The Politics of Cultural Practice : Thinking Through Theatre in an Age of Globalization

This engrossing and vibrant critique of globalization is essential reading for specialists in cultural and performance studies, gender and minority issues. It is equally valuable for non-specialists interested in knowing more about the impact of globalization on the actual practice of culture today, and ways of resisting it at grass-root levels.The Politics of Cultural Practice defies the homogenizing and anti-democratic tendencies of globalization. Drawing on the secular struggle of contemporary India, Bharucha casts his analytical gaze far and wide to include a spectrum of cultural forms ranging from the folk tradition of Chhau to an impersonation of Michael Jackson in Manipur, from Deepa Mehta’s Fire to the Politics of Cultural Practice defies the homogenizing and anti-democratic tendencies of globalization. Drawing on the secular struggle of contemporary India, Bharucha casts his analytical gaze far and wide to include a spectrum of cultural forms ranging from the folk tradition of Chhau to an impersonation of Michael Jackson in Manipur, from Deepa Mehta’s Fire to the Miss World Beauty Pageant. Intersecting the global with the local, he calls attention to the marking of minorities in India on the basis of religion, caste, language, gender, and sexuality, against a global backdrop of multicultural politics, racism, cultural tourism, and intellectual property rights.What is the state of culture in an age of globalization? Is equitable intercultural exchange possible? Who determines the modes and routes of this exchange and at whose expense? Can community and place survive the anonymity of the market and the patriarchy of the State? How can the seemingly marginal practice of theatre oppose the monopoly of the media?PRAISE FOR THE An approach which is objective without being impersonal, which hopes to record what is going on without shedding a normative orientation, has now become a hallmark of Rustom Bharuch