Pop culture India! : media, arts, and lifestyle / Asha Kasbekar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kasbekar, Asha.

Series:

Popular culture in the contemporary world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--India.

Popular culture.

Popular culture--Social aspects.

Popular culture--Economic aspects.

India.

Popular culture--Economic aspects--India.

Popular culture--Social aspects--India.

Religion and culture--India.

Religion and culture.

Physical Description:

xx, 336 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm.

Place of Publication:

Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, [2006]

Summary:

Even more than the United States, India revels in its popular culture. It is the world's leading producer of movies (Bollywood employs over one million workers) and music (from rock to raga), and its people are every bit as addicted to sports, television, and pop culture as Americans. Pop Culture India! is a captivating introduction to a diverse nation whose appetite for entertainment has led to some surprising twists and turns in recent history.

Pop Culture India! follows the rise of modern India's pop culture world, especially since the 1980s, when relaxed censorship and economic liberalization led to an explosion in movies, music, mass media, consumerism, spiritual practices, and more. It is a fascinating tour of a dauntingly complex country, focusing on the most revealing moments in Indian popular entertainment and recreation, and tracing the profound influences of the country's rich spiritual culture and deep-rooted social divisions on its pop culture landscape.

The books in this series introduce readers to some of the world's most compelling cultures, and they are perfect for students, travelers, and anyone interested in how different societies respond to the universal desire for expression, enlightenment, and entertainment. Focusing primarily on developments since the 1970s, each volume is an expert guide to the popular culture of each country covered, including films and television, mass media, performing arts, literature, sports, and lifestyles. Each book includes chronologies of major developments in cultural life, sidebars highlighting interesting facts and insights, a bibliography, and electronic resources on every major form of popular culture in each country or region.

Contents:

The Position of English 2

Political and Economic Development 3

The Indian Underworld 8

The Focus of This Volume 10

Women and Minorities 12

Dalits 12

Gay Culture 15

2 Music 16

History of the Music Industry 16

The Early Years 17

The Cassette Revolution 18

The Satellite Revolution 20

Popular Music in India Today 22

Film Music 22

Nonfilm Pop Music 24

Bhangra 24

Ghazals 24

Indipop 26

Devotional Music 27

International Music 29

Issues 29

The Growth of Piracy 29

Links with Organized Crime 33

3 Theater 38

Sanskrit Theater 39

Traditional Theaters 41

Ram Lila and Ras Lila 42

Chavittu Natakam 43

Jatra 44

Tamasha 45

Nautanki 47

The Colonial British Theater 48

The Parsi Theater 50

Marathi Theater 52

Sangeet Natak 52

Modern Marathi Theater 55

Vijay Tendulkar 57

After Tendulkar 58

Bengali Theater 59

The Early Playwrights 60

Commercial Theater 61

Indian People's Theatre Association 62

Modern Bengali Theater 63

Hindi and English Theaters in India 65

Theater in English 67

Issues 68

Dearth of Good Plays 68

Plagiarism 70

Competition for Audiences and Performance Space 70

Bibliography and References 74

4 Indian Literature in English 77

The Development of Indian Literature in English 78

The Early Years 78

Novelists of the 1930s and 1940s 82

1950s-1970s 85

1980s Onward 88

Pulp Fiction 93

Amar Chitra Katha and the Revolution in Indian Comic Books 94

Issues 96

Writing in English 96

The Publishing Industry 98

5 Print Media in India-Newspapers and Magazines 104

History of the Indian Press 104

The Early Years 104

After 1857 107

The Freedom Struggle 110

After Independence 112

Mrs. Gandhi and the Emergency 114

The "Newspaper Revolution" 115

Magazine Revolution 118

The Contemporary Scene 119

Issues 121

Press Freedom 121

Harassment of the Press 122

Violence against the Media 122

The Case of Tehelka.com 123

Legislative Privileges 124

6 Radio 130

History 130

Channels and Content 136

Issues 138

Government Control 138

7 Television 143

History of Indian Television 143

The Early Years 143

The Satellite Instruction Television Experiment 145

Mrs. Gandhi: The "Tele-visionary" 147

The Mother of All Soap Operas 149

The Soap Opera of the Gods 151

The Arrival of Satellite Television 154

The Great Television Scramble 157

Cablewallahs and MSOs 158

Doordarshan's Response 159

Programs 160

General Entertainment 160

News and News-Based Programs 164

Sports Channels 166

Religious Channels 167

Children's Television 167

Overseas Distribution of Indian Programs 167

The Future of Television in India 168

Issues 169

Cable Operators and the CAS Act 169

Government's Response 170

Piracy and Plagiarism 172

8 Cinema 179

Popular Hindi Cinema 181

Plot 182

Emotion 183

Songs and Dances 184

Genre 186

History 186

Issues 203

Films from the South 213

Tamil Films and the Cinema of Politics 215

The Entrepreneurial Spirit of Telugu Cinema 222

The New Kannada Cinema 228

Cinema in Kerala 232

9 Cricket 249

History of Cricket in India 249

Parsis and the Parsi Gymkhana 251

Triangulars, Quadrangulars, and Pentagulars 253

The Princes 255

Ranji 256

Baloo 257

The 1930s Onward 258

Post Independence 260

Cricket in Contemporary India 262

Cricket and Nationalism 263

Commercialization of Cricket 265

Match Fixing 266

Why Do Indians Love Cricket? 268

10 Consumer Culture 275

Signs of Modern Consumer Culture 276

What the Shopping Malls Offer 277

Cafe Culture 280

Pubs 280

Restaurants 283

High Fashion 284

E-Commerce 287

New Age Spirituality 288

New Age Gurus 289

Issues 291

Lack of Amenities 291

Uneven Distribution of Wealth 292.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1851096361

1851096418

OCLC:

62430899