Re-Use-The Art and Politics of Integration and Anxiety

"Re-use" offers a novel approach to understanding the relationship between the past and the present in terms of the concept of 're-use'. It introduces the theory of re-use - wherein elements from the past are adapted and built upon - as an important heuristic tool for analysing and interpreting cultural and political changes and the transnational flow of ideas, concepts and objects in South Asia. "Re-use" is a collection of well researched and lucidly written scholarly articles that apply the concept of re-use to different aspects of South Asian progress - from art, architecture and jewellery to religion, statesmen and legislatures. By not treating artistic, political, religious and cultural developments as linear evolutions, this book encourages readers to understand development as a continuous modification of the past and a periodic return to earlier forms. Beautifully illustrated with exquisite images, and containing a scholarly bibliography pointing in the direction of yet unexplored terrain, this new text will be a source of excitement to the specialist and a source of pleasure to the general reader.