Download or read book CULTURAL ASPIRATIONS Essays on the Intellectual History of the Colonial Tamil Nadu written by A. GANGATHARAN and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The construction of the past, as a historical agenda, figured prominently in the attempt of intellectuals to modernize society. They realized the importance of being sensitive to their past, which had been misrepresented by colonial rule. The investigation of the past to perceive the present and to conceive a future became integral to their intellectual endeavour. To use K.N. Panikkhar's words, "the intellectual quest in colonial India, engaged in an enquiry into the meaning of the past and thus in an assessment of its relevance to contemporary society, was an outcome of this awareness''. The construction of the past, was initially viewed as pre-requisite to reform. It subsequently turned out to be part of an ant-colonial agenda to retrieve a lost identity. This agenda become very vocal as the national movement reached its mass phase.