Cultural Heterogeneity and History: Reflections from Telangana
Telangana is known for its cultural heterogeneity from the early historical period. Being a gateway to south India, it witnessed many political and cultural invasions from north India, but it retained its core cultural ethos.
Remarkably it was. The talk is based on my recent book, A Cultural History of Telangana (Orient BlackSwan), and it aims to raise some specific questions. How was the heterogenic environment of the region crucial to shaping its rationalistic culture? Why did Brahmanism not stay in Telangana and how was it largely free from the Gangetic Brahminic cultural onslaught? Why were heterodox sects such as Buddhism, Jainism, Vira Saivism and Sufism welcomed in Telangana? Was there a cultural synthesis in medieval Deccan? How did Telangana keep Deccani strands intact? How unique is Telangana personality?
Bhangya Bhukya
Prof. Bhangya Bhukya teaches history at the University of Hyderabad.
Before joining UoH, he taught at Osmania University and The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He studied at the University of Warwick, UK, for his Ph.D, and he was a British Council Visiting Fellow at SOAS, University of London.
His influential works on adivasi society includes Subjugated Nomads. The Lambadas under the Rule of the Nizams (2010) and The Roots of the Periphery. A History of the Gonds of Deccan India(2017). He is also authority on Telangana history. Recently he has published History of Modern Telangana (2017) and A Cultural History of Telangana. From the Earliest Times to 1724 AD (2020).
Prof. Bhukya is also a public intellectual involved in adivasi and Dalit-Bahujan movements in India.
