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The Cambridge Companion to Periyar is a timely academic intervention which brings together scholars working on different aspects of modern Tamil politics, taking diverse perspectives, to comment on Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, the significant thinker whose thoughts inform political practices in contemporary Tamil Nadu. As the chapters seek to demonstrate, Periyar's thoughts can have a pan-Indian and a global significance, informing conversations on caste, gender, religion, regionalism, nationalism, and social justice. Likewise, in the wake of wider conversations on bringing diversity to the academic disciplines, this volume on Periyar will draw attention to a non-canonical thinker whose important intellectual and political contributions transcend the limits of his context. The volume brings together established academics in the field as well as early career researchers to provide the first of its kind companion to Periyar. Tapping new sources, challenging myths, and crossing disciplinary boundaries, this volume presents a Periyar for the times.
List of contents
Acknowledgments; Introducing an Iconoclast A. R. Venkatachalapathy and Karthick Ram Manoharan; I. Events that made Periyar: 1. Periyar and the Vaikom Satyagraha R. Athiyaman; 2. Periyar, Ambedkar, and the Poona Pact A. Thiruneelakandan; II. The Politics of Periyar: 3. EVR's Non-Brahmin Cosmopolitanism, Periyar's Dravidian Nationalism, and the Appearance of Humankind Matthew H. Baxter; 4. Periyar and the Forging of a Horizontal Dravidian-Tamil Solidarity K. R. Vignesh Karthik; 5. The Double-Barreled Gun: Periyar and Anna after the Split in the Dravidar Kazhagam A.R. Venkatachalapathy; III. Religion, Caste and Identity: 6. The Rationale for Reason: Periyar on Religion Sundar Kaali; 7. Periyar's Anti-Aryanism: A Genealogy, A Synopsis, and A Critique Karthick Ram Manoharan; 8. Periyar in Singapore: Transnationalism and Decolonisation Darinee Alagirisamy; IV. Women and Culture: 9. Periyar, the Women's Question, and Maniyammai Karthick Ram Manoharan and Vilasini Ramani; 10. Periyar's Engagement with Literature Anthony Arul Valan; 11. Periyar, Art, and Cinema Swarnavel Eswaran; V. Labor and Dignity: 12. The Social subsumes the Economic: Periyar's Reading of Economic Power in Caste Society M. Vijayabaskar, 13. Liberation Notes, Dignity, and Periyar: A Radical Cultural Psychology Perspective Ramaswami Mahalingam; For Further Reading; Index.
About the author
A. R. Venkatachalapathy is Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. Apart from his many books in English he has also written or edited over forty books in Tamil. His contribution to Tamil has been recognised by two lifetime achievement awards.Karthick Ram Manoharan is Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. He is the author of Periyar: A Study in Political Atheism (2022), Frantz Fanon: Identity and Resistance (2019), and the co-editor of Rethinking Social Justice (2020).
