The Global Investors Meet has just concluded. Preparing for a panel discussion organised by the British Council at the two-day event, I was reflecting on what a long history Madras/Chennai has had with investor and trade meets. Let us not forget that the East India Company, no matter its horrible later history, came here as an investor in trade. The grant by the Nayak reads very much like what a modern-day government would commit to entice investment.
Two centuries after the English arrived at Madras, they held what was their first trade show in the country. And there was a desperate need for it. The Presidency had fallen far behind Bengal and Bombay in trade and that meant investment in infrastructure had declined as well. Taking inspiration from the Great Exhibition of London held in 1851, the Madras Government organised its Industries Exhibition between February 20 and April 28, 1855. Those were leisurely times when an event like this could be sustained over two months. And it needed three years to put together, planning beginning in 1852! And in what was a first and perhaps only example of its kind, the exhibition was planned with British Madras, French Pondicherry and Portuguese Goa working in tandem. The Madras School of Industrial Arts (now the Government College of Fine Arts, Egmore) played a vital role in putting together the exhibits, all of which were what we would today describe as commodities — hides, grain, fibres, etc., and also agricultural tools and implements designed by the School. The venue was the Banqueting (now Rajaji) Hall and the inauguration was by Governor Lord Harris. A total of 26,000 came to see the exhibits over two months. Calcutta and Bombay immediately declared their intention of hosting similar events but that never came to pass because the Mutiny, aka First War of Independence 1857, intervened.
New harbour
Flush with the success of its brand-new harbour, Madras hosted its Industrial and Fine Arts Exhibition of 1903. Once again there was a need to push for publicity as the Presidency was lagging as an industrial centre. The event was inaugurated in December by the Maharajah of Mysore and ran for a month. A total of 60,000 visitors filed past items on display at the Cathedral Gardens (later Gemini Studios) at the month-long event.
But by far the biggest success of the colonial era was the Madras Exhibition of Arts and Industries held between December 27, 1915, and January 16, 1916. This was at the People’s Park, Park Town, and a proper trade fair with specially constructed pavilions to showcase products of various kinds. The French from Pondicherry too participated as did several British-run companies headquartered in Madras. For the first time, finished goods — leather, aluminium vessels, electric gadgets and car bodies — were on show. By then, the city was developing as an industrial centre though the exhibition guide did lament that it could never compete against Bombay. A total of 1,39,000 people came to the exhibition and the event netted ₹61,000, which went to the benefit of the Madras War Fund.
A panoramic view
A major attraction at the above event was a spiral tower up which people went for a panoramic view. It is interesting to reflect that 53 years later, one of the principal draws at the Indian International Trade and Industries Fair, 1968, was a concrete tower, named after Sir M. Visveswarayya and located inside what would become Anna Nagar Tower Park. By then, Madras was an industrial hub, and the rest is history.
(V. Sriram is a writer and historian.)
