Table of Contents

* Chapter One: Introduction - Darshan Ambalavanar* Chapter Two: Nation Impossible - M.S.S. Pandian* Chapter Three: Reflections on Sri Lankan Tamil Identity before and after a Social Trauma: Nationalism and Other Forms of Community in Village Politics - Mark Whitaker* Chapter Four: Walking with Amman: Young Malaiyaha Tamils' Views of Their Identity in Practice - Ann Kingsolver and Sasikumar Balasundaram* Chapter Five: The Question of Colonialism and Imperialism in Tamil Nationalist Thought: The Case of Maraimalai Adigal and Non-Brahmin Tamil Nationalism in Southern India (1876-1950) - Ravi Vaitheespara* Chapter Six: "That's Family Love": Gender and Division of Work among Teens in Sri Lankan Tamil Families - Vappu Tyyska* Chapter Seven: Performing Gender and Culture: Performing Acts of Tamil Nadu - A. Mangai* Chapter Eight: The Demand for Dravidanadu and the Tamil Muslims - J.B.P. More* Chapter Nine: Tamil Hinduism in Indenture-Based Societies: Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, South Africa, and Fiji - Paul Younger* Chapter Ten: Parochial Communities in Tamil Nadu: A Case Study of the Processes of "Appropriation or Subversion of Tamil-ness" - Rajeshwari Ghose* Chapter Eleven: The Making of Sangam Literary Canon and Tamil Identity - V. Rajesh* Chapter Twelve: Caste and Community: Oscillating Identities in Pre-modern Tamil Society - R. Champakalakshmi* Chapter Thirteen: Nedunalvadai: Translation, Aesthetics, and Literary History - Chelva Kanaganayakam* Chapter Fourteen: The Poetics of Identity: Bakhtin's Chronotope and the Tamil Concept of Tinai - R. Cheran

About the Author

R. Cheran is an assistant professor in the department of sociology and anthropology at the University of Windsor and a senior research fellow at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Sri Lanka. Darshan Ambalavanar is a visiting fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Chelva Kanaganayakam is a professor in the department of English at the University of Toronto and Director of the Centre for South Asian Studies.