Rethinking Diaspora

Diaspora, a term used to refer to the dispersal of Jewish people across the world, is now expanded to describe any deterritorialized or transnational population that lives in a land different from that of its origin and whose social, political and economic networks span the globe crossing national borders. Through comparing the Anglo-Indian, the Sikh and the IITian diasporas, this project proposes to deconstruct diaspora as a construct. How does the Anglo-Indian Diaspora formed by conquest and colonization compare with the Sikh diaspora created in the service of the Empire and the highly skilled IITian diaspora? What are the categories through which the three diasporas constitute themselves and how do they define the homeland? While the Anglo-Indian and the Sikh diasporas have a pre-national history originating in the Empire, the IITian diaspora is intertwined with the history of the Indian nation. The three display a wide divergence in their constitutive categories – race in Anglo-Indian, religion and ethnicity in Sikh and skills in IITian and also vary in their myths of origin. While the homeland is defined through the region and sacral place in Sikh diaspora, the IITian diaspora converges on the alma mater and nation. The constitution of the homeland is far more problematic in the case of the Anglo-Indian diaspora. While the Anglo-Indian and Sikh diasporic movements in the past were those of low-skilled workers characterized by traditional migration chain, the high-skilled IITian diaspora fits the open migration chain pattern. Yet the three diasporas intersect as communities formed through strong transnational networks that interrogate the link between space, place and identity in the imagined communities of the nation. I argue that both the mixed race Anglo-Indian narrative, the ‘pure’ discourse of the Sikh imaginary and the knowledge/skills based imagining of the IITian community compels us to rethink essential categories of belonging and identity such as race, nation, caste, ethnicity while intensifying or creating new boundaries that are mobilized in their self-fashioning

Dancing to the Bhangra in New York City

Nearly two decades after Rekha Malhotra alias DJ Rekha launched Basement Bhangra, a “party that mixes South Asian bhangra music with hip-hop, dancehall and electronic sounds to create an unforgettable New York City dance experience” at SOB’s on Varick Street, which subsequently moved to Le Poisson Rouge, it has been voted by Time Out New York readers as the “best live music venue”. Born in London and raised in Queens and Long Island, Brooklyn based DJ Rekha, who is credited with pioneering bhangra, had been invited to perform at events like P.S. 1’s Warm Up Series, Central Park’s Summerstage, Prospect Park’s Celebrate Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturdays, and the annual flagship Loving Day celebration held in New York City, recognized by Newsweek as one of the most influential South Asians in the US and received accolades from The New York Times, CNN, The Fader, The Village Voice, and The Washington Post.  With Rekha being invited to deejay at major public events in NYC, bhangra could claim to be officially inducted in the global city’s soundscape. The recognition of Basement Bhangra and DJ Rekha by mainstream media, academia and policymakers signals the claims of desis to the space of New York city through the performance of a vibrant South Asian youth subculture that originated in the villages of Punjab in North India. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s notion of the production of space, this essay focuses on a performance space to argue that the dancing in the city interrupts its spatial coordinates.Près de vingt ans après leur lancement par Rekha Malhotra, alias DJ Rekha, les soirées Basement Bhangra, « mélange de musique bhangra d’Asie du Sud, de hip-hop, de dancehall et de sons électroniques, créant une expérience de dance unique à New York », lancées au départ au SOB, sur Varick Street, avant de déménager au Poisson Rouge, viennent d’être choisies par les lecteurs de Time Out « meilleures soirées de music live ». Née à Londres, élevée dans Queens et sur Long Island et aujourd’hui installée à Brooklyn, DJ Rekha, promoteur du bhangra aux États-Unis, a été invitée à se produire aux Warm Up Series du P.S. 1, à la Summerstage de Central Park, au Celebrate Brooklyn dans le Prospect Park, aux First Saturdays du Brooklyn Museum et lors des célébrations du Loving Day à New York ; elle a été élue par Newsweek « personnalité d’Asie du Sud la plus influente aux États-Unis » et a eu les honneurs du New York Times, de CNN, du Fader, du Village Voice et du Washington Post. Avec l’accueil réservé à Rekha dans les plus grands événements musicaux newyorkais, il est dorénavant possible d’affirmer que la musique bhangra fait officiellement partie du paysage musical de la ville. La reconnaissance des soirées Basement Bhangra et de DJ Rekha par la presse généraliste, les universitaires et les décideurs politiques est un indicateur de la volonté des desis de s’approprier l’espace urbain grâce aux performances d’une subculture jeune dont les origines se trouvent dans les villages du Pendjab du nord de l’Inde. En nous appuyant sur la notion de production d’espace mise en avant par Henri Lefebvre, nous nous pencherons au cours de cet article sur un espace de performance, les soirées Basement Bhangra, pour affirmer que la dance provoque une rupture dans la structuration spatiale de la ville

Consuming Bollywood

Hindi popular cinema, marked with sartorial, visual and material excess, has paradoxically portrayed acquisition of wealth or unregulated consumption as inimical to the Chaturvarga philosophy, or the idea that an individual should seek four goods – Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure), Dharma (duty) and Moksha (renunciation) - in moderation in order to lead a balanced life. While its visual imagery is largely oriented towards Artha or pleasure, Dharma, in its meaning as duty, has been the prime motivation of Hindi or Bombay cinema’s characters and structures the cinematic conflict and action. However, Hindi cinema appears to have undergone a phase-shift in the new millennium in its new Bollywood avatar in which consumerist pleasure is not viewed as incompatible with altruism, or even ethical values. New millennium Bollywood cinema articulates a new esthetic of pleasure that is inscribed on the eating, drinking, singing, dancing, loving body that appears to be attuned to global consumerism. While pleasure and consumption have always been Bollywood’s signature tunes, never have they been represented as congruent with Hindu family values or social responsibility as they are now. Although Dharma still wins in the end in new millennium Bollywood, it is not viewed as being inconsistent with the pursuit of wealth and pleasure or Artha (pleasure) or even renunciation or Moksha (renunciation). Traditionally, Dana (Pāli, Sanskrit: दान dāna) or generosity or giving, a form of alms as a form of religious act enjoined upon the individual has legitimized pursuit of Artha (wealth) and ensured the individual’s Moksha (spiritual salvation). The new Bollywood film legitimizes the pursuit of Artha and Kama through a form of non-reciprocal giving or Dana through which Hindu philosophy has traditionally balanced the pursuit of wealth. This essay reads the new Bollywood film within the framework of Chaturvarga and Dana to argue that these structuring principles enable a cultural artifact to mediate and resist the neo-liberalist ideology adopted in the economic and political realm. In particular, it will focus on its articulation of the Hindu notion of Dana (charity) in the context of global consumerism

One Land, Many Nations

The Panjab Rivers. — "Panjab" is a Persian compound word, meaning "five waters," and strictly speaking the word denotes the country between the valley of the Jhelam and that of the Sutlej. The intermediate rivers from west to east are the Chenab, the Ravi, and the Bias. Their combined waters at last flow into the Panjnad or "five rivers" at the south-west corner of the Multan district, and the volume of water which 44 miles lower down the Panjnad carries into the Indus is equal to the discharge of the latter. The first Aryan settlers knew this part of India as the land of the seven rivers (sapta sindhavas), adding to the five mentioned above the Indus and the Sarasvati. The old Vedic name is more appropriate than Panjab if we substitute the Jamna for the Sarasvati or Sarusti, which is now a petty stream. (Douie 1916

Dancing to the Bhangra in New York City

Nearly two decades after Rekha Malhotra alias DJ Rekha launched Basement Bhangra, a “party that mixes South Asian bhangra music with hip-hop, dancehall and electronic sounds to create an unforgettable New York City dance experience” at SOB’s on Varick Street, which subsequently moved to Le Poisson Rouge, it has been voted by Time Out New York readers as the “best live music venue”. Born in London and raised in Queens and Long Island, Brooklyn based DJ Rekha, who is credited with pioneering bhangra, had been invited to perform at events like P.S. 1’s Warm Up Series, Central Park’s Summerstage, Prospect Park’s Celebrate Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturdays, and the annual flagship Loving Day celebration held in New York City, recognized by Newsweek as one of the most influential South Asians in the US and received accolades from The New York Times, CNN, The Fader, The Village Voice, and The Washington Post.  With Rekha being invited to deejay at major public events in NYC, bhangra could claim to be officially inducted in the global city’s soundscape. The recognition of Basement Bhangra and DJ Rekha by mainstream media, academia and policymakers signals the claims of desis to the space of New York city through the performance of a vibrant South Asian youth subculture that originated in the villages of Punjab in North India. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s notion of the production of space, this essay focuses on a performance space to argue that the dancing in the city interrupts its spatial coordinates.Près de vingt ans après leur lancement par Rekha Malhotra, alias DJ Rekha, les soirées Basement Bhangra, « mélange de musique bhangra d’Asie du Sud, de hip-hop, de dancehall et de sons électroniques, créant une expérience de dance unique à New York », lancées au départ au SOB, sur Varick Street, avant de déménager au Poisson Rouge, viennent d’être choisies par les lecteurs de Time Out « meilleures soirées de music live ». Née à Londres, élevée dans Queens et sur Long Island et aujourd’hui installée à Brooklyn, DJ Rekha, promoteur du bhangra aux États-Unis, a été invitée à se produire aux Warm Up Series du P.S. 1, à la Summerstage de Central Park, au Celebrate Brooklyn dans le Prospect Park, aux First Saturdays du Brooklyn Museum et lors des célébrations du Loving Day à New York ; elle a été élue par Newsweek « personnalité d’Asie du Sud la plus influente aux États-Unis » et a eu les honneurs du New York Times, de CNN, du Fader, du Village Voice et du Washington Post. Avec l’accueil réservé à Rekha dans les plus grands événements musicaux newyorkais, il est dorénavant possible d’affirmer que la musique bhangra fait officiellement partie du paysage musical de la ville. La reconnaissance des soirées Basement Bhangra et de DJ Rekha par la presse généraliste, les universitaires et les décideurs politiques est un indicateur de la volonté des desis de s’approprier l’espace urbain grâce aux performances d’une subculture jeune dont les origines se trouvent dans les villages du Pendjab du nord de l’Inde. En nous appuyant sur la notion de production d’espace mise en avant par Henri Lefebvre, nous nous pencherons au cours de cet article sur un espace de performance, les soirées Basement Bhangra, pour affirmer que la dance provoque une rupture dans la structuration spatiale de la ville

The Place of Scripture in the Trajectories of a Distinct Religious Identity among Ravidassias in Britain: Guru Granth Sahib or Amritbani Guru Ravidass

This article highlights narratives, collected as informant testimonies, relating to trajectories of a distinct religious identity among the Ravidassia community in Britain. Current tensions surround the replacement of the Guru Granth Sahib with the Amritbani Guru Ravidass in Ravidassia places of worship. This is primarily in response to cartographies of the Ravidassia identity as distinct from Sikh identity. The opinions of Ravidassia individuals, from a varied age range, expressed in interviews conducted at various periods during 2010–2012, are considered in relation to dominant discourses emphasising the importance of one hegemonic ‘Ravidassia’ scripture. The interview data highlight three main positions among the followers of Guru Ravidass: (1) Ravidassias seeking a distinct identity but preferring to retain the Guru Granth Sahib in Ravidassia places of worship, (2) Ravidassias demanding a distinct identity by installing the Amritbani Guru Ravidass, (3) Ravidassias wanting to maintain their link with the Panth as Sikhs or as Ravidassi Sikhs

Gendering Dance

Originating as a Punjabi male dance, bhangra, reinvented as a genre of music in the 1980s, reiterated religious, gender, and caste hierarchies at the discursive as well as the performative level. Although the strong feminine presence of trailblazing female DJs like Rani Kaur alias Radical Sista in bhangra parties in the 1990s challenged the gender division in Punjabi cultural production, it was the appearance of Taran Kaur Dhillon alias Hard Kaur on the bhangra rap scene nearly a decade and a half later that constituted the first serious questioning of male monopolist control over the production of Punjabi music. Although a number of talented female Punjabi musicians have made a mark on the bhangra and popular music sphere in the last decade or so, Punjabi sonic production continues to be dominated by male, Jat, Sikh singers and music producers. This paper will examine female bhangra producers’ invasion of the hegemonic male, Sikh, Jat space of bhangra music to argue that these female musicians interrogate bhangra’s generic sexism as well as the gendered segregation of Punjabi dance to appropriate dance as a means of female empowerment by focusing on the music videos of bhangra rapper Hard Kaur

Bombay in Salman Rushdie’s novels: a study from global perspective.

Bombay, the city where Salman Rushdie spent his childhood, features prominently in four of his novels, namely Midnight’s Children (1981), The Satanic Verses (1988), The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) and The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999). However, in traditional literary approaches, the built environment and the materiality of Bombay evident in Rushdie’s fiction are largely lost disallowing Rushdie’s portrayal of the city to be explained as the real-imaged lived space, which Henri Lefebvre (1991) defines as “representational space” and Edward Soja (1996) as “third space”. In the globalized world of ubiquitous placelessness, the strategies and the tactics of recovering the lived space, sometimes involving the micro level of the body and sometimes larger scales such as the communities, are matters of great significance for the prominent spatial thinkers of our times. Therefore, by considering that Rushdie’s depiction of Bombay provides an access to its lived space, and particularly concentrating on the issues related to the land-reclamation in Bombay, this paper finally aims to explore how Rushdie’s sense of place is a progressive, global sense of place, which neither collapses in to a reactionary nostalgia; nativist bigotry, nor does it surrender to a spectral, deterritorialized globality