News Comment: Loss of Historic Identity in Chennai

MADRAS MISCELLANY

Loss of historic identity

Several eminent engineering institutions in the State stand to lose their historic identity if the Anna University goes through with a plan to abolish the individual identity of its constituent and affiliated colleges once the Government scheme to divide the University into four regional sections comes into force. Degree certificates, I'm told, will no longer mention the college attended by the graduate; only Anna University, Madras, Coimbatore, etc. will be mentioned. This, say both alumni and students, will not help students going in for higher education elsewhere in India or abroad, as many such institutions give greater recognition to the long-established colleges affiliated to the Anna University than the newer ones.

Many alumni are even more concerned with the fact that the present proposal will send into oblivion the names of institutions that are part of the heritage of Madras and engineering in India....

The loss of historic identity that is be-moaned by our own Muthiah set another thought train...we are in Chennai and how many of us know what is the history of this town or the state? Beyond the high school there is hardly any further learning possibilities that are available for a student to learn history and till high school there is hardly anything on the Chennai history. And once the student opts to a technical higher education, then the chances are even more remote that the student will learn anything about the history of this town. Except if they are followers of Muthiah, there is hardly a chance that they will ever get an opportunity to do anything and even he cannot claim to be available or provide all the history of the town. Ironically, Muthiah is talking about the historic identity of technical institutions themselves now!!

But, going back to the larger question and I hope to generate some answers from my readers this time:
1. Do we in Chennai have a historic identity? What do YOU think?
2. Do we need to have an historic identity? Is is relevant today?
3. If so, what and how will it benefit and whom?