World Without Walls: Being Human, Being Tamil

by R. Cheran (Editor), Dalbir Singh (Editor), Chelva Kanaganayakam (Editor)

In the past few decades, as a growing presence worldwide, Tamil has become an important component of the South Asian diaspora. As one of the few classical languages of the world that is still a living one, it continues to remain a vehicle of secularism while celebrating diverse religious and political traditions. It has served Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, and Christianity, while articulating politics from the time of the ancient kings, through colonialism, to modern times. The essays in this volume offer a nuanced view of “Being Human; Being Tamil” in the context of South Asia and the diaspora. They explore the multiple ways of being Tamil, and the cultural, religious, and poetic linkages that have contributed to the emergence and articulation of Tamilness in a global context.

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Cheran Rudhramoorthy [Tamil : சேரன் உருத்திரமூர்த்தி] (b. 1960, Alaveddy [alaveddi], Sri Lanka ) is a Tamil poet, playwright, journalist and professor. He is the author of more than 15 books in Tamil, and of three plays in English. He also co-edited an anthology of Tamil political poetry. In his works, he deals with the themes of identity, ethnicity, nationalism , emigration and violence.

Cheran has received several awards for literature and human rights , including the English PEN, Freedom to Write Award (2013), the University of Toronto International Poetry Award (2007), the Human Rights Witness Award, Montreal , 1998 ), and the Sri Lankan National Prize for Best Poetry (1994).

His works have been translated into 16 languages ​​including English , Arabic , Bengali , Chinese , French , German , Spanish , Indonesian , Japanese, Kannada , Malayalam , Dutch , Sinhala , Swedish, and Telugu .