19 Diasporic performing arts and popular culture

1.INTRODUCTION

As is well documented in the Diaspora Studies literature, an orientation to the homeland, real or imagined, is pervasive in diasporas worldwide. Anderson’s evocation of the nation as imagined community, and writings of Safran, Clifford, Tololyan and others provides a nuanced delineation of this position. Despite critical re-evaluation of the centrality and meaning of ‘homeland ’, the basic assumption that the notion of homeland provides the grist and substance for the work of preserving cultural memory is repeatedly borne out by empirical studies. The concern with authenticity, evident in many aspects of diasporic life, can be tracked to this homeland orientation. At the same time, the very materiality of migrant existence, enmeshed in the concrete everyday realities of the adopted land, triggers adaptation through variously named processes like syncretism, creolization, hybridization, etc. The condition of hybridity, recognized and valourized by theorists like Hall, Bhabha and others marks diasporic identity as much as the search for authenticity does. It is the dialectic between the two that imbues specificity to diasporic identity. The performing arts and popular culture with their high emotional quotient, are particularly pliable and receptive to the codes of authenticity and hybridity. A module on this vast topic that covers so many forms and genres and so many diasporic locations that Indians have migrated to, can only hope to present selected glimpses. Yet the intertwining of the concern with authenticity and condition of hybridity is powerfully evident even in this small sample.

The performing arts scenario in India today is one that is diverse, creatively rich and vibrant. The major forms are music, dance and theatre. In each there is a variety of genres and styles, with some examples of combining elements of two or all three. They encompass classical, folk, popular and fusion forms. They include ancient forms whose practitioners swear by purity and authenticity and new forms that have arisen to meet current demands and reflect contemporary sensibilities. Most are regionally rooted, but several such regional forms have gained all-India currency over time. The regional rootedness transforming into pan-Indian scope is, inter alia, the by product of nationalism and nation building.

1.1 Authenticity and Hybridity

Diasporic Indians carry and practice these arts wherever they migrate. In the diasporic context, the performing arts have the additional important function of serving as bearers of cultural memory and identity. ‘Authenticity’ in the performing arts, particularly classical arts, is a preoccupation with artistes, even in India. It is cast in the idiom of schools, styles and ‘purity’. In the diaspora it is a powerful impulse that also represents the homeland orientation that is so central to consciousness and identity. The keen interest in classical Indian dance forms and specifically the mushrooming of Bharatanatyam dance classes in all parts of the Indian diaspora, and their attempt at fidelity to the various traditional schools in India is a striking expression of the search for authenticity. There have also been attempts to indigenise Bharatanatyam by integrating with local genres. We shall discuss this example in greater detail later in the module.

Within the traditional classical forms in India – music, dance and theatre , there are some experimental and innovative currents seeking to make them relevant to contemporary life and society. This is evident in the diasporic context also, even more so, especially in North America and Europe, given the overall ambience that is conducive to experimentation.

At the same time, migrants in various ways absorb from and adjust to their new location. Assimilation sometimes leads to second and subsequent generations, born in diaspora, trying to join the mainstream culture in the performing arts, ie trying for authenticity, with varying degrees of success. Zubin Mehta the music conductor is looked upto as a diasporic model by scores of diasporic students pursuing piano or ballet lessons. The other mainstream genres in which Indian diaspora has entered are, for example in UK, films, TV sit coms and Stand up Comedy shows, in which the format is British but the content reflects Indian diasporic themes.

But, despite the quest for authenticity, the existential condition of diaspora is inevitably one of hybridity. Thus, a third most interesting process is the emergence of fusion genresand forms that embody the creative coming together of Indian and local forms of the adopted land. Some of the fusion forms even influence the mainstream in these countries, such as the coming together of Bhangra and Rap in UK. ChutneySocaa popular party music and dance form in the Caribbean is another example of hybridity, as we shall see later.

1.2 Diaspora as interlocutor in the east-west dialogue

The interest intraditional performing and plastic arts as part of the orientalist fascination with Indian culture, language, religion and arts, especially in Europe, is at least a couple of centuries old. After independence, contemporary practitioners of these arts took them to wider international audiences in Europe, UK and USA. Pandit Ravi Shankar ’s popularizing the sitar and through it Indian classical music itself in global fora is a milestone in this regard, but there were many others too in what was becoming an incremental process. Within the western world, the interlocutors and impressarios of this engangement were mainly of European origins. They also helped convert the interest into systematized research, teaching and learning by institutionalizing it in universities (Puri 2004)

From the 1980s, the incremental process turned into a cascading one. The role of the diaspora in this process as seekers of their roots and as ambassadors of Indian arts in the west also took off from this time onwards. As they grew in numbers -especially the highly educated and skilled diaspora- organized classes, invited gurus, socialized their children into learning traditional Indian genres. Gradually a sizable section of the diasporic population became mediators in the dialogue beteen the west and India in the field of the arts. The metropolitan centres in the Indian diasporic world that sponsored this learning and teaching, started becoming attractive to practitioners in India too, given that financial support was meagre in India and fairly good in the diaspora. Some artistes even moved base to the west, teaching disseminating and performing primarily in the west. The Bay area of California is an example of a neighbourhood with a dense cluster of artistes and schools of Hindustani music. (For a listing of Indian music classes in bay area,see http://www.eknazar.com/bayarea/YellowPages/showallListings-cid-32 – pa- 17-pg-1/music- schools.htm). Organizing workshops and conferences, arranging concert tours, hosting visiting artistes in their own homes and mobilizing the community for support, creating audiences – all these were taken over in a big way by members of the diaspora. Given the increasing financial clout of the Indian diaspora especially in North America, the growth of India as a market and as an emerging economy, the continuing interest of scholars and performers in the cultural disicplines and the intensifying engagement of Govt. of India with its diaspora, the field of Indian performing arts became fields with multiple centres.Usually at least onein India and another in North America. The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival for Carnatic Music held every year around Easter time was started in 1978. It has become a 12 day festival with more than 8000 strong audience. Top musicians from Chennai make it a point toperform at the Cleveland Festival. V V Sundaram, the force behind the Festival is popularly referred to as Cleveland Sundaram in Chennai and is much sought after when he is in Chennai during the Chennai festival season in December. Among other things, he arranges tours for musicians and dancers in North America.

This example is given to make the point that increasingly Indian performing arts in the diaspora are developing their own distinct personality and influence and do not always look to India for reference.For a performance of Carnatic symphony by Indian children at Cleveland Festival see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls7asFgjGng

The classical arts found a foothold in prestigious and academic fora partly through the elite diaspora in North America. In the vast colonial diaspora in countries and regions like South Africa, East Africa, Caribbean, Fiji, Singapore, Malaysia and Srilanka too there was interest in the classical arts, in particular among the Tamil populations in these countries which taught children Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music as authentic Tamil traditions. But in these countries, the diaspora connect on a larger scale to folk performing arts traditions as well as popular culture from India. Thus temple festivals, weddings and other community events furnished for a for the performance of folk and popular rituals like fire walking, hook singing, processions of idols of dieties accompanied by folk and popular music, dance and theatre. In particular, film and devotional music are staples at such community events. In the elite diaspora, on the other hand, folk forms are not very popular; but popular music and dance inspired by or directly taken fromBollywood are making their presence felt in a big way.

2.AUTHENTICITY AND CONTEMPORIZATION IN BHARATANATYAM

We have taken Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form, as our first example. Starting as a regional form called‘sadir’ cultivated by devadasis and patronized by the courts in Thanjavur , it got transformed in the nationalist period into a purified form. Triggered by the two centuries of colonial humiliation, it embodied the quest for retreiving ancient Indian glory. Post independence, it was projected as a superlative example of the sophistication and beauty of Indian classical dance. It became a pan-Indian form, emblematic of authenticity. It is in this sense that it is interpreted in the diasporic context. Bharatanatyam is not just popular among Indians living in the Euro-American region as a way to culturally educate childrenon their Indian roots. The Tamil diaspora in countries like South Africa, Srilanka, Singapore and Malaysia has espoused it, as an art form that embodies Tamil culture. All over the diaspora, classes for children, performances during temple festivals and community celebrations are common. The teachers are often those who have trained in India; some are professionals, others home makers who have moved to the diasporic location. They represent some established schools from India. Shobha Subramanian’s narrative (2014) on her journey from being a Bharatanatyam student in Bangalore to performer and dancer teacher to hundreds of students – many Indian and some white American – in the USA is an example of what motivates parents to enrol their children in classical dance classes in a location so far away from home. The perceived need to socialize children into their cultural roots and the perceived fear of them being sucked into the alien culture of the adopted land is the foremost. As Venkataraman ( 2001) puts it, Bharatanatyam in the diaspora becomes both a way of keeping a connection to the homeland, and asserting one’s right to be different and maintain one’s ethnic identity in the hostland.

More ambitious performers anxious to connect to the locations where they live, attempt to dialogue with local traditions. Jayasperi Moopen, an Indian South African, has trained in Kalakshetra the well-known Bharatanatyam school in Chennai. In her Tribhangi dance company at Johannesberg, she enrols students of Indian, African and European descent. Her productions juxtapose and combine Bharatanatyam as well as Zulu dancing and her themes often are taken from South African life and culture (www.tribhangi.co.za ).

In Malaysia, Bharatanatyam specifically and Indian classical dance in general have evolved toperform different functions (Thiagarajan 2012) . For immigrant Indians, it is the usual story of cultural revivalism to bolster ties to the homeland and create a diasporic identity. In this role, Bharatanatyam brings together Indians of different languages, regions and religions (Ibid: 51) as indeed it didin the newly independent India of the 1950s and 60s. Ethnic Tamils, both from India and Srilanka have taken considerable interest in Bharatanatyam, with stress on Tamil language compositions, perceiving and projecting it as a form rooted in Tamil history and culture. It is noteworthy that the Srilankan Tamil diaspora globally has taken up training for children in Bharatanatyam and Carnatic Music in a big way, and this has the function of reinforcing a Tamil identity that is so central to the ethnic politics of Srilanka. Ann David (2009) documents how Hindu Tamil temples in Britain have taken to patronizing and staging Bharatanatyam performances and this is part of the political agenda of augmenting Tamil cultural capital in the battle against Sinhala nationalism . In multiethnic Malaysia, classical Indian dance has also attracted students from Malay and Chinese ethnicities, achieving at the level of the arts an inclusiveness that the state and society have not. Interestingly, in Malaysia with its‘bumiputera’ ideology that favours Malay Muslims as first citizens and polices women’s sexual and moral behavior, male dancers of both Malay and Indian backgrounds have managed to negotiate their way successfully. The themes in their dance express ideas of sexuality, gender and Hindu religiousity that are considered deviant by the Islamic state of Malaysia (Thiagarajan 2012: 48).Ramli Ibrahim, a distinguished Malay Muslim dancer, accomplished in classical ballet, contemporary western dance, Bharatanatyam and Odissi, has through his own performances and through his dance school ‘Sutra’ in Kuala Lumpur, made Indian classical dance in Malaysia a revered and popular art (See: http://www.sutrafoundation.org.my/). His students from Indian, Malay, Chinese and European backgrounds, have performed in many prestigious international fora.

For a video of Sutra Dance Theatre performance: ‘Krishna: Love Re-Invented’ seehttp://asiasociety.org/video/sutra-dance-theater-krishna-love-re-invented(accessed on September 27, 2015)

As an evolved, sophisticated and many layered form dominated by solo dancing, Bharatanatyam also gave rise to individual thinking artistes who experimented with its structure and content. Such experimentation is evident in the diaspora also. It is distinct from the mass practice of Bharatanatyam through classes and community performances and university based courses. Yet it is a noteworthy trend in the Euro-American context. It is part of the dialogue between Indian and Eurocentric interpretations of classicism. Lopez y Royo (2004) sees attempts by classical Indian artistes to nuance and contemporize the classical Bharatanatyam form for western audiences , as a response to the funding regime for the arts in multicultural Britain that demands hybridity and compatibility with western neoclassicism. She describes the two versions of the production ‘Moham: Magnificient Obsession’ by Chitra Sundaram, a trained Bharatanatyam dancer settled in Britain, one for mainstream audiences in Britain and the other for audiences in India. Critically evaluating the evolution of the idea of ‘classical dance’ in India itself, she argues that hybridity of the kind being demanded carries perils for rich, layered forms like Bharatanatyam, whichmay get lost in translation if they are strait jacketed into western neoclassical paradigms.

To give another example of experimentation, the Post Natyam Collective, a multinational collective of choreographers, explores contemporary Indian dance, performance and video on a continuum of tradition and innovation, theory and aesthetics, art and activism. (See http://www.narthaki.com/info/intervw/intrvw95.html).

The above description holds largely true for the other classical Indian dance forms as well, like Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi and Manipuri.

3.    HYBRIDITY PAR EXCELLENCE: CHUTNEY SOCA IN THE POPULAR CULTURE OF THE CARIBBEAN

If Bharatanatyam is an exemplar of the search for authenticity and purity, the popular Chutney Soca music and dance of the Caribbean region illustrates the opposite process – creolization. In this process of ‘douglarization’ as it is called locally (Ramnarine 1996:135) , a new hybrid form is synthesised by mixing elements from two or more sources. Chutney Soca, a form of public performance that of late is popular with all ethnic groups in the Caribbean, is a recent offshoot of ‘Chutney’ music , associated with the Indian immigrants in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Surinam. Chutney drew from the folk roots of the Bhojpuri culture of the indentured labour who migrated from UP and Bihar in the mid 19th century. But along the way, it has absorbed features of the local African-inspired forms like soca and calypso. Along with Hindi/Bhojpuri, the lyrics also incorporate substantial English content, albeit the Caribbean slang. It has become part of the popular culture of the Caribbean, rivalling Calypso, Soca and Parang, all of which are syncretic outcomes of cultural exchanges. Calypso is the major Afro-Caribbean folk music style, which arose in the mid 20th century in Trinidiad and Tobago. Soca is one of the offshoots of the Calypso with influences from cadence, funk and soul . Soca has often been referred to as the ‘soul of calypso’.Parang is a popular genre of folk music ; it was brought to Trinidad by Venezuelan migrants who were primarily of Amerindian, Spanish, and African heritage.( Chutney Pulse 2009 ).

At no point in its evolutionary trajectory has Chutney reached any stable, enduring form.It keeps absorbing new elements. The variety of sub- forms in this genre also reflects the individual styles of the performers, which cannot be strait-jacketed into a rigid codifications.For example, Chutney exists as a separate genre ,which itself has evolved and changed in the Caribbean environment, especially as it moved from private to the public performance realm. Soca is a prominent and separate genre altogether.

Theamalgam Chutney Soca also has its own existence and individuality. They all overlap and run into each other.In this sense, the contents are evolving and dynamic. This is quite the contrary to classical Indian forms of dance and music which are based on fidelity to the canonical texts like Natya Sastra and Sangita Ratnakara. In India, authenticity , based on not departing from the ‘original’ source, is characteristic of the classical forms, whereas the folk forms – from which Chutney springs from, has always been flexible, evolving and provides scope for spontaneous elements .

There is a debate on whether or not Chutney is an Indian form. One powerful view is that despite its roots in Indian folk music tradition, it is not an Indian form but one that reflects Indo-Caribbean identity (Ramnarine 1996: 136).

3.1 Origins of Chutney

Chutney in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Surinam is as old as the arrival of indentured labour from UP and Bihar in the mid 19th century. The Bhojpuri speaking migrants carried with them the culture of their region – its festivals, rituals and ceremonies. Chutney was in Bhojpuri known as ‘mathkor’ (‘digging the dirt’ a ceremony ritually honouring Mother Earth ). It was a women’s musical genre sung in private women-only ceremonies, sometimes accompanied by spontaneous dancing. Specifically it was connected with the ritual of bathing the bride at the riverside, by women relatives and friends, on an aupicious day before the wedding. It ceremonially heralded the transition to the married state. (Ibid: 139-40). The simple lyrics were in Bhojpuri and spoke of themes of love, courtship and marriage. They had both religious and some erotic elements. The traditional chutney songs have the same feel as the folk songs of eastern UP like kajri, chaiti, saavan, jhoola, even though transplanted into the Caribbean they start absorbing local elements. In its early history in Trinidad, Chutney, drawing from mathkor songs, was being reconstituted as a tradition to be preserved, a cultural memory. The diasporic context had already changed its meaning and function, and hence it was Indo Caribbean, not Indian.

3.2 Chutney goes public

Till the early 1960s, Chutney music was performed largely by women, in the private domain, community based, predominantly music with some dancing. Its transformation into a public art form, in the realm of popular culture led to other changes in its performative structure. It became a solo performance by an individual – man or woman – backed by a band, in community halls. Apart from the traditional instruments of dholak and tass, guitars, drum machines and keyboards were used. The Hindi lyrics got intermixed with English words and verses, albiet the Caribbean slang; energetic dancing with erotic overtones became a major part.

In 1963, cultural promoters Sham Mohammed and his brother Moen hosted shows with Chutney performances in Trinidad by a troupe of Surinamese Singers inlcuding Ramdeo Chaitoe and Dropatie, who specialized in chutney music but with a fast tempo. That was the beginning of public performances of Chutney. Chutney entered a rich environment of public performances of various genres and forms of music with dancing in the Caribbean, like Calypso, Soca and Parang. Along with another brother Kamaluddin, the three energetically propagated Chutney in India oriented radio programmes and hosted public shows. Sundar Popo, who is considered to be a legend and pioneer in Chutney music was promoted by the trio, and from the 1970s onwards, his compositions mixing Hindi and English verses (termed ‘local song’) became hugely popular.

Sundar Popo’s song Nana Nani is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73FVMjfXFGE(accessed on September 27, 2015). Hisinaugural song Nana and Nani made him a celebrity in Trinidad.

Excerpts from Nana Naniby Sundar Popo

Aga aga nana chale nani going behind

Nana drinking white rum

and nani drinking wine

Aga aga nana chale nani going behind

Nana drinking white rum

and nani drinking wine

Nana riding bicycle and

Nani ringing bell

Nani lock the handle

they fall inside ah well

Nana so dam careless

He dont care nani down

He jump in the bike boy

He hold on to white rum

Aga aga nana chale nani going behind

Nana drinking white rum

and nani drinking wine

Nana smoking tobacco and

nani cigarette

The rain started falling

the both of them get wet

Available online at http://islandlyrics.com/lyrics-sundar_popo-nana_and_nani_1970.htm (accessed on September 27, 2015)

The themes of early Chutney music were on the lives of the Indian immigrants. Sundar Popo (cited in Ramnarine 1996: 144) for example talks about his ancestors landing in Trinidad and their work in the plantations:

The Fatel Rozack came from India

With me nanee[ maternal grandmother] and me nana [ maternal grandfather]

And some landed here.

They brought with them their languague, Urdu and Hindi,

Their culture Hosein, Phagwa, Ramlila and Divali.

…Like brother and sister

in the boat they came singing and playing their tabla.

Remember 1845 the 13th of May

225 immigrants who landed on that day.

Early every morning the bells ring louder

to labour agriculture so their children wouldn’t suffer,

sugar cane, cocoa, coconut, rice and banana.

Together with me agee[ paternal grandmother]

And me agaa[ paterngal grandfather],

labour was cheap but food was cheaper

watch penga[ money] come for flour

and penga come for rice

cent and a half for sugar

and every thing was nice.

A full-blown public emergence of Chutney happened from the mid 1980s, with weekend chutney dance-fetes at popular venues attracting audiences of hundreds.Given the political volatility in the Caribbean countries after independence from colonial rule, there was in these decades, a steady flow of emigration to USA and Canada. Chutney music too crossed the ocean to the USA. In 1982, Sundar Popo and Drupatie Ramgoonai performed to an audience of 2000 and more at Madison Sqare Garden’s Felt Forum in New York. (Chutney Pulse 2009).Eventually Chutney , both individually and jointly with Soca, acquired a cult status in the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora, standing for a confident, vibrant Indo Caribbean identity.

The relationship between people of Indian and African descent in Trinidad and Guyana has been fraught with tensions and anxieties, starting with the colonial policy of replacing African slave labour with Indian indentured labour. It continued unabated after independence , with electoral politics being dominated by ethnicity based parties and constant rivalry and negotiation between the Indian and African parties and simmering undercurrent of grievances and complaints . You would have read about it an earlier module on Issues of Integration in the Caribbean. The hostilities were in a veiled manner, reflected in Chutney and its variants (Niranjana 2006). Yet, at the same time, the very process of syncretic interchanges and the evolution of a new form ‘Chutney Soca’ became a metaphor the inevitability and desirability of cooperation and camaraderie between the ethnic groups. 1995 -1997 saw the consolidation of East Indian presence in Trinidadian national culture and the establishment and acceptance of a more explicitly pluralistic conception of national identity. This was the atmosphere in which Chutney Soca, the form that merged Indian, African and British elements most vividly, was born. Chutney Soca was called ‘the melody of chutney mixed with the rhythm of Soca’ , but a “clear definition has not yet emerged, critics dubbing some compositions in the new form as ‘too chutney’ and others as ‘too soca’ “(Chutney Pulse 2009). The reigning Afro Caribbean forms each had their own highly publicized contests like the ‘Calypso Monarch’competition, International Soca Monarch competition, Parang competitions organized by the National Parang Association of Trinidad and Tobago.In 1995, the first Chutney Soca Monarch competition was held with large audiences and big prizes, and it became established since then as an integral part of the Carnival season in Trinidad. You can watchChutney Soca Monarch 2015 Grand Finals in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyTszHjDu8Q

This also inaugurated a period when Chutney, Soca and Calypso singers who mostly performed separately, became aware of each other and acknowledged the vibrancy of each others’music without necessarily or always doing fusion performances.

Thus Black Stalin, an Afro-Trinidadian calypso singer won the Calyspos Monarch prize in 1995 with a song entitled “Sundar Popo” dedicated to the pioneer of Chatni music (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8mNGbE_MGw)In the same year , Scrunter, another Afro Trinidadian Calypsonian won the Soca Parang competition with a chutney style based tune ‘Chutkaipang’. ‘Mighty Sparrow’ Trinidadian Calypso singer, song writer and guitarist also known as ‘Calypso King of the World’, also paid his tribute to Chutney, albeit with an irreverent twist, doffing his hat to the ‘sexy and saucy’ East Indian women through his song ‘Marajhin Sister’ (Ramnarine,146) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHN9BXnI6-k

Mighty Sparrow’ Trinidadian Calypso singer, song writer and guitarist also known as ‘Calypso King of the World’, also paid his tribute to Chutney, albeit with an irreverent twist, doffing his hat to the ‘sexy and saucy’ East Indian women through his song ‘Marajhin’(Ramnarine 146)

Excerpts from Marajhin

I will tell you true

the way I feel for you

I’ll do anythingto make you happy

so if you think it’s best

to change me style of dress

I will weara caphra[ cotton suit]or a dhoti[ cloth wrapped around waist]

I’ll give you a modernjupa [wooden house] down in Penal

and Ill change my name to Rooplal or Sparrowlal

I   could learn to grind masala[ spice]and chunka-dhal[lentils]

and jump out of time to sweet pan for carnival.

The famous Soca singer Brother Marvin ’s ‘Jahaji Bhai’ (‘Brotherhood of the Boat’) shows deep empathy for the plight of the Indian immigrants who arrived by ship and their common link of suffering with the African slaves.(See http://islandlyrics.com/lyrics-brother_marvin-jahaji_bhai_1995.htm. Itis yet another powerful symbol of the closeness of the musical genres in the Caribbean and the important position held by Chutney Soca.

Excerpts from lyrics of Jahaji Bhai:

Kumayaho Zindaweyo

Kumayah Zindawey Aya-Ayayo

I am the seed of meh father

He is the seed of meh grandfather

Who is the seed of Bahut Ajah [great grandfather]

He came from Calcutta

Ah stick and ah bag on he shoulder

He turban and he kapra

So I am part seed of India

The indentureship and the slavery

Bind together two races in unity

Achcha dosti (good friend)

There was no more Mother Africa

No more Mother India, just Mother Trini

Janmabhoomi (my home)

My Bahut Ajah planted sugarcane

Down in the Caroni plain

So Ramlogan, Basdeo, Prakash and I

Is Jahaji Bhai Brotherhood of the boat, Jahaji Bhai

Brotherhood of the boat, Jahaji Bhai

I would be ah disgrace to Allah

If I choose race, creed or colour

Bahut Ajah had to make that journey

For I to have Zindagee [life]

So it is ah great privilege

To have such unique heritage

Fifty percent Africa, fifty percent India

I have “do chuttee” (two holidays)

Emancipation and Arrival Day

Aant bhala so bhala

Since Fatel Rozack made the journey

150 years gone already

Bahut achcha… [very good]

Whether you’re Hindu, Muslim or Christian

Let’s walk this land hand in hand

We could only prosper if we try

As Jahaji Bhai

Brotherhood of the boat, Jahaji Bhai

Brotherhood of the boat, Jahaji Bhai

(Available online at http://islandlyrics.com/lyrics-brother_marvin-jahaji_bhai_1995.htm accessed on September 27, 2015)

Today Chutney and its more rambunctious cousin ChutneySoca, both with definite Indo Caribbean personalities are performed in New York, London and Toronto where Indians from Caribbean have migrated in large numbers. They are also performed in India where artistes Kanchan and Babla have popularized it with a Hindi film muisc twist. It could well go on to become a part of world music. But its main audiences are in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Surinam (Ramnarine 1996:133).

4.  ASIAN KOOL : A RESPONSE TO STEREOTYPING AND RACISM IN UK1 UK with its erstwhile colonial presence in the subcontinent, has a substantial minority of South Asians – from India, Pakistan and Bangla Desh who on many issues, tend to coalesce and act together. Portrayals of South Asians in the British popular media in the 1960s and 70s were stereotypical and generated in the main by British commentators, filmmakers and television professionals. The image of the South Asian youth torn between two cultures was projected in various ways. Peter Sellers’ films, BBC television programmes either portrayed stereotyped Asian characters, confused and comical, or real men and women facing problems that could only be solved by the intelligent white mainstream. The Mind Your Language series (BBC: 1977-79) presented squabbling Asian men and women, among other stereotypes.

4.1 Second generation youth: transformed approach to ethnicity

From the 1980s, a new face of Asian youth was emerging in a trend/movement that has been labelled as ‘Asian Kool’. Consciously differing from their parents’ generation, displacing the idea of a conservative community, re-connecting with their cultural roots with a totally different, confident even assertive approach, Asian youth have made their presence felt in the mainstream. In this, creative young Asians themselves played a major role by producing, directing and performing in TV sitcoms and stand-up comedy shows , in films and popular music . Using existing genres in British popular culture, they disrupted its conventional content, bringing in their hybrid experiences, but with self deprecating humour, a critical eye at racism in Britain, and a keen awareness of global diaspora politics.

4.2 A new genre of films and theatre

Publications like Eastern Eye, dedicated channels like Channel four, the Black and Asian film workshop movement led by Sankofa, in which Ahmed Jamal, Hanif Kureishi and others participated, all generated a new awareness of and interest in Asian creativity. An Asian film company called ‘Retake’ was formed which produced films on subjects related to identity and culture-conflict. For the first time, Asians had a role in producing, scripting or directing feature films like My Beautiful Launderette (1985) and Sammy and Rosie get Laid (1987)both scripted by Hanif Kureishi. Pratibha Parmar’s documentary Sari-red (1988) tells the stark story of a young British Asian Nalbinder Kaur run over and killed by neo-Nazis at a bus-stop, and Gurinder Chadha’s I’m British But… (1989) is a comment on Bhangra and its role in British South Asians lives and their cultural identity. These films were shown at mainstream theatres, festivals, film workshops and international film events.This sudden visibility to mainstream film audiences coincided with a number of teleseries featuring South Asians in a more visible manner, and not only in negative or minimalistic roles. Farrukh Dhondy, Hanif Kureishi, Zia Mohyeddin, Sayeed Jaffrey, Madhur Jaffrey, Shyama Perera, Pratibha Parmar, Meera Syal, Gurinder Chadha brought a new visibility for the South Asians in the media as no longer “in-between cultures” but full-fledged agents of hybridity.In the 1990s and 2000s, this genre has become more voluminous, productive and visible – Bhaji on the Beach (Gurinder Chaddha 1992), Wild West (Harwant Bains 1992), Brothers in Trouble (1995), East is East (Damien O’Donnell 1999) which was scripted by Ayub Khan Din, My Son the Fanatic (Stephen Frears 1997) scripted by Hanif Kureishi, The Sixth Happiness (Firdaus Kanga 1997), Anita and Me (Metin Hoseyin 2002), scripted by Meera Syal, Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and Bride and Prejudice (2004) both by Gurinder Chadha, Pratibha Parmear’s feature film Nina’s Heavenly Delights (2006) are some of the well-crafted and critically acclaimed examples.

Their work often subtly and sometimes explicitly addresses the issue of racism, as also problems, discrimination and hierarchy internal to the community.For example, Jatinder Verma, founder of Tara Arts, the first Asian theatre group in UK in 1977, has won public recognition for his work which often deals with themes of social discrimination, of ‘us’ and ‘them’. His productions of Russian, French, Indian, Greek, English and contemporary Asian plays reflect his global compass. He sees a connection between his experience of racism in Britain as a young migrant and his decision to enter professional theatre with a distinct thrust.

Such selective examples of Asian theatre in English are watched by white audiences.

4.3 TV sitcoms and stand up comedy

Television was another medium in which the new Asian creativity flourished, especially in the use of humour. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the British public was watching on television a whole gamut of Asian comedy, with themes and strategies consciously challenging notorious stereotypes. Goodness Gracious Me! (BBC2 and 4: 1996-2001) and The Kumars At No. 42 (2001-2006) employed self-deprecating humour as well as sharp comments both on British society and politics and the inadequacies of the outlook of the older Asian generation.

South Asian comedy, a uniquely home grown phenomenon in UK , has come of age . The Hindu, a distingushed Indian newspaper noted that India made a splash this year at The Fringe and at the Edinburgh Mela. The latter is a South Asia focussed cultural extravaganza.The Indian participants were young, irreverent, willing to take on religion, family, tradition, etc. Their work was peppered with sharp, witty, devastating comments on the second generation immigrant experience. In particular, the report mentioned Sajeela Kershi in ‘Shallow Halal’. Aatif Nawaz ‘Muslims do it five times a day’, Neel Kolhatkar ‘Truth be told’, Anil Desai ‘Impressions of a Hindude’.(The Hindu Sunday magazine 13.9.15 : 3).

4.4 Asian Underground Music

In music, in the ’80s, British Asian musical experiments continued to be not visible in public, with Bhangra bands and single Djs performing on weddings and private community functions . Bhangra then stood for traditional community song and dance. It was only in the early 1990s that this music entered the mainstream. Musicians like Bally Sagoo and Apache Indian (early 1990s) had initial success, but Talvin Singh’s Anokha: Soundz of the Asian Underground (1997) produced a sensation as he pushed his Asianness to the limit by his dress, Asian lyrics and drum and bass guitar beats which appealed to the Western dancers at clubs and parties.

The late Nusrat Fateh Ali’s influence on artists like Bally Sagoo, Cornershop, Nitin Sawhney, Bhangra and fusion group artists like the Safri Brothers, Asian Dub, Fun-da-Mental must be acknowledged. Some of these groups participate in political activity through their music: it is like their response to a hybrid existence, their sounds or lyrics reflect their commitment to Asian socio-cultural reality. This eclectic mingling of South Asian genres and Western breakbeats, known as ‘Asian Underground’ music is flowering in present day popular music with sounds and instruments like the tabla, sitar with western instruments and genres like Drum and Bass, reggae, hip hop, punk , techno and electronica (for an account of the rise of Asian Underground music see Soni Kaur 2014).

5. CONCLUSION

It is evident that the Indian diasporic performing arts and popular culture scenario is even more diverse and heterogeneous than India. While India, Indian texts and canons for the performing arts, Indian folk traditions and popular culture like Bollywood are certainly reference points for the diaspora, diasporic forms have their own histories of interaction with local forms in the hostland and its audiences, and they evolve to hold their own, not merely as shadows of Indian originals. The richness of Indian art and cutlural forms and the age old fascination of the west for them has given the diaspora a privileged position of impressarios and interlocutors as well. Within the academic and performance infra structure in the west , diasporic forms flourish well, and for some specific performing arts, metropolitan centres in Europe and North America achieve a standing akin to that of the centres in India. At the same time, for the bulk of the diaspora, performing arts overlap into the realm of popular culture, and serve the important function of maintaining cultural identity.

WEB SOURCES

Indian Music in Bay area
http://www.eknazar.com/bayarea/YellowPages/showallListings-cid-32-pa-17-pg-1/musicschools.htm

Sutra Dance Theatre
http://asiasociety.org/video/sutra-dancetheater-krishna-love-re-invented

Sundar Popo’s song (Nana Nani)

Black Stalin’s tribute to Sundar Popo

Anokha the songs of the Asian Undeground

Indian classical dance now a global heritage
http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/article201953.ece

The Rise of British Underground Music
http://www.desiblitz.com/content/rise-asianunderground-music

Performing Arts in the Diaspora
http://www.narthaki.com/info/articles/art123.html