Critical Events: An Anthropological Perspective on Contemporary India

Critical issues in contemporary India-Partition, sati, minority rights, the Bhopal gas disaster, the nature of the Indian state- are redescribed within the framework of anthropologial knowledge in this book. Veena Das produces an ethnography of modern India informed by world historical processes, and yet sensitive to the inner lives of individuals.

The events analysed here have all instituted new forms of action and led to a redefinition of traditional codes of martyrdom, honour, and the heroic life, which were appropriated by political actors- religious communities, castes, and women's groups.

About the Author:

Veena Das is Kreiger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.

Excerpts From Reviews

:'This collection of topical, lucid and thought-provoking essays confirms Veena Das as one of the most profoundly original sociologists writing in India today...'

--Indian Review of Books