It came into existence to support the flourishing textile industry in Coimbatore a few years after the IIMs were set up in Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Today, PSG Institute of Management (PSGIM), the first private management education institution in the country, is turning 50.
The institute was started in 1964, just three years after the IIMs were established in 1961, and offered diplomas in management to feed to growing textile industry which had plenty of skilled engineers but not enough marketing, sales and managerial executives. PSGIM’s history is closely linked to the textile trade of Coimbatore. Around 20 years before Independence the cotton industry began flourishing in the Kongu belt. “Engineer and educationist G R Damodaran started PSG Polytechnic College in 1939 to train and provide diplomas to those wanting to work in spinning factories in the area,” said R Nandagopal, director, PSGIM.
Later, G R Damodaran, better known as GRD, set up PSG College of Technology in 1951. “Many graduates from PSG Polytechnic and College of Technology became businessmen and industrialists. This helped the textile industry flourish,” said Nanadagopal. But soon the engineers realized that they lacked management skills.
“In the early 1960s, a group of graduates came to GRD with a problem. They said they were unable to market their products and faced problems when it came to management of resources and putting processes in place,” said Nanadagopal.
In 1964, GRD approached the department of personnel and training and started a two-year diploma course in industrial management.
As the institute grew, a department of management science was established in 1971 in PSG College of Technology. “At that time, there was a rule that an institute could start a particular course only if the university to which it was affiliated has the said course,” he said.
PSG College of Technology was affiliated to the University of Madras then. “GRD pushed for the university to start an MBA course so that PSG Tech could begin one,” said L Gopalakrishnan, managing trustee of PSG Institutions. PSG Tech started a full-fledged MBA programme in 1971, a full year before University of Madras started its MBA course.
In 1994, the department of management science became PSG Institute of Management. E Balaguruswamy, who later became vice-chancellor of Anna University, was the first director of the institute. The institute has produced around 7,200 management postgraduates. Alumni have fanned out across the world and include Thamarai Kannan, ACP, Chennai, Jagadeesa Pandian, chief secretary, Gujarat and MPs Jose K Mani and R Radhakrishnan.
Chairman of the alumni association D Madan Mohan said: “When I was studying in the institute between 1985 and 1987, we were one of the few institutions in the country with a computer lab. Now the institute has established a trading centre for students.” In the trading centre, students monitor share market feeds live from New York Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange and trade them, he said.
PSGIM has completed 50 years but Nandagopal and Gopalakrishnan feel the institute has a long way to go. “Twenty years ago, we were one of the few management institutes in the country. Today, we have stiff competition from within the nation and also the world. Our challenge is to maintain world class standards,” said Gopalakrishan.
The institute recently introduced a specialization in family business and entrepreneurship. “This will help firms and companies that do not have heirs to plan succession in a family business. There are some family-run empires that are facing problems and do not know how to resolve them,” said Nandagopal.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / TNN / December 15th, 2014
Have you ever had the misfortune of visiting the Chennai Corporation-administered crematoriums in the city?
Even if you had, you or grieving people neck-deep in their own worries and tragedy, may not have had time to notice the ‘funeral assistants’ soaked in all-pervasive soot and smell at the place you want to exit in a hurry.
Ganesan* and at least 37 others like him have made cremation their profession, for a paltry remuneration. “Our post has no specific name, and our salary ranges from 1,500 to 2,500 a month,” he says, rushing to add that for the past nine months even that salary has not been paid.
“It’s all the Madurai-based contractor’s attitude. While Chennai corporation pays 600 per body cremated here, the contractor pockets it leaving nothing for us. At best of times we used to receive salary once in only two-three months, now we have gone without salary for nine months,” Ganesan says. His colleagues nod in agreement.
When contacted, senior officials of the corporation said this issue was brought to their notice recently and they will enquire. “These employees are appointed by the contractors and we pay the contractor directly for every cremation. Since we have no arrangements directly with the employees we will look into this and ask the contractors to pay necessary amounts if it has not been paid,” an official said.
“Worse, we have not been given any basic safety gadgets such as mask, gloves, soap or any cleaning agent. Many of us acquire respiratory problems over a period of time. A doctor living nearby gives us masks free of cost, and treats us if we have any complaints,” another attendant said.
“If we make any demand and insist on enhanced or regular payment, we are immediately sent out of job,” he said.
Having heard of Chennai corporation’s Swarna Jayanthi scheme, which had been benefiting scores of sanitary and other workers engaged for daily jobs, they say they too could be roped in, so that they would be paid about 300 to 400 daily. “We have no complaints about the corporation, it is contractor who is standing between us and welfare,” said Ganesan. “Kin of the dead pay sums ranging from 2,000 to even 5,000 on their own volition. From out of the sum, the corporation staff posted here give us 1,500 to be shared by four of us,” an attendant working in Besant Nagar crematorium said.
“It is a difficult life. We need a decent salary and facilities such as masks, gloves, insurance and treatment.They are entitled to minimum wages, better service conditions, gadgets and healthcare. If they come together and fight for their rights, we are ready to initiate legal proceedings against the contractor, said Madras high court lawyer R Y George Williams.
*(Name changed)
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / December 16th, 2014
Lt. Gen. Malcolm Nicolson / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
When Virginia Jealous speaks to members of the Madras Book Club this evening she might report that midst all the tall grass in the unkempt St. Mary’s Cemetery on The Island she found the tombstones of Adele Florence Nicolson and Lieutenant General Malcolm Nicolson.
John Jealous, her father, had found them side by side during his first visit to Madras in 1989, soon after he had started on the trail of a woman who was to become the obsession of his life as he pieced together her life during several subsequent visits to Madras and other parts of India for a book that didn’t get written; he passed away before he got to it. Now his daughter Virginia, a poet and a travel writer, who has been following his trail, hopes to write a book on that journey as well as on the woman who was the second great love of his life, Laurence Hope.
Adela Florence Nicolson / by Special Arrangement
What he — and Virginia — didn’t get to see was the mansion where she committed suicide a few months after her husband died. Dunmore House, in Alwarpet, was where Florence Nicolson, whom few knew as the famed poet of the 19th Century, Laurence Hope, and her husband, who called her Violet, lived for some months after they returned to India in 1904.
Murray’s Gate Road, named after the Hon. Leveson Granville Keith Murray, Collector of Madras between 1822 and 1831, led to Dunmore House, so named by him because he was the son of the fourth Earl of Dunmore. Whether he built the great garden house he lived in during those years is not known, but the house no longer exists.
What happened to the house in the 50 years immediately after Murray retired in 1831 after 38 years in the Madras Civil Service is not known but in 1888 it was bought by Eardley Norton, the well-known lawyer, for Rs. 47,800 in a Court sale.
The house was next bought from Norton’s estate in 1910 by the Maharaja of Pithapuram. A tragedy in the Pithapuram family led to them moving out to Cenotaph Road and, no doubt, Dunmore House remained rented out till businessman K. Gopalakrishnan bought it in 1941. Over the years that followed, the acreage of Dunmore House was sold off in substantial plots and its northern half became Venus Studios, home to Venus Pictures. After the studio closed down, the property was developed as today’s Venus Colony. In the southern half, a couple of roads close to Dunmore House take their names from members of the Pithapuram family, and some members of Gopalakrishnan’s family have homes on these roads. But none in the area seems to know of Laurence Hope.
Laurence Hope wrote impassioned poetry that as the ‘Indian Love Lyrics’ scandalised Victorian England. Her ‘Pale Hands I loved By The Shalimar’, her best remembered poem, had many tattlers nattering about a love affair with a young Kashmiri after her identity got known.
But her only known love affair was with the then Col. Nicolson, 46 at the time, whom she married in 1889 when she was 23. She was the daughter of Arthur Cory, who was the Editor of North India’s leading newspaper, the Civil and Military Gazette, published from Lahore. The Corys had arrived in India in 1881. The General, an Indophile like her, was ADC to Queen Victoria for a few years before his retirement in 1893. On his retiring, the Nicolsons returned to India and settled in Calicut for a few months before illness brought them to Madras for their last year. They died in 1904.
Laurence Hope’s poetry was read in closed rooms in the late 19th-early 20th Century but by the 1920s it had been set to music and was sung at tea soirees in the world’s leading hotels. She was certainly a woman ahead of her times, most people of the time resenting her intellectuality and her passion.
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Back almost to roots
The House of Binny, in its 225th year, appears to be going back to one of its first, and most successful, businesses, liquor. For years now there has been little talk of Binny’s in business circles, if you except all the speculation about what it plans to do with its considerable holding of land in Perambur. The latest news, however, is that Binny’s is back in business again, with Mohan Breweries and Distilleries being merged with it. With Binny’s at present having no business operations, the merger will make liquor its business again.
From its earliest days as Binny & Dennison in the first years of the 19th Century, wines, spirits and beer was one of its largest imports, either for sale or ordered by individuals and institutions. Madeira was one of its major wines, but it provided it an export opportunity too. It was found that Madeira was a wine that matured particularly well in Madras and casks of it were imported, matured locally and re-exported to Britain.
A wine story retailed over generations in Binny’s Liquor Department concerned a veteran employee in the Department, Alex Rodrigues, who in 1873 blotted his copybook. When seven casks of Madeira, each of different quality, were found to be short through leakage or evaporation, he topped them up with loose Madeira they had around, quality be damned. He followed this up by washing empty claret bottles with the best brandy in stock. He got away with it all with a 15 per cent (Rs.15) pay cut.
Binny Mills gate just before the mills were closed / by Special Arrangement
But for all the liquor business Binny’s did up to the 1940s, it publicly expressed concern over the ‘Drink Evil’, particularly as it affected production in its mills. In 1924, it persuaded Government to allow the six toddy shops and two arrack shops in the vicinity of the mills to be open only during mill working hours; frustrated workers, thus, found it difficult to get a drink after work, their usual drinking hours. And as for Sundays, it got Government to allow the liquor shops to be open only from 12 to 3 in the afternoon, siesta time. All this, however, did not completely solve the problem the mills — and the families of workers — faced. Binny’s as late as 1935 had temperance workers doing the round of workers’ colonies lecturing on the ills of drink, and its dramatic society often staged plays on the same theme in those areas.
All this is unlikely to be seen when the new township in 70 acres of Binny Mills property is developed over the next few years in partnership with the SPR Group. This is promised to be an integrated, self-contained residential township with every facility, from healthcare to education, from hotels to entertainment, provided for. But will it be named Binnyville or Binnypuram in memory of a once grand old institution that helped considerably in the growth of Madras?
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Does a rose need a name?
Dharmalingam Venugopal, that dedicated documenter of the Nilgiris, tells me that he recently received a letter from a Colin Sullivan, a descendant of John Sullivan, who opened up the Nilgiris and is considered the progenitor of Ooty, wondering whether the Government of Tamil Nadu would name a rose in the Ooty Rose Garden after John Sullivan.
Ooty’s Rose Garden / by Special Arrangement
Rose plants, it is stated, first came into the Presidency in 1831 from England when Governor Stephen Lushington of Madras placed an order for them. A reference to the Ooty Botanical Gardens in 1832 speaks of the “fragrance of roses” filling the air. Did these roses come to the Gardens from John Sullivan?
Sir Frederick Price, who wrote one of the most definitive records of Ooty and its history (1908), said, “I consider that the introduction of European vegetables and of the apple, peach and strawberry may safely be attributed to Mr. Sullivan.” So why not roses? After all, John Sullivan was associated with the Nilgiris and Ooty from 1817 till the 1840s.
John Sullivan, the Madras Civilian, would certainly warrant a bit of Nature’s bounty being named after him.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by S. Muthiah / December 14th, 2014
The Hindu Lit for Life 2015 – Poetry with Prakriti festival closes tonight with Delhi-based Hindustani classical musician Vidya Shah’s tribute to the music and poetry of the legendary singer Begum Akhtar in her centenary year. Excerpts from an interview with Vidya:
What drew you to Begum Akhtar and her work?
I learnt in the lineage of Begum Akhtar, taught by Shanti Hiranand, one of her senior-most disciples. So I grew up listening to vignettes about her life. Begum’s most important contribution to music was her singing of the ghazal, which is what drew me to her. Through this project, I’d hoped to highlight aspects of her life that reveal her greatness as a person, and the way in which she gave the ghazal a mainstream space in an otherwise hierarchical musical world. And since I’m presenting this at a poetry festival, I will look at the wonderful way in which she understood poetry, and the poets of her time, many of whom she had special relationships with. Her music was very much a part of that poetry, and it shaped her spirit and her singing.
Tell us about the process of creating this concert and its structure.
This concert is my understanding of Begum Akhtar, my perspective on her as a contemporary musician living in these times. I examine who Begum Akhtar was, her journey from being a bai to a begum, and in these journeys how she empowered herself with music and poetry. The performance is woven with a narrative that highlights interesting aspects of her life with anecdotes, some rare and others better known, which reveal how she could make such a fantastic impact on audiences even today. Choosing pieces from her vast repertoire was quite a difficult process. I was often overcome and overwhelmed with greed because I’d want to sing this song and that one too, because there are so many charming pieces she’s done. But ultimately, what I did choose are those that reasonably showcase the versatility of her singing, the richness in her choice of poetry and the journeys she made within her world of music.
What about Begum still resonates with audiences today?
It is musicians like Begum who paved the way for us. We don’t have the social baggage that they carried but we have the opportunities to present similar work. Begum was an assertive, independent feminist, who, despite the struggles in her life, was able to empower herself and others. For instance, in Hindustani classical music, the ritual of the ganda bandhan initiates one into a formal guru-shishya relationship. In her time, it was an entirely male practice. She was one of the first women to do it for her female students. So there was a lot of élan and strength to her as a person, and she found an amazing balance between her joie de vivre, and life’s struggles and sorrows. And that passion shows through in her music. Which is why she will remain relevant forever.
How has creating this project changed you?
Right at the start, I knew I could never reproduce or replicate Begum’s music. That would be impossible. The biggest advantage of her music, though, was the inherent quality that lets you imbibe it, absorb it, understand it, internalise it and make it your own. The project is now a year old and I’m still growing with it, still learning from it. It has given me a lot of humility and it’s been a humbling experience. It has also given me a lot of strength. I can now sense what must have been her greatness. And I’m excited to bring this now to Chennai, being a Tamilian myself, singing Urdu poetry here and sharing the life of a diva who wasn’t from here, but whose story still resonates here. I’m excited to be making that journey for myself.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Lit for Life / by Esther Elias / December 09th, 2014
CHAMPIONS: S.N. Mohammed Salahuddin and M.A. Sivanbarasi were declared the best athletes in the Bharathiar University inter-collegiate athletic meet in Coimbatore on Friday. Photo: M. Periasamy
Dr. NGP College of Arts and Science and Nirmala College, with 63 points apiece, emerged the overall champions in the men and women’s sections respectively in the Bharathiar University inter-collegiate athletic meet at the Nehru Stadium here on Friday.
Three records fell on the final day and all came in the men’s section. A. Deepan Chakravarthi of STC (Pollachi), who shattered the 400m mark on Thursday, doubled his effort winning the 200m gold with a record timing of 21.7s.
A. Dharun of Dr. NGP College followed it up with a new record time of 53.5s in the men’s 400m hurdles. Later in the day, the STC men ran a brilliant last two legs to set a new 4x400m record.
Triple jumpers S.N. Mohammed Salahuddin (PSGCAS) and M.A. Sivanbarasi (PSGR Krishnammal) were declared the best athletes.
The results: Men: 200m: 1. A. Deepan Chakravarthi (STC, Pollachi) 21.7s (NMR); 2. K. Kevin Rinalldo (Dr. GRD); 3. P. Arul Prakash (Dr. NGP). 400m hurdles: 1. A. Dharun (Dr. NGP) 53.5s (NMR); 2. M. Parthiban (STC); 3. J. Balaji (Sri Krishna). Long jump: 1. S.N. Mohammed Salahuddin (PSGCAS) 7.27m; 2. S.P. Laxman (Dr. NGP); 3. S. Bharathiraj (STC). 10,000m: 1. T.M. Shaheer Ali (Dr. NGP) 34:48.6s; 2. K. Thangavel Murugan (Dr. NGP); 3. G. Gopa Kumar (PSGCAS). Discus: 1. R. Ashwin (Sri Krishna) 38.04m; 2. S. Bharathi Raj (STC); 3. S. Durai Murugan (Dr. NGP). Pole vault: 1. G. Krishna Vishnu (PSGCAS) 3.60m; 2. A. Khassan Khan (Dr. NGP); 3. R. Saravana Kumar (STC).4x400m: 1. STC Pollachi 3:22.0s (NMR); 2. PSGCAS; 3. Sri Krishna. Best athlete: S.N. Mohammed Salahuddin (PSGCAS) 1003 pts. Overall champion: 1. Dr. NGP CAS 63 pts; 2. PSGCAS 55.
Women: 200m: 1. D. Anitha (Dr. NGP) 26.1s; 2. R. Mohana (Nirmala); 3. A. Manjusri (Nirmala).400m hurdles: 1. P. Iniya (PSGR Krishnammal) 1:07.3s; 2. G. Sathya (Nirmala); 3. P. Vinosha (Nirmala). Long jump: 1. M.A. Sivanbarasi (PSGR Krishnammal) 5.50m; 2. P. Monisha (Nirmala); 3. U. Sukithra (PSGR Krishnammal). 10,000m: 1. R. Poongodi (Gobi Arts) 37:34.8s; 2. E. Vasanthamani (Gobi Arts); 3. S. Vidya (Dr. NGP). Pole vault: 1. M. Deebika (Nirmala) 2.00m; 2. R. Geetha (Nirmala).Heptathlon: 1. P. Jayanthi (Dr. NGP) 3487pts; 2. G. Sathya (Nirmala); 3. M. Vetrivel Vigneshwari (Sri Krishna). Best athlete: M.A. Sivanbarasi (PSGR Krishnammal) 928 pts. Overall champion: 1. Nirmala 63 pts; 2. PSGR Krishnammal 56.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Other Sports / by Special Correspondent / Coimbatore – December 13th, 2014
A.R. Rahman won the award for his fight against polio — Photo. M. Moorthy / The Hindu
Rotary International presented the polio ambassador award to music director A.R. Rahman at a meeting held in Guindy on Saturday.
Accepting the award, Mr. Rahman spoke of helping fight polio through social media.
“I used to think Facebook was a waste of time. But when it was suggested that I open a Facebook page and upload videos of my rehearsals, it helped me reach out to a huge user base of 22 million. It was through this page I began sharing awareness messages on polio,” he said.
Pianist Anil Srinivasan played some of Mr. Rahman’s hits songs from Hindi and Tamil cinema and asked him questions based on them.
Speaking about the influences behind Jai Ho, Mr. Rahman said, “I just wanted to approach the song like an anthem, uniting the musical influences of various cultures: Chinese, Japanese, Spanish. The song has all these influences.”
On working with Mani Ratnam, he said he was given the space to experiment beyond what the script required. “There have been occasions when I have tried something out for myself, even if it seemed outside the scope of the film in the beginning. Sometimes, Mani included them in his film. Deivam thanda poove was one such song,” he said.
Having just landed in Chennai from Berlin, Mr. Rahman was in no mood to sing. But the audience was in no mood to let him go without a song. The maestro left with a promise to sing the next time.
Singer Naresh Iyer entertained the audience afterwards.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 14th, 2014
Senior vocalist Subhashini Parthasarathy is gifted with an in-depth intuition of musical phrases. Her performances only reflect the excellence of carnatic music, which is delivered by her in her own chaste style.
Bringing out aesthetic qualities and integrating them into the texture of the compositions has always been the hallmark of the artiste.
Her concert for the Sri Meenakshi Sundararajan fine arts that was performed recently, brought out the lustre of carnatic music of an earlier era. Beginning with the Neranammi varnam, a composition by the late singer-cum-composer Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar, she moved on to sing Siva Siva (panthuvarali), a composition by saint Thyagaraja. And when she rendered Rama Badra Ra Ra (ananda bhairavi), composed by saint Bhadrachala Ramadoss, we realised that she is one original artistes who stands for the traditional values of Carnatic Panthathi.
Subhashmi’s competence in handling kriti passages, in both the octaves, made the listening experience a great pleasure indeed. Cowming back to the performance, Thyagaraja’s composition Kalikiyunde (Keeravani), rendered by Subhashmi with scintillating swara passages, revealed her capacity to deliver it with a natural flair and unhurried expression. When she brought out the salient characteristics of the raga, it was evident that the vocalist relied on fast tempo and the principles of vishranthi.
Pakala Ramdas (violin) made good effort to complement the singer, with Arun Prakash (mridangam) and Chandrasekara Sarma (ghatam) unfolding the laya exposition.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Narayana Vishwanath / December 13th, 2014
Former students of Thiagarajar College of Engineering of the 1960-1965 batch, along with Uma Kannan, secretary, at the golden jubilee reunion in Madurai on Monday. Photo: G. Moorthy
Former students of Thiagarajar College of Engineering, belonging to the 1960-1965 batch, came together to celebrate their golden jubilee reunion at the college premises here on Monday.
“I am meeting some of my friends after fifty years. It feels great to recollect our college memories,” said S. Nambi Narayanan, retired director of Indian Space Research Organisation and an alumnus.
Around 20 former students from different cities in India and abroad had converged at the college for the reunion. They toured the campus and honoured retired faculty members.
“It is very exciting to visit the college again and meet our friends after five decades,” said Ravi Ravindran, a retired scientist from Bell laboratory, USA.
The former students also expressed jubilance over the developments that had taken place at the college over the years since they had graduated.
“We feel happy to take note of the developments in the college. They are beyond our imagination,” Dr. Nambi Narayanan said. Mr. Ravi Ravindran urged the students to improve their skills to shine in any field.
V. Abhaikumar, Principal of the college, welcomed the alumni to visit the college and share their experiences with the students. “Alumni visiting the college at least once in a semester and sharing their stories on success and struggle will motivate not just students, but young faculty members as well,” he noted.
He also stated that the college is focusing on becoming a research-based institution. “We are looking for more involvement from industries in curriculum development and syllabus formation,” he added.
Former principal Maria Louis spoke on the importance of value based education. “College managements should inculcate the sense of responsibility in students. Most educational institutions, barring a few like TCE, have become commercialised,” he noted. Secretary of the college Uma Kannan interacted with the alumni.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by M. Vandhana / Madurai – December 09th, 2014
Time was when tea was the drink of the working class in the state and coffee was considered a sophisticated brew for the uppermiddle class and the elite. The introduction of coffee into Tamil Nadu caused a certain cultural anxiety initially but the beverage was ultimately appropriated by Tamil society.
These and other fascinating insights about the history of plantations, coffee and tea were revealed at a seminar titled ‘Tea For David’, a felicitation of historian and professor David Washbrook, who retired from Trinity College, Cambridge University after teaching at the famous institution for 40 years. This wasn’t surprising, because Washbrook is an academic who specialises in the history of south India.
“The appropriation of coffee was mediated both by caste and class and coffee became the marker of the brahmin middle-class,” said A R Venkatachalapathy, professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, speaking at the seminar organised by the department of humanities and social sciences of IIT-Madras
Quoting a court case from Kolar Gold Fields in which a Buddhist dalit was refused coffee, Venkatachalapathy explored the question of coffee and caste in colonial TN. “On July 13, 1927, Ramaswamy and two friends, one a brahmin, walked into a restaurant. He ordered three coffees. When the proprietor saw Ramaswamy, he told the waiter not to give coffee to a lower caste. Upset over the incident, he walked out. His brahmin friend, however, didn’t accept the coffee served to him as a mark of protest,” said Venkatachalapathy, the author of ‘In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History’.
“Ramaswamy filed a case and hired barrister E L Iyer, a renowned labour activist in Madras,” he said. “But today, there is no record of the proceedings, barring three reports in a Tamil newspaper. It shows that drinking coffee was no ordinary matter those days. With a separate place for Brahmins, caste was very much part of the ‘coffee hotels’ of those days, and leaders like Periyar E V Ramasamy had to fight against this.”
Speaking on ‘Planters, Power and the Colonial Law’, Ravi Raman, of Council for Social Development, New Delhi, said the British subjected dalits in plantations to various forms of institutional and coercive repression.
“The contrasting dimensions of colonial law have been explored by historians, but it appears that plantation owners too developed their own laws. They ultimately minimised abuse of workers but, by and large, they wielded coercive power,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / December 09th, 2014
A total of ancient 30 pottery pieces dating back to 3 century BC have been unearthed at Madhagam village on the Pudukottai-Avudaiyarkovil road near Embal, a coastal village, recently.
A salient feature of these pieces is that eight of them contained strokes testifying to the ancient practice of denoting figures.
While one of the pottery pieces had the strokes of wings of a bird, another contained Swasthik symbol.
Interestingly, one piece contained a couple of alphabet-like markings, said S.Neelavathy, Assistant Professor in History, Government Arts College for Women, here on Thursday.
Chance discovery
She said the digging of an irrigation tank in the village for maintenance led to the chance discovery of these pieces.
She, along with Karu.Rajendran, an epigraphist, went to the spot to study the pieces following a tip-off from the students hailing from the nearby villages about the finding.
The pieces testify to the fact that the coastal district accounted for human habitation in the hoary past.
She has planned to take up further research in the area with the cooperation of the local villagers.
She has appealed to the villagers to immediately contact her if they come across any piece of pot with strokes, by dialling 9788205562.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Special Correspondent / Pudukottai – December 12th, 2014
