SWADESHI STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY LIMITED
is formed inspired by history and as a Tribute to great Shipping Entrepreneurs of India.
Valliyappan Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai (5 September 1872 - 18 November 1936), also known as Kappalottiya Tamizhan ("Tamil Helmsman"), was an Indian freedom fighter and former leader of the Indian National Congress.
He founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906 to compete against the monopoly of the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISNC). He launched the first indigenous Indian shipping service between Tuticorin (India) and Colombo (Sri Lanka) with the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (SSNC), competing against British ships. Tuticorin Port Trust, one of India's thirteen major ports, is named after him. At one time a member of the Indian National Congress, he was later charged with sedition by the British government and sentenced to life imprisonment, and his barrister license was revoked.
Vallal Pon Pandithurai Thevar (21 March 1867 – 2 December 1911), born Ukkira Pandian, also known as Pandi Durai Thevar, was the Zamindar of Palavanatham, Tamil Nadu, India. A scholar and poet belonging to the royal house of the Sethupathis of Ramanathapuram, Pandithurai Thevar contributed greatly to the revival of the Tamil language by establishing the Fourth Tamil sangam in Madurai, restoring rare Tamil texts, and becoming a patron of Tamil-language scholarship. He published the magazine Senthamizh as part of the Fourth Tamil sangam.