From script to language

The three identities of ‘Arabic-Tamil’

Bibliographic Data

ID12985705
AuthorsTorsten Tschacher (0000-0001-6970-8021, Freie Universität Berlin, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume9
Issue1
Pages16-37
Publication date2017-12-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asian History and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1947-2498 • E-ISSN: 1947-2501
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19472498.2017.1411052
OpenAlexW2780675101
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited8

Since at least the eighteenth century, Muslims in southern India and Sri Lanka have been employing the Arabic script to record Tamil texts. Popularly known as ‘Arabic-Tamil’ or ‘Arwi’, this practice has been evaluated in widely divergent manners. While to some, ‘Arabic-Tamil’ is primarily a term reserved for the use of the Arabic script to record Tamil, others perceive it as a different style of Tamil, or even as a completely separate language. Whereas Tamil nationalist discourse has identified ‘Arabic-Tamil’ as a danger to the unity of the Tamil nation, some Muslims celebrate it as the symbol of a separate identity, while yet others lament that ‘Arabic-Tamil’ fails to provide a clean break with Tamil as used by non-Muslims. Even more puzzling is the fact that before the twentieth century, most ‘Arabic-Tamil’ records fail to identify themselves as anything else but ‘Tamil’. This article traces complex histories attaching to the idea of ‘Arabic-Tamil’ to uncover the historical situated-ness of the term and show how it has been linked to political discourses and processes of identity formation throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Aesthetics · Art · Identity (music · Linguistics · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Tamil · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · History · Law · Philosophy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub