Publications [#241865] of Sumathi Ramaswamy

Journal Articles

1. Ramaswamy, S, The Demoness, the Maid, the Whore, and the Good Mother: Contesting the National Language in India, International Journal of Sociology of Language, vol. 140 no. 140 (1999), pp. 1-28, International Journal of Sociology of Language (Abridged version entitled “Battling the Demoness in Tamil India.” In Crispin Bates, ed. Beyond Representations: Colonial and Post-Colonial Constructions of Indian Identity. Delhi: Oxford University Press (2006), pp. 123-150..)
   (last updated on 2024/04/24)

   Abstract:
   This essay considers the gendering of the Tamil and Hindi languages in the course of the anti-Hindi movement in southern India during the middle decades of this century. The movement, which was principally sponsored by Dravidian and Tamil nationalists, presented the Hindi language to the Tamil public as a bloody demoness, a scheming maid, a tempting whore, and a false mother out to destroy the Tamil language. The paper argues for the significance of the gendering of languages in nationalist mobilizations and activities. © Walter de Gruyter.