MSS Saga Book

Randor Guy

The Madras Seva Sadan

First published in 2008 byThe Madras Seva Sadan

‘Shenstone Park’, No. 7, Harrington Road,Chetput, Chennai - 600 031.

Phone : 2836 3403

Copyright © 2008 The Madras Seva Sadan

All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced

in any form or by any means withoutthe written permission ofThe Madras Seva Sadan.

Photographs: From the archival collection ofN. Vankatnarain Rao and C. Prema Kumar

Designed and printed byHarry MacLure Design Studio, Chennai.

Dedicated to the

revered memory of

Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao

and his soulmate

Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao

with

gratitude, love, affection

and devotion from


and

their loved ones.

THE MADRAS S EVA S ADAN SAGA | 5

Foreword

Being one the few who are here today, who had known and baskedin the love of Sir and Lady M.Venkatasubba Rao, I am indeedhonoured to write an introduction to this book which is being releasedon 13th September 2008 to commemorate the 80th Anniversary ofthe Madras Seva Sadan and the 130th Birth Anniversary of SirM.Venkatasubba Rao. It is but fitting that the function will becelebrated at the Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall. TheConcert Hall is an imposing and beautiful structure befitting the nameof the great man in whose memory it has been built. His great grandnephew Mr.C.Krish Kumar has envisaged and worked to make it astate of the art complex.

This book has been put together and authored by Randor Guy andI thank him for having accepted to help us with this endeavour. Along cherished dream which became a reality when we happened tomeet (The Celestine Prophesy-we were ordained to meet!) I alsoacknowledge the invaluable help from my brother, N.VenkatnarainRao–his phenomenal memory, his collection of photos and newspapercuttings, his meetings with Randor Guy, revisions with me, interactingwith the publisher and his dedication to the book project.

Sir Mutha was 82 when he passed away in 1960 and Lady Andalwas 75 when she passed away in 1969. It is impossible to chronicleall that they did,but we have made an attempt to relate some of theevents in their fruitful lives.

‘The heights by greatmen reached and kept,were not attained by sudden flight,But, they while their companions slept,were toiling upward in the night”

– H.W.Longfellow

6 | THE MADRAS SEVA SADAN SAGA

C. Prema Kumar with Sir and Lady M. Venkatasubba Rao.

Sir Mutha was, as several of the most eminent men and womenremarked “One of our finest men and one of our bestjudges.“Unflinching loyalty to ideals and the gift of comradeship maybe regarded as the main attributes of Sir Mutha’s varied anddistinguished career”. “Rao’s judicial career was marked by a completeindependence of outlook and an adherence to the truth as he saw itwhether in respect of facts or of law”, “His long judicial career wasone of the most successful and eventful in Madras legal history”.“He will always be remembered first and foremost as one of thegreatest judges who adorned the Bench of the Madras High Court.He was just a judge!”. “Of his judicial pronouncements,the bar lookedon them as classical expositions of the law and unrivalled analysis ofthe facts” and the list goes on and on.


Sir Mutha adorned many roles and fought for justice all his life.His compassion for his fellow beings was echoed by his beloved LadyAndal and together they mended many hearts and were the authorsof many a rebirth. Innumerable people owed their happiness andlivelihood to them. Even today each of us who loved them dearlycannot speak of them without a tear in our voice, in our hearts andour eyes.

The Venkatasubba Rao’s asked for nothing for themselves, butgave of everything they had and of themselves. I was indeed fortunateto have been born in their home, been loved and nurtured by them, aswere my brothers. I wonder how many people have encountered orenjoyed undemanding selfless love from another ? All who came incontact with the Raos encountered it. It truly amazes me time andtime again of how they could love so many, so completely. There areso many of us who even now swear we were loved the best by them!How did they do it? In almost every home you find sibling rivalry withbrothers and sisters believing that their parents do not love them asmuch as their brother or sister. Whereas with the Raos it was just theopposite! What was and is their magic ? Is that what pure love does? Its more than 47 years since I lost him and almost 39 years since Ilost her-but the void remains.

After the demise of Sir Mutha, my Father (their nephew)Mr.N.V.Rao, began to help his aunt, Lady Andal with the Sadan.After Lady Andal’s demise, my mother Mrs.N.Seetha Rao helpedmy Father. During their tenure they started the Sir M.VenkatasubbaRao School and the Madras Seva Sadan Primary & Nursery Schoolin T.Nagar & Tambaram, respectively, built the Rajamannar Cottagefor the Rehabilitation Centre inmates and a second Working Women’sHostel and made improvements in infrastructure in both the MadrasSeva Sadan Schools at Chetpet and Tambaram. They successfullyran a hostel for boys, affiliated to the school in T.Nagar, as also thefirst batch of the Women’s Wing of the Madras Police was housedand trained in our Campus.

To my good fortune I got a chance in 1976 to take Lady Andal’sposition (not her place, no one can) as the Honorary General Secretary


of the Sadan and I toil on with joy in my heart to be able to look afterwhat they began, worked for and loved.

In recent years the Sadan has seen the advent of the Lady AndalVenkatasubba Rao School, The Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao ConcertHall both housed in imposing buildings, the Golden Jubilee Block, atwo storeyed beautiful building for the Nursery and Primary Schoolat Tambaram, a Swimming Pool “ORCA”, Priyathama ( crèche),Pravarthanalaya ( Women’s empowerment programme), Shanti Sadan(elder’s home), Science blocks and more class rooms for the SevaSadan Schools at Chetpet and Tambaram. A Learning Centre andOccupational Therapy Centre for children with learning disabilities,NIOS, International student exchange programmes and many otherallied activities and most satisfying of them all-scholarships for ourstudents in school and in colleges and help for major surgeries, interestfree loans etc., and lending a helping hand to other N.G.O’s as well.From asking for help to run our Institution we are now in a position togive and that gives me the greatest joy.

It is fitting that the Sir M.Venkatasubba Rao School and the MadrasSeva Sadan Nursery & Primary School Tambaram started by Mr &Mrs.N.V.Rao is now looked after by their son N.Venkatnarain Raoand his wife Mrs.Maria Rao. I am equally happy that the nextgeneration, their daughter Tamara Coelho a gold medalist and qualifiedteacher will follow suit some day soon. I have my husband, C.PratapKumar, my son, C.Krish Kumar, and my daughter, Krithika KumarQuintal, working by my side. And with our 10 other Governing BodyMembers headed by our able and enthusiastic President Mr.D.S.Dalalour Institution will indeed do all it can, to as many as it can, for as longas it can.

C. Prema KumarHony. Gen.Secretary of


1st September 2008


BEFORE YOU SAIL IN...!

There have been many affluent couples in this country and moreso in the city founded by Francis Day, Madras, now called Chennai,but very few of them have thought of those unfortunates who struggleto survive and improve their living standards for a better and purposefulfuture. One of the few couples who lived for such have-nots was theVenkatasubba Raos, Sir Mutha and Lady Andal who devoted theirlives for the uplift of unfortunate girls and young women lost in theturbulent sea of life with no shore in sight. To such have-nots thedevoted couple held out a helping hand and worked as beacons ofkindly light to their lives through the Madras Seva Sadan founded bythem in 1928.

This writer is greatly beholden to his friend and well wisher, C.Prema Kumar, now at the helm of affairs of the Sadan for giving himthe opportunity to do his humble bit with the writing of this book. It isa matter of regret that there has been no documentation of the livesof the greats who have enriched the lives of ordinary people of thecity and this modest book is just an attempt to fill the great void.

Many thanks to N. Venkatnarain Rao, the other members of theMadras Seva Sadan family, and to his friends, and the many formerstudents of the Madras Seva Sadan who spared their valuable time torecall their memories of their two mentors ‘Nayana’( Sir Mutha) and‘Amma’ (Lady Andal).

The writer is also extremely grateful to his good friend Ms. JusticePrabha Sridevan, and the former Chief Justice of the Madras HighCourt, A. N. Shah, for providing him the unlimited facilities to research


in the invaluable Library of the Madras High Court. Mention mustalso be made of his friends like noted lawyers P. N. Prakash, K.Kannan (recently and deservedly elevated to the Bench of the MadrasHigh Court), and Ethirajaiah, lawyer-academician who helped in hisresearch in the Library.

Also to the obliging staff of the Madras High Court Library whowent out of the way and beyond their call of duty in providing the rawmaterial for writing of this book.

Great persons like Sir Mutha and Lady Andal rarely appear on thehorizon, and this book, the writer hopes, perhaps will serve its readersto learn lessons from the lives of the devoted couple. In today’s dog-eat-its own tail- world, such persons are a vanishing breed…

Randor GuyAugust 2008Ayanavaram

Madras (Chennai)

THE MADRAS SEVA SADAN S AGA | 11

THE FOUNDING FATHER…SIR MUTHA VENKATASUBBA RAO

The Madras High Court is one of the three oldest High Courts ofthe country established in the three Presidency Towns, Bombay,Calcutta and Madras during the 19th century, when the British ruledover the country. Ever since its inception, it has shone brightly on thelegal firmament like an unsetting Sun, winning immortal fame andname not only in the legal history of India but also elsewhere acrossthe high seas. Not many are aware even among lawyers, that whenthe legal legend of the Madras High Court who is permanentlyenshrined in marble inside its stately edifice, Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyerpassed away, the members of the Judicial Committee of the PrivyCouncil in far away London took notice of his sorrowful departure inone of their judgements, paying compliments to his legal acumen andunfathomable knowledge of Hindu Law. Indeed, this is the onlyinstance of its kind in the legal history of the British Empire.

Such is the reputation of the Madras High Court which hasproduced several legal luminaries and icons who continue to inspireto this day, most of whom have left indelible footprints in the sands ofTime. Such legends include many Indian lawyers who practised onthe Original Side of the Madras High Court and were during the earlydecades somewhat unkindly referred to as ‘native vakils’ by the BritishRulers and their followers.

Such legal icons include among others, V. V. Srinivasa Ayyangar,Sir C. V. Kumaraswami Sastriar, Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer, SalemRamaswamy Mudaliar, S. Duraiswami Iyer, and last but not the leastSir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao.


The Founding Father


Most of the eminent and successful lawyers in India, moreparticularly Madras, confined themselves to their profession (Lawhas been described as a jealous mistress!) and excepting a few notmany ventured outside their professional turf. Some sailed into themurky waters of politics, achieving some measure of success, andsome with high ideals and ideas, filled with the fervour of patriotismsacrificed their lives and earnings to fight for the freedom of thecountry. The most outstanding example is Tanguturi PrakasamPanthulu who gave his all for the Cause of the Indian Nation.

Very few of them chose to serve society by sacrificing their wealth,time and more for the uplift of downtrodden women and childrenduring a period when hardly anybody bothered about holding out ahelping hand. The greatest Roman of them all was Sir MuthaVenkatasubba Rao.

With little or no advantages of legal family background or birth, SirMutha relocated from his home town Cuttack (which later in April1934 became part of the newly formed province of Orissa) to Madrasto pursue his studies at the prestigious institutions of Madras ChristianCollege and later Law College.

While at Madras Christian College, which was then situated inGeorge Town area on China Bazaar Road, later Netaji SubhashChandra Bose Road (opposite the Madras High Court- Today on thatsite stands the Bombay Mutual Buildings), he had a classmate withwhom he would travel together up the path to success in his legal life.

Venkatasubba Rao had the privilege of being a student of thecelebrated legendary educationist of Madras, Rev. William Miller, whobuilt up the Madras Christian College School and later College, to behailed as one of the premier institutions of Madras Presidency. Inthose days it was considered as a mark of distinction to have studiedunder him and listen to his teachings. He encouraged extracurricularactivities in his wards and Venkatasubba Rao also proved himself asan athlete in his youth.


Sri M. Venkatasubba Rao (seated left) , as a s tudentin the F.A. Class in the Madras Chris tian College (1894)

with Sri. V. Radhakrishnaiah, his class-mateand friend in the centre and another friend.


(As a tribute to his immortal memory, a statue of Rev. Miller waserected by a grateful public and his students in front of the MadrasHigh Court Buildings.

The Madras Christian College School was later shifted to HarringtonRoad, Chetput, while the College functioned in the sylvan ambianceof Tambaram.

The MCC buildings were later acquired by the Bombay MutualInsurance Corporation, who rebuilt it in keeping with the modern trendof erasing heritage sites of the city!)

From day one they became intimate friends and continued to do sotill the end of their lives. The legendary legal luminary of Madras P.V. Rajamannar wrote, “a friendship which can only be comparedwith such famous instances as Krishna and Arjuna, or David andJonathan”. The friend was Vittaladevuni Radhakrishnayya.

Venkatasubba Rao and Radhakrishnayya were together in collegeand even at that time they found themselves kindred souls, “the typeof those who soar but never roam true to the kindred points of heavenand home” as the famous British poet wrote centuries ago.Venkatasubba Rao was equally brilliant in college and the two friendsalso vied with each other, always in healthy competition to be at thetop of the class, and also at winning prizes and medals.

Radhakrishnayya stood first in the B. L. degree examination, whichmade Venkatasubba happier than the recipient himself. Such wastheir friendship, which continued life long, and even after VenkatasubbaRao became a Judge, Radhakrishnayya continued to practise. Besides,he was also involved in social activities and played a part in the buildingup of the iconic Madras Seva Sadan, founded by Venkatasubba Raoand his beloved wife Lady Andal Rao.

Sir Mutha began his career as a lawyer on the Original Side of theMadras High Court at the bottom rung of the ladder, a very goodplace to start, as the famous song says. A successful lawyer, muchrespected- and even feared- High Court judge and officiating Chief


Justice of the Madras High Court, he wore several hats as socialactivist, friend of the needy and poor, amply assisted and inspired byhis beloved wife Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao. At this juncture itwill be interesting and even necessary to narrate in brief the historyof the Madras High Court, a familiar landmark of the city.


IN RE THE MADRAS HIGH COURT

“The great legacy that the British have left us, a legacy of whicheven the Mahatma, the Father of the Nation, was always proud, happento be judicial institutions. It should be the first and foremost duty ofevery Indian to respect and follow the old judicial traditions in wordand spirit and it is only by so doing that these institutions continued bythe present Indian Constitution can be protected and preserved.” Sowrote the erudite legal scholar and well-known professor ofConstitutional Law, N. Arunachalam in his brilliant essay on JudicialInstitutions, in the sadly out of print legal history classic ‘A CenturyCompleted’ (1862-1962), by the successful lawyer and multifacetedpersonality V. C. Gopalratnam.

The roots of the legal system in India date back to December 31,1600, when Queen Elizabeth I gave a Royal Charter to ‘Governorand Company of Merchants of London Trading to the East Indies’(more familiarly known as the East India Company). This RoyalCharter gave the Governor and the Company the power to makelaws, orders, ordinances, constitutions and establish courts that mightbe necessary for the right and proper governance of the Company.Over the years it also gave powers to saddle offenders withpunishment by imprisonment, fines, and even whipping in some cases.James I renewed the Charter in 1609 giving more powers to theCompany. When Oliver Cromwell took control of the United Kingdom,he granted many Charters between 1649 and 1660 but there is noevidence of such available today. Either they have been lost orsuppressed after the Restoration of Monarchy in England in 1660.

With the Restoration, Charles II became the rightful occupant ofthe English throne and he gave his Charter in 1661. This Charter


Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao – 1921.


Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao,as Judge of the Madras High Court.


gave the Company sweeping powers under which a Council wasformed to try cases, civil, criminal, and others according to the Englishlaw. In 1683 another Charter came into force, which is of considerableimportance because it established “a Court of Judicature” (the firsttime the expression was used) consisting of a person knowledgeablein the civil laws, and two merchants of the Company to help him. In1687 came the East India Company Charter, which gave power tothe Company to establish the Corporation of Madras with a Mayor.Later a Mayor’s Court was established with a Recorder, which hadlimited powers. This later gave way to the Supreme Court of Judicatureestablished in Madras in September 1801 and Sir Thomas Strangewho functioned as the Recorder became Chief Justice.

One of the most memorable personalities of the early legal historyof Madras, Sir Thomas Strange was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, onNovember 30, 1756. The son of Sir Robert Strange, he was educatedat Westminster School and then at Christ Church, Oxford, after whichhe became a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn in 1785. On resigning as ChiefJustice of Nova Scotia and President of the Council, he came toMadras as Recorder where he set up its judicial system. In 1798Strange was knighted, and in 1800 he was elevated as the first ChiefJustice of the Supreme Court of Madras. In 1804, he went to Calcuttawhere he ‘commanded a volunteer battalion and quelled a mutiny’. In1817, Strange resigned as Chief Justice and moved back to England.In 1825, he wrote his pioneering work, ‘Elements of Hindu Law’. Hepassed away in England in 1841.

A man of extraordinary brilliance, his is one of the earliest books inEnglish on Hindu Law. Not familiar with Sanskrit he sought the helpof several Brahmin pundits while at Madras and wrote the book laterin his homeland. An excellent portrait of Sir Thomas Strange adornedthe walls of the Madras Literary Society library on College Road inNungambakkam. This rare work vanished a few years ago and noone knows where it is today.

A series of changes took place over the years, and when QueenVictoria took over Rule of India after the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the


British Parliament passed ‘The Indian High Courts Act of 1861’establishing High Courts at the three Presidency Towns of Bombay,Calcutta, and Madras.

During various periods in the early legal history there was a ‘SadrAdalat’, three chief courts of appeal from courts administering Hinduand Islamic Law for different types of cases. Those were 1) SadrDiwani Adalat: The chief civil court of appeal from courts administeringHindu and Islamic Law. 2) Sadr Faujdari Adalat: Until 1862 the chiefcriminal court of appeal in the Madras and Bombay Presidenciesfrom courts administering Hindu and Islamic Law. 3) Sadr NizamatAdalat: Until 1862, the chief criminal court of appeal in the BengalPresidency from courts administering Hindu and Islamic Law. Thesewere amalgamated in 1862 with the Supreme Courts to form theHigh Courts at the three Presidency Towns.

The Sadr Courts of Madras were situated in a spacious mansionin the Alwarpet area at the western end of Luz Church Road knownas ‘Sudr Gardens’. It still exists on Kasturi Ranga Road of todaywhich was the residence of Mr. Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed,former judge of the Madras High Court.

According to inimitable chronicler V. C. Gopalratnam, there was atree on Mowbray’s Road near the Luz Church Road junction inAlwarpet, which was used to hang prisoners sentenced to death.Known as ‘the Hanging Tree’ more than a fistful of blood-curdlingtales began to circulate around it scaring away folks from visiting thearea after sundown!

Brahmin priests from the nearby Chenna Kesava and ChennaMalleeswara temples would come to the court with ‘Holy Water’and ‘tulasi’ (basil) leaves for solemnization of parties and witnessesgiving evidence in Court. That was the period when even parties to acase had to solemnly declare that they were not filing false cases orclaims!

The current High Court Buildings, architecturally considered thebest in this part of the world, were inaugurated with due pomp and


circumstance on July 12, 1892, by the then Governor of Madras, BaronWenlock. A large gathering of High Court judges, British Barristers,‘native vakils’, officials, and several other dignitaries of the cityattended the grand function. The then Chief Justice of Madras SirArthur Collins received the Governor, along with other judges of theHigh Court, including the lone Indian, the venerable Mr. Justice (laterSir) T. Muthuswami Iyer, and Advocate-General, J. H. Spring Branson,with a 12-gun salute.

A procession of high officials of the Government of Madras andreligious heads of the Christian community passed through the statelyedifice and the British National Anthem was played. It was indeed ahistoric and memorable event. Photography had not yet developed inIndia and regretfully there is no photographic documentation of thememorable event.

In the early decades of the Madras Bar there were three classes.The Barristers, ‘vakils’, and attorneys or solicitors. The third classwas essentially ‘chamber lawyers’ who did not appear in court andconduct cases. They formed firms, most of them being British, andsome of them built up a vast clientele and prospered. Some of thefamed firms included ‘King and Partridge’, and ‘Short, Bewes’. Inlater decades, such legal firms were Indianised or changed hands. InBombay and Calcutta the system of solicitors took roots and continuesto this day but for some reason, it did not happen in Madras.

In the early years, barristers did not take kindly to the presence ofthe local vakils and even looked down on them. It was professionaljealousy with an element of racism thrown in. In the beginning therewere restrictions on local vakils appearing in cases on the OriginalSide of the Madras High Court. During the period and even aftermany decades, Indian lawyers suffered from many restrictions andminus points stacked against them. They were not permitted to appearon the Original Side, which heard cases originating within the citylimits and had several different divisions like Civil, Criminal,Matrimonial, Probate and Testamentary, Insolvency, Maritime andothers.


While a British barrister covered his hair with a wig, the Indianvakil had to compulsorily wear a turban, whether he had a tuft or awestern style ‘crop’. The traditional and orthodox style of ‘veshti’-wearing vakils were not allowed to wear slippers and had to movearound in court barefoot. This prohibition was nothing short of thearrogance and prejudice practised in the British-dominated legalprofession during those days.

Even when the great Sir T. Muthuswami Iyer, as judge sat in hisornate ceremonial chair, he was barefooted. The legendary BarristerEardley Norton who had observed it wrote in his memoirs. “…. WhenMr. Justice Muthuswami Iyer was in the process of mentally analysingthe case before him and coming to a decision, his big toe and othertoes of his feet would keep rubbing against each other. When toe-rubbing ritual stopped it was the signal that the judge had taken adecision and was all set to deliver his judgement”! Some of thesuccessful vakils in the traditional costume wore shoes and socks,which looked rather odd in that style of dress!

Understandably there was much clamour among the vakils and a‘protest movement ‘ surfaced among them which soon led to theabolition of such racist practices. However, some of the senior Indianvakils, especially senior Brahmins followed the practice of being‘barefoot lawyers’ well into the ’50s.

To the surprise and shock of the common person, no Indian vakilcould appear in the Insolvency Division cases of the Original Side.Only Barristers instructed by a solicitor had the privilege. This wasbecause most cases heard were of commercial nature in which oneof the parties could be a Britisher or a business he owned. Such mendid not wish to be facing the eventuality of being cross-examined bya ‘black or brown vakil’!

This prohibition exploded in the sensational Insolvency Court hearingabout the notorious Arbuthnot Bank Fraud Case (1907). As a spin-off Sir George Arbuthnot was sought to be declared an insolvent andthe matter came up for hearing in due course. One of the legal legends


of Madras and one of the founding fathers of what is known as ‘theMylapore Culture’, V. Krishnaswamy Iyer appeared for an Association,the creditor. Objection was raised that as a vakil he had no ‘locusstandi’ to appear in the Insolvency Court. Like in a scene from amovie, Krishnaswamy Iyer astonished the court by removing his blackgown and informing the Court that he was appearing in person ascreditor! This dramatic event is considered as one of the most importanthappenings in the history of the city, which led to the founding of thefamous Indian Bank. Well, that’s another story!

As it often happens in the life of most lawyers, the early years ofSir Mutha’s were a tough and difficult time. There are exceptions likefor geniuses and outstandingly brilliant men. There are some otherswho make it fast, being either sons or sons-in-law of successful lawyers!In England a joke about the legal profession was that an ambitiousyoung barrister with no contacts or background should marry withouthesitation, ‘the ugly daughter of a successful solicitor’!

The Madras High Court consisted of two divisions, the OriginalSide and Appellate Side. The Original Side handled cases that originatedwithin the statutory limits of Madras City with subdivisions like Civil,Criminal, Insolvency, Matrimonial, Testamentary, Maritime and others.The Original Criminal Sessions Court was abolished during mid-1950sfor reasons not clear or valid, and an institution, which witnessedmany classic crimes, was gone with the wind forever. Regarding otherjurisdictions too in recent years there have been some changes.

The Madras High Court Original Side in its Criminal Sessionsjurisdiction enjoyed a historic even glamorous role in deciding caseswhich invariably held public interest like murder, rape, robbery,kidnapping, rioting and such others. These cases were heard by asingle High Court judge, both Indian and British with the help of a juryconsisting of only nine members instead of the proverbial twelvefollowed in the legal systems of several Western countries includingthe United Kingdom, United States of America and in many parts ofthe world.


The Sessions Court in Madras was specially constructed with anunderground passage from the accused’s dock to enable him to bebrought up and taken away under police guard away from the crowdsof the court, thus preventing his friends and associates from kidnappinghim! This court has witnessed many historic cases of crime until mid-1950s when it was abolished. The glittering list is long but mentionmust be made of sensational cases (still talked about, discussed andwritten) like the Lakshmikantham murder case… Alavandar murdercase… Shanmugasundara Gramani murder case… Suryanarayanamurder case. Some of these cases have found their way into televisionserials. All that vanished with a single stroke of the executive of theGovernment during mid-1950s. If only the walls of the court and thedock of the accused and witnesses could speak…!

The Appellate Side as the name implies, hears cases coming up onappeal from the lower courts of the state including the Original Side.Before the Linguistic Reorganization of States in India, the MadrasPresidency occupied almost the entire lower half of South India otherthan the princely states of Mysore, Travancore, Cochin, andPudukottah. After the re-organization of Indian states on linguisticbasis, Madras State shrunk in size and the jurisdiction of the MadrasHigh Court was considerably reduced. Later striking a further noteof linguistic chauvinism, Madras State became Tamil Nadu. With allthese changes virtually thrust on the legal community of the statecapital Madras, the grandeur and glamour and above all, thejurisdictional importance of decades gone by, vanished to the regretof many. The recent establishment of High Court Bench at the ancientand historic temple city Madurai, has further reduced its aura. Alandmark, this historic, stately, Indo-Saracenic edifice continues to bea mute witness to these changes wrought about by politicalconsideration.


THE RISE OF THE ‘NATIVE VAKIL’

During the last decades of the 19th century and the earlier onesof the 20th century British barristers dominated the legal practice onthe Original Side of the Madras High Court. But the native Indianvakil could not and did not take it lying down. Soon local lawyersmade their way giving the British barristers worrisome nights anddisappointing days, many of them built up considerable practice onthe Original Civil Side and some of them shone brightly to becomelegends in their own time, icons thereafter. One of them was C. V.Kumaraswamy Sastriar one of the resplendent gems of Indian lawyersenjoying a successful career as civil lawyer. Not surprisingly perhapsone of his disciples and an apprentice-at-law who first began to drinkdeep at the fountain of legal knowledge was Mutha VenkatasubbaRao, later Sir Mutha.

Sir Mutha’s ‘guru-in-law’ Sir Calamoor Kumaraswamy Sastriarhailed from an illustrious and intellectual family of Madras. Hisgrandfather was a much-respected Chief Interpreter of the SupremeCourt of Madras.

This court was the predecessor of the present High Court, situatedopposite the Madras harbour where the Collectorate of ChennaiDistrict now functions. During that period, the judges who were Britishdid not know the local language, law, or customs especially the thenintricate uncodified Hindu Law. To acquaint them with the local laws,complicated and not easily comprehensible to the foreign mind, thecourt appointed interpreters and learned men or pundits who wouldtranslate the local laws from Sanskrit and other languages. Suchscholars won the respect, regard and affection of the British judges


The leagal innings begin – Radhakrishnaiah on the left withVenkatasubba Rao behind him – the Native India Vakils!


with some of them making their way into the pages of the history ofthe city. One of them was Avadhanam Pauppaiah, after whom aprominent road is named and continues to be unchanged to this day inPurasawalkam. Another such figure was Sir Kumaraswamy Sastriar’sgrandfather. His brilliance won him more rewards and he was thefirst Indian to be appointed as Judge of the Small Causes Court inMadras City. (This court, true to its name heard civil cases of valuenot exceeding Rs five hundred, which of course was big money inbygone centuries.)

Until recently a law graduate wishing to be a lawyer has to undergoa period of ‘apprenticeship’ for one year under a senior lawyer ofstanding and experience for a certain prescribed period.

Known as an apprentice-at-law, he had to be suitably dressed inblack coat and tie which would allow him entry into courts to watchcases being heard. That was not all. He had to enter in a diary notesof cases attended in court, and case papers of his masters studied inhis chamber, and the diary to be submitted for the master’s signatureperiodically.

Besides, he had to take an examination conducted by the BarCouncil and answer papers on some subjects like civil and criminalcourt procedures. After the successful completion of one year’s studyand the Bar Council Examination, he would be qualified to seek hisenrolment as lawyer. The enrolments always took place before theFirst Court presided by the Chief Justice and another judge. As soonas the judge sat in court in the morning, enrolment would be movedwith a senior or legal guru introducing his disciple to the court andseeking approval for the license to practice as lawyer. Such licensewas known as ‘sanad’ (a Persian term and a legacy of the earlier ruleof the Muslim dynasty like the Arcot nawabs). This system gave thefuture lawyer a good grounding in the profession, giving him theopportunity to learn many things by mental osmosis and observation.

Regrettably, this system was abolished for no justifiable reasonsexcept perhaps political and otherwise. Today a law graduate is not


enrolled by the chief justice but before the Bar Council as one of a bigcrowd! Sad perhaps, undermining the dignity of the profession, butthen that is the way the ball bounces in India today.

During those early decades there were only four High Courts inIndia, and lawyers contrary to the situation today, sat and waited incourt for their cases to be called for hearing. No lawyer would eventhink of asking for an adjournment! What a far cry from the situationof today.


THE LEGAL INNINGS BEGINS

After his enrolment as High Court vakil in 1903 July, Sir Mutha setup practice not surprisingly with his bosom friend Radhakrishnayyaas partner. The legal partnership flourished happily, garnering fameand fortune for both until the elevation of Venkatasubba Rao as a‘Puisne’ judge. During that period besides British barristers dominatingthe Original Side, Indian vakils like C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer (later SirC. P.) and V. V. Srinivasa Ayyangar ruled the fort virtually sharing theOriginal Side civil cases.

Writing about the various gifts and facets of Venkatasubba Rao,Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer wrote, “his arguments as a lawyer werelucid and cogent, but never explosive; nor did he indulge in thosefacile arts of rhetoric rodomontade or browbeating- in which some ofhis contemporaries indulged”.

Mr. P. Venkataramana Rao Naidu was a judge of the MadrasHigh Court and also Chief Justice of the Mysore High Court, (his sonwas Dr. P. V. Rajamannar, one of the leading legends of India andperhaps the most eminent jurist of recent times, and of course illustriousChief Justice of the Madras High Court for many a year. His son-in-law was K. Subba Rao who rose high in the Indian legal firmament tobecome the Chief Justice of India, unsuccessfully contested for thepost of the President). He who was closely associated withVenkatasubba Rao said, “he was one of the most clever, careful andthorough-going cross examiners I have ever seen. His presentationof his cases was always clear, neat and orderly. He had a remarkableability in the selection and marshalling of facts. His advocacy wasforceful, dignified and fair”.


Venkatasubba Rao, Rad hakrishnaiahand Contemporaries


One of the well known lawyers of the Original Side and a notedplaywright, stage person and granary of wit and humor, V. C.Gopalratnam who had appeared before Sir Mutha along with his father-in-law legendary lawyer V. V. Srinivasa Ayyangar and also on hisown in many cases before him, described him thus “Sir VenkatasubbaRao believed in a thorough preparation of a case, whether acomplicated suit or an ordinary application in Chambers. Every pinpointof fact having any relevance to the case would have been noted andindexed inexorably in his mind, to be drawn upon whenever necessaryduring the argument or cross examination… Sir Venkatasubba Rao’sadvocacy was steady and continuous. He firmly believed in completinghis sentences… Sir Venkatasubba Rao never raised his voice aboveits even, normal pitch to emphasise any aspect of his speech…”

After he had built up an enormous practice on the Original Side itwas time for him to conquer fresh areas in life. As a crowning glorycame his elevation as Judge of the Madras High Court in 1921.Interestingly his appointment did not find favour with certain sectionsof the Bar. One would wonder why. During those years it was thecommon practice to elevate lawyers mainly practising on the AppellateSide of the High Court, mostly of civil appeals. Venkatasubba Rao didnot have appreciable practice on the Appellate Side excepting appealshe had to fight with respect to his own cases which he had appearedearlier on the Original Side at the trial stage. Very few Original Sidelawyers had been elevated to the High Court Bench during that eraand the only other ‘native vakil’ on whom this distinction was conferredwas V. V. Srinivasa Ayyangar.

Anyway he was sworn in as High Court Judge on November 17,1921, when the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court was Sir WalterSchwabe.

Sir Walter was one of the most distinguished Chief Justices of theMadras High Court and he stood for the highest British traditions ofJustice, Equity and Fairplay.


Aware of Venkatasubba Rao’s lack of experience in handlingcriminal cases, the Chief Justice sat him on a Division Bench alongwith Mr. Justice Ayling. It was a tradition of the Madras High Courtas also others that a newly elevated judge is initiated into the variousbranches of law by sitting on the Division Bench and Sir VenkatasubbaRao was no exception. However with his brilliance and inborn genius,he showed his class soon and dispelled the ‘Cassandra prophecies’ ofthose who criticized his appointment. He sat in judgment over a varietyof cases including heavy civil appeals involving intricate questions ona variety of subjects like the Hindu Law, Muslim Law, Riparian Rightsand such complicated legal issues. Besides his learning, inborn talentsand acquired skills, according to Gopalratnam, “he was the boldestjudge who ever walked the corridors of the Madras High Court!”Such was his enormous drive and dynamism and ‘guts’ to opposeeven British judges of the Madras High Court whom he consideredas being condescending and patronizing towards their Indiancolleagues. A couple of events during his tenure on the Bench willhighlight such facets of his dynamism.

During that era air-conditioning was unknown in this part of theworld and even electric fan comfort was not that common as it becamelater. Earlier, when there no fans at all in the High Court building, thejudges and lawyers had to make do with the ‘punkah’ hanging fromabove which would be pulled by a peon or low grade employee seatedin a corner on the floor below the Bench of the judges, pulling itmechanically up and down to ‘create’ breeze. As the High Courtbuildings were situated close to the Bay beach, the natural breezeblowing from the Bay of Bengal brought a considerable degree ofcomfort to those working in the stately edifice.

Talking of the punkah, an interesting anecdote and event deservesmention… One of the icons of the Madras High Court who createdhistory was Eardley Norton, a barrister who practised not only inMadras but also in the High Courts of Rangoon and Calcutta, andwho is even today a household name among lawyers and educatedsections of Madras society. Even though he was a true blue Englishman,


he was anti-British and pro-Indian, supporting the early beginnings ofthe Indian Freedom Movement. He also wrote a series of articlesregularly for The Hindu, frankly airing out his views under the name‘Olla Podrida’. Because his views were anti-British he obviously feltthat he should hide his real name behind this odd-sounding pseudonym.One day when he was arguing an important point of law in a caseinvolving very high stakes before an English judge at the MadrasHigh Court, he found that his Lordship was fast asleep in hiscomfortable plush cushion chair. Normally the punkah- puller goes tosleep with his arm mechanically and automatically continuing to pullthe rope. Noticing it, the inimitable barrister picked up a thick lawbook on his table and deliberately threw it at the punkah-puller whohad his eyes closed perhaps in dreamy slumber with his arm active!The book landed with a thud on him and then onto the floor makingconsiderable noise which succeeded in waking up the sleeping judge.His Lordship woke up with a start and whispered “what on earth forheaven’s sake is happening!” Eardley Norton without raising his voicein a serious tone remarked, “ My Lord, at least this fellow is not paidto sleep in court, I suppose!” The judge took the hint and from thatmoment onwards he was all attention. Not surprisingly this eventcreated history, fondly remembered by old-timers and their inquisitivedescendants.

Venkatasubba Rao was allotted for his private Judge’s Chamber,a room which had quite a few windows opening out on the beach sidewhich was not far away from the High Court buildings and muchshorter in distance if one was a crow! One British judge had his eyeon this chamber and wanted to occupy it so that he could enjoy thesea breeze without bothering about punkahs, fans and all. With suchmotive and even ambition, one morning he occupied VenkatasubbaRao’s chamber well before the usual time for the judge’s arrival.When Venkatasubba Rao walked in he was stunned to find a Britishjudge occupying his room and almost ignoring the original occupant’sentry inside. In characteristic display of his enormous drive,Venkatasubba Rao sent a message to the Chief Justice, a Britisherconveying in clear precise terms that he would not come to the court


to discharge his duties as judge if he was not given his room back,where he had his files, case papers and judge’s robes, and he proceededhomewards cool as a cucumber... The poor Chief Justice wonderedwhat he should do, but knowing Venkatasubba Rao’s bent of mindand dash, he persuaded his brother English judge to vacate leavingthe rightful occupant, the Indian judge to come back as usual. It wasonly then Venkatasubba Rao left home and came back to the HighCourt, proceeding to occupy his chamber. That was Sir Mutha.

Another event created history and is to this day unheard of, in theannals of the Madras High Court or possibly any other High Court.Venkatasubba Rao sat on the Bench for seventeen long years,a record for an Indian judge during his day, and very often whenthe British Chief Justices went on home leave as they did for followingthe High Court vacation, he officiated as the Chief Justice for thenecessary periods. During that day the British Indian Government didnot appoint Indians to be Chief Justices even for a short period, andthey had no option than to appoint Venkatasubba Rao as OfficiatingChief Justice when necessary.

During one such period when he was the Officiating Chief Justice,the selection of district munsiffs came up for execution. In thosehappier times the selection of district munsiffs was entirely at thediscretion of the Chief Justice who, whenever necessary sought theadvice of his brother judges. Unlike today there were no politicalmanipulations based on caste, creed, community, and geography, andalmost the entire selection was based on sheer merit.

Venkatasubba Rao after following the procedure like interviewsand such, selected twenty advocates as district munsiffs and sent thelist to the Governor of Madras who was only a formal head-noddingauthority. While the list was under consideration the permanent ChiefJustice came back from Britain and was shocked to find that hisacting Indian counterpart had finalised the selection, the list havinggone to the Governor for formal confirmation. Touched to the quick,the Chief Justice called for fresh applications and in due course senta list of his choice of district munsiffs to the Governor. He said that


Venkatasubba Rao had no power as the acting Chief Justice to appointdistrict munsiffs and the list sent by him should be ignored, and throwninto the nearest trash can! When the matter was referred back by theGovernor, Venkatasubba Rao in his reply wrote strongly that whetheracting or not, a Chief Justice was Chief Justice during the period hewas asked to occupy the chair. He argued with thumping force that ifhis selection of munsiffs was invalid, then the judgements and judicialorders he had delivered and passed during that period of occupancyshould also be invalid! The Governor had no answer to this irrefutableargument of the bold Indian judge, and to prevent a crisis he orderedappointing the candidates from both the lists and that year there wasa real bonanza of district munsiffs being appointed! That was SirMutha. It is difficult to imagine today judges of such calibre, withtenacity of purpose and sense of conviction.

As High Court judge, “he had inestimable qualities… qualities moreessential for the making of a great judge. He was one of the mostconscientious of judges. He would never decide a case whether itbe a small revision petition or a heavy first appeal without completelygrasping the facts of the cases and studying the points of law whichwere involved in it. His thoroughness, which demanded untiringindustry and patience in hearing, has been rarely equalled.Sometimes this quality of thoroughness was disconcerting to senioradvocates who were required [to appear] in several courts. When adecision was cited to him he would read it from the beginning to theend, though counsel might have only referred a few passages.Thoroughness and patience were also found in his judgements.He was extremely careful in his language which wascharacterised by lucidity and precision”.

He had another rare quality as judge, his self-effacinghumility and humanness. He never hesitated to learn principles oflaw and others from the counsel appearing before him if he had reasonto believe that he did not possess the necessary knowledge on the


particular point or nuance of law argued before him. If he found itdifficult to follow an argument he would with characteristic franknessand honesty make every effort to understand such points. As Dr. P.V. Rajamannar wrote, “how often do we not hear a judge say, ‘Iunderstand your point but I am against you!’ when the learned judgehas not even a remote idea of the point sought to be made by thecounsel. Venkatasubba Rao did not belong to that class. Anotheroutstanding quality which will always be remembered by generationsof advocates- and should be remembered by generations of judges- itwas his fearless independence and courage of conviction.” (Acouple of events bringing out these facets of Venkatasubba Rao havebeen narrated earlier in this chronicle.)

M. Pathanjali Sastri, one of the learned judges of the Madras HighCourt who later occupied the highest seat of Indian Judiciary as theChief Justice of the Supreme Court of India at Delhi remarked, “theMadras High Court has had many distinguished judges noted for theirindependence of judgement… and Sir M Venkatasubba Rao wasconspicuous among them.”

Venkatasubba Rao had absolutely no hesitation whenever he felthe had to disagree on any point which his brother judges sitting alongwith him hearing a case, if he felt convinced that his point was welltaken. He was never afraid of displeasing anybody including the white‘burra sahibs’ of the then Government. Replying to the farewell addressof the Advocate-General, Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer on the day ofhis retirement from the Bench, Sir Mutha (as he then was) said, “I doadmit that justice to be rendered is to be within and not outside thelaw, but much depends on the judge’s attitude of mind and the way inwhich he has developed his judicial conscience. A judge, able andlearned and possessing a vision, if intent upon advancingjustice, is rarely thwarted by the claim of law as opposed tojustice. In the innumerable controversies which go to make up acase, there are always facts which lend themselves to such treatmentas to produce the desired result without the judge being obliged towrest or distort the law. Then again, it is the function of a judge where


the law is elastic, adopted to the growing needs of the community andits constantly shifting life.”

He often said the mind of a judge cannot and should not be asneutral as a sheet of plate glass. As Lord Macmillan wrote in hisinteresting essay on Lord Chancellor Birkenhead (F. E. Smith, to givehis real name was one of the brilliant lawyers and later judges ofGreat Britain. He was the Lord Chancellor who presided over theHouse of Lords and for a term he was the Secretary of State forIndia, a high office and a member of the British Cabinet handlingIndian affairs.), “a neutral mind may actually fail judicial efficiency,for the warmer tints of imagination and sympathy are needed to temperthe cold light of reason if human justice is to be done”. Sir Muthacertainly had these qualities like imagination and sympathy in abundantmeasure which made him a ‘rare Daniel who came to judgement’.

Brilliant statesman, national leader and one of the great sons ofthe Motherland, who was once a successful lawyer before he gaveup his lucrative practice to fight for the freedom of the country,Chakravarthi Rajagopalachariar, affectionately known as Rajaji said,“Venkatasubba Rao was one of our finest men and one of ourbest judges”. To quote an Indian idiom, it was an example of SageVashishta calling another sage Brahmarishi!

Mr. Justice M. Venkatasubba Rao as he was officially known as aHigh Court judge had to face considerable criticism when hisappointment was announced.

However most of the High Court judges during that period wereimported from the United Kingdom or the Indian judges were invariablyBrahmin vakils, mostly from Mylapore. There was a strong impressionin the minds of the Non-Brahmins that there were no Non-Brahminjudges appointed earlier around that time and one of the top leadersof the Justice Party with considerable influence the Raja of Paanagal(who later became Premier of the Presidency) and he was bent upon


that the two vacancies should be filled without ado and Non-Brahminjudges should be appointed to fill these vacancies. After muchdiscussion two judges were appointed one of them being MuthaVenkatasubba Rao. The other was David Devadoss.

The Justice Party not only held sway over the political atmosphereof the Madras Presidency but also ruled the province from Fort St.George.

Somewhat interestingly during that period most of the High Courtjudges appointed from the local Bar of the Madras High Court werevakils who practised on the Appellate Side and not on the OriginalSide. Indeed Venkatasubba Rao was the first Original Side lawyerto be appointed High Court judge at Madras, which raised morethan many eyebrows among the vakils of Madras, especially thosefrom Mylapore who invariably had many of them being elevated asHigh Court judges. Indeed Mylapore and lawyers have beensynonymous in the recent years.

Many people criticised his appointment and commented privatelythat Venkatasubba Rao was made a judge even though he was onlyan Original Side lawyer only because he was not a Brahmin andbelonged to the mercantile Vysya community, and therefore had theindirect backing of the Justice Party then holding sway over the MadrasPresidency. Even though he deserved the elevation by sheer meritand his brilliance, old-timers to this day still believe that his communityand the Justice Party blessing had a considerable say in his appointment.

However he belittled all the criticism levelled against him by provingto be as brilliant a judge as he was as a lawyer. He tried many casesof varying genre both civil and criminal, and his critics had to eat theirwords and appreciate his work on the Bench.


VIZIANAGARAM RAJA’S CASE

It is indeed not possible or desirable to discuss the various casesthat he sat in judgement over his long innings of seventeen years asHigh Court judge. However one particular case deserves mentionand discussion at some length. Known as the ‘Vizianagaram Raja’sCase’ it created a sensation in the then Madras Presidency especiallyin the Telugu speaking districts under the jurisdiction of the MadrasHigh Court.

This case had many layered meanings some of them, which forobvious reasons, could not be made public but were only whispered inMadras society of that era. Old-timers especially lawyers of thatgeneration and those who had just then entered the Bar still talk aboutthis case with much excitement and whisper how certain aspects ofthe case were never revealed- or could not be revealed for reasonsone can only guess, or perhaps hint at even at this distance of sevento eight decades.

The sensational case which caused ripples not only in the thensprawling Madras Presidency but also in the rest of the country andmore prominently among the class of rajas, maharajas, zamindars,nawabs and nawabzadas who watched it all with great interest becauseit concerned one of their class, the Raja of Vizianagaram.

The raja had four children, one, Rajkumari Appala Kondaiya Amba,two, Yuvaraj Vijayaram Gajapathi Raj, three, Rajkumari Jayadevi, andfour Rajkumar Visweswar Gajapathi Raj, all being minors. Strongattempts were made by the members of his immediate family includingthe Rani of Vizianagaram to take the minor children to Great Britainfor the purpose of educating them in that country, and also to appointa suitable person as their guardian.


In May 1936 under Section 15 of the Madras Court of Wards Act,the then Government of Madras made a declaration that the Rajawas a disqualified person, unfit to handle his own affairs, the familyand the considerable property and directed the Court of Wards toassume and take over the supervision of both his person and property.Raja immediately filed a suit in the court of the Subordinate Judge ofVizagapatam, now Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Questioningthe validity of the order made by the Government of Madras andpraying for a declaration that it was ultra vires and unauthorised.The Raja also came to know much to his shock, dismay and sorrow,that the Court of Wards was intending to send his minor children toEngland on May 9, 1936, ostensibly for the purpose of their education.Alarmed to the quick, the Raja immediately applied to the SubordinateJudge of the same court seeking an injunction to restrain the Court ofWards from taking away the children. When this application was madein the Subordinate Judge’s court in Vizag (as it was commonly knownin those days and by old timers even today) it was about to close forthe usual Summer Vacation. Therefore, the sub-Judge made aprovisional order, ‘It is desirable that the children should not be sentaway from India without intimation to the plaintiff who is their naturalfather… I therefore direct the defendant to inform the plaintiff fifteendays in advance of their intended departure so that if it is to happen inthe summer recess of this court, the plaintiff may move the HighCourt in Madras if necessary to grant an injunction…’. Accordinglythe Raja sought the protection of the Madras High Court and filed anapplication which came up for hearing before Mr. Justice K. P.Lakshman Rao who heard the application and dismissed it, observingshortly that the suit itself appeared to be prima facie, incompetent andtherefore no such petition in such a suit could lie. Against this orderthe petitioner filed an appeal which came up in May 1936 beforeVenkatasubba Rao (then Officiating Chief Justice) and Mr. Justice P.Venkataramana Rao. Venkatasubba Rao interestingly observed in hisjudgement, “ … one of the curious features of this case has been thatthe petitioner has argued his case in person with a view to demonstrateI believe, that imputation that he is mentally unsound is wholly


unfounded… we suggested that the case might lie over and be disposedof by the vacation judges during the summer recess, but we were toldthat the minors’ passages by ship has already been booked and it isessential that they be allowed to leave on May 9th… again if theminors are to be sent out of the country as intended, they must, weunderstand, take a train in an hour or two. The question therefore isthat the balance of convenience require that the minors should bepermitted to sail at once or their departure granting that eventuallythe Court of Wards succeeds should be postponed for the present?”

(The Court of Wards was established by the British IndianGovernment under the Act mentioned above to take care of the custody,residence, education and marriage of minors, the children of maharajas,rajas, zamindars and such other persons. Once a minor is placed underthe protection of the Court of Wards, the age of minority extendsfrom the common law age of 18 years to the completion of 21 years.

In those days there was a spate of cases about the matters ofminors placed under the Courts of Wards Act going up from court tocourt right up to the Privy Council in far away London, which wasthen the highest court of appeal until the Federal Court of India wasformed under the Government of India Act of 1935 at Delhi.

Interestingly the Federal Court had only civil jurisdiction and criminalappeals were still being filed in London until the country attainedindependence. There is an interesting reason for the subtle distinction.The Federal Court of India had three judges, the Chief Justice beinga Britisher, the remaining two judges one being a Hindu and the othera Muslim. The Muslim judge was Sir Mohammed Zafarullah Khan, abrilliant lawyer who later created history as the Law Minister ofPakistan and entered the pages of modern Indian history as the personwho argued the case for Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute beforethe United Nations. A dispute that is still hanging fire even after sixtyyears with millions of Indian rupees being spent and huge loss ofhuman life which cannot be estimated in rupees and paise.)


When the court reopened the Raja filed a petition both under theGuardians and Wards Act, and also the Letters Patent of the MadrasHigh Court.

Letters Patent: After the Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the rule ofthe East India Company came to an end and Queen Victoria tookover the rule of British India and became the Queen Empress. In1862 under her with her as the Fountainhead of Justice, Law, Equityand Fairplay, an act was passed under which she issued Letters Patent,which means letters which are not secret but are open to be read byall. Given under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, the HighCourt of Judicature at Madras for the Presidency of Madras wasestablished. Earlier there was a Supreme Court Adjudicature atMadras and also courts known as Sudder Dewany Adalat and all ofthem became merged into the High Court. The Sudder Courts wereabolished. Her Majesty by issue of such Letters Patent gave thepowers and also set limitations for the exercise of Original, Civil, andCriminal jurisdiction of the High Court. Such powers which the HighCourt derived under the Letters Patent could be taken up on appealunder what is legally known as Letters Patent Appeal. Normally suchappeals are against the judgements of cases decided by a single HighCourt judge sitting on the Original Side. Invariably they are concernedabout matters of law and not always about the facts of the case.)

In the petition before the High Court, the Raja the petitioner,appeared in person without any counsel representing him, even thoughhe was well aware that he would be pitted against some of thebrightest legal minds of the day of the Madras High Court. Not manyare aware that the Raja was advised to appear in person for morethan one reason, viz., it would prove to the High Court Bench that hewas not insane or mentally deficient, and secondly, his personalappearance and arguing the case would invoke the sympathy andconsiderate hearing from the two Indian judges.

The then Advocate-General of the Madras High Court Sir AlladiKrishnaswamy Ayyar appeared for the Court of Wards. Sir Alladi ashe was then known and continues to be known across the breadth


and length of the country and even beyond, was one of the legendarystars of the Indian legal firmament. Born in humble circumstanceswith no advantages of any kind, he made his way to reach the top ofthe ladder and then scrape the skies of success by his sheer brilliance,unceasing industry and phenomenal memory. He was also deeplyinvolved in the drafting of the Constitution of India though regrettablyhis role was sidelined due to political and communal considerations.

For the minor children another legendary lawyer of Madras T. R.Venkatarama Shastri appeared along with K. Kuttikrishna Menon(later Advocate-General of the Madras High Court) and V. K.Thiruvenkatachari (also later an Advocate-General of the MadrasHigh Court) and S. Parthasarathy. These two brilliant lawyers wererepresented in court by a young rising lawyer, K. R. Vepa who latermade a mark not only as a lawyer but also as a successful stockmarket investor and analyst. He was the nephew of another legallegend of the Madras High Court Sir Vepa Ramesam (after a brilliantcareer as lawyer at Madras he was elevated to the Bench as judgeand on some occasions officiated as the Chief Justice, besides hislegal brilliance, he was also a top flight mathematician and astronomerand a strong votary of family planning and birth control at a timethose expressions were not known to many!

The Raja of Vizianagaram belonged to an ancient family and wasthe foremost among the zamindars of the Madras Presidency. Theincome of his estate during 1930s was about 22 lakhs, the highest inthe province. Those were the happy days when sovereign gold soldat less than Rs. 14 and a gallon of petrol was on tap at 6 annas (thirty-six paise). One of the Raja’s ancestors was a man of great distinctionand a loyal friend of the British Crown in recognition of which he wasinvested with the personal title of Maharaja of Vizianagaram and madea G.C.I.E. (Grand Commander of the Indian Empire).

The Raja was of the firm opinion that it was not necessary for hischildren to be removed from the familiar surroundings and ambiencecausing deep mental anguish to himself and also to the children. Atthat time there were many aristocratic institutions in Northern India


where children of status and position like minors could be admitted.One such institution was the famous Mayo College in Ajmer, whichthe then Prince of Wales later the Duke of Windsor described as “theEton of India” (Eton was one of the most exclusive public schools ofEngland where only blue blooded aristocrats and extremely wealthypeople could gain admission. One such non-maharaja who studied inthat school was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The Duke of Wellington,the great British warrior commented, “The Battle of Waterloo waswon on the playing fields of Eton and Rugby”.)

The Court of Wards challenged the Raja’s right to file the petitionon the ground that under the Court of Wards Act it had become investedwith a discretionary power which cannot be questioned or controlledby a court of law unless it is shown that it has acted fraudulently,corruptly or maliciously. It also took the stand that the High Court hadno jurisdiction on the ground that the minor children of the Raja wereresiding at Vizag which was outside the local limits of the OriginalSide civil jurisdiction of the High Court.

The Raja’s contention was that he was an affectionate father,mentally sound and the action that the Court of Wards proposed totake the children away from him would drive any man insane! TheRaja was educated at the exclusive Mayo College, Ajmer, and obtainedthe Chief’s College Diploma. That was not all. He held the license ofan air pilot and had extensively travelled throughout India and alsoGreat Britain and the European continent. The Government had givenhim license to drive a car and to also possess modern firearms andmodern ammunition. Two competent doctors, one of whom belongedto the Indian Medical Service (IMS), and also served as the principalof the Medical College, Vizagapattam, had certified that he was freefrom any mental disorder.

Raja also remarked that his children were of tender age, the girlsbeing 14 and 10, and the boys being 12 and 9. The boys were beingeducated by him at school in Vizagapattam and each of them had awhole time graduate tutor and the two girls were being taught byEuropean Roman Catholic nuns… the Raja quoted in his statement…


“I see no sense in the children being separated from their countrymenand in their having no manner of education in their own language.India is not a barbaric country: it has schools and colleges some ofwhich are as good as the best of them in England. Just as black bearscannot survive in arctic regions while white bears can, my childrenmay not be able to survive the severe cold of winter in England whileEnglish children are generally able to do so. The severity of the Englishcold is such that a large number of English people leave England andgo to the south of France in the winter, the percentage of BritishIndians of India going for school education as compared with thosegoing for collegiate and post-school study is almost nil”.

The nearest relations of the minors were besides their father theRaja, their mother Rani of Vizianagaram, their uncle Maharajkumarof Vizianagaram (popularly known as Vizzy), and their grandmotherthe Dowager Rani of Vizianagaram.

[Vizzy also created history by having his own cricket team knownas the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram XI and he brought as membersof his team, the legendary English opening pair of Jack Hobbs (laterSir Jack, the first cricketer to be knighted) and Herbert Scutcliffe.This iconic opening pair played in Madras drawing huge crowds ofcricket loving and knowing public. Interestingly the local idol, M. J.Gopalan got both of them out for paltry scores of two figures. Duringthat day only those who knew the nuances of cricket and also playedthe game in some manner came to watch matches, and not thosewho wanted to be seen on the ground by their peers and hardly anywomen came to watch the matches except those who were whiteskinned.]

The Court of Wards stated that its decision to send the minorchildren to England was taken after duly consulting the four above-mentioned relations who had approved of it all excepting the Raja.Somewhat interestingly during the argument of the case a proposalwas condemned by every relation other than the Rani of Vizianagaram!And the Dowager Rani supported the Raja in his stand.


Venkatasubba Rao commented that what should really matter wasthe welfare of the minors and not the opinions of others whoever theymight be, and if in their welfare the decision to take them to Englandwas not in their interest the Court of Wards should not hesitate torevise its decision and allow mere prestige to be a stumbling block inits way.

Sir Alladi raised an interesting point in support of his client TheCourt of Wards, it was an issue of jurisdiction. He stated that thejurisdiction of the Madras High Court would not extend beyond itsoriginal civil jurisdiction, in other words, that it would be limited to thecity of Madras and not outside like Vizianagaram. Mr. JusticeVenkatasubba Rao did not agree with this point however subtle itmight be and said, “here the minors are within the Madras Presidencybut outside Madras City, but it makes no difference…. If I am correctin this view the High Court possesses undoubted jurisdiction in regardto the minors even if they are resident outside the limits of thePresidency-town viz Madras City…. The Raja of Vizianagaram ownsa valuable and spacious house at Madras, Admiralty House, for whichhe pays the rates, has an establishment there and resides in it duringhis visits to the city at frequent intervals”. His Lordship quoted an oldjudgement of a British court, “generally if a party has two or threeestablishments every one of them may be called his residence andnot less so because he may not go there for some years. If he keepsup an establishment in it, the place is still his residence”.

[During that hectic period, streets and roads in Madras City weredeserted excepting for army trucks plying and motorcycle-ridingsoldiers tearing down the streets at high speed. Schools and collegeswere closed and even the Madras High Court was shut down forsome period. Many houses sported the board ‘to let’ and a popularTamil weekly magazine published a famous cartoon… in it two ruralmen walk down the streets of Madras and noticing so many ‘to let’boards, one remarks that the ‘to let’ dorai must be such a rich manowning so many buildings. It is difficult to imagine a traffic-free Madrastoday but it did happen during those days of the Second World War.The Japanese did bomb Madras but the damage was negligible.]


As it often happens with regal mansions, there were strong rumoursin those days that the Admiralty House was haunted by a femaleghost believed to be that of a queen who was either murdered orcommitted suicide.

In conclusion the officiating Chief Justice wrote in his judgement,“in the result an injunction will issue restraining the Court of Wardsfrom removing the minors out of the Province or otherwise interferingwith them or exercising any sort of control over them, subject to thecondition the directions of this High Court may be applied for by anparty interested in regard to the removal to any place within the limitsof British India”.

The other judge who sat on the Division Bench, Mr. JusticeVenkataramana Rao agreed in principle with the opinion and judgementgiven by the officiating Chief Justice.

Discussing the mental condition of the Raja which was questionedby the Court of Wards, his Lordship stated, “… for the purpose of theCourt of Wards Act, it may be open to the Court of Wards to treat theRaja as nonexistent but we cannot shut our eyes to what has beengoing on in court. The Raja has conducted his case in person. He hasdone it with considerable sobriety and moderation and we havewatched him carefully. It is difficult for any court to treat him as aperson of unsound mind… no court of law would be justified in ignoringthe wishes of Raja as father and in not giving due weight to that.From what has transpired and the attitude of the Court of Wards, theRaja’s apprehension cannot be said to be unfounded, viz, that theminors are being sent away so that his relations with them would bepermanently cut off and he be prevented from having any access tothem for a considerable time to come. No court of law could toleratesuch a conduct. I therefore agree in the order proposed by My Lordthe Chief Justice M. Venkatasubba Rao”.

Thus came to a close one of the sensational cases of the day inwhich Venkatasubba Rao took a bold stand,ich was warmlyappreciated by the public not only in the Vizag district but also theentire Madras Presidency.


GOLLAPROLU CASE

One of the sensational civil cases of the early decades of the20th century, a ‘cause celebre’ was then popularly known as theGollaprolu Case. It related to the adoption of an impartible zamindariestate of Pitapur, one of the wealthiest estates of those days, situatedin the rich fertile land of the Telugu-speaking areas of the old MadrasPresidency during British rule.

It is interesting to note that there were many such zamindari estatesbelonging to the landed gentry and feudal lords, regarding adoptioncases which were quite common. Many of them were fought bitterlyby the parties concerned over property with most of them going upand further up from the lower court levels at the district courts rightup to the distant Privy Council in London through the Madras HighCourt, where they came up on appeal. As the stakes were high, toplawyers of the Madras High Court including British barristers andMylapore vakils took up these cases being engaged at high fee. SuchMylapore lawyers made a sizeable fortune appearing for one zamindaror the other, invariably over adoption cases!

Some lawyers at the top with a philosophical bent of mind wereconvinced that their fortune was built on the tragedy, grief and sorrowof the life of such rich men and women and made them the target ofthe losing parties to a suit. They sincerely believed such cursesdestroyed their family and personal lives. A fabulously successfullawyer, one of the icons of the Madras Bar and sometime Presidentof the Indian National Congress, Sreeman S. Srinivasas Ayyangartold his intimate friends that because of such curses he had lost hisbeloved wife early, and thereafter his family life was far from happywith his only daughter S. Ambujammal becoming a widow young in


life. Though later she made a mark as a social worker and femalemovement activist in Madras, establishing a popular women’s welfareassociation Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam in Mylapore, Madras.

It all began with the Gollaprolu Case in 1919 when the thenMaharaja of Pitapur filed a suit in the Subordinate Judge’s Court,Rajamundry (now Rajamahendravaram) and later transferred to theDistrict Court of East Godavari. The maharaja sought a declarationthat the adoption of a boy Venkata Rao by Rani Venkayamma Bahadur(first defendant in the suit) was invalid. She was the widow of anotherVenkatrao who was the younger brother of an earlier deceased Rajaof Pitapur, Sri Krishnarao Bahadur (second defendant). The plaintiffclaimed that the adoption was invalid and not binding on him for heclaimed to be the nearest ‘reversionary heir’ to the said Venkataraowho was dead.

The property known as the Gollaprolu Estate was granted in 1869by the then Maharaja of Pitapur to the deceased Venkatarao hisyounger brother in lieu of his maintenance. Zamindaris are known asimpartible estates which in law means that they cannot be partitionedamong the sons and the eldest son succeeds to the estate with theothers getting a maintenance.

Venkatarao who received the Gollaprolu Estate for suchmaintenance died in 1871 without children. In 1886 his widow adopteda boy, which was set aside by court in 1891. Obviously a strong willedwoman who would never take no for an answer, she again adoptedanother boy in 1914. This boy (second defendant) was the son ofRamakrishna, who in turn was the adopted son of the late Raja ofPitapur.

The defence case was that the adoption was perfectly valid becausethe consent of other male members of the family including cousinswas duly obtained by the Rani. Another point raised against the plaintiffwas that he who questioned the adoption was not a natural born sonof his father and so he had no right to question the adoption.

Therefore two important points arose for decision, one the statusof the plaintiff and two, the validity of the second defendant’s adoption.


Expectedly the case had a checkered and long career climbing thestately steps and seemingly endless corridors of many a court of lawin the Presidency. In the first instance the Godavari District Judgeheld in favour of the plaintiff on every point and held that the adoptionwas invalid.

An appeal was duly filed by the defendant to the Madras HighCourt which came up for hearing before Mr. Justice MuthaVenkatasubba Rao and Mr. Justice Cheruvuri Krishnan.

(Interestingly the sprawling bungalow of Judge Krishnan knownas Shenstone Park was later purchased from his widow by Sir Muthaand Lady Andal where Madras Seva Sadan is now situated.)

The appeal came up for hearing before the Division Bench andthough their Lordships confirmed the status of the plaintiff there wasdifference of opinion about the other point, viz, the defendant’sadoption. Mr. Justice Krishnan held that the adoption was invalid whileMr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao said it was valid. The appeal waseventually dismissed.

A Letters Patent appeal was filed before the same High Courtwhich came up before a Full Bench of three judges, Mr. Justice C.V.Kumaraswami Shastriar, Mr. Justice Odgers and Mr. Justice Jackson.In this appeal only the question of adoption was argued. TheirLordships Odgers and Jackson both Britishers who came to Madrasfrom England agreed with Mr. Justice Krishnan, while Mr. JusticeKumaraswami Shastriar agreed with his former apprentice, Mr. JusticeVenkatasubba Rao.

An appeal was duly filed with the Privy Council which after apreliminary hearing remanded the case back to Madras for findingthe defendant’s status after admitting in the oral and documentaryevidence led in a previous case between the plaintiff and the adoptedson of Raja of Pitapur. That case came up before a Full Bench atMadras consisting of their Lordships Jackson, Pandrang Rao andButler. However the Privy Council in that case upheld the adoption ofthe second defendant and dismissed the plaintiff’s suit.


It is a point of interest that the Privy Council upheld the finding onevery point of Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao.

In finding about the status of the plaintiff, Venkatasubba Rao statedin his own characteristic manner, “on the whole I am prepared thoughnot without hesitation, to concur in the finding of the Trial Court thatthe plaintiff is the son of the late Raja and Rani Mangayamma”. Onthis point their Lordships of the Privy Council stated, “they think it isunnecessary to say more than that they are not prepared to disagreewith the findings of the Madras High Court upon it.”

(The Privy Council considered itself as a legal advisory body andall their judgements would end with the final statement that they humblyadvise His Majesty either to dismiss an appeal or allow it. This isbecause His Majesty the King of England was believed to be thefountainhead of Justice, Equity and Fairplay.)

Another point raised by the Maharaja was that the widow did notseek his consent for the adoption, which she should have. On thispoint Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao remarked, “the question of theplaintiff’s parentage was, at any rate, not free from doubt, the courton the previous occasion having given its decision against him a dutyis cast upon the widow to apply for consent and when she performsthat duty her act cannot be questioned on the ground that her motiveswere bad.”

The Maharaja submitted that he rightly withheld his consent. Onthis aspect Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao said, “I have come to theconclusion that the plaintiff approached the question with a biasedmind and rendered himself incapable to be a proper judge of thetransaction. I have come to the further conclusion that he wasinfluenced by improper and selfish motives in refusing his consentand that the reasons on which he asks now to justify his refusal areutterly unsound. When it is proved that he, a close relation known inHindu Law as ‘sapinda’ is actuated by corrupt or malicious motiveshis dissent may be disregarded”.


As the Privy Council says the six judgements in which the validityof the adoption was discussed disclosed a remarkable divergence oflegal opinion on almost every question involved. But it is interesting tonote that almost in every such question, the learned opinion of

our present officiating Chief Justice (Sir Venkatasubba Rao)prevailed with their Lordships of the Judicial Committee of the PrivyCouncil.

The judgements on various points given by Mr. JusticeVenkatasubba Rao which found favour with the British judges inLondon was in those days talked about as well deserved laurels forthe officiating Chief Justice of Madras.

Indeed, cases of adoption of feudal lords of the Madras Presidency,which began around the middle of the 19th century, deserve a detailedstudy for the benefit of students of law and also as social history ofthe early decades of the Madras Presidency. The wealth of materialis still available in various legal reports in possibly fading court recordsbut sadly the will to document them all is lacking.

Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao was never known to have practisedCriminal Law during his fertile innings on the Original Side and evenas judge it was believed he rarely sat on a Criminal Bench. Accordingto some old-time lawyers only once he presided over the High Court’sOriginal Criminal Sessions which tried crimes committed within thecity limits. The Jury System was then in existence and a jury of ninepersons (unlike twelve in the West) heard the cases and they werethe sole judges of fact while the presiding High Court judge held controlof the Law. Interestingly if the verdict of the jury was unanimous thepresiding judge had no option than to agree with it and deliver judgementaccordingly. If it was a split verdict, say like 7-2, 6-3, he could disagreewith the jury, discharge it and order for a fresh trial before anotherHigh Court judge. This jury system worked extremely well in thosedays, but for many reasons not very clear and somewhat political, the


High Court Original Criminal Sessions was abolished during the mid1950s and a hoary tradition vanished with a single sweep.

During that period the dock in the court in which the accusedstood with armed constables on either side, had its floor made ofwood and by an arrangement it could be slided to reveal a staircasedown below leading to the special police lockup inside the courtpremises. After the court rose for the day the accused would be letdown with the cops in armed attendance and taken away in a policevain kept ready to the prison. This precaution was taken to preventany of the prisoner’s friend and colleagues to attempt to kidnap him.After the abolition of the Sessions it all vanished and one sees theaccused prisoner being slaughtered by his enemies and otherssometimes in open court and most often in the compound. Suchinstances never happened in those happy times.

In a case, a man of impeccable character and respect was theexecutor of a wealthy estate in Guntur, then part of the MadrasPresidency. Due to personal and communal ill-will, and manipulationsby his enemies known and unknown, he found himself in the dockcharged with the misappropriation of a mere motorcar belonging tothe estate. The Prosecution for many unknown reasons showedunhealthy interest in the matter and sought to damn the person andput him in prison. After the magisterial inquiry he was duly committedto Sessions and the case came up for trial before the District SessionsCourt at Guntur. The Public Prosecutor went hammer and tongs atthe unfortunate executor trying to condemn him with every questionduring cross-examination. The District Judge, a member of the IndianCivil Service (ICS) was easily able to see through the Prosecution’sgame and in his own cross examination of the principal witness forthe Prosecution, he smashed him to smithereens and the case collapsedlike a pack of playing cards. In his address to the assessors, (themembers of the jury in the district were known as ‘assessors’) directedthe members to return a verdict of not guilty and made scathing remarksof the conduct of the Public Prosecutor for his unusual and evenunprofessional interest in condemning the accused. Somewhat


surprisingly, the then Government of Madras filed an appeal againstthe acquittal which came up before a Division Bench consisting of SirMutha Venkatasubba Rao who promptly dismissed the appeal makingsuitable remarks about its maintainability.

In another case, a wealthy Nambudri landlord from the then Malabardistricts of the Madras Presidency, now part of Kerala, a personalservant of the rich Nambudri attacked him while his master was fastasleep inflicting as many as twenty two cuts with a knife. Howeverthe much-stabbed victim managed to survive the scathing attack. Acase was filed against the servant for attempt to murder and he wassent to trial before the District Court. Surprisingly when the trial began,the Public Prosecutor stood up and announced that the police did notwant to proceed with the trial as the accused had repented thedastardly act and had been duly forgiven by the Nambudri. The DistrictSessions Judge called upon the Nambudri and examined him in personin open court. He found that the injuries were too extensive and evendangerous. Accepting the plea of guilty of the accused he sentencedhim to two years illustrating that a crime is a sin against society andcannot be compounded by parties at their whim and pleasure. Onappeal, Sir Mutha heartily agreed with the stand of the District Judgeand complimented him on his fairplay, justice, equity and respect forLaw.

One of the courts in the Madras High Court is known as the ‘LibraryCourt’. It came to be known by that name because the small courthall which is more a room, is surrounded by glass bookshelves filledwith books of Law. In the earlier decades it did not have a dais for thejudge to sit and their Lordships sat at the same level as the lawyers.The ambience was interestingly very friendly without the dignity ofthe court being affected.

The well-known Original Side lawyer of his day V. C. Gopalratnamknew Venkatasubba Rao intimately and had also appeared againsthim as lawyer and before him as judge. He recalled that as junior


High Court judge soon after his appointment, Venkatasubba Rao saton the Division Bench along with Sir Vepa Ramesam, one of thelegendary figures of the Madras High Court in the library court.Gopalratnam recalled, “… the atmosphere was so homely and friendlythat the argument in the cases appeared more like informal chatsbetween counsel and the judges, than formal speeches and submissionsby lawyers. The two Lordships would often exchange views quiteloudly in their mother tongue Telugu in which some of the advocateswould also join them! All the same, the respect and dignity of theforensic atmosphere in that court never suffered even a little”.

In an interesting case which came up before Mr. JusticeVenkatasubba Rao in 1934, the legal question was the presumption oflegitimacy of a child under Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act.Sitting as a single judge, he declared that the word ‘access’ in thesection was a question of fact [between the couple] in every caseand should strictly be proved. However a Privy Council judgementdelivered earlier on the same point held a contrary view, reported thelocal law journals in the same year. The Judicial Committee in Londondeclared in that case that under Section 112 access meant no morethan an opportunity for sexual intimacy and not for sexual cohabitation.In the face of such contrary judgement, any judge other thanVenkatasubba Rao would have tried to change his views, but Sir Muthadid not, and allowed his judgements to be published in the Legal Report,because he knew that his point of view would be upheld by the PrivyCouncil soon after in some other case. Interestingly, his views wereaffirmed by brilliant lawyer Sir John Wallis, a member of the JudicialCommittee (who was earlier Chief Justice of the Madras High Court)who clarified the meaning of access to be “effective access’ therebyproving that Venkatasubba Rao was right.

As a judge Venkatasubba Rao was never influenced by anyconsideration personal or otherwise, other than the merits of the casein coming to his decision. Well known lawyer, judge of the MadrasHigh Court and later Supreme Court and Classical Carnatic Music


scholar T. L. Venkatarama Aiyer recalls a case which highlights thisaspect…

An advocate of standing was arguing before Mr. JusticeVenkatasubba Rao pressing a proposition of law with considerableinsistence about the validity of his viewpoint. His Lordship did notagree with him and plied him with a good number of questions with aview to test the soundness of his contention. But the answers of thelearned advocate were far from convincing. Anyway the advocatewent on repeating what he had said and His Lordship shook his headto convey the meaning that he did not agree! The advocate then said,“Your Lordship may shake your head but that does not answer mycontention”. Thereafter the learned judge ceased to put questionsand silently listened to whatever the advocate spoke. After nearly aquarter of an hour tick-tocked away in such fashion, the advocaterealised that he was making no impression on the judge, and said,“Your Lordship will not bear in mind the unfortunate words whichhad escaped me”. His Lordship replied, “If I had taken your wordsseriously I should have stopped you then and there. I am hearing youso that you can even now convince me if you can.” VenkatasubbaRao was anxious as ever not merely that he should do justice, but beseen to be doing justice and the party concerned should not leave thecourt with the impression that a good case had been lost owing to thefault of the counsel. Such was Sir Mutha…

As already noticed when Venkatasubba Rao became a judge, therewas an impression especially from the lawyers practising on theAppellate Side that he was not familiar with several legal topics whichcome up for consideration in appeals concerning civil law. T. L.Venkatarama Aiyer recalls another incident…shortly afterVenkatasubba Rao was elevated to the Bench a Civil Revision Petition(CRP) under Section 115 of the Civil Procedure Court (CPC) cameup for consideration before him in which Aiyer appeared for thepetitioner. The respondent took the preliminary objection that it wasnot maintainable in law and no question of jurisdiction was involved


and therefore it should be dismissed straightaway. His Lordship calledupon Aiyer to argue his point of the case fully and exhaustively quotingthe necessary leading cases governing that point of law. The argumenton this point alone took two long days and at the end the learnedJudge dismissed the Revision Petition on the grounds that it was not afit case for interference by the High Court. UnderstandablyVenkatarama Aiyer wondered why it was necessary for the judge tohear such lengthy arguments over two days on the scope of thejurisdiction when the case could have been disposed on that shortpoint quickly. Aiyer then found that his Lordship was availing everyopportunity presented to him of studying the law, and leading caseson subjects with which he was not yet familiar and it was by suchprocess he acquired a sound knowledge of law relating to theImpartible Estates Act (succession of zamindars), Estates Land Act,Service Grant and other subjects about which Original Side lawyerswere mostly unfamiliar for they did not have an opportunity to conductsuch cases relating to such Acts.

Another instance recalled by Venkatarama Aiyer… technical pleasand hair splitting of legal points rarely found favour with VenkatasubbaRao… Venkatarama Aiyer appeared for the respondent in a CivilRevision Petition which came up for hearing before his Lordship.The petitioner was the plaintiff in a suit he had filed in the lower courtto recover money advanced as loan. The defendant pleaded withsuccess the Law of Limitation and his claim was barred by efflux oftime. The plaintiff who lost the case filed a revision and the learnedjudge at the very beginning observed that the accounts filed in proofof the loan showed clearly that there were cross dealings betweenthe parties concerned and the suit was actually one to recover thebalance due on a mutual, open, running, current account which waswell in time.

Venkatarama Aiyer pleaded that it would mean his Lordship givingrelief on a cause of action on which the suit was not based. HisLordship observed that regard must be had to the true nature of thetransaction and not what the party thought it was. Aiyer replied that


no application was made in the lower court for amending the claim.His Lordship replied that he would proceed on an oral application ofthe amendment. Aiyer then requested his Lordship that the mattermight be remanded to the lower court for considering the applicationfor amendment. His Lordship commented that he would himself orderit! Mr. Aiyer asked, “why should your Lordship do the work of aDistrict Munsiff?” He replied, “Mr. Venkatarama Aiyer I am preparedto do the work of even a village munsiff to do justice!”. As the formerSupreme Court judge remarked, “Justice never failed before Mr.Justice Venkatasubba Rao and that is the greatest tribute thatcan be ever paid to a judge”.

Venkatasubba Rao always kept an open mind and once his mindwas made up in deciding a case, he stood firm as a rock. He did nothesitate to differ from his colleague whether Indian or British whenhe considered that his conclusion was right. It made no difference tohim who the parties before him were or the counsel arguing the cases.He never feared any man but feared only God…

The well-known Appellate Side lawyer of his day was P. N.Appuswami who also made a mark as a writer in Tamil under his penname ‘Pena’. He wrote frequently on many subjects in the well knownTamil weekly ‘Ananda Vikatan’ and was a pioneer in writing in Tamilon science and allied subjects, which nobody had attempted earlier.

He recalls an interesting case in which he was involved and cameup for hearing before Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao.

It was a second appeal in which two parties fought bitterly for alltheir worth right up to the High Court level from the lower courtsfrom the district, and there was a third party who was hopelesslyjammed in between the two. Thus it was a tripartite fight which israre in second appeals. Feelings ran high among the parties and bothsides of the appeal spared no money and effort, engaging senior counselwhen it came up for hearing at the Madras High Court. At first the


case was posted in the list of Mr. Justice Odger. But the respondentwas happy not without reason. The judge had the reputation that heoften upheld whatever the lower court had decided as right and usuallydismissed second appeals without a second thought. However theappellant’s lawyer proved too smart and somehow managed to havethe case taken out of the British judge’s list and got it included inJustice Venkatasubba Rao’s list of second appeals. It was stronglyrumoured that the lawyer had manipulated at the High Court officelevel to get his requirement and there was even an enquiry about itbut it yielded no results.

When the appeal came up for hearing before Justice VenkatasubbaRao, he made an unusual request by asking the opposing counsel tosit at the extreme right and left of the lawyer’s table. This was themethod he sometimes followed. To quote Pena, “I wondered whetherhe felt that each would then have an equal ear of his or whether eachmight not then interrupt the other, or whether he merely wanted tokeep them both distinct in his mind. When they were so seated, seeingmy name in the Cause List (list of cases posted before a judge) helooked at me and asked me on which side I stood. When I told himhow I was caught in the middle of the two he told me, ‘Mr. Appuswamithen sit right in the middle, in front of me!’ and I did”.

When the case was opened the appellant was explaining a plan tothe judge when Sir Mutha noticed that the respondent’s lawyer wasshaking his head in vigorous protest. As he always wanted the basicfacts to be got at first he asked the respondent’s lawyer to explain hisposition. As he began to state it the judge saw that the appellant’slawyer was now shaking his head as vigorously as his professionalcolleague. When he looked at Mr. Appuswami he found that the lawyerwas ‘stricken with the same kind of shaking fit!’.

When he asked Mr. Appuswami , “is not the respondent’s counselright?” He replied ‘No.’. Then is the appellant counsel right?” Againhe said “no”. Smiling his Lordship asked, “Is the lower appellate courtright?” the lawyer replied “no”. “Is at least the first court right?” thelawyer again said “no”. “Then Mr. Appuswami who on earth is right?”


Aware that the judge had a good sense of humour, Appuswamireplied, “ My Lord I am caught between these two who are fightingeach other tooth and nail. I therefore feel, in a manner of speaking,that I am in the same position as your Lordship!” Sir Mutha shotback, “Have you succeeded in trying to know the correct explanationof the plan?” The lawyer replied that he believed he had and SirMutha remarked, “you seem to be right”. Later he called the lawyersconcerned to his chambers to settle the case by mediation and putsearching questions to all the three lawyers including Appuswami. Indue course he delivered judgement on a mutually agreed basis whichappeared to have pleased all the fighting concerned. Justice was notonly done but was also seemed to have been done as the expressiongoes, and all left his chambers in a happy frame of mind, forgettingthat a short while earlier they had been fighting like a pair of Kilkennycats known for their rage, especially when in heat. The humane judgealways believed that justice was not a bitter medicine nor a meresugar coated pill, but was the essence of fairness and equity.

During that era the Civil Jurisdiction of the Original Side was ahumming beehive of activity, with many cases filed and coming up forhearing before a single High Court judge. Being a court of trial, itgave ample opportunity for lawyers of merit and with infinite capacityfor taking pains had ample scope to make their way up the ladder offame and fortune. Venkatasubba Rao and Radhakrishnayya made anexcellent team of lawyers, one complementing the other.Radhakrishnayya was considered as one of the masters of legaldrafting during his day and excelled in writing plaints, writtenstatements, affidavits and other legal documents necessary for thecase. He had considerable mastery and command over the Englishlanguage in drafting various legal documents without being verboseand indulging in mere pyrotechnics of language. However, he lackedthe gift of the gab as the expression goes, and Venkatasubba Raowith his oratorical skills and excellence in presentation of cases andalso his skills of cross examination proved complementary thuscontributing to the enormous success of the talented twosome.


Besides, Venkatasubba Rao had the support and patronage ofSubbaiah Chetti, his father-in-law and a successful attorney with awide clientele especially among the members of his Vysya community.By tradition this community consisted of mostly businessmen andwealthy persons and not surprisingly there was considerable scopefor court cases emanating from the affairs of the members of themercantile clan.

Soon Venkatasubba Rao-Radhakrishnayya made a mark on theOriginal Side and built up a large practice, which won them besidesname and fame, a fortune too. They were aware that there was muchcompetition from other vakils mainly belonging to the Brahmincommunity and also British barristers of the city. But undaunted bysuch factors these two brilliant men forged ahead to success andthen more success.

During that period elevation of lawyers to the Bench of High Courtwas done taking into consideration factors like merit, their standingand stature at the Bar, their income and of course the qualities andcharacter of the person. It was a happy period- sadly now vanishedwhen political considerations did not exist as they do today. The BritishIndian Government did make concessions on caste and communityregarding the appointment, but they were invariably done with meritas one of the main considerations and not mainly which caste or clanthe prospective judge belonged. During that period the dyarchy systemwas in force and there was limited participation by political partiesholding power as ministers running the Government from the Fort St.George. For many political reasons the Indian National Congress keptaway from the political scene and the South Indian Liberal Federationmore popularly known as the Justice Party was in power for manyyears almost uninterruptedly until 1937.

The Justice Party played a great role in the political history of thethen sprawling Madras Presidency and it is interesting to take a closelook at the history of this party which did have an indirect bearing onthe career and future of Venkatasubba Rao.


When Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao was elevated to the Bench,the Justice Party was holding fort and even though VenkatasubbaRao had no interest in politics or narrow political leanings, the JusticeParty watched his progress and growth and the official publication ofthe party, ‘Justice’ covered much of his social and cultural activities.

The regional parties of Tamil Nadu, Dravida Kazhagam (DK),Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Anaithu India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have all descended fromtheir alma mater, the Justice Party, which was a moving force in theold Madras Presidency during 1920s-1930s. That was the period whenthe British ruled India and the Justice Party captured power in theprovincial elections and ruled the Madras Presidency for many yearstill 1937. The story of the Justice Party forms part of the socio-politicalhistory of India.

After the passing of The Government of India Act of 1935, severalpolitical reforms were introduced in the country and legislativeassembly with people’s representatives were introduced for the firsttime in the history of modern India. General elections were held in theMadras Presidency in 1937 and the Justice Party leaders weretrounced and most of them were unceremoniously unseated. TheIndian National Congress party which contested the elections for thefirst time, swept the polls. Rajaji was elected as the leader of theCongress Legislative Party and became the Premier of Madras in1937. A feudal had come to a close and a new democratic order roseon the horizon…


CHIEF JUSTICE-CONTROVERSY

Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao had officiated as the Chief Justiceof the Madras High Court on several occasions and the Bar andmembers of the public expected rightly that he would be made thepermanent Chief Justice of Madras, thus begetting the honour of beingthe first Indian to adorn such a high office in the Madras Presidency.But regrettably, the British Indian Government had other ideas mainlybecause of political considerations and the hesitation in appointing anIndian as the Chief Justice, and especially a bold and dynamic personlike Venkatasubba Rao who would not toe their line even underpressure play second fiddle to the British Rulers. Consequently, hislegitimate claim to the high office was ignored by the British Indianrulers and Mr. Justice Lionel Leach, then a judge of the RangoonHigh Court, was brought to Madras to be appointed as the ChiefJustice. Lionel Leach (later Sir Lionel) was unknown to the membersof the Madras Bar excepting those who might have seen his name inreported judgements of the Rangoon High Court.

There was considerable criticism over the non-appointment ofVenkatasubba Rao as the Chief Justice, and many eminent citizenspublicly expressed their disapproval. The most important of them wasSir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer, one of the legal legends of Madras, whowas then the Dewan of the Travancore, a maharaja ruled state. Hewrote strong articles in legal publications expressing his criticismwithout flinching words for overlooking Venkatasubba Rao who wasintimately known to him during his lawyer days and also in other socialand cultural activities in the city. The British Indian Government alwaysfollowing a Divide and Rule Policy and virtually pitch-forked LionelLeach into the chair of the Chief Justice of Madras. With strong,


traditional, conservative outlook on men and matters, Sir Lionel was astrict person, which did not endear him to the Bar and the public whohad anything to do with courts.

During that period when the controversy raged there were wildrumours in Madras that Sir Mutha would resign his judgeship as amark of protest against the superscession of his claims to the highoffice of the Chief Justice, to which many thought he was legitimatelyentitled and deserving. He had officiated as the Chief Justice on twooccasions as the senior most judge, and when the permanent vacancyoccurred on the retirement of Sir Owen Beasley, he was expected tostep into the vacant chair.

During that period there were also rumours that Sir Mutha wouldcontest for the Vice Chancellorship of the Madras University expectedto fall vacant soon. But he discounted all the rumours as mererumours.

Not many are aware that during the discussions in the Council ofStates in Delhi, this controversy was discussed hotly. Mr. P. N. Sapruone of the noted members of the Council (son of the famous juristand top lawyer of India Tej Bahadur Sapru) urged that only theefficiency should be the test of appointment to judges of the HighCourt and he was not satisfied with the quality of ICS judges whoseignorance of Indian Law and Indian conditions were often commentedcritically by the public and by the members of the Bar. In particularhe referred to the claims of Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao to beappointed as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court but wasoverlooked. He asked with telling impact, “what is this if not racialdiscrimination?” Another member Ramadas Panthulu also referredto the injustice done to Sir Mutha

Venkatasubba Rao was knighted by the British Government in1936 in honour of his outstanding ability and contribution as a judge ofthe Madras High Court, which he had served with distinction anddynamism for seventeen long eventful years since his elevation in1921. He was now Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao.


MEMBER, DELIMITATION COMMITTEE

In 1935 he was appointed as a Member of the Delimitation Committeeof which Sir Lawrie Hammond was the chairman.

During mid 1930s the British government felt the necessity to bringin a new constitution for India to face the increasing pressure of thesnowballing Indian freedom movement under the leadership ofMahatma Gandhi and others. The British cabinet had no option thanto come out with a new Act for the Delimitation of the constituenciesof the Federal and Provincial Legislatures of India. And during August1935 R. A. Butler, Under-Secretary of the State for India announcedin the British Parliament that a Delimitation Committee to makerecommendations for the reorganisation of constituencies would beappointed, which would begin work in India in 1936. This was inconsequence of the Government of India Act of 1935, under whichGeneral Elections was proposed to be held in India which took placein 1937.

Earlier under the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, theDyarchy system was in force, and elections on a limited scale wereheld in provinces including Madras Presidency. However importantportfolios were kept by the British officers and the not so importantportfolios were given to the elected ministers. This proposal did notfind favour with the Indian National Congress Party who boycottedthe elections held in 1920 and in the Madras Presidency the JusticeParty, predominantly Non-Brahmin in its manpower content sweptthe polls due to the lack of any real opposition, and formed ministries.The Justice Party ruled the Madras Presidency until 1937 when generalelections were held. During the elections the Justice Party was


A group picture of the Indian Delimitation Committeewhich shows (left to right) Mr. E.C. Gayner, Asst. Secretary,

Mr. Jus tice M. Venkatasubba Rao, Sir Laurie Hammond, K.C.S.I., Chairman,Khan Bahadur Sheikh Din Muhammad, Mr. J.G. Laithwaite, C.I.E.,

and Rai Sahib D.N. Mitra at Madras on 10th October 1935.


trounced and lost face, and the Congress Party swept the polls toform the cabinet at Fort St. George under the leadership of Rajaji…

Mr. Butler announced in the British Parliament in London that theDelimitation Committee would consist of three eminent personalities,Sir Lawrie Hammond, former Governor of Assam, Mr. Justice MuthaVenkatasubba Rao of the Madras High Court, and Mr. Justice DinMahomed of the Lahore High Court were appointed members tomake recommendation for the Delimitation of constituencies.

Commenting about the committee a contemporary newspapereditorial observed, “…of Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao, the public in[Madras] this province need not be told much. His independence,integrity and all questions came up before that council for decision.He was also a member of the Provincial Franchise Committee in thePunjab and in that capacity had the experience of meeting the LothianCommittee and understanding the viewpoint, particularly of the Englishmembers of the Committee.

The Hammond Committee met many groups of people across thenation and during October 1935 it held its sittings in Simla. It heardoral evidence from various institutions including representatives oflabour, urban and rural interest. Covering the events of the sitting,The Hindu commented, “ Mr. Venkatasubba Rao showed a quickgrasp of points made by the witnesses and created a very favourableimpression.”

During the Committee hearings the three members heard manywomen witnesses who expressed difficulty of women candidatestouring over large constituencies, especially in the rural areas of Punjab.That province had considerable Muslim population and the womenobserved purdah. Some witnesses expressed doubts that such veiledwomen voters coming to the booths to cast their votes could be misusedby impersonation! Reacting to this point Sir Lawrie wondered howimpersonation could be prevented by Muslim lady voters in purdah! Asuggestion was made that artificial distinctions between urban andrural areas was not correct. Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao suggested


that only five or six big city centres in Punjab like Lahore, Amritsar,Multan, Rawalpindi and Jalandhar should be declared urban areasand the rest of the towns should be merged along with rural areas.

The Delimitation Committees work came to a close during January1936. A unanimous report was prepared and sent to the Secretary ofState of India in London (he was a member of the British Cabinet).

Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao and Lady Andal Rao becameextremely popular during their short stay in Delhi. Commenting abouthis work, the Hindu wrote, “Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao who took uphis work on the Committee with characteristic vigour and thoroughnesswill probably rejoin the Madras High Court by about February 10th”

The Delhi press hosted a tea party in honour of Sir Mutha andLady Andal which was largely attended by the elite of Delhi whichincluded Sir Lawrie Hammond, Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Ayyar, Sir GirijaShankar Bajpai, Dr. John Mathai, (famous economist and later FinanceMinister of India for a while) and several others.

Indeed an official farewell function was planned which wascancelled owing to the demise of His Majesty King George V inEngland.

A tribute to the work of the Committee was paid by R. A. Butler inthe British Parliament. The three members toured nearly 10,000miles in India in three months and produced one of the mostinteresting, detailed and efficient reports.

Interestingly Sir Mutha suggested separate seats for womenin the assembly, a thought far ahead of its time, but for manyreasons it was not given effect. Indeed the problem of women’srepresentation in the Parliament and assemblies has still not beensolved to the satisfaction of the fair sex.

It is rather sad to reflect that the current generation is almosttotally ignorant of the Delimitation Committee in its role in theestablishment of the constituencies, federal and provincial, in thecountry.


The Government of India introduced a new legislation which wouldhave far-reaching consequences in the political history of India. Knownas ‘The Government of India Act of 1935’ it provided among otherthings, general elections where every citizen who had completedeighteen years of age could vote, irrespective of any educational orproperty holding qualifications. Sadly, the Act also provided as part ofthe notorious ‘divide and rule policy’ of the British Government. Itcreated separate constituencies in basis of caste, creed and community,viz to prevent Indians from coming together and fighting united forthe freedom of the country and throwing out the Imperialistic Rulers.Under these provisions separate electorates were created for casteHindus, scheduled castes, Muslims and such communities, which wasnothing short of racism.

The aims of the Delimitation Committee were to consider andmake recommendations for the delimitation of constituencies for theFederal and Provincial legislatures to be established under the Act.

The Federal Legislature came to be known as Legislative AssemblyCentral, while provincial legislatures were mere known as LegislativeAssemblies followed by the name of the province.

The Committee that also undertook to decide and mark out thepolitical and geographical map of India for holding the General Elections,was formed by the British Government. High court judges, ICS officersand statesmen and such others were brought on board of theCommittee and Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao was one of its members.The Committee examined several witnesses drawing them from awide cross section of the country and Venkatasubba Rao and hisfellow members interviewed as many as two hundred of them. Oneof the meetings took place in Simla during October 1935.Representatives from the press, labour unions, and rural groups,Christian community members gave evidence with each batch beinggiven 30 minutes. Reporting that meeting in Simla, The Hindu datedOctober 4, 1935 stated ‘Mr. Venkatasubba Rao showed a quick graspof the points made by the witnesses and created a very favorable


impression’. The Committee forming new electoral constituencies,altering some of the existing ones, adding and subtracting from otherareas, this exercise took quite some time.


SIR MUTHA, AGENT OF BERAR

After a long innings as judge, Sir Mutha bade goodbye to theMadras High Court when he retired in 1938 when he was the actingChief Justice. The British Indian government well aware of his talents,skills and more would not waste such a person to retirement andtaking life easy, and neither was Sir Mutha that kind of person. In1939 he was appointed as the Agent of Berar of the Nizam ofHyderabad. As the first Agent he laid the foundation to devise thepattern and set the tradition of the unique and high office for which hehad no precedent to rely and fall back upon. He even made the groundrules within the given framework.

To narrate a slice of history about Nizam and Berar…

On October 24, 1936, an agreement was reached between HisMajesty the King Emperor of India and His Exalted Highness theNizam of Hyderabad, a faithful ally of the British government whichrecognized and reaffirmed the sovereignty of the Nizam over thedistricts of Berar. The agreement recited that the Nizam should havethe right to maintain an Agent at the seat of the Government of CentralProvinces and Berar with its capital in Nagpur, for the purpose ofrepresenting the views of the Nizam’s Government, with referenceto any matter of common interest to the British Indian CentralProvinces and Berar and Hyderabad which would directly affect theinterests of Hyderabad.

Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao was appointed as the first Agent bythe Nizam. His office was at Nagpur as the Agent of Berar, whichwas earlier part of the Nizam’s Dominions. Those were the SecondWorld War years (1939-1945) and the country faced severe shortages


Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao at theNizam’s Birthday Parade – 18th August 1939.


and several things of daily use were rationed and the list includedrice, pulses, cloth, wheat, and even potatoes and petrol. Coupons weregiven to car owners and if they exhausted their coupons they had nooption but to seek public transport or walk to their destination! Therewere petrol-rationing offices which controlled petrol and one couldnot get even a drop outside, except of course under the counter thenknown as black market. Some secretaries to the Agent who wereyoung officers of the Hyderabad Civil Service (HCS) filled in petrolration application forms and brought them to the notice of their bossVenkatasubba Rao. He was furious and refused to fill any forms forhis personal use and was quite content to stay at home. The BritishCollector, the British Resident at Secunderabad, then a cantonmentarea under British Indian control, and even representatives of theviceroy at Delhi failed to make him change his attitudes and sign theforms for his use. Such was his intellectual honesty and devotion toduty.

He was honest to the core and did not hesitate to confesshis ignorance. Once while he was travelling with V. Sundaram,Radhakrishnayya’s eldest son, (who later became a pilot) by trainwith one of his friends he was curious to know about the alarm chainhe saw in the carriage. He had no idea of what it was all about andasked Sundaram how such things worked. Like a curious and eagerchild he heard with undivided attention Sundaram’s narration of thevacuum brake, automatic application thereof by the passenger, thesignal system, the gadgets to identify the particular carriage, its releasemechanism and all. He thanked the youngster for educating him onthat aspect of railway travel. (The fine in those days for the improperuse of pulling the chain by a passenger was Rs. 50. And today inkeeping with the changing times it has been raised to Rs. 500).

During the British rule of India the Nizam of Hyderabad was givena special status in preference to the other native rulers like maharajas,rajas, zamindars, nawabs and others. Indeed while all other maharajashad the titular prefix His Highness, he was given the more high soundingtitle His Exalted Highness (HEH). Such special treatment was given


The Venkatasubba Rao with the Prince of Berar.

The Venkatasubba Rao with their personal s taff.


because of his immense wealth. At one time the Nawab was one ofthe richest men in the world, ranking next only to the historic billionairesof America, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller. He also had afabulous collection of diamonds and other precious stones and jewellerywhose immense value could not be easily estimated.

During those early decades of the 19th-20th century, the area knownas ‘Berar’ was part of the Nizam’s Dominions. The heir apparent ofthe Nizam was given the titular name Prince of Berar like the Princeof Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne. One of the laternawabs had some misunderstandings with the British Empire, dealingsin the purchase of a rare diamond known as ‘Jacob’s Diamond’ whichhe could not pay in full as stipulated. The British governmentunderstandably developed a dislike for this diamond-crazy Nawaband seized the area Berar, and after such seizure it became part ofthe Central Province, and then renamed as Central Provinces andBerar, with its capital at Nagpur. The CP and Berar High Court wassituated in Nagpur.

After the reorganization of India on linguistic basis, Nagpur lost itsearlier importance and CP and Berar was renamed Madhya Pradesh,with many areas added to Maharashtra including Nagpur City. Bhopal,which was the seat of the Nawab of Bhopal, a toady of the British,became the new capital of Madhya Pradesh. However the son of thelast Nizam Usman Ali Khan, Musram Jah still called himself as Princeof Berar. After Hyderabad became part of India that is Bharath, theprince migrated to Australia.


SIR MUTHA THE MAN

During late 1920s when Mutha Venkatasubba Rao was a judgeof the Madras High Court, the Government of Madras appointed himas member of the Madras Law College Council, an advisory bodygiving opinions and recommendations towards the working of thefamous College.

The Council consisted of three judges of the Madras High Court,the Advocate General a former minister (belonging to the Justice Party) and a prominent lawyer from Madras.

During December 1927 the Council made recommendationsregarding the appointment of the Principal of the College. Being suchan important office and appointment to the College, the opinion of theCouncil regarding its choice of Principal was unceremoniously ignoredby the Government. As a mark of protest and in a decision which wasthen considered daring for a sitting judge of the Madras High Court todiffer with the government, he resigned his membership of the Councilbecause of their recommendations being ignored. The learned judgestated that while their recommendations could not be considered tobe mandatory, they should still consult the Council with reference toany particular individual it had in view, and find out what the Councilhad to state regarding the choice of the Principal. He felt that it waselementary courtesy which the Government was bound to extend tothe Council which consisted of judges of the High Court, lawyers,and former ministers.

The press of that day strongly stood behind his Lordship’s stand,and commenting on his resignation, the mouthpiece of the JusticeParty ‘Justice’ wrote editorially, “We are not surprised that so high an


Mr. Jus tice Venkatasubba Raoas Scout Provincial Commissioner.

Justice Venkatasubba Rao with Lord Baden Powell


authority as Justice Venkatasubba Rao should have effectivelyexpressed his resentment at the action of the Government of Madras.

Not many are aware that Sir Mutha had a keen interest in the BoyScout movement and was deeply involved with the Madras Boy Scouts.Indeed he was the Provincial Commissioner of the association for aperiod and he succeeded Dewan Bahadur Kumaraswamy Reddiar.

His name was suggested to that high honorary office as early as1924, but he withdrew in favour of Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer whowas then the Law Member of the Government of Madras. He hadgenuine love and interest in the Boy Scout Movement and also servedas the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the first Madras BoyScouts jamboree. He was also the Vice-President of the ProvincialCouncil and President of the Madras District Scout Council and inboth such capacities he rendered meritorious service to the Cause ofthe Scouts Movement in South India.

In recognition of such high meritorious service, in 1929 the MadrasDistrict Scouts council voted to award him a gold thanks badge, inrecognition of his services to the movement. But true to his nature, hedeclined the honour for he felt that his services for the Scout Movementshould not receive any form, reward or award.

The many amenities which the Boy Scouts of Madras City enjoyedwere made possible by his generous influence and support in the buildingof the Swimming Bath at Wenlock Park.

The Governor of Madras Sir George Stanley before he left Madrasunveiled a portrait of Sir Mutha at the Provincial Scouts headquartersin recognition of his distinguished service to the movement.

Sir Mutha also had the unique honour, distinction and privilege ofmeeting Lord Baden-Powell, the founding father of the ScoutMovement during his visit to India.


Venkatasubba Rao was a kind soul with a generous heart, everconscious of the pains and problems of his fellow men and women,their stresses and strains, tensions and troubles, irrespective of theirsocial status or any such materialistic considerations. He treated everyhuman being, high or low, big or small, as one and the same, like hewould treat himself. This quality is very rare in human beings whohave attained success in life. But Venkatasubba Rao had this inabundance with enough to spare.

(A few events in his life narrated to this writer during the courseof research of this book by his relations and friends, more particularlywomen who were recipients of his generosity and the unceasinglyflowing milk of human kindness…)

In those decades, avenues of entertainment for young girls werelimited. There was no television, which was still in the Womb of Time,and Radio in Madras did not rise on the horizon till mid-1930s. Moviesuntil 1931 were silent and in those days cinema was looked downupon as an avenue of doubtful value, especially for girls growing upinto puberty and thereafter. There was considerable theatre activityin Tamil, Telugu and even Kannada in the city, but that was a restrictedarea to which young girls did not show much interest.

Therefore the only avenue of recreation and entertainment forsuch women, especially those who were economically backward andinsecure, was the beach. Madras has a long shoreline on the Bay ofBengal stretching to several miles and many beaches developed bythe Government and Corporation of Madras provided happy sourcesof relief and recreation, entertainment and joy. The most popular beachin those days was the High Court Beach and the now internationallyrenowned Marina Beach close to Triplicane. The San Thome Beachwas also well known, but because of its distance from other parts ofthe city in those days, it was mainly the venue for those living inMylapore and surrounding neighborhoods.

The High Court Beach, sadly vanished today as a consequence ofthe expansion and development of the Madras Port, was during those


decades a major attraction for citizens living in what is now known asNorth Madras.

In the decades gone by of the Madras High Court Beach, (itdisappeared during the 1950s due to the expansion of the MadrasPort) near the sea waters there was a metal pole with loudspeakersatop broadcasting radio programs during the evening hours. Naïveand rustic folks wondered where the song and such were comingfrom! The magic post? This was referred to in a popular song fromthe film “En Manaivi”, ‘Sayangala nerathiley samudrakarai orathileymaayamaana kambam onnu manushan pola paduthaiah!’ (Even-time,besides the sea, a magic-pole sings like a man!)

In mid-1930s the Corporation of Madras launched the first RadioBroadcasting Station for the benefit and pleasure of the citizens ofMadras. Familiarly known as Corporation Radio, the broadcastingwas confined to few hours during the evening. The program consistedof news and concerts of classical Carnatic Music and such items offine arts entertainment. It could be heard only in Madras City limits.Very few are aware that areas like Guindy and Saidapet were beyondthe city limit in those days, and areas like Anna Nagar, K.K. Nagar,Besant Nagar, Ashok Nagar and such did not exist. Madras was thena small city with typical small town attitudes in manners and morals!

The radio broadcasting was the contribution of C. V. KrishnaswamiChetty who was the top electrical engineer of the Corporation. Hewas related to Sir Mutha by his marriage to Lady Andal, a member ofCVK’s family.

In 1937 the Government of India launched All India Radio and theMadras station then situated on Marshalls Road, Egmore, wasinaugurated by Rajaji who was the then Premier of the MadrasPresidency.

Sir Mutha and Lady Andal took the young girls under their care atthe Madras Seva Sadan to the beach almost every other evening,watching them play and amusing themselves on the golden glistening


sands of the beach. On those evenings Sir Mutha managed to distancehimself from his beloved wife for a very particular reason. He wouldbuy many baskets of expensive apples and distribute them generouslyto poor people, boys and girls who invariably came to the beach, lookingfor kind acts of generosity from the citizens of Madras. He gavewithout hesitation and watched their expressions when they held theexpensive apples biting into the rich fruit which they could never buythemselves.

Sir Mutha was very meticulous that he gave those seeking almsfrom him new one rupee notes. He would personally fold each of thenotes into four and give one such note to the alms seeker. Indeed heknew all the physically challenged people in the beach and wouldenquire if any one of them went missing on a particular day, about theperson. He would also spontaneously offer help to such alms seekers.

Sir Mutha always loved to dress to the hilt and some more, in a suitand had excellent taste in clothes. Being a judge of the High Court herarely went out without his customary suit. Later in life he used towear ‘sherwanis’ and still later only white cotton ‘jibbas’ and pyjamas.When he went to the beach he used to wear a couple of jibbas so thathe could give away the extra one worn to the needy and the poor.This he did because wives as a rule do not take kindly to husband’sdisappearing clothes.

There was a young man who had lost both his arms in an accidentand Sir Mutha and Lady Andal took care of him and provided for hisrehabilitation. Aware that he had an aged and not so well mother inMadurai, Sir Mutha sent a decent sum of money every month to thelady in the name of the son so that she would not know the unfortunatephysical state of her son. Such instances are many in the life of thedevoted couple.

In those days there was hardly any schemes for the uplift of thepoor and depressed, and the two played their role in great measuregiving from their own private resources, though sometimes they sought


help from their friends who had enough and the heart to spare.

Once some valuables like wristwatch and silver utensils weremissing from his room in his bungalow, and soon after, two inspectorsof police brought the carpenter who used to work for him as the thiefwho had stolen them. The two inspectors stood in respect of his beinga judge, and he asked them to be seated, which they did with muchhesitation. While the suspect was still standing between the twoinspectors he asked him to be seated, which obviously the inspectorsdid not like. He then stunned them by saying if the carpenter was notseated he would also stand. The carpenter broke down, deeply touchedby the kindness of his boss and confessed his crime. Sir Mutha saidhe would have helped him if only he knew of his monetary problemsinstead of resorting to thieving. That was not all. He educated all thefive daughters of the carpenter at the Sadan as boarders.

This event in his life recalls the famous episode of the Bishop andthe Candlesticks in the immortal “Les Miserables” by French literarymaestro Victor Hugo. An interesting case of life imitating art.


UNVEILING OF HIS PORTRAIT

A portrait of Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao was unveiled onDecember 14,1938 at the Madras High Court, by Sir Lionel Leachwho was then the Chief Justice, in the presence of a large anddistinguished gathering of judges, advocates and others.

The portrait, a full length canvas, seven feet by five feet, paintedby C. Nageswara Rao, a well known artist of Bombay, depicting SirMutha in a sitting posture was presented by the Madras High CourtAdvocates Association (MHAA) in appreciation of their respect,regard, love and affection for Sir Mutha.

Sriman S. Srinivasa Iyengar, one of the greatest lawyers of thecountry who was then the President of the MHAA presided over thefunction. In his address he said, “Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao realisedmore than anybody else in the value of discipline. An independent,fearless, well-trained and well equipped competent Bar was anindispensable requisite for the administration of justice… SirVenkatasubba Rao was called to the Bench at a comparatively earlyage and perhaps he had the mathematical satisfaction that he had thelongest career on the Bench. He was for seventeen years a judge ofthis court. He was not only a great judge but also an independent andfearless judge and he brought to bear on his task a formidable andvigorous brain, infinite patience and love of hard work. It might besaid that Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao paid more attention even to smallcases than was required. Time in his court sometimes stood still (loudlaughter) but that did not matter much. He possessed a dignifiedbehavior and unfailing courtesy to all. Throughout his career on theBench he gave universal satisfaction to all.”


The portrait of Sir Venkatasubba Rao,painted by C. Nageshwara Rao from Bombay.


Speaking on the occasion Sir Lionel Leach said, “It is fitting thatthese walls should bear the portraits of distinguished judges of thiscourt and consequently it is fitting that there should be hung the portraitof Sir Mutha who was a judge of great distinction… I have often feltthat the age fixed for the retirement of judges in this country is toolow and in the case of Sir Mutha the rule was particularly inappropriate.Few judges in this country have however served so long on the Benchas he did…from the beginning to the end he had the full confidence ofthe litigant who came before him and full confidence of the Bar. Iowe Sir Mutha a personal debt of gratitude for the assistant which hegave me in picking up the threads of the administrative work here andI shared the regret of you all when on July 18 of this year he ceasedto be a member of this court… I am sure that this portrait, which I amabout to unveil, will be a source of inspiration to those who now andthose who in future will walk in these corridors”.

After living and leading a full and exemplary life of remarkableachievement in his chosen profession, the law and also service to theweak, poor and downtrodden, Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao passedaway during the night of December 30, 1960. His body was taken tothe cremation ground in Nungambakkam by the students of the MadrasSeva Sadan who had come to pay their homage to their benefactor athis residence Vraja on Thirumalai Pillai Road, T. Nagar.

A large number of women connected with various social welfareand educational institutions in the City called at his residence to paytheir respects to the dear departed soul and to condole the inconsolableLady Andal. They also joined in the Ram Naam bhajan.

The then Governor of Madras Vishnuram Medhi, Rajaji, P. V.Rajamannar the Chief Justice and other judges of the Madras HighCourt, the Chief Minister K. Kamaraj and Finance Minister C.Subramaniam were among the dignitaries who called at their residenceto pay their respects. A reference to the death of Sir Mutha wasmade before R. Sadasivam, Chief Presidency Magistrate (later a judge


of the High Court) who sat along with the Fifth, Seventh and NinthMagistrates of the Egmore court. T. S. Venkataraman, well knownlawyer of Egmore Bar made the reference and later the court wasadjourned as a mark of respect to the departed soul.


SIR MUTHA THE TRAVELLER

Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao and Lady Andal Rao were avidtravellers,eager to see the world and study how the other half of theworld lived. As socially conscious persons they were equally eagerand anxious to study the various problems of people of classes andkinds in the places they toured in India and abroad.

As a member of the Delimitation Committee, Sir Mutha and LadyAndal had the unique opportunity of travelling to what was thenconsidered faraway places like Simla, Delhi, Nagpur and others. As amember of the Committee he interacted with as many as two hundredpeople giving evidence before the Committee who belonged to variousbackgrounds, communities, castes and creed, which gave him a closerview of those persons and their problems. He also interacted withmembers of the Gurkha community and many women who gaveevidence before him.

For his honeymoon he and his wife toured Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)and visited many places including the famous holiday resort NuwaraEliya (known as ‘Little England’) and of course places like Jaffnaand Colombo.

He also visited Europe and the Far East and toured countries likeChina and Japan when not many Indians ventured to visit suchcountries in those times. He developed lasting friendships with people,especially in China, which had common links with India throughBuddhism, along with Japan. He particularly made a study of thestatus of women in China during a period when women hardly hadany rights and were virtually treated as slaves.

Interestingly the passport issued to him bears the number 300 which


reveals that not many people applied for passports to travel abroad inthose days!

Travel always broadens one’s mind and sense of perception, makingthe person alive to the plusses and minuses of those countries to whichone travels. Much about the country, its culture and civilization arelearnt by mental osmosis and the Venkatasubba Raos benefittedimmensely by such travels.

That was the period when air travel was not yet in vogue and thecouple sailed along the silvery moon on the high seas, enjoying theluxury and soothing comforts of voyage through waters…

Around 1950, Sir Mutha and Lady Andal were introduced to SriRama Devi, a saint who hailed from Mangalore. They came underher influence and impact, and her teachings about life and livingappealed to them in a very great manner. The couple soon becameher ardent devotees.

Rama Devi attracted a number of disciples and devotees in MadrasCity and Venkatasubba Rao constructed a ‘bhajan’ hall on the groundsof his bungalow ‘Vraja’ on Thirumalai Pillai Road, T. Nagar.

On many occasions Rama Devi and a host of her disciples stayedwith them giving talks, performing poojas, meeting the students ofSeva Sadan and advising them about life and living.

She gave the inmates of the Sadan valuable advice to preparethem for the future with confidence, hope and joy. In one of hermessages she said, “Obedience is a supreme virtue that you mustpractise. Your teachers and parents in facing life have had manyproblems to solve and thus have gained much experience. It is needlessfor you to go through the same hardship when you can profit by theirexperience. Learn to be modest and humble… while reading, do notlet your attention be diverted from studies. There will come a timewhen you will be called upon to play an important part in the affairs ofmen. Wait patiently till then and in the mean time acquire as much


Bajana Hall at “Vraja” — the founder ’s last home.

The devotees inside the hall singing bajans.


Sathguru Sri Rama Devi with the Rao fami ly.

Lady Andal, the Madras Seva Sadan girlsand the bajana mandali – “Margali orukolam”.


knowledge as you can… Habit they say is second nature and now isthe time to learn good habits- cleanliness, tidiness, punctuality andabove all never to break a promise once made, for that is the surestway of making people trust you… To young girls now at school myadvice is this you will have many future household duties to perform,do not neglect them. You are future mothers and to you will fall theduty of moulding the minds and lives of your children. There is atendency now among young women to lead a life of pleasure, leavingthe care of children to servants. This is a temptation you mustwithstand… self sacrifice and regard for others’ feeling is thefoundation on which your life must rest…”

This advice created much impact among the students and inmatesand they derived many benefits in their later life.

Sadly Rama Devi is not much known today and only those whohave come under the influence of the Venkatasubba Raos and havebeen part and parcel of the Madras Seva Sadan remember her, herteachings, her guiding principles and all.

Venkatasubba Rao married Andalamma in 1922, which proved tobe a milestone for together with her he was able to make his dreamscome true in contributing in mighty measure to social welfare andreform in Hindu society. Above all, both the adoring and loving couplecreated history by founding the Madras Seva Sadan in 1928, and onDecember 30, 1960, at the age of 82 he passed away after leading anexemplary, eventful, endearing and successful life at many levels.

Undaunted by the inconsolable tragedy, Andalamma who was nowLady Andal Venkatasubba Rao after her husband’s knighthood, carriedthe torch handed over to her with great glory, carrying out his wishes,ideas and ideals for the rest of her life.

In 1922 Andalamma, the young widow, married Mr. JusticeVenkatasubba Rao. It was a wedding which in those conservativetimes and chimes created history and laid the foundation for the


reformist weddings of young widows who were then treated asharbingers of bad luck. The widow was so cruelly treated by orthodoxsociety, that it was considered bad luck to come across one whilewalking on the street on an important mission. The person wouldcurse the widow mentally, returning to his house to drink a cup ofwater, wait for a few minutes and then start again on his mission.

That was not all. The Presidency Girls’ High School where LadyAndal was a student, treated widows no better. A widow comingfrom an orthodox wealthy family was admitted into the school, as thesocially reformist father and visionary, a successful medical practitionerin Madras City, did not want his daughter to wear traditional widowweeds, shave her head and mope at home. As his relations objectedto his daughter being admitted for her education, he shifted hisresidence to another part of the city where he hired a bungalow andengaged a hand drawn rickshaw to take her to and bring her backfrom school. It is a matter of shame that many of her classmatesjeered at her for coming to school and many thought that the youngwidow would bring them bad luck. The unkindest cut of them allcame from the teachers. The cruel teachers made her sit outside theclassroom treating her like an outcaste, and she had to play extraattention to be able to hear the teacher teaching lessons. While otherstudents were asked questions on subjects, this girl who was a topper,was not asked even a single question, being a widow. It is a mark ofjoy and consolation that she made a mark in life later, carving a nichefor herself and earning a reputation as one of the finest lady doctorsof Madras City, with her own nursing home where she broughthappiness, solace, and comfort to women young and old, and theirparents for many years treating less fortunate patients free.

Sir Mutha and Lady Andal lived in a palatial house in the CollegeRoad area in Nungambakkam. Known as ‘Albany’, it had a vastcompound and during those days there was hardly any traffic on thatroad. Today of course it is a different story...!

‘Albany’ was a manorial bungalow built in the colonial architecturalstyle and was situated on College Road. From the name it is obviousthat it was originally built by an Englishman who came to Madras


during the earlier century, either to work for the East India Companyor after 1857 the British Indian rulers at Fort St. George. This bungalowwith several rooms had a large tract of land surrounding it and wasbelieved to have been around ten acres in area. Venkatasubba Raoand Lady Andal moved into this bungalow as tenants paying a monthlyrental of Rs. 2000, which was a big fortune during the early decadesof the 20th century. When he began practice as an Original Sidelawyer, Venkatasubba Rao was believed to have had his office in thecrowded George Town area on Strotten Muthaia Mudali Street. Fromthe name, Muthaia Mudali was either a ‘dubash’ or a high-placedofficer of a company called Strotten. Even in those days

George Town was a crowded neighbourhood with narrow streets,lanes and by-lanes, with ‘street houses’ on either side.

Albany disappeared over the years and was believed to have existedaround what is today Subba Rao Avenue, which is an offshoot ofCollege Road. Later the devoted couple moved to Spurtank Road inEgmore, which was then an aristocratic neighbourhood to yet anotherspacious house called ‘Spurtank House’ with a compound of about40 grounds (2400 sq feet make a ground.) In later years the housewas renamed Muktha Gardens, and passed into the hands of notedhotelier of Madras City and its sometime Mayor, V. R. RamanathaIyer of the well known Ramakrishna Lunch Home at Georgetown. Inrecent decades Spurtank Road has been renamed as Mayor V. R.Ramanatha Iyer Road.

As the Venkatasubba Raos had no children of their own, expectedlythey were very fond of them. Many children from the Madras SevaSadan hostel spent their holidays with them at Spurtank House. LadyAndal would sit and string all the flowers in the garden and personallyadorn each one of them. The children were all without any family oftheir own, and some of them were lost during the evacuation of Burma.Lady Andal took care of eighty of them, settling each one of thembefore she passed away.

Their home had several servants, and one of the members of thefamily recalled how on a particular holiday Lady Andal was tense


and agitated that she had only one hundred servants and that she wasshort staffed! That was the period when Sir Mutha was the Agent ofBerar at Hyderabad. Sir Mutha always told his friends, family andothers that even though he had been a successful lawyer and a highcourt judge for seventeen long years he was always a student, rightthrough his life and still learning. As the Tamil saying goes, what oneknows is only a fistful of sand, and what one does not know is like theocean. He always believed in listening to the other person’s point ofview, which was instilled in him in large measure during his significantsojourn on the Bench of the Madras High Court. He was ever cool asa cucumber and never lost his temper. He also had enormous patienceto explain to people around him especially the children, what could bedone and what could not be done and why something could not bedone. He also listened to children with great interest even thoughmost often what they spoke about did not make much sense!

Not many are aware that Lady Andal was also interested in classicalCarnatic music. That was the reason which she introduced musicclasses in her school to teach vocal, veena and such instruments tointerest her students.

She was one of the promoters of the famous Vani Mahal, alandmark in the T. Nagar area of the city. The main spirit behind VaniMahal was the celebrated stage and screen star, music composer,musician and above all an overgenerous human being, Chittoor V.Nagaiah. During those days there was no music sabha in the T. Nagararea where Nagaiah lived, and thanks to his efforts the Thyaga BrahmaGana Sabha was born with him as the spearhead of promoting thesabha and building an auditorium for it. Other promoters included thewell known medical practitioner of T. Nagar Dr. V. Rama Iyengar,the sadly neglected pioneer of south Indian cinema, S. Soundararajan(Tamil Nadu Talkies), S. Ramaswamy Naidu a leading share andstock broker and later mayor of Madras, Dr. P. B. Annangarachariara leading medical practitioner of T. Nagar and also a member of theCorporation of Madras, and last but not the least was Lady Andal.Vani Mahal was declared open on November 18, 1945, by Sir C. P.Ramaswamy Aiyer who was then the Dewan of Travancore State.


Lady Andal took a leading part in the inaugural celebration lendingdignity and stature with her impressive presence and inherent charm.

Affectionately known as ‘amma’ to the pupils and staff of hervarious institutions, she was somewhat shy by nature and never soughtpraise or publicity. Never satisfied with what she had achieved shealways desired to move ahead taking advantage of every opportunitytowards progress and development of her various institutions, andtowards the fruition of the objectives of the Madras Seva Sadan.Indeed two words in her life gave her utmost pleasure. One was‘Naina’, the pet name of Sir Venkatasubba Rao and the other, SevaSadan. Even though she was involved in many social serviceorganizations in Madras City, she believed in devoting most of hertime to Seva Sadan. As soon as she dropped off her husband at theHigh Court premises she would rush back to the Madras Seva Sadanpremises and work without break until her husband returned fromcourt at 5 p.m.

Both Sir Venkatasubba Rao and Lady Andal were deeply religiousand organised religious functions at their home with great fervour.After the much-mourned passing away of Sir Venkatasubba Rao onDecember 30, 1960, Lady Andal lost much of her spirit and zest forlife. Yet she continued to devote herself to the institutions she and herdear departed husband had built over the years with much hard work,sincerity and singleness of purpose. She was never sick and did notknow even a single day of illness.

On Sunday October 12, 1969, she was her usual cheerful self,playing with her 2-year-old great grand-nephew Krish till 11 a.m. Herfamily members spoke to her at 1 p.m. and then 2 hours later by 3p.m. Lady Andal, the founding mother of Madras Seva Sadan passedaway into the yonder blue of no return. However her spirit still lives inShenstone Park, guiding the others who took over her mantle….

She departed from this world as she wished without causing anytrouble to anyone. Even though almost 40 years have gone over the


horizon since her shocking demise, the void she left behind stillcontinues and no one can ever fill it for those who loved her dearly…


LADY ANDAL

The Chettys who are basically Telugu speaking were believed tobe originally Jains who later began to worship the Hindu goddessKanikaparameswari and also Gomatha. Because of their devotion toGomatha the community members came to be known as ‘komatis’.Most of them were involved in businesses of many a kind and to agood extent many of them are still involved to this day.

The Telugu-speaking Komatis of Madras owned vast propertiesin the city and they founded several charitable institutions, establishingschools, especially for women and also free hostels for the economicallybackward. They also built what are called in Indian English, choultrieswhere is the anglicized version of the word chathram which means afree boarding and lodging house where members of a particularcommunity could stay on their visits to sacred and other places. Suchchoultries run by the komatis still function in many parts of the oldMadras Presidency and also the present states of Andhra Pradeshand Karnataka.

The interesting history of the community awaits to be told in detailby a competent social historian. There have been some attempts atrecording this history but an exhaustive work has not yet been done.

Andalamma hailed from a wealthy family of Telugu speaking AryaVysyas known as Komatis. She was a descendent of the historicThatikonda family. (Thatikonda Namberumal Chetty was one of thegreatest builders in the history of India and more so Madras City. Asbuilding contractor working under British architects and engineers hebuilt many edifices, which are today landmarks in the city like the


Andalamma in costume.

Womens’ Empowerment!Andalamma (4th from left) with her Komati Relations.


Vedavalli Thayaramma (Andalamma’s mother)with N.V. Rao, her grandson.

Andalamma with her nephew, N.V.Rao.


Venkatram Chetty, only brother ofAndalamma and father of N.V.Rao.


(Left to Right) Mrs. N. Seetha Rao, N. Venkatram Rao, N.V. Rao on lap– N. Venkatnarain Rao, Sir Mutha, Prema, Lady Andal.

Andalamma. Lady Andal.


Photo taken at the annual meeting of the Madras Nurses’ Club,held on Wednesday, 24th February 1932,

under the presidency of Mrs. Venkatasubba Rao.

Lady Andal with Lady Goshea.

The occasion of the annual mee ting of the Women’s Indian Association.(Left to Right) Ms. Annie Besant, President of the Association,

Mrs. Lady Andal and Mrs. Ammu Swaminathan – 15th April 1929.


Madras Central Station, Museum Theatre, Art Gallery, Lighthouse ofthe Madras High Court Buildings, State Bank of India building onNorth Beach Road, now Rajaji Salai, the General Post Office (GPO)and several others. All the public buildings were constructed with redbricks.

He also owned several bungalows and houses all over the cityespecially in areas like Egmore, Chetpet, Georgetown and Park Town.In those days it used to be said that any building in Madras paintedcream yellow belonged to him! This writer recalls a famous restaurantin Park Town area of the city, Mysore Cafe known for its Mysore‘bonda sambar’, was situated in a large building with an excellentarchitectural façade in front on the top of which was the legend,Thatikonda House.

During a period when few girls went to school, especially oncethey came of age which was quite early in those days, Andalamma asshe was affectionately known, was given the benefit of a goodeducation.

Even at school, Andalamma while growing, learnt something ofimmense value which no school teaches but everyone needs. Thatwas social awareness with human feeling and the ability to feelcompassion for the poor, helpless and less fortunate and the everburning desire to do something some day to change their plight. Littledid she realise during those days that an opportunity would come herway with a bang.

As a young girl she married into the well known and prominentVemur family. Misfortune struck and she became a widow while stillin her early teens. She then realized that with remarriage beingimpossible in those days she had to live a secluded life – the sad lot ofwidows in those days when such a person was thought to be a badomen. It was then Dame Destiny took her life in her hands and herlife changed when she met the person who would play a great role inher life and also the lives of others. He was Mutha VenkatasubbaRao.


According to family friends, the two met at the residence of aprominent citizen of Madras, C.V. Krishnaswamy Chetty, son-in-lawof T. Namberumal Chetty who was then the top slot engineer of theCorporation of Madras, and was responsible for the electrification ofthe city, and also setting up the first radio broadcasting system inMadras, which was introduced by the Corporation. The meetingbetween the two kindred souls took strong roots and soon they fell inlove, and in a brave gesture breaking tradition they married, and soonAndal became Mrs. Andal Venkatasubba Rao. Later when herbeloved husband was knighted, she became Lady Andal Rao.

Born with a silver spoon in her mouth she enjoyed all the comfortsof the wealthy class and was born on November 22, 1894. She waseducated at St. Thomas Convent in Mylapore and later at thePresidency Girl’s High School Madras.

In those days girls were married before they reached the age ofpuberty and most of them acquired husband before they were hardlyeleven. Child marriages were also common.

Lady Andal was expectedly married when she was not yet in herteens, but regrettably she lost her husband and became a widow quiteearly. But she was made of sterner stuff and did not go under theunkind lashings of dame Destiny. She decided to fight her way throughlife. Being aware of the plight of the young virgin widows in the countrywho were poor, she made up her mind to devote herself to socialservice, especially to bring solace, comfort, and happiness to suchwidows, the abandoned and the destitute. The seeds which were thussown grew into a mighty oak which came to be known as the MadrasSeva Sadan.

She was a person warm, kind, and generous and never treatingher fellow human beings, however low or poor they might be, witharrogance. She used to live in the first floor of her bungalow whereshe had her office, and there was a rope and pulley arrangement witha basket tied up at the bottom end of the rope. If any messages had tobe conveyed to her, the basket would be lowered and the message


would be dropped in it by the servants. She would pull it up and thengive instructions to the people below for the needful to be done. Shemade this arrangement of rope pulley and basket because she did notwant her servants male and female to be climbing steps many times aday. This was one of her outstanding qualities, rarely seen in thosedays and even today. Such was her concern for her fellow humanbeings. However she was not a soft person. She was tough and couldhandle situations and persons whenever necessary with steel-harddetermination and decision

Lady Andal as a woman coming from a conservative backgroundwas religious as most Hindu women, especially of that era, andperformed her rituals and poojas regularly, also drawing her studentsinto her spiritual sphere.

That was the period when many highly placed women of Madras,who ventured out into the social whirl of living did not much botherabout the religious side of their lives. However Lady Andal was ahappy exception and to a good extent influenced her husband into herline of thinking.

Even though her energies physical, mental and others were devotedto the Madras Seva Sadan, she also took part in several other activitiesof the Madras Presidency. Despite demanding schedules and unlimiteddemands on her time she managed being on several bodies of southIndia rendering immense service for the causes of the institution.

It will be interesting to take note of the various bodies andinstitutions with which she was intimately connected. A list is givenbelow…

1. President: The Nurses Association.

2. Chairman : The Reception Committee of the Fourth MadrasConstituent Conference of Women on Educational Reform

3. Vice President: The Nurse’s Club 1928Old Girls’ Association of the Presidency High School


The Society for the Protection of Cows and Animals 1928-1930The Music Academy

4. Honorary Secretary: The Madras Children’s Aid Society

5. Member:The District Secondary Education Board 1936.The Madras Nurses and Midwives Council.Lady Member of the Advisory Committee of the General

Hospital Madras 1937-1940Advisory Council of the Queen Mary’s College 1938-1941Advisory Committee Government Hospital for

Women and Children 1930-1937General Committee –The Indian Red CrossMadras University Senate – 1939Governing Body of the Indian Medical School and

Hospital, Madras, 1935.Central Advisory Committee for Women’s Education, 1930Training School for Health Visitors Course.Lady sub-committee of MSPC.The Provincial Council of Girl Guides Association- 1930.The Executive Committee of the Vigilance Association .Alderwoman Madras City Corporation Council 1938.Honorary visitor to the School of Arts and Crafts 1930-1933Lady Assessor Royal Labour Commission, Madras.

For her outstanding work in social welfare Lady Andal wasawarded the King George V Medal and the Kaiser-i-Hind Medal.The President of India honoured her by conferring on her PadmaBhushan. Interestingly she was one of the few girls at the turn of the20th century to be seen cycling in Madras City. She was also oneof the first Indian women to drive a car in Madras.

Her willingness to work for any good cause that promised theamelioration of suffering and the stress she laid on practical workelevated her to adorn a small group of south Indian women, who, byworking incessantly have brought about vital social changes in thispart of the country.


Indeed she was truly one of the great and illustrious daughters ofMother India.

After devoting her lifetime to the service of suffering womanhoodshe passed away in 1969.

Lady Andal’s Medals:

King George V Medal. Kaiser-i-Hind Medal.

Padma Bhushan.


THE VENKATASUBBA RAOS- LIFE IS FOR LIVING

Even though Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao and Lady Andal Raodedicated their lives for the uplift of the downtrodden and oppressedwomen and girl children, which led to their creating the Madras SevaSadan, a brilliant beacon still shining brightly. They did not neglect tolead a full life. Life is not all work and no play. However theVenkatasubba Raos lived an active social life as part of the upperclass elite of Madras City of their times and chimes.

During their long innings on this planet together they lived in manyplaces in the city like ‘Albany’ on College Road, ‘Vraja’ on ThirumalaiPillai Road in T. Nagar, and ‘Pevency’ in Nungambakkam (theinternationally renowned Shankar Nethralaya stands today), and thesprawling ‘Spurtank House’ on Spurtank Road, Egmore. This wideroad with buildings only on one side of it with the Cooum river skirtingthe other side in the decades gone by, had the ambience of a leisurelylife and many old-timers have commented that it resembled a city inthe United Kingdom. Spurtank House stretched over 40 grounds ornearly 2 acres. It was the venue of many social evenings, parties andfunctions organised by the Venkatasubba Raos.

Invariably at such get togethers the Governor of Madras who duringthe British Indian era kept himself away from mixing with the locals,was a guest with his Lady bestowing an aristocratic air on the socialevenings hosted by the Venkatasubba Raos. The guests and inviteeswere all leading citizens of Madras City and the Presidency withmany of them being Britishers. The conversation and cocktail chatwere always on a high level of intellectual ambience, with of coursemuch humour, wit and wisdom sprinkled liberally during the evenings.


That was an age of leisure-pleasure while life rolled along placidlywith many comfortably placed in their life with not a care to causecreases on their faces.

However for the Venkatasubba Raos it was not all partying, andmore for their minds were always filled to the brim with thoughts oftheir avowed dreams and ambitions built around the Madras SevaSadan.

Venkatasubba Rao as a successful lawyer and later a judge was apragmatic and down to earth person. Many of his friends thought thathe was a rationalist to some degree at least and in his early yearsreligion did not have much impact on him except as what an averageHindu would feel. However advancing years and a setback in healthchanged his views and as the saying goes, he took to religion, themain influence for such conversion was of course his beloved wifeLady Andal.

He was drawn to the philosophy of the Thiruvannamalai saintRamana Maharishi whom the famous English writer SomersetMaugham described in his brilliant article on the saint giving it thecaption ‘The Man on the Hill’. Maugham toured around the worldlooking for materials for his plays, novels and writings, and collectedmuch of it from his own life. He visited India when he met RamanaMaharishi and also Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer, an intimate friend ofMutha. (Maugham’s south Indian travel resulted in his best sellingnovel, ‘The Razor’s Edge’, which was then made into a successfulmovie.)

The Venkatasubba Raos set an example in the social history ofMadras City by their sacrifice and unlimited devotion to their chosencause of serving the needs of the poor and the downtrodden sectionsof society, guiding them and showing them the pathway to educationto a hopeful, better and brighter future. They have left indeliblefootprints on the sands of Time…


At the garden party in the Venkatasubba Rao’s home– “Spur Tank House”.

The friends with Lady Andal after their retirement


THE SAGA BEGINSMadras Seva Sadan, which created history in the world of socialwelfare, was founded in 1928, thanks to the single-handed efforts ofthe couple Mutha Venkatasubba Rao and his beloved wife AndalammaVenkatasubba Rao in 1928.

EARLY ORIGINS: The Women’s Home of Service was startedin August 1924 by the Women’s Indian association for the purpose ofgiving adult Indian women in distress and unhappy conditions ofwidowhood, poverty, desertion and such, a course of training inhandwork which would enable them to become self supporting.

Classes were conducted in spinning and weaving rattan-work,embroidery, pillow lace, plain sewing and jigna-work, which were taughtby competent instructors. Employment at piecework rates wasprovided for those who were proficient in their handwork. Day pupilscould chose special subjects and resident scholarship students had totake a course in all subjects with the vernacular and English and alsomusic.

The Home was then situated at ‘Udayavanam’, Royapettah HighRoad, Mylapore, Madras. (Like most of the vintage buildings of thecity this historic home seems to have disappeared with escalatingtime and tide.) It owed its success to the indefatigable energy, farsighted vision and relentless dynamism of Mrs. Margaret Cousinswho was assisted in large measure by such devoted colleagues asDr. Muthulakshmi Reddi, Mrs. Jinardasa and its honorary secretaryMrs. Andal Venkatasubba Rao.

Mrs. Cousins had to leave India in 1928 and a meeting was held atAndal Venkatasubba Rao’s residence. It was decided at the meetingthat Mr. Deodhar representing the Poona Seva Sadan society to take


Lady Andal with Margaret Cousins.


Hand embroidery.

Soft Toys.

Weaving.


Group taken on the occasion of the annual meeting ofThe Madras Seva Sadan, Thursday 9th August 1935

when H.E. Lord Erskine presided.

His Excellency Sir K.V. Reddi preformed the opening ceremony of theNew School Building of the Madras Seva Sadan on 29th August 1936.

The photo shows H.E. the Governor with Lady Venkatasubba Rao,the Hon. Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao and others.


over the Women’s Home of Service paying Rs. 750 for its goodwill.As the Poona-based Deodhar was disinclined to incur any financialobligation Mr. Justice Venkatasubba Rao offered a princely donationof Rs. 10,000 (a mega fortune in the 1920s) out of which the Rs. 750was paid.

The new institution acquired a name, the Madras Seva Sadan. Ashining new star arrived on the horizon of social service at Madras.Even after her retirement and departure for her homeland, Mrs.Cousins evinced keen interest in the activities of the Sadan. Activitiesof the Sadan began to increase many fold, soon it was found necessaryto rent a more spacious premises. Accordingly, the Sadan shifted wasshifted to No. 2 North Mada Street, Mylapore, Madras, and soon itbecame an independent body.

At first it was a struggling home with a precarious existence in therented building offering shelter to a handful of destitute girls. It thengrew into a full-fledged institution, imparting literary, cultural andvocational training with untiring care and unfailing guidance of thefounders. The tiny acorn grew into the mighty oak and is still growingas the seasons roll over the horizon…

Caste, creed, social standing and such discriminatory features hadand have no place in Seva Sadan. History was created during theearly 1930s when the first poor young girl belonging to what was thencalled ‘untouchables’ and (whom Gandhiji called Harijans,) wasadmitted in the home. In keeping with the social prejudices, casteism,and such negative features of Indian society during those years, othergirls in the campus refused to sit with the Harijan girl and eat withher. Unfazed, Lady Andal took her home where she fed, clothed andtook care of her. After a few days she called the other girls to lunchwhere they found the girl they had ostracized earlier was seated atthe same table with Venkatasubba Rao and Lady Andal. Prejudicesvanished like the mist in the morning Sun. The girl took her rightfuland deserved place in the campus hostel. The founders of MadrasSeva Sadan never preached or forced their views on others, but byexample and personal conduct they showed many worlds the truepath in life and the future.


Distinguished visitors to the Sadan with a youngMrs. Clubwala Jadhav and Mr. N.V. Rao.

(Four Presidents of the Sadan in the Picture!)

Lady Marjorie Erskine, Patroness Grizel Hope,of The Madras Seva Sadan. friend of the Institution.


In 1929 the famed educationist and thinker Cattamanchi RamalingaReddi renowned as Sir C. R. Reddi, then the Vice Chancellor of theAndhra University at Waltair wrote in the visitors’ book, “Hinduism isevolving out of its caste system and the Seva Sadan flashes from itsown though yet small mirror, the new light of human fraternity. Maythe Sadan flourish into a joy of our national life.”

Mrs. Rangamma a student of the first batch of the Sadan wrote,“we the inmates of the institution may compare ourselves to shipsthat pass each other. But our beloved “amma” was a harbour to receiveand station the ships and let them go on, filled with sufficient fuel andother amenities for a bon voyage”.

As noted writer, multi-hued scholar, jurist and former Chief Justiceof the Madras High Court, M. Ananthanarayanan remarked, “WhenSir and Lady Venkatasubba Rao began the pioneer institution MadrasSeva Sadan, the path was hard and thorny. Social service was noshortcut to fame, success or enrichment. The rights of womenwas still in jeopardy. Actual social service was to a large extent, toil,tears and sweat to partly borrow from Winston Churchill. The idealismof the founders cannot be forgotten. This institution is a livingmonument.”

Right from the beginning the Home introduced both educationaland vocational courses like lace making, enamelin, lacquer work, rattanwork weaving, brush making and others. Veena, violin and local musicwas offered as Optional Subjects in the SSLC class (Secondary SchoolLiving Certificate). During 1930s on the first Friday of every month,Seva Sadan girls performed bhajans broadcast over the All India Radio,Madras. At the Sadan’s request, the government hospital at Royapettahopened training courses for pupil nurses from the Sadan and manygirls took advantage of this facility. In 1935 the Sadan had its owncampus preliminary training to qualify girls are teachers, midwivesand nurses to care for the sick.

In 1942 when the Second World War 1939-1945 was on, the Sadanoffered solace and a home for 80 young girls who suffered shock,


physical and mental handicaps when they arrived in Madras asevacuees from Burmah when it was invaded by Japan. That was theperiod many Indians in Burmah had to leave the country and comewalking through jungles, undergoing other torturous struggles to reachIndia. Many families walking seemingly endlessly threw away someof their household articles like the radio, typewriter and such. Someof the refugees also lost their power of speech due to the shock, andit took a long time of care and nursing for them to talk again.

All of those girls were well settled in life thanks to the care of theSadan and many of them got married with the marriages beingconducted by the Sadan.

There were many women prisoners accused of infanticide, lodgedin prisons like Vellore, which was famous for its jail. Sir Mutha broughtmany of them out on parole, using his influence and contacts as judge,to Madras Seva Sadan where he and his wife worked for therehabilitation of these unfortunates. They were properly looked after,fed and clothed. That was not all. He made arrangements at theSadan to teach them vocations like basket making etc., so that theycould stand on their own feet when their prison terms were over, andlive as respectable persons fitting into the matrix of society. Whenthey left for their homes, they were given a sewing machine or a cowto help them earn a living. Some of them were even helped to remarryand start life anew and afresh.

The Sadan was the first Indian girls school to establish theSecretarial course from fourth to sixth form teaching subjects liketypewriting, shorthand, book keeping, commerce, drafting, preciswriting and commercial arithmetic. Indeed the Sadan was the firstever to have the National Cadet Corps for girls which was unheardof in those days.

Ever a trendsetter the Madras Seva Sadan girls took part in theYouth Rally held at the Nehru Stadium, Park Town, to meet PrimeMinister, Pandit Nehru on January 17, 1955. They represented China


N.C.C . 1st batch 1955 – 56.

Old Girls’ Day at Woodlands – 11th March, 1956.


in the pageant held during the rally. 40 pupils and 4 teachers workedas volunteers during the Avadi Session of the Indian National Congress.

Some of the most illustrious names associated with the Sadan asmembers in the General Organization Committee, Publicity Committeeand Finance committee. Eg, in the Medical and Health Committeewere illustrious personalities in the medical world of Madras like Dr.A Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar and Dr. U. Rama Rao. Dr. A. L.Mudaliar besides being a medical maestro was also a prominenteducationist who served the University of Madras as its ViceChancellor for many a year. His advice and the benefits of experiencewere also generously available to the Sadan.

The first Annual meeting of the Madras Seva Sadan was held onOctober 1, 1929 at ‘Willingdon’, Commander-in-Chief Road, Egmore,Madras, (today it houses the Presidency Club). His Excellency SirNorman Marjoriebanks, the then Governor of Madras presided overthe meeting. During those days the annual general meetings werepresided by Governors of the Presidency. Reports of the meeting tothe minutest detail were widely reported in leading publications likeThe Hindu and others.

During early 1930s, the Sadan had blue blooded female patronsthen called patronesses like Lady Willingdon, Lady Beatrix Stanley,(wife of the Governor Lord Stanley, after whom a medical collegeand hospital are named and also the viaduct at Central Station) andLady Marjorie Erskine.

The Sadan was registered as a legal body in 1940 under the ActXXI of 1860. The Governing Body consisted of the Founder President,Vice President, Founder Honorary General Secretary, HonoraryTreasurer, and two Joint Honorary Secretaries. It also had sevenGoverning Board members.


Madras Governor Sir George Stanley and Lady Beatrix Stanley,with the founders of The Madras Seva Sadan – 1930.

Cochin Maharaja’s visit to the Sadan – Circa 1935.


A flashback… At first Madras Seva Sadan functioned at a rentedpremises at No. 2, North Mada Street, Mylapore, Madras, and shiftedto Shenstone Park when it was acquired in 1930. Here it is interestingto note an appeal which appeared in the Asylum Press and Almanacand Directory 1930. An appeal dated April 22, 1928 mentions aboutthe Women’s Home of Service which was till then managed by theWomen’s Indian Association, Adayar, and was taken over by thePoona Seva Sadan Society and a branch was created at Madras.The Press note appeals for persons to donate liberally for establishingthe society not only in Bombay and Madras but also in other towns.Bombay Seva Sadan Society during that period had branches atNagpur and Gwalior. Mutha Venkatasubba Rao a judge of the MadrasHigh Court immediately announced a donation of Rs. 10,000 placedat the disposal of the Poona Seva Sadan Society for developing itsaims and objectives in this part of the country, viz, Madras.

It would appear from the above that this is how the Madras SevaSadan was born and also derived its name…end of flashback…

In 1929 the Council of the Corporation of Madras sanctioned asum of Rs 1800 as annual grant subject to the sanction of theGovernment of Madras. It is interesting to note from a letter sent bySir A. Ramaswamy Mudaliar from Ripon Building announcing thegrant that T. S. Ramaswamy Aiyer was the Corporation Councillorfor the Mylapore division in which the Sadan was then situated.Ramaswamy Aiyer hailed from the legendary family of Sir T.Muthuswamy Iyer who created history as the first Indian to beappointed as a judge of the Madras High Court as early as the 19thcentury. Not many are aware that this legendary personality ofThiruvarur began his career on a princely salary of Re 1 working fora village office in Thanjavur District.

It is also interesting to note that one of the legal icons of the MadrasHigh Court, the incredibly successful Indian barrister, and the founderof Ethiraj College for Women in Madras, V. L. Ethiraj donated a sum


of Rs. 500 in 1928. At that period Ethiraj had not even an inkling thatin later years he would give away his entire earnings of many millionrupees for the cause of women’s education!

During 1930 when Seva Sadan began to function at ShenstonePark, the President was Sir M Venkatasubba Rao and the VicePresidents were T. R. Venkatarama Shastri, one of the legal legendsof Madras City, who also held high offices and was honoured by theBritish Indian government as Companion of the Indian Empire (CIE).The other Vice Presidents were the Raja of Kollengode, who was forsometime a member of the Delhi Central Legislative Assembly andalso a CIE, Kumararaja M. A. Muthiah Chettiar who was also amember of the Legislative Assembly, Madras, and Dewan BahadurA. M. Murugappa Chettiar, the founding father of the Murugappagroup of companies. The Honorary General Secretary and Treasurerwas Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao.

Raja Sir Vasudeva Raja of Kollengode was one of the stalwartswho contributed in many ways standing behind firmly as a pillar ofstrength for Sir Mutha and Lady Andal Rao. Even though he was ofroyal lineage, he was deeply involved in the welfare of thedowntrodden, depressed and oppressed and such social consciousnessbrought him in deep friendship with the Venkatasubba Raos and heunhesitatingly helped the Sadan, not merely financially in his own waybut also holding out a helping hand in the activities of the Sadan.

It was a cruel blow of destiny when he passed away during April1940, and in his demise the Venkatasubba Raos lost a soulmate andthe void created by his departure to the yonder blue could never bereplaced.

Ms. Vida David was the first headmistress of the High School andwhen she retired in 1938 she rejoined the Seva Sudan as thesuperintendent of the Tambaram branch.

With Lady Andal as the honorary secretary, soon three schoolsand three residential institutions were established. As the honorary


secretary she devoted all her time, energy, drive and dynamism tolooking after the institution and the members paying individual attention.Some of the girls in the Seva Sadan were disabled, whose health wasshattered for no fault of theirs and the couple took care of them,treating them and getting them cured of their ill-health and preparingthem to play their rightful role in their lives and society.

In a letter Lady Andal wrote “Because Seva Sadan is not only runaccording to institutional rules but individual care is taken, there isclamour for admission though we do our best to see that people donot dump their responsibilities on us.”

She proudly claimed in her letter of 1958 that the Sadan had over1000 girls and women annually of whom it took care as far as possible.No wonder such an institution not only created history but also becamean immortal body with the sole aim of uplifting girls and young women.

When Madras Seva Sadan was founded at first, it stated in itsMemorandum of Association, its aims and objectives, as below:

The objects of the Association are to work for the amelioration,advancement and uplift of Indian women in every sphere of life; inparticular.

To enable them to take their legitimate place in the progressive liftof the Nation without abandoning the distinctive genius and individualityof the Indian woman.

To meet the urgent demand of young women of renaissant India,their knowledge, enlightenment and culture.

To provide for general, academic, cultural, technical, industrial,vocational and other education without distinction of caste, creed orclass serving the needs of the wealthy and the indigent alike.’

To establish and maintain homes and provide residentialaccommodation and boarding for girls and women receiving such


education without observing distinction of case or creed providedhowever that the food served shall be vegetarian.

To foster in home or in hostel an atmosphere of friendliness andfellowship, to develop character and to bring into life of everyone ofthe inmates a spirit of self reliance and a sense of fulfillment of ideasof love and service.

To render necessary help and assistance to such as cannot affordto meet their expenses either in whole or part.

To open and maintain maternity homes, hospitals, foundling homesand allied institutions.

To bring into existence a body of qualified nurses, midwives andteachers.

To establish and conduct branches of the Madras Seva Sadan ascentres of training.

Here it is interesting to take note that the aims and objectives soenshrined in the parent documents of the Madras Seva Sadan wereso appropriately and brilliantly conceived and reduced to writing sothat the expansion of activities of many a kind and nature in the futurewould not be hampered by rigid and strict legal interpretation of theoriginal documents.

This speaks very high of the drafting talents, skills and capabilitiesof Sir Mutha and his soulmate Radhakrishnayya.

To sight an example of the legal problems that a well meaningbody would face in its future…a trust was created by a generous andpopular personality of Madras City to establish a chair for the studyof a particular school of thought and political philosophy. Two millionrupees was provided as the core money for the trust and deposited inone of the nationalised banks in the city. Regrettably, the trust couldnot take any action to realise the avowed objectives because legalobjections were raised that there was no such school of politicalphilosophy as envisaged in the deed and what was mentioned was


vague, imprecise and even nonexistent. Consequently the trust ceasedto function as such and the large sum of money according to confirmedreports lies in the bank as a fixed deposit snowballing in its quantitybut not of any use to anybody any more.

A report in 1940 states, ‘from a struggling home in a precariousexistence in a small rented building sheltering a handful of destitutegirls and keeping them occupied to spend their time, to a full fledgedinstitution with a High School, Industrial School and Orphanage withits own spacious premises imparting literary and vocational trainingand guidance not only to the girls of the poor but also to those of thewell to do classes. Such is the remarkable progress achieved in amere period of 12 years’ (1928-1940).

When the Sadan rose over the horizon they were only ten inmateswho were in the original Women’s Home of Service. In 1940 therewere 280 girls in the High School and 137 in the industrial school. 81of the girls were in the hostel and 78 in the orphanage the remainingbeing day scholars.

It is interesting to note that in 1928 the assets of the Sadan werevalued at a mere Rs. 150, but later by 1940 the buildings alone exclusiveof furniture and other equipment were valued at Rs. 200,000.

Madras Seva Sadan is currently situated on Harrington Road,Chetpet, Madras, an aristocratic upper class neighbourhood of thecity. This building with extensive land surrounding it was purchased in1930 from the widow of Mr. Justice Cheruvoori Krishnan, a judge ofthe Madras High Court. After the building was purchased a schemewas drawn for constructing detached cottages each capable of housingaround 20 girls living together like a family. Each cottage was sooncompleted thanks to the generous donations by philanthropists of theMadras Presidency who had been watching the founding and growthof Sadan and also evinced considerable personal interest in its goodwork.

When the philanthropist, industrialist and also a barrister, Dr. Kv.Al. Rm. Alagappa Chettiar performed the marriage of his daughter


Umayal in 1944, he donated Rs. 70,000, which helped the Sadan tobuild a block named Umayal Block used for the hostel.

In 1949 the Industrial Centre of the Chetpet branch was opened.In 1952 a branch of the Madras Seva Sadan was started in Tambaram,a suburban town of Madras with an industrial class for girls and alsoa Middle School for boys and girls. The school which was recognizedby the local government had about 175 students.

In 1953 August, a nursery section was opened for children betweenthe ages of three and five. Another venture was the secretarial coursein High School with a diversified stream of studies launched in thesame year.

Sir Mutha and Lady Andal did not rest with their oars but continuedto devote themselves to work for the uplift of underprivileged womenand children. A branch of the industrial training centre was opened inthe Thyagaraya Nagar area of the city in January 1955 by DurgabaiDeshmukh one of the pioneers of the social welfare movement inIndia. During the welcome speech at the opening Lady AndalVenkatasubba Rao said, “it has been the aim of the Madras SevaSadan to help women who felt themselves a burden on society tobecome valuable members of it and to develop in them skills andcourage as far as possible.

Though Seva Sadan was at first a private voluntary welfare agencythe stature, status and impact of the founding parents of the Sadancreated much goodwill and support from the public and otherinstitutions. Besides the munificent donation made by Dr. AlagappaChettiar, Sir. C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyer, one of the great sons of Indiawho was then the Dewan of Travancore, a maharaja ruled nativestate gave a gift of Rs. 10,000 on behalf of the Maharaja and theTravancore government with which furniture for the hostel waspurchased. A successful lawyer and one of the legal legends of theMadras High Court, Sir CP made a personal donation of Rs. 2000.

Another valuable donation came from Rao Saheb Ganapati Shastri,


then the Dewan of Pudukottah native state. He donated land thenvalued at Rs. 40,000, which came from the properties of the deceaseddaughter. Most of the land was sold and the proceeds were sent toSadan for further work to be done.

Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar of Chettinad donated Rs. 2000 whilehis son Raja Sir Muthiah Chettiar gave Rs. 10,000 to the High Schoolbuilding fund.

Help was received from public bodies like the Corporation ofMadras. In appreciation of the good work done by the Sadan, theCorporation allowed the Sadan to buy land owned by the Corporationof 30 grounds at Rs. 13000. The Sadan also received donations fromthe Madras Race Club and other public minded institutions.

The work done by the Sadan won appreciation of several personsof fame and name and also interested in the welfare of the have-notsof society. Sarojini Naidu, eminent poet, Indian National Congressleader and sometime Governor of a state said, “… irrespective ofcaste, creed or circumstance, womanhood finds what is seeks or needsin Seva Sadan, be it protection, opportunity, scope, encouragement,hope, knowledge are the means towards earning a self respectingand independent livelihood”.

Today Madras Seva Sadan consists of many an institution devotedto the needs of the have not women and girls and also boys similarlyplaced.

A unique feature of Madras Seva Sadan may be called as its idealof “Creative Reconstruction”. The Sadan recognizes that the worldis a world and not a charitable institution and steers clear of one ofthe gravest dangers that beset organisations for relieving the helpless,viz, passive purposeless charity which has a degrading and deadeningeffect on its recipients. Initially, the Madras Seva Sadan sought toreconstruct the broken lives of young women and not allow them todrift into oblivious inaction. Therefore it made provision for literarytraining as well as instruction in arts and handicrafts so that young


women after their sojourn in the Sadan would go into the worldequipped to live an independent, self supporting life. The Sadan stillcontinues to follow the pattern laid down by the founding parents.

As the years rolled over the horizon education and other facilitiescame to be offered to boys and men as well. A further step was takento include the well to do as well as the indigent into the family fold ofthe Sadan.

The bouquet consists of

I. At Shenstone Park:

1. The Madras Seva Sadan Higher Secondary School for Girls :Towards their avowed objective the founders Sir and LadyVenkatasubba Rao started with great foresight a school atShenstone Park, 7 Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai, for girls toimpart education so that such qualifications would give them notonly opportunities for better employment but also to invest themwith dignity. The school started in 1930 and in course of timedeveloped into a Higher Secondary School from standard I toStandard XII.

All schools have houses but this school is unique in that they arecalled ‘grahas’- Seva, Shantha, Sheela and Sudha.

2. The Madras Seva Sadan Industrial School : Life does not unfoldto all in the same manner, and there are several helpless youngwomen and girls who do not show an aptitude for higher studies.Such girls and women are coached upto the High School levelafter which they are admitted into the Industrial School recognisedby the Tamil Nadu government. Here they study various aspectsof Tailoring, Embroidery and Dressmaking. It is a two year courseleading to the Industrial School Leaving Certificate CourseExamination. After they pass this examination they may opt tostudy one more year in the Industrial School and qualify themselvesfor the Teacher’s Training Course. Such girls find readyemployment as Craft and Needlework teachers. Some of them


are employed in the Sadan’s Vocational Centre and HigherSecondary School.

3. Vocational Centre: For Destitute women, deserted wives, helplesswidows with no education and are too old to start schooling,vocational guidance is imparted in the Vocational Centre. In theearly days such guidance was imparted in handicrafts like lacework,weaving, rattan work, music (vocal and instrumental), embroideryand dress making. For many years the exquisite embroidered itemsand stuffed toys used to be sold at the Victoria Technical Institute.

With the passage of time certain items of handicraft in the VocationalCentre had become outmoded and consequently there was need to giveup some and introduce new types and methods. Over the years girlshave done leather shoe uppers, tailoring, readymade garments, filledcapsules with medicines, stacked rubber bands and done zari embroideryand others.

4. Rehabilitation Centre: In 1963 Lady Andal Rao established agreat humanitarian rehabilitation program, viz, rehabilitation of curedmental patients. Such patients are sent by the Government Instituteof Mental Health, Madras, after they are cured but sadly have noone to keep or care for them. Such women are rehabilitated andemployed in various sections of the Madras Seva Sadan at theRehabilitation Centre. There are others who are brought here bytheir families as well.

The Tamil Nadu Women’s Welfare Department remarked, “… sofar this is the only voluntary welfare institution which has boldlycome forward to maintain former mental patients when even theirrelatives refused to take them back”.

5. Home for Destitute Women and Children: Socially handicappedpersons are accommodated in cottages in the spacious grounds ofthe Sadan. The younger girls study in the Sadan’s Higher SecondarySchool or Industrial School. The older girls and women findemployment in the Sadan’s other sections.


6. Working Women’s Hostel: The Madras Seva Sadan is perhapsthe first institution of its kind to provide hostel facilities for workingwomen. The Sadan provided hostel accommodation for about 10working women even during 1930. From these humble beginningsover the past eight decades this amenity has been so ably providedthat today about 100 working women are accommodated in theWorking Women’s Hostel.

7. Lady Andal Matriculation Higher Secondary School: Tocommemorate the hallowed memory of the founder Lady AndalVenkatasubba Rao School was started on June 11, 1987. It coacheschildren for the Tamil Nadu Matriculation Examination and HigherSecondary School Leaving Certificate Examination. The lowerclasses follow the renowned Montessori Method of impartingknowledge. It includes an Activity Centre for pre-schoolers. Theschool has excellent facilities for various outdoor and indoor co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

The Learning Centre: Lady Andal a women of vision had in hermind man years ago to create a happy atmosphere for the child, tohelp build general cultural and social life skills, to focus on the allround development of the child, laying emphasis on individualexcellence…To stress on physical development through gamesand athletics…keeping such vision in mind of Lady Andal, theLearning Centre was started in 1998. Today more than 200 childrenwith learning disabilities are identified and helped. The objective isto help children with specific disabilities, create awareness amongteachers, parents and society at large.

In 2005 the Occupational Therapy Centre was established to helpchildren to enhance their cognition and writing skills. Such childrenare identified and helped so that they could sail through their schoolcareer easily.

The Learning Centre and the Occupational Therapy Centre helpthe Sadan to complete the vision of the school, to facilitate the childand achieve individual excellence.


8. Shanthi Sadan: Established in 1989 Shanthi Sadan is an abode forlady senior citizens who have crossed the sixtieth milestone oftheir lives. It is housed in the Thatikonda Nancharamma Building.

9. ORCA: Built in 1999, the 6-lane, 25-metre swimming pool is asplashing beehive of activity from 5 a.m. from the crack of dawntill lights are switched off at 7.30 in the evening. Swimmers trainedat ORCA are doing excellently well at the highest levels. Inter-school and even international competitions are regularly held atthis very popular pool.

10. Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Auditorium Complex: Createdas a homage memorial to the founder Sir Mutha VenkatasubbaRao and for the preservation and propagation of Indian and allother forms of art and culture. The complex consists a 1100- seater,two level air-conditioned concert hall with 2400 sq. feet stage, anopen air stage, a 4786 sq feet multipurpose hall for exhibitions,workshops, seminars and others, an art school, an art gallery and acoffee shop. Equipped with some of the most advanced audiovisual and lighting equipment this complex is a one stop shop whichcan cater to anything from a solo performance, street play to aphilharmonic orchestra. Its plush curtains went up in February2008, and not surprisingly has proved to be one of the most popularauditoria of the city.

11. Pravartanalaya : Established in July 2007, it is an institutewhere free training is given for economically backward girls andwomen in Home Nursing and Geriatric care and also computers.

12. Priyatma: Established in May 2005, it is a creche for childrenbetween the ages of 6 months and 5 years.

13. Cafe : Multicuisine canteen catering the needs of the Sadancampus and beyond.

14. City Shandy: An ongoing programme from May 2006, an avenuefor small entrepreneurs, NGOs, and self help groups to showcaseand sell their products, held every month. It is assisted bySoroptimist International of Chennai.


II. At Gandhi Road, Tambaram West:

1. Madras Seva Sadan Higher Secondary School: In 1953 thecitizens of Tambaram requested the founders to start a school. Inresponse of this public appeal a coeducational school was startedin a 13-acre campus, which in course of time has developed intoan Aided Higher Secondary School with a self-financing Englishmedium stream.

2. Madras Seva Sadan Nursery and Primary School: This is anEnglish medium school with classes from LKG to Class V.

III. At Thyagaraya Nagar (T. Nagar):

1. Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao Matriculation and HigherSecondary School and Hostel: Situated at 57B Thirumalai PillaiRoad, T. Nagar, a Boys’ School was established in June 1971 tocommemorate the beloved memory of the founder Sir MuthaVenkatasubba Rao. Named Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao Boys’School, it had English medium coaching leading to the IndianCertificate of Secondary Education. It has since been convertedinto a Matriculation Higher Secondary School and in June 1997 itbecame co-educational.

2. The Madras Seva Sadan T. Nagar Annexe: Situated at 12A,New Giri Road, T. Nagar. Plans are afoot at this annexe to establishtennis courts, hostel for working women and an old age home forcouples and such others.

Beyond Its Portals:

The Sadan lends a helping hand on a regular basis beyond its portals,be it for further education, medicare or other requirements toindividuals, other institutions or the general public during times of naturalor manmade calamities. In short the Sadan tries its best to live up tothe ideals of the founding parents of the Sadan and aims and objectivesof the Time honoured institution.


Though the Madras Seva Sadan began primarily as a home foradult women, the founders realized that the best safeguard againstadult helplessness was to offer such persons the equipment of trainingthe young to face the world and future with confidence. Thereforethe Industrial and High School were started together with an orphanageand a hostel was added where a number of young girls wereaccommodated at either free or nominal concession rates.


THE MADRAS SEVA SADAN –A COSMOPOLITAN ALMA MATER

The Sadan and its various institutions believed in the basic principlethat all human beings are born equal and should be treated equalthrough their lives, irrespective of their place of birth, their status, sex,caste, creed, community and other narrowing constrictions that onewitnessed even now in Indian society.

The cosmopolitan matrix of the Sadan can readily be realized by amere glance at some of the details given below. Even as early as1935 the resident pupils of the Sadan came from different parts of thecountry and abroad, and belonged to various castes, creeds, andcommunities.

The resident pupils consisted of Brahmins, Vysyas, other Non-Brahmin communities, Adi Dravidas, now called Dalits and IndianChristians, backward classes, Muslims, Jains, Parsis and Rajputs.

Their mother tongues included Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannadaand Konkani. The pupils included spinsters, widows and marriedwomen.

Geography: The resident pupils came from several districts ofthe Madras Presidency (during those days of the British rule, theMadras Presidency consisted of 26 districts and covered virtually theentire southern parts of India, excluding the ‘native’ states like Mysore,Travancore, Cochin, the Nizam’s Dominions and Pudukottah). Theresident pupils came from districts like South Arcot, Bellary, Chingleput,Chittoor, Coimbatore, Ganjam, Godavari, Guntur, Krishna, Madras City,Malabar, Nellore, Ramnad, Salem, Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Vizagapatam


(after the reorganization of the state many of the above districts becameparts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Some of the anglicisednames were also changed like eg, Vizagapatam is nowVishakapatnam).

Resident pupils also hailed from outside the sprawling MadrasPresidency. The pupils belonged to Bangalore, Nizam’s Dominions,Travancore and also nations abroad like Ceylon, Natal (Africa),Rangoon (Burma), Singapore (then part of Federated Malay States).

The Sadan used to take part in exhibitions and fairs even in farawayplaces like Trivandrum…

From the above it will be seen that the Madras Seva Sadan was aminiature world, taking into its bosom pupils from several parts of theworld and imparting them lessons through universal sisterhood andbrotherhood.

Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao with Lady Venkatasubba Rao,Lady Mountbatten and Mrs. M. Lakshmi Ammal,

when Lady Mountbatten visited The Madras Seva Sadan.


THE MADRAS SEVA SADANSILVER JUBILEE-1928-1953

The Silver Jubilee of the Madras Seva Sadan was celebrated during1953 in a befitting manner. Over 100 women prominent in the sociallife of the city and interest in welfare activities responded to theinvitation of the Sadan to form a committee for the Jubilee.

Srimathi Huthee Singh, sister of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru camefrom Bombay to preside over the celebration. The Old Girls’Association had arranged a series of five benefit performancesincluding plays by the noted TKS Brothers, dance performances byLalitha, Padmini, Ragini (Travancore Sisters), the Tanjore Sisters andothers.

The occasion was brought out and messages and articles receivedfrom several celebrities were included in this souvenir released tocommemorate the A souvenir befitting occasion. The galaxy of suchpersonalities included the then President of India Babu RajendraPrasad, the then Vice President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, PanditJawaharlal Nehru, Sri Prakasa Governor of Madras, then ChiefMinister of Madras Rajaji, P. V. Rajamannar Chief Justice of Madras,C. D. Deshmukh Finance Minister, Durgabai Deshmukh memberPlanning Commission, K. Kamaraj, the famous Arcot twinsRamaswami Mudaliar and A. Lakshmanaswami Mudaliar, PanditGoving Vallabh Pant, Sir Mirza Ismail, Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Ayyar,M. Bhakthavatchalam, renowned man of letters HarindranathChattopadhyaya, noted icon of Bharathanatyam Rukmani DeviArundale Rama Varma Rajpramuk of Travancore-Cochin, Raja andRani of Kollengode, T. Lalitha Devi Dowager Maharani of


Vijayanagaram, Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddi and a host of central ministers,governors, members of parliament, vice chancellors of universitiesand several other illustrious men and women of India.

Among the members of the Silver Jubilee Committee were Mrs.Clubwala Jadhav, the noted social worker, noted classical Carnaticmusician M. L. Vasanthakumari, Kumararaja M. A. M. MuthiahChettiar then Sheriff of Madras, A. M. M. Murugappa Chettiar leadingindustrialist, AV. Meyappan movie mogul, and C. N. Annadurai theDravidian leader of the masses and classes, who had by then becomea member of the Madras Legislature for the first time.

Silver Jubilee of the Sadan presided over bySmt. Krishna Huthee Singh

(younger sister of Prime Minister Pandit Nehru) – 1953.


30th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONSOCTOBER 12, 1958

It was a Red Letter Day in the history of the Madras Seva Sadanwhen it celebrated the 30th Anniversary on October 12, 1958. For the30th anniversary there was a largely attended public meeting whenDr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, then Vice President of India and goodfriend of the founders of the Sadan presided over the function. Mrs.Tara Cherian then the Mayor of Madras was the convenor of thecelebration and the commemorative souvenir was released by KasturiSrinivasan, the editor The Hindu.

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan addressed the gathering on the historicoccasion. In his address he said, “I have known the VenkatasubbaRaos for over a generation. They both have given selfless service forthis institution. They have given to it the substance of their lives. Theyare among the pioneers in this movement of emancipation of womenand the rehabilitation of the orphaned and the destitute. The lack of itwas perhaps the cause of our downfall or the effect of our downfall.Whatever it may be they started this work even in the days when wewere politically subject, and this institution has grown from smallbeginnings to its present dimensions. I have no doubt it will go onincreasing its activities because it fulfills a real need.”

A joyful carnival was held at the Nehru Stadium, Park Town, andwell known production houses Metro Goldwyn Mayer and AVM lentfilms for free screening. Well known artistes including the later daycult figure and icon of Tamil Nadu M. G. Ramachandran, well knownplayback singer Tiruchi Loganathan, Shanthi Gopalakrishnan and hertroupe gave free entertainment. A record crowd of Madras citizensenjoyed the carnival.


Dr S. Radhakrishnan, Vice-President of India,and the founders at the

30th Anniversary of the Sadan – 1958.


Rajaji sent a message to Sir Mutha on the occasion which reads,“May every childless Indian learn from you and Lady VenkatasubbaRao. No mother loves her child more than you and your good wife.May it live long and live young. And may you be protected againstever vicissitude as Markandeya was protected.”

In her speech Lady Andal Venkatasubba Rao remarked, “I takethis opportunity only to thank all who have helped us- I know that anold student gave us Rs. 5 which was her three months’ savings”.

Comittee Members:

Smt. Clubwala Jadhav, M.L.C.Smt. C.T. Alwar ChettySmt. Mona HensmanSmt. G. ParthasarathySmt. Nibha WalawalkerSmt. Anusuya RajagopalSmt. M.L. VasanthakumariSmt. K.S.G. Haja ShereefSmt. Rajammal AnantaramanSmt. V.K. Ayyappan PillaiSmt. Lakshmi Ramanatha IyerSmt. NathanSmt. Meyyappa ChettiarSmt. Ida L. ChambersSmt. M. Lakshmi AmmalSmt. N. Seetha RaoSmt. Ammu SwaminadhanDr. P.V. Cherian, M.L.C.Kumararajah M.A.M. Muthiah Chettiar, Sheriff of Madras

Sri. A.M.M. Murugappa ChettiarSri. N.V. RaoSri. RamiahSri. C.N. Annadorai, M.L.A.Sri. V. Chittoor Nagiah


Sri. Lalchand DadhaSri. V. KalidasSri. K. RajagopalSri. S.S.T. ChariSri. V.S. RajaratnamSri. V. EmberumanarSri. A.V.M. Meyyappa ChettiarSri. S. ViswanathanKumari Padmini (Travancore Sisters)Kumari Vida David


Sathabishekam :

Sathabishekam of the Venkatasubba Raos on 5th August 1958.

Rajaji at Sathabishekam.

Yana Cherian at Sathabishekam.


M.G. Ramachandran at the opening of the Working Womens’ Hostel(Lady Andal’s last public appearance – 16th August 1969).


GOLDEN JUBILEE

The Golden Jubilee of the Madras Seva Sadan and the BirthCentenary of its founding father Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao werecelebrated during 1978 with pomp and circumstance. However, atinge of sadness was felt by many that the founding parents, Sir Muthaand Lady Andal, and most of their friends and well wishers were nolonger around to take part in the celebrations.

The Sadan had a carnival in the school premises and an exhibitionwith participation from all the Sadan schools. A public meeting washeld with the then Governor of Tamil Nadu, Prabhudas Patwaripresiding over the largely attended function and laying the foundationstone for the Golden Jubilee Building. It was followed by an eveningof variety entertainment.

The Sadan brought out a souvenir containing messages from severaldignatories. The Prime Minister did not write it himself but a messagesigned by his Private Secretary was received.

Messages were received from the Governor Tamil Nadu, theCentral Education Minister, M. Bhaktavatsalam, Dr. P. V. Rajamannar,S. Ambujammal, Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh andMr. Justice M. Ananthanarayanan.


LADY ANDAL CENTENARY

The Birth Centenary celebrations of the founding mother of theSadan, Lady Andal were held over a week from November 14th toNovember 22nd 1994. To celebrate the eventful occasion, the Sadanheld exhibitions, inter-school culturals, inter-school matches betweenstudents as well as staff. A variety entertainment by the students ofall the schools was also held.

On November 22, 1994, Lady Andal’s birth anniversary, nine greatgrand nephews and nieces (two sons and daughter of C. Prema Kumar,twin sons and two daughters of Dr. Rao, and two daughters ofVenkatnarain, both brothers of Prema Kumar) – each laid one of thenine bricks for the foundation of the Lady Andal Venkatasubba RaoCentenary Building.

The love of the children has created the Centenary Building – afour-storied edifice with a quadrangle for assembly in the center –into a monument of their love and affection. Lady Andal has becomea school where children love to study.


PLATINUM JUBILEE

The Platinum Jubilee of the Madras Seva Sadan was celebratedon September 6, 2003 when the students of all the schools cametogether to put up a cultural extravaganza. In keeping up with themodern mass media technology, a video presentation of the Sadanand its activities was done for the first time.

A Carnatic Music recital on the piano by Rev. Sr. John DoraiChetty from the Good Shephard Convent, Mysore, was a highlight ofthe Celebration.

A grand finale was an enthralling performance by well knownclassical Carnatic musician, Maharajapuram Ramachandran, the sonof the renowned Maharajapuram Santhanam and the grandson ofCarnatic Music icon, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer.

Mementos were presented on this happy occasion to the staff ofthe Sadan and all its branches.

80th YEAR

Madras Seva Sadan celebrates its 80th year in September 2008,a memorable, significant and signal achievement in the history of anyinstitution, anywhere in the world and more so for a social welfareorganization started by two individuals who crossed many hurdlesand obstacles in their own inimitable manner helped by friends, wellwishers and others to build this edifice.


THEY ALSO HELPED…

B esides the founding parents of the Madras Seva Sadan,the Venkatasubba Raos, several other noted personalities contributedin good measure to the welfare, uplift and development of the Sadanever since it was founded. Some offered monetary help and some theimmense benefit of their advice, guidance and talents and skills of avaried kind, which helped the Sadan for its betterment.

The galaxy of such personalities is large and include V.Radhakrishnayya… K. Sanjeeva Kamath… Mrs. Mary Clubwala,V. Thiruvengadathan Chetty, C. T. Alwar Chetty… M. A. MuthiahChettiar of Chettinad… Dr. P. V. Rajamannar… T. R.VenkataramaSastry… A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar… the Raja of Kollengode…andmany others.

Many generous donors contributed liberally for the building. Mentionmust be made of the following liberal minded and generous persons…His Highness the Maharaja of Cochin Rs. 2500… Kumararaja MuthiahChettiar of Chettinad Rs. 10,000… Maharaja of Jeypore Rs. 6500…Maharaja of Parlakimedi Rs. 5000… Raja Dhanrajgiriji of HyderabadRs. 5000… Dewan Bahadur A. M. M. Murugappa ChettiarRs. 2000… R. Kanakasabapathy Iyer Rs. 2000 (left as legacy underhis will)…

In 1930 many socially conscious persons came forward tocontribute without being asked for the building of cottages. Such greatsouls are Alathur Nathamuni Chetty, M. Ct. M. Chidambaram Chettiar,


V. Perumal Chetty and Sons, Zamindar of Chunampet, and Trusteesof Pachaiyappa’s Charities on behalf of the Estate of OletyRanganayakkamma.

Help received from abroad: The Public Welfare Foundation Inc.,Washington, Virginia was a regular donor for many a year.

“And he who gives a child a treatMakes joy bells ring in Heaven’s streetAnd he who gives a child a homeBuilds palaces in kingdom come.”

– John Masefield(famed British poet and

former Poet Laureate of Britain)


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A Beautiful Life (A Madras Seva Sadan publication)

1. Madras Seva Sadan souvenirs and school magazines.

2. Madras Seva Sadan Annual Reports

3. Madras Seva Sadan Silver Jubilee Souvenir

4. Madras Seva Sadan 30th Year Celebration Reports

5. Indian Law Reporter (Madras Series)

6. Madras Law Journal

7. Madras Law Weekly

8. Madras Weekly Notes

9. Madras Criminal Cases

10. A Century Completed(the Madras High Court Centenary 1862-1962 )- V. C. Gopalratnam published by the Madras Law Journal

11. The Hindu, Madras

12. The Mail, Madras

13. Justice (The official publication of the Justice Party )

14. Photographs : The Archival Collection ofN. Venkatnarain Rao and C.Prema Kumar.


Sir M. VENKATASUBBA RAO DEADEx-Judge of Madras High Court(from The Hindu, 31st December 1960)

MADRAS, Dec. 31: The death of Sir M. Venkatasubba Rao,retired High Court Judge, occurred last night at his residence inThyagarayanagar. He was 82, and was a great philanthropist andsocial reformer. Sir Venkatasubba Rao founded The Madras SevaSadan, along with his wife, to help poor and destitute women.

Born in July 18, 1878, Sir Venkatasubba Rao, was educated at theMadras Christian College. After practising for over 17 years at theBar, he was appointed Judge of the High Court on November 17,1921, which post he held with distinction till 1938. He also acted twiceas Chief Justice and served, in 1935, as Member of the DelimitationCommittee. He was Knighted in 1936 and was political Agent forBerar, of the Nizam of Hyderabad, till 1942.

He was closely connected with the Scout Movement and wasProvincial Scout Commissioner for a number of years. A great devoteeof Sri Rama Devi, he built a bhajan hall in Thyagarayanagar. He issurvived by his wife.

Mr. Medhi, Governor of Madras, Mr. K. Kamaraj, Chief Ministerof Tamilnadu, Mr. C. Subramaniam, Finance Minister, Mr.P.V.Rajamannar, Chief Justice, Mr. P.Venkataramana Rao Nayudu,Mr. A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar, Mr. M.A. Muthiah Chettiar andMr. Gajapathi Raju called at the residence of Mr. Venkatasubba Raoto pay their respects.


The funeral this morning at Nungambakkam crematorium waslargely attended.

Mr. T.S.Venkataraman, President, Egmore Bar Association, todaymade a reference before the Chief Presidency Magistrate, to thedeath of Sir M.Venkatasubba Rao, a great judge and a social worker.Mr. R. Sadasivam, Chief Presidency Magistrate, Mr. S. Natarajan,Fifth Presidency Magistrate, Mr. B. Kuppuswami Nayudu, SeventhPresidency Magistrate, and Mr. D. Thinnayiram, Ninth PresidencyMagistrate, sat in the First Court.

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