RAS question
The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was started by:
Correct answer: (C) V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.
V.O. Chidambaram Pillai started the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906 during the Swadeshi Movement to challenge British shipping companies on the Tuticorin-Colombo route.
Explanation
V.O. Chidambaram Pillai is associated with the economic side of the Swadeshi Movement through the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company. He started the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906. Its purpose was not merely commercial: it was meant to compete with British shipping companies, especially the British India Steam Navigation Company, on the Tuticorin-Colombo route. The enterprise was a precise nationalist challenge to colonial commercial dominance. It belonged to the Swadeshi phase of the freedom movement, not to a general business family, a constitutional nationalist leader, or an industrial pioneer from another sector.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) G.D. Birla is wrong because Birla's major public business role belonged to a later phase, while the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was a 1906 Swadeshi shipping initiative.
- (B) Dadabhai Naoroji is wrong because he was associated with politics and early nationalist economic critique, whereas the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was started by V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.
- (D) Jamsetji Tata is wrong because he is associated with steel and hotels, not the Tuticorin-Colombo Swadeshi shipping challenge.
Concept
The Swadeshi Movement functioned as an economic challenge to colonial dominance, not only as a boycott slogan. RAS often connects a freedom-movement phase with a specific institution, leader, and route.