Singing about the dark times in the US and India: notes on situated understandings in our age of essentialisms

Abstract

In an age where essentialisms and reductionisms appear to drive the politics of hate in most parts of the world, this essay seeks to explore the insight, hope and room for manoeuvre offered by situated local knowledges. Counterposing the “white working class” category in public discourse in the United States with the newly emergent political category of Muslim women protestors in India, the article questions the assumption that all essentialisms necessarily contain exclusionary potentialities.