Maidaanam (2025)

Welcome to the Facebook of Maidaanam (Maidaanam.com). We are an online space dedicated to analyzing the culture, history, and politics of the Deccan and Southern India. We aim to serve as a semi-scholarly resource by promoting public access to conversations in academic fields ranging from History and Literature to Film, Gender Studies, Sociology, and more. Through critical social and cultural anal

ysis, Maidaanam.com encourages unique perspectives on contemporary and historical issues in South Asia. We take the name “maidaanam” for the many political, geographic and linguistic inheritances the term claims. The word first entered the vocabulary of the Deccan languages by way of the Persian maidaan (میدان). Initially suggesting a town square, it has taken on a further range of meanings associated with public space in the region. In Telugu, maidaanam (మైదానం) connotes an open field or an esplanade. It carries similar meanings in Kannada (ಮೈದಾನ) and Marathi (मैदान) where it suggests a meeting ground, level tract, or clear expanse. In Dakhini and Urdu (میدان), the term refers to the open space at the edge of a town. The Anglo-Indian maidaan refers to a green adjoining a town, a piazza (in the Italian sense), or any open grassy plain. In this context, the maidaan is first and foremost the meeting place of the ruler and the ruled. Maidaanam.com draws upon these overlapping meanings and the cultural worlds they continue to evoke today. We present ourselves thus as an open field of ideas, a democratic meeting ground, and a cosmopolitan digital commons. Maidaanam.com is hosted by an editorial collective of scholars, journalists, and activists from diverse professional and research backgrounds. We have come together in order to generate new and necessary conversations on the culture, history, and politics of South Asia from the standpoint of the Deccan and Southern India.

27/09/2024

New Post! New Post! Pramod Mandade writes on the brutal aftermath of Police Action for Muslim communities in Maharashtra and the courageous struggle of ordinary people to have their struggles documented and acknowledged by Nehru and the new formed Indian state.
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"The following day, Nehru went to Osmanabad while Azad left to tour the interior areas of Bidar district. It is this visit to Osmanabad that has etched itself into the collective memory of the Muslims of Marathwada – not as a tale of Nehru’s compassion but as a testament to the resilience of their widows. These women courageously halted the Prime Minister’s convoys in order to ensure he heard about the atrocities they had endured.
The Times of India report, published on September 27, 1952, paints a picturesque image of Prime Minister Nehru’s journey through rural Osmanabad, reporting that “All villages along the 150-mile route gave a warm welcome to the prime minister. The villages were gaily decorated, and peasants, who had come on foot, on horses, and camels, waited on the roadside to see their leader.”
However, the report omits a significant and poignant reality: the thousands of widows and orphans, defying a pervasive fear of violence, who stood by the road as Nehru’s convoy passed. These individuals, victims of communal strife, interrupted the Prime Minister’s convoy at multiple places—Tugeri, Dalib, Yenegur, Omarga, Jalkot, Naldurg—in an effort to communicate their suffering and make him aware of the true gravity of their plight.
One such moment is immortalized in the story of Wajar Bi. A widow from the village of Dhoki, she courageously positioned herself in front of Nehru’s car and demanded that the Prime Minister come witness firsthand the devastation of their villages. Congress activists and security personnel attempted to remove her but she stood her ground. Nehru, compelled by her determination, stepped out of his vehicle. He followed Wajar Bi to see the half-burned and looted houses of local Muslims and hear about the community’s fear and suffering from her."

By Pramod Mandade. Mandade is a Doctoral Research Scholar at IIT-Bombay. He has engaged in a long archival and ethnographic study of the event and aftermath of Police Action and related contemporar…

16/08/2024

New Post! A. Suneetha interviews Afsar Mohammed on his recent publication, "Remaking History: 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad." They discuss the significance of locality, thickening borders, and forgotten eras of Urdu and Telugu mutuality. Afsar asks why we need new histories of Hyderabad and the Deccan and explores how we can begin to make them.
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"When it comes to process, I focused building a multilingual archive. My first intervention was to emphasize both Deccani Urdu and Telugu materials. This included both oral histories and written sources.
In everyday conversations, and scholarly debates as well, we’ve spent too much time talking about the activities and interventions of north Indian Muslims. I felt that approaching the “Muslim dilemma” through the lens of Deccani Urdu and Telugu, two locally-rooted languages and cultures, would open up many fascinating historical possibilities to explore."

Editor’s Note: In the following discussion, A. Suneetha interviews Afsar Mohammad about his recent publication, Remaking History: 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad (Cambridge, 2023). …

17/06/2024

New Post! Nikhil Mandalaparthy explores legends and histories surrounding the fascinating figure of Badsha Peer. One of South Africa's most revered sufi saints, he was an indentured worker who hailed from a Telugu or Tamil-speaking background. Nikhil asks what Badsha Peer's story can tell us about shifting associations between language, religion, and identity in the Deccan as well as South Africa.
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"I found that the story of this “King of Africa,” Badsha Peer, is a tale of multiple migrations, across the Deccan, South India, and beyond. His story involves Konkani Muslims and Hyderabadi Sufi teachers traveling to colonial Bombay, and Tamil and Telugu indentured workers making the long and treacherous journey from Madras to South Africa.
Tracing the story of Badsha Peer—and Soofie Saheb, the man who popularized his memory—shines light on how Indian religious, linguistic, and regional identities were transformed in the Deccan and South Africa, during the colonial period and through indenture and migration."

By Nikhil Mandalaparthy. Nikhil is a journalist, community activist, and consultant focused on religious pluralism and social justice in South Asia and North America. He is the curator of Voices of…

03/05/2024

New Post! Gita Ramaswamy interviews Sudhakar Unudurti on his collection of short stories, recently translated into English and published by SouthSide Books as East Wind: Stories from Kalinga-Andhra. An excerpt from one of his stories has been included.
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"Hyderabad-based writer Unudurti Sudhakar’s stories introduce readers to one of the most overlooked and little known parts of southern India: Kalinga Andhra or the North Andhra coast. Undurti’s stories are genre-bending and break new ground in Telugu fiction, exploring aspects of Alt history and science fiction.
They imaginatively draw attention to the fascinating history of this region and the many communities that call it home. His characters – tragic and comic – are often driven by fundamental questions of dignity and freedom. Spanning over a thousand years, Undurti’s East Wind carries readers on a journey through ancient Buddhist viharas, medieval seaports, colonial zamindari estates, and the modern tragedies of Communist uprisings in Srikakulam."

Editor’s Note: In the following discussion, Gita Ramaswamy interviews Sudhakar Unudurti about translating his own stories in the recently published collection, East Wind: Stories from Kalinga…

15/04/2024

New Post! Adapa Satyanarayana writes on caste, colonialism and migration in colonial Andhra, exploring the forgotten ways Telugu Dalit and oppressed caste migrants sought economic mobility in Burma and shook the foundations of Andhra caste society at home.
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"What drove the Coringhee coolies to leave their homes? One major factor was economic opportunity. Wages for untouchables in the Andhra coastal districts were nearly 25 per cent lower than those paid to caste Hindu labourers for similar tasks in British India. This depression of wages was closely tied to caste and also impacted the possibility to improve life circumstances. In many parts of South India, powerful social sanctions prevented low-caste laborers from owning land and left them with little opportunity to escape their oppressive situations.
Burma also played an important role in the making of a pan-Telugu cultural identity and gave rise to cross-caste cultural solidarities back in Andhra. Language, kinship-bonds, caste-community affiliation, and ancestral origin also became significant symbols for the construction of a separate Telugu ethnic identity and consciousness. Organizations such as the Andhra Mahasabha, Andhra Mahajana Sangham, and Andhra Buddhist Samajam were established mainly for the social upliftment of the Telugu inhabitants in Burma.
Dalit encounters with Buddhism in Burma played an important role in the cultural awakening in Andhra. The Adi-Andhra movement, a Dalit dominated movement in colonial Andhra derived both moral and material support from Telugu Burmese immigrant laborers. For instance, Kusuma Dharmanna, Arjun Rao and others solicited support from the Andhra Buddhist Samajam in Burma."

Editor’s note: Adapa Satyanarayna is retired Professor of History at Osmania University. He has published extensively on the social and economic history of modern India with a focus on subalt…

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