Chennai and Madras are one and the same with some small differences between them. Chennai is the name in the Tamil language or the native language of the state of Tamilnadu in India whereas Madras is its English name during the time of the British. For a brief period it was also called by the name ‘chennapattanam’.
The fort built by the British called as the Fort St. George and its commercial surroundings was known as George Town or GT. The name was gradually changed to Madarasu. It was renamed as Madras officially by the East India Company and the British later. A big city developed around this settlement in the course of time and the entire region was officially called as Madras.
The area comprising of Fort St. George and its surroundings was the original Chennai and the remaining areas of the city came to be called Madras later by the British. In the course of time both the names merged into one. The city of Madras was also known by the name of Chennai and vice versa. Presently Madras is called as Chennai. It is interesting to note that there is some time difference too between Madras and Chennai.
The time difference between Chennai and Madras is roughly 0.0014904 decimal hours. The time difference mentioned above between Chennai and Madras is according to the Greenwich Mean Time or GMT. Chennai or Madras is interestingly the 4th largest Metropolitan city in the whole of the country of India. It is also the capital of the state of Tamilnadu. Tamil is the major language spoken in Chennai. Apart from Tamil, languages such as Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada are also spoken by the residents of Chennai. The university in the city of Chennai is of course called as the University of Madras. In the same way the cricket club in the city is called as the Madras Cricket Club or the MCC.