Globalising everyday consumption in India: history and ethnography

"Through in-depth analysis of advertisements, politics and group-based practices, this book analyses the complex local, regional, and national historical developments related to the making of the Indian consumer across a century of global involvement. In assessing the nationalist discourse, debates on the morality of consumption and public and private spheres, the book demonstrates how the Indian consumer was both imagined and informed and how the politics of consumption formed the consumer society in India. The book explores detailed studies outlining how Indian consumers were created as a result of the emergence of marketing campaigns and advertising strategies for everyday commodities in the early 19th century. Chapters by experts in their fields cover themes ranging from forms of advertising and their perception to coffee, oil, housing and idealized middle-class homemaking to current policies targeting the urban poor as consumer debtors. The book provides rich examples of processes, histories and practices at play in the making of a consumer society. In view of the classical and contemporary theories of consumption, the book collectively analyzes the development of consumer capitalism aided by the 'technologies of enchantment'. Shedding new light on consumer cultures in India, the book will be of interest to academics from interdisciplinary fields such as anthropology, history, geography, sociology, South Asian studies and area studies, popular and visual cultures."