Author: Kathinka Froystad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195664000
Description
The resurgence of Hindu nationalism in the early 1990s and especially the demolition of the disputed mosque at Ayodhya led to a period of turbulence in Hindu-Muslim relations. Kathinka Froystad was in Kanpur at that time, conducting anthropological fieldwork on local expressions of the Hindu-Muslim controversy among upper-caste Hindus in the city. This book is a result of that extensive study.
Blended Boundaries examines how sympathizers of Hindu nationalism related to the political movement over time and explains their alteration between different kinds of significant Others, in this case Muslims as well as Dalits. Skilfully using its ethnographic framework, the book explores the life worlds of these people, particularly the social boundaries of everyday life.
The author analyses the reasons and extent to which boundaries of class, religion and caste are maintained, transgressed, and negotiated in everyday life. The work seeks to understand why upper-caste Hindus in Kanpur changed their political attention from Muslims to Dalits towards the mid-1990s and whether the two were considered different or similar kinds of Others.
This absorbing first-hand narrative will be of interest to students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, and politics besides appealing to journalists, policy-makers, and the informed general reader.
REVIEW
The only work I know of which gives an ethnographic account of the remarkable transformation in Uttar Pradesh Politics.
-ASHUTOSH VARSHNEY, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
Contents
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION
PREFACE
GLOSSARY
INTRODUCTION
Intersecting Hindu nationalism, Hindu-Muslim relations, caste, and caste politics
Politics and everyday life
Ethnicity
Multiple domains, multi-temporal fieldwork, and generalizability
Structure of Argument
THE SETTING, THE PEOPLE, AND THE FIELDWORK
Uttar Pradesh
Kanpur
Mohanganj
The core families
The fieldwork
AT HOME: MASTER-SERVANT RELATIONS AND UPPER-CASTE SUPERIORITY
Master-servant relations and everyday practices
Servants and untouchability
Live-in servants: Three cases
Two models: market and patronage
Conclusions
OUTSIDE: GOOD PEOPLE AND SMALL PEOPLE
Local idioms of class
Venturing out: The good, the small, and the big
Complexion
Clothing
Movement, bodily stature, and health
Sweet Speech
The Features Combined
Conflating Class with caste
Class and Closure in Public Arenas
Conclusions
SOCIAL TIES: A WEB OF GOOD AND UPPER-CASTE PEOPLE
Kinship relations beyond the household
Intra-caste relations beyond kinship
Friendship
Contacts
Conclusions
TIES WITH MUSLIMS
Religious identification and classification
Neither Shia and Sunni, nor ajlaf and asraf
Interreligious marriage
Interreligious friendship
Dietary friction
Ties with small Muslims
Conclusions
1992: ESSENTIALIZING AND FOREGROUNDING MUSLIMS
Patterns of news consumption
Three conversations about the Muslim Other
The nature of Muslims
Riots and their effects on interaction with Muslims
Conclusions
1997: ESSENTIALIZING AND FOREGROUNDING DALITS
News themes in 1997
Four conversations about Dalits and caste politics
Gender, intelligence, and inaccuracies
Effects on interaction with Dalits
Balik-at the other side of embeddedness
Conclusions
CONCLUSION: BLENDED BOUNDARIES AND SHIFTING POLITICIZATION
Everyday caste, class, religious boundaries, and blendedness
Politicization and shifting notions of Otherness
Later Shifts
Analytical Reflections
Afterthoughts on Violence
Epilogue
REFERENCES