Religion, Caste, and Nation in South India

V. Ravi Vaithees

Departing sharply from the principal focus on language and the 'secular-modern' in contemporary nationalism studies, this volume examines the religious roots of nationalism, specifically the religious roots of non-Brahmin Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement in India. The book argues that it was the anti-Aryan, anti-Sanskritic imperatives and spirit of the neo-Saivite movement that came to inform and animate the neo-Saivite readings of the Tamil and Indian past and indeed the articulation of neo-Saivism as a form of non-Brahmin Tamil nationalism.