A Madhaviah - A Biography and a Novella

Author: Sita Anantha RamanTranslator(s)/ Editors(s): Vasantha SuryaPublisher: Oxford University PressYear: 2005Language: EnglishPages: 190ISBN/UPC (if available): 9780195670219 DescriptionForthright and critical, eloquent and witty, A. Madhaviah's oeuvre of essays and novels in Tamil and in English represent the spirit of nineteenth-century social reform in India at its best. Standing squarely within the tradition of free enquiry in Indian thought, he assailed the rigid orthodoxies and superstitions, sectarian distrust, stultifying caste oppression, and above all, the deep-seated misogyny under patriarchy, which expressed itself in the horrific evils of child marriage and widow abuse.No empty polemicist or literary poseur, Madhaviah's humanism was hammered out in the crucible of his own life as a family man and as a middle-level official under the British Raj. In his efforts towards bringing about meaningful social change, he turned to Western Enlightenment ideas as also to his own her