Modern Indian Culture and Society, (4 Volume Set)

Research on Indian culture and society has been conducted from a dizzying range of perspectives. However, in recent decades it has been particularly characterized by a change in focus from the past to the present; from the worldview of the élites to that of the subalterns; from philosophy to everyday life; and from hierarchy to the critiques of hierarchy and the sources of equality in Indian culture.

More dramatic than the changes in the focus of research are the changes in Indian society itself. Urbanization, the liberalization and globalization of the economy, the IT revolution, the success of the global Indian diaspora, the affirmation of religious identities and reaffirmation of ancient world views, reinterpretations of history, new medias and transnational megagurus, and new political landscapes denote some of these processes.

This new title from Routledge makes sense of these changes by bringing together the very best scholarly work on India's contemporary transformation. As the world's largest democracy emerges as an economic and cultural superpower, there is a pressing need for a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of Indian culture and society. This four-volume collection answers that need and will be welcomed as a vital one-stop research resource.

Volume I : Identity

Part 1 : Freedom, Partition, and Aftermath

A : Freedom
Chapter 1 : "The Magic Touch of Being Free" : The Rituals of Independence on August 15, India : Creating a Modern Nation

B : Partition and Aftermath
Chapter 2 : The Transfer of Power in South Asia : An Historiographical Review’, South Asia : Journal of South Asian Studies,
Chapter 3 : Literature and The Human Drama of The 1947 Partition’, South Asia : Journal of South Asian Studies
Chapter 4 : Gender, Memory, Trauma : Women’s Novels on The Partition of India’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and The Middle East

Part 2 : The Past in The Present
Chapter 5 : On Interpreting India’s Past, Nationalism, Democracy and Development : State and Politics in India
Chapter 6 : Postcoloniality and The Artifice of History : Who Speaks for "Indian" Pasts?’, Representations
Chapter 7 : (Re)imag(in)ing OTherness : A Postmortem for The Postmodern in India’, Journal of World History
Chapter 8 : The Challenge of Contemporary History’, Economic and Political Weekly

Part 3 : Democracy and Development
Chapter 9 : Jawaharlal Nehru and The Crisis of Modernization, Crisis and Change in Contemporary India
Chapter 10 : Why Democracy Survives’, Journal of Democracy
Chapter 11 : Democracy and Distributive Politics in India, The Politics of Distribution in Democracies
Chapter 12 : Can Democracies Accommodate Ethnic Nationalism? Rise and Decline of Self-Determination Movements in India’, The Journal of Asian Studies
Chapter 13 : The Punjab Crisis Since 1984 : A Reassesment, Subnational Movements in South Asia

Part 4 : Violence
Chapter 14 : The Ghost of Indira Gandhi’, The New Yorker
Chapter 15 : Unholy Alliance : Religion and Political Violence in South Asia’, South Asia : Journal of South Asian Studies
Chapter 16 : The Naxalites and The Maoist Movement in India : Birth, Demise, and Reincarnation’, Democracy and Security
Chapter 17 : India and Pakistan : Bargaining in The Shadow of Nuclear War’, The Journal of Strategic Studies

Part 5 : Social Movements
Chapter 18 : Gandhian Activism in India After Independence’, Gandhi in His Times and Ours
Chapter 19 : Ambedkar and After : The Dalit Movement in India, Dalit Identity and Politics

Volume II : Society

Part 6 : Work, Economy, and Globalization
Chapter 20 : The Expulsion of Labour from The Formal Sector of The Economy, Workers in The Informal Sector : Studies in Labour History
Chapter 21 : Restructuring The New Middle Class in Liberalizing India’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and The Middle East
Chapter 22 : Building The Temples of Postmodern India : Economic Construction of National Identity’, Contemporary South Asia
Chapter 23 : Will India Ever Catch Up With China?’, South Asia : Journal of South Asian Studies
Chapter 24 : We are Like The Living Dead : Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra, Western India’, The Journal of Peasant Studies
Chapter 25 : Caste, Class, and Clientilism : A Political Economy of Everyday Corruption in Rural North India’, Economic Geography
Chapter 26 : The Codes of Migration : Contours of The Global Software Labor Market’, Cultural Dynamics
Chapter 27 : Locations for South Asian Diasporas’, Annual Review of Anthropology

Part 7 : Caste
Chapter 28 : Caste in Contemporary India, Caste Today
Chapter 29 : Caste and Politics : Identity Over System’, Annual Review of Anthropology
Chapter 30 : Reservations and The Return to Politics’, Economic and Political Weekly
Chapter 31 : The Myths of Origins of The Indian Untouchables
Chapter 32 : From Landlords to Software Engineers : Migration and Urbanization Among Tamil Brahmans, Comparative Studies in Society and History
Chapter 33 : Collective and Elective Ethnicity : Caste Among Urban Muslims in India’, Sociological Forum,

Part 8 : Gender
Chapter 34 : Dispensable Daughters and Bachelor Sons : Sex Discrimination in North India’, Economic and Political Weekly
Chapter 35 : Ankalu’s Errant Wife : Sex, Marriage and Industry in Contemporary Chhattisgarh’, Modern Asian Studies
Chapter 36 : Migration, Money and Masculinity in Kerala’, The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute
Chapter 37 : "Men" Who Would be Kings : Celibacy, Emasculation, and The Reproduction of Hijras in Contemporary Indian Politics—Gender Identity, Social Stigma, and Political Corruption’, Social Research

Volume III : Religion

Part 9 : Secularism
Chapter 38 : The Crisis of Indian Secularism’, Modern Myths : Locked Minds
Chapter 39 : The Babri Masjid and The Secular Contract, Tradition, Pluralism and Identity
Chapter 40 : The Politics of Secularism and The Recovery of Religious Tolerance, Mirrors of Violence : Communities, Riots and Survivors in South Asia
Chapter 41 : Hindu Ethnonationalism, Muslim Jihad, and Secularism : Muslims in The Political Life of The Republic of India, Prospects for Peace in South Asia

Part 10 : Religious Traditions

A : Rituals
Chapter 42 : The Sacrifices of Modernity in a Soviet-Built Steel Town in Central India, On The Margins of Religion
Chapter 43 : Monkey in The Middle : The Status of Hanuman in Popular Hinduism’, Religion
Chapter 44 : "The Great Tradition" Globalizes : Reflections on Two Studies of "The Industrial Leaders" of Madras’, Modern Asian Studies
Chapter 45 : The Construction of The Kumbha Mela’, South Asian Popular Culture

B : What is Hinduism?
Chapter 46 : Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and The Modern Search for a Hindu Identity’, Modern Asian Studies
Chapter 47 : "Hinduism" and The History of "Religions" : Protestant Presuppositions in The Critique of The Concept of Hinduism’, Method and Theory in The Study of Religion
Chapter 48 : Diglossic Hinduism : Liberation and Lentils’, Journal of The American Academy of Religion

C : Islam
Chapter 49 : Muslims in Post-Independence India, Asian Islam in The 21st Century
Chapter 50 : Stoking The Flames : Intra-Muslim Rivalries in India and The Saudi Connection’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and The Middle East
Chapter 51 : Islamic Reform and Modernities in South Asia’, Modern Asian Studies

D : Dalit Religious Traditions
Chapter 52 : Tradition of Non-Caste Hinduism : Kabir Panth’, Contributions to Indian Sociology
Chapter 53 : The Emerging Dalit Theology : A Historical Appraisal’, Indian Church History Review
Chapter 54 : Contesting Caste, Hierarchy, and Hinduism : Buddhist Discursive Practices in Maharashtra, Reconstructing The World : B : R : Ambedkar and Buddhism in India

E : Hinduism Goes West
Chapter 55 : Multiculturalism, Immigrant Religion, and Diasporic Nationalism : The Development of an American Hinduism, Social Problems

Volume IV : Culture

Part 11 : Food
Chapter 56 : How to Make a National Cuisine : Cookbooks in Contemporary India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History
Chapter 57 : Meat Matters : Cultural Politics Along The Commodity Chain in India’, Cultural Geographies
Chapter 58 : Hunger : Old Torments and New Blunders’, The Little Magazine

Part 12 : Urban and Natural Environment
Chapter 59 : Open Space/Public Space : Garbage, Modernity and India’, South Asia
Chapter 60 : Cities, Sewers and Poverty : India’s Politics of Sanitation’, Environment and Urbanization
Chapter 61 : Cultural Politics of Environment and Development : The Indian Experience’, Review of Development and Change
Chapter 62 : Postcolonial Environmental Justice : Government and Governance in India’, Geoforum

Part 13 : Literature
Chapter 63 : Hindi Dalit Biography : An Exploration of Identity’, Modern Asian Studies
Chapter 64 : Bama’s Karukku : Dalit Autobiography as Testimonio’, Journal of Commonwealth Literature
Chapter 65 : Damme, This is The Oriental Scene for You’, The New Yorker
Chapter 66 : A Suitable Text for a Vegetarian Audience : Questions of AuThenticity and The Politics of Translation’, Public Culture

Part 14 : Cinema
Chapter 67 : The Politics of Adulation : Cinema and The Production of Politicians in South India’, The Journal of Asian Studies
Chapter 68 : The "Bollywoodization" of The Indian Cinema : Cultural Nationalism in a Global Arena’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
Chapter 69 : From Bollywood to Hollywood : The Globalization of Hindi Cinema, The Postcolonial and The Global

Part 15 : Television
Chapter 70 : Modi and The Camera : The Politics of Television in The 2002 Gujarat Riots’, South Asia : Journal of South Asian Studies
Chapter 71 : Dangerous Desires : Television and Erotics in Late Twentieth-Century India’, The Journal of Asian Studies
Chapter 72 : Advertising, Politics, and The Sentimental Education of The Indian Consumer’, Visual Anthropology Review

Part 16 : Music, Folklore, and Beauty Pageants
Chapter 73 : ‘Music, The Media, and Communal Relations in North India, Past and Present, Making India Hindu : Religion, Community, and The Politics of Democracy in India
Chapter 74 : Banana Republics and V. I. Degrees : Rethinking Indian Folklore in a Postcolonial World’, Asian Folklore Studies
Chapter 75 : Showcasing India : Gender, Geography, and Globalization’, Signs

Part 17 : Cricket and Sports
Chapter 76 : Cricket in India : Representative Playing Field to Restrictive Preserve’, The International Journal of The History of Sport
Chapter 77 : Hindu Nationalism, Cultural Spaces, and Bodily Practices in India’, American Behavioral Scientist