Development & Change
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review of development & change Volume XIV Number 1 & 2 January - December 2009 Special Issue: Indo-Danish Cultural Encounters in Tranquebar: Past and Present Guest Editors: Esther Fihl A.R. Venkatachalapathy Introduction : The study of cultural encounters in Tharangampadi/Tranquebar Esther Fihl and Stine Simonsen Puri 7 Shipwrecked on the Coromandel: The first Indo–Danish contact, 1620 Esther Fihl 19 The Tranquebar tribute during the reign of Rajah Serfoji II Simon Rastén 41 The schools of Tranquebar: An educational field of cultural encounters and conflicts Keld Grinder-Hansen 61 Between consent and coercion: Danish Missionaries and Tamil parents in late nineteenth century South India Karen Vallgårda 87 The legacy of Tranquebar: The ‘Ziegenbalg myth’ and the debates on caste Oluf Schönbeck 109 ‘Written on leaves in the Malabarian manner’ print and the cultural encounter in eighteenth century Tranquebar A.R. Venkatachalapathy 131 2 ‘Where once Dannebrog waved for more than 200 years’: Banal nationalism, narrative templates and post-colonial melancholia Kirsten Thisted 147 Tranquebar: A forgotten Danish colony? Astrid Nonbo Andersen 173 The fishing community and heritage tourism in Tarangambadi Raja H Swamy 197 Whose history? Transnational cultural heritage in a Tranquebar Helle Jørgensen 227 The last Vettiyan: A musical tradition and a degraded low caste profession Caroline Lillelund 251 Processions and chariot festivals in Tharamgambadi and Veilankanni: Cultural encounters and marking Peter B. Andersen 271 Between Jesus and Krishna: Christian encounters with South Indian temple dance Stine Simonsen Puri 289 BOOK REVIEWS M.C. BEHERA Globalisation Rural Development: Competing paradigms and Emerging Realities by Bhavana 309 K N NAIR and G GOPIKUTTAN Housing in Kerala: Impact of Investment, Technology and Institutions by V P Nirmal Roy 311 DAVID MOSSE Cultivating Development: Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice by Manjushree Panda 314 MICHAEL A. LEBOWITZ Build It Now: Socialism for the 21st Century by Venkat 317 3 This special double issue of Review of Development and Change commemorates the centenary of MIDS’ founder Dr Malcolm S. Adiseshiah (1910-1994). 4 5 Acknowledgements The present volume is a result of Indo-Danish collaboration on the research of cultural encounters in Tranquebar and beyond. It was initiated as an international and cross-disciplinary project by the Tranquebar Initiative of the Danish National Museum and is planned to run until 2013. The collaboration resulting in this volume was made possible by generous financial support from the Bikuben Foundation granted via the Galathea3 Expedition Foundation, the Danish Research Council, and the research project Alternative Spaces: Cultural awareness and cross-cultural dialogue funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research. As editors, we warmly thank all the contributors and anonymous peer reviewers for their great effort. Special thanks are due to Stine Simonsen Puri and Martin Grünfeld for all the meticulous work and energy they have put into the process of producing this volume. Without their great assistance, this volume would not have been possible. We are also grateful to the editorial board and production department of Review of Development and Change. Esther Fihl A. R. Venkatachalapathy 6 STATEMENT about ownership and other particulars of the newspaper REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE to be published as required under Section 19D(b) of the P.R.B. Act read with Rule 8 of the Registration (Central) Rules, 1956. FORM IV (See Rule 8) 1. Place of Publication : Chennai 2. Periodicity of its publication : Half yearly 3. Printer’s Name : Mr S. Baskarapandian (Whether citizen of India) Indian Address 112/2, Bells Road Triplicane, Chennai 600 005 4. Publisher’s Name : Padmini Swaminathan (Whether citizen of India) Indian Address 79, Second Main Road Gandhi Nagar, Adyar Chennai 600 020 5. Editor’s Name : Padmini Swaminathan (Whether citizen of India) Indian Address : 79, Second Main Road Gandhi Nagar, Adyar Chennai 600 020 6. Name and addresses of : Madras Institute of individuals who own the Development Studies newspapers and partners or 79, Second Main Road shareholders holding more Gandhi Nagar, Adyar than one per cent of the Chennai 600 020 total capital I, Padmini Swaminathan, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Dated: March, 2009 Sd/- Padmini Swaminathan Signature of Publisher 7 Introduction : The study of cultural encounters in Tharangampadi/Tranquebar Esther Fihl Stine Simonsen Puri The present volume of Review of Development and Change takes the reader to the small coastal village of Tharangampadi, literally ‘the village lashed by the waves’ and known as Tranquebar in European discourse. Located in the Nagapattinam district of Tamilnadu, its unique history as a former Danish trading post, site of foundation of the first Lutheran church in India and the cradle of the Indian print history makes this village a privileged setting for the study of cultural encounters. In the past Tranquebar was the locus of interesting encounters related to colonial politics as well as missionary activity; today the area is integrated in a wider global context especially due to the export of fish, migration of labour, tourism and not least the presence of international NGOs in the aftermath of the tsunami in December 2004. Both names—Tharangampadi and Tranquebar—are today in use locally and they reflect the long history of the place. This volume will employ both: Tharangampadi when working with a local Tamil perspective, and Tranquebar where the focus is on Tamil church traditions or on colonial or post-colonial relations. In this introduction we will use the name Tranquebar, since internationally this name is more widely known, as it is associated with the rich historical sources archived mainly in India, Denmark, Norway, England and Germany.1 Today, Tranquebar is a village of less than 10,000 inhabitants and about half the population is employed in fishing. With its impressive town gate, the former Danish Fort on the seashore and linear streets with Lutheran churches, it has recently 1 From an inscription dating from 1305 AD on the local Hindu temple, Masilamaninathar, one more name of the village is known, Sandankanpadi. The inscription relates to sailors and a guild of ‘traders of eighteen countries’ (Subramanian 2003 p. 2f; Nagaswamy, n.d.), see also www.tharangampadi.dk. Review of Development and Change, Vol. XIV, No.1&2, January-December 2009, pp. 7-18 8 ESTHER FIHL and STINE SIMONSEN PURI been designated a heritage town in India. An obvious cultural encounter takes place in the definition of the history of Tranquebar; thereby also of the modern use of buildings and the control over life and land. In addition there are encounters at the level of cultural and religious practices in the village today as well as back in history. From the vantage point of different disciplines—history, social anthropology, religious studies, literary studies and the history of ideas—this relatively small geographical place of Tranquebar will be examined to let it grow in depth, revealing the multi-layered processes of change related to cultural encounters. Tranquebar: Past and Present Tranquebar is situated on the Coromandel coast which derives from the Tamil term Cholamandalam, ‘realm of the Cholas’, known to have been the rulers of most of South India between the ninth and twelvth centuries. Since the early fourteenth century, at the time of the Pandyan Kingdom, Tranquebar has been known has also been known for its Siva temple, Masilamaninathar, which bears inscriptions referring to the place as a trading port with merchants and soldiers stationed for their protection. During the Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646), the place, with its location close to Tanjore (Thanjavur), was part of the Tanjore Province, which in 1535 was granted independence with the rule of the Nayaks lasting until 1673 (Subramanian 2003 p. 2ff). The colonial history of Tranquebar begins in 1620 with the arrival of the Danish envoy Ove Giedde on the Coromandel coast as the head of the first Danish trading expedition, with the hope of signing a contract between the Danish King Christian IV and the King of Tanjore, Nayak Ragunatha. After some months of negotiations, the Danes were allotted Tranquebar and along with the already present Portuguese given a monopoly on all Tanjore’s trade with Europe (Fihl in this volume). Assisted by the Dutch merchant Roland Crappe, who became the first Danish governor of the trading station in Tranquebar, Giedde founded Fort Dansborg, which served as the residence for the governor and other officials (Hjelm 1987; Subramanian 2003). From here silver, lead and guns were exchanged for Indian textiles and pepper. For the Danes, Tranquebar was a military stronghold and it functioned as a warehouse for commodities acquired also at other Indian localities and at places in Southeast Asia. In 1845, the trading post was sold to the British (Feldbæk 1969; Fihl 2008). For the use of Tranquebar as a trading post, the Danes paid a yearly tribute to the Tanjore king thereby becoming part of a complex political system in South India based on reciprocal exchange of gifts and tributes between princely states (Fihl 1984). By the early nineteenth century, between 1808 and 1815, however, Tranquebar was occupied by the British military as a consequence of the wars in Europe. This complicated the payment of the tribute, which was of great symbolic