ABSTRACT

This volume looks at the politics of communication and culture in contemporary South Asia. It explores languages, signs and symbols reflective of current mythologies that underpin instances of performance in present-day India and its neighbouring countries. From gender performances and stage depictions to protest movements, folk songs to cinematic reconstructions and elections to war-torn regions, the chapters in the book bring the multiple voices embedded within the grand theatre of popular performance and the cultural landscape of the region to the fore.

Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies and culture studies.

chapter 1|26 pages

Introduction

Towards an inconclusive scheme of performative communication

part I|36 pages

Unfolding the discursive terrain

chapter 2|21 pages

Scripting violence, performing terror

A discursive soliloquy

chapter 3|13 pages

Performance of personal and national redefinition

Combining the global and the national in Indian media and politics

part II|89 pages

Implications of performative politics

chapter 4|25 pages

Nationalistic authorship and resistance

Performative politics in post-war Northeastern Sri Lanka 1

chapter 5|16 pages

Teshro lingis and dalals

Gender performance and the question of foreclosure in contemporary political discourse of Nepal

chapter 6|16 pages

Protests, resistance and violence

The collective performance of everyday images in Manipur

chapter 7|14 pages

Civil society as a site of performed identity

Exploring the Naga context

chapter 8|16 pages

The magic called elections

Polls, performance and citizenship

part III|97 pages

Myriad mediums and multiple metaphors

chapter 9|18 pages

Depicting labour, performing labour

Working women in Pranlal Patel’s Jyoti Sangh series 1

chapter 10|18 pages

Performative politics and the iconography of Gita Press

A critical reading

chapter 11|14 pages

Performative implications of genres

A critical rumination

chapter 13|14 pages

Cinematic construction of other

Performing Pakistan in Hindi cinema

chapter 14|14 pages

Performing the printed

In the robe with the meanings of block printing

part IV|55 pages

Socio-cultural public sphere(s)

chapter 15|18 pages

Performative Shahbag

Debating culture and politics of youth in contemporary Bangladesh

chapter 16|16 pages

Performing democracy

On the communicative structure of news television

chapter 17|19 pages

Conflicting moralities of Indian nation

Reasoning with Vijay Tendulkar’s theatre