Introduction : of light, literacy, and knowledge in the Tamil countryside -- On being a "thumbprint" : time and space in Arivoli activism -- Feminizing enlightenment : the social and reciprocal agency -- Labors of objectification : words and worlds of pedagogy -- Search for a method : the media of enlightenment -- Subject to citizenship : petitions and the performativity of signature -- Epilogue : reflections on a time of charismatic enlightenment.

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Cowinner of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology's Edward Sapir Book Prize Since the early 1990s hundreds of thousands of Tamil villagers in southern India have participated in literacy lessons and other events designed to transform them into active citizens with access to state power. These efforts are part of a movement known as the Arivoli Iyakkam (the Enlightenment Movement), one of the most successful mass literacy movements in recent history. This rich ethnographic account of highlights the paradoxes inherent in such movements that seek to emancipate people through literacy.

In English.

Description based on print version record.