The Individual and Society

15

Highway Stripper

A.K. Ramanujan

Attipat Krishnaswamy Ramanujan (1929–1993) was born in Mysore, and was fluent in both Kannada, the common language of Mysore, and Tamil, the language of his family. Ramanujan studied English language and literature at the University of Mysore, and later, in 1959 went to the USA. From 1962 onwards, he taught at the University of Chicago, where he was instrumental in shaping the South Asian Studies program. Ramanujan and his colleagues have made the West more aware of the other languages and literary traditions of India outside the Sanskrit.

Ramanujan’s contributions span cultural theory, poetry, translation, linguistics and folklore. Some of his significant works include the essay ‘Is There an Indian way of ...