ABSTRACT
This chapter examines European society at Madras during this period of transition, when the nature of English presence shifted from being commercial to distinctly political. It analyses the social conditions of those living in Madras and its impact on the altering political, physical and notional spaces that defined the settlement. The chapter describes that the company state at Madras emerged from a multi-layered engagement between the company officials in the port city, their superiors in London, the local political elites operating within the region and the diverse residents of Madras. In the second half of the seventeenth century, the port of Madras was associated with a frequent movement of people, and admixtures were reordering traditional family structures and social practices. The nature of work for many employees in the English East India Company required them to serve across various stations dotting the Bay of Bengal, forcing them to leave their families behind at Madras.
