The Andhra Sahitya Parishat: Language, nation and empire in colonial South India (1911–15)

Abstract

The Andhra Sahitya Parishat or the Telugu Academy as it was also known occupied a definitive role in the formation of a Telugu public and the development of Telugu literary activism in the early twentieth century. This essay revisits the early years of the Andhra Sahitya Parishat (1911–15) in order to examine questions related to the origins of ‘Telugu Classicism’ and its relationship to Indian negotiations with colonial modernity. By reviewing the Parishat’s membership, early interventions in public literary controversies, and its successful attempts to position itself as a nationalist intermediary, this essay produces new insights on the emergence and aspirations of an English-educated Telugu middle class. Ultimately, it demonstrates that Telugu Classicism was an integral dimension of early twentieth-century projects to modernise the Telugu language and constructively contributed to the imagination of Telugu as a ‘national’ as well as ‘classical’ language in an era of British imperialism.