Spectacle State: How Hindutva Shapes Feeling and Culture (Paperback)

In today's India, power does not only govern -it marches, blares, dances and displays itself in colour, sound and action. From the beat of the drum and the glare of the loudspeaker to the rise of the bulldozer and the spread of the angry Hanuman, politics and power surrounds us - intense, sensorial and immediate. In Spectacle State, Brahma Prakash looks at the contemporary Right beyond speeches and slogans and moves through a series of vivid scenes from everyday life, to show how emotion and feelings have been claimed by the Right. It is in this charged liminal space that violence appears in the garb of celebration, hate as preservation of self-identity, and devotion as display. Moving between village processions, street performances, monuments, music and festivals, Spectacle State traces fear, pride, anger, piety are produced and circulated through the most innocuous of things. In the end, it asks: What happens when power, politics and hate batter the thin walls between culture and religion to produce a new language for a whole country?