Mangling Chennai’s street names and distorting history

The regulars at Madras Musings are having a field day discussing the latest name change announcements of the Government. Is it necessary? ask many. Some argue that it is all an eyewash with no change at the ground level as far as attitudes to caste are concerned. I subscribe to that theory and believe that even the removal of caste suffixes in the 1980s served only to erase history. Dr. B. Narasimham, in my view, is not the same person as B. N. Reddy. Street name changes are cosmetic at best.

A Case of Three Spellings for same Street Name

But it was Ramesh C. Kumar who sent in what, in my view, would be a prize-winning response. What is the purpose of renaming streets, he asked, when even existing street names cannot be printed properly on signboards by the Corporation?

He cites Rajachar Street in T. Nagar as an example. It is spelt in three different ways on the Corporation’s signboards at three intersections, he writes — Rajachar, Rajachari, and, worst of all, Raja Sir! All three signboards were made at the same time, as can be seen from the attached photographs. This is despite the earlier painted wall signs still surviving — and all of them correct.

The signboard of Rajachar Street in T. Nagar put up by Chennai Corporation at the intersection with Hanumanthan Road | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Uncovering the Rajachar behind the Street Name

After chuckling over this email (what else can we do?), I appealed to Karthik Bhatt, who immediately came up with who the person behind the street name was. S. N. V. Rajachar was his name, and he was from Coimbatore. Born in 1869, he studied at the Madras Christian College and joined Government service as a clerk in the Nellore Collectorate. From there, he rose rapidly, becoming in 1917 a Presidency Magistrate in Madras — a position he held till 1920. He also acted as the Chief Presidency Magistrate for a while.

Awarded the title of Rao Sahib in 1921 and Rao Bahadur in 1922, he was made Dewan of the Venkatagiri estate and later served as Collector, South Kanara, and Additional District Magistrate, Thanjavur. In 1925, he became Dewan of Bobbili. Retiring in 1929, he passed away in 1935.

Karthik then added that I was clearly not the sharp man I once was — for how could I forget that I had a photo of the man in the Illustrated Souvenir of the Indian Officers’ Association, 1925? So, I went hunting for that volume and soon ran Rajachar to the ground.

The Risk of Erasing the Real Person by changing Street Name

If we are to go by the latest decision of the Government, this road will soon be either Raja Sir (no caste here, only a colonial title) or plain Raja Street. If the former, it will commemorate either Raja Sir Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliar or Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar. Apparently, Music Director Ilaiyaraja is not far off — and so that may soon be given as the reason if the latter version is adopted. The tragedy is that the real person commemorated is forgotten.

Why Rajachar Street Exists

Why is he commemorated in T. Nagar? That great housing colony — and present-day urban nightmare — was, if you recollect, developed in the 1920s. Most of the Justice Party leaders were commemorated in road names there, and then, in a move that would be unthinkable today, several civil servants too were honoured — almost all of them living.

Presidency Magistrates were included as well. For instance, Lodi Khan Street in T. Nagar commemorates P. Muhiuddin Khan Lodi, who was Third Presidency Magistrate, while Rajachar was the Fourth, between 1917 and 1920. He is now Lodi Khan and would not recognize his name if he were to return.