Abstract
THE CITY OF MADURAI (1981) population: 817,562) is situated about 260 miles southwest of Madras, or about two-thirds of the way to Cape Comorin, the tip of the Indian subcontinent, where the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea are said to comingle under the watchful eye of the virgin goddess, Kanya Kumari. From January 4 through January 10, 1981, Madurai made a bold gesture to reclaim its glorious past as the capital of Tamil culture by hosting the Fifth International Conference-Seminar of Tamil Studies. Many of the event's detractors (conference does not do justice to the happenings of those seven days) expressed mild surprise that the organizers had at last managed to transform a plan, long on the drawing boards, into reality. The conference was twice announced and twice preempted by the higher callings of Indian democracy. The original date in January 1980 coincided with the Indian Parliamentary election in which Indira Gandhi and her followers reclaimed control of the Indian government. With resignation the organizers rescheduled the conference for June 1980, and once again their plans were foiled, this time by state assembly elections. But, ever determined, the organizers pressed on with a third attempt. Ultimately fortune, and M.G. Ramachandran, movie star and chief minister of Tamilnadu, the Indian state in which Madurai is located and where Tamil is the official language, were on their side. The penetration of the Tamil conference within and outside Tamilnadu can perhaps be gauged by a few personal impressions. In Delhi,
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