A fair is an important event in every human society, modern or primitive, rural or urban. We call it a mela and the west hold the carnival. It is a place where people of all castes and classes visit and participate in their own way for their own reasons. It is like going to a tirtha. This book makes an attempt to understand the nature and character of the Punjab fairs that had not been studied before. Not to talk of the analysis, even ethnographic details are also not available in the existing literature. Harinder Kaur focuses on three important fairs of this region namely the Maghi at Muktsar, Devi’s at Maisarkhana and the Gugga at Chhapar. These are representative of the organized and the folk religion of a vibrant people who live life zealously. She follows the method of Saussaurian structuralism to construct the narrative of each fair and then analyses it semiologically to make sense of the fair as a microcosm of the larger society. She tries to explain what people do there and why.
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