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{{Short description|Indian cultural theorist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2024}}
[[File:Tejaswini Niranjana.jpg|thumb|Tejaswini Niranjana, speaking at a conference.]]
'''Tejaswini Niranjana''' (born 26 July 1958) is an Indian professor, cultural theorist, translator and author. She is best known for her contribution to the fields of [[Cultural studies|culture studies]], [[gender studies]], [[translation]], and [[ethnomusicology]] (particularly relating to different forms of Indian music). She is the daughter of Kannada playwright and novelist [[Niranjana (writer)|Niranjana]] and writer [[Anupama Niranjana]]. Her partner is Indian author and cultural theorist, [[Ashish Rajadhyaksha]].{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In 2021, Tejaswini Niranjana was awarded the '''[[American Literary Translators Association|American Literary Translators Association Prize]]''' for Prose Fiction Translation for ''No Presents Please,'' a translation of author [[Jayanth Kaikini|Jayant Kaikini]]'s short stories centred around the city of Mumbai. In 2019, ''No Presents Please'' was awarded the '''[[DSC Prize for South Asian Literature|DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018]]''', which Niranjana shared jointly with Jayant Kaikini.

She is the recipient of the '''2018 Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong.''' Niranjana was also awarded the '''[[Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award|Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award]]''' for Best Translation of 1994.

Niranjana is best known for her theory of ''the relationship between colonialism and translation,'' writings on feminism and the 'culture question' in India'','' and her practice-based research into music (specifically Caribbean music, Hindustani classical music, and India-China collaborations).

Niranjana has an M.A. in English and Aesthetics from the [[University of Mumbai|University of Bombay]], an MPhil in Linguistics from the [[Savitribai Phule Pune University|University of Pune]], and a PhD from the [[University of California, Los Angeles]].{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Niranjana was the co-founder and a senior fellow at the [http://cscs.res.in/ Centre for Study of Culture and Society], [[Bangalore]], where she was also Lead Researcher in the [http://heira.in/ HEIRA] Program.<ref name=":0" /> Currently, Niranjana serves as the director, '''Centre for Inter-Asian Research'''; and as Dean of Online Programmes, [[Ahmedabad University]].

==Life and work==
Born in [[Dharwad|Dharwad, India]] to the Kannada playwright and novelist [[Niranjana (writer)|Niranjana]] and writer [[Anupama Niranjana]], Niranjana moved to [[Bangalore]], India at the age of 2. She completed her schooling in Bangalore at The Home School (1962–1971); Mahila Seva Samaja (1971–1974), attended pre-University at the National College, Jayanagar (1974–76), and an undergraduate degree from the National College, Basavangudi, Bangalore (1976–79).

Later, she completed an M.A. in English and Aesthetics from the [[University of Mumbai|University of Bombay]], an MPhil in Linguistics from the [[Savitribai Phule Pune University|University of Pune]], and a PhD from the [[University of California, Los Angeles]]. {{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Since 2021, Niranjana serves as the director, Centre for Inter-Asian Research; and as Dean of Online Programmes, Ahmedabad University.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Niranjana was the co-founder and a senior fellow at the [http://cscs.res.in/ Centre for Study of Culture and Society], [[Bangalore]], where she was also Lead Researcher in the [http://heira.in/ HEIRA] Program.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://cis-india.org/about/people/distinguished-fellows|title=Distinguished Fellows — The Centre for Internet and Society|website=cis-india.org|language=en|access-date=2017-06-09}}</ref> She was the chair at the Centre for Indian Languages in Higher Education at the [[Tata Institute of Social Sciences]], [[Mumbai]]<ref name="Prof Tejaswini NIRANJANA - ARI">{{Cite web|url=https://ari.nus.edu.sg/Peoples/Detail/18e62327-4ea0-4fe3-af08-b32aa53e54e0|title=Prof Tejaswini NIRANJANA - ARI|website=ari.nus.edu.sg|access-date=2017-06-09}}</ref> from 2012 till 2016.

From 2016 to 2021, she was a professor and head of the Department of Cultural Studies, at [[Lingnan University (Hong Kong)|Lingnan University]], Hong Kong,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ln.edu.hk/cultural/staff/niranjana-tejaswini/|title=Lingnan University|last=author|website=www.ln.edu.hk|access-date=2017-06-09|archive-date=24 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180224173653/https://www.ln.edu.hk/cultural/staff/niranjana-tejaswini/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and visiting professor with the School of Arts and Science at [[Ahmedabad University]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://ahduni.edu.in/tejaswini-niranjana | title=Tejaswini Niranjana | Ahmedabad University | access-date=24 February 2018 | archive-date=28 November 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128011303/https://ahduni.edu.in/tejaswini-niranjana | url-status=dead }}</ref> She was the chair of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://culturalstudies.asia/about-us/|title=About Us|website=culturalstudies.asia|language=en-US|access-date=2018-02-24}}</ref>

She is the conceptualiser<ref>{{Cite news | url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/sailing-across-cultures/article8496980.ece | title=Sailing across cultures| newspaper=The Hindu| date=2016-04-19| last1=Basu| first1=Indira}}</ref> and co-producer of ''Jahaji Music'', a documentary, starring Indian-Portuguese musician [[Remo Fernandes]], that looks at musical forms in the Indian diaspora in the Caribbean.<ref name="Prof Tejaswini NIRANJANA - ARI"/> The film's title translates to "Ship's Music" which is a reference to the ships that carried indentured labour settlers from East India to French-Trinidad in the mid 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.tarshi.net/inplainspeak/review-saucy-wow-jahaji-music/ | title="Saucy Wow" in the film Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean| date=2016-09-15}}</ref> The film, co-produced by filmmaker Surabhi Sharma, connected the worlds of gender, music and migration and was well received by the media.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.dnaindia.com/locality/news-tags/jahaji-music-india-caribbean | title=DNA}}</ref><ref name="The connecting rhythm">{{Cite news | url=http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/exploring-mumbais-musical-past/article20010694.ece | title=The connecting rhythm| newspaper=The Hindu| date=2017-11-09| last1=Swaminathan| first1=Chitra}}</ref>

She is also the author of [https://www.dukeupress.edu/musicophilia-in-mumbai ''Musicophilia in Mumbai''], which examines the cultural, political and geographical reasons why Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) became such a popular centre for Hindustani music. In a 2014 interview with Online Indian Women's magazine The Ladies Finger, she detailed her research process for this project, which she describes as part ethnographic, part archival work and several interviews.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://theladiesfinger.com/the-wild-varied-social-life-of-hindustani-classical-music-before-respectability-took-over/ | title=The Varied Social Life of Hindustani Classical Music Before Respectability Took over| date=2014-07-30}}</ref> As part of the same project, she once again collaborated with filmmaker Surabhi Sharma to produce the film ''Phir Se Sam Pe Aana'' (Returning to the first beat).<ref name="The connecting rhythm"/>

She was a distinguished fellow at the [[Centre for Internet and Society (India)|Centre for Internet and Society]], Bangalore from 2013 till 2016 . She is also the recipient of the Sephis Postdoctoral Fellowship (1997–1999), Sawyer Fellow at the [[University of Michigan]]; Rockefeller Fellow, [[University of Chicago]], and the Homi Bhabha National Fellowship. She was awarded the Central [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] for Best Translation Into English (1993), and the [[Karnataka]] State Sahitya Akademi Award for Best Translation (1994).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://english.ncu.edu.tw/tcs/sp_teja.htm|title=文化研究教學研究營Teaching Cultural Studies Workshop 2006|website=english.ncu.edu.tw|access-date=2017-06-09|archive-date=24 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180224173454/http://english.ncu.edu.tw/tcs/sp_teja.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

She has lecturedin the West Indies, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, the U.S, and the U.K.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2005/03/06/stories/2005030600740500.htm|title=Magazine / People : Caribbean connect|last=thrki|website=[[The Hindu]]|date=2005-03-06|access-date=2017-06-09}}{{dead link|date=April 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> She learned music for a decade from Mumbai-based [[Gwalior gharana]] singer Neela Bhagwat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://scroll.in/article/669446/the-little-known-story-of-how-mumbai-nurtured-hindustani-classical-music-and-helped-it-thrive|title=The little-known story of how Mumbai nurtured Hindustani classical music and helped it thrive|last=Ramanan|first=Sumana|work=Scroll.in|access-date=2017-06-09|language=en-US}}</ref>

Teju is also known in academic circles for her keen efforts in creating a bi-lingual pedagogy manual for classrooms in Indian Higher Education classrooms. Initial research toward this was carried out with fellow feminist scholar [[Sharmila Rege]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://theladiesfinger.com/sharmila-rege-the-feminist-as-translator/ | title=Sharmila Rege: The Feminist as Translator| date=2013-07-23}}</ref>

In 2009, she was part of a 180 strong list of Indian Academics who opposed [[Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code]], on the grounds that it was anti-democratic.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://orinam.net/academics-support-delhi-high-court-decision-in-section-377-case/ | title=Academics Support Delhi High Court Decision in Section 377 Case| date=2011-02-08}}</ref>

== Publications ==
=== Books ===
*''Musicophilia in Mumbai: Performing Subjects and the Metropolitan Unconscious'' (Durham: [[Duke University Press]], 2020)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/musicophilia-in-mumbai|title=SelectedWorks - Prof. NIRANJANA Tejaswini:Musicophilia in Mumbai|last=Press|first=Berkeley Electronic|website=works.bepress.com|language=en|access-date=2017-06-09}}</ref>
* ''Mobilizing India: Women, Migration and Music between India and Trinidad'' (Durham: [[Duke University Press]], 2006)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://works.bepress.com/tniranjana/|title=SelectedWorks - Prof. NIRANJANA Tejaswini:Mobilizing India|last=Press|first=Berkeley Electronic|website=works.bepress.com|language=en|access-date=2017-06-09}}</ref>
* ''Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism and the Colonial Context'' (Berkeley: [[University of California Press]], 1992)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://works.bepress.com/tniranjana/|title=SelectedWorks - Prof. NIRANJANA Tejaswini:Siting Translation|last=Press|first=Berkeley Electronic|website=works.bepress.com|language=en|access-date=2017-06-09}}</ref>

=== Edited volumes ===
* ''Music, Modernity, and Publicness in India'' (Delhi: [[Oxford University Press]], 2020).
* ''Breaking the Silo: Integrating Science Education in India'' - With K.Sridhar and Anup Dhar, (Delhi: [[Orient Blackswan]], 2017).
* ''Genealogies of the Asian Present: Situating Inter-Asia Cultural Studies'' - With Wang Xiaoming (Delhi: [[Orient Blackswan]], 2015).
* ''Streevaadi Vimarshe'' - With Seemanthini Niranjana, in Kannada [Feminist Literary Criticism in India] (Bangalore: Kannada Sangha, Christ College, 1994).
* ''Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India'' - With P. Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar, (Calcutta: [[Seagull Books]], 1993).

=== Selected articles in books ===
* "Colonialism and the Politics of Translation", in ''An Other Tongue: Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands'', ed. Alfred Arteaga (Durham: [[Duke University Press]], 1994).
* "Colonialism and the Aesthetics of Translation", in ''Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India'', (eds.) Tejaswini Niranjana, P. Sudhir and Vivek Dhareshwar (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1993).
* "Translation, Colonialism, and the Rise of English", in ''Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History'', ed. Svati Joshi (Delhi: Trianka, 1992).
* "Indian nationalism and Female Sexuality: A Trinidadian Tale", in ''Sex and the citizen: interrogating the Caribbean,'' ed. Faith Smith(Charlottesville : [[University of Virginia Press]]'','' 2011).
* "Hindi Cinema and Popular Music in Trinidad", in ''Remembered Rhythms,'' (eds.) Shubha Chaudhuri and Anthony Seeger (Kolkata : [[Seagull Books]], 2010).
* "Gender and the Media: Problems for Cultural History", in ''Re-Figuring Culture: History, Theory and the Aesthetic in Contemporary India'' ed. Satish Poduval (Delhi : Sahitya Akademi, 2005).
* "Vigilantism and the Pleasures of Masquerade: The Female Spectators of Vijayasanthi Films", in ''City Flicks,'' ed. Preben Kaarsholm(Roskilde University: Occasional Paper Series, 2002).
* "Nationalism Refigured: Contemporary South Indian Cinema and the Subject of Feminism", in ''Community, Gender and Violence: Subaltern Studies XI,'' (eds.) Partha Chatterjee and Pradeep Jeganathan (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2000).
* (with Vivek Dhareshwar), "Kaadalan and the Politics of Resignification", in ''Making Meaning in Indian Cinema,'' ed. Ravi Vasudevan (Delhi: [[Oxford University Press]], 2000).

===Selected articles in journals===
* "English Education in the Multi-lingual Classroom", ''[http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riac20 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]'' 16:2 (2015)
* "Culture, Feminism, Globalization", Introduction to Special Issue-Women's Studies, [[Economic and Political Weekly]] 50:17 (2015), 25 April.
* "Music in the Balance: Language, Modernity and Hindustani Sangeet in Dharwad", [[Economic and Political Weekly]] XLVIII: 2, (12 January 2013), 41–48.
* "Why Culture Matters: Rethinking the Language of Feminist Politics", ''[http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riac20 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]'' 11:2 (2010), 229–235.
* "Transported by Song: Music and Cultural Labour in Dharwad", ''Sangeet Natak'' XLIII:2 (2009), 35–44.
* "Teaching Gender Studies as Cultural Studies", ''[http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riac20 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]'' 9:3 (January 2008), 469 – 477.
* "Feminism and Cultural Studies in Asia", ''[http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riij20 Interventions]'' 9:2 (2007), 209–18.

=== Awards ===

*2021 American Literary Translators’ Association Prize for Prose Fiction Translation, for ''No Presents Please'' (Jayant Kaikini)
* 2019 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018, jointly awarded with Jayant Kaikini, for ''No Presents Please''
* 1995 Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award for Best Translation of 1994
* 1993 Central Sahitya Akademi Award for Best Translation of the year

=== Fellowships ===
{| class="wikitable"
|2018
|Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong
|-
|2016
|Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute, NUS Singapore
|-
|2013
|Lichtstern Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
|-
|2013
|Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society; Advisor to the Access to Knowledge Team working on the Indian Wikipedia
|-
|2011
|Fellow, Institut d’etudes avancees [Institute of Advanced Studies/Research] de Nantes, France
|-
|2007
|Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin [Institute of Advanced Studies], Germany
|-
|2005
|Honorary Visiting Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
|-
|1997-99
|Sephis (Netherlands) Postdoctoral Fellowship
|-
|1996
|Sawyer Fellow, International Institute, University of Michigan
|-
|1996
|Rockefeller Fellow, Program in Globalization and the Media, Chicago Humanities Institute, University of Chicago
|-
|1992-94
|Homi Bhabha National Fellowship
|}

== See also ==
* [[Susie Tharu]]
* [[Subaltern Studies]]
* [[Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.ln.edu.hk/cultural/staff/niranjana-tejaswini/index.php Faculty profile, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University Hong Kong] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926072825/http://www.ln.edu.hk/cultural/staff/niranjana-tejaswini/index.php |date=26 September 2018 }}
* [http://cscs.res.in/Members/people-cscs/faculty-cscs/tejaswini-niranjana Faculty profile, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322123234/http://cscs.res.in/Members/people-cscs/faculty-cscs/tejaswini-niranjana |date=22 March 2018 }}
* [https://ahduni.edu.in/tejaswini-niranjana Faculty profile, School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128011303/https://ahduni.edu.in/tejaswini-niranjana |date=28 November 2020 }}
* [https://www.ln.edu.hk/chronicle/46/interview-with-new-cultural-studies-department-head Interview with Tejaswini Niranjana, Lingnan Chronicle] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225011611/https://www.ln.edu.hk/chronicle/46/interview-with-new-cultural-studies-department-head |date=25 February 2018 }}
* [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649373.2012.690233?journalCode=riac20 Convictions and skepticisms of an Indian feminist scholar: an interview with Tejaswini Niranjana by Yifan Jiang, ''Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2012'']
* [http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2005/03/06/stories/2005030600740500.htm Interview with Tejaswini Niranjana on her research in the Caribbean, The Hindu]{{dead link|date=April 2021|bot=medic}}
{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Niranjana, Tejaswini}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Ahmedabad University]]
[[Category:Indian ethnomusicologists]]
[[Category:Women ethnomusicologists]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Lingnan University]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian musicologists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian musicologists]]
[[Category:Homi Bhabha Fellows]]

Tejaswini Niranjana - Revision history

Scopex: made initial pg first draft