Sikata Banerjee is Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada.

By drawing on popular films, this book unpacks a particular gendered vision of nation in the modern Indian context. This "muscular nationalism" is an intersection of a specific vision of masculinity with the political doctrine of nationalism: the idea of nation is animated by an idea of manhood associated with martial prowess, muscular strength and toughness, but coupled with the image and construct of virtuous woman - a gendered binary, martial man/chaste woman.

1. Introduction: Gender, Nation, and Popular Film in a Globalizing India

2. Changing Norms and Contexts of Masculinity in Indian Popular Film

3. Nation, Manhood, and the Legacy of the British Gaze: The Presentist Use of History in Film

4. The Muslim Body in Indian Muscular Nationalism

5. Imagining the Diaspora: Social Anxieties, and the Transnational Middle Class in India

6. Conclusion: Muscular Nationalism and Film: Some Final Thoughts