From Shanty to Shanti: Teaching Australian Literature in India

From February to April this year I undertook an Australian Studies Fellowship from the Australia-India Council (AIC) to teach at the University of Madras, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Australian Studies section at the University was started ten years ago (1998). This essay aims to address areas suggested for discussion by the ASAL ‘Australian Literature in a Global World’ Conference, along with some of the similar Governmental aims of the AIC, such as ‘raising awareness of Australia in India’, and ‘supporting Australian studies in India’. Consequently, the essay will be specific as to what constitutes ‘the world’. Indeed, it will be specific as to what constitutes India, focusing solely on Tamil Nadu, in the South.