Popular Expression and African Diaspora
Popular culture is marketed in such a way that contradictions can become apparent. Fernandes, Thomas and Anderson analyze three different African diaspora populations and their popular expression. We can surmise that the authors would agree with Rose that the “[c]ommercial marketing of rap music represents a complex and contradictory aspect of the nature of popular expression in a corporation-dominated information society”. These authors look into examples of commodification in their respective regions. The analysis performed by Fernandes, Anderson and Thomas examines the politics, consumption, and tensions amidst popular culture in varying national contexts.
Popular culture is a highly politicized field. Fernandes studies Afro-Cuban rap which “provides an avenue for contestation and negotiation within Cuban Society” (Fernandes 584). The lack of political organizations allows the utilization of popular culture for political purposes. Although rap criticizes the state, it can be utilized by the state such as “in the global marketing of Cuba to attract tourism, the Cuban state relies on stereotypes of ‘tropical’ sexuality and female promiscuity” (Fernandes 599). Even as rap exists outside the dominant political system the government is capable of subverting it and using it for its own purposes. Cuban rap is not always easily mapped onto state purposes. “Transnational networks do not map neatly onto distinct groups of rappers, rather they infiltrate and constitute Cuban hip-hop in ways that prevent the reduction of rap music to any one political agenda and allow rappers to define a somewhat independent, but collaborative, role with the Cuban socialist system” (Fernandes 599). Fernandes illustrates that popular culture is not a tool used by one group but by many with differing and often contradictory agendas.
Consumerism plays a central role in popular culture. “[T]he ‘underground’ hip-hop movement within Cuba is located in a contradictory space that is shaped by, even as it resists, capitalist consumerism” (Fernandes 599). Fernandes and Anderson both examine how materialism factors into identity. As Thomas states Jamaicans and others of African heritage are “refashioning selfhood and reshaping stereotypical assumptions about racial possibilities through – rather than outside – capitalism” (Thomas 349). Fernandes states that, “the materialistic desires that have shaped the movement in the west also inform the movement in Cuba” (Fernandes 602). “The appropriation of clothing styles;…the adoption of American slang; as well as the fantasy and reality of foreign travel, cultural exchanges, and contracts with foreign labels allow rappers to carve out a somewhat autonomous role for hip-hop, even as they operate partly from within state institutions” (Fernandes 603). Consumerism and materialism allow for rap to exist outside and within the socialist system. Anderson discusses how “Garifuna youth in Honduras have been heavily invested in acquiring brand name gear they associate with what they call ‘Black America’” (Anderson 203). These “individuals position themselves as self-fashioning subjects and agents via consumption” (Anderson 208). Through consuming clothing and other symbols that mark ideas of ‘blackness’ and ‘America’ are the Garifuna able to make statements about their own identity. “Consumption is a site where [their] masculinity, class status, and blackness are produced and affirmed” (Anderson 232). The Garifuna are actively making statements about their situation. “[I]t is via consumption that Garifuna tap into a certain kind of ‘Black power’ to refashion their position in Honduras” (Anderson 231). Anderson’s analysis shows us that “Black America becomes a terrain through which differences in the racial order may be imagined, compared and, through affiliation, manipulated” (Anderson 223).
Tensions exist among the politics and consumption habits that the authors analyze.
Thomas analyzes Jamaican popular culture through the “long-standing love-hate relationship with America” (Thomas 346). Similar to Thomas’s analysis, “’America’ [is viewed] as both a land of opportunity and an evil empire” (Anderson 207) by the Garifuna. The authors are able to show us that “cultural appropriation [is] a selective two-way process” (Thomas 347). When a group takes materials they do not take them as is but pick and choose. They modify and reinterpret them to their own purposes rather than having culture spoon fed to them. “[T]he commodification of Black power can contradict its original political impulses” (Anderson 202).
The authors when put into conversation with each other would state that popular culture can be utilized by many groups and for varying purposes occasionally in contradiction with each other. The authors also believe that although forms of popular expression can be against the establishment they are inherently consumer motivated. This consumerism however is not a top down dominating force but rather an individual based discourse on identity. It is through these individual discourses based on consumerism that individuals are able to navigate through hegemonic institutions. Finally, the authors suggest that the purpose originally put forth by a material item or other form of popular expression can be reinterpreted or even subverted to another groups political purposes.
The analysis performed by Fernandes, Anderson and Thomas lends insight into the particulars of different African diaspora and their utilization of consumables. Through their examination of politics, consumption, and tensions within popular expression we see the complex and contradictory aspects due to the for-profit corporate dynamics of the global world.
Works Cited
Anderson, Mark. Forthcoming. “This is the Black Power We Wear”: ‘Black America’, and the Fashioning of Young Garifuna Men. Chapter from Black and Indigenous: Garifuna Activism and Consumer Culture in Honduras. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Fernandes, Sujatha. 2003. Fear of a Black Nation: Local Rappers, Transnational Crossings, and State Power in Contemporary Cuba. Anthropological Quarterly 76(4):575-608.
Thomas, Deborah. 2006. Modern Blackness: Progress, “America”, and the Politics of Popular Culture in Jamaica. In Globalization and Race. K. M. C. a. D. Thomas, ed. Pp335-354. Durham, N.C.:Duke University Press.
The African Diaspora
Melville Herskovits’ intellectual project attempted to identify the distinctive culture and past of African diaspora and to link it to Africa. In his opinion “[t]o give the Negro an appreciation of his past is to endow him with the confidence in his position” (Herskovits) which would “influence opinion in general concerning Negro abilities and potentialities, and thus contribute to a lessening of interracial tensions” (Herskovits). This project possessed several strengths and weaknesses which his critics were quick to point out and interwoven in their critiques are issues of political importance.
Franklin Frazier saw several strengths of Herksovit’s work. Frazier saw him demonstrate “a sound knowledge of the culture of the region in Africa” (Frazier 196) and “discuss intelligently the the influence of African survivals on the behavior of American Negroes” (Frazier 196). Frazier also commended his ability to “destroy forever the prejudiced belief…that the Negro, having been fitted by nature for slaver, offered no resistance to enslavement” (Frazier 196). He commended his critical analysis and outlines for further study but Frazier also saw many issues with Herskovits’ work. Frazier questioned the validity of his sources. Frazier saw Herskovits using “the conclusions of competent scholars and the opinions of obviously prejudiced writers”(Frazier 195) with the same weight. Frazier believes that knowing one’s cultural past will not “alter [the Negro's] status in American life” (Frazier 196). He also saw many things contributing to racism and did not see this as a keystone to the underpinnings of racism. Frazier feared that by arguing African Americans as being different that bigots would push the argument that it was a fundamental difference that would prevent acculturation and use it to justify segregation.
Given the context of Herskovits’ project Frazier’s critique is incredibly valid. At a time when African Americans were considered inferior Herskovits’ project strove to break numerous assumptions. He wanted to show how unique and worthwhile the African American culture was. Ultimately his ideas about breaking down racism through one means was a folly. I believe that Frazier was right to question Herskovits motive of bringing to light any inherent difference in a prejudiced era.
Sydney Mintz and Richard Price believed that Herskovits was simplifying it too much and that two simple categories that “posit the existence of a generalized West African ‘cultural’ heritage…or to argue that the bulk of Africans in that colony came from some particular ‘tribe’ or cultural group”(Mintz 7) were not enough. They also argue that the West African cultural elements “are not at all so widespread as Herskovits supposed” (Mintz 9). They also believed that Herskovits was ignoring cultural dynamism. They put forth a strong argument that cultures are dynamic and fluid while Herskovits “might lead to a somewhat mechanical view of culture” (Mintz 13). Mintz and Price do not intend to “deny the existence of direct ‘survivals’ or ‘retentions’” (Mintz 55) but rather to show that “direct formal continuities from Africa are more the exception than the rule” (Mintz 60).
Mintz and Price offer a valid critique as well. Generalization is one of the key items they are fighting in Herskovits work. By opening up ideas of difference and allowing other notions to get inside his framework the project is better explained and more complete. I also believe that for Herskovits to ignore the practices of culture changing over time he missed something inherently important and falls into colonial ideas of unchanging traditions. When Mintz and Price show that these continuities that Herskovits was looking for are fewer than he supposed we are given a better and more accurate theory.
David Scott provides an intervention between the debate. He states that the terms Africa and slavery are interchangeable within their respective works. Scott hopes to show that there are limitations in trying to conceptualize the diaspora in an authentic past. Scot proposes a “theoretical relocation” (Scott 278) in which tradition is the subject of analysis. Scott believes that if we look at traditions “connections among a past, a present, and a future” (Scott 278), “distinctive community of adherents” (Scott 279), and the linking “of narratives of the past to narratives of identity” (Scott 279) we can ask better and more interesting theoretical questions. Scott states that the same time “these questions affirm that peoples of African descent in the New World do make of Africa and slavery a profound presence in their cultural worlds, and seek rather to describe the tradition of discourse in which they participate, the local network of power and knowledge in which they employed, and the kinds of identities they serve to fashion” (Scott 280).
Out of all of Herskovits critics I believe Scott is headed in the right direction. The other critics only point out flaws within his discourse while Scott manages to show that the entire direction people are looking at may not be the best. By showing us the limits of authenticating the past he opens up broader and more interesting questions. The questions Scott proposes focus on a commonality among all African diaspora specifically that of having an African connection whether a direct continuation or out of slavery. By looking at this commonality Scott puts tradition as the subject of analysis and allows for the unpacking of connections through time, community, and narratives. All of which are central to the African American identity.
Through Herskovits intellectual project of connecting the African diaspora to African roots we are shown critiques that represent different ideas and political difference. Frazier was concerned with unifying those of European descent and those of African descent. He was afraid of qualifying African Americans as different in fears of segregationist sentiment. He also saw Herskovits notion of racism as flawed and in need of revising. While Mintz and Price saw his argument as overly simplified and lacking the dynamics of culture. They also set out to show that direct continuity and culture regions were not as prevalent as Herskovits had supposed and that his ideas needed revising. In response to all of the critiques, Scott saw this project as headed in the wrong direction and attempted to reorient the theoretical questions. He believed that the discussion should be focussed on the commonalities of the African diaspora and about questions of tradition.
Works Cited
Frazier, Franklin. The Negro’s “Cultural Past”. The Nation, February 14, 1942. 195-196.
Herskovits, Melville. The Myth of the Negro Past. New York: Harper Brothers. 1941.
Mintz, Sydney and Price, Richard. The Birth of African-American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective. Boston: Beacon Press. 1992. 7-22, 42-60.
Scott, David. That Event, This Memory: Notes on the Anthropology of African Diaspora in the New World. Diaspora 1(3). 1991. 261-284
Indian Diversity
The Indian nation-state is shown as a collection of a varied and diverse people. A “diversity by extreme contrast: modernity and antiquity, luxury and poverty, sensuality and asceticism, carelessness and efficacy, gentleness and violence”(Paz 37). India is comprised of “a multiplicity of castes and languages, gods and rites, customs and ideas,…cities and villages, rural and industrial life, centuries apart in time and neighbors in space”(Paz 37). India’s history consists of many groups of differences with “equality under the law, regardless of sex, race or religion” (Paz 127).
The notions of diversity of the Indian nation is affirmed in cinema. These films show the link of common heritage embedded within diversity of migration, religion, caste, and village style. In Monsoon Wedding we are shown a family has migrated to a wide variety of places and they share a common link. In Lagaan the village is a heterogenous mix. The village contains Muslims and Hindus. Beyond religious diversity, there is also caste diversity. There are people who are Brahmans such as the doctor, there is a laborer such as the woodcutter, there are untouchables such as Bagha and Kachra, and there are those that have renounced their caste such as Guran the fortune teller. In Gandhi the communities shown are varied. Gandhi lives in a traditional village but he also travels to urban centers. Gandhi also travels between religious communities some Hindu and others Muslim. There are centers of peace and violence. He encounters people that are for his vision of peace and others who would hold up violence. Parzania takes place within a Muslim community. Inside this Muslim community are Parsees and nearby is a Hindu community. In the film there are radicals and people just trying to get by. “India is a conglomeration of peoples, cultures and languages, and religions”(Paz 75). Though all the people are unique, they are uniquely Indian.
Family and Nation
Family and the nation are presented in a multitude of ways in the films. The films address family notions such as gender roles, the respect of elders, the role of family, and the want of cohesion within that family. In Lagaan, men are seen doing hard labor while women are in the home doing domestic chores. Bhuvan finds it ridiculous that Gauri wants to play cricket. It is shown to be an improper feminine desire. In comparison, when Gauri shows desire to marry and to move into her husband’s home, it is shown to be acceptable and encouraged. Lagaan makes a statement that the public arena is for men while women should be in the home preserving the culture. In Gandhi, the respect of elders and the wise is demonstrated. Gandhi is viewed as a wise man, people wait for him to speak and revere what he has to say. When he gets older the people are quick to assist him and their respect grows. Towards the end of the film when he is fasting, people plead with him and they are cast as wrongdoing children beseeching their father. In Monsoon Wedding, the family is idolized as the ultimate value. The film shows a widely dispersed group returning home to their family for an important event. The family is the center. The father shows us that the family is above all quarrels and disputes by trying to reconcile with the molester relative. Although the father casts the molester out, he maintains and strengthens other bonds within his immediate family. In Parzania, again the family is demonstrated as center. A large portion of the film takes place within the family or community home. Parzania also demonstrates ideal gender roles. The father is the provider and the mother stays at home to raise the children and preserve cultural tradition.
The nation is presented in idealized nationalist terms. The film Lagaan is the struggle of village India during the colonial British rule. The village is resilient and is an example of the ideal nationalist secular India. This idea of a traditional village as part of the national ideal is demonstrated in Gandhi. Gandhi is always shown as living in a traditional or primitive village staying away from urban centers. He believes all faiths should be able to live together in harmony. This belief of harmony and unity is expressed in other films. Lagaan shows us a diverse community banding together just as modern India needs to do. In Lagaan caste and religion are thrown off in favor of unity and perseverance for the common good. Gandhi upholds the value of the spinning wheel as opposed to modern inventions and textiles. This is an example of staying with tradition and fighting modern influences. In Monsoon Wedding makes a statement that although the people may disperse they will retain their heritage and traditions and ultimately return to their ancestral homeland. India is presented as tradition oriented and needing to retain its small villages. The films also say that a harmony should exist among faiths. By utilizing common myths, and universal ideas, such as dharma, the films are presenting a united people with no factional lines and a community that does what is best for all.
The West and India: A Cultural Comparison
This paper will compare several facets of culture in the West and India. First, we look at sexuality, gender, love, and marriage. We see the goals of love marriage and arranged marriage. Second, popular culture in the construction of identity in the West and India. In the West this reaffirms the values of success and in India it encourages ‘traditional’ values. Lastly globalization, modernization, and imagined communities in the West and India. In the West these things work towards uplifting the nation while in India it holds the nation together and pulls the diaspora together.
In the West, I believe that sexuality and gender are roles with some overlap but there is a traditional role defined for them. Traditionally, women are supposed to be good house keepers and raise the children. Women are supposed to like dolls and play house. Men are supposed to play sports, be competitive, and work for a living supporting their household. Love in the Western sense is defined by lust and desire. Men and women enter in relations on the basis of mutual attraction. The relationship is then based around sex and enjoying the company of the person. If that relationship enjoyed by both parties they may choose to get married. Love is a pre-requisite to marriage. Some couples may enter into a relationship but not get married although still do the same things as a married couple. The married couple has the choice to have children and how many. For some the ultimate goal is to get married and have children. In the West one can not get married and still be considered successful. It is seen as acceptable to deviate from these traditional notions due to the West’s high prizing of individuality.
In India, sexuality and gender are controlled and sensitive issues. “Women [are] seen as the repositories of family honor” (Brown 88). This honor was safeguarded through control by “early marriage and social conventions of seclusion” (Brown 88) such as being “confined to domestic space” (Brown 88). Women are domestic and men are public similar to traditional notions in the West. This is seen in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham when the mothers are shown raising children and doing domestic chores. It is rare to see the mothers in public places. Love in India is regarded differently than the West. Men and women can experience love but only through fleeting meetings and secrecy. In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge when Raj’s love is betrothed to another he secretly meets her in the fields or on her balcony while no one is watching. Love is often the product of an arranged marriage. Through the duty of a wife to her husband can love grow. Marriage is often orchestrated by the parents and all marriages need the consent of the parents. The concept of elopement is abhorred by Indians. In both Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge we see the need for marriage to be approved by the parents. Rahul looks to his parents for blessing his marriage and in the other film Raj needs to have the approval of her father before he takes his beloved away. Both films also show arranged marriages orchestrated by the parents. Raj’s beloved is arranged to marry and in the other film Rahul is arranged to marry.
These notions of love can be reinforced through popular culture. In the West, popular culture surrounds everyday life. Popular culture informs our construction of identity. Popular culture says that our ultimate goal should be fame and wealth. Our news focuses on the famous which embody these values. Success is another value coveted by popular culture. Success is usually defined by fame and money. If not on a national scale, at least within your discipline. We are told that there are several paths to success one through education and another through media. Popular media also promotes a highly sexualized and eroticized view of gender specifically women, and it also promotes a gender hierarchy with men above women, and a race hierarchy. Women are show with little clothing which informs the clothing decisions of people. Men are portrayed as strong and intelligent while women are portrayed in opposition. This opposition leads to a power structure in which men are again on top. The history of slavery and the portrayal of race in popular culture puts those with African history on a different level of success. Africans are good at sports and rap music. They are not intellectuals or professionals like their white counterparts.
Popular culture in India constructs identity predominantly through Bollywood films. These films portray the diaspora and those in the homeland. The films always show “Indian values [as] triumphantly maintained” (Mishra 218) with “the diaspora [as] sites of permissible (but controlled) transgression while the homeland is the crucible of timeless dharmik virtues” (Mishra 221). In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Raj holds all the values of his homeland as of the utmost importance. Raj demonstrates this when he does not violate the honor of his bunkmate, looks for parental approval of his love and desire to marry. These films project “the diaspora [as] gaudy, exhibitionist…and selfish” in contrast to “the homeland [as] simple and selfless” (Mishra 222). Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge illustrates the difference between a crowded and money oriented London and the timeless simple nature of Punjab. The “diaspora is in many ways a re-projection of what the homeland has repressed” (Mishra 222). This is best illustrated by Poojah in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, she is scandalous and disrespectful, both things that Rahul shows discomfort towards.
In the West, globalization is largely a system developed to make the means of production easier for modernized countries in the West. The West is modernized and industrialized. Every country who supports the system of modernized nations is by definition not modern. The notion of imagined community exists solely within the nation. Americans stay in America and are patriotic. Those that expatriate are no longer a part of the community and generally leave because they no longer want a part in it.
The films represent India’s views on globalization, modernization, and imagined community. Both films show a globalized world in which there is a “reproducing of Indian identity in transnational locations” (Uberoi 295). The father in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is proud when he declares that he has maintained Indianness in London. The films “endorse a glamorous lifestyle, and effortless, and guiltless consumption” (Uberoi 299) in the modernized life of the diaspora. Both films argue for this lifestyle and make a point that those that become modernized will have these benefits. Imagined community is demonstrated through a “specific set of ‘family values’ with the essence of being Indian” (Uberoi 295) and a “moral responsibility of being ‘Indian’” (Uberoi 299). The diaspora are an integral part of the nation at home. Though they may have gone abroad they have not lost their Indianness which makes them a part of the imagined community. In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge Raj maintains all the values of India and is able to easily integrate into the lives of his love’s suitor in Punjab. In Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham Rahul is able to maintain an Indian existence in London when he leaves his past in India.
This paper looked at several concepts and their presentation in the West and in India. We looked at sexuality, gender, love, marriage, popular culture in relation to identity, globalization, modernization and imagined communities. We see the difference between love marriage and arranged marriage and how they progress. Popular culture reaffirms how these marriages operate and the other values it argues for, such as success in the West and ‘traditional’ values in India. Globalization, modernization, and imagined community are all looked at through popular culture and play a certain role in the nation. The West uses them for progress while India uses them to hold the nation of many people and places together.
Works Cited
Brown, Judith M. Global South Asians : Introducing the Modern Diaspora. New York: Cambridge UP, 2006.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Dir. Aditya Chopra. Perf. Shahrukh Khan. DVD. 1995.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Dir. Karan Johar. Perf. Shahrukh Khan. DVD. 2001.
Mishra, Vijay. Bollywood Cinema and Diasporic Desire. 205-222.
Uberoi, Patricia. The Diaspora Comes Home: Disciplining Desire Desire in DDLJ. 295-312.
Hearing Versus Listening
The differences between hearing and listening when first asked could be seen as a semantic difference. I’ve posed the question to several friends and the consensus is that they are the same but not quite. It could also be seen as a comedic difference between the genders. A wife may yell at her husband for not listening but he retorts that he heard her. In the course we’ve seen that this is a similar but more complicated affair. Listening and hearing both rely on the ear but where attention is focused provides the defining difference. To listen is to provide focus and exclude other noise. While to hear implies that there is a spread of focus or that what is heard is not the primary focus of ones attention with which Carter would agree with (63).
How we pay attention to sound is best answered by Truax whom we examined in class. Truax’s three modes of listening; in search, in readiness, and background listening. Listening in search is “a conscious search of the environment for cues” (Truax 22). This is a listening which focuses on one set of sounds to the exclusion of others often deemed the ‘cocktail party effect’. Listening in readiness is defined as “to receive significant information but where the focus of one’s attention is probably directed elsewhere” (Truax 22). This can be demonstrated by a mother sleeping and being awoken by a baby’s cry but not other noise. Background listening is the “sound [that] usually remains in the background of our attention” (Truax 24). This is sound that occurs regularly but not at the forefront of listening such as a foghorn.
Ultimately in recorded examples the recorder shapes our hearing. The recorder will use their examples to shape our opinion and prove a point. It will not capture a complete example of what things sound like but only a specific moment in time with specifics encoded that may not be replicable. The presentations we heard came through a variety of specifics that shaped our hearing. Individuals made deliberate choices on what to share and what to record. Often not everything was captured and other things were left out. The choice of time and place also dramatically altered what was to be heard. In certain instances what was presented may not be what others consider to be true in their personal experiences of hearing.
The presentations allow us to draw conclusions on what we did and did not learn about the soundscape of Santa Cruz. There is a collective imagination of what Santa Cruz sounds like and many people went out to capture and demonstrate that. One of these ideas is that Santa Cruz exists on a border between an urban and nature based environment. Many people seek out certain nature environments even though they exist among and sometimes interact with the urban. Natural Bridges and the Wharf are good examples. Natural Bridges which is supposed to exist apart from the urban still has sounds of people, bicycles and keys. The Wharf is human interaction over a natural soundscape. Amidst the wind, the ocean, and the sea lions are sounds of construction, cars, and shops. The Silvan Music Store and Pacific Ave illustrate that another part of Santa Cruz is live music. The music store is a place where people can purchase instruments to create a social aspect that is important to the city. Downtown becomes the area where these purchased items can be performed and construct the social space that many residents find to be unique and crucial to their identity. Student life is another theme shown in the presentations. There are certain sounds that become signifiers of student activity that is common to all those who share in the same experience. The Cowell Stevenson Dining Hall gives us the sound of a cafeteria with trays clanking and the buzz of conversation. One of the key sounds is the person who slides your id card and says ‘hello’. The Metrobuses provide plenty of significant sounds as well. The announcer, the sound of a bus accelerating and braking, and the ring of someone pulling the bell. All of these sounds can be pictured by a student and all of them allow us to understand what is happening with the vehicle. Another thing we learned is that the time that these recordings were made can create a dramatic difference in what is heard. At Seabright Brewery and 515 Kitchen and Cocktails the time when the recordings are made make a difference in what the place sounds like. At the Lighthouse and Steamer’s Lane this is also true. The Lighthouse recordings demonstrated how much just the time of day can make in what or who is heard. Steamer’s Lane provided an illustration of what the current storm sounds like and how that differed from what was expected. I imagine had it been a different season the Boardwalk would have featured prevalently.
In recreating what Santa Cruz is supposed to sound like, we miss out on what Santa Cruz might sound like to others. This allows us to ‘keep Santa Cruz weird’. None of the groups focused on the overwhelming traffic that defines the streets of the city at certain times. No one focused on the frogs in the evening overlooking the boardwalk on San Lorenzo Blvd. I wonder what someone else of a different age group and experience or even during a different time of year would have decided defines Santa Cruz.
Works Cited
Carter, Paul. “Ambiguous Traces, Mishearing and Auditory Space.” Hearing Cultures Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity (Wenner Gren International Symposium Series). Ed. Veit Erlmann. New York: Berg, 2004. 43-63. Print.
Truax, Barry. Acoustic Communication Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Ablex, 2000. Print.
The Nationalist Ideal Through Film
Lagaan is a tale of the struggle of a village India during the colonial British rule. The village is resilient and is an example of the ideal nationalist secular India. The colonial relations are shown to be respectful rather than adversarial. Gandhi follows Gandhi from South Africa to partitioned India. It shows Gandhi’s struggle in an attempt to create a free India exemplifying the nationalist view set forth in films like Lagaan. The films Lagaan and Gandhi presented similar versions of India designed to inspire nationalism. Lagaan is a struggle of Indian villagers against the British, cast in a nationalist ideal. While Gandhi is a nationalist struggle towards the utopian vision of India set down by Lagaan. The ideas of nationalism are represented in how the films deal with gender, caste, and a shared mythology.
Gender relations are represented in Lagaan and Gandhi similarly and both agree with an ideal nationalist viewpoint. In Lagaan, men are seen doing hard labor while women are in the home doing domestic chores or seen weaving the reeds for the men’s cricket game. Throughout the film we see mainly male characters; the exceptions to this are Elizabeth, Gauri, and Ma. Gauri is feminine and desires to settle down with her dream man. She desires marriage and to move into her husband’s home. Bhuvan finds it ridiculous that Gauri wants to play cricket and ignores her request. Bhuvan takes on the patriarchal role and makes the decisions for many people. The team he chooses is entirely male. In Gandhi, the main characters: Jinnah, Nehru, Gandhi, and Charles are male just like Lagaan. This puts the females in the role and position of support characters. The women take care of the men and do domestic chores while the men are out running the country.
Both films present the appropriate gender relations as male dominated and the story is played out as a “founding fathers” story. The films show that men are in the public sphere and women belong in the home preserving tradition. Even though men and women are political equals, men and women have their own separate but equal space in the ideal Indian society.
Caste is an integral part of Indian society and is addressed in both films. The nationalist view is that the caste system is not a part of the ideal India portrayed. In Lagaan caste is ignored. Untouchables such as Kachra and Bagha are easily integrated into the community. There is a slight altercation between the Doctor and Bhuvan regarding this but in the end it is realized that everyone is necessary and equal. In Gandhi, Gandhi makes sure that everyone shares the duties of the community in South Africa. He makes everyone clean the latrine and illustrates that all work is valuable. He also says that no man should be the slave of another. He demonstrates this by taking up any labor in which there is a master involved, such as when Gandhi takes the role of the tea servant.
Both films present views that negate caste. In the ideal Indian society even though the culture acknowledges caste the government does not and therefore society should throw off the same shackles. The citizens of ideal India should see all people as valuable, necessary, and of equal importance.
In Lagaan, the people live in a timeless classic traditional village. The people of the village are united across religious lines and it is believed that Hindus and Muslims can be good neighbors. The community reaffirms their cultural beliefs through performances with a common cultural history such as the dance of Radha and Krisna. The people of the village also follow Dharma. They unite with Bhuvan because it is the best for the common good. In Gandhi, Gandhi is always shown as living in a traditional or primitive village staying away from urban centers. Gandhi explains unity of Muslim and Hindu mythology in his upbringing. He believes all faiths should be able to live together in harmony. Though the harmony is not present it echoes the ideas of Lagaan. He expresses his firm belief in this and in order to stop riots between the followers of these religions he stays with a Muslim and goes on a hunger strike. Gandhi upholds the value of the spinning wheel as opposed to modern inventions and textiles.
Both films utilize the mythology of the people to unite them. The mythology of India comprises many aspects. The main aspect is that India is tradition oriented and needs to retain its small villages. Both films also say that a harmony should exist among faiths. By utilizing common myths, such as Radha and Krisna, and universal ideas, such as dharma, the films are presenting a united people with no factional lines and a community that does what is best for all.
Lagaan and Gandhi, both present a nationalist portrait of India. They do this by telling a nationalist tale through gender, caste, and a shared mythology demonstrated throughout the film. The gender roles of this idyllic place are that men are the founders and women are the carriers of cultural tradition. There is no longer a caste system controlling the fates of so many people. These people are allowed to move freely through the economic system and when this is too great a farce that each caste is equally integrated into society. This ideal place is in unity and harmony due to a shared mythology in which all people can live freely and in a secular democracy.
Works Cited
Gandhi. Dir. Richard Attenborough. Perf. Ben Kingsley. DVD. 1982.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India. Dir. Ashutosh Gowariker. Perf. Aamir Khan. DVD. 2002.
Women’s Agency in South Asia and Bollywood
Women are positioned by the systemic outcome of the patriarchy in a traditional role. Through the oppression of the patriarchy are women able to exercise agency and resistance. These women fight their marginalization through literacy and their interactions with their governments. Women can also rise up from poverty and enact their agency on a political scale as in the case of Phoolan Devi. Other high class women, such as Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto, emerge on the political stage and use structural masculinity to exercise their voice. Popular film can highlight these various roles. While women can utilize their oppression to rise up, these choices preclude others and reinforces societal domination in other forms.
In the 19th century, women’s role was contested between nationalist and colonialist discourses. Indian women were looked at as slaves by early English visitors because “at no period in her life, in no condition of society, should a women do anything at her mere pleasure… A women…is never fit for independence, or to be trusted with liberty… they bind the the wife to revere [their husband] as a god” (Chatterjee 622). The English were forcing a Westernization upon the people by making the people English in taste and Indian at heart in order to justify their colonial claims. This caused outrage and a backlash to keep the spiritual aspects of their culture pure. “The home in its essence must remain unaffected by the profane activities of the material world – and woman is its representation” (Chatterjee 624). Women were mocked by those opposing their Westernization in nationalist discourses.
“The women do not learn English but nevertheless try to become bibis. In households…the women no longer cook, sweep or make the bed…everything is done by servants…What is the result? The house and furniture get untidy, the meals poor, the health of every member of the family is ruined; children are born weak and rickety, constantly plagued by illness” (Chatterjee 625).
The nationalist patriarchy argues that the whole of Indian society will fall if women take up the inappropriate behavior of the English.
“The home was the principal site for expressing the spiritual quality of the national culture, and women must take the main responsibility for protecting and nurturing this quality. No matter what the changes in the external conditions of life for women, they must not lose their essentially spiritual virtues” (Chatterjee 627).
As it was seen that some virtues of English culture would not harm the essential Indian-ness of the culture, they were incorporated. “Of all the subjects that women might learn, housework is the most important” (Chatterjee 629). Women, although allowed to venture out into the world, were supposed to remember that housework came first. In this society the patriarchy had a strong grasp over women. Women were looked down upon for going outside of the norm. Woman’s agency was highly controlled at this time and only with permission from the patriarchy was she able to affect change in her life.
This dominance is seen in the autobiographical styles of women. “It was men who always laid down the ways in which women must behave” (Chatterjee 135), for “women’s life stories are concerned more with the domestic than with the public sphere” (Chatterjee 138). They were hailed for conforming to this norm. “The immediacy, directness and indeed the very artlessness of the form was seen to make it appropriate for an authentic ‘feminine’ literary voice… It was not the telling of an exemplary life, not even of a life of any importance” (Chatterjee 139). This shows that women were viewed by the patriarchy as a subclass and were treated as such. Early educated women wrote telling biographies of their experience. “The sense of acquiring a skill that was really meant for someone else seems to have stayed with these early generations of educated women” (Chatterjee 140). Often, this early womens’ education was interrupted, and they nursed a secret dream to read; some “eagerly conspired to start a secret reading circle” (Chatterjee 142). Men viewed the charm and desire to learn of the religious epics as “a true portrait of the traditional Hindu women” (Chatterjee 143) in those rare events when women were viewed and treated as equals. They had to conform to societal ideals. Kailasbasini stated, “I do not believe in the rituals of Hindu orthodoxy, but I follow all of them… Since I follow the Hindu rules, I have no problems, no matter what my husband does” (Chatterjee 147). Ideally, women are required to uphold tradition whilst men are free to choose which rules they observe. Women constantly “wage the struggle for identity and recognition” (Chatterjee 149). Due to societal constraints their choice is limited and they often have to perpetuate the patriarchy. Binodini, a celebrated actress, demonstrates what happens when one does not use one’s agency to conform. “Binodini [was] driven by the belief that the shame of being a woman of ill repute would be removed by her dedication and accomplishments as an artist” (Chatterjee 152). This turned out to be implausible and “she could be transformed only to fulfill the cultural needs of a class claiming to represent the nation but would not be given the place of respectability that the class had set aside for its own women” (Chatterjee 153). Even though Binodini had achieved mainstream success by rising up from poverty into a famous actress, her agency was marginalized by not being given the recognition she deserved.
Marginalization is achieved by drawing on myths of the “Golden Age in which women were free” (Jayawardena X) and “[focusing] on issues which would ‘protect’ women” (Jayawardena XI). Women’s roles were carefully crafted. “Women as a category were central in the recreation of community” (Jayawardena XI). This created a “violent negation of women’s agency and rights” (Jayawardena XVIII) in which “rules for ‘respectable’ women were laid down” (Jayawardena XII). This allowed for the “interiorisation and domestication of women’s bodies” (Jayawardena XX). “Not all women accept the manipulation of their gender identity, however. Repression produces resistance” (Jayawardena XIV), showing that “hegemonies are constantly contested and resisted” (Jayawardena XX).
In the recovery operation of post-Partition India “women realized their complete helplessness” (Menon 12) in their agency. There was a disconnect between the state and its constituents. Those who were able to rebuild their lives after this second uprooting were “eloquent about [their] present life…but absolutely refused to speak of [their] past” (Menon 13). Though women had been able to rebuild and live new lives abroad they were oppressed into the social system that demanded they return to their mother country.
The “feminist demand for equality, justice, inclusion, and nondiscrimination are met by means of negotiations with and through existing institutions of rule” (Rajan 8). An example of this negotiation is in the Ameena Case, which was “the dramatic ‘rescue’ of a ‘child bride’” (Rajan 38) who was purchased for marriage from her family, below the legal age of consent by an older Saudi Arabian. There was an outcry that “Indian girls are not for export” (Rajan 38). Ameena chose not to allow herself to be commodified and went against the patriarchal institutions that had placed her at an impasse. She resisted and was able to act against the system. Ameena,
“as a protagonist of the women’s movement, was able to exercise significant agency. This agency was, however, compromised in various ways: by the limitations of individual choice or consent, the reduction of the individual to the example, the regulation of female sexuality by the community and the state, and the contradictory operations of law” (Rajan 70).
The ruling of the case led to Ameena’s “return to her former situation, the very condition of poverty and need that had led to her marriage in the first place. Ironically she herself did not benefit from the reform measure her case initiated” (Rajan 53). Unfortunately, though she was able to exercise choice in her future, that agency was ultimately misdirected and led her back to the same system that had put her into poor conditions in the first place.
In Pakistan, Zina laws have led to the increased control of women and increasing power of those who seek to control women. The “families or former husbands used the zina laws to jail the women when they went against their families’ wishes” (Khan 77). This is a blatant abuse of power and manipulation. Women are “granted constitutional rights of equality and liberty, but, unlike men, they are also subject to special rules as laid out by their community groups” (Khan 79). Wealth plays a role in the use of Zina laws, “wealthy families are able to keep their daughters out of prison and thus within the reach of their vengeance” (Khan 81). Some families use the law as blackmail in order to “commodify [their] daughter’s body” (Khan 83). They will threaten to charge them with Zina unless they marry another who has promised the family money. Spiteful ex-husbands will also use the law, “should [his ex-wife] remarry, her first husband can and frequently does, blackmail her with the threat of zina” (Khan 85). This rampant abuse of the law is “used to sweep the streets clean of women, particularly poor unwanted and rebellious women” (Khan 87). “Women who are victims of the laws are contesting control of their sexuality and morality and indeed commodification of their bodies” (Khan 92). These women do this by running away and choosing their own partners. Women in utilizing their agency find that the state is able to re-oppress them through zina laws.
Sri Lankan female poets are making a conscious resistance to their marginalization. Women are the “central signifier of racial and cultural values” (De Mel 170) and by taking an active stand they can enter into negotiations and enact agency. “Sri Lankan women poets negotiate these identities and view themselves as women, participating in, rejecting, and/or encoding in other ways, the traditional symbols of womanhood as they operate in society” (De Mel 170). Their works contain a “feminist restlessness and sense of unfulfilled potential” (De Mel 171) which makes a “statement of resistance to this marginalization in society” (De Mel 171) against the patriarchy. “Patriarchy, which circumscribes women in this way, imposing rules of conduct, preventing them from participating in certain rituals…has to be torn down” (De Mel 184). They show feelings of “resentment here at being stereotyped” (De Mel 184). “Thus by perpetuating the very notions by which they are marginalized, women have complicity in their oppression” (De Mel 186).
In Nepal “the social effects of literacy” (Ahearn 7) have greatly impacted the women’s experience, it has allowed women to have a greater voice. Love letters “offered the opportunity to create new identities; to negotiate power and agency in their relationship; to establish intimacy and trust; to share views on life, love, and letter writing; and to express emotions that they could not express verbally” (Ahearn 119). The letters no longer forced women into a situation where the man can initiate relations. They were able to get to know each other before marriage. This often resulted in marriages taking place outside the normal kinship patterns causing “shifting alliances in the village and complete reconfigurations” (Ahearn 136). These changes have led individuals to “increasingly attributing their actions to their own agency rather than fate” (Ahearn 256). “Women’s struggles are more likely to be individualistic attempts to ameliorate their situation within the system, rather than confrontational insubordination that challenges the very basis of the system” (Ahearn 253). In this situation women are able to enact a choice but not overthrow the system which has dominated the culture.
Some women emerge from the margins into the mainstream. Phoolan Devi was born to a poor family with little resources. Her family tried to teach her to be obedient but she had “too much anger in [her]” (Devi 20). She came from a village in which the worldview stated that women were a burden and that “God only gives to the rich” (Devi 18). Devi says, “We were almost as wretched as untouchables…And being a girl meant being even lower” (Devi 35). She was beaten and her family was swindled. “We were poor and because of it we were powerless” (Devi 57). She begins to use anger as her voice. She is married off and disgraced by a man who claims “I can do whatever I want with you. I’m your husband, your master” (Devi 95). She was put in a terrible position and was always rising up until her husband disposes of her. She finds that “without a husband, I might as well be a corpse floating in the river” (Devi 138). The rich of the village turn against her. The anger in her comes because there is “no more humiliation they could threaten [her] with” (Devi 207). She is abducted and then becomes a member of a gang. This gang is the first place where she experiences humanity. Phoolan goes on to destroy those who destroyed her. She escapes her lack of agency as a poor woman by becoming an honorary man. She says, “the men in our gang treated me like a man and addressed me as a man” (Devi 295) and “whatever I did from then on, I would do as a man would do” (Devi 359). Phoolan is abused and her life is fraught with tragedy. People come to respect her towards the end. They respect her in fear as her village did or they come to respect her on other terms, such as the journalists and government officials who feel she has triumphed over her past. She acquires authority in her lawlessness that she is able to negotiate her surrender and live a life beyond her troubled past. After her release she campaigns for political office and wins. Sadly, she was assassinated in 2001. Devi was able to exercise agency but in doing so precluded other possibilities. She would never be able to live at peace in her old village and it is unlikely any mother would wish their daughter follow her path. Though she was able to fight against the system, it reinforces other aspects of the society under which she lived.
Indira Gandhi had another experience. The daughter of Nehru, she was born into an upper caste family and with the ability to be educated. “Indira Gandhi had traveled extensively in different parts of the country and seen poverty” (Dhar 108). She had also studied abroad in England. Saghal paints a portrait of a woman who was shy and the epitome of womanly but at the same time stern and able to enact a choice. This is shown by her marriage of Feroze. Her father disapproved but she held strong and ended up marrying him. After her father died, she became head of party like her father and grandfather before her. She was “always torn between domestic and public responsibility” (Saghal 4). In her first term she focused on administrative reform but “found it hard to accept…any view that did not accord with her own” (Saghal 34). Gandhi was able to procure an “independent identity, status, and following” (Saghal 56). In December of 1971, Gandhi exercised her agency as Prime Minister to hold negotiations with Pakistan “at any time, at any place, without preconditions, to establish peace between the two countries” (Dhar 187). Though her statement of Emergency was publicly criticized she was able to point out the flaws in the arguments of those that stood against her and then “[pardon] and [forgive] the misdeed of those who apologized publicly to rejoin the party” (Sood 163). She was able to serve three nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister and use her agency in the political sphere until her assassination in 1984. In this position of structural masculinity she was able to accomplish many things in the political sphere but at the same time she needed to be careful of her outward presentation to her culture. She had to keep a womanly presentation in order to appeal to her people.
Benazir Bhutto was also from an upper class family. She was given the opportunity to be educated at Harvard and Oxford. She recalls, “in our house education was top priority…my father wanted to make examples of us, the next generation of educated and progressive Pakistanis” (Bhutto 43). She was raised with a strong liberal view on the rights of women. Her father was the leader of Pakistan and subsequently assassinated by Zia. After the assassination she was detained in her home. After the detention she noted that “there was little room left in my life, in any of our lives, for tradition. In a way I had transcended gender” (Bhutto 169). She contested the purdah and burkha that was common and worked the fields like a man. She became involved in trying to overthrow the martial government and was imprisoned for seven years. Bhutto was exiled and returned after martial law was repealed. It was not until Zia’s plane crashed that there was a possibility for democracy. In 1988 Bhutto leads her party to victory and she had “become a symbol of democracy” (Bhutto 191). She used her power as prime minister to open up all aspects of the nation that had been closed off under Zia. She “returned democratic governance to the people of Pakistan” (Bhutto 198) and “made dramatic reforms to women’s rights” (Bhutto 200). Through modernization she attempted to thwart extremists. Although she was removed from power she continued to fight for democracy in Pakistan until her assassination in 2007. Bhutto was also able to utilize her position structural masculinity but similarly to Gandhi, she was societally restricted into a position of traditional womanhood.
Beyond real life interactions, popular culture plays a large role in delineating what the acceptable roles of the populace are. Bollywood films such as Lagaan, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham have a message about the role of women and their ability to act within society. In Lagaan, Gauri desires to get married and she is unable to participate in sports. When she speaks up or shares her opinion it is shot down by the main character Bhuvan. The other female character is English but she is still unable to do much. She is viewed as naïve by her brother and has little say. The only time she stands up for herself is when she sneaks out to the village. In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Simran is a good NRI. She obeys her father and does as he wishes. He allows her to go to Europe but unfortunately she meets the man of her dreams. Though she falls in love, she goes to Punjab to get married. She wants to resist the arranged marriage, but not until her father lets her go does she do so. Her mother speaks out against the patriarchy but still follows it. She hopes for greater women’s agency in the next generation but is unable to achieve it. She encourages an elopement between Simran and Raj but only with traditional acceptance will it take place because Raj refuses to elope. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham argues for traditional values. Nandini is the one most held down by the patriarchy. Her husband is to be worshipped as a god. His word is law. Only towards the end of the film does she reject his authority. She then speaks out against his use of authority and reinforces another version of patriarchal authority. Anjali, Nandini’s daughter in law, has a less traditional role. Her husband exerts some authority but he does not rule with an iron fist. She is allowed to do as she pleases. She is weak only towards her father in law. Pooja is presented as very Westernized. She embraces the British culture and bucks tradition only at the end of the film is she redeemed as Indian. Pooja uses her agency only to be reconquered by tradition.
Throughout the margins, the mainstream, and popular culture agency is an issue. The margins consist of a patriarchy oppressing women in order to keep them as pure reproducers of culture. Often education and literacy is used as a tool to strengthen their voice. The dominant culture uses women for its own purpose and women contest elements of that. There is a clear disconnect between the state and its citizens. The press is another way that women’s voices can be heard about rights violations that otherwise would go uninvestigated. Though laws are designed to hold women down, women will resist those they feel are unfair. Through mocking the law women exercise their voice. The shift from a fatalistic worldview to individualism is also helping. While in the mainstream women have political power and voice. All three women had structural manhood and used that to speak out against the dominant social culture while at the same time reaffirming other aspects. Phoolan Devi did this through her gang, fame and political career; while Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto did this through the Prime Ministership. In Bollywood films, such as Lagaan, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, a traditional role is presented. The traditional role is upheld but it is not shown as the only option that is Indian. All three of the films show dissent from the traditional role while embracing aspects of tradition.
Though women are viewed by the patriarchy in a traditional role and it oppresses them, women are able to exercise agency and opposition towards it. The subaltern women fight their marginalization in multiple ways, such as educating themselves and political action. Women can also rise up from poor conditions and enact their agency on a political scale. High class women also offer opposition to the patriarchy by emerging onto the political stage and using their structural manhood to exercise the voice of their oppressed gender. Popular culture can represent these views. It is shown that women while resisting reaffirm components of their domination.
Works Cited
Ahearn, Laura M. Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters, and Social Change in Nepal. University of Michigan P. Xi-261.
Bhutto, Benazir. Daughter of Destiny. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
Bhutto, Benazir. Reconciliation : Islam, Democracy, and the West. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.
Chatterjee, Partha. “Chapter Seven: Women and the Nation.” The Nations and Its Fragments. Princeton UP, 1993. 135-57.
Chatterjee, Partha. “Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonialized Women: The Contest in India.” American Ethnologist. Vol. 16. Ser. 4. Blackwell. 622-33.
De Mel, Neloufer. “Static Signifiers? Metaphors of Woman in Contemporary Sri Lankan War Poetry.” 169-189.
Devi, Phoolan, Marie-Therese Cuny, and Paul Rambali. I, Phoolan Devi : The Autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen. Boston: Little Brown GBR, 1996.
Dhar, P. N. Indira Gandhi, the Emergency, and Indian Democracy. New York: Oxford UP India, 2000.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Dir. Aditya Chopra. Perf. Shahrukh Khan. DVD. 1995.
Jayawardena, Kumari, and Malathi De Alwis. “Introduction.” Embodied Violence: Communalising Women’s Sexuality in South Asia. London: Zed Books. Ix-Xxiv.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Dir. Karan Johar. Perf. Shahrukh Khan. DVD. 2001.
Khan, Shahnaz. “Zina and the Moral Regulation of Pakistani Women.” Feminist Review 75 (2003): 75-100.
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India. Dir. Ashutosh Gowariker. Perf. Aamir Khan. DVD. 2002.
Menon, Ritu, and Kamla Bhasin. “Abducted Women, the State and Questions of Honor: Three Perspectives on the Recovery Operation in Post-Partition India.” Embodied Violence: Communalising Women’s Sexuality in South Asia. London: Zed Books. 1-31.
Rajan, Rajeswari. “Introduction and The Ameena Case.” The Scandal of the State: Women, Law, and Citizenship in Postcolonial India. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. 1-71.
Sahgal, Nayantara. Indira Gandhi: Her Road to Power. New York: Frederick Ungar Co. 1982.
Sood, P. Re-Emergence of Indira Gandhi. New Delhi: S. Chand & Co., 1981.
Indian Nationalism and Imagined Communities
Anderson’s Imagined Communities defines a nation as “an imagined political community” that is both “limited and sovereign” (Anderson 150). He then goes onto explain the parts of his definition. He explains it is imagined because the “members …will never know most of their fellow members” (Anderson 150). He explains it is limited because it has “finite, if elastic, boundaries” and that “no nation imagines itself coterminous with mankind” (Anderson 151). “Finally, it is imagined as a community” (Anderson 151) because it contains fraternity and comradeship. Anderson states that the “willingness to die” (Anderson 151) for the imagined community is the crux of nationalism. Anderson’s concept of nationalism can be related to caste, religion and family.
Nationalist “politics has inevitably changed caste” (Tharoor 202). These politics have “campaigned passionately against the caste system” (Tharoor 201) attempting to overthrow a discriminatory system that is viewed as a “law of nature”(Tharoor 194) and create a unified India. Nationalism does not have room for caste. In the films we have watched caste is unimportant or nullified. In Lagaan caste is ignored. Untouchables such as Kachra and Bagha are easily integrated into the community and it is realized that everyone is necessary and equal. In Gandhi, Gandhi strives to illustrate that all work is valuable. He also says that no man should be the slave of another. He demonstrates this by taking up any labor in which there is a master involved, such as when he takes the role of the tea servant. In Monsoon Wedding caste is not addressed and it shows that even lower class people can find the same happiness as everyone else. The citizens of nationalist India should see all people as valuable, necessary, and of equal importance.
Using Anderson’s model in regards to religion, models of nationalism emerge. Religion in India is a “key determinant of political identity” (Tharoor 168). The use of religion in this manner brings about movements of “the collective self consciousness without which the faith will stagnate or decline” (Tharoor 168). This “self-conscious collective identity, facilitated…by the televising of Hindu myths and epics” (Tharoor 167) along with “the will among the inhabitants of a nation to work together within a single political framework” (Tharoor 173) creates a nationalist force based on religion where “Hinduism becomes a force for cultural unity” (Tharoor 177). A similar occurrence happens in Muslim communities where Muslims unite under their religion.
Nationalism presents a certain view of family. Nationalism shows us a family with individuals as children of the nation. The family presented in nationalist films shows us a large group of people who may not have known each other as in Monsoon Wedding but are still willing to cooperate and work toward a common goal. The ideal family presented in nationalist films is that of one where there is a large family that works together for the greater good. This ideal family presents gender roles. In Lagaan, men are seen doing hard labor while women are in the home doing domestic chores or seen weaving the reeds for the men’s cricket game. In Gandhi, the main characters are male and the women are support characters. In Parzania, the man is the head of household and provider while the wife takes care of the children and stays at home. The films show that men are in the public sphere and women belong in the home preserving tradition. Even though men and women are political equals, men and women have their own separate but equal space in the ideal Indian society.
Nationalism is also present in films such as Gandhi and Lagaan. These films present “a historical group of men of recognizable cohesion, held together by a common enemy” (Tharoor 174). Lagaan shows a struggle of a village in India against colonial British rule and Gandhi is a nationalist struggle of a nationalist India against its oppressor.
The notion of banding together for the common good is in contrast to the Western notion of individualism. The Western notion of individualism is best seen in the ideas of capitalism. Capitalism is a notion in which all people are fighting against each other and it is every man for himself. In comparison there is a binding together for a common good and a putting aside of personal goals in the Indian system. The family structure is also markedly different. Indian culture supports an extended family living in one home while in the West the nuclear family is preferred. Also in the West one is supposed to go out on their own with no help from their family and “make it”. This leads to the cultural priority difference between the two. In India it is the good of the group whether community or family over the individual or self. The Western view of individualism does not support a group of people banding together for a common good or to fight a common enemy. Instead it supports a lone individual standing up against a united front and persevering against all odds.
Acoustemology
The concept of acoustemology allows us to consider the ways sound allows us to know and be in the world. It both is separate and linked with other sensory modalities. As Connor notes, our sensory perceptions are integrated and intertwined. In order to understand how sound is different than our other senses it is important to understand how sound places us in our environment.
Sound is omnidirectional and always on. As authors have discussed we have no earlids and we are always listening. This listening helps alert us to sudden noise and sounds. This alert mechanism will make sure we aren’t hit by a car or eaten by a panther. Sound is also fleeting and ephemeral, as we discussed in class. In other words, sound is not constant. If I yell, my voice will not continue on forever. Instead it will travel and fade into nothingness. Another aspect of sound is that it can flow through or around objects. Sterne’s discussion of the stethoscope is a wonderful example of that. Hearing can also be tied to emotions and catalogues as discussed in Levitin. Sound can evoke strong emotions such as sadness, pleasure and anger. Sounds can be catalogued and remembered by the hearer. Now that we understand how hearing places us in the world we can look at the other four senses.
Sight is mostly linear with some peripheral vision. Our eyes cannot see through or behind solid objects. We can also close are eyes and deprive ourselves of sight however light will still alert us to time. Location can also be defined by what one sees. Like hearing, memory is involved. What we see can be remembered and catalogued. Our eyes are also meant to protect us by darting to sudden movement.
Touch is a much less distance based sense. One can only touch what is near the body. Our bodies can also feel sound such as the low vibrations generated by bass at concerts. We also remember how things feel and can catalogue those as well.
Smell deals with what is is in the air and can be near or far. It is often hard to locate where a smell is and is often perceived as surrounding. However, some smells can be traced such as food that emanates from the kitchen. Memories of smells can be especially potent. Thanksgiving, rain, the ocean, and the sewers of Mexico City are all things that come to my mind when I think of intense smells.
Taste is whatever I place on my tongue. Sometimes this is food, dirt, air, my fingers. If I can place something on my tongue I can taste it. Smell and taste are often used in conjunction. It is often hard to taste if you can’t smell an object. The famed fruit experiments where one is unable to discern the fruit without the use of their nose are examples of this concept. I also think of how the air tastes salty when I am near the ocean or of the smog when I am in a city. Tasting the air also help me establish my location. The memory of tastes is important; it helps us determine what we like and do not like.
In looking at the five senses I feel that there is tremendous overlap and that they all function in ways that complement themselves. Should I not hear or see the ocean in Santa Cruz, I can still smell and taste it in the air. I know I’m in the desert or the mountains based on the temperature which I can feel through touch. Other phenomenon such as heat can be experienced through all the senses just in different ways. I can hear bacon sizzle. I can smell tires burning. I can taste the burning napalm inside of a pop tart. I can see the air ripple behind a jet engine.
