About the book: the cambridge companion to modern indianculture india is changing at a rapid pace as it continues to movefromits colonial past to its globalised future this companionoffers aframework for understanding that change, and how modernculturalforms have emerged out of very different histories andtraditionsthe book provides accounts of literature, theatre, film,modern andpopular art, music, television and food; it also exploresin detailsocial divisions, customs, communications and daily lifein aseries of engaging, erudite and occasionally moving essaysthecontributors, drawn from a variety of disciplines, examinenotmerely what constitutes modern indian culture, but justhowwide-ranging are the cultures that persist in the regions ofindiathis volume will help the reader understand the continuitiesandfissures within indian culture and some of the conflictsarisingfrom them throughout, what comes to the fore is theextraordinaryrichness and diversity of modern indian culture contents chronology introduction rashmi sadana and vasudha dalmia part i cultural contexts 1 scenes of rural change ann grodzins gold 2 the formation of tribal identities stuart blackburn 3 food and agriculture amita baviskar 4 urban forms of religious practice smriti srinivas 5 the politics of caste identities christophe jaffrelot part ii cultural forms 6 history and representation in the bengali novelsupriyachaudhuri 7 writing in english rashmi sadana 8 dalit life histories debjani ganguly 9 three traditions in modernist art sonal khullar 10 mass reproduction and the art of the bazaar kajri jain 11 urban theatre and the turn towards folk vasudha dalmia 12 aesthetics and politics in popular cinema ravisvasudevan 13 musical genres and national identity amanda weidman 14 voyeurism and the family on television amrita ibrahim further reading