Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World
By (Author) Carol A. Breckenridge
University of Minnesota Press
University of Minnesota Press
1st October 1995
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Anthropology
306.0954
Paperback
272
Width 149mm, Height 229mm, Spine 15mm
The book aims to illustrate that what is distinctive about any particular society is not the fact of its modernity, but rather its own unique debates about modernity. Behind the embattled arena of culture in India, for example, lie particular social and political interests such as the growing middle class, the entrepreneurs and commercial institutions, and the state. The contributors address the roles of these various intertwined interests in the making of India's public culture, each examining different sites of consumption. The sites which are explored include cinema, radio, cricket, restaurants and tourism. The book also makes distinct the differences among public, mass and popular culture.