Historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy feted for work on V.O. Chidambaram

Historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy wins Sahitya Akademi Award for book on Indian freedom fighters, including V.O. Chidambaram.

Historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy, whose tireless efforts and research yielded new findings on the Indian freedom movement and freedom fighters including V.O. Chidambaram and Bharathiyar, has won the Sahitya Akademi Award, 2024, for his book, Tirunelveeli Ezucciyum Vaa. Vuu.ci. Yum 1908.

A professor of the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chalapathy, as he is known among his friends, was a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. An authority on Tamil society and culture, he worked at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University before joining MIDS. His first book, VOC Kadithangal (VOC Letters), was published in 1984 when he was just 17.

“It is unexpected. Since T.M.C. Ragunathan’s book, Bharathi Kaalamum Karuthum, this is probably the first research work to get the award. Tamils generally feel that VOC did not get his due and, therefore, I am delighted that a book on VOC won the prestigious award. I also hope it will inspire the younger generation to study the history of Tamil society and culture,” he told The Hindu.

Tirunelveeli Ezucciyum Vaa. Vuu.ci. Yum 1908 discusses the uprising in Tirunelveli 114 years ago in March 1908, after VOC was arrested for making a speech praising freedom fighter Bipin Chandra. VOC urged the people to boycott foreign goods, and the uprising remains a testament to how society as a whole revolted against British rule in India.

“Every public building in Tinnevelly [Tirunelveli] town, except the Sub-Registrar’s office, was attacked. The furniture and records of these buildings were set on fire as well as portions of the buildings themselves; the municipal office was gutted. Twenty-seven persons were convicted and sentenced for participation in the riot,” according to the Sedition (Rowlatt) Committee Report, 1918.

The incident drew nationwide attention, and S. Kasturiranga Iyengar, owner of The Hindu, sent a special correspondent to Tirunelveli and Tuticorin (now Thoothukudi) to report for the newspaper.

It was the uprising that witnessed ordinary people rally against the British and stand hand-in-hand with advocates and students. At least 10 ‘jutka’ drivers, a barber, an eatery owner, a goldsmith, a marriage broker, three retired policemen, a native doctor, a cattle dealer, a municipal overseer, a labourer, a woodcutter, a weaver and many shopkeepers were shot, arrested or convicted. In an interview to The Hindu in 2022, Mr. Venkatachalapathy requested Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to erect a memorial pillar to honour those who took part in the uprising.