1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910496145503321

Autore

Ramaswamy Sumathi

Titolo

Passions of the tongue : language devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970 / / Sumathi Ramaswamy

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [1997]

©1997

ISBN

9780520918795

0520918797

9780585106007

0585106002

Edizione

[Reprint 2019]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxiii, 303 p. ) : ill. ;

Collana

Studies on the History of Society and Culture ; ; 29

Studies on the history of society and culture ; ; 29

Disciplina

494/.811/0954

Soggetti

Language and languages - Study and teaching - United States

Critical pedagogy - United States

Language and culture - India - History

Nationalism - India - History

Critical pedagogy - History - United States

Language and culture - History - India

Nationalism - India

India Languages Political aspects

India History British occupation, 1765-1947 Historiography

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Transliteration -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: Language in History and Modernity -- 2. One Language, Many Imaginings -- 3. Feminizing Language: Tamil as Goddess, Mother, Maiden -- 4. Laboring for Language: The State of Tamil Devotion -- 5. To Die For: Living for Language -- 6. Conclusion: Tamil Subjects -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Why would love for their language lead men in southern India to burn themselves alive in its name? This book analyzes the discourses of love,



labour, and life that transformed Tamil into an object of such attachment, producing in the process one of modern India's most intense movements for linguistic revival and separatism.