engineering

Madras Central Prison

Madras Central Prison is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Madras Central Prison rather than just read about it. In short: Madras Central Prison was one of the oldest prisons in India. It was located in Chennai (formerly Madras) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Key takeaways

Madras Central Prison belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Madras Central Prison to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Madras Central Prison from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Madras Central Prison was one of the oldest prisons in India. It was located in Chennai (formerly Madras) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It became operational during the British Raj period. The prisoners held there were moved to the newly constructed Puzhal Central Prison starting in 2006, with the 172-year-old prison being demolished in June 2009.

History Madras Central Prison was one of the oldest prisons in India. It was started during British rule in 1837. It was initially called the Madras penitentiary until 1855 when it was renamed to Central Jail. It was originally built to house transit convicts who were to face the 'sazay-e-kaala paani' in Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and constructed at the cost of Rs 16,496 on 11 acres (45,000 m2) of land. It is said that the call for independence found its echo more in the Madras Presidency than elsewhere in the princely States. Many of those freedom fighters were arrested and lodged here; it is said a few of them died in custody. There were 1,778 prisoners in the prison as of January 2002, of which 500 required to be produced in different courts in Chennai and mofussil (rural) areas including Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli.

Notable prisoners

The prison housed Subhas Chandra Bose during the days of independence movement. C. N. Annadurai, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and leader of Dravidian Movement was housed here for his Anti Hindi agitations. The prison also housed former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi and chief minister of Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalithaa during the trial involving corruption cases. Also, several international figures, including LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, Maoist leader of Nepal, Chandra Prakash Gajurel were imprisoned here.

1999 riots In 1999, some of the inmates rioted following the death of an inmate named Boxer Vadivelu. They set fire to a room where the assistant warden had taken refuge. Riot police were called in to contain the riots; the police initially used tear gas to quell the rioters, before resorting to live ammunition. In the battle which ensued between the inmates and the riot police, 10 people, including a prison official, were killed, while more than 100 people were injured.

Relocation The Madras Central prisoners were relocated to Puzhal Central Prison in Puzhal in 2006 and the vacant property was handed over to Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) for revenue augmentation purpose in 2008. The cost of the 13-acre (53,000 m2) land was estimated conservatively at Rs. 4.75 billion. Demolition of the buildings began on 14 June 2009.

New buildings for Madras Medical College In 2010, a new campus with a six-storeyed building for Madras Medical College was built on a land covering 325,000 sq ft on the prison premises and was completed in 2012 at a cost of ₹ 566.3 million. The campus will have nearly 1,250 students and 400 faculty and staff members.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Madras Central Prison

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Madras Central Prison claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Madras Central Prison before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Madras Central Prison ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Madras Central Prison

In research: Madras Central Prison appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Madras Central Prison in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Madras Central Prison is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures completed in 1837, Buildings and structures demolished in 2009, Defunct prisons in India, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Madras Central Prison outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Madras Central Prison” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Madras Central Prison in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Madras Central Prison means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Madras Central Prison out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Madras Central Prison in simple terms?

Madras Central Prison was one of the oldest prisons in India. It was located in Chennai (formerly Madras) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Why does Madras Central Prison matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Madras Central Prison?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Madras Central Prison.