Author: Eminent Contributors
Editor(s): John Zavos / Andrew Wyatt / Vernon Hewitt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 268
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195668014
Description
Issues of culture and identity and the predominance of coalition politics, as exemplified by the rise of Hindu nationalism and its presence as a feature of the National Democratic Alliance, have been the two most salient features of Indian politics in the last two decades. This book examines these two phenomena, the linkages between them, and the impact they have had on India's polity and society.
In exploring cultural and regionalist incursions towards the political mobilization of people, this volume asks if it is legitimate to associate these two trends with each other. The papers here investigate this association and the possibilities for rethinking the relationship between politics and culture.
The interaction of culture and politics has often led to dramatic and violent images that have attracted international attention, while intellectually they have stimulated a wide and free ranging debate about what India is, and who Indians are or ought to be. Such debates reflect not just the rise of religious and regional parties, but also the attempts by their opponents to co-opt their use of cultural symbolism and local specificities in order to defeat them politically.
The essays present diverse way in which organizations and movements have driven, capitalized upon, and been influenced by the dynamic development of culture and identity to bring about political mobilization in India.
This volume will be of immense interest to students and scholars of politics, history, sociology, religion, and culture studies in addition to a general audience.
Contents
CONTRIBUTORS
De-constructing the Nation:
Politics and Cultural Mobilization in India
John Zavos, Andrew Wyatt, and Vernon Hewitt
PART ONE: WAYS OF LOOKING: POLITICS, CULTURE, AND MOBILIZATION IN INDIA
Politics as Permanent Performance:
The Production of Political Authority in the Locality
Fire in the Belly:
The Mobilization of the Ganapati Festival in Maharashtra
Rethinking West Bengal's Political Stability:
From Party Organization to Local Practices of Politics
PART TWO: THE MECHANICS OF CULTURAL MOBILIZATION
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Tradition of Selfless Service
Hindutva as a Rural Planning Paradigm in Post-Earthquake Gujarat
Heroes for our Times:
Assam's Lachit, India's Missile Man
PART THREE: THE STATE (S) AND CULTURAL MOBILIZATION
From Indian Territory to Hindu Bhoomi:
The Ethnicization of Nation-State Mapping in India
The Continuing Struggle for India's Jharkhand:
Democracy, Decentralization, and the Politics of Names and Numbers
The Turn Away from Cultural Mobilization in Contemporary Tamil Nadu
Index