Ritual, Caste, and Religion in Colonial South India

Halle 2010
386 Seiten, br.
Neue Hallesche Berichte, Bd. 9
ISBN: 978-3-447-96377-7
15,80 €

This book explores the impact that notions of ritual, caste, and religion had on society in 19-20th centura colonial South India. The authors present detailed studies of Tamil and Telugu sources, with a particular focus on the newly established print media of the time. They show how these concepts played a crucial role in the formation of social, cultural and religious identities.

Michael Bergunder is Professor of the History of Religions and Intercultural Theology at the University of Heidelberg. His particular area of academid research lies in Tamil religious developments since the 18th century.

Heiko Frese is an indologist and historian, affiliated to the University of Heidelberg. His areas of interest include modern Indian history, especially 19th century Telugu culture.

Ulrike Schröder currently works in the collaborative research center "Ritual Dynamics" at the University of Heidelberg. As part of this wider project, her research focusses on processes of transformation in the South Indian religious context of the 19th Century.

Contents
Introduction

Performing the revival: Performance and performativity in a colonial discourse in South India
Andreas Nehring

Saiva Siddhanta as a universal religion: J. M. Nallasvami Pillai (1864–1920) and Hinduism in colonial South India
Michael Bergunder

Forging a Tamil caste: Maraimalai Adigal (1876–1950) and the discourse of caste and ritual in colonial Tamilnadu
Ravi Vaitheespara

Sustaining the pre-colonial past: Saiva defiance against Christian rule in the 19th century in Jaffna
Peter Schalk

Ritual

No religion, but ritual? Robert Caldwell and The Tinnevelly Shanars
Ulrike Schröder

Landscapes of Christianity in colonial South India: The matter of Hindu ritual and Christian conversion, 1870–1920
Mary E. Hancock

Witnessing fun: Tamil-speaking Muslims and the imagination of ritual in colonial Southeast Asia
Torsten Tschacher

Caste

The agraharam: The transformation of social space and Brahman status in Tamilnadu during the colonial and postcolonial periods
C. J. Fuller and Haripriya Narasimhan

Vicissitudes of subaltern self-identification: A reading of Tamiḻaṉ
Gnanasigamony Aloysius

‘More Kshatriya than thou!’ Debating caste and ritual ranking in colonial Tamilnadu
A. R. Venkatachalapathy

The Telugu context

Soliloquizing Brahmans: Questions to a Telugu journal from the late 19th century
Heiko Frese

Anti-reform discourse in Andhra: Cultural nationalism that failed
Vakulabharanam Rajagopal

Multiple lives of a text: The Sumati śatakamu in colonial Andhra
Velcheru Narayana Rao

Appendices

Appendix I
T. Velayuda Mudaliar vs. N. Chidambaram Iyer on the message of Ramalinga Adigal (From: The Theosophist 4 [1882/1883] 61–64)

Appendix II
Sources on the contact between J. M. Nallasvami Pillai and Vivekananda

Contributors

Index