Breaking new ground, this volume explores the relationship between popular pleasure and the construction of the nation of India. Subjects covered in this volume range from nineteenth-century popular mythological tracts to Hindi and Tamil films and the fan clubs and gossip magazines that sustain this hugely important aspect of Indian life.
Introduction: Public, Popular, and Other Cultures
1
(35)
Christopher Pinney
Visions of the Nation: Theorizing the Nexus between Creation, Consumption, and Participation in the Public Sphere
35
(41)
Sandria B. Freitag
The Indar Sabha Phenomenon: Public Theatre and Consumption in Greater India (1853--1956)
76
(39)
Kathryn Hansen
The Tale of the Book: Storytelling and Print in Nineteenth-century Tamil
115
(24)
Stuart Blackburn
Invitation to an Antique Death: The Journey of Pramathesh Barua as the Origin of the Terribly Effeminate, Maudlin, Self-destructive Heroes of Indian Cinema
139
(22)
Ashis Nandy
The Home and the Nation: Consuming Culture and Politics in Roja
161
(25)
Nicholas B. Dirks
Bombay and Its Public
186
(26)
Ravi S. Vasudevan
Opposing Faces: Film Star Fan Clubs and the Construction of Class Identities in South India
212
(35)
Sara Dickey
Shooting Stars: The Indian Film Magazine, Stardust
247
(39)
Rachel Dwyer
Hidden Pleasures: Negotiating the Myth of the Female Ideal in Popular Hindi Cinema
286
(23)
Asha Kasbekar
Imagining the Family: An Ethnography of Viewing Hum Aapke Hain Koun . . .!
