Fort St. George, India

For other uses, see Fort St George (disambiguation).

Fort St. George
Part of Tamil Nadu
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Fort St. George, the seat of Government of Tamil Nadu
Fort St. George
Coordinates
Type	Forts
Site information
Controlled by	Government of Tamil Nadu
Condition	Good
Site history
Built	1644
Built by	British East India Company
Garrison information
Occupants	Tamil Nadu legislative assembly–Secretariat

File:Plan de Madras pris par les Francais en 1746.jpg

Plan of Fort St. George made during the French occupation of 1746-1749

An 18th-century sketch of the fort

File:Fort St. George.jpg

Corner of Fort St. George with cathedral, ca.1905

Fort St George (or historically, White Town) is the name of the first English (later British) fortress in India, founded in 1644 at the coastal city of Madras, the modern city of Chennai. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further settlements and trading activity, in what was originally an uninhabited land. Thus, it is a feasible contention to say that the city evolved around the fortress. The fort currently houses the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and other official buildings. The fort is one of the 163 notified areas (megalithic sites) in the state of Tamil Nadu.

History

File:Fort St George Madras 1858.jpg

Fort St George in 1858

File:In the Fort, Madras (MacLeod, p.124, 1871) - Copy.jpg

In the Fort, Madras (MacLeod, p.124, 1871)

The East India Company, which had entered India around 1600 for trading activities, had begun licensed trading at Surat, which was its initial bastion. However, to secure its trade lines and commercial interests in the spice trade, it felt the necessity of a port closer to the Malaccan Straits, and succeeded in purchasing a piece of coastal land, originally called Chennirayarpattinam or Channapatnam, from a Vijayanagar chieftain named Damerla Chennappa Nayaka based in Chandragiri, where the Company began the construction of a harbour and a fort. The fort was completed on 23 April 1644, coinciding with St George's Day, celebrated in honour of the patron saint of England. The fort, hence christened Fort St George, faced the sea and some fishing villages, and it soon became the hub of merchant activity. It gave birth to a new settlement area called George Town (historically referred to as Black Town), which grew to envelop the villages and led to the formation of the city of Madras. It also helped to establish English influence over the Carnatic and to keep the kings of Arcot and Srirangapatna, as well as the French forces based at Pondicherry, at bay.

The Fort is a stronghold with six-meter high walls that withstood a number of assaults in the 18th century. It briefly passed into the possession of the French from 1746 to 1749, but was restored to Great Britain under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession.

The Fort now serves as one of the administrative headquarters for the legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu state and it still houses a garrison of troops in transit to various locations at South India and the Andamans. The Fort Museum contains many relics of the Raj era, including portraits of many of the Governors of Madras. The fort is maintained and administered by the Archaeological Survey of India as a ticketed monument.

The church

St. Mary's Church is the oldest Anglican church in India. It was built between 1678 and 1680. The tombstones in its graveyard are the oldest English or British tombstones in India. This ancient prayer house solemnized the marriages of Robert Clive and Governor Elihu Yale, who later became the first benefactor of Yale University in the United States.

Museum

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Victoria memorial hall

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Flag post at Fort St. George

The Fort Museum exhibits many items of the period of English and later British rule. This building was completed in 1795 and first housed the office of the Madras Bank. The hall upstairs was the Public Exchange Hall and served as a place for public meetings, lottery draws and occasional entertainment. These relics are reminders of British rule in India. The objects on display in the museum are the weapons, coins, medals, uniforms and other artifacts from England, Scotland, France and India dating back to the colonial period. Original letters written by Clive and Cornwallis make fascinating reading. One set of quaint period uniforms is displayed for viewing, as well. However, the piece de resistance is a large statue of Lord Cornwallis.

The National Flag of India was designed by Pingali Venkayyaand and adopted in its present form during the meeting of Constituent Assembly held on the 22 July 1947, a few days before India's independence from the British on 15 August, 1947. The first ever flown flag after the independence is stored in 3rd floor of the museum. Public are allowed to see but not to touch or take photographs.

The museum is mentioned in the novel The Museum of Innocence, by Nobel-laureate Orhan Pamuk.

Wellesley House

The first floor of the building includes the Banqueting Hall, which holds paintings of the Governor of the Fort and other high officials of the Regime. The canons of Tipu Sultan decorate the ramparts of the museum. The 14.5 ft statue stands at the entrance near a stairway in the museum. This statue was created by Charles Bank in England to be brought to India. The pedestal of the statue is carved with a scene depicting Tipu Sultan's emissary handing over Tipu's two sons as hostage in lieu of a ransom he was unable to pay to the British. It takes its name from Richard Wellesley, Governor General of India, and brother of the Duke of Wellington.

Flag staff

The flag staff at the fort is the 2nd highest in the country. Made of teakwood, it is 150 feet high.

Namakkal Kavingyar Maaligai

Main article: Namakkal Kavingyar Maaligai

Namakkal Kavingyar Maaligai is a 10-storied building at the campus and is the power centre of state secretariat. It houses offices of the secretaries and departments. Between 2012 and 2014, the building was renovated at ₹ 280 million, with additional facilities like centralized airconditioning and new electrical wiring system.

In recent years

The entire complex is administered by the Department of Defence. The fort building is a three-storied one housing the offices of the chief minister and other ministers, the chief secretary, home ministry, treasury, etc. The remaining offices are housed in the 10-storied Namakkal Kavingyar Maaligai, which houses more than 30 departments.

Fort St George complex housed the administrative buildings of the Government of Tamil Nadu till March 2010. The Legislature of Tamil Nadu and the secretariat (with headquarters of various government departments) was situated in the fort. The fort itself was open to the public however only to a certain area. The main building or the secretariat was open only to government officials and the police. The cannons and the moat which guarded this old building have been left untouched. In 2010 the legislature and the secretariat moved to a new location and the old assembly complex was converted into a library for the Central Institute of Classical Tamil. Following the 2011 assembly elections and the return of J Jayalalithaa as the Chief Minister of the State, the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the Secretariat have been restored to Fort St George.

Other monuments

An arch commemorating the diamond jubilee of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly is under construction near the Fort on Rajaji Salai close to Napier Bridge. The structure is a replica of Fort St. George's façade. The arch will be rectangular in structure with a height of 41 feet and 80 metres width being built at a cost of ₹ 13.3 million. The structure will be a mix of old and modern architecture, inspired by the frontage of Fort St. George. The legend 'Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly diamond jubilee commemorative arch' would be inscribed in English and Tamil, in addition to the words '60 years'. The chief minister J. Jayalalitha laid the foundation stone for the arch on 30 October 2012. Earlier, the arch was planned to be constructed close to the entrance of Fort St. George, but was later relocated beyond the prohibitive zone following the objections of archaeologists. A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Madras High Court opposing the move stating that the arch would choke Rajaji Salai that leads to the High Court. However, the petition was dismissed by a division bench on 9 January 2013.

See also

• History of Chennai
• Tamil Nadu legislative assembly-secretariat complex
• List of Tamil Nadu Government Estates, Complexes, Buildings and Structures
• Heritage structures in Chennai

External links

• Paintings of Fort St George
• The University of Houston Digital Library has a collection of historical photographs from the magazine, India Illustrated. View this collection at the University of Houston Digital Libraries