Culture is never neutral. It is a site where power is exercised, identities are constructed, traditions are negotiated, and resistance is articulated. Cultural Politics: Critical Perspectives on Power, Representation, and Society offers a comprehe...

Culture is never neutral. It is a site where power is exercised, identities are constructed, traditions are negotiated, and resistance is articulated. Cultural Politics: Critical Perspectives on Power, Representation, and Society offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamic relationship between culture and power across historical and contemporary contexts. Beginning with the political imagination of ancient and medieval India, the book examines key concepts such as dharma, kingship, ritual, dana, punishment, and subalternity. It then moves into critical debates on representation, discourse, identity, liminality, and cultural exclusion, drawing upon influential traditions in cultural theory and postcolonial studies. The volume further investigates postcolonial modernities through discussions of nationalism, hybridity, consumer culture, media representation, urban experience, and public life. Particular attention is given to Indian cultural practices, including religion, Ramlila, Kumbh Mela, women in the Mahabharata, and the politics of faith. The final section explores indigeneity, indigenous ecology, community knowledge systems, critiques of Western science, and alternative visions of development. Bringing together insights from political theory, cultural studies, anthropology, history, media studies, and postcolonial scholarship, this book provides students, researchers, and general readers with a multidisciplinary framework for understanding how culture shapes—and is shaped by—relations of power in society.