Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia

This book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and documentaries about, by and for indigenous communities take on radically new significances. Drawing on perspectivesfrom media studies and visual anthropology, this book compares and contrasts the situation in South Asia with indigeneity globally.

How do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and documentaries about, by and for indigenous communities take on radically new significances. Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia shows how in the portrayal of indigenous groups by both 'insiders' and 'outsiders' imaginations of indigeneity and nation become increasingly interlinked. Indigenous groups, typically marginal to the nation, are at the same time part of mainstream polities and cultures. Drawing on perspectives from media studies and visual anthropology, this book compares and contrasts the situation in South Asia with indigeneity globally.

Autorentext

Markus Schleiter is Lecturer in the Institute of Ethnology at Münster University, Germany.

Erik de Maaker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Inhalt

List of figures

Notes on contributors

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: screening indigeneity and nation

ERIK DE MAAKER AND MARKUS SCHLEITER

PART I

Vernacular popular culture: movies and music videos

2 Himachali indigeneity: Gaddi music VCDs and expressions of belonging

ANJA WAGNER

3 'Manbhum' videos and their many contours: contexts, contents, and the comic mode as a subversive form

MADHUJA MUKHERJEE

4 Films, flirts, and no dances: a village video night and the circulation of popular Santali VCDs among Birhor people in India

MARKUS SCHLEITER

5 The diffused substance of Bhojpuri indigeneity

AKSHAYA KUMAR

PART II

Politicising indigeneity: video clips and movies

6 Primitive accumulation and "primitive" subjects in postcolonial India: tracing the myriad real and virtual lives of mediatised indigeneity activism

UDAY CHANDRA

7 Giving voice? Experiences of collaboration on indigenous video-making projects

RADHIKA BORDE

8 From clanships to cyber communities: India's Northeast in the digital age

DAISY HASAN

9 Projecting and rejecting indigeneity: 'From Bangladesh with Love'

CARMEN BRANDT

PART III

Documenting and fictionalising indigeneity

10 Made in India: ethnographic films beyond visual anthropology

GIULIA BATTAGLIA

11 Critiquing stereotypes? Documentary as dialogue with the Garo

ERIK DE MAAKER

12 YouTube and the rising trend of indigenous folk dance: the case of the sakela dance of the Rai in Nepal and their diaspora

MARION WETTSTEIN

13 Identity, indigeneity, and cultural props: portraying the Tai-Ahoms in two Assamese films based on the legend of Joymati

ARZUMAN ARA

14 Polyandry, sexuality and the (mis)representation of indigenous women on Indian screens. The film Sonam: The Fortunate One

MARA MATTA

15 Afterword: meditations on media in digital times

ROBIN JEFFREY

Index