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The Telegu Academy and New Forms of Vernacular Public Sociability in the Early Twentieth Century

Sat, March 18, 10:45am to 12:45pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: 2nd Floor, Churchill

Abstract

The Andhra Sahitya Parishat, or the "Telugu Academy" as it was known in English, was formed in 1911 as a cultural institute aiming to mobilize, shape, and represent public opinion on matters related to Telugu language and literature. The Academy is notable for its opposition to colonial obscenity laws and for its vehement resistance to reformist campaigns to introduce colloquial Telugu in print and prose. During its heyday, the Academy established a public library, hosted literary conferences, and published a series of scholarly works alongside a highly influential monthly journal. Perhaps its most enduring legacy is the production of the Suryaraya Andhra Nighantuvu (1936), a historical dictionary of the Telugu language modeled on the Oxford English Dictionary. This essay studies some of the social processes that enabled the production of this monumental work of vernacular philology. The Academy drew together a diverse assortment of intellectual elites, from traditional Telugu and Sanskrit pandits based in the rural salons of zamindars to the English-educated urban professional class of Madras and its mofussil centers. The Academy was also crucial in drawing together a variety of dispersed small-town Telugu literary groups to create an unprecedented network of Telugu scholars and institutions. In examining its annual reports, its correspondence with leading Telugu intellectuals and small-town societies, and its monthly journal, this essay documents the manifold ways in which the Telugu Academy and its historical dictionary project were key to the consolidation of new forms of vernacular public sociability and the formation of a new Telugu "republic of letters."

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