ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the context in which members of a particular community present themselves as custodians of a Hindu/Indian intangible cultural heritage, as resource for the shaping of ‘home’ and ‘nation’. It discusses the variety of ritual ‘types’ established in order to unfold the concept of heritage rituals at ACC and to distinguish ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’. The chapter explores ritual as a discursive practice as it sets up an idea of religion as source of both Indian-ness and global modernity, conservative and innovative motivations, and a new mode of experience. It evaluates the shifts of translations taking place between the concepts of ‘temple’ and ‘monument’, between devotionalism, connoisseurship to leisure-oriented consumption.
