Plural Cultures and Monolithic Structures: Comprehending India

The essays in this volume raise a set of highly pertinent questions with regard to comprehending the complex issues that arise when plural cultures meet the monolithic structures of administration and policy that accompany the aspirations of the nation state. How does the nation state with its commitment to the quantifiable collectives of caste, religion, community and even culture, respond to the fluid and multiple matrixes of region, history, social identity, ritual, and language in India? The essays explore the problems that arise when shifting cultural categories are juxtaposed against the more rigidly constructed categories created by the institutions of the state. The issues enlarged upon here are those that the author has often discussed, including the interconnectedness of the arts and the integration of body, mind and senses in the Indian artistic traditions.