Paper short abstract:

Using a south Indian festival as a case study, I argue not only that a particular, local identity is performed and reified, but that it articulates a desired future that draws upon a collectively imagined and idealised past full of communal harmony, prosperity and abundance.

Paper long abstract:

In February 2013, the South Indian city of Madurai, Tamilnadu hosted a one-time festival entitled MaaMadurai Potrovum (Let Us Celebrate Great Madurai). The three-day festival included numerous events such as a torch-bearing ceremony, speeches by local 'Freedom Fighters' for Indian Independence, a carnival procession of decorated floats and performers, and demonstrations and competitions of traditional sports, dance and art forms. These events performed a particular notion of 'Tamilness' that epitomised Madurai as the locus of this identity through the use of established pilgrimage routes linking key places within the district's sacred landscape. The festival's narrative was further condensed and sedimented in the aesthetics of scores of murals painted along the road in front of the office of the District Collector, who governs the wider area. In similarity to other civic events commemorating cultural traditions throughout the world, this event performed a particular kind of collective identity situated in a specific locale. I argue, however, that along with other municipals projects, political events and religious festivals, MaaMadurai Potruvom addresses the challenges of modernity, and the resultant scarcity of resources, by articulating a desired future that recursively draws upon a collectively imagined and idealised pre-colonial past characterised by communal harmony, prosperity and abundance.