Abstract
AbstractThis chapter emphasizes the broader spatial and community boundaries within which middle-class dharma is constructed and authorized. It focuses on Ganesha Chaturthi, a 10-day festival honoring the elephant-headed god Ganesha, which offers emerging opportunities—and expectations—for upwardly mobile women to expand their ritual repertoires. This chapter traces the path of one ritual community as they travel outside of the neighborhood for the concluding festival practices and analyzes contrasting narratives about ritual practices from both women in Pulan and more elite women outside of Pulan. In doing so, it highlights how the urban neighborhood emerges as a religious space within which localized definitions of middle-class identity and propriety are constructed and corresponding dharmic expectations are validated and made meaningful.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York
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