Editorial: Cultural Elites and Elite Cultures in Contemporary India and South Asia. Constructions and Deconstructions

Abstract

What kind of capital does a particular group possess and how does it go about reproducing that capital? How does this capital get converted into new socio-political currencies? How do the elites grapple with competing notions of social morality and their place in it? What are the performative strategies that are at work, legitimating certain types of elites but not others? Are elites interest groups, or do they mutate into identity groups in changing social environments? Do the elites reflect a new social order or create one; are they conscience keepers of a society or do they produce a particular consciousness? How do cultural elites position themselves vis-à-vis the state, class, caste and gender or the people, the masses? The following papers of this special issue, in varying degrees, address some of these questions. They bring together scholars, junior and senior, Indian and European, who have worked intensively on the Indian subcontinent and its elites. Kaamya Sharma, Tereza Kuldova, Stefanie Lotter, Sudarsan Padmanabhan and Jyotirmaya Tripathy are among the contributors. We are also pleased to include a special contribution from Jakob Rösel, Professor Emeritus at the University of Rostock and former editor of the International Quarterly of Asian Studies.