Manufactures.—Madras possesses few staple manufactures. The chief industries of the presidency are cotton-ginning, coffee-curing, fish-curing, indigo-pressing, oil-pressing, printing, rice-curing, rope-making, sugar-refining, tanning, tile and brick-making, and tobacco-curing. Up to the close of the 18th century cotton goods constituted the main article of export. Masulipatam, where the first English factory on the Coromandel coast was established in 1620, enjoyed a special reputation for its chintzes, which were valued for the freshness and permanency of their dyes. There is still a small demand for these articles in Burma, the Straits and the Persian Gulf; but Manchester goods have nearly beaten the Indian exporter out of the field. Native looms, however, still hold their own in the local market, in face of strenuous opposition. After weaving, working in metals appears to be the most widespread native industry. Among local specialities which have attracted European curiosity may be mentioned the jewelry of Trichinopoly, ornaments of ivory and horn worked at Vizagapatam, and sandal-wood carving in Kanara.
Commerce and Trade.—The continuous seaboard of the Madras presidency, without any natural harbours of the first rank, has tended to create a widely diffused trade. Madras city conducts nearly one-half of the total sea-borne commerce; next comes Malabar, containing the western railway terminus near Calicut; then Godavari, with its cluster of ports along the fringe of the delta; Tinnevelly, with the harbour at Tuticorin, which has opened large dealings with Ceylon and Burma; Tanjore, South Kanara, Ganjam and Vizagapatam. As compared with the other provinces, the trade of Madras is broadly marked by the larger proportion assigned to coasting trade with other Indian ports and with Ceylon. The chief staples of the export trade are hides and skins, coffee and raw cotton.
Railways and Irrigation.—The presidency is well supplied with railways, which naturally have their centre in Madras city, the chief seaport. The broad-gauge line of the Madras & Southern Mahratta railway connects with Bombay and Bangalore, and also crosses the peninsula to Calicut on the western coast. The South Indian (narrow-gauge) serves the extreme south, with its terminus at Tuticorin, and branches to Tinnevelly, Negapatam, Erade, Pondicherry and Nellore. The narrow-gauge line of the Madras & Southern Mahratta railway traverses the Deccan districts; and the East Coast line (broad-gauge), through the Northern Circars, has brought Madras into direct communication with Calcutta. The Madras system of irrigation has been most successful in the case of the three great eastern rivers, the Godavari, Kistna and Cauvery. Each of these is intercepted by an anicut or dam at the head of its delta, from which canals diverge on each side for navigation as well as irrigation. The scheme for diverting the waters of the Tungabhadra (a tributary of the Kistna) over the thirsty uplands of Kurnool proved a failure. The bold project of leading the Periyar river through a tunnel across the watershed of the Travancore hills on to the plain of Madura has been more successful.
Administration.—The Madras presidency is administered by a governor and a council, consisting of two members of the civil service, which number may be increased to four. There is also a board of revenue of three members. The number of districts is 24, each under the charge of a collector, with sub-collectors and assistants. The districts are not grouped into divisions or commissionerships, as in other provinces. For legislative purposes the council of the governor is augmented by additional members, numbering 45 in all, of whom not more than 17 may be nominated officials, while 19 are elected by various representative constituencies. Members of the legislative council enjoy the right of interpellation, of proposing resolutions on matters of public interest, and of discussing the annual financial statement. The principle of local devolution is carried somewhat further in Madras than in other provinces. At the bottom are union panchayats or village committees, whose chief duty is to attend to sanitation. Above them come taluk or subdivisional boards. At the head of all are district boards, a portion of whose members are elected by the taluk boards.
Education.—The chief educational institutions are the Madras University, the Presidency College, Madras Christian College, and Pachayyappa’s College at Madras; the government arts colleges at Combaconum and Rajahmundry; the law college, medical college and engineering college at Madras; the college of agriculture at Coimbatore; the teachers’ college at Saidapet; the school of arts at Madras; and the military orphanage at Ootacamund, in memory of Sir Henry Lawrence. In 1907, the total number of pupils at all institutions was 1,007,118, of whom 164,706 were females, and 132,857 were learning English.
History.—Until the British conquest the whole of southern India had never acknowledged a single ruler. The difficult nature of the hill passes and the warlike character of the highland tribes forbade the growth of great empires, such as succeeded one another on the plains of Hindustan. The Tamil country in the extreme south is traditionally divided between the three kingdoms of Pandya, Chola and Chera. The west coast supplied the nucleus of a monarchy which afterwards extended over the highlands of Mysore, and took its name from the Carnatic. On the north-east the kings of Kalinga at one time ruled over the entire line of seaboard from the Kistna to the Ganges. Hindu legend has preserved marvellous stories of these early dynasties, but our only authentic evidence consists in their inscriptions on stone and brass, and their noble architecture (see India). The Mahommedan invader first established himself in the south in the beginning of the 14th century. Ala-ud-din, the second monarch of the Khilji dynasty at Delhi, and his general Malik Kafur conquered the Deccan, and overthrew the kingdoms of Karnataka and Telingana, which were then the most powerful in southern India. But after the withdrawal of the Mussulman armies the native monarchy of Vijayanagar arose out of the ruins. This dynasty gradually extended its dominions from sea to sea, and reached a pitch of prosperity before unknown. At last, in 1565, it was overwhelmed by a combination of the four Mahommedan principalities of the Deccan. At the close of the reign of Aurangzeb, although that emperor nominally extended his sovereignty as far as Cape Comorin, in reality South India had again fallen under a number of rulers who owned no regular allegiance. The nizam of the Deccan, himself an independent sovereign, represented the distant court of Delhi. The most powerful of his feudatories was the nawab of the Carnatic, with his capital at Arcot. In Tanjore, a descendant of Sivaji ruled; and on the central table-land a Hindu chieftain was gradually establishing his authority and founding the state of Mysore, destined soon to pass to a Mahommedan usurper.
Vasco da Gama cast anchor off Calicut on the 20th of May 1498, and for a century the Portuguese retained in their control the commerce of India. The Dutch began to establish themselves on the ruin of the Portuguese at the beginning of the 17th century, and were quickly followed by the English, who established themselves at Calicut and Cranganore in 1616. Tellicherry became the principal English emporium on the west coast of Madras. The Portuguese eventually retired to Goa, and the Dutch to the Spice Islands. The first English settlement on the east coast was in 1611, at Masulipatam, even then celebrated for its fabrics. Farther south a fort, the nucleus of Madras city, was erected in 1640. Pondicherry was purchased by the French in 1762. For many years the English and French traders lived peacefully side by side, and with no ambition for territorial aggrandisement. The war of the Austrian succession in Europe lit the first flame of hostility on the Coromandel coast. In 1746 Madras was forced to surrender to La Bourdonnais, and Fort St David remained the only English possession in southern India. By the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle Madras was restored to the English; but from this time the rivalry of the two nations was keen, and found its opportunities in the disputed successions which always fill a large place in Oriental politics. English influence was generally able to secure the favour of the rulers of the Carnatic and Tanjore, while the French succeeded in placing their own nominee on the throne at Hyderabad. At last Dupleix rose to be the temporary arbiter of the fate of southern India, but he was overthrown by Clive, whose defence of Arcot in 1751 forms the turning point in Indian history. In 1760 the crowning victory of Wandewash was won by Colonel (afterwards Sir Eyre) Coote, over Lally, and in the following year, despite help from Mysore, Pondicherry was captured.
Though the English had no longer any European rival, they had yet to deal with Mahommedan fanaticism and the warlike population of the highlands of Mysore. The dynasty founded by Hyder Ali, and terminating in his son Tippoo Sultan, proved itself in four several wars, which terminated only in 1799, the most formidable antagonist which the English had ever encountered (see [Hyder Ali] and [India]). Since the beginning of the 19th century Madras has known no regular war, but occasional disturbances have called for measures of repression. The pálegárs or local chieftains long clung to their independence after their country was ceded to the British. On the west coast, the feudal aristocracy of the Nairs, and the religious fanaticism of the Moplahs, have more than once led to rebellion and bloodshed. In the extreme north, the wild tribes occupying the hills of Ganjam and Vizagapatam have only lately learned the habit of subordination. In 1836 the zamíndarí of Gumsur in this remote tract was attached by government for the rebellious conduct of its chief. An inquiry then instituted revealed the wide prevalence among the tribe of Kondhs of human sacrifice, under the name of meriah. The practice has since been suppressed by a special agency. In 1879 the country round Rampa on the northern frontier was the scene of riots sufficiently serious to lead to the necessity of calling out troops. The same necessity arose three years later, when the Hindus and Mahommedans of Salem came into collision over a question of religious ceremonial. A more serious disturbance was that known as the “Anti-Shanar riots” of 1899. The Maravans of Tinnevelly and parts of Madura, resenting the pretensions of the Shanans, a toddy-drawing caste, to a higher social and religious status, organized attacks on Shanan villages. The town of Sivakasi was looted and burnt by five thousand Maravans. Quiet was restored by the military, and a punitive police force was stationed in the disturbed area.
The different territories comprising the Madras presidency were acquired by the British at various dates. In 1763 the tract encircling Madras city, then known as the Jagir now Chingleput district, was ceded by the nawab of Arcot. In 1765 the Northern Circars, out of which the French had recently been driven, were granted to the Company by the Mogul emperor, but at the price of an annual tribute of £90,000 to the nizam of Hyderabad. Full rights of dominion were not acquired till 1823, when the tribute was commuted for a lump payment. In 1792 Tippoo was compelled to cede the Baramahal (now part of Salem district), Malabar and Dindigul subdivision of Madura. In 1799, on the reconstruction of Mysore state after Tippoo’s death, Coimbatore and Kanara were appropriated as the British share; and in the same year the Mahratta raja of Tanjore resigned the administration of his territory, though his descendant retained titular rank till 1855. In 1800 Bellary and Cuddapah were made over by the nizam of Hyderabad to defray the expense of an increased subsidiary force. In the following year the dominions of the nawab of the Carnatic, extending along the east coast almost continuously from Nellore to Tinnevelly, were resigned into the hands of the British by a puppet who had been put upon the throne for the purpose. The last titular nawab of the Carnatic died in 1855; but his representative still bears the title of prince of Arcot, and is recognized as the first native nobleman in Madras. In 1839 the nawab of Kurnool was deposed for misgovernment and suspicion of treason, and his territories annexed.
See Madras Manual of Administration, 3 vols. (Madras, 1885 and 1893); S. Ayyangar, Forty Years’ Progress in Madras (Madras, 1893); J. P. Rees, Madras (Society of Arts, 1901); Madras Provincial Gazetteer (2 vols., Calcutta, 1908).