Based on three years of anthropological fieldwork in the Indian state of Rajasthan; Casting Kings explores the manner in which semi-nomadic performers known as Bhats understand; and also subvert; caste hierarchies. A number of scholars have recently contended that caste is invented and thus a fiction of a kind. But focus in these studies is typically placed on the way caste is imagined according to the agendas and desires of elite Westerners such as colonial officials. In this book; by contrast; the author argues that Bhats themselves understand the imaginative dimensions of caste relations. Indeed; such insights are shown to lie at the heart of the Bhats traditional profession of praise- and insult-singing. Likewise; the author demonstrates how the ability to cleverly rework and even sabotage lingering caste inequalities continues to form the basis for Bhat claims to status and dignity in contemporary India.
#1179126 in Books 2014-05-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.40 x 1.00 x 9.20l; .0 #File Name: 0195183487256 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy george e wilsonBest book on Korean POW'S3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. InterestingBy TAPI bought this for Kindle.It's concerned with why; and to what extent; American POWs in Korea collaborated. It has a distinct "academic" flavor to it. By that it; I mean it is a scholarly attempt to present the POW experience from a non-partisan point of view. Almost kinda dry in a sense. It's not really a collection of anecdotes of the Korean POW experience; which itself would have been an interesting read.It does portray the Korean POW in a more sympathetic light than he was at the time; demonstrating that most of the first year was the time period when most US POWs died; due to lack of facilities on the part of North Koreans/Chinese. Once camps were built and up running; the death rate went down quite a bit. The weakest prisoners; physically and mentally; were the first ones to perish. No doubt; the N. Koreans were savage and barbaric at times. Also; many who "collaborated"; to some degree; pretty much dropped the whole act once returned to US control. The gov't determined that they were doing things; like attending lectures and parroting Communist dogma; for fear that the captors would go harder on them if they didn't.The US gov't and it's policies; of not forcing N. Korean and Chinese prisoners to repatriate if they didn't want to; were singled out as the culprit for the extra two years; mid '51 to '53; that US prisoners had to languish in NK and ChiCom captivity; causing some to collaborate with the enemy and others to prey upon their fellow prisoners for better treatment by Commies. Basically; those two years of confinement were due solely to the haggling about whether/not to forcefully repatriate NK and Chicoms.It also most likely caused the Communists to hold back hundreds of US prisoners; many known to be alive in Communist captivity; some seen just before prisoner swap; some heard on radio broadcasts. They were hauled off to China and USSR for the rest of their lives to toil in Gulags (slave labor camps); as retaliation for allowing some NK prisoners to stay in the south and some ChiCom prisoners to go to Taiwan. Hundreds of our men were lost; never to return to their families/homes because of some higher level political persons thought it would be cute to show the citizens of Communist nations; in future conflicts; that "we" the US will help them escape to another/better life; and in the bargain help the US gov't gain some intelligence/info about what is really happening inside Communist regimes. Of course; they condemned alot of our own men to Communist prisons to do it. A pretty lousy trade.Think about it: foreigners; from Communist lands; given residence and eventually maybe even citizenship in the US but at the expense of our own fellow citizens. That has got to be the rottenest thing I have ever heard this nation has done. Eventually those pol's and 'crats allowed Soviets and Chicoms to receive aid from the US and sell their cheap made crap here in US markets without as much as a whisper about what became of these men. No pressure to make them hand over our men.No wonder much of this information was classified at the time. The President and upper levels of gov't would have been lynched for this. Well ... they should have been. Today's current crop of politicians and career bureaucrats are most likely cut from the same cloth as those in 1950s.A Romanian defector once testified to Congress that; while still living in that Communist regime in late 1970s; he went to N. Korea on some kind of economic/cultural/etc exchange. While there he and other Romanians road a bus thru a rural area and came upon a small village with peasants working outside. One; or more; of the peasants stood up straight looking toward the bus and were seen by the bus passengers to be very tall. Some red hair was said to be recognizable. It was cold weather so the peasants were wearing winter clothing making a clear view difficult. When asked; the N. Korean chaperone said they were American POWs held over from the Korean War. Almighty God.John M. G. Brown's book Moscow Bound has a short; but illuminating; part about the plight of Korean War POWs and how that war in general never had to happen.I think this book is worth reading and do recommend it.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy K. T. YoungWell-researched book.
