Caste, entrepreneurship and the illusions of tradition : branding the potters of Kolkata / Geir Heierstad.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heierstad, Geir, author.

Series:

Diversity and plurality in South Asia.

Diversity and plurality in South Asia

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Potters--India--Kolkata.

Potters.

Caste--India--Kolkata.

Caste.

Entrepreneurship--India--Kolkata.

Entrepreneurship.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 219 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

London : Anthem Press, 2017.

Summary:

Caste, Entrepreneurship and the Illusions of Tradition is an ethnographic study of the potters of Kolkata's Kumartuli, an analysis of their lives and the related commodification and instrumentalization of caste.In Kolkata's traditional potter quarter of Kumartuli, a modern and a competitive market oriented approach to life is concealed behind tradition. Among the potters inhabiting the dirt-floored workshops of this caste-based neighbourhood, the history of a modern and economically neoliberal-minded India unfolds. To these contemporary potters, caste is in their blood, caste is about being a creative and independent artist, and caste is about business as they engage in a competitive market to sell their artworks. This ethnographic study presents an analysis of these potters' lives and the related commodification and instrumentalisation of caste. An important insight is that Kumartuli consists of a group of artisans turned artists who do not display passive responses to colonial and capitalist encounters. On the contrary, this monograph unearths an ingenious and business-minded group that engages actively with the modern and economic developments of society at large, and, in the process, redefines the concept of caste identity. This study suggests a new academic direction for the study of modern India, and of caste in particular, through an empirically grounded portrayal of the synthesis of traditional categories and contemporary realities.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Transliteration and terminology

Prologue: the Durga Puja Bias

On kumars, modernity, caste and commodification

The civilised potters and their neighbourhood

Birth of tradition, coming of modernity

Ancestral homes : East versus West

Turmoil and economics

Mature modernity, education and caste as assets

Commodification of caste

References.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 Sep 2017).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781783085163

1783085169

OCLC:

1511483278