The Rayalaseema town that cherishes its British legacy Premium

Recounting the history of the British Raj in the Madanapalle region of Andhra Pradesh

The very mention of Madanapalle of the Annamayya district reminds one of the cool climes and the misty Horsely Hills. However, not many are aware that Madanapalle was once a nondescript hamlet with no name. It was surrounded by bald hillocks and was reigned over by thugs in the 16th Century.

The town rose to fame as the ‘Maryada Ramanna Kshetram’, which later became ‘Madanapalle’ in the late 18th Century during the transition of power from the Nizams to the British rulers.

It was the British rulers who loved the region for its cool climate and found it a haven to escape the blistering heat of the Kadapa district.

Mohana Valli, English lecturer at Government Women’s Degree College, Madanapalle, believes that she is fortunate to have had first-hand information about the turbulent period of the British Raj between the two Great Wars and the Anglo-Indian life of the post-Independence period.

“The narrator was none other than my maternal grandfather, Bandi Venktrayappa, who died at the age of 102 in 1995. A follower of Annie Besant and a contemporary of Jiddu Krishnamurthy, my grandfather named her elder daughter, my aunt (mother’s elder sister) Annie Besantamma in those days,” she says.

Similarly, several families in the erstwhile Madras Presidency, which ruled the ceded districts, used to christen their newborns after Sir Thomas Monroe (1761-1827) as Monrolappa, Ms. Mohana Valli quotes her grandfather. She attributed the bonding between the people of the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the British Raj to the latter’s “Good Samaritan outlook”.

True to her words, Madanapalle has witnessed unprecedented development since Monroe’s maiden visit to the region in 1800. This development resulted in the formation of the “famine roads,” hospitals, educational institutions, and majestic buildings, which continue to house government offices.