Contemporary Tamil Culture

Objectives

Tamil, the second classical language in India is also an ever-evolving contemporary language practiced in more than three continents.

The IFP, situated in the heart of Tamil Nadu, has consistently developed over the last five years a small research unit on Contemporary Tamil studies with focus on the transition to modernity and internal evolution of Tamil society as reflected by original Tamil literary (or otherwise) sources. Our contribution in the field of contemporary cultural history of Tamil from late 19th to the 21st century has been:

• a unique and constantly updated collection of original documents, (managed by the IFP library)
• a cluster of local and international research projects on contemporary Tamil, such as Social History of Science and Mathematics in the Tamil Region, creating an open forum for concerned scholars
• a set of publications as concrete output.

Materials and Methods

The library is responsible for research documentation management. This is an ongoing activity and is aimed at setting up a specialized documentary centre for contemporary Tamil.

The collection of data, based on sources not available in any other libraries, is highly selective:

• Books and periodicals with limited circulation,
• Publications from the usual distribution networks, (private, mofussil areas…)
• International publications (importance of the diaspora in Europe, America, Australia…),
• Major, out of print volumes, no longer available in most libraries
• original manuscripts

So far, more than 3000 books and 1500 journals have been made available to the public. Another batch of more than 2000 books and 1000 journals are being catalogued. For example, rare complete collections of Manikkoti (1933-1939) and Eluttu (1959-1971) are preserved here. Publications on CDROM are being considered.

Partners

• PILC: Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics & Culture
• Department of Tamil, University of Madras, Chennai
• Department of Tamil, Kerala University, Trivandrum
• Department of Tamil, Jaffna University, Sri Lanka
• École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris, France
• Tamil Chair, Department of South and South East Asian studies (SSEAS) University of California at Berkeley
• Department of History, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA

Funding

French Institute of Pondicherry

Team

Download research abstracts (.pdf)

Project leader

• Kannan M., IFP

Research Fellows & Associate

• Dr.Isabelle Clark Deces, Princeton University, NJ
• Dr. Sivagnanam Jeyasankar, Eastern University Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
• Dr.Archana Venkatesan, St.Lawrence University, N.Y. / Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley

Research Collaborators

• Dr.Arasu, Head , Department of Tamil Literature, University of Madras, Chennai
• Prof. Francois Gros, EPHE, Sorbonne, Paris
• Prof. George Hart, Tamil Chair,Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley
• Dr.Chelva Kanganayagam, Director , Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto
• Mr.Carlos Mena, Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley

PhD students/ PhD candidates

• Mr.Senthil Babu, Dept of History , Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Social History of Mathematics in Tamil Culture
• Ms.Jennifer Clare, Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley
• Mr. Sean Kerr, , Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley
• Ms.Preetha Mani, Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley
• Mr.Rajesh, Department of Humanities, IIT, Chennai

MA/ M.Phil Candidates

• Miss Kaichelvi, Tamil Department, Pondicherry university (March 2006- December 2006)
• Miss. V.Priya, Pondicherry University, Pondy , Annamalai University, Chidambaram (Febuary 2006- Febuary 2007)

Past Fellows and Students

• Dr. Darshan Ambalavanar Department of the Study of Religion, Harvard University
• Ms Gita Pai, Dept of South and Southeast Asian Studies , University of California at Berkeley

Main Outputs

Seminars

• Streams of Language: Dialects from Early to Modern times As reflected in Writing and Speech, Dialects in History and literature, Organized by IFP in collaboration with CIIL, Mysore, and IFP, held at the IFP on 23-25 August 2006.

• Session on Tamil. International Conference on Forms and Uses of the Commentary in the Indian World sponsored by IFP, EPHE, Paris and ICPR, New Delhi held at the IFP, Pondicherry, February 22-25, 2005.

• Negotiations with the Past : Classical Tamil in Contemporary Tamil – International Seminar organised by IFP with the Tamil Chair, Department of South and South East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley held at the IFP,on 30th July, 2004.

• Tamil Dalit Literature : The Challenge and the Response - National Seminar Organised by IFP in collaboration with SIGN, Dindivanam. IFP, Pondicherry, 30th January, 2004.

Books and/or CD-ROMs

• Streams of Language : Dialects in Tamil

Edited by Kannan M., Hors série n° 6, IFP, 2008, xxii, 335 p.
Language: Tamil, English, French. 500 Rs (18 €).

This volume is the outcome, independent, extended and enlarged, of an international conference, "Dialects in Tamil" held on August 23-25th 2006 at the French Institute of Pondicherry. Dialects in Tamil emerge from a configuration of the following elements shared by people: caste, region, landscape and the material culture which sustains them...

This book is arranged in sections with the idea that rays of light from different fields will fall on the single subject before us. The order in which the sections are arranged indicates how the problematic of dialects in Tamil has been addressed in different contexts (by international scholars to linguists to Tamil creative writers). This arrangement also underlines the holistic, multidisciplinary approach undertaken in this volume. Tamil papers contain English abstracts and vice versa, so that both Tamil and English readers can benefit from the volume

Keywords : Dialects, Tamil, literature, linguistics

• Negotiations with the past: classical Tamil in contemporary Tamil

Edited by Kannan M., Carlos Mena, IFP / Tamil Chair, DSSEAS, University of California (Berkeley), 2006, lxxiv, 478 p.
Language: English, Tamil. 600 Rs (22 €)

This volume is the outcome, extended and enlarged, of a seminar held on July 30th 2004 at the French Institute of Pondicherry, under the joint auspices of its Indology Department and the Tamil Chair, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California at Berkeley.

Classical Tamil is one of the richest of all human accomplishments. For modern Tamil, it is potentially an inexhaustible resource of ideas, syntax, and vocabulary. Modern Tamil has built upon the edifice of its classical literature. Much that is characteristic of modern Tamil—its use of vocabulary, its perspective, its tone—can be traced to an extent to the classical literature. The articles in this volume, by eminent Tamil scholars, attempt to highlight the research methodologies needed to explore the relationships between past and present, between classical and modern Tamil.

Keywords: classical Tamil, contemporary Tamil, tradition and modernity, heritage, teaching, history and methodology of Indology

• Dalit Ilakkiyam: En̠atu An̠upavam. Dalit literature: my experience

Edited by Kannan M. Pondicherry-Coimbatore, IFP-Viṭiyal Patippakkam, 2004, 200 p. (IFP - Publications Hors série n° 4)
Language: Tamil. 100 Rs (4 €)

Dalit literature in India can be traced back to a corpus of writings from Maharashtra in the 1960s. Dalit literature in Tamil can be said to have begun during the 1990s after the centenary celebrations of Dr. Ambedkar’s birth. Since then Tamil society has been witness to a rich and heterogeneous production of Dalit literature comprising several genres – novels, short stories, poetry and performing arts.

This volume, Talit Ilakkiyam: En̠atu An̠upavam (Dalit Literature: My Experience), contains a collection of essays in Tamil (with abstracts in English) by Dalit writers, presented during the seminar ‘Tamil Dalit Literature – The Challenge and the Response’ held in Jan. 2004 in Pondicherry. The writers’ essays are complemented by an example of their hitherto unpublished creative writing, in the form of short stories and poems.

Keywords: Dalit, Tamil literature, oppression, liberation

• GROS F., & KANNAN M., 2002. L’arbre nāgalinga. Nouvelles d’Inde du Sud Editions de l’Aube, 276p

Books chapters

• KANNAN M., 2004. 1987- Five poems, In Jean-Luc Chevillard and Eva Wilden (eds.) South Indian Horizons the Festschrift volume for Prof.. F. Gros, IFP-EFEO, Pondicherry
• KANNAN M., 2003. Eluttil alaiyum ninaivukal, In , A critical introduction to the memoirs of the Sri Lankan Tamil writer Ravi Arunacalam, Kalamaki vanta katai, Vitiyal Pathippagam , Coimbatore, pp. 2-5

Articles

• KANNAN M.,& GROS F., 2002. Tamil Dalits in search of a literature South Asia Research, 22:1 pp 22-65

Translations

Download the list of selected translations done by Mr. Kannan.M