Searching for George in George Town

Last week, I went to George Town after a substantial hiatus. Walking there, all the time a problem, turns into extra so for me as virtually each nook and cranny is a lesson in historical past. The space can also be, sadly, an ideal occasion of how to not preserve a really heritage precinct. For all that we’re repeatedly advised that we have to look to Singapore as our function mannequin, for my part, it will be Galle in Sri Lanka or George Town in Malaysia that we have to look to for what might be finished with our George Town.

I used to be additionally a lot saddened by the numerous acquainted landmarks that appear to have vanished to make means for tasteless business buildings and excessive rises in an space that may scarcely accommodate any additional congestion. I ponder who’s accountable for giving permissions for such buildings. But then, as a Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation famously advised the High Court of Madras a number of years in the past, 90% of buildings in George Town are in violation of some code or the opposite. So maybe, no one is basically in cost.

The Corporation appears to have added to the chaos in current occasions. For a century and extra, the rear of the Flower Bazaar police station had a triangle with a statue of King George V in its midst. The statue itself was funded by the Govinddoss Chaturbhujadoss household, rich Gujarati magnates of George Town and among the many financiers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills after they had been begun within the 1860s. The statue’s sponsor was Kushaldoss Chaturbhujadoss “on behalf of the residents of Madras.” The sculptor was Sir Bertram Mackennal. Of Australian origin, he was one thing of a specialist on George V memorabilia, designing statues, stamps, and coinage.

The statue was erected right here in 1913, ostensibly to commemorate the coronation of the King Emperor in 1911 within the grand durbar in Delhi and in addition to mark the change of identify from Black to George Town, which was finished in 1905, when as Prince of Wales he visited Madras. A deputation of residents waited upon the Prince, and requested that Black Town be so renamed.

That then is the historical past of the statue. Now, I’m not so bought on the concept of statues commemorating anybody, depart alone colonial rulers and officers. But if we have now determined to retain the statue, we could as nicely give it some area to breathe and allow passersby to try it. That is how the statue was all alongside, although its pedestal was put to quite a lot of not-so-complimentary makes use of. But in the previous few months, some vivid spark within the Corporation determined to place up a collection of retailers throughout the statue. These, regardless of a plaque marking the inauguration of the complicated, appear to have not been allotted to anybody and are all shuttered. The alleys between the retailers are so slender that they’ve turn into handy garbage dumps and open latrines, and the stench is insufferable.

The poorly-designed warren of retailers is for evicted hawkers from the NSC Bose Road footpaths – an ongoing battle because the Nineteen Fifties, with the late Traffic Ramaswami being probably the most memorable crusader. They could by no means serve to rid the world of hawkers, however they’ve managed to utterly conceal previous King George. A courageous foray into the lanes revealed the statue hemmed in and with the King Emperor seemingly craning his neck to get a greater view of the world exterior. The solar has lastly set on the British Empire.

(Sriram V. is a author and historian.)