New Cultural Histories of India - Materiality and Practices

480 Pages·2014·36.31 MB·English

by  Partha Chatterjee

New Cultural Histories of India
Materiality and Practices
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New Cultural Histories of India
Materiality and Practices
Edited by
Partha Chatterjee
Tapati Guha-Thakurta
Bodhisattva Kar
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© Oxford University Press 2014
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First published in 2014
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ISBN-13: 978-0-19-809037-3
ISBN-10: 0-19-809037-4
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro 11/13.6
At MAP Systems, Bengaluru 560 082, India
Printed in India at...
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Dedication
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xvii
Partha Chatterjee, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, and Bodhisattva Kar
New Cultural Histories of India: Materiality and Practices 1
i. the textual
1. Francesca Orsini
For a Multilingual Literary History: North India in the Long
Fifteenth Century 41
2. Prachi Deshpande
Scripting the Cultural History of Language: Modī in the Colonial
Archive 62
3. Rosinka Chaudhuri
Poet of the Present: The Material Object in the World of
Iswar Gupta 87
ii. the visual
4. Christopher Pinney
The Look of History: The Power of the Aesthetic 115
5. Kajri Jain
The Handbag that Exploded: Mayawati’s Monuments and the
Aesthetics of Democracy in Post-Reform India 139
6. Tapati Guha-Thakurta
Conceits of the Copy: Travelling Replicas of the Past and the
Present 180
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viii  contents
iii. the aural
7. Rajan Kurai Krishnan
When Kathavarayan Spoke His Mind: The Intricate Dynamics of
the Formations of the Political through Film Making Practices in
Tamil Nadu 223
8. Lakshmi Subramanian
Music Revivals—Major and Minor: Studying the Politics of
Performance in Modern South India 246
iv. the ritual
9. Gautam Bhadra
Pictures in Celestial and Worldly Time: Illustrations in
Nineteenth-Century Bengali Almanacs 275
10. Partha Chatterjee
Football and Collective Identity in Colonial Calcutta 317
11. Bodhisattva Kar
Heads in the Naga Hills 335
v. the spatial
12. Swati Chattopadhyay
‘Metro Pattern’: Art Deco Residences and Modern Visuality
in Calcutta 373
13. Sanjay Srivastava
Urban spaces, Post-nationalism and the Making of the Consumer-
Citizen in India 409
14. Srirupa Roy
When the Revolution is Televised: Reflections on Media,
Civil Society and Power in Contemporary India 437
Notes on Contributors 00
Acknowledgements
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List of Illustrations
4.1 The materiality of script. ‘The Elements of the Devanagari
Character’ lithographed plate from John Shakespear, A
Grammar of the Hindustani Language (London: Cox and
Bayliss, 1826). The distinction between the linguistic and
non-linguistic is often invoked and seems straightforward.
However, all language, spoken and written must of necessity
be materially incarnated. 116
4.2 Frontispiece to Edward Moor’s The Hindu Pantheon published
by William Blake’s friend Joseph Johnson. 119
4.3 ‘Cutting Indigo into Cakes and Stamping’. Photogravure plate
from Indigo (Boston: Howe, Balch and Co, 1891). Original
photograph by Oscar Mallite. 121
4.4 Offset chromolithograph depicting Ambedkar as a ‘citizen of the
world’. 124
4.5 Offset chromolithograph depicting Bhagat Singh wearing a trilby,
symbolizing his ability to ‘pass’ between different identities. 125
4.6 India Shining. Image produced under the aegis of the NDA
Government immediately prior to the 2004 election. 128
4.7 ‘Shining, Shining, Burning Bright’: the Blakean Times of India
headline following the Lucknow tragedy. 15th April 2004. 128
4.8 Politique Noire: the Congress critique of India Shining,
couched in a radically different aesthetic. 129
4.9 Ganga Mata emerging to receive Ravidas’ betel-nut offering at
Varanasi. Detail from offset chromolithograph. 131
4.10 Mangilal a village ghorla thrashing with the presence of
Kali. 133
4.11 Ahmad Ali Khan’s image of L.E. Ruutz Rees. © The British
Library Board. 135
5.1 Front approach to main Ambedkar memorial (Dr Bhimrao
Ambedkar Smarak), Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal
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x  list of illustrations
(Dr B.R. Ambedkar Site for Social Change), Lucknow,
May 2009. 143
5.2 Statues of B.R. Ambedkar and Ramabai Ambedkar, Sāmājik
Parivartan Pratik Sthal (Site Symbolizing Social Change) at the
approach to the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal,
Lucknow, July 2008. Sandstone canopies have subsequently been built
over the statues. 144
5.3 Statue of Sant Ravidas, one of a series of Dalit icons along an
avenue between the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan
Sthal and the Gomti River known as Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar
Gomti Buddha Vihar, Lucknow, August 2011. 144
5.4 Women security guards at the entrance to Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar
Gomti Buddha Vihar, Lucknow, August 2011. 145
5.5 Visitors with stone elephant (with raised trunk) during the
construction of the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal,
Lucknow, May 2009. 146
5.6 ‘Statue of Mayawati with her handbag at Manyawar Kanshiram
Memorial; this statue stands next to one of Kanshiram under a
125-foot diameter dome. Lucknow, August 2011. 149
5.7 The surface treatment of the main memorial and other elements
at the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal borrows motifs
from early (1st–2nd century BCE) Buddhist cave carvings such as
those at Ajanta, Karle, Bedsa, Pitalkhora, and Bhaja. May 2009.
Photograph by courtesy of Sarah Richardson. 153
5.8 The ‘monumental elephant gallery’: an avenue of sixty
elephants leading up to a relief depicting a map of the Ambedkar
memorial complex. Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal,
Lucknow, August 2011. 154
5.9 Colonnades of freestanding Chunar stone columns, each capped by
four bronze elephant heads. Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan
Sthal, Lucknow, May 2009. Photograph by courtesy of Sarah
Richardson. 154
5.10 View from the Bhimrao Ambedkar Smarak structure towards the
elephant gallery. Dr B.R. Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal,
Lucknow, May 2009. 155
5.11 Stūpa-like forms capping the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Smarak and
statue canopies at the Dr BR Ambedkar Sāmājik Parivartan Sthal,
Lucknow, May 2009. The early Indic stūpas on which these forms are
based usually had no internal space that was open to be seen
or entered, and probably featured a wooden superstructure. 157
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