Freedom fighter V. O. Chidambaram: An advocate of women’s education and quota based on strength of each caste

 Caste census has become a topical issue in Tamil Nadu. The ruling DMK is making a strong case for it and parties, like the PMK, are demanding caste-wise reservation. It turns out that freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaram (VOC) had also been a strong advocate of reservation proportionate to the strength of each caste. While articulating the idea, he had echoed the views of the Justice Party, previously known as South Indian Liberal Federation. “He had advocated the idea at least since 1919. He spoke in favour of it at the Congress conference in Tirunelveli and in his presidential address at the Salem district conference in 1927,” says historian A.R. Venkatachalapathy and author of the book Swadeshi Steam: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle against the British Maritime Empire.In Naan Yaar (Who Am I), expressing his views on various issues, he recommends reservation on the basis of the strength of each caste in the District Boards, the Legislative Assembly, government jobs, and public organisations like the Congress and its units. Naan Yaar is part of the special issue brought out by the Tamil Nadu government on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of VOC. While he is known as Kappalottiya Tamilan, as he ran the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNC) to challenge the might of the British mercantile power, the commemorative volume presents VOC as a thinker, espousing rights, dignity, and education for women, and as a Tamil scholar, who has written commentaries on Sivagnana Bodham, Tholkappiyam, and Tirukkural.