"The Popular and the Public" brings together a range of international scholars to examine how popular culture has shaped the public sphere, providing an alternative space for political debate in 19th and 20th Century India, Africa and Europe. A diverse range of case studies include: competition between Christians, Muslims and Traditionalists within public culture in Nigeria; popular music and songs of war and peace in Uganda; Battala chap-books, popular painting and battles over urban space in Calcutta; Islamic festivals and moral debates around AIDS and crime in post-apartheid South Africa; Danish orientalism; nationalist journalism in Kenya; and, notions of 'miraculous literacy' among Evangelical Christians in Africa.