By P.T. Bopanna
My biography of the late Kodagu researcher Nanjamma Chinnappa (in picture) which is expected to be published in the next few weeks, will have the distinction of featuring four Kodavathi women doctorates.
Dr Boverianda Nanjamma Chinnappa, a Visiting Fellow of Cambridge University (1973-74), was conferred honorary Doctorate Degree (D.Litt) in 2006 by the Mangalore University, for her contributions to the fields of statistics and education.
The highlight of this book is the interview of Nanjamma by Dr Nervanda Veena Poonacha, eminent sociologist and women’s studies scholar. Veena had spoken to Nanjamma on the latter’s life journey.
Dr Veena Poonacha has also reviewed the two books associated with the Chinnappas – Pattole Palame and Ainmanes of Kodagu from a sociologist’s angle which adds to the value of the book.
With a Ph.D. in Sociology from SNDT Women’s University, she has contributed significantly to the growth of women’s studies scholarship, through her research, publications and teaching.
She has been awarded research fellowships by the Australia–India Council in 2008, and by the University of British Colombia, Canada in 1997. She was a visiting faculty in the University of Regina, Canada.
Her publications include From the Land of a Thousand Hills: Portraits of Three Women of Coorg (Kodagu) in South India, 2002. She was awarded a PhD degree in 1991 for her thesis Women in Coorg Society: A Study of Status and Experiences through the Use of Proverbs, Folksongs, Oral Histories and Genealogie.
The foreword for the book has been penned by Dr Chotteyandamada Sowmya Dechamma, Professor at the Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Hyderabad. Apart from teaching Comparative Indian Literature and Cultural Discourses in Contemporary India, her research interests include Minority Discourse and Kodava Language and Culture.
Dr Sowmya Dechamma was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence fellowship for 2019-20.
The Fulbright scholar had contributed an article for the book ‘Are Kodavas (Coorgs) Hindus?’
She has visited the University of California, Santa Cruz as a Visiting Scholar in 2005. She was a Commonwealth Fellow at the University of Southampton during September 2010- March 2011, and was awarded the Indo-Hungarian Education Exchange Programme for teachers during 2010. She has co-edited a book titled Cinemas of South India: Culture, Resistance, Ideology, 2010, published by Oxford University Press and has published articles in various journals.
Dr Chonamada Trupthi Devaiah, who is doing her postdoctoral research at Uppsala University in Sweden, is helping me in corrections and the formatting of the book.
