In an interview, historian and Sahitya Akademi winner A.R Venkatachalapathy talks about his award-winning work, his books and the future of Tamil literature
Historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy has spent 40 years tracking all surviving material on VO Chidambaram Pillai (1872-1936)—who was the nucleus of the Swadeshi Movement in Madras Presidency. A professor at Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, Venkatachalapathy has published seven books on VOC, one containing 18 unpublished letters exchanged between VOC and Mahatma Gandhi.
In 2024, one of his books—Tirunelveeli Ezucciyum Vaa.Vuu.Ciyum 1908 (Tirunelveli Uprising and VOC)—won the Sahitya Akademi award in Tamil. In an interview with Nedunkilli Rajaraman, who works with the US Library of Congress, South Asian Regional Head Office, New Delhi, Venkatachalapathy talks about his admiration for VOC.
You are the first Tamil writer to receive the Sahitya Akademy Award for historical research. How do you feel about it as a historian and writer?
I am delighted. History is a discipline that holds no high standing in the Tamil culture. It has been a struggle to establish oneself as a star in our culture with all the disabilities a historian suffers. The other constraint is that there is not a big enough community of historians in Tamil Nadu with whom you can have a dialogue. The recognition that Sahitya Akademy has given by awarding a book that is primarily a work of history but written in a literary style, I think it is an enabling moment, and I hope that this will inspire younger scholars and students to take up the discipline of history. There is so much that needs to be written. Large swaths of the historical field in Tamil Nadu remain to be explored.
You were attracted to history and historical research at a very tender age when you used to visit the Maraimalai Adigal Library in Chennai. What role did the library play in bringing these documents for your historical research that happened at a later stage?
The Maraimalai Adigal Library, at one time, used to be the best library for old Tamil books. It possessed a very fascinating collection of world journals and huge manuscripts. To witness a collection of probably 20 letters handwritten by VOC was captivating for a 15-year-old boy. My research began slowly, with primary materials on VOC. As a regular visitor and as an employee between 1987 and 1990, those were the most educative years. I explored the riches of the library which gave me a better understanding of the range of Tamil intellectual culture. Lots of scholars visited not only from Chennai but from and outside Tamil Nadu and from foreign countries. The interaction with these scholars helped me become a better student of history.
Having published your first edited work in 1984 at the age of 17, your writings on VOC have sailed a long way, transcending time. This unending journey to date has produced remarkable compilations on him with the recent work Swadeshi Steam: Battle against the British Maritime Empire being widely appreciated. What attracted you to VOC라이브 바카라 life?
My interest in viewing VOC stemmed from the fact that he received no attention outside Tamil Nadu. One finds no mention of VOC in history books and other literature outside Tamil Nadu. This drew me closer to his life, which is filled with big dreams, great achievements, immense suffering and a long afterlife where he did not get his due. The original idea was to explore his life more deeply to write a full-length biography of this tragic hero. In the process, I began collecting documents, but in the early stages, I stopped with only critical editions of various documents related to his life.
Gradually, I developed the courage to write about him as I began to explore what surrounded his life. No man is an island. Every leader is a product of the movements and the times in which he lived. From VOC, I started exploring the times in which he lived and studied the movements he was involved. It turned me into a historian of colonial India. What happened during this time? What was the nature of colonialism? How did the colonised people respond to colonialism?
As I looked deeper, I realised that he was not only a leading member of the Indian Nationalist Movement but also involved in all the major movements, be it the early nascent Tamil labour movement. He was a Tamil scholar and an important writer voicing for the Non-Brahmin Movement and one of the early champions of communal representation—what we call Reservations today. Hence, my exploration and understanding of his life led me to a larger field which made me a more rounded historian who is interested in the larger story of the making of modern Tamil Nadu and modern India.
As I grew older, hopefully, I also matured as a scholar and became more ambitious. I gathered the courage to write a full-length book in English, after publishing seven books in Tamil on VOC, focusing on his greatest achievement—the establishment of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company—that directly challenged the British Maritime Empire, which is the origin of the Swadeshi State.
You have written about great Tamil writers and scholars and published research papers on the Dravidian movement, Saivite movement as well as the history of Tamil book publishing. What do you think about the current ongoing cultural debate on Tamil identity?
Unlike the Western world where historians tend to focus on a specific time, given the nature of Tamil intellectual culture, even an Indian intellectual culture historian must look at things from a long-term perspective, covering not just decades but a few centuries or millennia, because India has a very long history.
Tamil identity is informed by a certain perspective of Tamil Nadu라이브 바카라 past, substantiated by new archaeological discoveries and an understanding of what happened in Tamil Nadu and South India over three millennia. Historically, Tamil literature, culture and civilisation had a certain kind of relationship with the larger Indian civilisation, making significant contributions to what we now understand as Indian culture.
One of the most vital historical moments in Indian history and a noteworthy contribution to Indian culture is the emergence of the Bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu in the seventh century. It fundamentally transformed the Hindu religion from being an orthodox ritual-based religion to an all-encompassing religion emphasising the direct relationship between the devotee and God.
Subsequently, we also find the evolvement of a temple culture that is unique to Tamil Nadu. Temples in South India, especially from the Chola era, are a social institution that offers a place to everybody despite hierarchy. Along with a remarkable influence on the larger Indian civilisation, it is also marked by a distinction
of not being completely subsumed by All India Sanskritic culture. Our grammar, literature, religious movements and philosophical discourses continually try to make a case or distinct identity that informs the making of modern Tamil identity.
The discovery of Sangam classics, contradictions between dominant Brahmins and the challenge posed by non-Brahmins—all this plays out in the 20th century. With the Hindutva becoming a ruling force in the 21st century, these contradictions have been heightened. Hence, Tamil culture wants to maintain its unique character, and the present struggle is about that.
While publishing a plethora of literature in Tamil, which is more structured and organised grammatically, what made you publish Mucchanthi Ilakkiyam, a very popular literature/genre that largely stands juxtaposed in form, content, language, and style from an established genre?
The emphasis of mainstream intellectual culture in Tamil Nadu, like all other places, has always remained on high culture. Since we have a very long literary tradition which is rivalled only by Sanskrit, a bias persists towards that kind of high literature. I believe that everybody has a role in the making of culture, and I was fascinated by the Chap books. These were small booklets printed on cheap paper, written in a popular style and sung on the street corners. I started exploring 30 years ago when very few knew about it. And I’m very happy that this has captured the attention of younger students now. It's very important to study the literature and the ideas of the so-called lower sections of society because without that we cannot talk of a democratic culture.
Let me turn to the biography of Periyar that you are working on. What relevance does Periyar have in the contemporary arena and how are you going to investigate his discourses?
I’ve been working on this biography for a very long time. The primary reason was that he is a very important figure of the 20th century modern Tamil Nadu. Periyar and his movement have made a very substantial contribution in the making of modern Tamil Nadu. I find Periyar라이브 바카라 movement was not properly and fully understood, especially outside Tamil Nadu. So, I signed a contract 20 years ago with the publisher to write on him. Realising not to capture less, I am working on a full-length work which considers the long life of Periyar. My idea is to write an old-fashioned definitive history which not only records and chronicles life but also traces the ideas for which he is known and the ideas which have shaped modern Tamil Nadu.
Apart from Periyar라이브 바카라 biography, you also plan to do a couple of volumes on VOC. Is it going to be a sequel of what has been published as Swadeshi Steam or will they be comprised of completely different subject areas of VOC?
Given that VOC was practically unknown outside Tamil Nadu, I had to focus on his biggest and most dramatic achievement which lent itself to a good story. So, I chose to write about his role in the Swadeshi movement and his long jail term which basically decided his future. It will cover both his activity in the nationalist movement and the price he paid for it. Hopefully, it will be followed by another volume which will talk about his political and literary life after his incarceration. I believe that his story needs to be told in full and not partially.
I remember you mentioning that ideas are intoxicating. In what way has JNU shaped your ideas and how special and significant is the Center of Historical Studies in JNU for you?
Ideas are a never-ending source of excitement, unlike other intoxicants. Growing up in Chennai and from about 1982 to 1990, I was very active in intellectual and literary circles. But JNU was a very different kind of institution. I landed in JNU in 1990 when VP Singh announced the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations. The first thing that attracted me was its national character.
The faculty, too, came from all parts of India. The classroom lectures were very exciting and the discussions outside the classrooms at Ganga and Godavari dhabas and post-dinner Mess Hall Meetings were unbelievably stimulating. During the day, the best academics in India and the world came to deliver lectures. In the post-dinner Mess Hall meetings, leading politicians and political thinkers expressed all shades of political opinions. Even the biggest leaders had to field questions at the end of their talks. This kind of bombardment of various kinds of ideas from various disciplines was exhilarating.