scholarly journals Solidarity – rasa/autobiography – abhinaya: South Asian tactics for performing queerness

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-142
Author(s):  
Sandra Chatterjee ◽  
Cynthia Ling Lee
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Performance Art ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Solo Performance ◽  
The South ◽  
Spiritual Transcendence ◽  
Shared Identity

This article examines the work of D’Lo, a Sri Lankan-transgender-hip hop performance artist, and the Post Natyam Collective, a transnational coalition that develops critical and creative approaches to South Asian dance. The works utilize two strategies for performing queerness in relation to South Asian cultural practices: (1) autobiographic performance art rooted in identity politics and (2) the South Asian technique of abhinaya. These strategies use different modes of identification and audience–performer relationships. Autobiographical solo performance creates solidarity through shared identity or alliances between performer and audience. Abhinaya evokes pleasure and sensuality in multiple, ambiguous ways towards the goal of evoking rasa, ideally the audience’s experience of emotional–spiritual transcendence. We investigate tactical crossovers between the strategies of autobiography and abhinaya in D’Lo’s and Post Natyam’s work: how do they interact, where might they exclude each other, and what kind of performance of queerness emerges through their interplay?

Defying Britain's Tick-Box Culture: Kathak in Dialogue with Hip-Hop

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Prickett
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
The South ◽  
The Press ◽  
African Caribbean ◽  
The Way

With questions of identity and multiculturalism remaining at the centre of debates in the press, political and academia arenas, a dance production tackles these issues head on in a surprisingly humorous and accessible way. Birmingham-based Sonia Sabri Company's Kathakbox is a collaborative production exploring the theme of ‘ticking boxes’ which sets out to challenge preconceptions about identity. Four specialists in kathak, hip-hop, African Caribbean and contemporary dance are joined by three musician-vocalists who eschew instruments, utilising their voices and bodies to create a vibrant rhythmic score influenced by a cosmopolitan mix of styles. Aesthetic and ideological meeting points occur onstage in the critically praised hour-long show, while counter-hegemonic possibilities emerge in associated workshops. The article explores how the narrative potential of kathak opens the way for Muslim women participants to delve into movement possibilities and improvisational potential of both the South Asian dance form and hip-hop.

scholarly journals Spectrum of cancers among South Asians working in Brunei Darussalam

2016 ◽  
Vol 05 (01) ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
Vui Heng Chong ◽  
Pemasari Upali Telisinghe ◽  
Chee Fui Chong
Keyword(s):  
Gastrointestinal Tract ◽  
South Asian ◽  
South Asians ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Gender Ratio ◽  
The South ◽  
Lung Cancers ◽  
Brunei Darussalam ◽  
The Mean

Abstract Background: Worldwide the incidence of cancers is increasing and this seen more in developing nations. This study looks at the spectrum of cancers among South Asian nationals working in Brunei Darussalam, a developing Southeast Asia nation. Materials and Methods: The cancer registry from 1994 to 2012 maintained by the State Laboratory was retrospectively reviewed. Results: Over the period, there was a total of 123 cancer cases diagnosed among South Asians, giving an incidence of 1.5% (n = 123/8253). The mean age at diagnosis was 42.9 ± 17.1 with a gender ratio of (male 60; female 63). Among the South Asians, Indians accounted for the most (53.7%) cases, followed by Nepalese (39.8%), Pakistani (3.3%) and Sri Lankan (2.4%). The most common cancers were cancers of the female reproductive/gynecologic organs, gastrointestinal tract, and breast. Among the two major ethnic groups; cancers of the breast was the most common among Indians followed by gastrointestinal tract where among the Nepalese, these were gastrointestinal tract followed by gynecologic (esp. cervical cancers). Among the South Asian, the Nepalese were younger at diagnosis compared to the other groups. Conclusion: The spectrum of cancers among South Asian residing in Brunei is comparable to what have been reported from South Asia with the exception of lung cancers. The most common cancers were cancers of female reproductive/gynecologic organs, gastrointestinal tract and breast. South Asians were younger at diagnosis of cancers compared to non-South Asians.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
The South ◽  
Princely State ◽  
Art And Architecture

Abstract Drawing from histories of art and architecture, urbanism and planning, landscape, infrastructure, and media, this themed section is premised upon framing architecture beyond the terms of aesthetics or technology toward its agency as a form of knowledge. In this introduction and the articles that follow, architecture acts as an analytic with which to formulate understanding and meaning. Through modern histories and perspectives from the South Asian subcontinent, conceptualizing “South Asia” and “architecture” broadly and inclusively, the articles turn alternately to design and structure, aesthetics and affect, and the human and nonhuman in order to redefine the primary source. From the writings of a Sri Lankan architect, a capitol for a future Bangladesh, the princely state landscapes of a German-Indian planner, films of roads in Bhutan and Kashmir, gardens in Lahore, and towers in Karachi, this collection unsettles borders, writing across South Asian nations and contested territories together to name architectures operating in archival registers. Through habitations and speculations, it reimagines pasts and futures, recasting the architectural beyond instrument, as concept.

Evil in the Sands of Time: Theology and Identity Politics among the Zoroastrian Parsis

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 861-889 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. M. Luhrmann
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The South ◽  
Asian Community ◽  
The Core ◽  
South Asian Community ◽  
Ancient Religion ◽  
Protestant Christians

T the great texts of the great traditions are in some sense unchanging, but as Milton Singet pointed out, the anthropologist's task is to “find fot these ideas a local habitation and leain how they operate in the lives of ordinary people” (1972, 39). What I wish to present here are the changing meanings of texts that are thought to form the core of the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism and the story of how their interpretations have altered as the South Asian community of Parsi Zoroastrian interpreters has changed. Much about this story echoes the experience of other South Asian communities: as the Btitish rose to dominance and their missionaries strove to teach Parsis that theirs was an inferior, weaker faith, Parsis began to represent their religion as similar to that of the Protestant Christians, even while steadfastly refusing (for the most part) to convett.

From the Promise of Samosas to Hosting Bollywood Blowouts: Innovations in Reaching Out to the South Asian Community

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Sharma ◽  
Razia Kosi ◽  
Ulash Thakore-Dunlap ◽  
Sushama Kirtikar
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
The South ◽  
Asian Community ◽  
South Asian Community

Labels, Histories, Politics: Indian/South Asian Dance on the Global Stage

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
AVANTHI MEDURI
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
First Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The South ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Indian Nation ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Uk

In this paper, I discuss issues revolving around history, historiography, alterity, difference and otherness concealed in the doubled Indian/South Asian label used to describe Indian/South Asian dance genres in the UK. The paper traces the historical genealogy of the South Asian label to US, Indian and British contexts and describes how the South Asian enunciation fed into Indian nation-state historiography and politics in the 1950s. I conclude by describing how Akademi: South Asian Dance, a leading London based arts organisation, explored the ambivalence in the doubled Indian/South Asian label by renaming itself in 1997, and forging new local/global networks of communication and artistic exchange between Indian and British based dancers and choreographers at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Heritage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Shaikh ◽  
Stefano Bonino
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Online Video ◽  
The South ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Community Heritage ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
The Way

The Colourful Heritage Project (CHP) is the first community heritage focused charitable initiative in Scotland aiming to preserve and to celebrate the contributions of early South Asian and Muslim migrants to Scotland. It has successfully collated a considerable number of oral stories to create an online video archive, providing first-hand accounts of the personal journeys and emotions of the arrival of the earliest generation of these migrants in Scotland and highlighting the inspiring lessons that can be learnt from them. The CHP’s aims are first to capture these stories, second to celebrate the community’s achievements, and third to inspire present and future South Asian, Muslim and Scottish generations. It is a community-led charitable project that has been actively documenting a collection of inspirational stories and personal accounts, uniquely told by the protagonists themselves, describing at first hand their stories and adventures. These range all the way from the time of partition itself to resettling in Pakistan, and then to their final accounts of arriving in Scotland. The video footage enables the public to see their facial expressions, feel their emotions and hear their voices, creating poignant memories of these great men and women, and helping to gain a better understanding of the South Asian and Muslim community’s earliest days in Scotland.

Alternate Futures after the South Asian Nuclear Tests: Pokhran as Prologue

Asian Survey ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 504-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wade L. Huntley
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
The South ◽  
Nuclear Tests

Mainstreaming Third-Gender Healers: The Changing Perceptions of South Asian Hijras

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Jagadish
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Gender Group ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
British Rule ◽  
False Identity ◽  
Third Gender

Mainstreaming is the act of bringing public light to a population or issue, but it can have a deleterious impact on the individuals being discussed. Hijras comprise a third-gender group that has long had cultural and religious significance within South Asian societies. Described as being neither male nor female, hijras were once called upon for their religious powers to bless and curse. However, after the British rule and in the wake of more-recent media attention, the hijra identity has been scrutinized under a harsh Western gaze. It forces non-Western populations to be viewed in terms of binaries, such as either male or female, and it classifies them by inapplicable Western terms. For example, categorizing a hijra as transgendered obfuscates the cultural significance that the term hijra conveys within their societies. Furthermore, media representations of hijras cause consumers to view themselves as more natural, while hijras become objectified as occupying a false identity. This has caused them to be pigeonholed within the very societies that once legitimated their existence and respected them for their powers. With their cultural practices being seen as outmoded, and their differences from Western people be- ing pointed out in the news and on television, hijras have faced significant discrimination and ridicule. After providing a discussion of relevant Western and non-Western concepts, I seek to describe hijras and the effects of mainstreaming on their lives. Finally, I offer a critique of cur- rent research on this population and provide solutions to improve their plight.

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