Looks at the ideals of masculine Hinduism—and the corresponding feminine ideals—that have built the Indian nation, and explores their consequences.

This volume of new interdisciplinary essays provides insights into the emerging field of masculinities and the challenges it poses to the Indian male. Masculinities research has evolved considerably and demonstrates that men are not an homogenous group but are instead diverse--there are many "masculinities." Manliness can no longer be studied from just a North American or European perspective but from those of every part of the world. Covering an array of topics such as the construction of identity and the negotiation of power and sexuality, these essays aim to show how masculinities are experienced and embodied within India.

‘Masculine’ is most commonly defined in direct contrast to ‘feminine’. Masculinity is thus often seen as an antithesis of femininity, the two ideas apparently locked in a tussle over the allocation of characteristics. Joseph Alter bypasses this opposition altogether in his original exploration of the concept of masculinity in modern India. He offers a strikingly new interpretation of Indian ‘maleness’, one that refers to itself, and not to an ‘other’. Through the distinct yet interrelated lenses of nationalism, yoga, wrestling, the concept of brahmacharya and male chastity, Alter examines the moral, material and biological roots of Indian masculinity. Unusually, it is the ideal of the celibate male that is the basis for this exploration. Moral Materialism: Sex and Masculinity in Modern India offers an elegant and inventive perspective on the multiple meanings of Indian masculinity.

Masculine cultures define urban cultures and are defined by them. A multidisciplinary analysis that explores urbanism, masculine anxieties and gender relations.

Becoming Young Men in a New India tells the gendered story of a changing India through the lives of its young middle class men. Through time spent ethnographically 'hanging-out' with young men in gyms, bars, clubs, trains and gay cruising grounds in India, this book critically reveals Indian men's violence towards women in various city spaces and also shows the many classed and masculine entitlements and challenges that they experience. The book lays bare the often secretive and hidden social worlds of young Indian men and critically analyses the impact young men's actions and identities have not just for themselves, but for the many women they encounter. In this way, it puts forward a critical queer-feminist perspective of men and masculinities in postcolonial India where the politics of class, gender, sexuality, violence and urban spaces come together.

It is a stealthy silence that is challenged in an inspiring volume on sexuality in contemporary Indian culture. This anthology is a timely intervention that not only attempts to locate sex as a tangible truth in an Indian context but also inspires a hundred questions regarding hidden contours.

Gender persists as a key site of social inequality globally, and within contemporary south Asian contexts, the cultural practices which make up ?masculinities? remain vital for understanding everyday life and social relations. Yet masculinities, and their discontents, are an understudied and often misrepresented facet of gender relations and cultural dynamics. Gender and Masculinities offers a collection of chapters that seek to unravel the complex ideas, practices and concepts revolving around gender structures and masculinities in India and Sri Lanka.The contributions to this volume draw on a range of disciplines, including history, comparative literatures, religion, anthropology, and development studies to illuminate the key issues that have shaped our understanding of gender relations and masculinities over time and across a range of geographical areas. By carefully attending to historical and contemporary gender ideologies and practices in South Asia, this book provides a critical exploration of masculinities in their plurality, as shifting, culturally located and embedded in religious ideologies, power relations, the politics of nationalism, globalisation and economic struggles. The volume will attract scholars interested in history, anthropology, sociology, nationalism, colonialism, religion and kinship, and popular culture.This book was published as a special issue of South Asian History and Culture.

Some years ago the author of this book was struck by the contrast between the beauty of Hindi film heroines and the ugliness of Hindi film heroes. After researching the matter the author concluded that the explanation was straightforward: leading men in Hindi films were ugly because they were Indian men and Indian men were measurably uglier than Indian women ... While this observation was accurate and the data gathered was reliable, the author made the mistake of attributing the ugliness of the Indian male to nature. He knows now that Indian men aren't born ugly: they achieve ugliness through practice. It is their habits and routines that make them ugly. If the author were to be schematic, he would argue that Indian men are ugly on account of the three Hs: hygiene, hair, and horrible habits ... Why are Indian men like this? How do they achieve the bullet-proof unselfconsciousness that allows them to be so abandonedly ugly? The author thinks it comes from a sense of entitlement that's hard-wired into every male child that grows up in an Indian household. That, and the not unimportant fact that, despite the way they look, they're always paired off with good-looking women.

Press 1 for technical support. Press 2 for broken hearts. Press 3 if your life has totally crashed. . . . Six friends work nights at a call center in India, providing technical support for a major U.S. appliance corporation. Skilled in patience–and accent management–they help American consumers keep their lives running. Yet behind the headsets, everybody’s heart is on the line. Shyam (Sam to his callers) has lost his self-confidence after being dumped by the girl who just so happens to be sitting next to him. Priyanka’s domineering mother has arranged for her daughter’s upscale marriage to an Indian man in Seattle. Esha longs to be a model but discovers it’s a horizontal romp to the runway. Lost, dissatisfied Vroom has high ideals, but compromises them by talking on the phone to idiots each night. Traditional Radhika has just found out that her husband is sleeping with his secretary. And Military Uncle (nobody knows his real name) sits alone working the online chat. They all try to make it through their shifts–and maintain their sanity–under the eagle eye of a boss whose ego rivals his incompetence. But tonight is no ordinary night. Tonight is Thanksgiving in America: Appliances are going haywire, and the phones are ringing off their hooks. Then one call, from one very special caller, changes everything. Chetan Bhagat’s delicious romantic comedy takes us inside the world of the international call center, where cultural cross-wires come together with perfect pathos, hilarity, and spice.