The Politics of Cultural Mobilization in India

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Issues of culture and identity and the predominance of coalition politics, as exemplified by the rise of Hindu nationalism and its presence as a feature of the National Democratic Alliance, have been the tow most salient features of Indian politics in the last two decades. This book examines these two phenomena, the linkages between them, and the impact they have had on India's polity and society.

In exploring cultural and regionalist incursions towards the political mobilization of people, this volume asks if it is legitimate to associate these two trends with each other. The papers here investigate this association and the possibilities for rethinking the relationship between politics and culture.

The interaction of culture and politics has often led to dramatic and violent images that have attracted international attention, while intellectually they have stimulated a wide and free ranging debate about what India is, and who Indians are or ought to be. Such debates reflect not just the rise of religious and regional parties, but also the attempts by their opponents to co-opt their use of cultural symbolism and local specificities in order to defeat them politically.

The essays present diverse ways in which organizations and movements have driven, capitalized upon, and been influenced by the dynamic development of culture and identity to bring about political mobilization in India.(p) This volume will be of immense interest to students and scholars of politics, history, sociology, religion, and culture studies in addition to a general audience.

About the Author:

John Zavos is Lecturer in South Asian Studies, University of Manchester and has authored The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in India (OUP, 2000).

Andrew Wyatt is Lecturer in Politics at University of Bristol, and Vernon Hewitt is Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Bristol, UK.