Landscapes Of Urban Memory
The Sacred and the Civic in India’s High-Tech City
A rich analysis of religion, civic life, and global transformation in India.
360 Pages, 6 x 9 in
- Paperback
- 9780816636167
- Published: August 10, 2001
- Series: Globalization and Community
Details
Landscapes Of Urban Memory
The Sacred and the Civic in India’s High-Tech City
Series: Globalization and Community
ISBN: 9780816636167
Publication date: August 10th, 2001
360 Pages
9 x 5
A rich analysis of religion, civic life, and global transformation in India.
Established in the middle of the sixteenth century, Bangalore has today become a center for high-technology research and production, the new “Silicon Valley” of India, with a metropolitan population approaching six million. It is also the site of the very popular annual performance called the “Karaga” dedicated to Draupadi, the polyandrous wife of the heroes of the pan-Indian epic of the Mahabharata.
Through her analysis of this performance and its significance for the sense of the civic in Bangalore, Smriti Srinivas shows how constructions of locality and globality emerge from existing cultural milieus and how articulations of the urban are modes of cultural self-invention tied to historical, spatial, somatic, and ritual practices. The book highlights cultural practices embedded in urbanization, and moves beyond economistic arguments about globalization or their reliance on the European polis or the American metropolis as models.
Drawing from urban studies, sociology, anthropology, performance studies, religion, and history, Landscapes of Urban Memory greatly expands our understanding of how the civic is constructed.
Smriti Srinivas is assistant professor of comparative and cultural studies of religion at Ohio State University.