A rich analysis of what this Indian city can tell us about the intersections of religion, civic life, and global transformation.
Established in the middle of the sixteenth century, Bangalore has become in our day a center for high-technology research and production, the new "Silicon Valley" of India, with a metropolitan population approaching six million. It is also the site of the very popular annual performance called the "Karaga" dedicated to Draupadi, the polyandrous wife of the heroes of the pan-Indian epic of the Mahabharata.
Through her analysis of this performance and its significance for the sense of the civic in Bangalore, Smitri Srinivas shows how constructions of locality and globality emerge from existing cultural milieus and how articulations of the urban are modes of cultural self-invention tied to historical, spatial, somatic, and ritual practices. The book hightlights cultural practices embedded in urbanization, and moves beyond economistic arguments about globalization or their reliance on the European polis or the American metropolis as models.
Drawing from urban studies, sociology, anthropology, performance studies, religion, and history, Srinivas's work greatly expands our understanding of how the civic is constructed.
Smriti Srinivas is assistant professor of comparative and cultural studies of religion at Ohio State University.