Casting Kings

Bards and Indian Modernity

Bibliographic Data

ID7098856
AuthorsJ G Snodgra (0000-0003-2725-8063, Colorado State University, corresponding author), Jeffrey G Snodgrass (Colorado State University)
Year2006
Pages226
Publication date2006-08-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueCasting kings (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressNew York (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/0195304349.001.0001
OpenAlexW4235598515
Open LibraryOL3415590M
ISBN9780195304343
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited113

Based on three years of anthropological fieldwork in the Indian state of Rajasthan, this book explores the manner that semi-nomadic performers known as Bhats understand and also subvert caste hierarchies. A number of scholars have recently contended that caste is invented and thus a fiction of a kind. Focus in these studies, however, is typically placed on the way that caste is imagined according to the agendas and desires of elite Westerners such as colonial officials. By contrast, this book argues that Bhats themselves understand the imaginative dimensions of caste relations. It focuses on the way that Bhats (literally, “Bards”) now entertain a variety of contemporary sponsors — village patrons, foreign and domestic tourists, urban elites, government officials, development experts, and Hindu nationalists — with ballads, epics, and puppet plays detailing the exploits of Rajasthan’s long-dead kings and heroes. As the book delves deeper into the complexities and contradictions of Bhat art, identity, and political resistance, the complexities and contradictions of modern India are likewise revealed

Aesthetics · Art · Caste · Colonialism · Elite · Genealogy · Hinduism · Identity (music · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Bhats · Chamār (South Asian people) · Chamārs · India · Rajasthan