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The Chennai should bring down the height of the wall of the old Elphinstone Bridge adjacent to Thiru Vi Ka Bridge across the Adyar River to enable motorists and pedestrians to fully savour the Adyar Creek, the estuary and the Bay of Bengal. Indeed, the view from Thiru Vi Ka Bridge of the early morning sun slowly rising above the sea is spectacular. These are God’s gifts to Chennai and I think the Corporation should decrease the height of the wall so that passers-by could catch a glimpse of the river, the creek and the sea.
The Corporation should also reduce the height of the walkway on the bridge; it is too steep for pedestrians to negotiate.
It seems the Corporation has plans to raise the height of parapet walls of the new bridge to prevent suicides. Is the cash-strapped Corporation going to build similar walls along all the 262 bridges and 13 grade separators it maintains in the city?
People wanting to commit suicide can scale any wall. Let this not be an excuse for the authorities to build walls. Railings can be fixed instead, as are in place on the western side of the Adyar bridge.
Kangayam R. Narasimhan
Gandhi Nagar
(from Adyar Times)
Church history
Further to my earlier notings on ‘Mylapore Modaliar’ (MM, April 1st), here are a few snippets of history of a predecessor of Tane Modaliar.
Prof. George Moraes, a noted authority on the early history of Christianity in India, provides certain fascinating information relating to the antiquity of Christianity in “Meliapor”. His research on this subject (1952-1964) makes a reference to one Abidara Modeliar.
Prof. Moraes quotes from one of the three copper plates originally found in the possession of a Portuguese priest, Fr. Pentado (1552). The second plate (in translation) mentions that “when 1259 years of the era had passed” (i.e. AD 1337) Abidara Modeliar was granted alms for his church and lands as listed, by Bocaraja (Bukka) or his representative based in Chandegiri (Chandragiri). The following places are noted in the copper plate: Paliarkota, Cotur, Palepate, Frivanor, Urur, Cateparede, Catetangul and Perogum Rey as well as a river on the south and on another side the sea separating Meliapor. The geographers of Madras should do some home-work on these sites.
Cotur and the river on the south are easily identifiable. Erosion of the coast was said to have caused depopulation. Most significantly, the ruler was mentioned to have sworn in all the benefits accruing from the grants to Abidara Modeliar so that his church may have them and possess them forever from before a temple called Ampisiviri. It was undoubtedly a perfect secular gesture of the Vijayanagar overlords. But where was this temple situated about seven centuries ago?
To cut a long story short, the association of Mylapore with Apostle Thomas has been well-known for a long time. Reliable early documents have always averred that the Apostle Thomas was commemorated in Mylapore. Most of the remains and bone relics of Apostle Thomas were removed from Mylapore to Edessa (in northern Syria on the Armenian border) in A.D 394. Even long after this time, the united complex which housed the original tomb, church and a monastery was continued to be identified as a “Mausoleum” or Madrastha or Madrasth in Syriac language. Several West Asian Christian records have consistently maintained this tradition. An Indian chronicler, Henry d’ Souza (1972) and a Dutch scholar Martin Gielen (1985) have suggested the derivation of the present-day name Madras to the existence of this long-venerated site.
We may well concur with the following observation made (1984) by an internationally renowned church historian (also extremely familiar with India) Bishop Stephen Neill on Mylapore.
“It is probable that a part at least of the indigenous element in the Indian Church belonged originally not to Kerala but ... the tradition associating St. Thomas with Mylapore suggests that the first Christianisation of that area goes back to very early times.”
Rev. Philip K. Mulley
Anaihatti Road
Kotagiri 643 217, The Nilgiris
Dog menace
The stray dog menace Besant Nagar is increasing daily and has now reached alarming proportions. Groups of stray dogs can be seen near every dustbin searching for food. They constantly attack each other.
It is difficult for senior citizens and little children to walk in Besant Nagar. Sometimes these dogs chase little children who run when they see the dogs.
Citizens took up the matter with the Corporation officials who stated (on the assurance that their names would not be mentioned) that they are unable to take any action for they are scared of animal rights activists.
All of us are aware of rabies and how dangerous a dog’s bite can be. Animal rights activists are also human beings with little children. It is quite possible that they or their children could also be bitten by these stray dogs.
It is high time the Corporation vaccinated these dogs and rehabilitated them elsewhere. We do not have to wait for the dogs to bite people before taking action.
Prof. V. Chandrasekhar
B 12/4, 25th Cross Street
Besant Nagar, Chennai 600 090
Arch separatist turned integrator
With reference to R.V. Rajan’s review of the book on Sir C.P. (MM, May 1st), here’s an extract from my reminiscences Fading Footprints soon to be published:
The National Integration Council in its very first session in January 1962, at Nehru’s instance, set up three committees to study and make recommendations on issues which were regarded as of paramount concern for the healthy growth of Indian democracy and the emotional integration of the polyglot polity. Nehru was clear as to what those issues were: Combating communalism, countering regionalist and fissiparous tendencies, and harnessing mass media to these ends.
I was sitting behind Nehru when he looked around the Vigyan Bhavan conference hall at the dignitaries (who included colossi such as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussein, Vikram Sarabhai and other names to conjure with) and himself picked the chairpersons and members of the committees one by one. He made Asoka Mehta the chairperson of the committee on national integration and communalism with A.B.Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, E.M.S. Namboodripad, Prof, Mujeeb and a couple of others as members. He had no difficulty in choosing Prithvi Raj Kapoor as the chairperson of the committee on mass media with prominent media and film personalities as members. (Incidentally, mark the fact that as early as 1961 Nehru had the farsightedness to put mass media at the centre-stage as an important means of forging a sense of identity as Indians.)
Whom to make the chairperson of the committee to study and recommend measures to deal with regional and separatist movements? With his spectacles hanging precariously at the tip of his nose and an impish smile playing on his lips, and with an exquisite sense of irony, Nehru looked at C.P. Ramaswami Aiyer, and ever so sweetly, asked: “Ramaswami, why don’t you chair the committee? You are the fittest person I can think of!” Was it my fancy or was it a fact I cannot tell: There was a giant sucking sound with which this choice was greeted and no wonder.
Someone like CP in today’s political culture would have been hounded out of public life, if not physically eliminated. At the minimum he should have been harassed by employing the power of the State in every conceivable manner to crush him. For, he was widely perceived to have worked against the freedom movement by overt and covert means and ratted on the freedom heroes. He also moved earth and heaven for the continuance of British Rule, even to the extent of goading the Chamber of Princes to declare the independence of the princely States. Every schoolboy knew that CP himself led the pack by proclaiming that Travancore would stand forth as an independent entity when the British quit India. I remember asking Lal Bahadur Shastri about the induction of this staunch separatist into a Council meant to work for integration. Shastri replied: “Nehru strongly believes that the most vital pre-requisite to national integration is emotional integration which is not possible unless present and erstwhile opponents on the political plane were also integrated into his effort.”
However that be, plainly startled by Nehru’s question, CP squirmed in his seat and looked around perhaps to see whether Nehru meant him or somebody else. To his embarrassment, Nehru repeated his suggestion to which CP quietly submitted. Nehru took particular care to include in this committee headed by CP political heavyweights such as Y.B. Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Biju Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa, B.P. Chaliha, Chief Minister of Assam and K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of Madras.
Asoka Mehta also was brought in as a member to provide a linkage with his communalism committee.
I serviced all the three committees. When the Chinese invasion of November 1962 took place, the nation rose like one person and the emotional upsurge misled the committees on communalism and mass media into believing that integration had become a reality. They decided to wind up their half-finished task. CP took a more down-to-earth and realistic stand. He wanted to take advantage of the upsurge by performing a coup de grace to preserve India’s unity. He called me to his side and asked me to prepare, in consultation with the Law Ministry, a note proposing an amendment to the Constitution whereby all candidates for elections at all levels, all members elected to representative bodies and all Constitutional functionaries would be required to take an oath to uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
We took it to Nehru to whom CP explained that this deceptively simple amendment would, in effect, outlaw any party or its candidates or its elected members or any Constitutional functionary refusing to take the prescribed oath and thus would serve as a potent antidote against separatist and secessionist tendencies. Nehru immediately saw the point and approved it and the amendment was incorporated in the Constitution. Almost overnight, contrary to the Cassandras (including myself) who thought the DMK would scorch the earth if the amendment was passed, its supremo, C.N. Annadurai, in a spectacular act of statesmanship, prevailed upon his party to delete the demand for an independent Dravida Nadu from its constitution and ordered the candidates and elected representatives of the party to take the oath and live up to it – which they are doing to this day.
This, then, was the lasting bequest of CP, the erstwhile arch separatist who turned integrator, to Indian democracy.
B.S. Raghavan
bahukutumbi@gmail.com
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