Book excerpt: This empirically grounded work explores the emerging aspects of cultural politics in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. It engages with complex issues of cultural translation, localization and globalization from various perspectives through analyzing a diverse range of cultural forms, including government or palace-based celebrations, ceremonies and rituals, modern student theatre, and Islamic revival sessions. With its discussion of both old and new Islamic movements, alongside the contested religious interpretations of public cultural events, this book will be of interest not only to anthropologists, but also to scholars of religion, culture and sociology.