Madras Presidency

The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, and also known as Madras Province, is an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India.

At its greatest extent, the presidency includes most of southern India, including the whole of the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of Odisha, Kerala, Karnataka and the union territory of Lakshadweep.

The city of Madras is the winter capital of the Presidency and Ootacamund or Ooty, the summer capital.

The island of Ceylon is a part of the Madras Presidency from 1793 to 1798 when it is created a Crown colony.

The Madras Presidency's neighbors are the Kingdom of Mysore on the northwest, the Kingdom of Kochi on the southwest, and the Kingdom of Hyderabad on the north.

Some parts of the presidency are also flanked by the Bombay Presidency.

In 1639, the English East India Company had purchased the village of Madraspatnam and one year later it established the Agency of Fort St George, precursor of the Madras Presidency, although there had been Company factories at Machilipatnam and Armagon since the very early 1600s.

The agency is upgraded to a Presidency in 1652 before once more reverting to its previous status in 1655

In 1684, it is re-elevated to a Presidency and Elihu Yale was appointed as president.

In 1785, under the provisions of Pitt's India Act, Madras becomes one of three provinces established by the East India Company.

Hereafter, the head of the area Is styled "Governor" rather than "President" and beccomes subordinate to the Governor-General in Calcutta, a title that will persist until 1947.

Judicial, legislative and executive powers rest with the Governor, who is assisted by a Council whose constitution is modified by reforms enacted in 1861, 1909, 1919 and 1935.

Regular elections are conducted in Madras up to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

By 1908, the province comprises twenty-two districts, each under a District Collector, and it is further sub-divided into taluks and firqas with villages making up the smallest unit of administration.

Following the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, Madras is the first province of British India to implement a system of dyarchy, and thereafter its Governor rules alongside a prime minister

In the early decades of the twentieth century, many significant contributors to the Indian independence movement come from Madras.

With the advent of Indian independence on  August 15, 1947, the Presidency becomes the Madras Province.

Madras will later be admitted as Madras State, a state of the Indian Union at the inauguration of the Republic of India, on January 26, 1950, and will be reorganized in 1953 and 1956.

No related events match the current filters.