Chennai, formerly Madras, city (1991 pop. 5,421,985), capital of Tamil Nadu state, SE India, on the Bay of Bengal. A commercial, railway, and manufacturing center, Chennai has large textile mills, chemical plants, and tanneries and is the main center of India's automobile industry. Providing offshore and back-office services to foreign corporations is also an important industry. Together with docks and warehouses, its harbor provides modern transportation linkages to peninsular India. A cultural center, the city is the seat of the Univ. of Madras (1857), institutes of dance and music, and a number of museums. There are many large public buildings; a famous shore drive, the Marina; and Guindy National Park. Near Chennai is Mt. St. Thomas, the traditional site of the martyrdom (A.D. 68) of St. Thomas, the apostle. He is said to be buried in Chennai at the Cathedral of St. Thomé.

The city, as Madras, became an important British trading center, growing largely around Fort St. George, a British outpost (1645) at the site of an earlier British settlement (1639) that became the seat of the British East India Company until 1773 and the capital of the Madras presidency (1653). The French captured Madras in 1746, but the British recovered it two years later. The presidency became a province (1937) and, with Indian independence, a state (1950), renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969. In 1996 the city was renamed Chennai, after Chennapatnam, a precolonial village near the original British outpost. Coastal areas of the city were hit by the Dec., 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami.

formerly Madras

City (pop., 2001: city, 4,343,645; metro. area, 6,560,242), capital of Tamil Nadu state, southern India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. Founded in 1639 by the British East India Company as a fort and trading post, it was known as Fort St. George and was used as a base for the company's expansion in southern India. The city of St. Thomé, established by the Portuguese in the 16th century, was ceded to the British in 1749 and incorporated into it. The English made the city their administrative and commercial capital circa 1800. It is an industrial centre and the site of numerous educational and cultural institutions. It is traditionally considered the burial place of St. Thomas the Apostle.

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