A 100 years ago, there was much tumult in the city.
In fact, in September 1918, food riots broke out across the city, with widespread looting of shops and bazaars, beginning with the Kotwal Market (later day Kothawalchavadi) and spreading from one locality to another, including the burning down of a section of Moore Market. The riots were finally contained when the military was called in.
All September, The Hindu chronicled in great detail the ‘food riots’, covering the length and breadth of the bazaars, verifying reports of violence and arson, while staunching rumours and advising the government on the road ahead.
S. Muthiah, historian, in his book ‘Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India’, said: “In September 1918, riots broke out again in the city, in which the industrial workers of Perambur, Choolai and George Town joined hands with the local unemployed youth and indulged in large-scale pillage; several parts of the town witnessed extensive looting and plunder by these unruly elements.”
The areas that were affected broadly were those where the merchants had their establishments – Godown Street, Devaraja Mudali Street, Bandar Street, Mint Street, Wall Tax Road, Kotwal Bazaar, Washermanpet, Royapuram, and North Beach Road. Disturbances were also recorded in Angappa Naicken Street and South Mada Street in Mylapore.
The high prices of food and apparel rendered the situation grave, The Hindu recorded in its September 10, 1918 edition. A closer perusal of archival material reveals that the situation was dire: the hike in prices of essential commodities was akin to lighting the fuse on a powder keg – a population on the verge of starvation. The poor took to looting, sustaining it over days, to express their anger at the denial of necessities, and grabbing goods, nearly as a matter of right. In an analytical piece published on September 20, 1918, nearly 10 days after the riots began, The Hindu sought to dismiss rumours that there was a “political motive” behind the violence. “We may here dispose, once and for all, the charge of political motives being behind the disturbances.”
Drilling down to the root cause, The Hindu sifted through the charges that the prices were hiked by the greed of small merchants, and as an effect of the partial failure of the monsoon, and concluded that no one factor was wholly responsible. “There is no question that the phenomenon of high prices is a general one, as a consequence of war conditions, and certain complacent economies are content with vicarious resignation to set down the discomfort.”
“We particularly emphasise this aspect of the question because unless the government recognise that their first duty is to feed the people, or to be more accurate to remove any factor tending to send up price of necessaries, irrespective of any other consideration, no mere tinkering will afford permanent relief.”
The reportage in the newspaper was used extensively by N. Ram for his chapter titled ‘An Independent Press and Anti-hunger Strategies: The Indian Experience’, in ‘The Political Economy of Hunger, Volume I: Entitlements and Well-being’, ed. Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990.