by Dinesh Sathisan[1]

It is for a reason that India – a land for all seasons as their tourism board tagline boasts – was once called the ‘functioning anarchy’. The noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith [2] who coined the term may have apologised but there is some amount of truth in that statement and I say this from experience. Let me get this straight – I am not being condescending here. I am in fact in awe of a country – segregated as it is by fourteen different languages, caste associations and religious divisions – that continues to be the world’s biggest democracy today.

My M.A dissertation focuses on Tamil newspapers published in Malaya during the 1930s and how they imagined Tamil cultural identity. One major intellectual influence coming from the Tamil South during this period was the ideologies of E.V. Ramasamy Naicker (EVR hereafter); the man who is credited to be the Father of the Dravidian Movement. EVR hadamong other things, called for a separate South Indian state (the ‘Dravidstan’), criticised the Brahmins for promoting Aryan imperialism, called for a breaking away from caste-associations and promoted rational thinking. His ideas therefore become crucial to any understanding of Tamil identity in Malaya during the 1930s and therefore, to familiarise myself with some of EVR’s ideologies and to get my hands on primary source materials which are unavailable in Singapore, I decided to head to the Periyar Thidal Library in Chennai sometime in February 2007.

The Periyar Thidal Library houses several of EVR’s newspapers which he edited from the 1920s – namely the Kudi Arasu (Socialist Government), Vidhuthalai (Freedom) as well as several writings on him which are not available for purchase any longer. If you would like to know more about my research experiences, email me at and we will chat over tea. This write-up is solely planned for scholars who are going to the Indian South for research and may need some tips so that the trip goes smoothly.

Figure 1: Ramasamy Naicker’s Statue at the Entrance of Periyar Thidal

Researching at Periyar Thidal:

if you’re researching at the Periyar Thidal Library, you would require permission from the President of the Dravidar Association before you would be allowed to view any of their materials. I think this is the case with any of the archives/libraries in Chennai, so please write in advance and get clearance. For Periyar Thidal, write to: Dr K. Veeramani at periyar@vsnl.com. The library is opened from Mondays through Saturdays, 9 am – 5.30 pm. There is no entry fee, though you could get a life membership for INR 500 (SGD 17.75) so that you could use the library facilities without permission in the future.

For a list of libraries in Chennai, see http://www.inchennai.com/contents/edu/libraries.htm.

Figure 2: The Interior of the Periyar Library

Flight and Airport Details:

Singapore Airlines, Jet Airways, Air India and Indian Airlines take you to Chennai daily from Singapore. A couple of airlines on this list are infamous for their delays and service standards, so you might want to pay the extra if time is a concern. At the Anna International Airport in Chennai, you are better off taking a pre-paid taxi from the airport to your place of accommodation. Tickets for these can be purchased at INR 280 (about SGD 10) from the booth outside the arrival hall. When you’re leaving Chennai, check in at least three hours ahead of your flight. It might take up to an hour to get to the airport from your hotel, especially in the evening, so plan your time well. Indian airport rules only allow one passenger to carry one hand luggage, including your laptop case! So pack smart – either carry a big bag where you can put your laptop case into or keep important items in your laptop case. The Indian airport official may ask you to check-in your laptop bag (especially if you have another plastic bag with fragile souvenirs), so please use your discretion and politely argue with them that no one in the right mind checks in a laptop!

Visa Requirements:

Unless you have a Nepalese passport, you would require a visa to enter India. If you’re getting your visa from Singapore, I highly recommend that you go through a travel agent, unless you have lots of time that you would like to spend waiting for your visa at the Indian Embassy. Most travel agents charge SGD 10 to get your visa for you and it’s the best way to have your visa approved without wasting any time. Complete the required forms (which can be found here: If you have a week in Chennai and cannot afford to fall ill from food poisoning, I highly recommend that you stick to a strict vegetarian diet and eat at restaurants. The Saravana Bhavan chain of restaurants offer excellent vegetarian meals at good prices and it’s the best after a long hard day of research.

Figure 3: A Tamil Nadu Vegetarian Meal (with Rice) for under SGD 3

Things to do in Chennai if Time is a Problem:

Shop for Books. Christopher Bayly once expressed shock that India has several publishing houses but sadly still has a huge illiterate population. Several books are printed in Indian presses (Oxford University Press, Penguin, Permanent Black) and are made for sale in South Asia only, so you can get several good titles for half the price than you would pay at Borders or Kinokuniya here in Singapore. Landmark bookstore at Spencer Plaza stocks some excellent titles and out-of-print books and you can spend hours shopping there. Of course, if you have a sweet tooth, you must drop into Sri Krishna Sweets and try some of their sweets made from the purest ghee. There are several outlets around Chennai, so ask around.

Figure 4: Some of my Book Purchases in Chennai.

<1> Some words of thanks are needed here. My research trip to India was made possible with the History Graduate Grant awarded by the History Department at NUS. For this, I thank A/P Tim Barnard for encouraging me to apply for the grant, Prof. Merle Ricklefs for writing me a referral letter and Ms Kelly Lau for assisting me with the administrative aspects of the grant application. I also thank A/P Gyanesh Kudaisya who talked me into doing this trip and Dr Thinnappan from the South Asian Studies Programme who hooked me up with the President of the Dravidar Association in Chennai. Thanks also to Mr Govinthan, Chief Librarian at the Periyar Thidal Research Centre for his genuine concern over my research area. Also, despite his tight schedule and throngs of people queuing to talk to him, the time the President of the Dravidar Kalagam, Mr K. Veeramani gave me to clear some of my doubts is greatly appreciated. I also extend my sincere thanks to other staff at Periyar Thidal – the person at the photocopy booth, the helper at the Library, the bookstore personnel among others who have all made my research possible in one way or another.

<2> It was India’s Good Fortune to be a British Colony: The Man Who Once Called India a “Functioning Anarchy”’, John Kenneth Galbraith in conversation with Arun Venugopal, Outlook, 20 August 2001, p. 46.

The author is currently a Masters candidate at the Department of History, National University of Singapore.

Tags: Chennai, E.V. Ramasamy Naicker, India

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 7:34 am and is filed under Researching History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.