Gods Mediated Main Menu Introduction Seeing God: Hindu Devotion and Images Ramayana: Hindu Epic and Television Ram and Politics: Media and the Emergence of Hindu Nationalism Ganesha Drinks Milk: Global Hinduism and Science

Course description

18536
Modern technologies are enhancing representation and mediation and give the images and stories of the gods new public significance and political meaning. Printed and mediated images of the gods are multiplied and present in Hindu society like never before. Their epic stories are televised in TV-series and globally disseminated through electronic media. This module will explore traditional and modern modes of representation and mediation and discuss their effect and meaning for Indian public life and politics. A first session, “Hindu Devotion and Images” will examine how in the Hindu world religious concepts and ritual practices buttress the belief that religious images have a direct impact on mundane reality. A second session, “Hindu Epic and Television”, will discuss how, in the 1980’s, the technical novelty of Television, commonly known as Doordarshan, “Seeing Far”, gave the grand epic Ramayana not only a huge new popularity in Indian public life, but also invested the old myth with new cultural significance and political meaning. In the third session, “Media and the Emergence of Hindu Nationalism”, you will learn how the new media helped to make the god Rama into an influential political icon in the upcoming Hindu nationalism and the accompanying violent conflict with India’s Muslims. The fourth session, “Global Hinduism and Science”, finally, explores the curious story of a miracle happening in September 1995, when allegedly idols the god Ganesha, around the world, literally drank the milk offered to them, thereby, generating not only a global dispute between religious believers and scientific skeptics, but by implication also a technologically facilitated and mediated global Hindu community.  
 

This page has paths:

  1. Gods Mediated: Religious Images, Televised Mythologies, and National Politics in Hindu India Center for Asian Research, Arizona State University

Contents of this path:

  1. Seeing God: Hindu Devotion and Images
  2. Ramayana: Hindu Epic and Television
  3. Ram and Politics: Media and the Emergence of Hindu Nationalism
  4. Ganesha Drinks Milk: Global Hinduism and Science