The Making of a National Festival: Bihu in Colonial and Postcolonial Assam

Description

Doctoral thesis of Ankur Tamuli Phukan, submitted at Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Jadavpur University, Kolkata Acknowledgements i Introduction Historicizing Bihu 1 Reviewing the Literature 5 Questions of Method 9 Overview of Chapters 14 Chapter One Scenes of the Obscene: The Lewd, the Rustic and Bihu 21 Elopements and Abductions 21 Nationalist Predicaments 39 Gaoliya: The Vulgar and the Authentic 53 Rurality Reconceptualized 64 Chapter Two Nationalization of Affect: Bhaona, Bihu and Linguistic Nationalism 72 Bhava in a Polyglot World 73 Literarization of Bihu: 88 Assamese Bhava, Assamese Prema 102 Chapter Three Organizing Celebrations: Labour, Leisure and Other Demands of Nationalism 118 Body Politics 118 New Festivals 128 A New Bihu 141 Chapter Four Inventing Conflicting Traditions: Bihu and the Early Postcolonial Romances 152 The Voice of the Nation-State 154 The Kamrupi Music School 166 Agriculture, Labour and the Left Nationalist Moment of Bihu 184 Chapter Five Powers of Spectacularity: Bihu in the Times of Insurgency and After 192 Spectacularity and Disciplinarity: The Assam Movement and Bihu 193 Donation, Hindi Imperialism and Bihu: The ULFA Years 211 The Novelized Ethnography 218 The ‘Tribal’ Bihu 223 Bihu on the Screen 236 Conclusion 247 Glossary 255 Bibliography 256