Centrepiece


Book Description

This book brings you a wealth of stories, in words and images, from a part of India known as the Northeast, a term that is widely contested for the ways in which it homogenizes a region of great diversity. It is also a term that has come to be a marker of identity and solidarity by many who are of the region. Here, 21 writers and artists look at the idea of ‘work’ — from street hawking to beer brewing, from mothering to dung collection — and describe their lives or those of others with humour and compassion. Parismita Singh’s wonderful compilation of the works of women asks: what are the different ways of telling a story? What if we were to attempt these tellings through poetry and portraits and essays, older traditions like textile art and applique and new genres like hashtag poetry tapped into a smartphone? Where would it take us, what would the world look like?




The Arts


Book Description

The Bliss Bibliographic Classification Association is an association of users and supporters of the Bibliographic Classification. The association promotes the development and use of classification, publishes official amendments, enables users to keep in touch and exchange experience, and gives them a say in the future of the scheme. It is a non-profit organization, founded in 1969, with members all over the world. Each of the following schedules is the result of a rigorous and detailed analysis of the terminology of the field in question, using the techniques of facet analysis.




Literatures from Northeast India


Book Description

This book showcases the diverse literary traditions from India’s Northeast and their shared connections and lineages. It critically analyses a selection of literary works from authors and poets from this region and the hegemonies of language, ethnicity and politics that have framed these voices. As a region with rich cultural and ethnolinguistic diversity, Northeast India’s literature is representative of varied histories, languages, socio-cultural and religious practices. The book highlights the distinct use of language, forms, cultural symbols and metaphors which articulates the unique experiences of conflict, beauty and culture in this area. Focussing on the translingual and transcultural aspects of these literary works it examines the dynamics between literature, language and their socio-cultural influences. The book pays attention to themes of representation, identity and power to showcase voices and perspectives of dissent, criticism and introspection. It explores contemporary critical approaches to literature from the Northeast, by re-examining the idea of the centre and the periphery and the position of subaltern literary voices. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of literature, language, cultural studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.




Materiality and Visuality in North East India


Book Description

This edited book set in the context of North East India explores issues concerning symbols, meanings, representations, and social implications of materiality and visuality, as well as the dynamics of power, social reproduction, ideological dominance and knowledge production, from an interdisciplinary perspective. It seeks to answer the question of why some things matter more than others or what happens when certain things are made more visible than others. The book provides valuable insights into the process of identity construction through the use of cultural sources, both material and visual. Following on the debates/discussions on material and visual culture in the 1970s and 1980s, the book argues that instead of viewing objects as mere representation(s), one should see them as active agents in creating perceptions, bodily practices, discourses and perceptions of our social world. Each chapter in the book unravels and engages with these pertinent issues in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the status quo. The book is of interest to scholars of ethnicity, identity construction, politics and state, cultural studies, media studies, visual, social and cultural anthropology and sociology, as well as lay readers who want to learn more about the region.




Contemporary Citizenship, Art, and Visual Culture


Book Description

Taking citizenship as a political position, cultural process, and intertwining of both, this edited volume examines the role of visual art and visual culture as sites for the construction and contestation of both state-sanctioned and cultural citizenships from the late 1970s to today. Contributors to this book examine an assortment of visual media—painting, sculpture, photography, performance, the built environment, new media, and social practice—within diverse and international communities, such as the United States, South Africa, Turkey, and New Zealand. Topics addressed include, but are not limited to, citizenship in terms of: nation building, civic practices, border zones, transnationalism, statelessness, and affects of belonging as well as alternate forms of, or resistance to, citizenship.




Cultural Forms and Practices in Northeast India


Book Description

The present book examines cultural diversities of Northeast India. The sixteen essays included in the volume cover various aspects of cultural forms and their practices among the communities of Northeast. The present volume is expected to serve as a bridge between vanishing cultural forms and their commodification, on the one hand, and their cultural ritual origins, evolution and significance in identity formation, on the other. The book analyses continuity of cultural forms, their representations and often their reinventions under globalisation. Further, the book underlines historical forces such as colonialism and religious conversion that have transformed communities and their cultural practices. Yet some of the pre-colonial, ritual-performative traditions hold on. Through insightful analyses, this book offers an informed view of the region’s historical, ethnic and cultural practices. It is expected that the volume will be useful for scholars and students interested in Northeast studies.




Area Handbook for India


Book Description




The Arts


Book Description

No detailed description available for "The Arts".




Area Handbook for India


Book Description

The purpose of this Area Handbook for India is to describe briefly and in general terms the political, economic and social basis of Indian society, to outline its domestic and foreign policies and to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. The present study represents a thorough revision of the Human Relations Area Files Area Handbook for India, which was issued in 1958, to consider the fundamental changes which have taken place and to utilize the many source materials which have become available since the earlier study was published. It supersedes the Interim Revision to the Area Handbook for India, published in March 1963 to fill the immediate need for an updated edition of the original Handbook pending the completion of the full revision. (Author)