The ebook by Robert L. Hardgrave Jr., first printed in 1965, prepared for recent launch
The ebook by Robert L. Hardgrave Jr., first printed in 1965, prepared for recent launch
The Dravidian Movement, a pioneering ebook by Robert L. Hardgrave Jr, which provides perception into the adolescence of the motion, is prepared for a recent launch after a spot of 57 years.
The ebook was primarily based on materials he gathered in India for his 1962 Master’s Thesis. First printed in 1965 by Mumbai-based Popular Prakashan, the ebook has been out of print for a few years. The Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation has acquired the copyright for it.
“Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will release it soon,” mentioned Sankara Saravanan, deputy director of the company.
Mr. Stalin, who has written a preface for the ebook, mentioned: “Strange it is that Robert Hardgrave, a young student from thousands of miles away from Dravida land and a stranger to its experiences/struggles, was so drawn to the philosophy and economic commitment that lay at the heart of the Dravidian movement, the streams of the DK and the self-respect that fed it and its triumphant emergence holding the imagination of the populace for so many decades.”
Dr. Rajan Kurai Krishnan, who teaches on the School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University Delhi, in his afterword, identified Hardgrave must be credited for the prescience of the concluding traces of the ebook which has been borne out by the unfolding of historical past.
“Rather than a threat to the unity of the Indian Union, a self-consciously participant society — even when it operates in terms of caste and linguistic identification — offers the possibility of a meaningful pluralism as a base for viable democracy,” he had recalled Hardgrave as writing.
Professor Hardgrave is Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor Emeritus within the Humanities, Departments of Government and Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin.
In his foreword to the brand new version, he mentioned “ The Dravidian Movement was my entry as young scholar into the world of Indian politics.”
“I was fortunate to meet several leaders of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. They became my guides into the life of the political party and invited me to conferences, arranged interviews with party luminaries, and provided me with a plethora of pamphlets and publications on the Dravidian Movement from its roots in the Non-Brahmin and Self-Respect movement to the formation of the Dravidar Kazhagam and its splinter off-shoot DMK,” recalled Mr Hardgrave, who later printed his Ph D dissertation as, The Nadars of Tamilnadu: The Political Culture of a Community in Change.
He mentioned although he had visited India for a variety of tasks, “the foundation of my academic work will always remain in Tamil Nadu and with The Dravidian Movement.”
Mr. Stalin reiterated that “the monumental documentation of the unique social reform movement proves beyond doubt that the Dravidian Movement is an invaluable gift to humanity and universal brotherhood in Tamil Nadu.”
Source: www.thehindu.com
