Empowering Visions: The Politics of Representation in Hindu NationalismIllustrated throughout with over 80 full colour images, Empowering Visions explores the role of images and mass media in Hindutva, the cultural-nationalist movement that moved to the forefront of politics in India in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The author investigates when, why and in what way the moving image, and videos in particular, came to play a central role in the process of self-representation and self-constitution of Hindu nationalist groups and organizations in the overlapping domains of politics, religion and economics.The videos analysed here have been included in massive public political spectacles such as election rallies and patriotic pilgrimages. They have also been employed for in-house indoctrination and emotive mobilization of militant cadres for temporary, often violent, agitation. With the help of these media, different political and cultural-religious organizations, subsumed under the umbrella of Hindutva, have attempted to constitute notions of 'Indianness' as 'Hinduness', to challenge and provoke both the government in power and specific minority groups such as the Muslims in India. How this was done, who stood behind the making of the videos and how they were made up and distributed, are questions that lie at the heart of this study. At a time when public attention is focused on transnational, and mostly Islamicist movements, "Empowering Visions" argues that both transnationalism and nationalism have to be treated with equal attention, and to some extent ought to be seen as intertwined processes. This book is unique in its presentation and discussion of profound ethnographic data through interviews with a variety of spokesmen for the Hindutva movement. It also offers an in-depth analysis of visual and audio-visual material that has so far been unrecognized and unexplored in scholarly works. |
Contents
The Brotherhood Footage of RSS drill performance | 2 |
Introduction 1 | 3 |
Jain Studios on the Meandering Stairway to Success | 15 |
Chapter 2 | 44 |
Z Translating Metaphors of NationBuilding | 55 |
of a Chief Minister | 59 |
Manifestation of the peoples will A demonstration | 68 |
Ongoing battles for selfdefense and awakening Drawing | 74 |
Hindutvas Media Phantasmagorias | 95 |
place and displacement | 131 |
The Truth shall not be touched | 181 |
a passion play of martyrdom | 279 |
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Common terms and phrases
agents ain Studios ain’s alleged appeal audiences audiovisual Ayodhya controversy Babri mosque Bajrang Dal battle Bharat Mata BIP’s campaign cartography Chapter claim colonial commentary concept context create cultural Delhi depicted devotion discourse discussed display domain economic election EMPOWERING VISIONS enhance Figure film footage Gandhi Hindu nation Hindutva ideologues Hindutva rhetoric Hindutva spokespeople I K Iain Iain’s iconography idea identity images imagined Jain kar sevaks Kashmir L K Advani landscape leaders linked Lord Ram martyrdom martyrs means media technologies metaphors mobilization montage Mother India MOTHER INDIA’S HEROIC Mughal Muslims narrative nationalist particular party people’s Personal interview political popular presented production Rahul rajya Ram’s Ramjanmabhoomi Rath Yatra RE-MAKING HISTORY RE—MAPPING THE NATION—SPACE reference reflects religious representation ritual role sacred Sangh Parivar scene secular Singh social society strategies Studios videos symbolic television territory transformation Unity Pilgrimage video media video technology viewer violence visual voice'over