This December, Oxford University Press will release “Religion and Nation in South India: Maraimalai Adigal, the Neo-Saivite Movement and Tamil Nationalism, 1876-1950” by Ravi Vaitheespara (University of Manitoba).  The publisher’s description follows:

While most scholarship on nationalism have focused on the recent secular foundations of nationalism, this work examines the religious roots of nationalism and specifically the (Neo) Shaivite roots of Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement. The book traces the anti-Aryan, anti-Brahmin character of Tamil nationalism and the Dravidian movement to the Tamil Neo-Shaivite movement that emerged against the background of Neo-Vedantic and Vaishnavite revivalist current that accompanied the rise of pan-Indian nationalism. Drawing from a range of influences including European Orientalist and Missionary critiques of the philosophical idealism found in Brahmanism and Neo-Vedantic thought, the Neo-Shaivite articulation of non-Brahmin Tamil nationalism endowed Tamil nationalism with a critical spirit and critical grammar that not only rejected such idealism—but also celebrated the more firmly grounded and sensuous Tamil tradition celebrated in ancient Tamil and Bhakti poetry. The book presents these insights and arguments through a critical exploration of the life and work of Maraimalai Adigal (1876-1950) who not only played a central role in consolidating the intellectual and cultural foundation for non-Brahmin Tamil nationalism but whose life intersected with many of the pioneer figures in the Tamil nationalist and Dravidian movement.