ANT 145 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Cubbon Park, Smriti, Bipedalism
9 May 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Hard vs. soft forms--value, meaning, embodies practice and cricket.
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Indigenization of sport in colonial/postcolonial South Asia.
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Allowed upward mobility for different castes.
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Cricket--Victorian values, masculine activity, socialization and yet code of fair play allow limited mobility.
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Arjun, "Playing with Modernity: The Decolonization of Indian Cricket"
1870-1930: Indian and British clubs; Paris; Victorian values to colony though army officers, British businessmen, etc.; Indian princes; could be India and a cricket
player (Ranjitsinghji).
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1930s to 1950: Indian team replaces communal clubs--Lagaan; Indian nationalism and cricketing nation; All Indian radio and cricket in English.
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1960s-1980s: vernacular cricket commentaries in radio (and sports pidgins); TV, State Bank of India and public sector support; newspaper/magazines etc. "Stars"
in cricket and film.
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Sri Lanka and India have cricket teams that are better than British cricket teams.
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Empire plays back
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Cricket is an incredible spectacle that is mostly male.
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1980s on: Corporate sponsorships; one-day cricket and World series media package; other patrons--oil wealth and Sharjah cup
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Cricket is bound up with the masculine self.
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Regional identity is being performed
Whether you're at the game or watching it on TV, watching it as a nation being performed. Masculinity being performed.
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Cricket is the site for people to perform the nation, over time and different types of people.
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The erotics of nationhood, male spectatorship and subjectivity, and the pleasure of agency u an imagined community that in many other arenas is contested:
cricket is a means of modernity.
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Phases:
Significance of the urban and the city in India: about 35% of a billion people live in cities, over 40 metro cities of at least 1 million, and many middle-towns of
100,000 and over (about 250 in India).
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Studies of the urban in India (sacred city/colonial city/developmentalist city).
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Studies of religion and the city (city is realm of the secular/religion in the city is pathology).
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Article approaches the relationship b/w the city and spectacles and suggests that we need to focus on a range of performances (rallies, processions, sports, etc.).
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Body cultures and the city/nation: e.g. wrestling and martial arts and sportized athletics.
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Contemporaneous body cultures not displacement.
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Historical development of a tripartite urban model--the goddesses and the monkey deity, city and fort--the colonial city--contemporary Bangalore.
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The Karaga performance and the hero-sons--wrestling houses and martials arts--celibacy, sexual energy and strength--Anjaneya/Hanuman.
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Performance is popular, but happening during a times of great displacement of green space.
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Loss of garden land and water, the virtual creation of Bangalore's hydraulic environment.
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Sportized athletics in Bangalore since the early 20th C, e.g. Kanteerava stadium near Cubbon Park and cricket, football, Steve's gym, etc.
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Standardized of local games and athlete's bodies.
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Indian National Games, Asian Games, etc.
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ING, the state, city's built environment and prestige.
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The Games come to Bangalore in the 1990s--the National Games village and Koramangala tank's reclassification.
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Legal battles--environmental issues, scam and irregularities etc.
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Performance of masculinity but mascot is this child-like asexual cow.
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Finally Games begin in 1997: Nandu the mascot, a bipedal cow
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Mascots: goddess and Nandu (asexual bipedal cow; childlike).
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James Heitzman and Smriti Srinivas, "Warrior Goddess vs. Bipedal Cow"
Lecture 12
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
2:01 PM
ANT 145 Page 20
Document Summary
Arjun, "playing with modernity: the decolonization of indian cricket" Hard vs. soft forms--value, meaning, embodies practice and cricket. Cricket--victorian values, masculine activity, socialization and yet code of fair play allow limited mobility. 1870-1930: indian and british clubs; paris; victorian values to colony though army officers, british businessmen, etc. ; indian pri nces; could be india and a cricket player (ranjitsinghji). 1930s to 1950: indian team replaces communal clubs--lagaan; indian nationalism and cricketing nation; all indian radio and cricket in english. 1960s-1980s: vernacular cricket commentaries in radio (and sports pidgins); tv, state bank of india and public sector support; newspaper/magazines etc. Sri lanka and india have cricket teams that are better than british cricket teams. 1980s on: corporate sponsorships; one-day cricket and world series media package; other patrons--oil wealth and sharjah cup. Cricket is an incredible spectacle that is mostly male.
