ABSTRACT
This article deals with the connection between culture, a not so innocent domain, and governance that reconstructs the subjectivity of the people to create a governed subject. In this process, the state takes elements of ‘people culture’ and develops a homogenous ‘national culture’. In the mid-1980s, the country was going through a serious crisis — terrorism in Punjab, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, followed by anti-Sikh riots. The challenge before the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was that there was no ‘distribution network’ of culture to rebuild the nation. Against this backdrop, the Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) emerged as cultural institutions. We found that the ZCCs, too, started catering to the demands of the market economy, ignoring the intangible, oral, and marginal forms, the Dalit culture, much against its avowed agenda. There is a serious lack of research and field studies and new artistes and newer forms remain ignored. The aim of ‘nation building’, noble or otherwise, remains neglected.
