Abstract:

What is the relationship between media forms and politics today? In this talk I ask this question with specific reference to a movement in which alarge mass mobilization was accompanied by the production of culturalforms in media ranging from print to digital and Web 2.0 objects,including YouTube videos. Striking about this impressive range of texts isthe manner in which a very contemporary folk idiom—that was initiallyassembled by Communists and Maoists for propaganda purposes—became aresource for a burgeoning culture industry whose commodities have littleto do with ideologies of the political left. Folk, commonly associatedwith oral cultures and traditional practices, is therefore seeingundergoing a double transformation. This complex process becomes clearwhen we examine the remarkable work of the radical poet, singer andperformer Gaddar (Gummadi Vithal Rao) who had considerable influence ofTelugu film music before acquiring quite a presence on YouTube. Whatdisciplinary training and competencies can equip us to understand themediatised politics in our time?

About the Speaker:

Prof. S.V. Srinivas is a Professor in the School of Liberal Studies, AzimPremji University and Visiting Professor, Centre for Contemporary Studies,Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.]Earlier he has worked at theCentre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore since 1998.He has also held visiting appointments in National University ofSingapore, Hokkaido University, Georgetown University, Washington DC,Indian Institute of Science and University of Hyderabad. His researchexplores the complex linkages between popular culture and mass politics.His other research interests include Literature, Media and the PublicSphere, Region and Regionalism, and Culture Industries in Asia. He haspublished papers on cinema, mass consumption and politics in Indian andinternational academic journals. He is the author of two books: Megastar:Chiranjeevi and Telugu Cinema after N.T Ramo Rao (Oxford University Press,2009) and Politics as Performance: A Social History of the Telugu Cinema(Permanent Black, 2013).