Sharjah Art Foundation Library

Lessons From Hell (Record no. 6069)

MARC details
000 -LEADER
fixed length control field 02648nam a2200169Ia 4500
001 - CONTROL NUMBER
control field 6069
008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION
fixed length control field 251021s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 9789383243204
245 #0 - TITLE STATEMENT
Title Lessons From Hell
Remainder of title : Printing and Punishment in India
Statement of responsibility, etc. / Christopher Pinney
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Name of publisher, distributor, etc. Marg Publications;
Date of publication, distribution, etc. 2018
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Extent 160p;
Dimensions 31x28cm
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC.
Summary, etc. This book documents the growth of printed images of punishments in hell from 19th- and 20th-century India. It explores what happens when new technologies of image reproduction collide with deep cultural traditions, and traces the sources of the iconography and formal visual structures that found new expression in late 19th-century chromolithographs showing deeds and their punishments. These prints, often titled Karni Bharni (reap as you sow), remain part of a living tradition, being still commercially produced by several presses. Hell turns out to have a very significant political history. While the style and form of this genre of images remained remarkably stable over the last century and a half, the political concerns changed from a vegetarian code reinforcing conventional high-caste Hindu patriarchy and morality to a concern with the obligations of the citizen. A parallel genre of educational charts illustrating good and bad habits, and duties to village and nation, reflected an Emergency-era co-option of karni bharni’s key idioms in the interests of the state. And 21st-century social media provides a space for pastiches that satirize the ideological positions in these popular images. Apart from being the first study of this genre of disturbing but compellingly fascinating images, the concise text offers more general understandings on print history, local and global imaginaries, the nature of mimesis, and the tenacious presence of “messianic” thought in contemporary India. Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. His chief interests are in commercial print culture and photography in South Asia and popular Hinduism in central India. He has held visiting positions at the Australian National University (Canberra), University of Chicago, University of Cape Town, Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), Bogaziçi University (Istanbul) and Jagiellonian University (Krakow), among others. His publications include Camera Indica (1997), “Photos of the Gods” (2004), The Coming of Photography in India (2008) and Photography and Anthropology (2011). A book about mirages, The Waterless Sea, is forthcoming.
546 ## - LANGUAGE NOTE
Language note English
650 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name entry element NE1-3002 PRINT MEDIA
9 (RLIN) 8645
651 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--GEOGRAPHIC NAME
Geographic name India
942 ## - ADDED ENTRY ELEMENTS (KOHA)
Koha item type Book
Holdings
Withdrawn status Lost status Damaged status Not for loan Collection Home library Current library Date acquired Source of acquisition Total Checkouts Full call number Barcode Date last seen Price effective from Koha item type
        Print Media Flying Saucer Library Flying Saucer Library 08/18/2022 Focal Point 2019   NE1-3002 163.225 6069 10/21/2025 10/21/2025 Book

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