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Book Cover
E-book
Author Singh, Vikash, 1974- author.

Title Uprising of the fools : pilgrimage as moral protest in contemporary India / Vikash Singh
Published Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2017

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Description 1 online resource
Series South Asia in Motion
South Asia in motion.
Contents Introduction : illegitimate religion -- Mastering uncertainty : performance and recognition in religion -- "Everything is a gift, Bhole" : custom and the ethics of care -- Ominous signs : of dread, desires, and determination -- Damning corpses : violence, religious or secular? -- Caste and the informal economy : subversive aesthetics of popular religion -- Wishful nightmares : triumphant neoliberalism and the resistances of religion -- War, nation, and the human as a thing
Summary The Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage. Millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in Śiva shrines. These devotees - called bhola, gullible or fools, and seen as miscreants by many Indians - are mostly young, destitute men, who have been left behind in the globalizing economy. But for these young men, the ordeal of the pilgrimage is no foolish pursuit, but a means to master their anxieties and attest their good faith in unfavorable social conditions. Vikash Singh walked with the pilgrims of the Kanwar procession, and with this book, he highlights how the procession offers a social space where participants can prove their talents, resolve, and moral worth. Working across social theory, phenomenology, Indian metaphysics, and psychoanalysis, Singh shows that the pilgrimage provides a place in which participants can simultaneously recreate and prepare for the poor, informal economy and inevitable social uncertainties. In identifying with Śiva, who is both Master of the World and yet a pathetic drunkard, participants demonstrate their own sovereignty and desirability despite their stigmatized status. Uprising of the Fools shows how religion today is not a retreat into tradition, but an alternative forum for recognition and resistance within a rampant global neoliberalism
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed
Subject Hindu pilgrims and pilgrimages -- India -- Haridwār
Religion and social status -- India
Capitalism -- Moral and ethical aspects -- India
RELIGION -- Comparative Religion.
Capitalism -- Moral and ethical aspects
Hindu pilgrims and pilgrimages
Religion and social status
Religion -- Economic aspects
SUBJECT India -- Religion -- Economic aspects
India -- Religious life and customs
Subject India
India -- Haridwār
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2016031633
ISBN 9781503601741
1503601749
9781503600379
1503600378