The Urban And Colonial Cosmography of Madras and the british, 1640-1894

The Urban And Colonial Cosmography of Madras and the british, 1640-1894

This book looks at the urbanization of Madras stretching from a coastal village to town and colonial city with Fort St George the White Town and the potential native Black Town with trade and production necessitated the gradual building where tiled houses came up. The English company obtained the immediate suburban villages through grants and derived revenue and income. After the French occupation (1746-49), rebuilding the Black Town in Madras happened through large scale migration of the various working class people. The numerous settlements with huts increasingly grew and the English Company took measures to control the urban land. The volume navigates through technology and examines the role of letter press introduced and how books and journals got printed. The study focuses on the British paintings made in Madras for the visual knowledge of the West. It explores the colour paintings printed at the litho press established. With the arrival of photography many studios came up and the photographers created the visual histories of Madras city which had a ready market in London. The monograph offers new insights on urban and colonial history.
S. Jeyaseela Stephen is former directeur, Institut pour études Indo-Européennes (2013-2023). He was Professor of Maritime History (2001-2013) at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. He has authored numerous books on the maritime history of early modern India. His books have been translated into Chinese, Danish, German and Tamil. He is the recipient of the Best Book Prize of the Year 1999 from the Government of Tamil Nadu. He received the Thiru Vi. Ka Award of 2023 by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Cover Page Illustration: A Plan of Fort St. George and the City of Madras in 1726 by Herman Moll (Courtesy: British Library, London)