Mazaa: Rethinking Fun, Pleasure and Play in South Asia

Abstract

The goal of this special section of South Asia is to generate new ways to describe and theorise mazaa, a Hindi-Urdu word that can mean fun, pleasure and play. Scholarly writing often treats fun and pleasure as either frivolous, and therefore irrelevant, or as symbols of a more important social phenomenon. At times, this is motivated by political critique; researchers often believe that entertainment necessarily supports the status quo. At other times, researchers avoid mazaa because we are sceptical of things that have an embodied pull on us. Indeed, mazaa is sensuous; it draws us in with its viscerality. Rather than see these qualities as obstacles, we argue that mazaa’s embodied, unwieldly and seductive properties can generate new ways of knowing, analysing, critiquing and writing. Contributors to this section write on a wide range of topics—including, but not limited to, dance, fashion, food and flirting. Together, the essays demonstrate a methodology for making mazaa an optic. This methodology includes keeping mazaa centre stage, allowing oneself to be moved, maintaining an open-ended reading practice that allows for indeterminacy, and writing with an abundance of detail. Dwelling in mazaa does not mean ignoring inequalities, violence or power, but finding new ways of writing about the forms of life that thrive even in times of crisis. It also means illuminating how pleasure can generate new communities and political possibilities as well as new understandings of the role of the critic in social analysis.