RITUAL (AS) POLITICS

Abstract

An attention has been drawn, in this paper to the way every day affairs enter into the ritual domain and are negotiated during the ritual process. It has been pin-pointed how politicised practices may open up ritual for the injection of unexpected messages and thereby use it for the renegotiation of power relations and cultural repertoires. The discussion is based on a case study of an intra-caste conflict among Khatiks in Bhopal , India. It spells out the features of a local leadership competition that is tied to a struggle over the re-interpretation of caste in an urban environment and under conditions of rapid modernisation. Examining the significance of this conflict for the ritual process (of the Navratri havan) the article articulates the need for a shift ritual interpretation. Ritual here appears not as a fixed 'script', which when re-enacted serves social cohesion. In contrast to functionalist and structuralist impetrations of ritual, this paper pledges to see ritual as an emergent process that enters into a 'dialogue' with social dynamics and thereby contributes towards cultural change.