This book serves as the corridor to one’s ‘self’. It began as a humble attempt to interrogate the performance history of Swadeshi Bengal. The burgeoning public space and audibility of voices hitherto unheard presented a two-way problem, for the colonisers, as well as for the colonised. The thinking mind that hid behind a facade of obedience suddenly appeared before all. The transparent veil separating the hidden from the manifest was torn apart. In the context of swadeshi and boycott agitation, performative spaces like theatre, jatra, and songs did not just serve as a forum for disseminating the notions of nationhood put forward by the intellectuals. The ideas gained a life of their own once they were placed in the performative space. Encompassing both the performer and the audience/recipient of the ideas, the notion underwent a change at various planes of consciousness. The notion of nation, as disseminated by the performances, acquired a different meaning at the level of enactment, and attained an entirely new substance when received by the audience. None of these exchanges occurred in complete passivity of any one party present in the performative space. Consequently, the emergent emotion of nationhood developed as a nuanced image of ‘self’. This book has tried to locate the beginning of that emotion of national ‘self’.

This volume serves as the corridor to one's 'self'. It began as a humble attempt to interrogate the performance history of Swadeshi Bengal. The burgeoning public space and audibility of voices hitherto unheard presented a 2-way problem, for the colonisers, as well as for the colonised.

This is a collection of new essays opening introspective space for further exploration into constructions of “We the People…” during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. It does so by interrogating intersections of pro-enslavement and anti-enslavement expressions of cultural nationalism, investigating assorted expressions of partisanship within dramatic literature and live performance (broadly defined), and by probing effects of armed conflict on notions of “nation,” “theatre,” “performance,” and other markers of communal identity. Enacting Nationhood is distinctive in that the essays collected here call into question many widely-held assumptions about the intricate theatrical past of the period under review. This said, the essays in this collection are certainly not to be taken as a comprehensive set of viewpoints. Rather, they are to be understood as an accompanying voice in a continuing discussion regarding an ever-shifting aesthetic contract between cultural nationalism and dramatic literature and live performance (broadly defined) from 1855–1899.

Since its founding in 1964, the United Republic of Tanzania has used music, dance, and other cultural productions as ways of imagining and legitimizing the new nation. Focusing on the politics surrounding Swahili musical performance, Kelly Askew demonstrates the crucial role of popular culture in Tanzania's colonial and postcolonial history. As Askew shows, the genres of ngoma (traditional dance), dansi (urban jazz), and taarab (sung Swahili poetry) have played prominent parts in official articulations of "Tanzanian National Culture" over the years. Drawing on over a decade of research, including extensive experience as a taarab and dansi performer, Askew explores the intimate relations among musical practice, political ideology, and economic change. She reveals the processes and agents involved in the creation of Tanzania's national culture, from government elites to local musicians, poets, wedding participants, and traffic police. Throughout, Askew focuses on performance itself—musical and otherwise—as key to understanding both nation-building and interpersonal power dynamics.

In sharp contrast to today's disorder was the apparent cohesion and stability of Indonesia during much of the New Order period (1965-1998). While Suharto's authoritarian rule was significant, the regime's cultural policies also played their part in demonstrating that his regime created order throughout Indonesia not just through coercive means. Ethnic, religious, and regional sentiments were to be channelled into art, which was used to help develop a national Indonesian identity. This theme is explored by this study, which focuses on the efforts of a group of young art students based at the Bandung Academy of Performing Arts to revitalize traditional Longser theater.

Nationalism and Youth in Theatre and Performance explores how children and young people fit into national political theatre and, moreover, how youth enact interrogative, patriotic, and/or antagonistic performances as they develop their own relationship with nationhood. Children are often seen as excluded from public discourse or political action. However, this idea of exclusion is false both because adults place children at the center of political debates (with the rhetoric of future generations) and because children actively insert themselves into public discourse. Whether performing a national anthem for visiting heads of state, creating a school play about a country’s birth, or marching in protest of a change in public policy, young people use theatre and performance as a means of publicly staking a claim in national politics, directly engaging with ideas of nationalism around the world. This collection explores the issues of how children fit into national discourse on international stages. The authors focus on national performances by/for/with youth and examine a wide range of performances from across the globe, from parades and protests to devised and traditional theatre. Nationalism and Youth in Theatre and Performance rethinks how national performance is defined and offers previously unexplored historical and theoretical discussions of political youth performance.

Nationalism and Youth in Theatre and Performance explores how children and young people fit into national political theatre and, moreover, how youth enact interrogative, patriotic, and/or antagonistic performances as they develop their own relationship with nationhood. Children are often seen as excluded from public discourse or political action. However, this idea of exclusion is false both because adults place children at the center of political debates (with the rhetoric of future generations) and because children actively insert themselves into public discourse. Whether performing a national anthem for visiting heads of state, creating a school play about a country’s birth, or marching in protest of a change in public policy, young people use theatre and performance as a means of publicly staking a claim in national politics, directly engaging with ideas of nationalism around the world. This collection explores the issues of how children fit into national discourse on international stages. The authors focus on national performances by/for/with youth and examine a wide range of performances from across the globe, from parades and protests to devised and traditional theatre. Nationalism and Youth in Theatre and Performance rethinks how national performance is defined and offers previously unexplored historical and theoretical discussions of political youth performance.