Mahajana Sabha was founded by prominent Indian leaders of the Presidency such as P. Rangaiah Naidu of Madras, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar of Salem and M. Veeraraghavachariar of Chingleput. Its founders later played leading roles in the Indian National Congress.
The Indian National Congress was established due to the efforts of Allan Octavian Hume and with the blessings of the then Viceroy of India Lord Ripon and held its first meeting at the Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay between 28 and 31 December 1885. Among the 72 delegates who attended the first session, 22 were from the Madras Presidency.
City/Town | Delegate/s | Profile |
---|---|---|
Madras (8) | P. Rangaiah Naidu (1828–1904) | vakil, Madras High Court. Municipal Commissioner, Madras. President of the Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884). Member of the Madras Legislative Council (1892–99). |
S. Subramania Iyer (1842–1924) | lawyer, Madras High Court. Member of the Madras Legislative Council (1884–87). | |
G. Subramania Iyer (1855–1916) | journalist and social reformer. Founder of English-language The Hindu (1878) and Tamil-language Swadesamitran (1882). | |
P. Anandacharlu (1843–1908) | vakil, Madras High Court, journalist and Municipal Commissioner, Madras. | |
M. Veeraraghavachariar | journalist. Sub-editor of The Hindu. Secretary of the Madras Mahajana Sabha. | |
C. Singaravelloo Mudaliar | Merchant and Municipal Commissioner, Madras. Trustee, Pachaiyappa's Charities. | |
M. E. Shriranga Chariar | Lawyer, Madras High Court | |
S. V. Athalye | Medical practitioner, Madras | |
Chingleput (1) | M. Y. Ramanujachariar | Pleader, Chingleput |
Coimbatore (1) | S. P. Narasimhalu Naidu (1854–1922) | journalist and social reformer. Secretary of the Coimbatore unit of the Madras Mahajana Sabha and editor of The Crescent. |
Tanjore (2) | S. A. Saminatha Iyer (d. 1899) | public prosecutor and lander proprietor. President of the Tanjore People's Association and corresponding member of the Madras Mahajana Sabha. Chairman of the Tanjore Municipal council and member of the district board |
N. Narayanaswami Iyer | landlord, Tanjore | |
Kumbakonam (1) | K. Pattabhirama Iyer | landlord |
Madura (1) | P. Subramania Iyer | landlord |
Salem (1) | Kristnaswamy Rout | |
Tinnevely (1) | Peter Paul Pillai | headmaster and landlord |
Important public personalities of the Presidency, like Rangaiah Naidu, S. Subramania Iyer, and G. Subramania Iyer, attended the first session of the Indian National Congress. However, some prominent personalities like Eardley Norton, Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar, C. Jambulingam Mudaliar, T. Madhava Rao and R. Raghunatha Rao did not participate in the first session. Nevertheless, the Indian National Congress, with its ideals actively propagated by members of the Theosophical Society grew by leaps and bounds, that the 1887 session of the Congress held in Madras city and presided over by Madhava Rao was a tremendous success. The visiting dignitaries were welcomed by Lord Connemara, the then Governor of Madras. In 1889, Eardley Norton and Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar led an Indian delegation to the United Kingdom to set up a UK chapter of the Indian National Congress.
From the early 1900s, leadership of the Indian National Congress passed on to a new generation of politicians such as P. S. Sivaswami Iyer, C. Sankaran Nair, M. Krishnan Nair, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, S. Srinivasa Iyengar and P. Theagaroya Chetty. Eventually, with the passage of time and the influx of revolutionary ideas from the north, the movement turned violent.
The split between the moderates and radicals at the Surat session of the Indian National Congress in 1906 was also accompanied by a split between the moderate and extremist elements in the Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu. Among the supporters of the Indian extremist Bal Gangadhar Tilak were Subramania Bharathi and V. O. Chidambaram Pillai.
Subrahmanya Bharathi was a prodigious Tamil poet and writer and is often regarded as the "national poet of Tamil Nadu". His virulently anti-British writings in New India and Swadesamitran attracted the attention of the government which issued a warrant for his arrest forcing hm to flee to the French territory of Pondicherry.
Chidambaram Pillai (VOC) founded the first Indian- owned shipping company in British India, the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company to challenge British monopoly over shipping. From the beginning, the company had to deal with the hostility and bias of British administrators and competitors. Eventually, the company was liquidated and Pillai thrown in jail.
V. V. S. Aiyar, an associate of V. D. Savarkar, joined the India House and participated in the Hindu–German Conspiracy. In 1911, one of Aiyar's associates, Vanchinathan shot dead General Ashe, the District Collector of Trichinopoly. Vanchinathan, later, shot himself to evade arrest.
Extremist activities in Tamil Nadu reached a climax during the First World War. The British theosophist Annie Besant who had been campaigning for social reforms and increased rights and privileges for native Indians, launched the Home Rule League in 1915, in order to pressurise the British government to grant self-rule to India. She was put under house-arrest on the orders of the Governor of Madras Lord Pentland and was released only after a long protracted legal battle waged by Sir S. Subramania Iyer and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The Rowlatt Act and subsequent Jallianwala Bagh massacre provoked outrage in the Tamil-speaking districts of Madras Presidency. S. Subramania Iyer returned his knighthood and S. Srinivasa Iyengar, his CIE.
The Montague-Chelmsford reforms of 1919 introduced a dyarchical system of governance in all the three Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay and Madras. As per the new reforms, elections were held in the Madras Presidency in November 1920. In the absence of any contest from the Indian National Congress which had decided to boycott the elections, the Justice Party, an organisation with pro-British leanings, was elected unopposed and formed the government in the province. A. Subbarayalu Reddiar served as Premier for a short term and was succeeded by Sir P. Ramarayaningar. The formulation of a policy of caste-based communal reservations in 1921 appears to be one of the highlights of his tenure. During the 1923 elections, the Justice Party split into two factions – the Constitutionalists and Ministerialists. In the very same year, the Indian National Congress, itself, split into two with a group of "No-Changers" who claimed the right to use its name in favour of non-participation in the government and another faction called the "Swaraj Party" which was in favour of council entry. The Swaraj Party under S. Srinivasa Iyengar emerged as the single-largest party in the 1926 elections. However, the Swaraj Party refused to form the government prompting the governor Lord Goschen to install a regional aristocrat P. Subbarayan as the Premier and nominate members of his own choice to the council to support him. However, the government was beset with problems from the very beginning as both the Swaraj Party as well as the Justice Party tried to topple it.
The Simon Commission arrived in India in the year 1928 to make field investigations into the working of the Montague-Chelmsford reforms. The Indian National Congress and the Swaraj Party as well as the Justice Party, in the initial stages, decided to boycott the commission as there was not a single Indian in it. A motion was put forth in both the houses of the Madras legislature boycotting the commission and was passed with absolute majority. But the Premier P. Subbarayan opposed the motion and prepared to welcome the commission prompting both of his ministers A. Ranganatha Mudaliar and R. N. Arogysamy Mudaliar to resign in protest. The Governor intervened to appoint S. Muthiah Mudaliar and M. R. Sethuratnam Iyer as ministers in place of the resigned members of the cabinet and appointed Sir M. Krishnan Nair, an important leader of the Justice Party, to his executive council, in order to enlist the support of its members. The motion was eventually defeated and the Simon Commission was accorded a warm welcome amidst cries of foulplay by the Swaraj Party.
The Justice Party was voted back to power in the 1930 elections and B. Munuswamy Naidu served as Premier for a short term before being succeeded by the Raja of Bobbili. However, the economic conditions under the Great Depression combined with anti-incumbency and rising corruption in the Justice Party ranks resulted in its defeat in the 1934 elections. However, Justice Party was returned to power as the Swaraj Party, the single largest party, refused to form the government. However, by 1937, things had changed and a united and rejuvenated Indian National Congress participating in the elections for the first time held under the Government of India Act 1935 registered a famous win and a near-complete rout for the Justice Party.
Presidency College is an art, commerce, and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. On 16 October 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School before being repurposed as a high school, and then a graduate college. The Presidency College is one of the oldest government arts colleges in India. It is one of two Presidency Colleges established by the British in India, the other being the Presidency College, Kolkata.
The Polygar Wars or Palaiyakkarar Wars were wars fought between the Polygars (Palaiyakkarars) of the former Tirunelveli Kingdom in Tamil Nadu, India and the British East India Company forces between March 1799 to May 1802 or July 1805. The British finally won after carrying out gruelling protracted jungle campaigns against the Polygar armies. Many people died on both sides and the victory over the Polygars brought large parts of the territories of Tamil Nadu under British control, enabling them to get a strong hold in Southern India.
The Justice Party, officially the South Indian Liberal Federation, was a political party in the Madras Presidency of British India. It was established on 20 November 1916 in Victoria Public Hall in Madras by Dr C. Natesa Mudaliar and co-founded by T. M. Nair, P. Theagaraya Chetty and Alamelu Mangai Thayarammal as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency. Communal division between Brahmins and non-Brahmins began in the presidency during the late-19th and early-20th century, mainly due to caste prejudices and disproportionate Brahminical representation in government jobs. The Justice Party's foundation marked the culmination of several efforts to establish an organisation to represent the non-Brahmins in Madras and is seen as the start of the Dravidian Movement.
Seshadri Srinivasa Iyengar CIE, also seen as Sreenivasa Iyengar and Srinivasa Ayyangar, was an Indian lawyer, freedom-fighter and politician from the Indian National Congress. Iyengar was the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1916 to 1920. He also served as a member of the bar council from 1912 to 1920, the law member of Madras Presidency from 1916 to 1920 and as the president of the madras province Swarajya Party faction of the Indian National Congress from 1923 to 1930. Srinivasa Iyengar was the son-in-law of renowned lawyer and first Indian Advocate-general of Madras, Sir Vembaukum Bhashyam Aiyangar. Iyengar's followers called him Lion of the South.
Veerapandiya Kattabomman was an 18th-century Palayakarrar and king of Panchalankurichi in Tamil Nadu, India. He fought the British East India Company and was captured by the British with the help of the ruler of the kingdom of Pudukottai, Vijaya Raghunatha Tondaiman, and at the age of 39 he was hanged at Kayathar on 16 October 1799.
Raja Sir Panaganti RamarayaningarKCIE, also known as the Raja of Panagal, was a zamindar of Kalahasti, a Justice Party leader and the First Minister of Madras Presidency from 11 July 1921 to 3 December 1926.
Palaiyakkarars, or Poligar, Palegara in Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the holders of a small kingdom as a feudatory to a greater sovereign. Under this system, palayam was given for valuable military services rendered by any individual. The word pālayam means domain, a military camp, or a small kingdom. This type of Palayakkarars system was in practice during the rule of Pratapa Rudhra of Warangal in the Kakatiya kingdom. The system was put in place in Tamil Nadu by Viswanatha Nayak, when he became the Nayak ruler of Madurai in 1529, with the support of his minister Ariyanathar. Traditionally there were supposed to be 72 Palayakkarars. The majority of those Palaiyakkarar, who during the late 17th- and 18th-centuries controlled much of the Telugu region as well as the Tamil area, had themselves come from the Kallar, Maravar and Vatuka communities.
SirArcot Ramasamy Mudaliar was an Indian lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who was the first president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council and the 24th and last dewan of Mysore. He also served as a senior leader of the Justice Party and in various administrative and bureaucratic posts in pre- and Independent India. He was a prominent orator and was known for his inspiring speeches.
Gazulu Lakshminarasu ChettyCSI was an Indian merchant and political activist who founded the Madras Native Association, one of the earliest Indian political associations, and the first Indian-owned newspaper in Madras, The Crescent. He was also the second Indian to be appointed a member of the Madras Legislative Council, succeeding V. Sadagopacharlu on his death. Lakshminarasu Chetty was born in 1806 to a wealthy indigo merchant Sidhulu Chetty in Madras. On completion of his initial education, Chetty entered the family trade and succeeded as a businessman. He entered politics and devoted money for social and philanthropic causes.
Dr. C. Natesa Mudaliar (1875–1937), also known as Natesan, was an Indian politician and activist of the Dravidian Movement from what is now the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was one of the founders of the Justice Party, along with P. Theagaraya Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair. He is often mentioned as Dravida Thanthai.
Madras Presidency was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, Madras Presidency included much of southern India, including the present-day Indian State of Tamil Nadu, the Malabar region of North Kerala, Lakshadweep Islands, the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, Undivided Koraput and Ganjam districts of Orissa and the Bellary, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi districts of Karnataka. The presidency had its capital at Madras.
The first legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act 1919, was held in November 1920. Indian National Congress boycotted the election due to its participation in the Non-cooperation movement. The election occurred during the early stages of non-Brahmin movement and the major issue of the election was anti-Brahminism. Justice party won the election with no significant opposition and A. Subbarayalu Reddiar became the inaugural First Minister of the presidency.
The third legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of dyarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919, was held in November 1926. Justice party lost the election to Swaraj Party. However, as the Swaraja Party refused to form the Government, the Governor of Madras set up an independent government under the leadership of P. Subbarayan and with the support of nominated members.
The second legislative council election to Madras Presidency after the establishment of diarchical system of government by the Government of India Act, 1919 was held in 1923. Voter turnout was higher than the previous election. Swarajists, a breakaway group from Indian National Congress participated in the election. The ruling Justice Party had suffered a split, when a splinter group calling themselves anti-Ministerialists left the party. It won the highest number of seats but fell short of a majority. Nevertheless, Madras Governor Willington invited it to form the government. Incumbent Justice First Minister Panagal Raja was nominated by party leader Theagaraya Chetty to continue as First Minister for a second term. The government survived a no-confidence motion, brought against it on the first day of its tenure by the opposition headed by C. R. Reddy.
The 1921 Buckingham and Carnatic Mills strike was a strike by the workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Madras, India, against the managing company, Binny and Co. The strike, which lasted from June to October 1921, caused severe losses to the Madras economy. It also created a rift in the ruling Justice Party forcing many Dalit leaders to leave.
The Dravidian movement in British India started with the formation of the Justice Party on 20 November 1916 in Victoria Public Hall in Madras by C. Natesa Mudaliar along with T. M. Nair and P. Theagaraya Chetty as a result of a series of non-Brahmin conferences and meetings in the presidency. Communal division between Brahmins and non-Brahmins began in the presidency during the late-19th and early-20th century, mainly due to caste prejudices and disproportionate Brahmins representation in government jobs. The Justice Party's foundation marked the culmination of several efforts to establish an organisation to represent the non-Brahmins in Madras Presidency.
The Mylapore Clique or oligarchy was a small coterie, amounting to a "handful" of politically moderate, elite Brahmins, primarily Tamil Brahmins, many of them noted lawyers, administrators, academics or educators, or industrialists, in the Madras Presidency, who 'wielded almost exclusive influence and patronage in the service and government appointments', 'controlled the flow of resources out of the institutions of the capital' and 'dominated the professional and political life of [the presidency].' Informal and exclusive, it was historically controlled by two extended families, the Vembaukum Iyengars, and the Calamur Viravalli-Chetpet Iyers, and took its name from the luxurious Madras City neighborhood in which many leading members kept mansions. The clique coalesced and began its dominance in the 1880s and 1890s under the headship of Sir V. Bhashyam Aiyangar and Sir S. Subramania Iyer, with R. Raghunatha Rao as a tertiary leader; while some argue that it reached its zenith between 1910 and 1920, others highlight its remarkable successes in ministry and magistracy continuing in the 1920s and 1930s, with Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer as leader.