British Asian Culture and Its Margins in East London

During the summer of 1999, references to South Asian culture abounded within London—from the painstaking recreation of Hindi film star Dimple Kapadia’s bedroom in the Selfridges department store to McDonald’s introduction of the Lamb McKorma sandwich. This so-called “Indian Summer” served as a backdrop to the prominent commercial and critical success of British Asian musicians such as Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney, and Asian Dub Foundation and the emergence of British Asians in the mainstream media as poster children for Britain’s campaign to present itself as a vibrant cosmopolis. However this celebration of British Asian musicians, writers, artists, and actors sat uneasily alongside the socioeconomic reality of the Bangladeshi population in East London. The author explores two concurrent events—the Arts Worldwide Bangladesh Festival and the 000: British Asian Cultural Provocation Exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery—and attempts to navigate the quagmire of geography, music, and cultural identity they exposed.