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Profane Relations: The Irony of Offensive Jokes in India

Sanchez, Andrew (2016) Profane Relations: The Irony of Offensive Jokes in India. History and Anthropology, 27 (3). pp. 296-312. ISSN 0275-7206. (doi:10.1080/02757206.2016.1147439) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:70056)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2016.1147439

Abstract

On the shopfloor of an Indian automobile plant, a multi-ethnic workforce exchanges potentially offensive ethnic jokes with one another while remaining largely silent on actual incidences of communal violence. This paper shows how silence and profane humour are important aspects of an inter-ethnic sociality in the workplace, which distances itself from the retaliatory logics of communal violence. Speaking in the indirect register of irony, I argue that jokes about one another's religion and ethnicity are a means by which cultural intimates articulate anti-communal perspectives on public life. I suggest that profanity is a style of interaction that relates to an anti-communal sociality which distances itself from the politics of sanctity.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/02757206.2016.1147439
Uncontrolled keywords: Class, Communalism, Irony, Joking, Work
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Alexandra Leduc-Pagel
Date Deposited: 13 Nov 2018 09:36 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 12:22 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/70056 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Sanchez, Andrew.

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