The NLS Public Lecture Series | Book Discussion | Economic Nationalism in Colonial South India: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Swadeshi Shipping, 1906-1911

In our upcoming public lecture on August 28, 2024, NLSIU will host a book discussion with Prof. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. The discussion is on his book titled ‘Swadeshi Steam: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle against the British Maritime Empire’. NLS faculty member Dr. Samyak Ghosh will be the discussant.

About the Speaker

A. R. Venkatachalapathy (1967), Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, completed his PhD in history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has taught at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, the University of Madras and the University of Chicago, and has held research assignments in Paris, Cambridge, London, and Harvard. He was the ICCR Chair in Indian Studies at the National University of Singapore (2011–12). He has been awarded the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize (History, 2007); Vilakku Pudumaippithan Award (lifetime contribution to Tamil, 2018); Bharati Award (2021) and Iyal Virudhu (lifetime contribution to Tamil, 2021).

Chalapathy has published widely on the social, cultural and intellectual history of colonial Tamil Nadu. Apart from his scholarly writings in English he has written/edited over thirty books in Tamil. His publications in English include – Swadeshi Steam: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle against the British Maritime Empire (Penguin Allen Lane); The Brief History of a Very Big Book: The Making of the Tamil Encyclopaedia; Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics, Culture; Who Owns That Song?: The Battle for Subramania Bharati’s Copyright; The Province of the Book: Scholars, Scribes, and Scribblers in Colonial Tamilnadu, and In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History.

Abstract

In 1906, Britain’s grip on the world was unassailable. Its navy ruled the seas, and its trade empire spanned the globe. But in the small port town of Tuticorin, a lawyer named V.O. Chidambaram Pillai (VOC) had a novel idea that challenged the might of the empire itself. Influenced by economic nationalist ideas in the wake of the Swadeshi movement originating in Bengal he decided to launch the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, a venture that would compete head-on with the British India Steam Navigation Company, the shipping giant that controlled coastal trade, passenger traffic and mail contracts. Rallying native traders and patriotic citizens, he raised the capital needed to launch this enterprise. British mercantile interests and the imperial state both backed its competitor. Based on his recently published book, Swadeshi Steam: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle against the British Maritime Empire, A.R. Venkatachalapathy situates rivalry in the context of the Swadeshi movement and the first phase of mass nationalism in India. The book has been longlisted for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2024.