ITS:

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.