Namma Chennai: The Dravidian City and Its Others in Tirumurti’s Fiction¹

Abstract

Tirumurti’s novels are haunted by the specter of non-Dravidian others (Brahmins, Hindi speakers and North Indians) who lurk in the margins of plot development and contribute to the production of Chennai’s difference. The authorial investment on their claims and legitimacy is selectively ambivalent, ranging from internalization of Dravidian ideology to open interrogation of the same. To traverse that uneven trajectory, the author develops a framework built on the foundation of shared concerns (levelers such as water scarcity or love for music) that act as a centripetal force leading to a uniform narrative where fractures vis-à-vis ethnicity and language are ignored. Yet his awareness of Dravidian ideology in the narrative of the nation makes the author create situations where the seemingly unifying patterns are punctured by the centrifugal forces of anti-North and anti-Brahmin consciousness.

Keywords:

• Chennai
• Dravidian
• nation
• city
• Tirumurti

Acknowledgements

The paper in its present form would not have been possible without some very incisive observations by the anonymous readers. We are grateful to them.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We acknowledge the existence of the rich body of literature by authors like Ambai, Ashokamitran, Bama, Perumal Murugan among others, who mostly wrote in Tamil and captured the changing cultural politics of the region. That said, our objective is modest; here the focus is on the construction of Dravidian identity vis-à-vis Brahmin and North-Indian others seen through the narratives of T. S. Tirumurti, whose novels represent the city in all its contradictions. Our engagement with critical/historical material, corresponds to the concerns of Tirumurti's narratives, and so, is not intended to offer a comprehensive study of Dravidian politics.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kavithaa Rajamony

Kavithaa Rajamony is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. Her research interests include urban studies, cultural studies and literary theory.

Jyotirmaya Tripathy

Jyotirmaya Tripathy is a member of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. His broad areas of interest are cultural development thought and contemporary India.