Politics after Television
Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India

An analysis of the use of media by political and religious interest groups in India

Arvind Rajagopal (Author)

9780521640534, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 January 2001

402 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 3.4 cm, 0.75 kg

'… a fascinating and illuminating book .' Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies

In January 1987, the Indian state-run television began broadcasting a Hindu epic in serial form, The Ramayana, to nationwide audiences, violating a decades-old taboo on religious partisanship. What resulted was the largest political campaign in post-independence times, around the symbol of Lord Ram, led by Hindu nationalists. The complexion of Indian politics was irrevocably changed thereafter. In this book, Arvind Rajagopal analyses this extraordinary series of events. While audiences may have thought they were harking back to an epic golden age, Hindu nationalist leaders were embracing the prospects of neoliberalism and globalisation. Television was the device that hinged these movements together, symbolising the new possibilities of politics, at once more inclusive and authoritarian. Simultaneously, this study examines how the larger historical context was woven into and changed the character of Hindu nationalism.

Introduction
1. Hindu nationalism and the cultural forms of Indian politics
2. Prime time religion
3. The communicating thing and its public
4. A 'Split Public' in the making and unmaking of the Ram Janmabhumi movement
5. Organization, performance and symbol
6. Hindutva goes global
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Sociology & anthropology [JH]