Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder road in Mambalam

Ms.Anushya Padmanabhan writes ;

I am from Ooty and I have been thru your portal on our culture you aer doing a great job. Now I need a favour from you, there is a road in Chennai West Mambalam named after great Ari gowder called arya gowda road… many people have mentioned that it’s named after him. 

However when I have posted it in Face book  few baduga friends needed proof. I dont know how to prove this as you have gathered many info on him, is it possible to get some information on this?

Thank you Anushya for your comments. Yes the road in front of Mambalam Railway Station is indeed named after Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder though the name is misspelt as ‘Arya Gowda’. See below as well as the page “All About Ari Gowder”. I have most of the land documents with me – Wg Cdr JP

From the book ” A BADAGA – ENGLISH DICTIONARY ” by Prof.Paul Hockings and Christiane Pilot-Raichoor

Rao Bahadur H.B.Ari Gowder, the first Badaga graduate, first Badaga M.L.C & M.L.A for a long time who had brought many reforms in/to Badaga Community including ‘prohibition’ (no alcohol – kudi) to Nilgiris in British days itself. Ari Gowder lead the Indian contigent (yes, “INDIAN CONTIGENT) to World Scouts Jumboree held in Europe in the 1930s.Being a great philanthrophist he had done a lot for the betterment of Badagas. He was the one who established Nilgiri Co-Op Marketting Society at Ooty, to save the small farmers-especially Badagas- from the exploits of middlemen & traders at Mandis in Mettupalayam. He was the President of NCMS for more than 30 years, till his death and NCMS was considered one of the best co-op societies in India during his days. His statue has been erected in the NCMS compound in appreciation of his great work. He was the Nakku Betta leader till his death after his father Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder. In fact they were the ‘uncrowned kings’ of Nakku Betta for about 80 years continuously.

Since he donated the land, the road in front of Mambalam Railway Station in Chennai (Madras) is named after him (known as Arya Gowder Street). In fact Rao Bahadur Ari Gowder  had bought about 1.13 acres in that area [including the road now] in 1930 and about 80 cents were sold through Appaswamy realtor later.