It was a #TIL moment for me. For years, I had passed by ARK Colony, a cul-de-sac off Eldams Road, and always wondered what those initials stood for. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I got to know recently that they expanded to Anantharamakrishnan. Yes, S. Anantharamakrishnan, the founder of Amalgamations, that great engineering conglomerate, has a space in the city named after him.
Anantharamakrishnan – The Visionary Behind Amalgamations
It was S. Muthiah’s Getting India on the Move: The 150-year Saga of Simpsons of Madras that brought to light much of the good work done by Anantharamakrishnan—or ‘J’ as he was fondly known within the group. What never fails to stun me are two things. The first is the brilliant choice of the name Amalgamations, for a group that in its early years came together by acquiring several companies. You simply can’t beat that kind of branding—it says it all.
The second is J’s faith, as early as 1949, that India would one day rise as an automotive giant. Spurred by that belief, he set up India Pistons Limited, the country’s first automotive component manufacturer—at a time when not a single car was made in India!
From Baobab to ARK Colony
The transport operators of the time were greatly beholden to J, and many venerated him. One such person was Venugopala Mudaliar, who lived in a large house off Eldams Road. The land was once part of the 13-acre estate known as the Baobab, erstwhile residence of John Bruce Norton, Advocate General of Madras in the 19th century, and later that of P. Chentsal Rao, MLC. Over time, the estate was divided, and its portions had equally illustrious residents — among them Sir C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar and Sir Mohammed Usman. When Venugopala Mudaliar developed his land into a residential enclave, he named it S. Anantharamakrishna Iyer Colony. Over time, this was truncated to ARK Colony.
A plaque inside the compound still carries the full name. This, I think, remains the only public marker for J — the man who set Madras off on its journey to becoming an auto major.
There is also a statue of him inside Huzur Gardens, Sembium, in front of the India Pistons plant.
Roads Named After Madras Industrialists other than Anantharamakrishnan
That led me to wonder — which other industrialists of Madras have roads named after them? There is TS Krishna Nagar in Mogappair, remembering one of the four TVS brothers. Ganapati Colony in Gopalapuram commemorates T.R. Ganapathy Iyer, founder of the Rane Group. I assume Arunachalam Road in Kotturpuram honours A.M.M. Arunachalam, while Murugappa Road commemorates his father Dewan Bahadur A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar and older brother A.M.M. Murugappa.
Though remembered more for his philanthropy, it’s worth recalling that K.V. Al. Rm. Alagappa Chettiar, commemorated in Purasawalkam, was also an industrialist. Raja Sir Annamalai and his son Raja Sir Muthiah of the Chettinad Group have roads named after them too. The former even lends his name to R.A. Puram, while his second son Ramanathan is remembered through M(ayor) R(amanathan) C(hettiar) Nagar.
The IOB enclave near Loyola College is called Chidambaram Gardens, named after M.Ct.M. Chidambaram Chettyar, founder of the Indian Overseas Bank.
A Case for Recognition
In its latest renaming spree, the government would do well to include a few more industrialists in its list — those who built not just businesses, but the very foundations of modern Madras.
This article appeared in The Hindu-https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/in-memory-of-a-pioneering-industrialist-of-madras/article70164268.ece#google_vignette
My book, Chennai, A Biography can be ordered–http://- https://sriramv.com/2021/12/27/how-to-buy-autographed-copies-of-chennai-a-biography-from-outstation/
