Music and Politics in Kerala: Hindu Nationalists Versus Marxists

Christine Guillebaud (1, 2)

1 LESC - Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative
2 UPN - Université Paris Nanterre

p. 29, Introduction (...) This article will compare two competing nationalist programmes of Keralite artistic practices. The focus will be on the opposing views on how to define the concepts of cultural heritage and national culture, as well as the different strategies used to spread them among the population. We will first present current activities and methods used by the Sangh Parivar in artistic fields to spread its Hindutva ideology to the public at large and especially to the younger generation. Such activities are mainly based on a process of Sankritisation. An analysis will then be made of the areas covered by the Kerala government’s cultural policy and its strong impact on the emergence of a ‘regional’ nationalism. Mediated by local folklorists, this policy has acquired the approval of social equality values and has led to a social reform movement by promoting the arts.

Mots clés: Hindutva; Marxism; Nationalism

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Christine Guillebaud. Music and Politics in Kerala: Hindu Nationalists Versus Marxists . D. Berti, N. Jaoul and P. Kanungo The Cultural Entrenchment of Hindutva. Local Mediations and Forms of Convergence, Routledge, pp.29-63, 2011. ⟨hal-01621554⟩