'The triumph of Hindutva, as of any successful ideological project, rests on its careful engineering of human souls. Spectacle State is a rare and much-needed account of this profound transformation in inner lives.'

-Pankaj Mishra, author of The World after Gaza and Age of Anger

'Combining deep theoretical insights with an impressive range of materials and examples, Brahma Prakash offers us a compelling and engaging account-riveting and disturbing in equal measure-of the cultural transformations of India's public life in recent decades.'

-Thomas Blom Hansen, professor of anthropology, Stanford University

'Subtly weaving in theoretical insights from global scholarship on ''fascist aesthetics'' while pointing out the volte face by academic writers succumbing to the charms of Hindutva, this engaging work ultimately relies on a close personal reading of the key instruments of a murderous cultural politics, fast becoming mainstream.'

- Meena Dhanda, professor of philosophy and cultural politics, University of Wolverhampton, and visiting professor, London School of Economics and Political Science


In today's India, power does not only govern -it marches, blares, dances and displays itself in colour, sound and action. From the beat of the drum and the glare of the loudspeaker to the rise of the bulldozer and the spread of the angry Hanuman, politics and power surrounds us - intense, sensorial and immediate.

In Spectacle State, Brahma Prakash looks at the contemporary Right beyond speeches and slogans and moves through a series of vivid scenes from everyday life, to show how emotion and feelings have been claimed by the Right. It is in this charged liminal space that violence appears in the garb of celebration, hate as preservation of self-identity, and devotion as display.

Moving between village processions, street performances, monuments, music and festivals, Spectacle State traces fear, pride, anger, piety are produced and circulated through the most innocuous of things. In the end, it asks: What happens when power, politics and hate batter the thin walls between culture and religion to produce a new language for a whole country?