#Heritage

Koder House in Fort Kochi (file photo, before the fire)

A 218-year-old landmark gutted: Koder House fire exposes Fort Kochi's firefighting gaps

The Sept 29 blaze that gutted Fort Kochi's 1808 Koder House may have spread from an adjacent building's terrace, the Electrical Inspectorate found. Fire units from across Ernakulam plus the Navy and Coast Guard battled it — exposing the tourist hub's firefighting gaps.

4 October 2026 · 2 min read

The Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai, housed in Rani Mangammal's 17th-century palace.

Culture

Lime, palm jaggery and touchscreens: Madurai's Gandhi Memorial Museum reopens after a ₹10.25-crore restoration

The 17th-century palace of Rani Mangammal, which holds the blood-stained cloth Gandhi wore when he was killed, was repaired with traditional materials and given digital galleries mapping his 20 visits to Tamil Nadu.

29 September 2026 · 3 min read

Madras from the sea in the early nineteenth century, by William Daniell. A century later Justice would be printed in the city for a Presidency-wide readership.

History

26 February 1917: the newspaper that gave a party its name

Justice, edited without pay by Dr T. M. Nair, became so identified with the movement that the South Indian Liberal Federation came to be called the Justice Party. Its pages show both the movement's courage and its blind spots.

22 September 2026 · 2 min read