In the Indian context; papers presented at a symposium held at New Delhi in 2002.

This first systematic study of a wide range of Persian and European archival and primary sources, analyzes how the Muharram rituals changed from being an orginally devotional practice to public events of political significance, setting the stage for the emergence of the early modern Iranian public sphere in the Safavid period.

A theoretically rich and vividly written ethnography of folklore revival and performance in Eastern Europe that provocatively embraces larger questions of social theory, authenticity, and philosophy.

The Public Sphere from Outside the West brings together established and emerging new voices from philosophy, literature, anthropology, history, migration studies and information technology to address the present reality of the public sphere. In the age where everyone is in the public and everything is visible, this volume creates a delay in which the internet of things, mass surveillance and social media are asked “What is/not the Public?” The essays bring to attention the formation of geo-politically and historically distinct public spheres from South Africa, India, America and Europe. Such formations are found not only in the postcolonial histories of print, photography, cinema and caricature but also those underway in the digital era, such as the Arab Spring, Occupy movements and Anonymous. Through critical engagement with philosophers such as Kant, Heidegger, Benjamin, Habermas and Arendt , the determining concepts of the Public Sphere-privacy, secrecy, reason, the people-are shown to be undergoing epistemological and practical ruptures. Demonstrating the necessity of these considerations to understand the world public that is rapidly transforming this concept in radical ways through technologies today, this is the first collection on the subject to feature an impressive range of international thinkers. Global and timely in outlook, it breaks new ground and changes our way of looking at politics in the 21st century.

Contributed articles with reference to India.

The essays are written in the context of the so-called tribal areas of the north-eastern region of India. The base data in most cases have however been collected from Meghalaya, the Khasi-Jaintia Hills in particular, my primary research universe. However, the ethnic groups living in the mountainous terrain of India’s north-east, show a characteristic unity, despite linguistic and cultural diversities, that of being in a state of social format called ‘tribal’ facing similar problems of static life, economy and under-development. Added to this are the tensions generated in recent years when education and some waves of development reached the region and tribal self-governing states in the Indian Union came in to being. Consequently, new issues have come into the fore–the issues relating to self-assertion, retention of the age-old cultural identity, the crisis of adjustment between tradition and modernity, and above all, the tensions of a change-over from the tranquil folklife to modern hurly-burly including those of the fast moving world in the days of globalization. Consequently, there also appeared a concern with folklore, the search for a ‘lore’ of essential core, to write a new history. Khasi Jaintia Oral Texts Folklore and Development Antithetic NorthEast India Mentalities,The Folklife and the Socio Psychologial Issues of Development Identity Narrative, Ritual and Historical Jaintia Religion and Identity Khasi Orality Khasi-Jaintia Genre of Folklore The Nongkrem Dances of Khasi Meghalaya Hills, Dales and Groves Folk, Court, Popular Hermeneutics of Religious Practices Verrier Elwin North-East Frontier

This book explores historical and cultural aspects of modern and contemporary Bengal through the performance-centred study of a particular repertoire: the songs of the saint-composer Bhaba Pagla (1902-1984), who is particularly revered among Baul and Fakir singers. The author shows how songs, if examined as 'sacred scriptures', represent multi-dimensional texts for the study of South Asian religions. Revealing how previous studies about Bauls mirror the history of folkloristics in Bengal, this book presents sacred songs as a precious symbolic capital for a marginalized community of dislocated and unorthodox Hindus, who consider the practice of singing in itself an integral part of the path towards self-realization.

With reference to United Khāsi-Jaintia Hills (India).

A unique, international resource for Leisure Studies: in one volume the history, organization and central debates in the field of Leisure Studies are defined, providing a one-stop-shop for students and an agenda for future debate and research academics.