What are the implications when one takes the individual as the basic unit of analysis? Specifically, how does such an analysis relate to notions such as caste and race? If human beings are assumed to be equal in value by virtue of the very fact that they are humans, then it is the individual that must be taken as the unit of analysis, and not blanket concepts such as civilisations or religions. An analysis based on civilisations, for example, fails to acknowledge humans as equals and potential agents of change, by default.
This reading list attempts to explore the new politics of belonging in India and intends to reflect on the present socio-political fractures that consequently arise, and explore alternative ways of looking at belonging.
While the repertoire of erotic performance of lavani has developed largely for male consumption, the recent emergence of women-only spectators of lavani is unusual and puzzling. How has lavani missed the moral outrage over the articulations of female sexual desire that pervades the public domain? This paper discusses how the possibilities for transgression of heteronormative desire in this phenomenon are complicated by caste and class divisions, the work–leisure binary, and the politics of the folk. It seeks to uncover the contested process of stigmatisation of lavani as vulgar and its simultaneous celebration as the folk which is embedded in the formation of lavani audiences.
Miya poetry is a genre of poems written by Bengal-origin Muslims that highlight the angst of a community that has struggled hard to integrate and assimilate with the larger Axamiya society. In this paper I argue that an analysis of Miya poetry must be placed within the larger context of identity contestation of Bengal-origin Muslims. Accordingly, Miya poetry seeks to stabilise the contested identity of this community by reappropriating the stigmatised social identity of Miya.
Identity upholds a symbol of privilege and purity on the one hand and, on the other, is also a label that represents the stigma of pollution and indignity. Both these forms of identity construct the idea of identity politics. Identity establishes an idea and idea constructs an identity, both become indistinguishable in a political discourse that works at different levels in society. This is the dichotomy of the theory of recognition that is explored in this article.
The Making of Regions in Indian History: Society, State and Identity in Premodern Odisha by Bhairabi Prasad Sahu, Delhi: Primus Books, 2020; pp xvi + 274, ₹1,095.
While critical scholarship, across disciplines, has analysed the link between heritage and exclusive group identity, how is this pairing constructed in the everyday, as an ongoing process?
