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Abstract

French

From the punctuated invocations of legal clauses through the 20th and 21st centuries, to the post-2000 vilifications, attacks or murders of/on painters, scholars, students and social activists, allegations of blasphemy have often problematized public spheres across India. In this broad backdrop, nuanced tendencies have emerged (and continue to emerge) in Kerala, a state with a strong history of social reforms and political interventions on institutional networks of religion. The paper will focus on two trajectories: the narrative exclusions and communal vocalizations in select public performances as well as emergent institutional hegemonies that institute parallel orders in contemporary contexts of neoliberal state building.

Keywords

blasphemy public space offense hegemony public performance neoliberal state

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Blasphemy Rewired: Communal Configurations of the Public Domain in Kerala

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