தமிழ்நாட்டு பிராமணர்கள்

நேற்று இராமநாதபுரம் அருகிலுள்ள குளத்தூர் கிராமத்தில் புரட்டாசி சனிக்கிழமை கருட வாகன புறப்பாடு. மூர்த்தி சிறிதானாலும் கீர்த்தி பெரிது என்ற வசனமே இவரிடமிருந்து தான் தோன்றியதோ என நம்மை யோசிக்க வைக்கும் அளவு சிறிய வடிவில் ஸ்ரீலக்ஷ்மிநாராயணப் பெருமாள் மூலவர். அவருக்கு ஏற்றாற்போல் இன்னும் சிறிய வடிவில் உத்ஸவர் ஸ்ரீநிவாஸர். நேற்றைய அநுபவங்களை நாளை சொல்கிறேன். அதற்கு முன், கூகுள் குழுமத்தில் உள்ள “மின்தமிழ்” குழுவில் நான் இப்போது படித்த ஒன்றை இங்கே காணலாம்.

 

 இன்று University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) வெளியிட்ட ஒரு உரையின்
பகுதி கீழே: இன்னம்பூரான்
Brahmans, Society and the State in Colonial and Post-colonial Tamilnadu by
Professor Chris Fuller, London School of Economics

*A CISA seminar. Brahmans, the traditional caste elite of Tamilnadu, who
make up no more than 2.5 per cent of its population, are very
well-represented in the IT industry...*
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
10383 Bunche Hall
Los Angeles,

Brahmans, the traditional caste elite of Tamilnadu, who make up no more than
2.5 per cent of its population, are very well-represented in the IT industry
and are now among the leading mobile service people of today’s global
economy. Tamil Brahmans, however, have been unusually successful in the
modern world of educated, professional employment from the nineteenth
century to the present day, and this paper looks at why this has been so. It
argues that a combination of factors, some more obvious than others, all
have to be taken into account in explaining Brahman success; most of these
factors have been discussed previously, but the literature has tended to
focus on some at the expense of others. The first factor is actually
anti-Brahmanism and the reservations system, which have encouraged or forced
Brahmans to look for new opportunities, often outside Tamilnadu. A second
factor is the legacy of caste traditions of education and learning, and the
Brahmans’ modern educational success. A third factor is the unusual facility
with which Brahmans migrated from village to city and further afield, and
then became urbanised quickly. A fourth factor is significant change in the
status of women among Tamil Brahmans over the last hundred years. A fifth
factor pertains to the Brahmans’ position in the social structure and their
relationships with other castes, in both rural and urban areas. All these
factors, which interact with each other, are also constitutive of the
Brahmans’ changing relationship with society and the state during the
colonial and post-colonial periods.
About the Speaker:

Chris Fuller is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the London School of
Economics. His first fieldwork (1971-2) was in Kerala among the Nayars and
the Syrian Christians, and his work particularly focused on kinship among
the Nayars, famous for their matriliny. In 1976, Fuller started field
research in the great temple of Madurai in Tamilnadu, which is dedicated to
the Hindu goddess Minakshi. During the next twenty-five years, he
periodically visited the temple to study the priests, whose lives changed
radically during that time, although he also did extensive research on the
temple’s highly elaborate ritual cycle. From 2003-2005, with other
colleagues in LSE, Fuller worked on a major research project on regionalism,
nationalism and globalisation in India, and his research focused on
middle-class company managers and software professionals in the city of
Chennai (Madras). From 2005-08, with Haripriya Narasimhan, he carried out a
research project on a group of Tamil Brahmans, focusing on this traditional
elite’s modern transformation into a migratory, urbanised, trans-national
community. Fuller has also researched and written extensively on popular
Hinduism and Hindu nationalism, the caste system, the anthropology of the
state and other topics.
Selected publications

   - 2008 (with Haripriya Narasimhan) From landlords to software engineers:
   migration and urbanization among Tamil Brahmans.*Comparative Studies in
   Society and History* 50: 170-96.
   - 2008 (with Haripriya Narasimhan) Companionate marriage in India: the
   changing marriage system in a middle-class Brahman subcaste. *Journal of
   the Royal Anthropological Institute* (N.S.) 14: 736-54.
   - 2007. (with Haripriya Narasimhan) Information technology professionals
   and the new-rich middle class in Chennai (Madras). *Modern Asian Studies*,
   41 (1), pp. 121-150.
   - 2005. (co-edited with Jackie Assayag) *Globalizing India: Perspectives
   from below<http://www.anthempress.com/product_info.php?cPath=121&products_id=206...>
   *. London: Anthem Press.
   - 2003. * The renewal of the priesthood: Modernity and traditionalism in
   a South Indian temple <http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7677.html>
   *. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
   - 2004. *The camphor flame: Popular Hinduism and Indian
society<http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7823.html>
   *. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Revised and expanded edition.)
   - 1984. *Servants of the goddess: The priests of a South Indian temple*.
   Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Cost: Free Seminar*
For more information please contact

Juliana Espinosa
Tel: 310-206-2654
c...@international.ucla.edu
www.international.ucla.edu/southasia

*Sponsor(s):* Asia Institute <http://www.asia.ucla.edu>, Center for India
and South Asia <http://www.international.ucla.edu/southasia>,
History<http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history>

இன்னம்பூரான்