EAP 458 – Constituting a digital Archive of Tamil Agrarian

16 Pages·2012·1.71 MB·English

CASTE, LAND AND CUSTOM

EAP 458 – Constituting a digital Archive of Tamil

Agrarian History in the colonial period (1650-1950)
http://eap.bl.uk/
http://clac.hypotheses.org
Idea behind the project
 A wealth of documents not contained in:
 the colonial Revenue Records,
 the “Village notes” of the Settlement Surveys

 Are rapidly deteriorating in private homes of document
owne rs
 who are not willing to deposit them in local district archives
 who do not have the means to preserve them.

 Their study can contribute to the field of micro-historical analysis of
social and legal features of rural Tamil Nadu over a period of three

centuries.
2
Objectives of the project
 To locate vulnerable documents
scatte red in pri vate home s and

small institutions

 To help the owner preserve and
organ ize his original documents
 To digitize the documents (in
situ) in order to provide a

durable copy to its owner and to

make them available for

research.
3
Fieldwork locations

Two target sites for fieldwork:

Kallar Nadu and Kongu Nadu


Both these areas are the

traditional territories of two
locally dominant groups

Between and within these two

regions, the traditional agrarian
power structures have shown
variations over time
4
Site 1: Kallar Nadu

A couple in kallar nadu
Men at the chavadi meela uRappanhur
On the way to meela uRappanhuur
5
Site 1: Kallar Nadu

Bag containing the documents
Bag containing the documents Street in NadSut rMeeutd ianl aNkaudlaum Mudalakulam
Examining a collection in Mela Urappanur
Document holder in his house - Ponnamangalam
Examining a collection in Mela Urappanur Document holder in his house - Ponnamangalam
6
Site 2: Kongu Nadu
Zamindar and zamindarini of Uthukuli
Puravipalayam Zamin Palace
7
Emblem of Zamin Uthukuli
Emblem of Zamin Uthukuli
Site 2: Kongu Nadu
Sellankula Aadeenam at Tiruchengode
Discussion at Puravipalayam Zamin
Discussion at Puravipalayam Zamin
Arunagiripalyam Aadeenam
Arunagiripalyam Aadeenam Zamindars of Puravipalayam
8
Storage conditions and Preservation
9
Assembling the photo stand
10