Abstract :
The Jew as Pariah or Brahmin: On the Rise of Dravidian Populism and the Limits of Transnational Anti-Elite Figures Matthew H. Baxter, PhD – comparative political theorist focusing on South Asia with a particular emphasis on Tamil-speaking South India and Non-Brahmin Politics. April 11 @ 3pm Palmer 230
Full Message :
The Jew as Pariah or Brahmin: On the Rise of Dravidian Populism and the Limits of Transnational Anti-Elite Figures Matthew H. Baxter, PhD – comparative political theorist focusing on South Asia with a particular emphasis on Tamil-speaking South India and Non- Brahmin Politics. April 11 @ 3pm Palmer 230 Hannah Arendt’s 1944 essay “The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition” rejected the period’s anti-Semitism, arguing that the marginalized outcaste position occupied by European Jews did not simply provide an obstacle to, but also an opportunity for, creative contribution and political engagement. Yet the essay also unintentionally draws attention to the persistent and confused effort in German thought to discuss the Continental Semite in terms of Subcontinental caste. Not only does the term “pariah” come from the South Indian untouchable community paṛaiyaṉ, but the term “Aryan” of the period derives from “āriyaṉ” which can refer to upper-caste Brahmins in India, while the svastik is a symbol of auspiciousness across South Asia. In my presentation, I draw upon extensive archival work to explore the Indian perception of Europe during World War II. I document the ways in which a radical anti-caste movement in Tamil-speaking South India during the 1930s wrestled with the figure of the Jew projecting out from a Europe saturated with familiar Indian idioms. I argue that, like in anti-Semitic Europe, confused caste terms could refract the Jew as both threat and threatened, as both upper-caste and outcaste. I suggest that such dual refraction not only influenced the development of ethno-linguistic “Dravidian” populism in South India but also illustrates how anti-elite figures circulate transnationally— an operation of circulation not unimportant given the world’s political climate today.