Performative Politics and the Cultures of Hinduism: Public Uses of Religion in Western India Book

List of Illustrations and Maps

Preface

1. The Promise of Performative Politics: Mobilised Efficacy

Festive Moments

The Public Field

A Multifaceted Festival

Slippery Performers

2. 'Seething with Sedition': Recasting Tilak's Interventions

Martial Murti

Fire in the Belly of the Gods

A Festival in Ferment

A Whirlpool of Movements

3. The Spectacle of Drama and the Drama of Spectacle: Creative Patriotism

A Long Train of Etceteras

Fractured Publics, Moving Scenes

Mandap Types

Spectacular Politics

4. Ganesh Chaturthi: Festival as Praxis: 'An Antidote to Vague Despair'

Engaging with Mandap Tableaux

Synaesthesia, Pleasure-Principles

Society of Spectator

Vitality

The Immersion Procession

The 'Saffronisation' of Public Space

5. Mandal, Media, and the Market:

Gods and Goods

The Business of Religion

Marking the Event

Overviewing of the Three Rounds

Assessing the Competition

6. Open Secrets: Contemporary Political Culture in Maharashtra

The Eye of the Tiger

Street Poetics

Sainik Spectacles

An Art of Stage-Craft or State-Craft?

Variant Versionings of the Nation

Spectacles and Spectators

7. Nuclear Reactions: Bombs and the Nation

Gods, Bombs and the Social Imaginary

Explosive Scnes

The Destroyer of Worlds

8. A Nation Magic Mirrors: National or Natural?

Envisaging the Nation

Heroic Figures

Iconic Events

Space and Territory

Gendered Tropes of the Nation, Perceptions of the Other

Future Horizons

Modern Totems and Metaphors

Homing In

9. An Imperfect Osmosis

Glossary and Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index