Suchergebnisse

The paper is an anthropological study of news-making practices in India. News-making is characterized as an interactive process that is shaped through the coordinated action of journalists and citizens and as such has consequences for the way local (political) life is recreated. The case study interrogates media activities accompanying the controversy about the making of the film Water by the Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta in the holy city of Benaras. The example demonstrates how patrons appropriate newspapers and turn them into instruments for the articulation, circulation and authentication of their claims to fame and importance. By recreating patronage politics in the newspaper ambitious leaders re-shape this element of the Indian political culture. They also weave new intersections between the media sphere and performative politics. The emerging public (sub)culture poses potential challenges to established political institutions and can be compared to the efficacy of 'small media' across the globe.

Questions of power and competition have figured prominently in the expanding debate about Dalit assertion. This article moves beyond the rhetoric of caste wars to engage with the affective and emotional dimension of caste. The focus is on the urban environment, where caste unity is challenged by the centrifugal forces of urban living. The article demonstrates how Khatiks in Bhopal are reunited through a festival culture that straddles class differentiation, factional politics and generational gaps. The emerging formation signifies the continuing strength of caste sentiments in the city and demonstrates how Dalits create arenas for publicly declaring pride in their heritage both within and beyond the political arena.

Der Machtbegriff Michel Foucaults bietet sich auch zur Betrachtung komplexer Aushandlungsprozesse an, wie die Autorin am Beispiel des illegalen Tempelbaus und am Kampf um die Deutungshoheit im urbanen Lebensumfeld Indiens zeigt. Der Tempelkonflikt macht deutlich, dass Widerstände keinem bestimmten Raum entspringen, sondern dass Macht und Widerstand zu fluktuierenden, punktuellen und ephemeren Positionen in einem komplexen Netzwerk relativer Über- und Unterordnung werden. Foucaults Bemühen, den Widerstand räumlich im Konzept der Heterotopie zu verorten, erweist sich in diesem Zusammenhang nach Meinung der Autorin als wenig fruchtbar. Denn sein Entwurf der Heterotopie ist zu statisch angelegt, um die Wechselgestaltigkeit von Widerständen zu erfassen. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, die Idee von einem festen, geographisch lokalisierbaren und damit fixen Ort der Widerständigkeit mit dem Gedanken der fluiden und sich wandelnden Praxen der Machtausübung in Beziehung zu setzen. (ICI2)

The book provides a theory oriented review of debates on Hindu – Muslim conflicts in India. It introduces modernising theories, socialist and Marxist interpretations as well as more recent studies on the performativity of political events. The text creates a matrix for reading the history of the communalism debate, demonstrates how positions are embedded within particular political contexts and intellectual traditions and how the debate has evolved over time.