A.R. Venkatachalapathy (1967), Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, took his PhD in history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chalapathy has taught at universities in Tirunelveli, Madras, Singapore and Chicago. Apart from the V.K.R.V. Rao Award (History, 2007), he has received the Vilakku Pudumaippithan Award (2018), Iyal Virudhu (2021), both for lifetime contribution to Tamil, and the Sahitya Akademi Award (Tamil, 2024).

Apart from his scholarly writings in English, he has written or edited over thirty books in Tamil. His publications in English include Swadeshi Steam: V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and the Battle Against the British Maritime Empire (winner of the Ramnath Goenka Award); The Brief History of a Very Big Book: The Making of the Tamil Encyclopaedia: Tamil Characters: Personalities, Politics, Culture; Who Owns That Song?: The Battle for Subramania Bharati’s Copyright; The Province of the Book: Scholars, Scribes, and Scribblers in Colonial Tamilnadu; In Those Days There Was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History. Presently, he is working on biographies of Periyar and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai.