The Book
In 1991, the Indian state’s new economic policies led to a greater role of the market. A public discourse that had till then been defined by self-reliance, equity and austerity had to be refashioned. The Indian middle class learnt that ‘thrift’ was not a virtue, and ‘shopping was legitimate pleasure’.
This period witnessed other significant developments: the rise of Hindutva; assertion of marginalised castes; and increasing institutionalisation of feminism. The book details how consumerism, combined with ideas of individualism, empowerment and choice in a contemporary public culture, paved the way for an instant, feel-good, and then aggressive nationalism.
The chapters offer detailed studies of advertisements; everyday details in the English-language print media; the communicative abundance of television; the dangers of instant access and unequal ignorance; and the dynamics of a transformed public sphere.
This revised edition comes with a specially written Epilogue, which chronicles recent events in Indian society, thereby updating the book.
The Author(s)
Maitrayee Chaudhuri is retired Professor of Sociology.
Table of Contents
Publisher’s Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
List of Images
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Citizens, Workers, Emblems of Culture: An Analysis of the First Plan Document on Women
Chapter 3 Gender in the Making of the Indian Nation-State
Chapter 4 Gender and Advertisements: The Rhetoric of Globalisation
Chapter 5 ‘Feminism’ in Print Media
Chapter 6 A Question of Choice: Advertisements, Media, and Democracy
Chapter 7 Nationalism is not What it Used to be: Can Feminism be any Different?
Chapter 8 The Indian Media and its Transformed Public
Chapter 9 Gender, Media, and Popular Culture in a Global India
Chapter 10 National and Global Media Discourse after ‘Nirbhaya’: Instant Access and Unequal Knowledge
Chapter 11 The 2014 General Elections and Afterwards: A Churning Public Discourse and the New Hegemony
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index