‘In stock’ on Amazon: The Cultural Globalisation and Deterritorialisation of Madhubani

This study is an investigation into the journey of Madhubani from India to Amazon has reconfigured and reconstructed the art form itself. Hence, determining the ‘circuits of commerce’ (Zelizer, 2004) will be indispensable to understanding the infrastructure that has aided the flow of Madhubani from the local to the global art market and responsible for the modification and repositioning of traditional Indian art from its ceremonial, traditional moorings, to its now decorative or commodified use.Their sale on Amazon signals its deterritorialisation (Tomlinson, 1999) wherein as Appadurai (1990, 1996) elaborates, it affects the loyalties of groups, the manipulation of currencies and other forms of wealth, which can fundamentally alter the basis of cultural reproduction; the art then no longer remains bound to the same territory or is culturally homogeneous. The Madhubani paintings adorning the walls of a house have been stripped off their original meanings, serving merely as an aesthetic addition to a house’s décor. Hence, as Crane (2002) asserts, it becomes necessary to question what is ‘local’ in this era of globalisation.