Fwd: Invitation to the Sociology Seminar, 8 October, South Asian University, 2.30pm
Ankur Datta
South Asian University
Faculty of Social Sciences
Sociology Seminar Series
Monsoon Semester
2014-15
Alternative Spatialities: Vernacular Thought and Territorial Imagination in Twentieth Century Kerala
By Prof. Udaya Kumar
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and University of Delhi
Abstract: This paper focuses on two instances of alternative territorial imagination in Kerala in the first half of the twentieth century. Accounts of ancient Kerala provided in Brahaminical texts such as Keralolpathi and Keralamahatmyam were contested in early twentieth century by non-Brahmin thinkers such as Chattampi Swamikal. In the ensuing decades, alongside spatial imaginaries of consolidation which sought to shore up a coherent Malayali identity across Travancore, Kochi and Malabar, one also finds the emergence of new imaginaries of dispersal that locate Kerala in terms of connections with other lands and histories. This paper will consider two thinkers from twentieth century Kerala who offered such narratives: Dr. P. Palpu and A. Balakrishna Pillai. Palpu, in his voluminous correspondence with colonial administrators and officials of Travancore state, argued that ancient Kerala was the centre of a transoceanic Buddhist empire, while A. Balakrishna Pillai located vital sites of ancient Kerala history in modern day Arabia. This paper examines aspects of these revisionary accounts against the broader background of community histories and other efforts in the domain of vernacular thought to propose new, alternative normative frames for Kerala society.
Udaya Kumar is a Professor in the Department of English, University of Delhi and currently at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. His interests include autobiography, modern Indian literature especially from Kerela. He is the author of The Joycean Labyrinth: Repetition, Time and Tradition in Ulysses (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Date: 8 October 2014, Wednesday
Time: 02.30 PM
FSI HALL, South Asian University,
Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi 110021
ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED
Dr. Ankur Datta
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South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021
Phone: +91 11 24122512 Fax: +91 11 24122511
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