Abstract
This paper explores the fascinating articulations of three young women of Tamil origin, Susheela Raman (UK), Mathangi Arulpragasam (UK) and Ahalya Dharmalingam (Malaysia) through their musical/religious works in finding new meanings of their diasporic identities. In exploring the past and ongoing works of the three Tamil diasporic women, this paper seeks to examine their diasporic subjectivities outside the realm of the macro frameworks such as colonialism, globalisation, migration, cultural identity, etc. This paper wants to explore their multiple subjectivities through the application of disparate theoretical frameworks from the sides of material rhetorics, Deleuzian film philosophy, Foucauldian philosophy of knowledge/power and Vertovian concept of ‘cine-eye’. This paper concludes that the negotiations by the three women have little in common with the macro-processes of colonialism, post-colonialism, nationalism, globalisation, migration, displacement, flows, scapes and cultural identity. Their identities are engendered by the micro-level performative processes.
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Notes
- 1.
Lord Murugan is a Tamil God of yore. He is one of the ancient Gods worshipped by Tamils since the last Sangam age (600 BC-300 AD). Referred to as Ceyon during the Sangam period, Murugan is a God associated with the Kurinchi or Hill country—one of the five thinais or geographical divisions of the ancient Tamil landscape. Murugan Bhakti songs are employed in various modes during major Murugan festivals like Thaipoosam, which attracts lakhs of devotees in all the countries to which Tamils have migrated. Kavadiattam is a ritual dance (which also transforms into a trance dance) performed by devotees to the accompaniment of Murugan songs. The aesthetic practices woven around the Murugan Bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu since the Sangam age signify the essence of Dravidian/non-Vedic religious traditions of Tamils. The well-known Czech Tamil Scholar, Kamil Zvelebil’s work The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India and the well-known Tamil scholar, writer and orator of twentieth century, Thiru. Vi. Kalyanasundaram’s work Lord Murugan or Beauty are very significant resources to explore the Murugan Bhakti movement.
- 2.
Sufi songs represent the musical traditions of the Islamic spiritual movement that originated in thirteenth century. The Sufi singers yearn for the inner spiritual awakening of themselves and their fans/subjects.
- 3.
References to Eelam (the Tamil region of Sri Lanka) occur widely in Sangam literature (including Pattinapalai, Akananuru, Kurunthokai and Narrinai) and ancient and mediaeval epigraphs. The earliest reference is to a dweller of the land of Eelam in Thiruparankundram epigraph (1 BC). Erukatur Eelakutumpikan Polalaiyan (“Polalaiyan, (resident of) Erukatur, the Husbandman (householder) from Eelam”). After the emergence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during 1980s, the term refers to the state proposed by the organisation in the northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
- 4.
The Tamil Bhakti Movement spans the period between the sixth and the eleventh centuries when there was a revival of the literary and aesthetic practices of the Sangam age Tamils on an entirely different plane, rather as counter site of the then major religions, Tamil Buddhism and Tamil Jainism. The Tamil Bhakti Movement resulted in two major literary corpuses, Nalayira Divya Prabandam (4000 sacred verses) and Pannirandu Thirumurais (12 sacred texts). The first represents the works of 12 Tamil Vaishnavite saints, known as Azhwars. The latter represents the works of Nayanmars, the 63 Tamil Saivaite saints.
- 5.
The fourth, fifth and sixth Thirumurais were authored by Thirunavukarasar and the anthology is known as Thevaram. The eighth Thirumurai was authored by Manickavasagar and is known as Thiruvasagam.
- 6.
At least five Centres for Diasporic Studies were established during the last 5 years in India in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala.
- 7.
Cultural identity crises in countries as varied as South Africa and Malaysia were a cause for concern for the members of Tamil diaspora. The emergence of Hindraf (Hindus’ Rights Action Force) in 2007 as a rallying point for securing rights and privileges for the Indians in Malaysia was in fact the effect of the growing cultural identity crises faced by the Indians/Tamils in Malaysia on account of reports alleging the demolition of Hindu temples in the country. In South Africa, the cultural identity crises were fueled by reasons ranging from lack of Tamil schools to the removal of Tamil channels from local cable networks to the odds against securing audiences for releases of new Tamil films.
- 8.
With nearly two million Indians, the majority of them Tamils, Malaysia has the second largest population of Tamils outside Tamil Nadu, the first being Sri Lanka.
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Ravindran, G. (2018). Three Tamil Diasporic Women’s One Mission: Discover New Identities . In: Pande, A. (eds) Women in the Indian Diaspora. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5951-3_9
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