Consuming Modernity Public Culture in a South Asian World Carol A. Breckenridge, editor Table of Contents		$22.50 Paper ISBN: 0-8166-2306-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2306-8 $67.50 Cloth ISBN: 0-8166-2305-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2305-1
Consuming Modernity illustrates that what is distinctive of any particular society is not the fact of its modernity, but rather its own unique debates about modernity. Behind the embattled arena of culture in India, for example, lie particular social and political interests such as the growing middle class; the entrepreneurs and commercial institutions; and the state. The contributors address the roles of these various intertwined interests in the making of India's public culture, each examining different sites of consumption. The sites they explore include cinema, radio, cricket, restaurants, and tourism. Consuming Modernity also makes clear the differences among public, mass, and popular culture. Contributors include Arjun Appadurai, Frank F. Conlon, Sara Dickey, Paul Greenough, David Lelyveld, Barbara N. Ramusack, Rosie Thomas, Phillip B. Zarrilli. Carol Breckenridge teaches at the University of Chicago. She is coeditor, with Peter van der Veer, of Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament, and editor of the journal Public Culture. 224 pages | 5 7/8 x 9 | 8 photographs, 3 line drawings | 1995 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 1. Public Modernity in India Arjun Appadurai and Carol A. Breckenridge Part 1. The Historical Past 2. Playing with Modernity: The Decolonization of the Indian Cricket Arjun Appadurai 3. Upon the Subdominant: Administering Music on All-Indian Radio David Lelyveld 4. The Indian Princes as Fantasy: Palace Hotels, Palace Museums, and Palace on Wheels Barbara N. Ramusack 5. Dining Out in Bombay Frank F. Conlon Part II. The Historical Present 6. Consuming Utopia: Film Watching in Tamil Nadu Sara Dickey 7. Melodrama and the Negotiation of Morality in Mainstream Hindi Film Rosie Thomas 8. Repositioning the Body, Practice, Power, and Self in an Indian Martial Art Phillip B. Zarrilli 9. Nation, Economy, and Tradition Displayed: The Indian Crafts Museum, New Delhi Paul Greenough Contributors Index