Thobani
Biographic Data
| ID | 22221 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thobani |
| FAMILY NAME | Thobani |
| SIGNATURE | THOBANI |
| AFFILIATIONS | Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8697-2753 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Indelible Phantasms: Race, Orientalism, and the Global Production of the Devadasi
The figure of the “Indian” dancer—depicted variously in the image of the devadasi, the “nautch dancer,” and the bayadere—has long captured imaginations on both sides of the colonial divide. In this chapter, I historicize manifestations of this figure to reveal processes for the ongoing production of the generalized figure of the devadasi and, by extension, the figure of the nautch dancer with whom the devadasi has been and continues to be so ofte…
Mapping Hindutva's coordinates: Global Formations of Nationalist Space
This paper studies the religious and spatial politics of contemporary Hindu nationalism through an examination of the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, India, and the Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, UK. Whereas the Neasden Temple is celebrated as a diasporic accomplishment that testifies to British multiculturalism, the Ayodhya temple has been mired by controversy and marred in violence that has spanned decades. Despite these differences…
Locating the Tawa’if Courtesan-Dancer: Cinematic Constructions of Religion and Nation
The development of the Hindi/Urdu cinema is intimately connected to the history of artistic performance in India in two important ways. Not only did hereditary music and dance practitioners play key roles in building this cinema, representations of these performers and their practices have been, and continue to be, the subject of Indian film narratives, genres, and tropes. I begin with this history in order to explore the Muslim religio-cultural …
Decolonising Indian classical dance? Projects of reform, classical to contemporary
Now contained under the rubric ‘classical’, several dance practices in India underwent significant ‘reconstruction’ in the heyday of twentieth-century anti-colonial politics reliant upon the nationalist claim of a cohesive cultural identity. Such restoration of prestige to a supposedly denigrated cultural practice offered a positive ‘artistic’ counterpoint to alleviate nationalist anxieties regarding the purity of the nation and the uniqueness of…
Alt-Right with the Hindu-right: Long-distance nationalism and the perfection of Hindutva
In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump drew international media attention in India and the US for their political mobilizing for the Republican candidate. In this paper, I examine the political campaigns of "Hindus for Trump" and its affiliated groups to analyse the diverse ways in which these diasporic activists engage in and advance a number of distinct nationalist projects simultaneous…
Living History, Performing Coloniality: Towards a Postcolonial Ethnography
Alt-Right with the Hindu-right: Long-distance nationalism and the perfection of Hindutva
In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump drew international media attention in India and the US for their political mobilizing for the Republican candidate. In this paper, I examine the political campaigns of "Hindus for Trump" and its affiliated groups to analyse the diverse ways in which these diasporic activists engage in and advance a number of distinct nationalist projects simultaneous…
Mapping Hindutva's coordinates: Global Formations of Nationalist Space
This paper studies the religious and spatial politics of contemporary Hindu nationalism through an examination of the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, India, and the Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, UK. Whereas the Neasden Temple is celebrated as a diasporic accomplishment that testifies to British multiculturalism, the Ayodhya temple has been mired by controversy and marred in violence that has spanned decades. Despite these differences…
Living History, Performing Coloniality: Towards a Postcolonial Ethnography
Decolonising Indian classical dance? Projects of reform, classical to contemporary
Now contained under the rubric ‘classical’, several dance practices in India underwent significant ‘reconstruction’ in the heyday of twentieth-century anti-colonial politics reliant upon the nationalist claim of a cohesive cultural identity. Such restoration of prestige to a supposedly denigrated cultural practice offered a positive ‘artistic’ counterpoint to alleviate nationalist anxieties regarding the purity of the nation and the uniqueness of…
Alt-Right with the Hindu-right: Long-distance nationalism and the perfection of Hindutva
In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump drew international media attention in India and the US for their political mobilizing for the Republican candidate. In this paper, I examine the political campaigns of "Hindus for Trump" and its affiliated groups to analyse the diverse ways in which these diasporic activists engage in and advance a number of distinct nationalist projects simultaneous…
Locating the Tawa’if Courtesan-Dancer: Cinematic Constructions of Religion and Nation
The development of the Hindi/Urdu cinema is intimately connected to the history of artistic performance in India in two important ways. Not only did hereditary music and dance practitioners play key roles in building this cinema, representations of these performers and their practices have been, and continue to be, the subject of Indian film narratives, genres, and tropes. I begin with this history in order to explore the Muslim religio-cultural …
Mapping Hindutva's coordinates: Global Formations of Nationalist Space
This paper studies the religious and spatial politics of contemporary Hindu nationalism through an examination of the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, India, and the Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden, UK. Whereas the Neasden Temple is celebrated as a diasporic accomplishment that testifies to British multiculturalism, the Ayodhya temple has been mired by controversy and marred in violence that has spanned decades. Despite these differences…
Indelible Phantasms: Race, Orientalism, and the Global Production of the Devadasi
The figure of the “Indian” dancer—depicted variously in the image of the devadasi, the “nautch dancer,” and the bayadere—has long captured imaginations on both sides of the colonial divide. In this chapter, I historicize manifestations of this figure to reveal processes for the ongoing production of the generalized figure of the devadasi and, by extension, the figure of the nautch dancer with whom the devadasi has been and continues to be so ofte…
Sociology (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Nationalism (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · South Asian Cinema and Culture (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works) · Art (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Hinduism (3 works)