Globalising Everyday Consumption in India: History and Ethnography

Description

This book brings together historical and ethnographic perspectives on Indian consumer identities. Through an in-depth analysis of local, regional, and national histories of marketing, regulatory bodies, public and domestic practices, this interdisciplinary volume charts the emergence of Indian consumer society and discusses commodity consumption as a main feature of Indian modernity. The nationalist discourse was formed by starting with the morality of consumption patterns feeding into middle-class identity; the chapters demonstrate how different strata of society were targeted as markets for everyday commodities associated with global lifestyles early on. A section of the book illustrates how a new group of professionals engaged in advertising trying to create a market shaped tastes and discourses and how campaigns provided a range of consumers with guidance on ‘modern lifestyles’. Chapters discussing advertisements for consumables, like coffee and cooking oil, show these to be part of new public cultures. The ethnographic chapters focus on contemporary practices and consumption as a main marker of class, caste and community. Throughout the book consumption is shown to determine communal identities, but some chapters also highlight how it reshapes intimate relationships. The chapters explore the middle-class family, microcredit schemes, and metropolitan youth cultures as sites in which consumer citizenship is realised. The book will be of interest to readers from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, history, geography, sociology, South Asian studies, and visual cultures. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Illustrations Contributors Introduction Theories of Consumption Consuming Publics Marketing and Promotion Consumer Citizenship The Current Volume References 1 Notes on the Advertisement and the Advertising Agency in India’s Twentieth Century Introduction The Oldest Profession? Commerce, Communication, and Advertising’s Civilising Mission Fugitive Commodity Aesthetics ‘A Soapless Country’ Advertising and the War Conclusion: Advertising’s Hegemony Acknowledgements Notes References 2 A Magic System?: Print Publics, Consumption, and Advertising in Modern Tamil Nadu Handbills and Notices VPP: Value Payable Post Advertising Comes of Age Enter the Talkies During World War II and After Concluding Remark: a Magic System? Acknowledgements Notes References 3 Making the Ideal Home?: Advertising of Electrical Appliances and the Education of the Middle-Class Consumer in Bombay, 1920–40 The Ideal Home The Commercial Rationale of Advertising The Pedagogy of Electricity Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References 4 Wooing Indians with New Smokes: Cigarette and Bidi Advertising in British India Introduction Promotion of the Imperial Connection: Selling Cigarettes in British India Made in India: Selling Swadeshi Cigarettes in British India Selling Cheap Cigarettes in British India as a Modern Commodity The Brownish Bidi in Competition With the White Cigarette Embedding the Bidi as a Traditional Indian Commodity Conclusion Notes References 5 Creating Desire: In the Name of the Nation, 1947–65 Self and the Advertised Nation The Advertised Nation and the Nation-State Conclusion Notes References 6 Consuming the Home: Creating Consumers for the Middle-Class House in India, 1920–60 Technical Solutions for Healthy Homes: 1920s and 1930s Envisioning the Ideal: Dreams of Home, Dreams of Concrete in the 1940s and 1950s Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References 7 Drink It the Damn way we want: Some Reflections on the Promotion and Consumption of Coffee in India in the Twentieth Century Bringing Coffee to the Indian Consumer Advertising Coffee Creating the Domestic Market Instant Coffee The Economic Liberalisation of India and the Home Market Abbreviations Acknowledgements Notes References 8 The Housewife Goes to Market: Food, Work, and Neoliberal Selves in Kolkata Middle-Class Families Introduction From Receiving to Giving Advice Housewives: Consumer Citizens Par Excellence Mediating the Everyday Meal Eating the World at Home: Maternal Cosmopolitanism Home-made Expertise Reworked Reframing the Housewife: ‘Doing Up’ the Kitchen Conclusion: Contextualising the Housewife Note References 9 Consumer Citizenship and Indian Muslim Youth Introduction Media, Consumption, and Minority Politics Indian Muslim Youth and Consumer Agency Muslim Minority in Globalised Spaces Discussion Notes References 10 Consuming Credit: Microfinance and Making Credit Markets at the Bottom of the Pyramid Microfinance for Production Credit and Consumption at the Bottom of the Pyramid Consumption and Creditworthiness Debts of Celebration Financialising Consumption Consumers of Credit Costs of Care Notes References Index