Mathias Samuel Soundra Pandian
(16 December 1958 – 10 November 2014) was an eminent social scientist whose area of research covered the
Dravidian Movement
The Dravidian movement in British India started with the formation of the Justice Party on 20 November 1916 in Victoria Public Hall in Madras by C. Natesa Mudaliar along with T. M. Nair and P. Theagaraya Chetty as a result of a series of non- ...
, South Indian politics, cinema, caste, identity and several other socially relevant issues. Pandian joined the
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi as a professor in 2009.
At the time of his death, he was serving in the School of Social Sciences’ Centre for Historical Studies where he offered courses on ‘Region, Language and the Politics of Nation Making’ and ‘Caste, Culture and Communication: An Alternative Intellectual History of Modern India’.
[http://www.jnu.ac.in/Faculty/msspandian/cv.pdf ]
He died on 10 November 2014, in Delhi following a cardiac arrest.
Education and academic career
Pandian was a native of Marthandam, a town in Kanyakumari district. Pandian completed his B.A. in economics from
Scott Christian College, Nagercoil in 1978. He then shifted to Chennai to pursue his post graduation in Economics from The
Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
(MCC). He completed the degree in 1980. He finished his Ph.D. from Madras University in 1987. He worked at the
Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Madras as an associate professor from 1989 to 2001. He had taught briefly as an Adjunct Faculty at the
Asian College of Journalism
The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a journalism school in Chennai, India, which offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism.
History
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai was founded in Bangalore as the Asian School of Journalism, Ba ...
(ACJ) in Chennai.
He was the Honorary Visiting Fellow, Sarai Programme at the
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi during the period of 2002–2009. Pandian joined the
Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 2009 and continued in the post till his untimely death in 2014.
Pandian has been the Rama Wattamul Distinguished Indian Scholar at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu in 2008. the other posts he held include: visiting fellow, Centre of South Asian Studies at the Cambridge University in 2004; visiting professor in human sciences at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 2002.
[M. S. S. Pandian (2015) ''The Image Trap''. SAGE Publications. (HB). p. 162]
Published works
M.S.S. Pandian has also co-edited ''Muslims, Dalits and Fabrications of History: Subaltern Studies: Writings on South Asian History and Society, Vol. 12'' (2005)
References
External links
* http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/mss-pandian-laid-to-rest-in-marthandam/article6597299.ece
* http://www.sagepub.in/authorDetails.nav?contribId=523058
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandian, M.S.S.
1958 births
2014 deaths
20th-century Indian social scientists
Scientists from Tamil Nadu
People from Kanyakumari district