A HISTORY of  THE TRIPLICANE URBAN COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED (TUCS)

Origin and Early Days

In the early part of the year 1903 a few young intellectuals living in and around Triplicane formed themselves into a study group and conducted weekly meetings at which they discussed economic subjects. These meetings were held in the premises of the Triplicane Literary Society and in the course of a few weeks they became very popular and attractive. Within a short time of the starting of the study group the young enthusiasts resolved to combine business with pleasure. Consequently they agreed to arrange for social as well as intellectual treats week after week at the house of each member by turns. This worked very well for a few months. Various subjects relating to the economics improvement of the country were discussed by them and the discussions were characterized by erudition and zeal. But after a short time the members began to lose their interest in the weekly debate. Attendance became small; even tea and laddu could not keep up the old enthusiasm, and before the year had run its normal course the study group ceased to exist.

But the work of the young men was not absolutely lost. What appeared to be an end of a laudable enterprise was not really so. Death was soon followed by resurrections. The Indian National Congress held its session in Madras in December 1903 and among the delegates that attended the Congress was Mr.Ambika Charan Ukil, an ardent advocate of Cooperation. Advantage was taken of Mr.Ukil’s presence in Madras and to meet him an “At Home” was arranged by Mr. V.S.Srinivasa Sastrisar who was one of the chief organizers of the defunct study group. At that meeting a free and frank discussion took place on the potentialities of the Cooperative movement. This discussion had an important effect. Mr.Ukil invited his Madras friends to become members of the Cooperative Union of Calcutta of which he was then the Secretary. After Mr.Ukil left Madras, Mr. Srinivasa Sastgri and his friends carried on discussions on the Cooperative movement and its possibilities and finally, at preliminary meeting held in Mr.Sastriar’s residence in Sydoji Lane towards the end of January 1904, it was resolved to open a Cooperative Store as soon as a capital of Rs1,000 was collected, and a provisional Committee was appointed for the purpose. The task assigned to the Committee was by no means easy. Days and weeks passed without encouraging response. There were even people who openly scoffed at the fantastic ideas of the Triplicane visionaries but the visionaries carried on a continuous and persistent propaganda in which the leading part was taken by Mr.T.K. Hanumantha Rao lectured with great conviction and zeal. He narrated the story of the 28 Flannel-weavers in his own inimitable style. Nearly four months of active propaganda followed and at the end of it there were found fourteen people prepared to start the enterprise with a capital of Rs.310 all told. Some more discussion followed and finally a resolution was passed to establish a store. Let me describe the actual opening of the stroe and of its working in the early days, in the language of one of the Pioneers, given expression to on the occasion of the celebration of the First Co-operators’ Day on 9th April, 1908.

“At 7-30 A.M. on the 9th April, 1904, the Triplicane Cooperative Stores was opened. Dr.C.V.Krishnaswami Aiyar was our first Honorary Secretary. Our establishment numbered two a manager and a salesman, each on Rs.8 a month. The Manager was new to the business but the salesman, a Chetti by caste, had good experience in the grocery line. Through the latter we got a loan of a pair of scales and a set of weights and measures for the opening day. The late Pandit S.M.Natesa Sastriar was asked to bless the undertaking by purchasing at the outset some turnmeric, betel-nut, sugar-candy. Our sales that day amounted to the satisfactory sum of Rs.90-9-8. Persons who formerly considered the call for cooperation as a cry in the wilderness now saw an actual working model before them and began gradually to shake off their skepticism and distrust. Our number increased but only very slowly. The first few months of our activity were discouraging in the extreme. I well remember a gloomy evening when we counted up the day’s sales at only 8 annas and 4 pies, and Mr.Hanumantha Rao stirred up the despondent Manager by reciting’ the poem “Good times are coming, boys”. Once the stores was all accomplished fact, we had to give up all thought of educational and intellectual activity and had to devote all our attention to the practical management of the stores in all its infinite details. Some of us spent all our available leisure at the Stores, and occasionally even acted as Manager and salesman when those functionaries were away to make purchases. And some of us carried our ideas of economy so far as to preserve all packing paper and twine and return them periodically to the Stores to save it so much expenditure. Our Secretary had a wonderful patience and his equanimity was never disturbed. We too became gradually inured to both flattery and censure. We knew that cooperation had come to stay with us, we saw before ou7r vision a slow but steady progress and felt that the movement had gone on far enough to be no longer the concern of an interested few, but the property of the public, safe from all fear of defeat or extinction”.

It is thus seen that the Triplicane Stores commenced its carrer in a truly humble way, with a borrowed pair of scales for the opening day. In the earl;y years the Pioneers had to face difficulties of different kinds. Their material resources were indeed slender and the support they received at the hands of the enlightened public was anything but encouraging, but their enthusiasm was unbounded and they had complete faith in themselves and their cause. These carried them on from one step to another, so much so that at the end of the first half year they were enabled to feel their ground and submit on the whole a satisfactory report. On the closing day of the first half year the number of members on the rolls rose from 14 to 91 with 144 shares to the value of Rs.720. As shown by the following table the transactions for the period went above five thousand rupees in value and the working of the first six months resulted in a net profit of Rs.218-4-5.

It is worthy of note that out of the net profit a sum of Rs.14-6-0 was set apart for the purchase of cloth for presentation to the Employees and the balance of Rs.203-14-5 was disposed of as per rule 9 of the Stores which ran as follows:

“Of the net profit one half shall be declared as dividend to the purchasers proportionately to their purchase, one fourth shall be retained as Reserve Fund and the remainder one fourth shall be devoted to such common good as may be determined at a general meeting of members. “The above rule clearly shows that the Pioneers were fully alive to the importance of conducting the store on true and sound co-operative principles. At the close of the first half year a dividend of 4-pies in every rupee of purchase was declared.
The successful working of the store for the first six months naturally encouraged. The Pioneers to persevere in their work with greater zeal and vigour than before and the result was that at the end of the second half year the number of members and share capital had both become double, while the business had trebled, itself in value. The net5 profit earned for the 2nd half year ending 31st March, 1905 amounted to the satisfactory sum of Rs.546-10-2. The fixed contribution to the Reserve and Common Good Funds were made in the first instance and the balance net profit of Rs.252-12-1 was utilized in paying the usual bonus to the employees and dividend to members at the rate of 3 ½ pies in every rupee of purchase. At the end of the first year the number of members on the rolls of the society was 184 holding 248 shares, the total purchase and distribution amounted in round figures to Rs.21,000 and Rs.20,000 respectively and the total of the Reserve Fund, Common Good Fund and the dividend distributed to members came to Rs.806-5-3. The 184 members who made their purchases at the store got as good articles there as they would have got in the ordinary bazaar, while the sum of Rs.806-5-3 noted above represented, as was pointed out in the second half yearly report with pardonable pride, “the value in rupees, annas and pies of the benefits of co-operation”.

During the third half year in the period ending 30th September, 1905 two important events occurred which are worthy of being noted. The first was the opening of two new branches and the second the registration of the society by Government under the Cooperative Credit Societies Act (Act X of 1904). The success of the novel attempt of the Pioneers created widespread interest. This was evidenced firstly by the increase in membership and volume of work of the Society and secondly by the Committee of management of about half a dozen applications for the opening of branches from residents living in the different divisions of the City. The Directors were no doubt glad at such notable recognition and appreciation by the public and after a careful consideration they opened one branch at Singarachari Street, Triplicane on 28th May, 1905 and another at Mylapore on 10th September of the same year. The question of registration created some little difficulty in the first instance. It was pointed out to the Pioneers by Mr,P,Rajagopalachariar, the first Registrar of Cooperative Credit Societies in this province, that Act X of 1904 contemplated of only Credit Societies and a store as such did not come within its purview. On their part the Pioneers tried to convince the Registrar that their venture was not only a right cooperative step but was even a necessary foundation for a system of cooperative credit. The parties finally agreed to revise the constitution of the store and add a credit branch to it, as it was thought that a purely distributive society was outside the scope of the Act. The by-laws were suitably drafted under the instructions and guidance of the Registrar and a credit branch was organized in such a manner as to include the indigenous cooperative system of chit funds in addition to such banking items as fixed and current deposits and loans. The order of registration was issued on 20th September 1905 and it should be remembered that our society got the privilege of registration not as a store but as a credit society; only it was allowed to retain the store alongside of the credit branch. It may be incidentally remarked that the Act was afterwards a amended to prevent similar anomalies and under the present Cooperative Societies Act II of 1912 both credit and noncredit societies come within its operation.

One more incident, relating to the early days may be of interest to the readers. On the 7th May 1905, a employed in the Madras University Office (Mr.V.Krishnamachari) applied to the society in the prescribed form for being admitted as a member. Along with the application he paid his share money and entrance fee and in accordance with the practice then prevailing he was provisionally allowed to make his purchases at the store. The application was in due course placed before a meeting of the Committee of management on 13th August 1905 and the Directors for reasons not recorded rejected the application, The result was communicated to the applicant on the 17th August, 1905 but he was not prepared to take it lying down. He first applied to the Directors requesting them to reconsider their decision, and on the latter declining to do so, he next sent a petition to the Registrar of Cooperative Credit Societies praying for his intervention.
The Registrar refused to interfere since he was satisfied that there was no violation of the by-laws in rejecting an application for membership. The aggrieved applicant then filed a suit in the City Civil Court against the society represented by the Secretary, Dr.C.V.Krishnaswamy Iyer, seeking to have it declared that he was a member of the society and as such entitled to all the rights and privileges there of and also to recover Rs.50 damnages sustain by him by the defendant’s alleged action in depriving him of his membership under the pretence of rejecting his application. This was Original Suit No.74 of 1906. The defendant society contended that the Directors acted within their rights in rejecting the plaintiff;s application and that the latter’s suit was incompetent. Mr.C.V.Kumaraswami Sastriar (now Justice Sir Kumara Swami Sastriar) tried the case which was keenly contested on both sides. In the end the suit was dismissed on 24.4.1907 on the ground that the plaintiff was never a member of the defendant society.