Valliyappan O(U)laganathan Chidambaram Pillai, popularly known as VOC was born on September 5, 1872 in Ottapidaram, Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu.
His life is an inspiring one for patriotism, swadeshi and spirituality.
Had Chidambaram wanted he could lead a cosy comfortable life as a flourishing lawyer just as his father. He began his career as a lawyer fighting for the justice of the poor. As part of his legal practice, he realized that the British regime, was the cause of the injustices inflicted on the poor, opposed the police and the corrupt authorities. He later joined the movement against British rule. Bala Gangadara Tilak was his role model.
High point of his life was the setting up of Swadeshi Shipping Company. Britishers came here to trade and make profits. Therefore, Chidambaram felt that the best way to get rid of the alien rule is to hit where it will hurt them the most. Therefore, he contracted two ships named Galia and Laos from Bombay, with the help of Tilak. Initially, the company got good patronage from local merchants. However, the British Company employed all means, fair and foul to thwart all his efforts and the Swadeshi shipping company ran into losses. Eventually the Swadeshi Shipping Company had to wound up. Though his attempts were short-lived, he will be remembered for ever as the Bharatiya Helmsman (a person who directs a ship).
For his active political activities, Chidambaram was arrested on treason charges, sentenced with two life imprisonments (forty years) and jailed. The punishment was considered excessive even by English journalists. After appeal in High Court and Privy Council, he was released after serving 4 years imprisonment in Coimbatore Central Prison and Cannore jail on 12 December 1912.
Swadeshi movement was equally close to his heart (in fact, which only led him to form shipping company). He set up a company in Thoothukudi called ‘Indigenous Warehouse’ (Swadeshi Pandaka Salai) to buy and sell indigenous goods. He started work on building a spinning mill. He also formed an organization called ‘Chennai Agricultural Association’. The aim is to strengthen the Swadeshi movement. This is the basis for the gradual abolition of the foreign exchange trade. Look at the wonder, as a pioneer of Swadeshi movement, down south we can undoubtedly say that he has laid out a complete blue print for Atmanirbhar Bharat!
Chennai Agricultural Association aimed to build trust among the working class, the peasantry and the middle class, and to converge these streams into the main flood of the national movement. Each of these institutions served as training schools for the national movement.
Just have a glance at the following lines that were found in the objective statement of the ‘Chennai Agricultural Association’:
1 Improving the living standards of workers and farmers.
2 In industry and agriculture, using modern scientific methods and cultivating them.
3 Starting and training Indigenous Vocational Schools for our students.
4 Purchasing barren lands in all districts, training farmers and agricultural laborers in modern scientific methods, cultivating them and volunteering for agricultural development.
What a great visionary was he!
Another fascinating dimension, though less talked about, is Chidambaram’s spiritual moorings. As a spiritual seeker, he along with his best friend Mahakavi Bharati, he had the darshan of Sasi Maharaj alias Swami Ramakrishnananda in Chennai. (Ramakrishna Mission was brought to Tamil Nadu by Sasi Maharaj). Chidambaram made it to meet Sasi Maharaj whenever he came to Chennai. The request made to Chidambaram by Sasi Maharaj at one of the such meetings made him immortal in history.
Sasi Maharaj told him to consider serious and spend time in building the Swadeshi Movement which only holds the key for the freedom in real sense. V O Chidambaram, records in his auto-biography written in poetic form that “ Ramakrishnananda’s words fell like seeds in my mind and I preserved them intact.”
Such a great nationalist’s life of selfless sacrifice, a right blend of patriotism, swadeshi and spirituality, can it be restricted to a caste, a language or a province? Certainly, he is a great son of Bharat Mata.
