Tamil Revivalism in the 1930s
Author: Eugene F. Irschick
Publisher:
Published: 1986
Total Pages: 408
ISBN-13:
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Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India
Author: Lisa Mitchell
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 305
ISBN-13: 0253353017
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe charged emotional politics of language and identity in India
Dialogue and History
Author: Eugene F. Irschick
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 1994-04-05
Total Pages: 279
ISBN-13: 0520084055
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnnotation Eugene Irschick deftly questions the conventional wisdom that knowledge about a colonial culture is unilaterally defined by its rulers. Focusing on nineteenth-century South India, he demonstrates that a society's view of its history results from a "dialogic process" involving all its constituencies. For centuries, agricultural life in South India was seminomadic. But when the British took dominion, they sought to stabilize the region by inventing a Tamil "golden age" of sedentary, prosperous villages. Irschick shows that this construction resulted not from overt British manipulation but from an intricate cross-pollination of both European and native ideas. He argues that the Tamil played a critical role in constructing their past and thus shaping their future. And British administrators adapted local customs to their own uses.
The Transformation of Tamil Religion
Author: Srilata Raman
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2022-04-26
Total Pages: 344
ISBN-13: 131774473X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book analyses the religious ideology of a Tamil reformer and saint, Ramalinga Swamigal of the 19th century and his posthumous reception in the Tamil country and sheds light on the transformation of Tamil religion that both his works and the understanding of him brought about. The book traces the hagiographical and biographical process by which Ramalinga Swamigal is shifted from being considered an exemplary poet-saint of the Tamil Śaivite bhakti tradition to a Dravidian nationalist social reformer. Taking as a starting point Ramalinga’s own writing, the book presents him as inhabiting a border zone between early modernity and modernity, between Hinduism and Christianity, between colonialism and regional nationalism, highlighting the influence of his teachings on politics, particularly within Dravidian cultural and political nationalism. Simultaneously, the book considers the implication of such an hagiographical process for the transformation of Tamil religion in the period between the 19th –mid-20th centuries. The author demonstrates that Ramalinga Swamigal’s ideology of compassion, cīvakāruṇyam, had not only a long genealogy in pre-modern Tamil Śaivism but also that it functioned as a potentially emancipatory ethics of salvation and caste critique not just for him but also for other Tamil and Dalit intellectuals of the 19th century. This book is a path-breaking study that also traces the common grounds between the religious visions of two of the most prominent subaltern figures of Tamil modernity – Iyothee Thass and Ramalingar. It argues that these transformations are one meaningful way for a religious tradition to cope with and come to terms with the implications of historicization and the demands of colonial modernity. It is, therefore, a valuable contribution to the field of religion, South Asian history and literature and Subaltern studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315794518 has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
A Colonial Economy in the Great Depression, Madras (1929-1937)
Author: K. A. Manikumar
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
Published: 2003
Total Pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9788125024569
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book aims to give a complete description of the impact of the Great Depression on the Madras Presidency, by using the techniques of both a historian and an economist. Manikumar's multidisciplinary approach provides a fresh perspective on the political, economic and social conditions of the Presidency in the 1930s. The major areas covered are: Madras's economy before the Depression, particularly the state of the export-dependant agricultural sector; the rise of indebtedness among the peasants; the varied effects on industrial sectors; the economic policies of the colonial government, which worsened the degree of debt; and the social and political effects of the Depression, including the Indian National Congress's increased political influence.
Historical Dictionary of the Tamils
Author: Vijaya Ramaswamy
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2017-08-25
Total Pages: 519
ISBN-13: 1538106868
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Tamils have an unbroken history of more than two thousand years. Tamil, the language they speak, is one of the oldest living languages in the world. The only people comparable to the Tamils in terms of their hoary past and vibrant present would be the Jews with one marked difference. The Tamils have always had their homeland 'Tamilaham' (alternately pronounced and spelt 'Tamizhaham') known today as Tamil Nadu which to them represents their mother and is revered by them as 'Tamizh Tai' literally ‘Tamil Mother’. This is in striking contrast to the Jews who have been through a long and arduous struggle to gain their homeland, a deeply contested site to this day with Hebrewisation of Israel being a key marker of Jewish identity in the region. Tamils, by contrast have a clear numerical majority in the region that now comprises Tamil Nadu and the language unites rather than divides adherents of different faiths. The second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Tamils contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Tamils.
Celluloid Deities
Author: Preminda Jacob
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2008-10-23
Total Pages: 319
ISBN-13: 0739131303
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTowering billboards featuring photorealistic portraits of popular cinema stars and political leaders dominated the cityscape of Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Studying the manufacture and reception of these billboards_known locally as banners and cutouts_within the context of the entwined histories of the cinema industry and political parties in Tamil Nadu, Preminda Jacob reveals the broader significance of these fragments of visual culture beyond their immediate function as pretty pieces of advertising. Jacob analyzes the juxtaposition of cinematic and political imagery in the extra-cinematic terrain of Chennai's city streets and how this placement was pivotal to the elevation of regional celebrities to cult status. When interpreting these images and discussing their political and cultural resonance within the Tamil Nadu community, Jacob draws upon multiple perspectives to give appropriate context to this fascinating form of visual media.
Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern
Author: Amanda J. Weidman
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2006-07-18
Total Pages: 367
ISBN-13: 0822388057
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhile Karnatic music, a form of Indian music based on the melodic principle of raga and time cycles called tala, is known today as South India’s classical music, its status as “classical” is an early-twentieth-century construct, one that emerged in the crucible of colonial modernity, nationalist ideology, and South Indian regional politics. As Amanda J. Weidman demonstrates, in order for Karnatic music to be considered classical music, it needed to be modeled on Western classical music, with its system of notation, composers, compositions, conservatories, and concerts. At the same time, it needed to remain distinctively Indian. Weidman argues that these contradictory imperatives led to the emergence of a particular “politics of voice,” in which the voice came to stand for authenticity and Indianness. Combining ethnographic observation derived from her experience as a student and performer of South Indian music with close readings of archival materials, Weidman traces the emergence of this politics of voice through compelling analyses of the relationship between vocal sound and instrumental imitation, conventions of performance and staging, the status of women as performers, debates about language and music, and the relationship between oral tradition and technologies of printing and sound reproduction. Through her sustained exploration of the way “voice” is elaborated as a trope of modern subjectivity, national identity, and cultural authenticity, Weidman provides a model for thinking about the voice in anthropological and historical terms. In so doing, she shows that modernity is characterized as much by particular ideas about orality, aurality, and the voice as it is by regimes of visuality.
Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema
Author: Ashish Rajadhyaksha
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-07-10
Total Pages: 659
ISBN-13: 1135943184
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe largest film industry in the world after Hollywood is celebrated in this updated and expanded edition of a now classic work of reference. Covering the full range of Indian film, this new revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema includes vastly expanded coverage of mainstream productions from the 1970s to the 1990s and, for the first time, a comprehensive name index. Illustrated throughout, there is no comparable guide to the incredible vitality and diversity of historical and contemporary Indian film.
Caste
Author: M N Srinivas
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2000-10-14
Total Pages: 443
ISBN-13: 9351187837
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs India attempts to modernize and ready itself for the twenty-first century, the issue of caste takes on an overwhelming importance. What form does caste take today? How can its debilitating aspects be countered? This book, edited and introduced by one of India's most eminent sociologists, attempts to answer these and other crucial questions. The essays in this volume, each authored by an expert on the subject, include a stimulating assessment of the role of women in perpetuating caste; incisive analyses of the relationship between caste and the economy, and between caste and Hinduism; a review of the backward class movements in Tamil Nadu; a commentary on the power struggle in UP and Bihar amongst the backward castes; the relationship between efficiency and job reservation; observations on caste amongst Muslims and Christians in India and critiques of the Mandal Commission Report and the Mandal judgement.
