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Mudaliar community in Secunderabad

Mohan Guruswamy

On January 2, I attended the 150th anniversary celebration of my old school. Mahbub College High School in Secunderabad. It was founded by a clansman, Somasundaram Mudaliar in 1862. A few years later the then Nizam Mahbub Ali Pasha donated 7 acres in Secunderabad where the school now stands and bears his name. 

The Mudaliar community in Secunderabad started many other local landmark institutions, like the Keyes High School for girls, and the Prudential Co-op Bank. The Mudaliar community came to Secunderabad with the British Indian Army and provided it with 'dubash' (interpreting) and other services. They also supplied the Cantonment with provisions and were money lenders to the officers and men. (The Chettiars were the money lenders to the East India Company and financed all its wars.) There are still a few Winston Churchill IOU's around. My paternal grandfather came from Nagavedu village near Kanchipuram and established an agency for Imperial Tobacco (now ITC) catering to the Cantonment. My maternal grandfather, late VM Ramaswamy Mudaliar, Advocate was born here and wisely married a rich lady from Vellore and became a ghar jamai. He was the Congress MLA from Vellore and was in the Rajagopalachary  cabinet in Madras. The two Mudaliar run schools mainly catered to the lower and middle classes of Secunderabad. The elite went to the Hyderabad Public School and St. Georges Grammar School. Admiral Ramdas Katari was an old boy. 

In my time the school had a top class line up of teachers and it was quite common for all the top ten places in the Matriculation exams in the state to be taken by its students. In my time, the school had a top class cricket team and one year defeated the much vaunted  Hyderabad Public School by scoring over 700 runs in one innings. I didnt get to bat. ML Jaisimha, the great Indian all-rouder was also an old student. Because of its class composition MCHS was also tough place. Because of this I learnt to fisticuff quite well and had a formidable reputation as a brawler (and was also a fairly good student and passed out with a very high first.). My late father, Major NK Guruswamy IAS and his brother Major NK Vishwanath IPS both served the school for many years - at different times, as its President and Secretary respectively.

I was student when it celebrated its centenary, and it was quite a nostalgic trip to be at the 150th. Many old students from my days were there. Many retired from modest stations in life. Some still drove cabs and buses. Others had done very well. I was delighted to meet Air Marshal P. Jayakumar who retired as Vice Chief of the IAF and many others. My cousin Ranjit Vishwanath (also an ex-student) who now lives in Pasadena, California accompanied me and we walked around the old classrooms a bit. The school now charges Rs. 40 pm as fees and is now a government aided school. In my days the monthly fee was Rs. 6 pm. I think I got great value for it.

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