| FA-56432-12 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Christian Lee Novetzke | The Brahmin Double: Religion, Caste, Language, and Performance in Maharashtra, India, 1200-2000 CE | 8/1/2013 - 7/31/2014 | $50,400.00 | Christian | Lee | Novetzke | | | | University of Washington | Seattle | WA | 98195-1016 | USA | 2011 | Nonwestern Religion | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
This project examines religious and other performance materials from the thirteenth century to the present in Marathi and the modern Indian state of Maharashtra. I explore how Brahmin performers and composers appear to be agents in the creation of anti-caste and in particular anti-Brahmin sentiment in public contexts. I situate this Brahminical anti-caste and anti-Brahmin discourse within a largely performative public sphere where Brahmins balanced their role as knowledge specialists in heterogeneous social, religious, and cultural contexts where they were a significant minority. Here, Brahmin advocates of anti-Brahmin and anti-caste sentiment offered a ‘double’, a discursively constructed ‘Brahmin’, thus deflecting or diffusing criticism and enabling the Brahmin performer or composer to maintain a position of importance in the world of public performance and, later, public politics. |