This paper will examine how the formal practices of regional films in India that focus on differing aspects of the body configure the public. Historically, cinema has played an important role in making possible the display and circulation of bodily acts in public in different parts of South Asia. Whether it is soft-porn cinema or […]
Read More… from Public Intimacies: Changing Encounters with the Body in Cinema
In recent years, we have witnessed several incidents of violence in the name of the ‘sacred cow’ by self-appointed, cow-vigilantes from mostly upper-caste Hindu communities against minorities. Shakuntala Banaji attributes this mobilization of a ‘muscular Hindu nationalism’ against minorities to the rise of ‘vigilante publics’ – ethnocultural groups indulging in acts of extreme verbal and […]
Read More… from Lynch Nation: Mobile Witnessing and Vigilante Publics
This paper attempts to look at two recent public responses towards filmmakers in Kerala (a south Indian state) in connection with their cinematic oeuvre within the changing public sphere in the state. Firstly, it examines the crowd response to filmmaker and Kerala Chalachitra Academy Chairperson, Ranjith’s concluding remarks at International Film Festival of Kerala. The […]
In 2003, the ethnographic museum in Vienna was offered the head of a Dipankara Buddha, which, based on the extensive photo documentation of a scholar, could be identified as an artefact stolen two years earlier from the Nag Bahal in Patan. Thanks to the cooperation of various actors from different countries, the Buddha was finally […]
Pashupati is one of the seven monument zones of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage property in Nepal. The monument ensemble developed around the main Pashupati Temple, next to the cremation ghats on the western banks of the Bagmati River. To the east is Mrigasthali and the Shleshmantak Forest, an important landscape in the legends of […]
Read More… from Pashupatiksetra: protection beyond World Heritage
Jhijhiya is a dance performed by women and girls of the Maithil communities of India and Nepal. As part of a ritual practice, it is performed for goddess Durga by specific castes only during the festival of Dashain, to ward off evil powers. As a folk dance, it is performed at any time of the […]
Read More… from The revival of Jhijhiya dance in Janakpur, Nepal
Inscriptions which are still preserved in public spaces have become subject to shifting cultural contexts over the centuries. In modern times, some of them are viewed as museum objects that are preserved and displayed as tokens of ancient history. Others have become integrated into local worshipping routines. In case of inscribed artefacts that are associated […]
Pakistan is experiencing rapid urbanization / densification, even in relatively remote mountain landscapes of the Hindu Kush and Himalayas. Formerly verdant hill stations and small towns have already become significant urban centers that continue to expand outwards. Geographic zones on the ecological frontiers with complex and interrelated ecosystems are where the impacts of climate change […]
A study from different agroclimatic zones from across India brings together the voices of the poor as they mitigate and adapt to climate-induced changes in water availability. It is seen that a combination of projected increased demand for water and the consequences of climate change poses additional challenges to poor communities. The emerging scenario threatens […]
Read More… from Voices from Below: Water and Climate Change in India
Springs are primary source of water for drinking, domestic, irrigation and livestock among the hill dwellers, who are socio-economically marginalized. However, in the recent past, in many hills, discharge from springs is either declining or drying-up due to both climatic and anthropogenic factors. Increasing incidences of high rainfall, erratic distribution, longer dry spells, delay in […]
Read More… from Reviving Springsheds: A climate resilient measure in Jawadhi hills, South India
