Reliving a revolution: The impact of Industrial Revolution on Madras – The New Indian Express

Chennai News

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century brings to mind a number of images the steam engine for one, huge factories, mills, assembly lines, labour unions and so on. The Industrial Revolution was crucial to the emergence of the modern city as we now know it, and Chennai, in its former avatar as Madras, was no exception.

But in what ways did industrialisation change the destiny of this coastal city? Elaborating on this was Thirupurasundari Sevvel of Nam Veedu, Nam Oor, Nam Kadhai, in a webinar held for the students of VSparc School of Architecture, Vellore.

The presentation, with an extended discussion on The Making of the Madras Working Class, a book by Dilip Veeraraghavan, and State intervention in industrialisation: A case study of the Madras Presidency, a research paper by Padmini Swaminathan, was put together by Thirupurasundari and Prasanna S, in order to teach students how to approach things from a people-centric perspective.

And so the presentation charted the history of Madras from 1890-1970, the years during which it responded to changing world trends and reinvented itself as an industrial hub.

How did mass production, a by-product of industrialisation, affect consumer habits? Thirupurasundari took the example of the headset which, 25 years back, would have been a luxury commodity, but is now a fairly commonplace device. When they were simplified in design and produced en masse for the market, they began to be more affordable to the point where they are now being sold on street corners for prices as low as `25, she explained to the students.

Madras goes industrial
Inventions like the cotton gin in 1794, the sewing machine in 1846 and the typewriter to name a few in the 1870s were crucial devices that strengthened Britain’s hold over its colonies, Thirupurasundari said, especially in a country like India that had a long tradition of artisanal textile production.

“Three things were crucial to the transformation of Madras into an industrialised city the aluminium industry, chrome tanning the Chromepet neighbourhood derives its name from this industry and the textile industry,” she said.

The other contributor to Madras’ brush with industrialisation came from an unlikely source — the College of Fine Arts.

“The College had a huge impact in those days; on the one hand, they taught pottery, visual arts and sculptural sciences, but there was one department that became very well known, the Department of Industries. Alfred Chatterton, who headed the department from 1890 to 1915, pitched the idea that the colonial government could, in collaboration with the department, identify lucrative areas for mass production,” she added.

And so was born an industry that produced aluminium vessels, and the Madras checks, formerly a handloom product, were now a global commodity, the profits of which filled European pockets.

The trade fair
Another major gamechanger was Independent India’s first international trade fair, held in 1968, to showcase India’s prowess in industrial development. The India International Trade Fair was held in what was then West Madras, and had stalls from different countries. Until then, Thirupurasundari emphasised, this part of the city was rather underdeveloped and relegated as a suburb, until the fair turned it into an attractive destination. Now rechristened Anna Nagar, it is one of the most posh localities in the city.

While the fair has been all but erased from public memory, there are remnants like the  Punchsheel Tower (later renamed Visweswaraya Tower and then Anna Nagar Tower). “Many of the buildings erected for the fair were not even temporary structures they were built using concrete and cement, which meant they were intended to be permanent. Some of them, like the Kerala pavilion and a mural relief sculpture, still remain as a reminder,” Thirupurasundari said.

Though the fair was moved to New Delhi for subsequent editions, it remained crucial to Madras in that it introduced the city to newer consumer habits that were unknown previously, one of them being drinking from paper cups.

A habit that seems all too common today, she said, was met with some suspicion upon the first encounter. Thirupurasundari also pointed out an article that appeared in Vikatan in 1968 that reported how the fair “pumped” various new products into the local market.

Concluding the presentation, Thirupurasunari took time to thank Prasanna whose research into industrialisation and its impact on artisans provided her with vital inputs. She also made special mention of faculty coordinator Selva Ziona B, who organised the webinar.

Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiigFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdpbmRpYW5leHByZXNzLmNvbS9jaXRpZXMvY2hlbm5haS8yMDIyL25vdi8wMy9yZWxpdmluZy1hLXJldm9sdXRpb24tdGhlLWltcGFjdC1vZmluZHVzdHJpYWwtcmV2b2x1dGlvbm9uLW1hZHJhcy0yNTE0MjY3Lmh0bWzSAYkBaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3aW5kaWFuZXhwcmVzcy5jb20vY2l0aWVzL2NoZW5uYWkvMjAyMi9ub3YvMDMvcmVsaXZpbmctYS1yZXZvbHV0aW9uLXRoZS1pbXBhY3Qtb2ZpbmR1c3RyaWFsLXJldm9sdXRpb25vbi1tYWRyYXMtMjUxNDI2Ny5hbXA?oc=5