The Art of Being Indian: A Diasporic Position, by Shabnam Parker Options

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Editor's Note: The Indian Diaspora is a generic term to describe the people who migrated from territories that are currently within the borders of the Republic of India. It also refers to their descendants. The Diaspora is currently estimated to number over twenty million. composed of "NRIs" (Indian citizens not residing in India) and "PIOs" (Persons of Indian Origin who have acquired the citizenship of some other country).-- http://indiandiaspora.nic.in/

By Shabnam Parker

Bollywood Cinema and its attending cultural fashion trends have, as of late, become in vogue on a global scale. As a result cinema complexes around the world have latched on to this economically viable shift in global consciousness and have subsequently incorporated Hindi films alongside the hegemony of Hollywood counterparts. In terms of globalisation this is a step forward as it means the West has firmly shook hands with the East. However, the question begs to be asked: What role do these cultural forms play in the lives of the Indian diasporas? The answer one inevitably gets is one that links it to cultural roots, to one’s ancestral home, to India and an identity that is Indian at its core.

In reality, this position or belief of a core Indian identity brings about a schizophrenia of sorts because one has to combine all the facets of one’s life into a single given personality, which to say the least is quite difficult. I am at one moment a South African, at another an Indian, a Muslim, a woman, a part of a crowd and an outcast. There are multifarious influences on my life but as part of the Indian diaspora in South Africa, the received idea of being Indian has to be kept alive mainly through cultural practices. And one of those practices is keeping in touch with the motherland through its cinema as it brings us all together in a seemingly united community.

The contemporary society in which we live only provides the outer shell of identity, it is the surface level where aspects of modernisation are accepted but at a deeper level one must always remember the core which is that of being an Indian. In the context of Indian diasporas, these ideas of being Indian and of traditional Indian womanhood have been characterized through films. Hence, the idea of an identity that is Indian at its core is quite an interesting notion especially with regard to Hindi cinema’s raunchy revamp, which is probably one of the reasons for its current global appeal.

Contemporary Bollywood Cinema has elicited a move away from the traditional values and trends that were apparent in the past. As a consequence of the changing times, gender representations are also changing within the sphere of Hindi cinema. The idea about Indian womanhood as being traditional and pure is not as constant as it once was seeing that a move away from typecast roles whereby women are seen only as mother figures or innocent bystanders is apparent in contemporary Bollywood films. On the one hand, this is a step forward as different depths of characters are explored. On the other hand, the question of whether women are getting these roles at the expense of being objectified arises. Contemporary Bollywood films also introduce ideas of being homosexual which is still a predominantly sensitive topic within Indian circles and would in most cases bring shame upon the family if, heaven forbid, one were to be gay or #######. Nonetheless, ideas of homosexuality are treated as a joke and in the end hegemonic masculinity reinstates itself.

As a postcolonial feminist positioned within the diaspora, I am often conflicted with the reality of being a woman on the one hand and being Indian, with all its cultural facets, on the other. For the most part, these two aspects of a somewhat hybrid identity are able to coexist quite commendably. At other times, however, the balance is usually disrupted by the creed of what Indian womanhood constitutes and the constant reinforcing of those concepts, which tend to be stuck in patriarchal limbo.