Session 202: Individual Papers: Popular Culture, Sex, and Religion in South Asia

Organizer and Chair: Raka Ray, University of California, Berkeley

The (Un)Making of a South Asian Aesthetic: Analyzing the Consumption of Bollywood in Pakistan and the Pakistani Diaspora

Ahmed Afzal, Yale University

This paper draws on ethnographic data from Pakistan and Houston, Texas to examine the ways in which Indian cinema participates in both producing and also undermining a South Asian cultural aesthetic. I explore the duality of Bollywood through the following questions: How do Pakistani audiences engage with Indian movies? How does the reception of Indian cinema amongst Pakistanis become mapped onto contestations and conflicts over nationhood, territoriality, and religion in South Asia? And finally, how does Indian cinema both reflect, produce and mediate these contestations and conflicts?

I argue that the enormous popularity of Indian cinema amongst Pakistani communities exemplifies a shared but precariously constructed South Asian aesthetic that transcends religious, cultural, and national boundaries and borders. This aesthetic invokes shared cultural idioms, genres and narrative forms that transcend the borders of the post-colonial nation state in South Asia. However, this mass mediated asethetic is precariously situated and vulnerable to shifts in geo-political situations and contexts. The consumption of Bollywood in Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora reveals spaces of cultural convergences between Pakistanis and Indians. Moreoever, this consumption of Bollywood is mediated through the exclusionary ideologies of cultural, national, and religious belonging that restrict the circulation of Indian cinema amongst Pakistanis, and the inclusionary imperatives of the global market economy through which Indian cinema is circulated and consumed globally.

Socks, Shoes, and Toilet Seats: The Commodification of Hindu Imagery in the Western Market

Tanisha Ramachandran, Concordia University

Although initially confined to New Age stores and Indian restaurants, the colorful and vibrant images of Hindu Deities have appeared on a variety of products available in North American and European markets. Over the past decade, Hindu imagery has become part of the "indo-chic" marketing trend, which has seen the mass production of henna, bindis and "sari-esque" merchandise. Lunchboxes, nightlights and t-shirts with the likeness of Ganesh or Kali are top sellers, often purchased without regard to their religio-cultural context. While the appearance of these products is somewhat problematic due to their de-contextualized nature, these appropriations are not inherently disrespectful. It is the emergence of Hindu imagery on other types of products that is much more disturbing. The last five years has seen the marketing of products such as toilet seats, socks and underwear displaying a variety of Hindu images. The existence of these products shows the darker side of the way that Hinduism is understood in Western popular culture. It mirrors the colonial processes of the past, where religious and cultural imagery and artifacts are once again "collected" and used regardless of their original significance. Under this "right to take" mentality, Hindu images are re-signified and co-opted to facilitate the marketing of these products that are said to be a celebration of Hindu culture by their Western producers. This paper examines the specific manner in which Hindu imagery is commodified and thus signified for a Western audience under a neo-orientalist framework which consists of the exotification and denigration of Hindu symbols.

First Night: Conservative Sexual Humor in Madras Theater

Kristen Rudisill, University of Texas, Austin

One way that producers and patrons of the Sabha theater productions in Madras assert their superiority over genres such as commercial film and folk drama is to focus on the purity of their plays. There are both serious and comedy plays within the Sabha genre, but even the humor of this conservative, middle-class Brahmin community is, as they repeatedly assert, "clean," "healthy," and suitable for the entire family to enjoy. These labels are used to distinguish those who choose this sort of entertainment from those who enjoy humor based on sexual innuendo and double entendre, both common devices in lower-class genres. Morality thus links (good) taste with middle-class identity, a connection drawn by Pumima Mankekar in her work on television¹ but evident even during the colonial period, especially in regard to the issue of women’s modesty.² Even though the theater prides itself on its cleanliness, there are still jokes about sex in a few of these plays, but in place of the "vulgar" and inappropriate banter between a bachelor and an unmarried "Dancer" character that dominates Special Drama³ or the elaborate courting and vamp characters of film⁴ are jokes about the first night of a marriage. Within this safe, accepted space for sex, the artists gently probe the forbidden topic. In this paper, I examine the negotiation of the terms "clean" and "healthy" and their importance to the identity of this conservative Tamil Brahmin community through particular humor sequences about what happens on the First Night.