The MCC Magazine ❤️

Aura of the Archives

#reflections

The motivation for this post is an Article in The Hindu, Chennai Edition, dt. 17th October 2023, that runs to half the space in the broadsheet, on the infamous controversy involving the Theosophical Society in Chennai, which had happened in the year 1884.

It was such a pleasant surprise to see the feature writer of this article, Pon Vasanth, referring to the September 1884 issue of the MCC Magazine, to authenticate further, on the facts connected with the controversy. 

Well, the MCC Magazine has always occupied great pride and prestige amongst Alumni, faculty and students alike.

The Reason?

Right from the first issue of the MCC Magazine that was published in the year 1883, and till date, the MCC Magazine has always been an invaluable treasure trove of myriad hues.

MCC Archives Page in the Official Website of our College, says -

The MCC Magazine has always prided itself for its articles of high standards from reputed scholars both within and from outside the College.

It consists of separate sections for Scientific jottings, literature review, Notes and extracts which reported on world events and college notes.

Every minor detail about the faculty and the students were recorded meticulously including the correspondences and queries.

In this backdrop, I wish to immensely thank our beloved Principal Dr. P. Wilson, for having given us a vibrant framework to come up with a memorable Magazine.

He also emphasised on the importance of connecting with the rich past and the great legacy of MCC, to inspire and to motivate our present crop of students, since today’s students do not know much about the rich legacy and the culture that they have inherited from their mighty seniors.

A thought that was emphasised yet again, by K. M. Mammen, [the President of the MCC Alumni Association], while addressing the audience during the Distinguished Alumni Series, held yesterday in Campus. 

Mr. Mammen had said that, the Alumni Lecture Series was “designed to inspire and motivate our current crop of students.” 

Keeping this in mind, we invited articles that connect with the rich legacy of our College, and aptly named it as ‘Life, Legacy and Heritage Special Issue’.

As a result, the Magazine shaped up so well, thanks to the untiring efforts of all the vibrant members of the Magazine Committee, - Dr. Phebe Angus, Associate Editor, Dr. Sebulon Dorai, Dr. Raja Sornam, Dr. Indumathi, members, among others.

There were many articles of high renown contributed by alumni and faculty members.

One particular article intrigued and interested us so much.

It was from Dr. B. Narasingaraja Naidu, [Retired Professor & Chairman, Department of History, Bangalore University], an old boy of MCC [who did his PU, BA & MA in MCC, and passed out in 1966].

His insightful article was on Rev. E. Montieth Macphail, Principal of Madras Christian College and later VC of the University of Madras, 1886 – 1923, & 1923 – 25.

There are quite a few interesting and memorable incidents that he recollects with fondness, especially the send-off meeting given to Rev. Macphail.

Says he – [just excerpts]

A. G. Paul presented one fine piece of Thanjavur art and M. Bhaskaraswamy presented one piece of fine Madurai art. In replying, E. M. Macphail acknowledged the kindness he had received not merely that night but throughout his stay at Madras and alluded to the sympathy which ought to exist between professors and students if genuine work was to be done.

To my knowledge, the Rev. Dr. Macphail contributed five important articles to the College Magazine.

1. “Reminiscences of Dr. Miller”

2. “Kodaikkanal Observatory”

3. “The House of Lords, and the Free Church of Scotland”

4. “The Press and the Scottish Case”

5. “Two Royal Houses”.

He wrote book reviews also in the college magazine.

In his article on the “Kodaikkanal Observatory”, Macphail justifies the description of Grant-Duff that Kodaikkanal is the ‘Switzerland of India’.

Mitchie Smith was the Director of this Observatory when Macphail visited it. People, in those days, had a very vague idea of what an observatory is. This is why Macphail wrote this article to enlighten the people on this subject (on seven printed pages).

The earthquake that destroyed San Francisco was recorded in this Observatory in the form of some wave-like lines. Macphail was shown this record. He says in his article that, this earthquake was not bad when compared to the earthquake Columbia suffered on January 31, 1907.

I was surprised by the meticulous citations that he had given towards the end of his article – citations from the MCC Magazine - which dated back to more than a century ago, in time!

Well, the citations were from the MCC Magazine, April 1887, October 1887 and October 1923.

Yet another article in the present issue is worth mentioning here. The article titled ‘MCC Physicists and the Making of Modern India’ by Dr. N. Lakshminarayanan, former Professor of Physics, MCC, is awe-inspiring.

Says Dr. N. LN – [just excerpts]

It is indeed a great honour to talk about the Physicists from MCC and their contributions to the making of India. The impact of Physicists from MCC on the Indian State is of course part of Indian History – Mr. T. N. Seshan, Mr. M. M. Rajendran, Mr. S. Narayanan are some of the names that immediately come to mind.

Physics has driven civilisations and transformed societies. Physics and Physicists have been at the root of everything.

Then he proceeds to outline the contributions of DR. K. S. Krishnan, the eminent nuclear physicist Raja Ramanna, Professor Sudarshan, who is hailed as one of the greatest scientists India has ever produced and Prof. G Rajasekaran, the seniormost active high energy physicist’ in the nation, who passed away quite recently,

writes Dr. N. LN!

Apart from Physics, MCC-ians were busy impacting the Political Arena as well.

This interesting feature from Forbes India’s official web page, published on 15th February 2010 speaks to the “talk in government circles of how MCC alumni had a stranglehold on important economic portfolios”.

Most Indians have heard of T. T. Krishnamachari, who founded Chennai-based TTK Group way back in 1928.

He was one among three key businessmen — the other two being R. K. Shanmukham Chetty and John Mathai — that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru relied on. All of them occupied important positions in his Cabinet and all of them were graduates of the Madras Christian College (MCC). Enough reason for talk in government circles of how MCC alumni had a stranglehold on important economic portfolios.

TTK [MCC-ian] was minister for industry and later finance between 1952 and 1965. He built three steel plants, set up IDBI, ICICI and UTI, and crafted the Family Pension Scheme as an instrument of social security.

In hindsight, he is considered one of the founding fathers of modern India.

Shanmukham Chetty, [MCC-ian] a member of the Tamil Vannia Chetty business family, presented independent India’s first budget. At the end of year one, he too had to go. Some say he was asked to resign by Nehru due to a minor dereliction of duty by a subordinate official.

Then there was John Mathai, [MCC-ian] a former director on Tata Sons’ board who served as Nehru’s finance minister and presented two Budgets.

In the world of academics, too, MCC has made a remarkable impact and influence.

The Britannica Encyclopedia says – [just excerpts]

The Father of Library Science in India, S. R. Ranganathan, took his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Mathematics in 1913 and 1916, in MCC, and at Teachers College, Saidapet.

In 1924 he was appointed first librarian of the University of Madras, and in order to fit himself for the post he traveled to England to study at University College, London.

Ranganathan’s chief technical contributions to library science were in classification and indexing theory. His Colon Classification (1933) introduced a system that is widely used in research libraries around the world and that has affected the evolution of such older systems as the Dewey Decimal Classification. Later he devised the technique of “chain indexing” for deriving subject-index entries.

Even as I am writing this article, today, MCC has honoured two of its distinguished alumni for their services in their chosen fields, in the fifth edition of the Distinguished Alumni Series that happened yesterday, in the grand Anderson Hall, MCC.

Interestingly, MCC I guess, is one of the few Colleges in the whole of India, to sport a dedicated office for the Alumni, that’s located just at the main entrance to Anderson Hall, for many decades now.

This Office was inaugurated yesterday, by the President of the MCC Alumni Association Mr. K. M. Mammen, after having been specially refurbished and widened.

Bespeaks to the high regard and esteem for the alumni from their beloved alma mater, and from the alumni for their beloved alma mater as well.

Viva la MCC! ❤️