Tejaswini Niranjana (born 26 July 1958) is an Indian professor, cultural theorist, translator and author. She is best known for her contribution to the fields of culture studies, gender studies, translation, and ethnomusicology (particularly relating to different forms of Indian music). She is the daughter of Kannada playwright and novelist Niranjana and writer Anupama Niranjana. Her partner is Indian author and cultural theorist, Ashish Rajadhyaksha.[citation needed]
She is the recipient of the 2018 Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong. Niranjana was also awarded the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award for Best Translation of 1994.
Niranjana is best known for her theory of the relationship between colonialism and translation, writings on feminism and the 'culture question' in India, and her practice-based research into music (specifically Caribbean music, Hindustani classical music, and India-China collaborations).
Born in Dharwad, India to the Kannada playwright and novelist Niranjana and writer Anupama Niranjana, Niranjana moved to Bangalore, India at the age of 2. She completed her schooling in Bangalore at The Home School (1962-1971); Mahila Seva Samaja (1971-1974), attended pre-University at the National College, Jayanagar (1974–76), and an undergraduate degree from the National College, Basavangudi, Bangalore (1976–79).
Since 2021, Niranjana serves as the Director, Centre for Inter-Asian Research; and as Dean of Online Programmes, Ahmedabad University.[citation needed]
From 2016 to 2021, she was a professor and Head of Department of Cultural Studies, at Lingnan University, Hong Kong,[3] and Visiting Professor with the School of Arts and Science at Ahmedabad University.[4] She was the Chair of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society.[5]
She is the conceptualiser[6] and co-producer of Jahaji Music, a documentary, starring Indian-Portuguese musician Remo Fernandes, that looks at musical forms in the Indian diaspora in the Caribbean.[2] The film's title translates to "Ship's Music" which is a reference to the ships that carried indentured labour settlers from East India to French-Trinidad in the mid 19th century.[7] The film, co-produced by filmmaker Surabhi Sharma, connected the worlds of gender, music and migration and was well received by the media.[8][9]
She is also the author of Musicophilia in Mumbai, which examines the cultural, political and geographical reasons why Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) became such a popular centre for Hindustani music. In a 2014 interview with Online Indian Women's magazine The Ladies Finger, she detailed her research process for this project, which she describes as part ethnographic, part archival work and several interviews.[10] As part of the same project, she once again collaborated with filmmaker Surabhi Sharma to produce the film Phir Se Sam Pe Aana (Returning to the first beat).[9]
She has lecturedin the West Indies, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, the U.S, and the U.K.[12] She learned music for a decade from Mumbai-based Gwalior gharana singer Neela Bhagwat.[13]
Teju is also known in academic circles for her keen efforts in creating a bi-lingual pedagogy manual for classrooms in Indian Higher Education classrooms. Initial research toward this was carried out with fellow feminist scholar Sharmila Rege.[14]
In 2009, she was part of a 180 strong list of Indian Academics who opposed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, on the grounds that it was anti-democratic.[15]
Publications
Books
Musicophilia in Mumbai: Performing Subjects and the Metropolitan Unconscious (Durham: Duke University Press, 2020)[16]
Mobilizing India: Women, Migration and Music between India and Trinidad (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006)[17]
Breaking the Silo: Integrating Science Education in India - With K.Sridhar and Anup Dhar, (Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2017).
Genealogies of the Asian Present: Situating Inter-Asia Cultural Studies - With Wang Xiaoming (Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2015).
Streevaadi Vimarshe - With Seemanthini Niranjana, in Kannada [Feminist Literary Criticism in India] (Bangalore: Kannada Sangha, Christ College, 1994).
Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India - With P. Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar, (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1993).
Selected articles in books
"Colonialism and the Politics of Translation", in An Other Tongue: Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands, ed. Alfred Arteaga (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994).
"Colonialism and the Aesthetics of Translation", in Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India, (eds.) Tejaswini Niranjana, P. Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1993).
"Translation, Colonialism, and the Rise of English", in Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History, ed. Svati Joshi (Delhi: Trianka, 1992).
"Indian nationalism and Female Sexuality: A Trinidadian Tale", in Sex and the citizen: interrogating the Caribbean, ed. Faith Smith(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011).
"Hindi Cinema and Popular Music in Trinidad", in Remembered Rhythms, (eds.) Shubha Chaudhuri and Anthony Seeger (Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2010).
"Gender and the Media: Problems for Cultural History", in Re-Figuring Culture: History, Theory and the Aesthetic in Contemporary India ed. Satish Poduval (Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2005).
"Vigilantism and the Pleasures of Masquerade: The Female Spectators of Vijayasanthi Films", in City Flicks, ed. Preben Kaarsholm(Roskilde University: Occasional Paper Series, 2002).
"Nationalism Refigured: Contemporary South Indian Cinema and the Subject of Feminism", in Community, Gender and Violence: Subaltern Studies XI, (eds.) Partha Chatterjee and Pradeep Jeganathan (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2000).
(with Vivek Dhareshwar), "Kaadalan and the Politics of Resignification", in Making Meaning in Indian Cinema, ed. Ravi Vasudevan (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000).
K. Satchidanandan is an Indian poet and critic, writing in Malayalam and English. A pioneer of modern poetry in Malayalam, a bilingual literary critic, playwright, editor, columnist and translator, he is the former editor of Indian Literature journal and the former secretary of Sahitya Akademi. He is also social advocate for secular anti-caste views, supporting causes like environment, human rights and free software and is a well known speaker on issues concerning contemporary Indian literature. He is the festival director of Kerala Literature Festival.
Ratan Parimoo is an Indian art historian from Kashmir, who has worked as an art educator, pedagogue, artist and former director of the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum, Ahmedabad. Ratan Parimoo was one of the founder members of Baroda Group.
Umashankar Jethalal Joshi was an Indian poet, scholar and writer known for his contributions to Gujarati literature. He wrote most of his works in Gujarati.
Nanalal Dalpatram Kavi was an Indian writer and poet in Gujarati language of Gujarati literature. His name is sometimes spelled as Nhanalal.
Jayant Kaikini is a poet, short story writer, playwright, columnist in Kannada and a lyricist in Kannada cinema. He has so far published six anthologies of short stories, four books of poetry, three plays and a collection of essays. He is valued as one of the best writers in Kannada literature and has revolutionized the field by giving it a fresh new perspective. He has bagged many notable awards like 'Karnataka Sahitya Academy' award, Kusumagraj Award, Katha Award, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature amidst others. Kaikini is regarded as one of the most significant writers in Kannada today. Kaikini has been conferred the honorary doctorate from Tumkur University.
Esther David is an Indian Jewish author, an artist and a sculptor. She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Sitakant Mahapatra is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has held ex officio posts such as the Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi since then.
Nityanand Haldipur is a performer and teacher of the Indian bamboo flute, known in India as the bansuri. He is a purist in the true Maihar Gharana tradition and learned from Ma Annapurna Devi, in Mumbai, India. He has been rated as a "Top Grade" artist by the All India Radio and was awarded the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academi award in 2010.
Haku Vajubhai Shah was an Indian painter, Gandhian, cultural anthropologist and author on folk and tribal art and culture. His art belonged to the Baroda Group and his works are considered in the line of artists who brought themes of folk or tribal art to Indian art.
Lalith J. Rao is an Indian classical singer and a representative of the Agra gharana.
Sukhlal Sanghvi, also known as Pandit Sukhlalji, was a Jain scholar and philosopher. He belonged to the Sthanakvasi sect of Jainism. Pandit Sukhlal lost his eyesight at the age of sixteen on account of smallpox. However, he persisted and became profoundly versed in Jain logic and rose to become a professor at Banaras Hindu University. Paul Dundas calls him one of the most incisive modern interpreters of Jain philosophy. Dundas notes that Sanghavi represents what now seems to be a virtually lost scholarly and intellectual world. He was a mentor for famous Jain scholar Padmanabh Jaini. During his lifetime he won such awards as the Sahitya Akademi Award and won recognition from the Government of India by getting Padma Bhushan award. Sukhlalji was also known as Pragnachaksu because he was so vastly learned despite being visually disabled.
Damodar Mauzo is an Indian short story writer, novelist, critic and script writer in Konkani. He was awarded the 57th Jnanpith Award, India's highest literary honour, in 2022, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for his novel Karmelin and the Vimala V. Pai Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Puraskar award for his novel Tsunami Simon in 2011. His collection of Short stories Teresa's Man and Other Stories from Goa was nominated for the Frank O'Connor International award in 2015. He has served as a member of the executive board, general council, as well as the finance committee of the Sahitya Akademi.
Swami Anand was a monk, a Gandhian activist and a Gujarati writer from India. He was the manager of Gandhi's publications such as Navajivan and Young India and inspired Gandhi to write his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He wrote sketches, memoir, biographies, philosophy, travelogues and translated some works.
Ashok Damodar Ranade was a scholar musician and ethnomusicologist. Ranade was a vocalist trained in traditional Hindustani Art music. He was a composer constantly experimenting with new uncharted vistas. A pioneer of Cultural Musicology in India, Dr Ranade was a missionary who contributed in enriching India's cultural life in the 21st century.
Dr. D. R. Nagaraj was an Indian cultural critic, political commentator and an expert on medieval and modern Kannada poetry and Dalit movement who wrote in Kannada and English languages. He won Sahitya Akademi Award for his work Sahitya Kathana. He started out as a Marxist critic but renounced the Marxist framework that he had used in the book Amruta mattu Garuda as too reductionist and became a much more eclectic and complex thinker. He is among the few Indian thinkers to shed new light on Dalit and Bahujan politics. He regarded the Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on the issue of caste system and untouchability as the most important contemporary debate whose outcome would determine the fate of India in the 21st century.
Chandrakant Amritlal Topiwala is a Gujarati language poet and critic from Gujarat, India.
Vidushi Sumitra Guha is an Indian classical vocalist, known for her expertise in the Carnatic and Hindustani schools of classical music. The Government of India honored her in 2010, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
Ramnarayan Vishwanath Pathak was a Gujarati poet and writer from India. Profoundly influenced by Gandhian thought, Pathak wrote criticism, poetry, drama, metrics and short stories. He edited and translated literary works. He was appointed the president of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in 1946. He was awarded the Gujarati literary prizes Narmad Suvarna Chandrak for Prachin Gujarati Chhando in 1949 and Sahitya Akademi Award for Bruhat Pingal in 1956.
Tridip Suhrud is an Indian writer, political scientist, cultural historian and translator from Gujarat, India.
Sharifa Vijaliwala is an Indian Gujarati language writer, critic, translator and editor from Surat, Gujarat, India. She is a recipient of a 2018 Sahitya Akademi Award for Vibhajanni Vyatha, a collection of critical essays in Gujarati, and has won several Gujarat Sahitya Akademi awards for her literary work.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
