This classic collection by eminent scholars takes a critical look at the mobilizations, genealogies, and interpretive conflicts that have attended efforts to make India Hindu since the rise to power of Hindu political parties from 1980. The second edition has been updated with a new preface in which Ludden provides an incisive analysis of the recently held elections and highlights how Hindutva operates inside India's political mainstream.
Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhumi issue is the most complicated and tension provoking in India, as whole of the country was in the grip of communal tension and hatred for the last three decades. It was a matter of grief that Ramjanmabhumi i.e. the birth place of Ram (according to Hindu community), which ought to be a sacred place of worship, took the shape of battle-field for both, the Hindus and the Muslims.1 The communal fire lit from here spread to the whole country. Ayodhya is now in every one's mind, not due to its affiliation with Ram the God, but due to the fact that communal forces in various political parties made it their main political agenda for obvious electoral gains. This dispute, in recent years has become the most important reason for a deep deterioration of inter-communal relationship and communalisation of Indian political process. This dispute, undoubtedly one of the most sensitive communal issues after partition and biggest controversy after the Shah Bano case. In the year 1986, the doors of the disputed shrine (Babri Masjid) were opened for the Hindus, so that they may be enabled to perform worship of deities, enshrined there, on the order of Faizabad court,2 emotions were aroused on both the sides. The Hindus felt a new courage for they had won a long fight, fought to regain their lost heritage, while the Muslims considered it, their defeat, as they were forced to lose control over a place of worship, they claimed to belonged to them. During the year 1992, the dispute took the form of a national crisis, when the Masjid was demolished with an intention to build a temple at that very site. Still it did not conclude the controversy, whether the mosque was constructed first or the temple was already present there. There are also conflicting records put fourth, by different groups about the question of Mandir or Masjid. The situation became more curious and multi dimensional because of the involvement of different actors like, state, political parties, religious leaders, media and intelligentsia. The identification of present Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) with Ramjanmabhumi is based upon the faith of the Hindu community and has no solid evidence. There is no conclusive proof that the mosque build at the time of Babar, was on a temple site or that a temple had been destroyed to build it.3 Outwardly, it was a dispute fought for mere ownership of a piece of land, but in a deeper sense, it was related with the right to freedom of religion, guaranteed in Article-25 of the constitution. Compared to Shah Bano case, and the discussion on Uniform or separate Civil Codes, this controversy is not a clear cut matter of legislation on the minority rights, rather, it deals with the legal practices of supposedly secular state India and the need to practically secure the minority rights.4 Because the Ramjanmabhumi movement lays emphasis on myths and beliefs, rather than facts and democratic decisions, the issue also includes confrontation between religious and secular ideals within politics.
This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of Media Memory and brings Media and Mediation to the forefront of Collective Memory research. The essays explore a diversity of media technologies (television, radio, film and new media), genres (news, fiction, documentaries) and contexts (US, UK, Spain, Nigeria, Germany and the Middle East).
Indian Politics in a Comparative Perspective is intended as a standard textbook for undergraduate students of political science. The book provides a handy reference tool to its readers by elucidating conceptual areas, furnishing established arguments and citing contemporary research works for a comprehensive knowledge of the subject. Carefully organized in ten well-researched chapters and examined from different vantage points, they weave a compelling story on the nature of Indian politics since the pre-Independence era to the making of our Constitution and gradually navigate to examine the impact of the growing role of religion and power structure in our political system. Indian Politics in a Comparative Perspective is an ideal read for anyone who is curious to understand the changing grammar of Indian politics.
"This volume assembles an estimable range of critical analyses of one of the most important mediated artifacts of the modern world—the media event. The authors challenge the construct, extend its usefulness, expand its theoretical basis and application, and examine media events in a far larger and richer context than ever before. Students of global media today are well served by this superb collection of essays." David Morgan, Duke University, USA "A welcome and worthy successor to Dayan and Katz’s path-breaking study that expands and enriches the discourse on global media events." Daya Thussu, University of Westminster, UK "This is an excellent collection, that will enable new kinds of argument about, and hopefully research into, the spectacular functions of the contemporary media." Graeme Turner, University of Queensland, Australia We live in an age where the media is intensely global and profoundly changed by digitalization. Not only do many media events have audiences who access them online, but additionally digital media flows are generating new ways in which media events can emerge. In times of increasingly differentiated media technologies and fragmented media landscapes, the ‘eventization’ of the media is increasingly important for the marketing and everyday appreciation of popular media texts. The events covered include Celebrity Big Brother, 9/11, the Iraq war and World Youth Day 2005 to give readers an understanding of the major debates in this increasingly high-profile area of media and cultural research.
Attempts have been made in this study to present an over-all profile of the Scheduled Castes from different dimensions i.e., facts, figures and their interpretations, the policy of segregation of a sizable section of Indian population on the basis of caste.
This book reconceptualises the idea of communalism in independent India. It locates the changing contours of politics and religion in the country from the colonial times to the present day, and makes an important intervention in understanding the relationship between communalism and communal violence. It evaluates the role of state, media, civil societies, political parties, and other actors in the process as well as ideas such as secularism, nationalism, minority rights and democracy. Using new conceptual tools and an interdisciplinary approach, the work challenges the conventional understanding of communalism as time and context independent. This second edition includes a Foreword by Romila Thapar and an Afterword by Dipesh Chakrabarty, along with a new Introduction which revaluate the trajectory of communal politics in contemporary India, and question how secularism has come to be understood today. This topical volume will be useful to scholars and researchers in South Asian politics, political science, history, sociology and social anthropology, as well as the interested general reader.
