Visiting ‘Fields’ of Knowledge: Organised a Bilingual Conference in Chennai
by Aadhavan Pazhani, a CHASE doctoral candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London
My field trip to Tamil Nadu, India, entailed visiting not only significant archives and libraries in its capital city but also relatively smaller and remote libraries such as Sendhamizh College Library, Madurai American College Library in Madurai, Gnanalaya Research Library in Pudukkottai, and Paganeri Village Library, Sivagankai and other private collections in the southern parts of the state that house immensely valuable resources of early print sources. As I work on the emergence of modern Tamil prose and the novel in Colonial South India, the visits included meeting Tamil studies scholars and archivists who helped me find critical material beyond the usual sources.
These interactions also made me realise that there is a continued interest in my area of research. However, there was a gap between Tamil scholarship and the critical discourse on the emergence of the novel in English Studies. Therefore, to have a dialogue between these two spheres, I organised a conference on ‘Rethinking the Emergence of the Novel in India through A. Madhaviah’ in collaboration with the Department of English, Madras Christian College, the alma mater of the early Tamil/Indian novelist.
Madhaviah (1872- 1915) was a pioneering novelist and writer who wrote the third Tamil novel, Padmavati Carittiram (1898,1899), the first social realist Tamil novel, Muthumeenakshi (1903) and (Indian) English novels like Thillai Govindhan (1903) and Clarinda (1915). Madhaviah’s oeuvre included poems, plays and essays in Tamil and English. This early bilingual writer pioneered the Tamil Novel form, as well as what is now regarded as ‘Indian Writing in English.’ His life and works epitomise the literary, socio-cultural and political life of his period, and 2022 also marked his 150th birth anniversary.
For these reasons then, the two-day intellectual exercise, on March 26th and 27th 2024, focused on the nineteenth-century literary context of Chennai, the interactions between the colonial knowledge system and Tamil intelligentsia, modernity, prose and the novel. This also meant that it would be a site of meetings between erudite scholars and up-and-coming research students, different disciplines and fields of knowledge, and Tamil and English scholarship.
Dr Srinivasan, Principal of the Arignar Anna Government College of Arts and Science, Walajahpet, delivered a talk on the rise of modern Tamil prose in the context of the advent of print and modern institutions of education, whilst Po Velsamy (Tamil scholar and writer) discussed the influence of colonial modernity in shaping different kinds and styles of prose. Dr Azhagarsan, Head of the Department of English, University of Madras, argued for rethinking the fundamental conceptions in theorising the rise of prose and the novel. He exemplified it by showing the influence of kadhaipadal (a Tamil verse form problematically understood as Ballad) in the emergent Tamil novel and, in particular, the characterisation in early prose fiction and translations of Madhaviah. Nivedita Louis’s (Independent researcher) paper focussed on the significance of Christian missionaries in leading female education in Colonial Chennai (then Madras). Research scholars Divyabharathi and Umakasthuri discussed the emancipatory political movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the widow question in popular magazines, respectively. These were the concerns that drove Madhaviah, and, in turn, his works dealt with. Dr Joshua Kalapati (Professor of Philosophy and the biographer of MCC) delivered a talk on the climate of MCC when Madhaviah studied there. Vasantha Surya, the translator of Muthumeenakshi, spoke about her experience of translating Madhaviah. Dr Arul (Assistant Professor of English) spoke on realism in the emergent novel, whereas Kaala Subramaniam (Tamil writer and editor) spoke on (re)publishing Madhaviah’s works and Madhaviah, the translator. I contextualised Madhaviah's works against the backdrop of 'Tamil-Colonial dialogue' in the larger public sphere and delineated the role of the Madras Christian College Magazine in the rise of early Tamil/Indian Novels and Madhaviah.
Two features further enriched the conference: Firstly, we released a new edition of Shakespeare’s Othello, translated by Madhaviah. The book was edited by Dr Subramaniam and published by Thamizhini Publishers. Secondly, I wrote a one-act play, Othellovum Padmavatiyum (Othello and Padmavati), based on Madhaviah’s experiences at Madras Christian College and his novel, Padmavati Carittiram. Students from MCC and the University of Madras performed the play. Moreover, inspired by the favourable outcome of the conference, I am in talks with publishers to republish Madhaviah’s works and collaborating with presenters on a special issue on Madhaviah in a bilingual journal, Pudhiya Panuval.
It was inspiring to see the overwhelming enthusiasm of scholars, who, despite their age, presented and participated at the conference. I also profusely thank Dr Ananta Sita Raman, the biographer and granddaughter of the novelist and Associate professor emerita at Santa Clara University, who was delighted by the initiative and graciously sent me one of her lectures on Madhaviah.
I owe my sincere gratitude to CHASE for their support with the field trip and the conference. Without their help, I would not have had this opportunity and firsthand experience organizing the impactful conference. The presentations and discussions have influenced the structure and arguments of my doctoral thesis.
