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VOL. XXIV NO. 6, July 1-15, 2014
The Chandhoks of Chennai – 2
Organising Indian motor sports
by R.V. Rajan

Bharat Indu Chandhok... and seen here with CT after another successful race meet at Sholavaram.

Indu Chandhok, 83 years old, is the second son of Indersain (Madras Musings, June 16th) and the present patriarch of the Chennai-based Chandhok family. A portly old man who is eternally ‘young at heart’, Indu is a multifaceted personality. Apart from carrying on the automobile spare parts business of the family, Indu is better known in Chennai society for his active involvement in several community and voluntary organisations like the Punjab Association, the DAV School, Camp Tonakela, Rotary, Freemasonry and 41 Clubs of India, an association of ex-Round Tablers, whose international President he became.

Indu, however, is best known for his long and enduring contribution to the growth of motor sports in the country. His involvement with motor sports for the last sixty years has rightly earned him the reputation of being the Godfather of Motor Sports in India!

In college, studies did not interest Indu as much as sport. He was an active sportsman right from his schooldays. His interest in cricket led him to start the ‘Youngster‘s Cricket Club’ along with his elder brother, Bharat Bhushan, an engineer who moved to the USA.

Indu’s tryst with motor sports started with his participation in a car rally from Madras to Mahabalipuram in 1955, driving a Triumph Mayflower car. He won the first prize! Since then he has been hooked on to motor sports.

When I asked him the difference between a car rally and car race, he explained, “A car rally is held on public roads from one place to another whereas a car race is held on a specially prepared race track covering several laps.”

Motor sports, which included both rallies and races, first started in Calcutta and then spread to Bangalore before reaching Madras. In the early 1950s, motor sports was a part of the activities of the Automobile Association of India. It was in 1953, during industrialist M.A. Chidambaram’s tenure as Chairman of the Association, that motor sports in Madras was separated from the Association.

In 1954, the Madras Motor Sports Club (MMSC) was registered under the Societies Act. It had C.M. Donner as President, K.Varughese as Hon. Secretary, and K.V. Srinivasan as Hon. Treasurer. The energetic Indu Chandhok was roped in as the Secretary of the Club in 1956, which position he held till 1961.

Indu remembers that the first All India Race Meet was conducted in Madras on February 17, 1959 with M.A. Chidambaram as Race Committee Chairman. The successful meet, which was held at the Sholavaram airstrip, was to become an annual feature, eagerly looked forward to by motor sports enthusiasts not only in India but also from neighbouring countries. Bharat, Indu’s elder brother, undertook the difficult task of mobilising 100 volunteers to help as time-keepers and lap-recorders. There were several other stalwarts who contributed to the success of each event.

Among the many spectators who patronised the sport and was Chief Guest on a couple of occasions was MGR, erstwhile Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Invariably, it was left to Indu to look after him.

“I used to converse in my broken Tamil, while MGR would respond in his pidgin English. It was fun!” says Indu. At the awards function in the evening, when MGR was Chief Guest, he would speak in Tamil and CT (Chidambaram) would translate the speech into English.

Indu Chandhok was to be at the helm of the organising committee for the next 18 years. When I asked Indu why he chose February for the event, he replied, “In the initial years the races were held in December or early January. But the group from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which was an important participant in the race, found it difficult to get to Madras in time, as the ferry service was closed from November to the second week of January. To accommodate the strong contingent from Ceylon, the event was shifted to the first Sunday of February. Since then it has been always held in February!”

Though motor racing in India had become synonymous with Sholavaram, a major problem with the Indian Air Force, which owned land, forced the MMSC to look for alternative arrangements. A search committee with K.V. Srinivasan, Indu Chandhok and a few others identified 300 acres of land at Irungattukottai near Sriperumbudur where a state-of-the-art track was laid and the annual races conducted from 1989. The ‘Panch Pandavas’ – Gopal Madhavan, Jayendra Patel, Anil Bhatia, C. Prabhakar and Indu Chandhok – along with S. Muthukrishnan were responsible for making the racing facility at Irungkattukottai a reality.

The founders of the Club also thought it fit to form a trust to hold all Club properties. With K.V. Srinivasan and Indu Chandhok as founder trustees, three life trustees and six other trustees, the trust was registered in 1987. Indu Chandhok continues as an active Founder Trustee of the Trust even today.

The annual race meet now attracts teams from not only cities in India and the neighbouring countries but also from other countries in the West. To bring fair play to competition, Indu mooted the idea of forming an all-India body called the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India. It had K.V. Srinivasan as the first chairman and Ajaypath Singhania as the President. Suresh Kumar of Calcutta, L.G. Ramamurthy of Coimbatore, A.D. Jayaraman of Bangalore, and Indu Chandhok from Madras were the other signatories to the creation of this body.

“From the word go we decided to have FMSCI set up a separate independent judiciary system, with eminent jurists and lawyers giving their consent to serve. A national appeals tribunal was created to which any disputes could be referred. The post of President was initially rotated between North, South, East and West but this was changed to having a strong working President. It is a pity that the independent body was sidelined by the later Presidents of FMSCI and councillors of the Association became members of the Tribunal.”

Today, apart from guiding the destiny of motor sports in India as the longest surviving trustee, Indu is involved in Wallace Sports and Research Foundation, a joint initiative with his son Vicky Chandhok. WSR helps aspiring motor sports drivers to train and participate in races.

While Indu got out of active racing long ago, his interest in the sports continues because of his son Vicky Chandhok and now his grandson Karun Chandhok, who have made a mark in the world of motor sports. They continue to keep the Chandhok family flag flying high on the race track.

(To be continued)

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In this issue

Let's celebrate Madras 375
Madras Landmarks - 50 years ago
How long will these banner-free days last?
Save the City's beaches from project planners
The Love Song remembered
The Wisdom of a preface
The romance of the postcard
Vignettes of Chennai
Organising Indian motor sports

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