The Spell of the Cult and the Rites of the Republic: The Shows of the Spectacle State under Hindutva
SOAS University of London, Bloomsbury
About
A seminar talk asking how Hindutva turns festivals into spectacles of power. Writer and cultural theorist Dr. Brahma Prakash, who teaches theatre and performance studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, draws on his book 'Spectacle State: How Hindutva Shapes Feeling and Culture'. He argues that Hindutva reorganises traditional rituals and festivals, from the Kumbh mela to the Kawariya procession, and sacralises the secular values of the republic, for example turning the Constitution into a ceremonial object and citizens into a divine citizen. This ritualisation empties out those values, letting the state prioritise ceremony and symbolic discourse over real socio-political questions.
Written by a model, sources: soas.ac.uk
Venue
SOAS University of London is in London’s Bloomsbury.
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