Those were the days: Sir CP, one of the most controversial yet fascinating figures of Madras

SOMERSET Maugham — probably the most highest-paid author during the interwar period — would at the peak of his career write a novel The Narrow Corner which had an Indian character. Obviously, named after a man who impressed the author. It was CP Ramaswamy Iyer.

For a couple of pre-freedom decades, CP Ramaswamy Iyer was the most powerful man from Madras reserving a permanent place for him in the daily newspapers. Though most of them were for his far-reaching reforms, it also has to be said very few Madras-born have courted controversy as CP would.