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The Cambridge Companion to Periyar

The Cambridge Companion to Periyar

The Cambridge Companion to Periyar

Editors:
A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Madras Institute of Development Studies
Karthick Ram Manoharan, University of Wolverhampton
A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Karthick Ram Manoharan, R. Athiyaman, A. Thiruneelakandan, Matthew H. Baxter, K. R. Vignesh Karthik, Sundar Kaali, Darinee Alagirisamy, Anthony Arul Valan, Swarnavel Eswaran, M. Vijayabaskar, Ramaswami Mahalingam
Published:
September 2025
Availability:
Not yet published - available from September 2025
Format:
Paperback
ISBN:
9781009605359

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£37.99
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Paperback
£75.00 GBP
Hardback

    The Cambridge Companion to Periyar is a timely academic intervention which brings together scholars working on different aspects of modern Tamil politics, taking diverse perspectives, to comment on Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, the significant thinker whose thoughts inform political practices in contemporary Tamil Nadu. As the chapters seek to demonstrate, Periyar's thoughts can have a pan-Indian and a global significance, informing conversations on caste, gender, religion, regionalism, nationalism, and social justice. Likewise, in the wake of wider conversations on bringing diversity to the academic disciplines, this volume on Periyar will draw attention to a non-canonical thinker whose important intellectual and political contributions transcend the limits of his context. The volume brings together established academics in the field as well as early career researchers to provide the first of its kind companion to Periyar. Tapping new sources, challenging myths, and crossing disciplinary boundaries, this volume presents a Periyar for the times.

    • Brings conversations from the Tamil world to a global audience
    • Engagement with new primary material
    • Chapters on Periyar from multi-disciplinary perspectives

    Product details

    September 2025
    Paperback
    9781009605359
    400 pages
    229 × 152 mm
    Not yet published - available from September 2025

    Table of Contents

    • Acknowledgments
    • Introducing an Iconoclast A. R. Venkatachalapathy and Karthick Ram Manoharan
    • I. Events that made Periyar:
    • 1. Periyar and the Vaikom Satyagraha R. Athiyaman
    • 2. Periyar, Ambedkar, and the Poona Pact A. Thiruneelakandan
    • II. The Politics of Periyar:
    • 3. EVR's Non-Brahmin Cosmopolitanism, Periyar's Dravidian Nationalism, and the Appearance of Humankind Matthew H. Baxter
    • 4. Periyar and the Forging of a Horizontal Dravidian-Tamil Solidarity K. R. Vignesh Karthik
    • 5. The Double-Barreled Gun: Periyar and Anna after the Split in the Dravidar Kazhagam A.R. Venkatachalapathy
    • III. Religion, Caste and Identity:
    • 6. The Rationale for Reason: Periyar on Religion Sundar Kaali
    • 7. Periyar's Anti-Aryanism: A Genealogy, A Synopsis, and A Critique Karthick Ram Manoharan
    • 8. Periyar in Singapore: Transnationalism and Decolonisation Darinee Alagirisamy
    • IV. Women and Culture:
    • 9. Periyar, the Women's Question, and Maniyammai Karthick Ram Manoharan and Vilasini Ramani
    • 10. Periyar's Engagement with Literature Anthony Arul Valan
    • 11. Periyar, Art, and Cinema Swarnavel Eswaran
    • V. Labor and Dignity:
    • 12. The Social subsumes the Economic: Periyar's Reading of Economic Power in Caste Society M. Vijayabaskar, 13. Liberation Notes, Dignity, and Periyar: A Radical Cultural Psychology Perspective Ramaswami Mahalingam
    • For Further Reading
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Karthick Ram Manoharan, R. Athiyaman, A. Thiruneelakandan, Matthew H. Baxter, K. R. Vignesh Karthik, Sundar Kaali, Darinee Alagirisamy, Anthony Arul Valan, Swarnavel Eswaran, M. Vijayabaskar, Ramaswami Mahalingam

    • Editors
    • A. R. Venkatachalapathy , Madras Institute of Development Studies

      A. R. Venkatachalapathy is Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. Apart from his many books in English he has also written or edited over forty books in Tamil. His contribution to Tamil has been recognised by two lifetime achievement awards.

    • Karthick Ram Manoharan , University of Wolverhampton

      Karthick Ram Manoharan is Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. He is the author of Periyar: A Study in Political Atheism (2022), Frantz Fanon: Identity and Resistance (2019), and the co-editor of Rethinking Social Justice (2020).