Is there a particular link between the sonic and the holistic nature of public religious performances that exceeds what can…
Sonic privilege: The holism of religious publics
Mumbai
Violence, publicity, and sovereignty
Today we are once more at a time when lawless violence proliferates and territorial boundaries are infringed upon, when state…
Attacking Mumbai
Whatever the global elements involved in these brutal events, from militant methods to media coverage, crucial is the fact that…
Jihad, fitna, and Muslims in Mumbai
While the dichotomy of "moderate" Muslims and "extremists" is prevalent in many media representations, this binary hides more than it…
Is Mumbai’s resilience endlessly renewable?
I grew up in Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1950s and early 1960s. I spoke Tamil with my mother, a…
Restore us to fire
The leitmotif of old Bombay is its diversity. Populations with varied beliefs and languages were agglomerated by the British into…
The death of secular India is greatly exaggerated
As the citizens of this vast metropolis seek to restore some semblance of normalcy to their lives, it is important…
Reflections on the future of Indian democracy
It is difficult to be completely impersonal about what happened in Mumbai last week. Some friends lost their near and…