Casting Kings
Bards and Indian Modernity
Jeffrey G. Snodgrass
Reviews and Awards
"By approaching South Asia's famous social hierarchies, often glossed as "caste," through the minds, eyes, performances, histories, proverbs, songs, jokes, tricks, and money-making tactics of a community that calls itself Bhat -- currently puppeteers to tourists, but historically genealogists to leatherworkers (as well as acrobats) - Snodgrass provides fresh views on overworked but perpetually compelling issues. From their marginal position, Bhats offer wonderful insights into how hierarchy may be instrumentally constructed and deconstructed. They keep both Snodgrass and his readers guessing about the nature of history, power, identity and truth. " --Ann Grodzins Gold, co-author of In the Time of Trees and Sorrows: Nature, Power, and Memory in Rajasthan