TY - BOOK AU - Lakshman,Nirmala TI - Degree coffee by the yard: a short biography of Madras SN - 9789382277156 AV - DS485.M45 L35 2013 U1 - 954.82 23 PY - 2013/// CY - New Delhi PB - Aleph Book Co. KW - Madras (India) KW - History N1 - Includes bibliographical references (p. [157]-158) N2 - This is a tale of two cities—Madras and Chennai. In this book, the author braids together the essential aspects of Madras and Chennai to give us an exquisite portrait of the iconic city on the Coromandel Coast. The story of Madras, founded by the British almost four hundred years ago, gives way to that of Chennai in 1996, but the two are so intertwined that it is impossible to tell them apart. The history of the city is populated with fascinating characters—writers, builders, thinkers; British traders, luminaries and rogues; freedom fighters and political leaders who changed the city’s political milieu. In independent India, the political life of Madras was marked by battles for equality, the demolition of unjust caste structures, and a remarkable spirit of secularism, all of which the author brings to vivid life ER -