Once the heart of Indian Home Rule movement, Chennai's Gokhale Hall awaits restoration

The Hindu

13-06-2025

Whoever said that a glorious past doesn't necessarily ensure a secure present could not have been more accurate in the case of Gokhale Hall.
Situated on the busy Armenian Street in George Town of Chennai, the century-old decrepit building has faded from common memory despite still standing tall in full public view. What was once a landmark for political and cultural activities and a hub for the youth has now embraced a wretched silence, burdened as it is by wear and tear over time.
Wall trees have taken over the façade turning the building into a living ruin. People using the road pass by without even offering a glance at the once glorious centre of socio-political and cultural activities in Chennai.
'I heard that many chief ministers have come here. I feel sad looking at the building,' said Narayanan, who works as the watchman at an adjacent building. 'The government should take it up and restore it. Look, the iron grillwork is still intact,' he said pointing towards the upper floors.
This building's past is as glorious as its present is desolate.
Hub of political activity
It all began in 1914 when Young Men's Indian Association (YMIA), a trust to promote cultural, social, and political activities of Indian youth, began operating out of this building, which was built using resources of Dr. Annie Besant. The following year, the domed central hall was named after Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a moderate political leader who was the president of the Indian National Congress in 1905 and is widely considered to be the mentor of Mahatma Gandhi.
Since its inception, the Hall has played host to many eminent leaders of the freedom movement like Jawaharlal Nehru, S. Satyamurti, Morarji Desai, and K. Kamaraj, besides being the venue for Annie Besant's 'Wake Up India' series of lectures. When Dr. Besant started the Home Rule Movement in 1916 on the lines of the Irish Home Rule Movement, the Gokhale Hall became a hub of political activities related to the movement.
The subsequent years post-Independence also saw the Gokhale Hall host several events connected to music and the fine arts, which led to the Tamil Isai movement. Till early 2000s, the building housed a gymnasium, a table tennis and a boxing coaching centre, a library and an administrative office. Midway into the first decade of the new millennia, the YMIA planned to demolish part of the building which began crumbling due to disuse and lack of maintenance.
Soon, the push to conserve the heritage structure gained ground, after a Madras High Court order staying the demolition proposal. The YMIA in 2022 signed a tripartite MoU with National Centre for Safety of Heritage Structures (NCSHS) at the Civil Engineering Department, IIT Madras and National Council for Science Museums (NCSM), Kolkata, under the Union Ministry of Culture, for a project aimed at adapting the heritage structure into a Museum of the Freedom Struggle, with emphasis on freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu.
As things stand, a proposal for the building's restoration has undergone various approvals. The wait for restoration work to begin has been long.