A workshop on Caste and Politics in Contemporary Tamil Nadu
18th December 2013, Edinburgh University
A day-long seminar to discuss current developments in the following fields. Each session will be opened and chaired by an expert who will facilitate a discussion and the exchange of ideas.
Format:Please note; we are not expecting participants to give papers. No need to prepare a paper or power point slides. So much has happened with regard to politics and caste in Tamil Nadu in recent years that we are aiming for productive debates between scholars rather than a series of papers. Each session will start with somefive-minute presentations before the floor will be opened for questions, comments and discussion. Please do try and keep these opening comments short and use them to raise questions that can be explored in greater depth during the session.
Funding: The workshop is being held thanks to an ESRC grant (ES/J001732/1) focused on ‘Dalit Politics and Democratisation in Tamil Nadu’. In this project Hugo Gorringe is revisiting previous work on Dalit movements in Tamil Nadu and seeking to chart their institutionalisation into political parties. He will be working with Roger Jeffery to analyse changing trends in Dalit voting in the state too. The project is primarily based on qualitative, ethnographic fieldwork in Tamil Nadu.
Aims: The seminar is intended to be both a dissemination event for the ESRC grant above and an opportunity to discuss key developments in the Tamil politics of caste over the past few years. The intention is to create a network of scholars working in these fields and to enhance our understanding of contemporary caste dynamics.
Venue: The seminar will be held in the McEwan Hall Reception Room:
Access is gained via the Medical Quad to the rear of the McEwan Hall, at Doorway 2. Basically you’re your way to McEwan Hall in Bristo Square then walk along the road until you reach a quad immediately behind the building. The conference room is up a flight of stairs at the back of the hall.
Accommodation: Those of you being put up for the event will be based in the Kenneth McKenzie Suite which is very close by (see travel info below):
Timetable
9.00-9.30: TEA/COFFEE9.30-10.45: Session 1
Dalit Politics in Tamil Nadu: Corrupt and co-opted or generating change?
Chair: TBC
Ravikumar: Legislating for Change?
Hugo Gorringe: Institutionalisation and the decline in radicalism?
10.45-11.15: TEA/COFFEE
11.15-12.45: Session 2
Intermediate Caste Politics: Retrenching dominance or responding to decline?
Chair: TBC
Geert de Neve: Not so ChinnaGounders?
Andrew Wyatt: The decline of Dravidian Parties and the emergence of Multipartism?
D. Karthikeyan: ThevarJeyathi and the performance of dominance
12.45 – 13.15 LUNCH
13.15-14.30: Session 3
Caste through a gender lens: dowry, honour killings and celebrations of chastity
Chair:RadhikaGovinda
S. Anandhi: OBC politics, crisis of masculinity anden/gendering of caste politics
NityaRao: Caste and Kinship: Women’s Work and Agency in Rural South India
14.30-15.45: Session 4
Caste, NGOs and Development
Chair: TBC
Nicholas Chinnappan: Land Rights
David Mosse: Caste and Development
15.45-16.15: TEA/COFFEE
16.15-17.30: Session 5
Dravidianism and Dalit Politics?
Chair: TBC
RupaViswanath: SathiyavaniMuthu and the absence of Dravidian Dalits
GajendranAyyathurai: Dravidianism and the betrayal of Tamil Buddhists
17.30-18.00:
Concluding Remarks and Comments
Chair: Hugo Gorringe
18.30pm: Seminar Sappadu
We will retire to Tanjore - a local Tamil restaurant (with apologies to those who have just flown over from TN!!:-))
If you are interested in participating in this seminar please contact: