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Podcast: New Books in Performing Arts
Episode: Janaki Bakhle, "Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition" (Oxford UP, 2005)
Description: Janaki Bakhle's bookĀ Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical TraditionĀ (Oxford UP, 2005) is a provocative account of the development of modern national culture in India using classical music as a case study. The author demonstrates how the emergence of an āIndianā cultural tradition reflected colonial and exclusionary practices, particularly the exclusion of Muslims by the Brahmanic elite, which occurred despite the fact that Muslims were the major practitioners of the Indian music that was installed as a āHinduā national tradition. This book lays bare how a nationās imaginingsāfrom politics to cultureāreflect rather t...