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Doing Chennai proud
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Sociology lecturer Kala Shreen won an international award for her paper on how religion helps resolve social issues
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TRACKING TRADITIONS Kala
Kala Shreen has won an international award on the strength of a research paper. This recognition makes her richer by $2,850. It also enables her to attend the October conference of the U.S.-based Society for Scientific Study of Religion, "founded by scholars in religion and social science to stimulate and communicate significant scientific research on religious institutions and religious experience." Kala will be the first Indian to present a paper at the SSSR's annual conference, since the organisation's inception in 1949.
Her paper dwells on how "a particular community in Tamil Nadu resolves issues through temples. In this close-knit community, the temple serves as a mechanism to maintain social order." Kala's paper presents a case where the temple plays the role of an arbiter.
Following a man's death, his wife and his mistress are locked in a battle. "The question is: Who should perform his cremation and the accompanying death rites? Since the family members can't come to a consensus, the local temple is called to intervene. It passes a ruling that the wife alone has the right to perform the cremation rituals. As the mistress refuses to abide by the decision, the temple gives another ruling instructing the community members not to aid the mistress' attempt in cremating the corpse. Finally, the body is left in a place where abandoned corpses are cremated."
Through this study, Kala elucidates one of the functions of religion — exercising social control and its regard for the collective good as opposed to the comfort and benefit of an individual.
A lecturer from the Department of Sociology, MOP Vaishnav College for Women, Kala is credited with devising a path-breaking course called "visual sociology," aimed at electronics and visual media students. This course seeks to tell students how important it is to understand the cultural and social underpinnings of what they are trying to cover.
Outside the MOP campus, Kala is known for other achievements, which include a 40-minute documentary film, "Little Traditions", and participation in an ethnographic study of four communities from Orissa, which have undergone interesting changes in identity due to migration.
"Little Traditions," which throws light on less known religious practices of Tamil Nadu, has been lauded by scholars in the West. When screened at Rice University, a professor of sociology, Helen Rose Ebaugh was impressed with the erudition and perspicacity that marked the docu-film. As past president of the SSSR, Helen asked Kala if she could contribute to the organisation's knowledge bank. Kala's response is the paper she would present in October.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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