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Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India: The Making of a Mother Tongue (Contemporary Indian Studies)
Lisa Mitchell
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Description for Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India: The Making of a Mother Tongue (Contemporary Indian Studies)
paperback. What makes someone willing to die, not for a nation, but for a language? In the 1950s and 1960s, southern India saw a wave of dramatic suicides in the name of the Telugu language. This title traces the colonial-era changes in knowledge and practice linked to language that lay behind these events. Series: Contemporary Indian Studies. Num Pages: 304 pages, 6 b&w photos, 5 maps. BIC Classification: 1FKA; 3JJPG; CFB; HBJF; HBLW3; HBTB. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 235 x 157 x 22. Weight in Grams: 474.
What makes someone willing to die, not for a nation, but for a language? In the mid-20th century, southern India saw a wave of dramatic suicides in the name of language. Lisa Mitchell traces the colonial-era changes in knowledge and practice linked to the Telugu language that lay behind some of these events. As identities based on language came to appear natural, the road was paved for the political reorganization of the Indian state along linguistic lines after independence.
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2009
Publisher
Indiana University Press United States
Number of pages
304
Condition
New
Series
Contemporary Indian Studies
Number of Pages
304
Place of Publication
Bloomington, IN, United States
ISBN
9780253220691
SKU
V9780253220691
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Lisa Mitchell
Lisa Mitchell is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and History in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Reviews for Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India: The Making of a Mother Tongue (Contemporary Indian Studies)
[O]riginal and persuasive . . . This lucid and engaging work will appeal to South Asianists as well as to other scholars interested in the history of language and literacy.Dec. 2009
Mary Hancock
University of California, Santa Barbara
[M]akes a brilliant intervention in the study of language and modernity by critically interrogating the concept of the 'mother tongue' . . . brims with interesting and provocative ideas that extend beyond its immediate focus. . . .a fascinating and ambitious project.Vol. 82, No. 4, 2009
Amanda Weidman
Bryn Mawr College
Mitchell's study successfully demonstrates that 'The story of colonial encounters with language in Southern India includes the story of efforts to bring very different sensibilities regarding language into a single frame of discourse'. While colonial restructuring of language contributed significantly to the making of the mother tongues, the fact remains that the resurgence of regional languages and the demand for linguistic states in South India served a powerful impulse—cultural unification and political empowerment of people scattered among arbitrary administrative divisions.Nov 2011
Journal of Asian Studies
The study subtly identies links that all too often appear lost in the haze of un-critical activism. For that reason, along with its readable and forceful prose, this book makes a lasting contribution to knowledge and offers a valuable addition to any reading list on modern South Asian history.
South Asia Research
The aim of 'Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India' is to show how the specific history of Telugu-language politics can shed new light on general questions of importance to researchers in a variety of fields who are concerned to understand "the processes that have led speakers of particular languages to see themselves as having a separate history, literature, politics, and identity". . . [An] ambitious and creative work.Feb 2010
Cultural Anthropology - AAA
Mary Hancock
University of California, Santa Barbara
[M]akes a brilliant intervention in the study of language and modernity by critically interrogating the concept of the 'mother tongue' . . . brims with interesting and provocative ideas that extend beyond its immediate focus. . . .a fascinating and ambitious project.Vol. 82, No. 4, 2009
Amanda Weidman
Bryn Mawr College
Mitchell's study successfully demonstrates that 'The story of colonial encounters with language in Southern India includes the story of efforts to bring very different sensibilities regarding language into a single frame of discourse'. While colonial restructuring of language contributed significantly to the making of the mother tongues, the fact remains that the resurgence of regional languages and the demand for linguistic states in South India served a powerful impulse—cultural unification and political empowerment of people scattered among arbitrary administrative divisions.Nov 2011
Journal of Asian Studies
The study subtly identies links that all too often appear lost in the haze of un-critical activism. For that reason, along with its readable and forceful prose, this book makes a lasting contribution to knowledge and offers a valuable addition to any reading list on modern South Asian history.
South Asia Research
The aim of 'Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India' is to show how the specific history of Telugu-language politics can shed new light on general questions of importance to researchers in a variety of fields who are concerned to understand "the processes that have led speakers of particular languages to see themselves as having a separate history, literature, politics, and identity". . . [An] ambitious and creative work.Feb 2010
Cultural Anthropology - AAA