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Introduction :
The study of
cultural
encounters in
Tharangampadi/Tranquebar
Esther Fihl and
Stine Simonsen
Puri
Shipwrecked on
the Coromandel:
The first
Indo–Danish
contact, 1620
Esther Fihl
Abstract:
This article
focuses on the
complications
involved in the
very first
Indo–Danish
cultural
encounter
leading to the
establishment of
the Danish
trading station
in Tharangampadi
or Tranquebar as
it was called by
the Danes in
1620. The
analysis is
based on the
report sent to
the Danish King
Christian IV by
his envoy Ove
Giedde on his
return from
India. It begins
with a
description of
the voyage to
the East Indies
in order to
introduce the
reader to the
troubles,
aspirations and
actors from the
Danish side. The
friction created
when the Danes
encountered the
aspirations of
Raghunatha Nayak
of Tanjore and
the role of the
gift is analysed
next. The
conclusion is
that the South
Indian partner
of the encounter
is rather
cross-culturally
experienced and
actually eager
to make the
Danes settle in
the area. The
analytical
perspective on
the encounter is
concentrated on
events described
by Ove Giedde.
The focus is on
the actual
meetings in
1620, of agents
with disparate
cultural
backgrounds and
aspirations and
who in their
grappling with
one another
create a contact
zone of new
forms of social
interaction.
The Tranquebar
tribute :
Contested
perceptions
during the reign
of Rajah Serfoji
II of Tanjore
Simon Rastén
Abstract:
With the
establishment of
Tranquebar as
the first Danish
trading post in
India, the Danes
became part of a
complex
political system
in South India
based on the
reciprocal
exchange of
gifts and
tributes between
princely states.
Until Tranquebar
was sold to the
British in 1845,
an annual
tribute was paid
to the Rajahs of
Tanjore, a
payment that was
closely
connected to
ceremonial
honours and
symbols at the
court. Rajah
Serfoji II (r.
1798–1832), who
had been placed
on the throne by
the English East
India Company,
considered the
receipt of the
tribute from a
European power
particularly
honourable and
received it in
public with
great ceremonies
every year as an
important symbol
of his
sovereignty. By
closely
analysing a
dispute over the
tribute which
arose in the
aftermath of the
British
occupation of
Tranquebar in
1808–1816, the
paper explores
Indian, British
and Danish
perceptions of
the Tranquebar
tribute. The
paper seeks to
understand
Tranquebar in a
South Indian
context by
focusing on
diplomatic
relations and
disagreements.
It is argued
that the right
to define the
significance of
the tribute was
constantly being
negotiated and
contested in
this colonial
encounter.
The schools of
Tranquebar: An
educational
field of
cultural
encounters and
conflicts
Keld
Grinder-Hansen
Abstract:
The arrival of
the missionaries
from the Halle
Mission to
Tranquebar in
1706 deeply
influenced the
educational
development of
southern India.
Education was a
central element
in the pietistic
strategy of the
Danish-Halle
Mission to
convert the
Tamils to
Christianity.
The mission
established
within a few
decades an
effective school
system in
Tranquebar and
its territory,
which made it
possible for a
broad segment of
the Tamil youth
to receive basic
school
education. The
educational
success of the
missionaries
soon spread from
the Tranquebar
area to other
parts of South
India, where the
missionaries
established a
number of
schools. The
school
activities of
the missionaries
among the common
Tamil population
were the first
steps towards
the creation of
a general school
system in India
and a
precondition for
the development
in the
nineteenth
century, where
the public
authorities took
responsibility
for the teaching
of Indian
children. The
legacy of the
Danish-Halle
Mission is still
evident in
Tranquebar, not
least in the
field of
education, where
the town holds
an unusually
large number of
private schools,
including two
teacher training
institutes, of
which all but
one are owned
and run by
Christian
organizations.
Between consent
and coercion:
Danish
Missionaries and
Tamil parents in
late nineteenth
century South
India
Karen Vallgårda
Abstract:
This article
explores how
parental
authority was
negotiated in a
cultural
encounter
between Danish
missionaries and
low-caste South
Indian parents
in the 1860s and
1870s. It
documents the
subtle means of
coercion, which
missionaries
employed to gain
authority over
Indian children
and enforce a
long-term
separation of
the children
from their
parents. This
resulted in both
confrontations
and exchanges
between members
of the two
internally
heterogeneous
groups, and it
took place
within an
ambiguous
cultural space
organized by
different social
hierarchies. The
article shows
that while the
encounters
unsettled
certain axes of
power, others
were left
unchallenged.
The legacy of
Tranquebar: The
‘Ziegenbalg
myth’ and the
debates on caste
Oluf Schönbeck
Abstract:
The aim of the
article is
twofold: to
illustrate
aspects of
cultural
encounters, and
to show how
‘history’ and
‘history
writing’ may be
enlisted with
the purpose of
providing
legitimacy, not
least in the
conflicts that
sometimes are
the result of
cultural
encounters. More
specifically,
the article
shows how the
foundation
narrative of the
Lutheran Church
in South India,
centred around
the German
missionary,
Bartolomäus
Ziegenbalg (the
‘Ziegenbalg
myth’), has been
used till the
present day with
various
purposes. This
was also the
case in the
latter half of
the nineteenth
century when a
harsh conflict
broke out
between the
Lutheran
missionaries who
took a lenient
and more
accommodating
stand concerning
the caste
institution, and
the Protestant
(Anglican)
bishop and
missionaries,
who preferred to
exclude people
from the church
rather than
tolerate
discrimination
based on caste.
The conflict
thus was the
result of
cultural
encounters on
two levels: one
between European
missionaries and
indigenous South
Indians, and the
other between
two competing
groups of
European
missionaries.
Reference to
Ziegenbalg was
made by both
parties of the
latter, but for
opposing
purposes.
Finally, it is
argued that the
high esteem
Ziegenbalg holds
till this day is
not least a
result of this
returning
reference to his
name through the
centuries.
‘Written on
leaves in the
Malabarian
manner’: Print
and the cultural
encounter in
eighteenth
century
Tranquebar
A.R.
Venkatachalapathy
Abstract:
This paper
attempts to put
together the
disperse
information in
the missionary
archives to
reconstruct the
pioneering work
of the Danish
missionaries in
bringing print
to the Tamil
country. The
specific locus
of the
interaction was
the small town
of Tranquebar on
the Coromandel
coast. In the
process of
reconstructing
the interaction,
this paper seeks
to know how a
new technology
of
communication—the
medium of
print—encountered
a culture with a
long history of
textual
production. This
cultural
interaction
entailed a
dialogue between
missionaries
from the west
who had deeply
imbued a
negative
understanding of
indigenous
culture and were
impelled by a
desire to
proselytise, and
a native elite
steeped in
indigenous forms
of cultural
production and
reproduction.
The missionary
access to
knowledge was
mediated by
native
intellectuals
who held their
ground. The
quest for
knowledge to
understand
indigenous
culture also led
them to seek out
manuscripts. Not
only the content
but also the
material
artefact of the
indigenous book
written as it
was on palm
leaves posed a
challenge to
the
missionaries..
It is to the
credit of the
Tranquebar press
that they could
adapt the
technology of
the Gutenberg
movable type to
the Tamil
language.
Evidence
indicates that
the printed
material from
Tranquebar was
received by some
native converts
and made a
profound impact
on their
worldview.
‘Where once
Dannebrog waved
for more than
200 years’:
Banal
nationalism,
narrative
templates and
post-colonial
melancholia
Kirsten Thisted
Abstract:
This article
focuses on
Sophie
Petersen’s
Danmarks gamle
Tropekolonier
(Denmark’s
Former Tropical
Colonies) from
1946: an
outstanding
example of the
Danish narrative
about Denmark as
a tiny
benevolent and
thoroughly
humanistic
nation, which
ironically
sacrificed its
imperial
potentials for
the sake of
justice, but
thereby gained
greater honour
on a moral and
ethical level.
This narrative
seems to have
found its final
form after the
sale of the
Danish West
Indies, the last
Danish tropical
colony; perhaps
as a sort of
compensation and
explanation for
the ‘loss’ of
colonial
empire.
However, at the
same time, the
narrative played
an important
role
legitimizing
Denmark’s claim
on all of
Greenland in the
name of its
people. It again
gained relevance
in connection
with the German
occupation of
Denmark and the
decolonization
following World
War II.
Petersen’s book
was invoked
again and again
over the
following
decades. Even in
the present day,
the narrative of
the benevolent
Danish empire is
still
reproduced—also
when the
explicit goal
has been to
create a
counter-narrative.
A possible
explanation is
found in
theories of
nation,
remembering and
narration.
Finally, the
article
discusses
whether the
continuing
interest in the
former colonies
and the history
of the past
Danish empire
should be seen
(only) as a sign
of post-colonial
melancholia: a
reaction against
globalization,
migration and
altered
geopolitical and
racial balances
of power, or
whether it might
(also) be seen
in a more
positive light
as an effort to
appreciate
history and
create new and
more equal
meetings across
borders.
Tranquebar: A
forgotten Danish
colony?
Astrid Nonbo
Andersen
Abstract:
The following
paper focuses on
the present day
encounters in
Tharangambadi
between various
Danish actors
and members of
the fishermen
community.
Through three
significant
notes of
convergence
between the
different
versions of the
past the
question of
cultural
encounters are
studied as
encounters
between
different
historicopolitical
horizons and
mnemonic modes
of remembrance
that are
described in
phenomenological
terms. The main
argument of the
article claims
that these
preliminary
differences
result in
difficulties of
understanding
the motives and
acts of the
other, and also
result in new
narratives
influenced by
the new
encounters in
Tharangambadi
between local
inhabitants and
Danish visitors.
The fishing
community and
heritage tourism
in Tarangambadi
Raja H Swamy
Abstract:
The growth of
tourism in
Tarangambadi has
benefited in
several ways
from the
post-tsunami
reconstruction
efforts of the
state
government.
While fisher
people are being
relocated to a
new inland
housing complex
about 590 meters
from the coast,
the area of
historic
Tranquebar
comprising the
southern section
of Tarangambadi
is being claimed
by a variety of
tourism
interests
seeking to
develop the
area’s
‘heritage’
sites. This
paper argues
that the
cultural
encounter
embodied in the
relationship
between the
growth of
tourism and the
displacement of
the fishing
community is
centred on a
process of
silencing that
is central to
the hegemonic
production of
place in
Tarangambadi.
The state and
central
government’s
neo-liberal
orientation
provides a
central basis
for silencing
the spatial
claims of the
fishing
community by
devaluing
artisanal
fishing as an
activity, and
promoting
tourism as a
means to expand
the GDP.
Simultaneously,
the production
of heritage
involves a
selective
reading of the
colonial past
where the
fishing
community is
conspicuously
absent. A
critical
re-encounter
with the
historical
geography of
Tarangambadi’s
fishing
community and
the fishing
complex it
belongs to can
provide a
tentative
direction
towards
unravelling this
process of
silencing.
Whose history?:
Transnational
cultural
heritage in
Tranquebar
Helle Jørgensen
Abstract:
Tranquebar has
been declared a
heritage town by
the government
of Tamil Nadu
due to the
presence of a
significant
number of
historical
structures
dating to
1620–1845, when
the town was a
Danish trading
colony. The
remains of past
cultural
encounters
attract wide
public and
private
interest, both
from Indian and
Danish agents,
who have in
recent years
initiated an
unprecedented
number of
restoration
projects; but
whose heritage
is being
preserved in
this present
cultural
encounter?
Establishing
Tranquebar as a
heritage town is
not simply a
question of
preservation of
built
structures. The
changes in the
townscape of
Tranquebar, in
which the
historic
buildings are a
part, are
subject to many
interests
ranging from
social
development to
widely differing
aesthetic
ideals. The
current
development in
Tranquebar may
therefore be
seen as a
cross-cultural
process of
interpretation
and negotiation,
in which the
material traces
from the past
comprised of the
built
environment are
just not
historical, but
become so, as
they acquire
special
significance by
being treated as
heritage. To
capture the
coexistence of
differing
experiences of
historicity and
uses of the same
townscape
analytically
this paper
proposes the
concept of the
heritage
palimpsest.
The last
Vettiyan: A
musical
tradition and a
degraded low
caste profession
Caroline
Lillelund
Abstract:
As the feudal,
caste-based
organisation of
labour in
village India
has given way to
capitalist
market forces
and wage labour
relations,
traditional low
caste
professions are
beginning to
disappear. One
of these
professions is
the inherited,
highly
stigmatized
office of
funeral drummer
and graveyard
attendant,
called
vettiyan. In
Tranquebar, only
one person from
the Paraiyar
caste is still
serving as
vettiyan,
and even he
dreams about a
better future
for his son.
This article
examines the
gradual
disappearance of
the vettiyan
profession in
Tranquebar and
the neighbouring
villages in
relation to the
general changes
in the economic,
social, and
symbolic status
of the low
castes. It
looks into the
ambiguous
symbolic
meanings of
drums and
drumming, and
compares the
vettiyan
profession to
that of other
drummers and
musicians from
the Paraiyar
caste. The
article focuses
on the subtle
cultural
encounters
between people,
who belong to
the same caste
and share almost
similar cultural
backgrounds, but
still define
each other as
‘others’. It
argues that the
few remaining
vettiyans
are used by
their Paraiyar
caste fellows as
symbolic
repositories of
the negative,
degrading
connotations of
untouchability
and impurity
that are still
associated with
their existence
and which they
vehemently
strive to
escape.
Processions and
chariot
festivals in
Tharamgambadi
and Velankanni:
Cultural
encounters and
marking
Peter B.
Andersen
Abstract:
This article
addresses South
Indian festivals
on the basis of
fieldwork in
Tharangambadi
and Velankanni.
In South India
festivals and
chariot
festivals have
been common
since medieval
times. Even if
there is some
agreement that
ritual
expressions in
chariot
festivals in
India have
developed with
interaction
between the
different
religions, they
have recently
been seen rather
as expressions
of the strength
of the religious
communities than
instances of
collaboration,
due to the
present
conflicts among
different
religious
communities.
This article
argues for a
more even
approach as it
will identify
instances of
cultural
encounters among
the different
religious
communities as
they may be
identified in
the celebration
of the various
South Indian
festivals. The
article also
considers how
far the
festivals are
manifestations
of separate
religious
communities and
the ways in
which they are
manifestations
of collaboration
among them. The
article at the
outset considers
observations of
recent chariot
festivals in
Tharangambadi,
where Hindus.
Between Jesus
and Krishna:
Christian
encounters with
South Indian
temple dance
Stine Simonsen
Puri
Abstract:
One of the eight
national dances
of India,
bharatanatyam,
partly
originates from
the area around
Tranquebar.
During the time
that Tranquebar
was a Danish
colony,
devadasis were
patronised by
the Thanjavur
royal court. In
1623, a
Danish–Icelandic
soldier
routinely
observed the
devadasis
dancing outside
the
Masilamaninathar
temple which he
was guarding.
His accounts of
the dancers are
interesting at
two levels.
First, they
provide us with
unique data on
the role of the
devadasis at the
village level in
seventeenth
century Tamil
Nadu. Secondly,
they shed light
on a certain
imagination and
perspective on
Indian religion
grounded in
European
Christian
thought at the
time. Since the
seventeenth
century, partly
out of
encounters with
westerners, the
dance of the
devadasis has
been taken from
its original
setting to a
national middle
class stage on
which girls of
very different
backgrounds
learn
bharatanatyam.
A second part of
the article is
based on
fieldwork done
in a
bharatanatyam
dance
institution
situated in New
Delhi, and deals
with a Christian
student and her
experiences
enacting stories
from Hindu
mythology in the
dance. The focus
is on how she
reflects on
Hinduism as well
as Christianity
through her
dance practice.
Though set in
very different
contexts, the
two accounts
shed light on
Christian
perspectives on
Hinduism through
their encounter
with a dominant
South Indian
dance form.
Book Reviews
K N Nair and G
Gopikuttan
Housing in
Kerala: Impact
of Investment,
Technology and
Institutions
by V. P. Nirmal
Roy
David Mosse
Cultivating
Development:
Ethnography of
Aid Policy and
Practice
by Manjushree
Panda
Michael A. Lebowitz
Build It Now:
Socialism for
the 21st Century
by T. Venkata
Naga Narasimhan
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