The Social Life of Indianism

Ravindran shows how early Indigenous intellectuals contested dominant narratives of Bolivian mestizaje, producing an alternative ideology, Indianism, that highlighted the centrality of race in Andean society and called for Indian nationalism. In the last decades, as urban Indigenous activists mobilized politically and created counterpublics, these elements refracted into a hybrid “folk ideology” that led to a transformation of political consciousness and new commonsense understandings of indigeneity. Set in the turbulent 2000s in Bolivia’s “rebel city," El Alto, this remarkable book shows how ideologies take form in everyday life, providing tools for use in the struggle against structural racism.

- Nancy Postero, University of California, San Diego, author of The Indigenous State: Race, Politics, and Performance in Plurinational Bolivia

An up-close-and-personal portrait of the politics of Indigenous cultural revival in contemporary Bolivia that shows how diverse political perspectives can emerge within a community of ideologically committed thinkers. Ravindran’s approach of following Indianismo from the sidewalks to political publications and into living room discussions among self-identified Indianist activists and theorists is incredibly effective and rewarding. Most significantly, this text examines the ways that rural-to-urban migration and racialized experience in cities and public life shaped a new political perspective that is grounded in Indianism but looks beyond it.

- Carwil Bjork-James, Vanderbilt University, author of The Sovereign Street: Making Revolution in Urban Bolivia