CASTE, LAND AND CUSTOM EAP 458 – Constituting a digital Archive of Tamil Agrarian History in the colonial period (1650-1950) http://eap.bl.uk/ http://clac.hypotheses.org Idea behind the project  A wealth of documents not contained in:  the colonial Revenue Records,  the “Village notes” of the Settlement Surveys  Are rapidly deteriorating in private homes of document owne rs  who are not willing to deposit them in local district archives  who do not have the means to preserve them.  Their study can contribute to the field of micro-historical analysis of social and legal features of rural Tamil Nadu over a period of three centuries. 2 Objectives of the project  To locate vulnerable documents scatte red in pri vate home s and small institutions  To help the owner preserve and organ ize his original documents  To digitize the documents (in situ) in order to provide a durable copy to its owner and to make them available for research. 3 Fieldwork locations  Two target sites for fieldwork: Kallar Nadu and Kongu Nadu  Both these areas are the traditional territories of two locally dominant groups  Between and within these two regions, the traditional agrarian power structures have shown variations over time 4 Site 1: Kallar Nadu A couple in kallar nadu Men at the chavadi meela uRappanhur On the way to meela uRappanhuur 5 Site 1: Kallar Nadu Bag containing the documents Bag containing the documents Street in NadSut rMeeutd ianl aNkaudlaum Mudalakulam Examining a collection in Mela Urappanur Document holder in his house - Ponnamangalam Examining a collection in Mela Urappanur Document holder in his house - Ponnamangalam 6 Site 2: Kongu Nadu Zamindar and zamindarini of Uthukuli Puravipalayam Zamin Palace 7 Emblem of Zamin Uthukuli Emblem of Zamin Uthukuli Site 2: Kongu Nadu Sellankula Aadeenam at Tiruchengode Discussion at Puravipalayam Zamin Discussion at Puravipalayam Zamin Arunagiripalyam Aadeenam Arunagiripalyam Aadeenam Zamindars of Puravipalayam 8 Storage conditions and Preservation 9 Assembling the photo stand 10