Which language is it that the title uses? Is that your query? Well, it is Tamil. No, no, it is not to glorify Vijay, the brand new C. M. Rather, we are going to celebrate a Tamil "magan", that is, the "son of Tamilnadu." Almost a century ago, he made P. M. Modiji's local to global dream a reality, and, that, too, in the unlikeliest of fields, then and even now, namely, shipping.
Yes, we are referring to V.O. Radhakrishnan Pillai (5/9/1872 to 18/11/1936). Yes, he shares his birth date with another illustrious Tamilian, S. Radhakrishnan, to honour whose memory, we celebrate the Teachers' Day.
Thiru Radhakrishnan-ji was no less. He was a businessman, a lawyer, a freedom fighter, but more than that, he was a visionary leader who pioneered self-reliance in shipping as a mode of international transport. In a way, he is the " appa", father, of modern Indian navigation. No wonder, in 1961, a Tamil film was apparently dedicated to his illustrious life.
In 1906, he founded "Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company" as an answer to the monopoly of the British India Steam Navigation Company. The ships plied from Tuticorin to Colambo, and onwards.
Sentenced for sedition by the British and clapped with a life imprisonment, this "Tamil helmsman" (yes, that is what the title of our blog today means) proves how rich the lesser known history of the Indian freedom struggle is.
Whenever I have to teach Sarojini Naidu's or Jayanta Mahapatra's or Keki Daruwalla's poems that suggest the glory of the Indian shipping trade in the pre-colonial times, there would be a salute to this radical leader/doer in whose honour is named the Tuticorin Port Trust!
Pratima@ If Lord Ganesha is to be venerated, one of the best stotra has to be the "aarti" by Sant Ramdas. Here is an attempt to transcreate the first stanza.
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