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Brahmin and non-Brahmin : Genealogies of the Tamil political present / M.S.S. Pandian.
Publication details: Delhi : Permanent Black, 2007.Description: xi, 274 p. ; 22 cmISBN:- 9788178242217
- Brahmin & non-Brahmin [Spine title]
- 305.6945 PAN
- DS485.M28 P365 2007
Contents:
Description :
In South India, the categories Brahmin and non-Brahmin are frequently treated as self-evident, both within contemporary Tamil politics and in mainstream academic discourses. Departing from this political and academic common sense , the present book historicizes the complex processes by which these categories came into being and acquired political power over the past century. Using archival, regional-language, and unconventional sources, M.S.S. Pandian unsettles the self-evident quality of these two categories and opens up a rich theoretical-critical space to rethink and understand them. In the process of unravelling and historicizing the so-called naturalness of Brahmin and non-Brahmin , this book also offers a new perspective on colonialism in South India. Stepping away from mainstream nationalist accounts of colonialism, it shows the ways in which colonialism was, for various strata of Tamil society, both a moment of crisis as well as one of possibilities. The book argues that it was this dual and ambiguous quality of colonial rule which facilitated new ways of looking at the figure of the Brahmin, even as it enabled the making of a non-Brahmin identity. The importance of this book for understanding politics and society in Tamil South India over the past hundred and more years can scarcely be exaggerated. The Non-Brahmin writings and discursive strategies of E.V. Ramasamy Periyar , Maraimalai Adigal, and Iyothee Thoss, alongside those of a wide array of Brahminic thinkers and propagandists (both within Congress and outside), are presented here with a degree of sophistication and analytic skill not available in other works of political, social, and intellectual history on the Indian South. This book will interest every historian, sociologist, and political analyst of India, as well as all who wish to understand anti-Brahmin and anti-upper-caste social movements.
| Item type | Current library | Shelving location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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BOOKs
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National Law School | MPP Section | 305.6945 PAN (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 37529 |
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| 305.5688 RAW Reconsidering untouchability : | 305.568809 GID Ants among elephants : | 305.569 JOR A theory of poverty and social exclusion | 305.6945 PAN Brahmin and non-Brahmin : | 305.697095 LOK Communal Violence, Forced Migration and the State : | 305.8 BRO Braving the wilderness : | 305.8 MAT Crises, vulnerability & poverty in South Asia : Peoples struggles for justice and dignity |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [246]-258) and index.
Description :
In South India, the categories Brahmin and non-Brahmin are frequently treated as self-evident, both within contemporary Tamil politics and in mainstream academic discourses. Departing from this political and academic common sense , the present book historicizes the complex processes by which these categories came into being and acquired political power over the past century. Using archival, regional-language, and unconventional sources, M.S.S. Pandian unsettles the self-evident quality of these two categories and opens up a rich theoretical-critical space to rethink and understand them. In the process of unravelling and historicizing the so-called naturalness of Brahmin and non-Brahmin , this book also offers a new perspective on colonialism in South India. Stepping away from mainstream nationalist accounts of colonialism, it shows the ways in which colonialism was, for various strata of Tamil society, both a moment of crisis as well as one of possibilities. The book argues that it was this dual and ambiguous quality of colonial rule which facilitated new ways of looking at the figure of the Brahmin, even as it enabled the making of a non-Brahmin identity. The importance of this book for understanding politics and society in Tamil South India over the past hundred and more years can scarcely be exaggerated. The Non-Brahmin writings and discursive strategies of E.V. Ramasamy Periyar , Maraimalai Adigal, and Iyothee Thoss, alongside those of a wide array of Brahminic thinkers and propagandists (both within Congress and outside), are presented here with a degree of sophistication and analytic skill not available in other works of political, social, and intellectual history on the Indian South. This book will interest every historian, sociologist, and political analyst of India, as well as all who wish to understand anti-Brahmin and anti-upper-caste social movements.
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