Beyond Appearances?: Visual Practices and Ideologies in Modern India (Contributions to Indian Sociology series)

`Beyond Appearances? provides a dynamic fourm for the main exponents of the anthropological turn in studies of South Asian popular visual culture, and will prove an inspiration for a generation of emerging scholars′ - The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

A striking feature of modern-day society is the ubiquity of visuals and images in everyday life. The 11 essays in this book analyse the material and political impact of a wide array of artefacts, media, and habits with the aim of understanding the principal contours of the visual practices and ideologies that distinguish an Indian modern. Recognising the enormous power contained within images to transform and mobilise self and community, the contributors focus on a variety of visual media including fine art and calendar art, theatre and popular cinema, photography, documentary films and propaganda videos, and maps. In the process, they also examine the inter-visual dialogue between these diverse media, exploring their underlying technologies of production and modalities of circulation and exchange.