Tamil Studies Conference

Justice Swaminathan observed:

“To quote (Professor Upendra) Baxi, at the heart of every constitution there pulsates a distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’, the constitutional self and the constitutional others. But there are provisions transcending this distinction, being applicable to “all persons”. Article 21 of the Constitution surely applies to the petitioners also. Failure to respond to the petitioners’ existential horror would amount to judicial abdication. If I come to the conclusion that the petitioners have already suffered enough and that they are being put to “surplus or unnecessary suffering”, I am obliged to intervene.”

Tamil Nadu Has Created a Detention Camp Just to Hold 129 Foreign Tablighi Jamaat Members Families claim they have not spoken to their relatives detained in a detention camp in Tamil Nadu since April 11. Rights advocates say this detention in unconstitutional.

Deepest Sympathies. Our thoughts are with Writer Lakshmi Holmström's Family, Friends and Colleagues. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/18/lakshmi-holmstrom-obituary?CMP=share_btn_fb

Lakshmi Holmström obituary Writer and translator who focused on Indian, and specifically Tamil, literature and poetry

Engaging Caste in the Diaspora: Roundtable: Anti/Caste in South Asia and the Diasporas
(in collaboration with Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto)
May 13 | 6:30-8:30 pm
Jackman Humanities Institute | University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Speakers: Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Chinnaiah Jangam, Sinthujan Varatharajah, Dharsan Siva and others. http://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/event/engaging-caste-in-the-diaspora/

Engaging Caste in the Diaspora (2016-05-12) Commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the South Asia Research Group (SARG at York University is hosting a first of its kind oral history project, led by Dalit activists Thenmozhi Soundararajan and Sinthujan Varatharajah, that documents experiences of caste within South Asia

Visitation and Funeral details for Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam:

1. Visitation
Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 from 6pm-9pm
Location: Turner and Porter Peel Chapel
Address: 2180 Hurontario Street, Mississauga, ON, L5B 1M8
Major Intersection: Hurontario and Queensway
Telephone: 905-279-7663

2. Visitation & Funeral Service
Thursday, November 27th, 2014 from 9am-11:30am
Location: Turner and Porter Peel Chapel
Address: 2180 Hurontario Street, Mississauga, ON, L5B 1M8
Major Intersection: Hurontario and Queensway
Telephone: 905-279-7663

3. Cremation Thursday, November 27th, 2014 at 12:30pm
Location: St. John’s Dixie Crematorium
Address: 737 Dundas St E, Mississauga, ON L4Y 2B5
Major Intersection: Dundas and Cawthra
Telephone: 905-566-9403

Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam, 1952-2014

We are heartbroken by the loss of one of the founders of the University of Toronto Tamil Studies Conference, Professor Chelva Kanaganayakam. A leading light of the Tamil literary world, Chelva passed away suddenly in Montreal from a heart attack. He had just been awarded the highest of academic honours in Canada with a fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada. Chelva was a Professor in the English Department at the University of Toronto. Also one of the founders of the Tamil Literary Garden, he was an outstanding scholar and translator of Tamil literature, and one the few who could negotiate classical Tamil and critical theory with equal ease. Chelva was a generous mentor to many generations of students and colleagues. This is a huge loss for Tamil studies, for postcolonial literary theory, for the global Tamil community, and for those of us in Toronto who worked closely with him and learned from him over the years. His gentle presence and his dreams for the field will always remain with us.