Welcome to the Facebook of Maidaanam (Maidaanam.com). We are an online space dedicated to analyzing the culture, history, and politics of the Deccan and Southern India. We aim to serve as a semi-scholarly resource by promoting public access to conversations in academic fields ranging from History and Literature to Film, Gender Studies, Sociology, and more. Through critical social and cultural analysis, Maidaanam.com encourages unique perspectives on contemporary and historical issues in South Asia. We take the name “maidaanam” for the many political, geographic and linguistic inheritances the term claims. The word first entered the vocabulary of the Deccan languages by way of the Persian maidaan (میدان). Initially suggesting a town square, it has taken on a further range of meanings associated with public space in the region. In Telugu, maidaanam (మైదానం) connotes an open field or an esplanade. It carries similar meanings in Kannada (ಮೈದಾನ) and Marathi (मैदान) where it suggests a meeting ground, level tract, or clear expanse. In Dakhini and Urdu (میدان), the term refers to the open space at the edge of a town. The Anglo-Indian maidaan refers to a green adjoining a town, a piazza (in the Italian sense), or any open grassy plain. In this context, the maidaan is first and foremost the meeting place of the ruler and the ruled. Maidaanam.com draws upon these overlapping meanings and the cultural worlds they continue to evoke today. We present ourselves thus as an open field of ideas, a democratic meeting ground, and a cosmopolitan digital commons. Maidaanam.com is hosted by an editorial collective of scholars, journalists, and activists from diverse professional and research backgrounds. We have come together in order to generate new and necessary conversations on the culture, history, and politics of South Asia from the standpoint of the Deccan and Southern India.
