Off Anna Salai in Chennai and halfway through a kilometre-long busy stretch stands a college with a 75-year-old legacy. This women’s college shares a part of its name with the stretch too, a moniker that remains etched on the minds of the city’s residents. The name is that of a barrister and philanthropist, the first Indian public prosecutor of the Madras High Court, and the founder of Ethiraj College for Women (ECW).
Born in 1890, Vellore Lakshmanaswamy Ethiraj’s life was a long series of happy events and can only motivate young lawyers, as Suresh Balakrishnan, lawyer and author of Eardley Norton: A Biography, outlines in his other book Famous Judges and Lawyers of Madras. Ethiraj’s personality and the ideals he upheld were behind his triumphs in a field once dominated by British lawyers. “He was a humble man who held his mind boldly, and was held in high esteem by those around him. He always presented a sense of fairness in his actions. He had a way of life and treated people with respect,” says V.M. Muralidharan, chairman, ECW, and great-grandnephew of Ethiraj, recalling the stories he has heard about the barrister.
