Dev Nath Pathak – författare

This volume looks at the politics of communication and culture in contemporary South Asia. It explores languages, signs and symbols reflective of current mythologies that underpin instances of performance in present-day India and its neighbouring countries. From gender performances and stage depictions to protest movements, folk songs to cinematic reconstructions and elections to war-torn regions, the chapters in the book bring the multiple voices embedded within the grand theatre of popular performance and the cultural landscape of the region to the fore.Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies and culture studies.

This book critically examines the role and politics of humour and the performance of power in South Asia. What does humour do and how does it manifest when lived political circumstances experience ruptures or instability? Can humour that emerges in such circumstances be viewed as a specific narrative on the nature of democracy in the region? Drawing upon essays from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, this volume discusses many crucial historical and contemporary themes, including dance-drama performances in northern India; caste and stand-up comedy in India; cartoon narratives of citizens’ anxieties; civic participation through social media memes in Sri Lanka; media, politics and humorous public in Bangladesh; the politics of performance in India; and the influence of humour and satire as political commentaries. The volume explores the impact of humour in South Asian folklore, ritual performances, media and journalism, and online technologies.This topical and interdisciplinary book will be essential for scholars and researchers of cultural studies, political science, sociology and social anthropology, media and communication studies, theatre and performance studies, and South Asian studies.

This book critically examines the role and politics of humour and the performance of power in South Asia. What does humour do and how does it manifest when lived political circumstances experience ruptures or instability? Can humour that emerges in such circumstances be viewed as a specific narrative on the nature of democracy in the region? Drawing upon essays from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, this volume discusses many crucial historical and contemporary themes, including dance-drama performances in northern India; caste and stand-up comedy in India; cartoon narratives of citizens’ anxieties; civic participation through social media memes in Sri Lanka; media, politics and humorous public in Bangladesh; the politics of performance in India; and the influence of humour and satire as political commentaries. The volume explores the impact of humour in South Asian folklore, ritual performances, media and journalism, and online technologies.This topical and interdisciplinary book will be essential for scholars and researchers of cultural studies, political science, sociology and social anthropology, media and communication studies, theatre and performance studies, and South Asian studies.

This volume examines urban South Asia through the ideas of neighbourhood and neighbourliness. With a focus on the affective socio-spatial and sensorial experiences of non-metropolitan, small and intermediate cities, the chapters in the volume look at neighbourhoods as a key to exploring the textures of urban life. Bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning, and social history, the book highlights urban heterogeneity and contemporary transformations in South Asia. It discusses the linkages between urban lived spaces and social life; memory, migration, and exile; and the city and its society through practices of everyday life in neighbourhoods. With studies from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India, the volume addresses a wide range of issues pertaining to urban experiences in their regional specificities and in a broader context of the Global South.This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of urban sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning and development, social history, political studies, cultural studies, geography, and South Asian studies. It will also interest practitioners and policymakers, architects, planners, civil society organisations, and thinktanks.

This book critically examines the cultural politics of visuals in South Asia. It makes a key contribution to the study of visuals in the social sciences in South Asia by studying the interplay of the seen and unseen, and the visual and nonvisual. The volume explores interrelated themes including the vernacular visual and visuality, ways of seeing in South Asia and the methodology of hermeneutic sensorium, anxiety and politics of the visuals across the region and the trajectory of visual anthropology, significance of visual symbols and representations in contemporary performances and folk art, visual landscapes of loss and recovery and representation of refugees, visual public in South Asia and making of visuals for contemporary consumptions. The chapters unravel the concepts of visual, visibility, visuality while attending to determinant meta-ideas, such as memory and modernity, trajectories of tradition, fluidity and hybridity, and visual performative politics. Based on interdisciplinary resources, the chapters in this volume present a wide array of empirical findings across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, along with analytical readings of the visual culture of the subcontinent across borders.The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of visual and cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, sociology, political studies, media and communications studies, performance studies, art history, television and film studies, photography studies, and South Asian studies. It will also interest practitioners including artists, visual artists, photographers, filmmakers and media critics.

This volume examines urban South Asia through the ideas of neighbourhood and neighbourliness. With a focus on the affective socio-spatial and sensorial experiences of non-metropolitan, small and intermediate cities, the chapters in the volume look at neighbourhoods as a key to exploring the textures of urban life. Bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning, and social history, the book highlights urban heterogeneity and contemporary transformations in South Asia. It discusses the linkages between urban lived spaces and social life; memory, migration, and exile; and the city and its society through practices of everyday life in neighbourhoods. With studies from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India, the volume addresses a wide range of issues pertaining to urban experiences in their regional specificities and in a broader context of the Global South.This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of urban sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning and development, social history, political studies, cultural studies, geography, and South Asian studies. It will also interest practitioners and policymakers, architects, planners, civil society organisations, and thinktanks.

This book critically examines the cultural politics of visuals in South Asia. It makes a key contribution to the study of visuals in the social sciences in South Asia by studying the interplay of the seen and unseen, and the visual and nonvisual. The volume explores interrelated themes including the vernacular visual and visuality, ways of seeing in South Asia and the methodology of hermeneutic sensorium, anxiety and politics of the visuals across the region and the trajectory of visual anthropology, significance of visual symbols and representations in contemporary performances and folk art, visual landscapes of loss and recovery and representation of refugees, visual public in South Asia and making of visuals for contemporary consumptions. The chapters unravel the concepts of visual, visibility, visuality while attending to determinant meta-ideas, such as memory and modernity, trajectories of tradition, fluidity and hybridity, and visual performative politics. Based on interdisciplinary resources, the chapters in this volume present a wide array of empirical findings across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, along with analytical readings of the visual culture of the subcontinent across borders.The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of visual and cultural studies, social and cultural anthropology, sociology, political studies, media and communications studies, performance studies, art history, television and film studies, photography studies, and South Asian studies. It will also interest practitioners including artists, visual artists, photographers, filmmakers and media critics.

This exceptional anthology brings together a collection of insightful expositions on modern South Asian thinkers and thoughts. Employing an encyclopedic approach, this volume delves deep into the intellectual history of South Asia, transcending traditional academic perspectives and exploring a rich tapestry of ideas from various sources across time. The book departs from the imported ideas of South Asia by delving into the diverse intellectual heritage of the region pertaining to political thinkers, social and cultural thinkers and activists.Historically, the book aids in approaching the enduring social and political challenges in South Asia. Drawing from an extensive array of works, including polemics, commentaries, literary accounts, politics and poetics, modern thoughts in South Asia provide systematic solutions to the perennial issues that shape the region. The curatorial consequence of the modern thoughts from the region, put together in this compendium, is a collective consciousness of South Asia as an offspring of the epistemological interface between region and universe.The readers of this book shall arrive at a profound insight into the social, political and cultural intricacies, the transformative power of ideas and their enduring influence on the development of the region. This book would be useful to students, researchers and teachers working in the field of political science, philosophy, history and sociology, in varied course curricula such as Indian political thought, Eastern philosophy, South Asian thought, political thinkers and modern political thought.

This exceptional anthology brings together a collection of insightful expositions on modern South Asian thinkers and thoughts. Employing an encyclopedic approach, this volume delves deep into the intellectual history of South Asia, transcending traditional academic perspectives and exploring a rich tapestry of ideas from various sources across time. The book departs from the imported ideas of South Asia by delving into the diverse intellectual heritage of the region pertaining to political thinkers, social and cultural thinkers and activists.Historically, the book aids in approaching the enduring social and political challenges in South Asia. Drawing from an extensive array of works, including polemics, commentaries, literary accounts, politics and poetics, modern thoughts in South Asia provide systematic solutions to the perennial issues that shape the region. The curatorial consequence of the modern thoughts from the region, put together in this compendium, is a collective consciousness of South Asia as an offspring of the epistemological interface between region and universe.The readers of this book shall arrive at a profound insight into the social, political and cultural intricacies, the transformative power of ideas and their enduring influence on the development of the region. This book would be useful to students, researchers and teachers working in the field of political science, philosophy, history and sociology, in varied course curricula such as Indian political thought, Eastern philosophy, South Asian thought, political thinkers and modern political thought.

This volume looks at the politics of communication and culture in contemporary South Asia. It explores languages, signs and symbols reflective of current mythologies that underpin instances of performance in present-day India and its neighbouring countries. From gender performances and stage depictions to protest movements, folk songs to cinematic reconstructions and elections to war-torn regions, the chapters in the book bring the multiple voices embedded within the grand theatre of popular performance and the cultural landscape of the region to the fore.Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies and culture studies.

Taking South Asia as its focus, this wide-ranging collection probes the general reluctance of the cultural anthropology to engage with contemporary visual art and artists, including painting, sculpture, performance art and installation.

Compiling various strands of the dis/enchantment with development discourse in contemporary South Asia, with specific focus on the cases from India, this edited book brings together anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and historians to refresh the understanding of development.

Compiling various strands of the dis/enchantment with development discourse in contemporary South Asia, with specific focus on the cases from India, this edited book brings together anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and historians to refresh the understanding of development.

An accessible compendium that puts together the political, social, literary and humanist perspectives of modern thinkers of South Asia.This book is a rare collection of essays on contemporary South Asian thinkers and their ideas. It seeks to introduce readers to the lives and beliefs of these thinkers who come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds such as Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics and Humanities.  The book discusses the works of 61 thinkers from across the region, avoiding both disciplinary and cartographic boundaries. One of the unique features of this text is that it moves away from the confines of traditional Eurocentric understanding of South Asia. Modern South Asian Thinkers will help readers understand the intellectual density of the region in a concise yet engaging manner. Key Features: · Presents thinkers from various backgrounds, disciplines and nations.· Each essay relates thinkers with their location and contemporary surroundings.· Includes selections with sensitivity to nations and narrations.· Each entry is aided by boxed material on trivia, famous quotes and key inferences.