'SWADESHI SAILS: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle Against the British Maritime Empire' - Professor A.R. Venkatachalapathy

In this episode, we bring you a keynote lecture by Professor A. R. Venkatachalapathy of the Madras Institute of Development Studies India. Delivered as a part of the conference “Nations, Networks, Narratives: Rethinking South and Southeast Asia,” held over three days in September to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Centre for South Asian Studies and Wolfson College, Cambridge, Prof Venkatachalapathy traces the story of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, a bold indigenous commercial venture in the early twentieth century that challenged the British India Steam Navigation Company, which then dominated shipping in the region. At the centre of this story is its founder, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, whose audacious vision sought to connect this local struggle to a wider global anti-imperial movement. The lecture reveals the transnational networks of politics, commerce, and solidarity that resisted colonial domination in the early 20th century. *A.R. Venkatachalapathy (1967) was born in Gudiyattam, in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu and was educated in Chennai and New Delhi. A historian and Tamil writer, he is a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. Chalapathy has taught at universities in Tirunelveli, Chennai, Singapore and Chicago, and has held research assignments in Paris, Cambridge, London, and Harvard. He is the winner of the V.K.R.V. Rao Prize; Vilakku Virudhu and Iyal Virudhu (both for lifetime contribution to Tamil literature) and the Mahakavi Bharati Award. Chalapathy has published widely on the social, cultural and intellectual history of colonial Tamil Nadu. Apart from his writings in English, he has written or edited over thirty books in Tamil.  Shailaja Fennell is Professor of Economic Security and Resilience in the Department of Land Economy. She obtained her B.A, M. A. and M.Phil. in Economics from Delhi University, before coming to the University of Cambridge to obtain another M.Phil. and then her PhD. in Economics at the Faculty of Economics. She is a fellow of Jesus College, and also Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies. Her research interests include economic security and ecological change, community and national resilience, and institutional reform and regional transformation. She has a particular focus on local and sub-national decision making in rural and urban policy design, agricultural sustainability and food security; youth, migration and employment aspirations; provision of public goods in the spheres of education and health. Visuals: Photo sourced from Unsplash.Music: “Treetone” by Airtone, used under Creative Commons license via CC Mixter. Mixer & Editor: Lily Tekseng