The Book Offers An Account Of The Tamils Society, Economy, Religious Beliefs, Educational Mechanisms, Arts And Cultural Expressions (During 1707-1947). It Also Discusses The Profound Influence Of Colonial Rule In The Tradition-Bound Tamilian Society.

Spanning A Range Of Topics-Print Culture And Oral Tales, Drama And Gender, Library Use And Publishing History, Theatre And Audiences, Detective Fiction And Low-Caste Novels-This Book Will Appeal To Historians, Cultural Theorists, Sociologists And All Interested In Understanding The Multiplicity Of India`S Cultural Traditions And Literary Histories.

This volume examines the relationship between language and power across cultural boundaries. It evaluates the vital role of translation in redefining culture and ethnic identity. During the first phase of colonialism, mid-18th to late-19th century, the English-speaking missionaries and East India Company functionaries in South India were impelled to master Tamil, the local language, in order to transact their business. Tamil also comprised ancient classical literary works, especially ethical and moral literature, which were found especially suited to the preferences of Christian missionaries. This interface between English and Tamil acted as a conduit for cultural transmission among different groups. The essays in this volume are on chosen areas of translation activities and explore cultural, religious, linguistic and literary transactions. This volume and its companion (which looks at the period between 1900 CE to the present) cover the late colonial and postcolonial era and will be of interest to students, scholars and researchers of translation studies, literature, linguistics, sociology and social anthropology, South Asian studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, literary and critical theory as well as culture studies.

Fleeting Agencies disrupts the male-dominated narratives by focusing on gendered patterns of migration and showing how South Asian women labour migrants engaged with the process of migration, interacted with other migrants and negotiated colonial laws. This is the first study of Indian coolie women in British Malaya to date. In exploring the politicization of labour migration trends and gender relations in the colonial plantation society in British Malaya, the author foregrounds how the migrant Indian 'coolie' women manipulated colonial legal and administrative perceptions of Indian women; their gender-prescriptive roles, relations within patriarchal marriage institutions, and even the emerging Indian national independence movement in India and Malaya. All this, to ensure their survival, escape from unfavourable relations and situations, and improve their lives. The book also introduces the concept of situational or fleeting agency, which contributes to further a nuanced understanding of agency in the lives of Indian coolie women.

This volume investigates the implications of breaking ritual rules, of failed performances and of the extinction of ritual systems. The essays thus break new ground in the comparative analysis of rituals and introduce new perspectives to ritual studies.

Situated at the south-eastern extremity of the Indian Peninsula, Tamil Nadu is bounded on the north by the State of Karnataka and the State of Andhra Pradesh, on the south by the Indian Ocean, on the east by the Bay of Bengal and on the west by the State of Kerala. It has a coast line of 620 miles and a land boundary of 750 miles. With an area of 129, 900.6 square kilometers, it is the eleventh State in area forming 4.08 per cent of the Union areas.[1] At the beginning of the twentieth century, Madras Presidency formed one of the most extensive of British territories in India. It stretched from Cape Comorian, the southern top of the Indian Peninsula, halfway up the east coast of Bengal.[2]Tamil region, the homeland of the Tamils, occupies the southern-most region of the erstwhile Madras Presidency.[3]The Tamil districts of the Presidency were Chingleput, North Arcot, South Arcot, Salem, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Trichinoply, Tanjore, Madurai, Ramnad and Tinnevelly.[4] When reorganization of the States was made in 1956, regional adjustments were done and the State of Madras was created on November 1, 1956, as a lingual state with Tamil as its language.