The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture

A wide-ranging and truly interdisciplinary guide to understanding the relationship between India's colonial past and globalized present.

Vasudha Dalmia (Edited by), Rashmi Sadana (Edited by)

9780521736183, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 April 2012

326 pages, 19 b/w illus. 2 maps
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.52 kg

'The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture would be an excellent addition to a college or university library that supports India studies, cultural studies, anthropology or history departments and a good textbook for a class on Indian culture.' Sue Phelps, Reference Reviews

India is changing at a rapid pace as it continues to move from its colonial past to its globalised future. This Companion offers a framework for understanding that change, and how modern cultural forms have emerged out of very different histories and traditions. The book provides accounts of literature, theatre, film, modern and popular art, music, television and food; it also explores in detail social divisions, customs, communications and daily life. In a series of engaging, erudite and occasionally moving essays the contributors, drawn from a variety of disciplines, examine not merely what constitutes modern Indian culture, but just how wide-ranging are the cultures that persist in the regions of India. This volume will help the reader understand the continuities and fissures within Indian culture and some of the conflicts arising from them. Throughout, what comes to the fore is the extraordinary richness and diversity of modern Indian culture.

Chronology
Introduction Rashmi Sadana and Vasudha Dalmia
Part I. Cultural Contexts: 1. Scenes of rural change Ann Grodzins Gold
2. The formation of tribal identities Stuart Blackburn
3. Food and agriculture Amita Baviskar
4. Urban forms of religious practice Smriti Srinivas
5. The politics of caste identities Christophe Jaffrelot
Part II. Cultural Forms: 6. History and representation in the Bengali novel Supriya Chaudhuri
7. Writing in English Rashmi Sadana
8. Dalit life histories Debjani Ganguly
9. Three traditions in modernist art Sonal Khullar
10. Mass reproduction and the art of the bazaar Kajri Jain
11. Urban theatre and the turn towards 'folk' Vasudha Dalmia
12. Aesthetics and politics in popular cinema Ravi S. Vasudevan
13. Musical genres and national identity Amanda Weidman
14. Voyeurism and the family on television Amrita Ibrahim
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF], Asian history [HBJF], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]