ABSTRACT
Heritage is a prized cultural commodity in the marketing of tourism destinations. Particular aspects of heritage are often more actively promoted, with others played down. The representation of heritage in tourism as static and timeless, derived since time immemorial from a distant past, is seductive. In Asia, a major part of the tourism market lies in the sale and consumption of highly orientalized images and versions of culture and history. In India’s marketing discourse, the state of Rajasthan symbolizes the nation in its heritage-laden, traditional and most authentic form. These images draw heavily on the British period in India - the Raj. In one sense, this vision of Rajasthan is ennobling, highlighting moments of cultural pride. In another sense, it demeans, by omitting and obscuring salient features of contemporary life. This fascinating book explores the cultural politics of tourism through interdisciplinary perspectives. Carol E. Henderson and Maxine Weisgrau demonstrate that tourism heritage privileges elite histories that recapitulate colonial relationships, compelling non-elites to collude in these narratives of subordination even as they advance their own alternative visions of history.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|82 pages
Creating Tourism Narratives of Heritage Across Space and Time
chapter 2|20 pages
Ghost Towns and Bustling Cities
part 2|75 pages
Tourism, Transgression and Shifting Uses of Social Capital
chapter 6|16 pages
Names, but not Homes, of Stone
chapter 8|18 pages
From Privy Purse to Global Purse
part 3|61 pages
Tourism and Spiritual Spaces
chapter 11|18 pages
Hindu Nationalism, Community Rhetoric and the Impact of Tourism
part |8 pages
Conclusions