He was a famous lawyer, a noted Tamil scholar, and a redoubtable freedom fighter.

Cocking a snook at the mighty British Empire, he ran the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company but eventually paid a heavy price for it.

Kappalottiya Tamilan, as V.O. Chidambaram Pillai (VOC) came to be known, was arrested and put in Coimbatore jail — where he had to pull the oil press — for his revolutionary activities.

Post prison, VOC’s life turned out to be more heart-rending. He had to eke out a living by running outlets that sold rice and ghee, in Mylapore, Chintadripet and Perambur.

“He wrote about his pathetic condition in a small poem,” said V. Arasu, editor of the collected works of VOC.

‘I used to rain rewards on Tamil scholars, but my condition is now so wretched that I have to literally beg for survival,’ VOC said in the poem.

After being imprisoned on charges of treason, VOC was released in 1912. He stayed in Coimbatore with C.K. Subramania Mudaliar, who published Periyapuranam.

He even worked as a clerk in a bank for a while, but eventually came to Chennai in 1916 and remained here until 1932. He returned to Thootukudi to spend his final years.

“It seemed everything had turned against him. He was a follower of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, but by the time he was released from jail, the Gandhians had the Congress firmly under their control. As the British government had cancelled his advocate’s licence, he could not practise law,” said Prof. Arasu.

At one point, he wrote to the founder of Dravidar Kazhagam, E.V. Ramasamy Periyar, who was a Congress leader before his transformation, requesting him to help his son find a police job so his family could be sure of at least two square meals a day.

“But poverty never killed VOC’s spirit. While in Chennai, he worked with Tamil scholar and trade unionist Thiru.Vi.Ka., and organised textile workers and postal department employees. He was the first person to organise a union for postal employees,” said Prof. Arasu.

He also joined hands with Prof. Vaiyapuri Pillai and published Tholkappiyam with the notes of Ilampooranar in 1922. He also wrote commentary for the Arathupal part of Thirukkural.

Once, he wrote an angry letter to Va.Ra., the great reformer and freedom fighter, wondering how he could afford to live in peace in Thirupazhanam, while the country was in bad shape. He persuaded him to take up the editorship of Colombo-based Veerakesari.

VOC spent his final days in his home town, Thoothukudi. The British government had, at last, allowed him to practise law.

He continued to write and publish Tamil literary works, besides giving lectures on Sivagnana Bodham, a treatise on Saiva Siddantha.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by B. Kolappan / Chennai – August 18th, 2014