V. O. Chidambaram Pillai
Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, entrepreneur and writer (1872–1936)
Valliappan Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai (5 September 1872 - 18 November 1936) was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, businessman, Tamil scholar, and politician. He founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906 to compete against the monopoly of the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISNC). He launched the first indigenous Indian shipping service between Tuticorin in British India and Colombo in Ceylon. Once a member of the Indian National Congress, he was later charged with sedition by the British government and sentenced to life imprisonment, and his barrister license was revoked. He is known by the epithet Kappalottiya Tamizhan ("Tamil helmsman"). Tuticorin Port Trust, one of India's thirteen major ports, is named after him.
Early life
V. O. Chidambaram Pillai was born into a Tamil Hindu family in Ottapidaram, Tirunelveli District to Olaganathan Pillai and Paramayee Ammal. When Chidambaram was six years old, he learned Tamil from teacher Veeraperumal Annavi. He heard stories about Shiva from his grandmother and stories from the Ramayana from his grandfather. He heard stories from Mahabharatha told by Allikulam Subramanya Pillai etc.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “V. O. Chidambaram Pillai” as indian freedom fighter, lawyer, entrepreneur and writer (1872–1936). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as indian freedom fighter, lawyer, entrepreneur and writer (1872–1936). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q492527. VIAF identifies the subject as 57536104. The Library of Congress control number is n82012098. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1936 and 1906.
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This entry incorporates text from “V. O. Chidambaram Pillai” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.