The View from Below: Indigenous Society, Temples, and the Early Colonial State in Tamilnadu, 1700-1835How did the British colonial administration view the Tamil natives? How did the natives, in turn, view the colonial power brokers? Underscoring a transactional rather than one-way reality of colonial politics, The View from Below is a balancing act of scholarship. Kanakalatha Mukund considers the 'attitudes' and 'responses' as dialogic, whereby the colonial state and indigenous society are locked in a fierce but subtle combat for attention and dominance in the Madras region. The Tamil institution upon which Mukund focuses her study for the most part is the temple. Moving further on from this politically crucial and socially focal site, the study covers a number of other related phenomena: the staging of sectarian and caste conflicts aimed to seize the control of the temples; the new social leadership and patterns of patronage; the construction of identity by aspiring elite groups of both parties; and the folk representations of Poligar rebellions. This book will be useful to historians, anthropologists and specialists on South India, and those interested in the history of Madras. |
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accounts administration Aiya Mudali Ananda Ranga Pillai Annasami Pillai Appadurai appointed authority Black Town BORP Brahmins Brimnes Calland ceremonies Chengalpattu Chetti chief merchants Chingleput claim Cochrane Collector colonial government Colonial Rule Company complaint Court of Directors Cuddalore decided decision dharmakarta Diary disputes dubash of Governor dubashes Dubashes of Madras Dupleix eighteenth century elite English European February Fort St George Governor and Council honours Ibid indigenous society influence inhabitants Irschick Jaghir January Kanchipuram Kattabomman kings Kovur land leaders left-hand castes Madras Government March Masilamani Mudali Mayor's Court mirasi Mukund Mylapore Nawab pagodas Paraiyar patrons person petition petitioners Poligars Pondicherry Ramanujacharya records revenue right hand right-hand castes rulers social south India Sriperumbudur St George Council status Subbaraya Mudali Sundara Mudali Sunku Svami Tamil Tamil Merchant temple festivals Tenkalai Timmanna tion Tiruvengadam Pillai Tiruvottiyur traditional Triplicane temple Vadakalai Vellalar wrote zamindar