Extraordinary Child: Poems from a South Indian Devotional Genre

Chapter Eight Poetry of Cultural Nationalism

178 c h a p t e r e i g h t P O E T R Y O F C U L T U R A L N A T I O N A L I S M The vast majority of pillaittamils are religious texts composed by authors affiliated with established religious communities.1 In the first quarter of this century, however, some poets wrote pillaittamils not to express institutionalized religious devotion but to articulate and praise selected “secular” political figures and ideologies. By 1925 a pillaittamil to Mohandas Gandhi appeared, followed by several others to him over the years. Then came a pillaittamil to Bharati, the nationalist Tamil poet, and another to C. Rajagopalachari, one of Gandhi’s most influential supporters in South India. In an-other arena, as appeals for the assertion of regional, especially Tamil, identity won people’s devotion, several poets composed pillaittamils to honor people and precepts connected with South Indian identity.2 This chapter presents translations and analyses of two such poems connected with what scholars have labeled “cultural nationalism,” which I define as a social movement in which a particular cultural or linguistic group sees itself as a separate nation, even though legally it belongs to part of a much larger nation-state.3 The first pillaittamil discussed below, addressed to Tamil (culture/language) personified as a mother, appeared in print on the occasion of a Tamil conference held in 1981. In the second pillaittamil, poet Mu. Singaravelu lauds E. V. Ramasami, the founder of the Dravida Kazhagam, an association that attacked brahminical privilege in Tamilnadu, preached social equality, and sought to undermine Hindu beliefs and ritual practices. Although these poems demonstrate formal continuities with earlier pillaittamils, such as the theme of childhood and the ten-paruvam structure, they exhibit major ideological differences. The poem poetry of cultural nationalism 179 to Tamil as mother, I argue, reflects the conference’s concern with glorifying and “classicizing” Tamil culture while simultaneously aiming to constitute an identity that includes Tamil-speakers affiliated with different religious and social communities. The second pillaittamil is addressed to “Periyar,” a title of respect meaning “Great One” that was given to E. V. Ramasami. Although Ramasami advocated atheism and expressed contempt for religion, the pillaittamil’s composer , Singaravelu, uses nonreligious equivalents to the religious features of other pillaittamils. For example, he depicts veneration of reason instead of deities, and lauds acts of political protest instead of worship. In the two poems discussed in this chapter, the pillaittamil has been appropriated as a frame within which to expound political messages. A Conference and a Pillaittamil TAMIL ANNAI PILLAITTAMIL (henceforth TAPT), addressed to Mother Tamil, was commissioned, composed, and disseminated as part of the festivities for the Fifth International Tamil Conference, which took place in Madurai, South India, 4–10 January 1981. TAPT reduces the nuanced complexity of pillaittamil paruvams to a set of envelopes stuffed with praise for a highly selective picture of “Tamil culture.” The motivation for assembling its verse, the criteria for publication, and intended audience reveal how the poem seeks to reconstruct Tamil culture through identification with a glorious and ancient Tamil past. The Fifth International Tamil Conference combined a seminar, involving a small number of academics, with a cultural celebration of Tamil culture in which thousands of people from all over Tamilnadu participated. The scholarly papers given at the host institution, Madurai Kamaraj University, were only a tiny portion of an event that included elaborate illumination of public monuments, an exhibition ground filled with displays that extolled the glory of the ancient Tamil past, huge public debates, and an enormous parade filled with floats featuring cultural heroes and characters from Tamil epic narratives . Copies of the magazine that contained TAPT were freely distributed as souvenirs during the conference. The unusual circumstances of TAPT’s composition grew directly out of its role in the Fifth International Tamil Conference, which· · 6. Tamil Tay, as a Child and with Palmleaf Manuscript. Souvenir, Fifth International Tamil Conference (photograph by Joseph Romano). poetry of cultural nationalism 181 aimed to include as many, and as many kinds of, notables as it could. First, TAPT is the only pillaittamil known to me that was written as a joint venture. Eleven poets composed the work, with each one contributing two, three, or four verses. A number of these authors were relatively popular poets. Several had composed lyrics for film songs, and...