Ronie Parciack
Biographic Data
| ID | 1050405 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ronie Parciack |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ronie |
| FAMILY NAME | Parciack |
| SIGNATURE | PARCIACK R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tel Aviv University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0544-292X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Re-writing the bleeding body of a sacred polity: The notion of the abject in Delhi’s 2020 anti-CAA protest art images
This article addresses the ways in which multiple dynamisms associated with the notion of the abject permeated protest art against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that was signed into law by the Indian Parliament in early December 2019. It analyzes visual findings I documented from 11 protest sites that operated in the Indian capital from December 2019 to late March 2020. My analysis offers political interpretations of Julia Kristeva’s notion…
Demeaned subjects, fragmented objects and the state in Hindi crime-porn magazines
This article addresses Hindi crime-porn magazines that are mostly distributed in makeshift stalls in cities and railway stations in Central and Northern India. This scene involves formal and informal layers, actors and writing styles, creating a series of disparities within and between literal and visual planes, and forming an apparatus within which, above all, state agents and signifiers are employed: policemen, the courts, legislation and polit…
Jugaad Authorities: Hyperlocal Peers and Trajectories of Vernacular Power in Contemporary Delhi
This article analyzes the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi's urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognit…
Defeat and Glory: Social Media, Neoliberalism and the Transnational Tragedy of a Divinized Baba
This essay addresses the intersection between the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok and Pinterest social media platforms and a contemporary religious leader/teacher who exploited them to rise from subalternity to the status of a deified celebrity. It examines his underprivileged disciples and followers and rival formal and informal levels, within Indian Sufi circles. Employing a combined perspective of ethnography, media studies and textual a…
Modern Sufis and the State: The Politics of Islam in South Asia and Beyond, edited by Katherine Pratt Ewing and Rosemary R. Corbett
Modern Sufis and the State: The Politics of Islam in South Asia and Beyond, edited by Katherine Pratt Ewing and Rosemary R. Corbett. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. 360 pp., £108 (hb), £28 (pb). ISBN 9780231195744 (hb), 9780231195751 (pb)
Edgeways Logic: The Space and Language of In-betweenness in New Delhi’s Roadside Shrines
This article focuses on the vernacular spaces of roadside tombs—or mazaars—of anonymous saints (commonly referred to as ‘Zinda Pir Baba’) in the heart of the contemporary Indian capital, New Delhi. These mazaars are located along the megacity's main roads and constitute a shared space where Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs perform rituals in ways that do not classify or identify them as members of rival religious communities. The custodians of grave-sh…
Jugaad Authorities: Hyperlocal Peers and Trajectories of Vernacular Power in Contemporary Delhi
This article analyses the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi’s urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognit…
Hierarchy into Heterarchy: Reshuffling the Cards of Authority in Urban Spaces between India and the Hijaz
This article addresses the heterarchical dynamism generated by the reorganization of sacred geographies in India and the Arabian Peninsula through contemporary iconographies and religious practices. The cities at the top of the orthodox Islamic/Arab sacred, authoritative hierarchy have lost their status in the current Indian context both concretely and symbolically, and have become equated, embedded, or subordinated to the Indian space. This dyna…
No Offence: Communal Vulnerability, Law and Versatility in a Vernacular Indo-Islamic Context
This essay addresses canonisation accounts of the medieval Muslim saint Hazrat Sharafuddin Hyderabadi. According to a contemporary text, a Hindu deity was believed to have been jettisoned from the saint’s dargah, causing communal unrest in the Deccan. How can a Muslim saint be enshrined through offence in a Hindu environment, and how does this create a discourse of both rifts and bridges between Hinduism and Islam in contemporary India? The analy…
Borderline Nationalism: Restructuring the Wagah–Attari Border ‘Retreat Ceremony’ and Its Media Representations
The daily ‘Retreat Ceremony’ held at the Wagah–Attari border between Pakistan and India evokes questions regarding Indo–Pak relations, their public display and the dynamic mix of hostility versus reciprocal collaboration the ceremony demonstrates. Over the past couple of years, the Indian border zone at Attari has undergone major changes affecting both its spatial design and commerce in the local bazaars. Between 2011 and 2015, video compact disc…
Brahmanic Codes and Sanskrit Vocabulary in the Political Language of Islamic Preaching in Contemporary India
This article addresses the permeation of Brahmanic codes and Sanskrit vocabulary into popular Islamic preaching (da’wah), addressing the affinity of Indian Muslims to the contemporary Indian nation-state. Although the discourse of nationalism is customarily associated with secularization, and modern India is constitutionally defined as a secular democracy, the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationhood) formed a unique discourse of nationalism that b…
Islamicdeshbhakti: Inscribing a Sufi shrine into the Indian nation-space
This article presents an analysis of an iconographical series that has recently emerged in video compact discs (VCDs) devoted to Sufi Chishtiyya shrines (dargahs) in central and north India. This series superimposes the image of the important shrine of Ajmer onto the map of India, hinting at and employing the popular iconography of Goddess Bharat Mata, especially in its relatively recent versions employed by the Hindu right as a significant agent…
The realm of the polemic: Special issue on terror and media
A gaping chasm lies between the original context in which the concept of terror was defined and the ways this term is employed in contemporary socio-cultural frameworks. Whereas diverse forms of vi
Terror as cinematic desire: Discourses of citizenry and the challenge of the ‘Non-Statist’
This essay addresses a radical trope formulated in films produced as of the mid-1990s by the dominant Hindi film industry of Mumbai, India. In these films terrorists or suicide bombers who aim to harm the Indian population and national symbols are constituted as objects of desire. Given the assumption according to which mainstream media works to preserve social frameworks, what is the significance of such a trope? What is signified by a desire fo…
Jugaad Authorities: Hyperlocal Peers and Trajectories of Vernacular Power in Contemporary Delhi
This article analyses the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi’s urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognit…
Defeat and Glory: Social Media, Neoliberalism and the Transnational Tragedy of a Divinized Baba
This essay addresses the intersection between the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok and Pinterest social media platforms and a contemporary religious leader/teacher who exploited them to rise from subalternity to the status of a deified celebrity. It examines his underprivileged disciples and followers and rival formal and informal levels, within Indian Sufi circles. Employing a combined perspective of ethnography, media studies and textual a…
Islamicdeshbhakti: Inscribing a Sufi shrine into the Indian nation-space
This article presents an analysis of an iconographical series that has recently emerged in video compact discs (VCDs) devoted to Sufi Chishtiyya shrines (dargahs) in central and north India. This series superimposes the image of the important shrine of Ajmer onto the map of India, hinting at and employing the popular iconography of Goddess Bharat Mata, especially in its relatively recent versions employed by the Hindu right as a significant agent…
The realm of the polemic: Special issue on terror and media
A gaping chasm lies between the original context in which the concept of terror was defined and the ways this term is employed in contemporary socio-cultural frameworks. Whereas diverse forms of vi
Terror as cinematic desire: Discourses of citizenry and the challenge of the ‘Non-Statist’
This essay addresses a radical trope formulated in films produced as of the mid-1990s by the dominant Hindi film industry of Mumbai, India. In these films terrorists or suicide bombers who aim to harm the Indian population and national symbols are constituted as objects of desire. Given the assumption according to which mainstream media works to preserve social frameworks, what is the significance of such a trope? What is signified by a desire fo…
Islamicdeshbhakti: Inscribing a Sufi shrine into the Indian nation-space
This article presents an analysis of an iconographical series that has recently emerged in video compact discs (VCDs) devoted to Sufi Chishtiyya shrines (dargahs) in central and north India. This series superimposes the image of the important shrine of Ajmer onto the map of India, hinting at and employing the popular iconography of Goddess Bharat Mata, especially in its relatively recent versions employed by the Hindu right as a significant agent…
Brahmanic Codes and Sanskrit Vocabulary in the Political Language of Islamic Preaching in Contemporary India
This article addresses the permeation of Brahmanic codes and Sanskrit vocabulary into popular Islamic preaching (da’wah), addressing the affinity of Indian Muslims to the contemporary Indian nation-state. Although the discourse of nationalism is customarily associated with secularization, and modern India is constitutionally defined as a secular democracy, the ideology of Hindutva (Hindu Nationhood) formed a unique discourse of nationalism that b…
Borderline Nationalism: Restructuring the Wagah–Attari Border ‘Retreat Ceremony’ and Its Media Representations
The daily ‘Retreat Ceremony’ held at the Wagah–Attari border between Pakistan and India evokes questions regarding Indo–Pak relations, their public display and the dynamic mix of hostility versus reciprocal collaboration the ceremony demonstrates. Over the past couple of years, the Indian border zone at Attari has undergone major changes affecting both its spatial design and commerce in the local bazaars. Between 2011 and 2015, video compact disc…
No Offence: Communal Vulnerability, Law and Versatility in a Vernacular Indo-Islamic Context
This essay addresses canonisation accounts of the medieval Muslim saint Hazrat Sharafuddin Hyderabadi. According to a contemporary text, a Hindu deity was believed to have been jettisoned from the saint’s dargah, causing communal unrest in the Deccan. How can a Muslim saint be enshrined through offence in a Hindu environment, and how does this create a discourse of both rifts and bridges between Hinduism and Islam in contemporary India? The analy…
Modern Sufis and the State: The Politics of Islam in South Asia and Beyond, edited by Katherine Pratt Ewing and Rosemary R. Corbett
Modern Sufis and the State: The Politics of Islam in South Asia and Beyond, edited by Katherine Pratt Ewing and Rosemary R. Corbett. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. 360 pp., £108 (hb), £28 (pb). ISBN 9780231195744 (hb), 9780231195751 (pb)
Edgeways Logic: The Space and Language of In-betweenness in New Delhi’s Roadside Shrines
This article focuses on the vernacular spaces of roadside tombs—or mazaars—of anonymous saints (commonly referred to as ‘Zinda Pir Baba’) in the heart of the contemporary Indian capital, New Delhi. These mazaars are located along the megacity's main roads and constitute a shared space where Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs perform rituals in ways that do not classify or identify them as members of rival religious communities. The custodians of grave-sh…
Jugaad Authorities: Hyperlocal Peers and Trajectories of Vernacular Power in Contemporary Delhi
This article analyses the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi’s urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognit…
Hierarchy into Heterarchy: Reshuffling the Cards of Authority in Urban Spaces between India and the Hijaz
This article addresses the heterarchical dynamism generated by the reorganization of sacred geographies in India and the Arabian Peninsula through contemporary iconographies and religious practices. The cities at the top of the orthodox Islamic/Arab sacred, authoritative hierarchy have lost their status in the current Indian context both concretely and symbolically, and have become equated, embedded, or subordinated to the Indian space. This dyna…
Jugaad Authorities: Hyperlocal Peers and Trajectories of Vernacular Power in Contemporary Delhi
This article analyzes the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi's urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognit…
Defeat and Glory: Social Media, Neoliberalism and the Transnational Tragedy of a Divinized Baba
This essay addresses the intersection between the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok and Pinterest social media platforms and a contemporary religious leader/teacher who exploited them to rise from subalternity to the status of a deified celebrity. It examines his underprivileged disciples and followers and rival formal and informal levels, within Indian Sufi circles. Employing a combined perspective of ethnography, media studies and textual a…
Demeaned subjects, fragmented objects and the state in Hindi crime-porn magazines
This article addresses Hindi crime-porn magazines that are mostly distributed in makeshift stalls in cities and railway stations in Central and Northern India. This scene involves formal and informal layers, actors and writing styles, creating a series of disparities within and between literal and visual planes, and forming an apparatus within which, above all, state agents and signifiers are employed: policemen, the courts, legislation and polit…
Re-writing the bleeding body of a sacred polity: The notion of the abject in Delhi’s 2020 anti-CAA protest art images
This article addresses the ways in which multiple dynamisms associated with the notion of the abject permeated protest art against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that was signed into law by the Indian Parliament in early December 2019. It analyzes visual findings I documented from 11 protest sites that operated in the Indian capital from December 2019 to late March 2020. My analysis offers political interpretations of Julia Kristeva’s notion…
Sociology (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · History (9 works) · South Asian Cinema and Culture (9 works) · History (8 works) · Media studies (8 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (7 works) · Politics (7 works)