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Muscular India: Masculinity, Mobility & The New Middle Class

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Indian gyms depict masculinity and social ascensions.

"Muscular India" offers an intimate anthropological look at how modern gyms are shaping not just bodies, but social identities in urban India. You might find this book compelling as it unpacks the aspirations and challenges faced by gym trainers juxtaposed with the country's evolving middle class. Through Baas's keen observations, the narrative unveils a unique intersection of fitness, culture, and the economy, revealing how efforts to 'upgrade' oneself can reflect broader societal shifts. It's a compelling exploration of a nation in transition, seen through the microcosm of its gyms and the people who frequent them.

Sale

Muscular India: Masculinity, Mobility & The New Middle Class

Regular price RM58.12 MYR RM47.15 MYR 19% off
Unit price
per
ISBN: 9789389648218
Authors: Michiel Baas
Publisher: Westland
Date of Publication: 2020-01-01
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Personal Development, Sociology, Sports
Goodreads rating: 3.52
(rated by 27 readers)

Description

The gyms of urban ‘new India’ are intriguing spaces. While they cater largely to well-off clients, these shiny, modern institutions are also vehicles of upward mobility for the trainers and specialists who work there. As they learn English, ‘upgrade’ their dressing style and try to develop a deeper understanding of the lives of their upmarket customers, they break with an older kind of masculinity represented by the pehlwans in their akharas. Equally, the gym aspires to be a safe space for women—a break from the toxic masculinity they must deal with outside its walls. Yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Class barriers are less permeable than they appear. The use of bodily capital to breach them is more fraught with danger than one might anticipate. And the profession is riddled with pitfalls and contradictions. Michiel Baas has spent a decade studying gyms, trainers, and bodybuilders, and finds in them a new way to investigate India. He walks us through the homes and workspaces of these men—yes, they are almost all men—to bodybuilding competitions and also into their most intimate worlds of ambitions, desires, and struggles. An unusual study of an unusual subject, Baas unveils a fascinating world, hidden in plain sight.
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Indian gyms depict masculinity and social ascensions.

"Muscular India" offers an intimate anthropological look at how modern gyms are shaping not just bodies, but social identities in urban India. You might find this book compelling as it unpacks the aspirations and challenges faced by gym trainers juxtaposed with the country's evolving middle class. Through Baas's keen observations, the narrative unveils a unique intersection of fitness, culture, and the economy, revealing how efforts to 'upgrade' oneself can reflect broader societal shifts. It's a compelling exploration of a nation in transition, seen through the microcosm of its gyms and the people who frequent them.