Cultural Materialism in Krishna Dharabasi's Radha

Abstract

This research paper makes a thorough analysis of Radha authored by Krishna Dharabasi from the perspective of cultural studies based on cultural materialism. It explores the materials of human behavior in the past of nature by applying insights from Marvin Harris’ Cultural Materialism: The Structure for a Science of Culture (1979). Dharabasi’s Radha explores that our economic, political and ideological systems manipulate images and text of the party to serve their own interests. These images are interpreted from alternative and radically different perspectives, often constructed by placing those images in their historical and geographic contexts. Such images are constructed under the conscious and unconscious influence of material realities. The hegemony of material realities prevalent in Dharabasi’s Radha situates itself in the modern era subverting the existing field of Krishna’s discourse. Keywords: cultural materialism, political system, mythology, infrastructure