CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Ramnath, Shreya |
|---|---|
| Title | Caste, Class And The Classical: The Machineries Of Symbolic Power In Carnatic Music And Its Festivals |
| Summary | The tradition of Carnatic classical music has long been imbued with the politics of power, caste and class. Thought of as the preserve of the upper caste Brahmins, Carnatic music is often criticized as exclusive and exclusionary, with no lower caste presence in the production or consumption of music in its signature 100-year-old Margazhi festival conducted annually in the South-Indian city of Chennai. In today’s scenario, in which ideologies of meritocracy and egalitarianism are becoming widespread among the rising middle classes, the Carnatic field provides an ideal site to study the conflict between the aspirations to modernity and equality and the structural, restrictive forces of caste. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of taste, distinction, cultural capital and symbolic power, this thesis aims to study the symbolic creation of power in the realm of the arts, the institutionalized exclusion it fosters and its use by the Brahmins as a cultural tool of distinction. To do so, the thesis does the following: first, it provides a historicized understanding of the invention of the tradition – and its appropriation by upper caste elites – in a freshly post-colonial climate in which a uniquely Indian identity had to be forged. Second, it employs the case of the three-year-young, still uninvestigated “alternative” Urur Olcott festival, which seeks to democratize the arts by showcasing the classical and the folk, the “highbrow” and art forms of marginalized communities on the same platform – in a fishing village in the city of Chennai, far from the hallowed urban concert stages. Drawing from extensive press reportage and social media responses, and using interviews with the organizers, participants and audience members of both festivals, the thesis, in its analysis of the successes and failures of the alternative festival juxtaposed against the exclusive mainstream festival, demonstrates the increasing interest in the diversity of indigenous art forms among citizens of Chennai and reveals a growing dialogue on the subliminal workings of caste, class and gender barriers in what has so far been a static, immutable art form now in the throes of change. |
| Supervisor | Kowalski, Alexandra; Monterescu, Daniel |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/ramnath_shreya.pdf |
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