It is located on the busy Armenian street in George Town of Chennai, the old Gokhale Hall disappeared from a common memory, although it was still high in full public perspective. | Photo Credit: Saptarshi Bhattacharya
Anyone said that the famous past does not necessarily ensure that a safe gift could not be more accurate in the case of Gokhale Hall.
It is located on the busy Armenian street in George Town of Chennai, the century became the Decrepeit building disappeared from a common memory, although it still stood high in full public perspective. What was once a milestone for political and cultural activities and youth center has now accepted the poor silence, burdened as it worked over time.
The wall trees took over the facade and turned the building into a live ruin. People using the road pass around without offering a view of the once famous Sociopolitical and Cultural Activity Center in Chennai.
“I have heard that many main ministers came here. I feel sad when looking at the building,” said Narayanan, who works as a guard in the neighboring building. “The government should take it and restore it. Look, the iron grillwork is still intact,” he said to the upper floor.
The past of this building is as famous as its present.
The center of political activity
It all began in 1914, when the Indian Association of Young Men (YMIA), trust in supporting cultural, social and political activities of Indian youth began to operate outside this building, which was built using sources. Annie Besant. The following year, the dome Central Hall was named after Gokhale Gopala, a moderate political leader who was the president of the Indian National Congress in 1905 and is widely considered to be Mentor Mahatma Gandhi.
Since its foundation, Hall has played many prominent freedom leaders such as Jawahal Nezru, S. Satyamurti, Morarji Desai and K. Kamaraj, except that they are a place for “Wake Up India” lectures. When Dr. Besant began the movement of the domestic rules in 1916 on the lines of the Irish domestic government movement, Gokhale Hall became the center of political activities related to the movement.
The following years after independence also noted that Gokhale Hall hosted several events associated with music and fine arts that led to the Tamil Isai movement. Until the beginning of 2000, the building was located grammar school, table tennis and boxing coaching center, library and administrative agency. In the middle of the first decade of the new millennium, Ymia planned to demolish part of the building that began to disintegrate due to abuse and lack of maintenance.
Soon, the pressure to maintain the structure of the inheritance was obtained on the basis of the order of the Madras High Court, which resides by the proposal of demolition. Ymia in 2022 signed a tripartite memorandum with the National Center for the Safety of the Heritage Structures (NCSH) at the Civil Engineering Department, IIT Madras and the National Council for Scientific Museums (NCSM), Calcutta, under the Ministry Since she focused on darkness on darkness.
Currently, the proposal to restore the building has undergone various approval. Waiting for the beginning of the recovery was long.
Published – 13 June 2025 07:30
