Sitara Thobani - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sitara Thobani

This thesis examines the performance of Indian classical dance in the contemporary 'diaspora ... more This thesis examines the performance of Indian classical dance in the contemporary 'diaspora space' (Brah 1996) represented by the city of London. My aim is to analyse whether and how performances of "national" art, assumed to represent an equally "national" culture, change when performed in transnational contexts. Drawing upon theories of postcolonialism, multiculturalism and diaspora, I begin my study with an historical analysis of the reconstructed origins of the dance in the intertwined discourses of British colonialism and Indian nationalism. Using this analysis to ground my ethnography of the present-day practice of the dance, I unearth its relation to discourses of contemporary multiculturalism and South Asian diasporic identity. I then demonstrate specific ways in which the relationship between colonial and postcolonial artistic production on the one hand and contemporary performances of national and multicultural identity on the other are visible...

MUSICultures, 2017

Abstract: The twentieth-century “reconstruction” of Indian classical dance forms can be regarded ... more Abstract: The twentieth-century “reconstruction” of Indian classical dance forms can be regarded as part of a larger nationalist push to assert a sense of enduring cultural lineage in the wake of colonization. In this paper, I examine the different ways in which the reformist logic central to this project is reproduced outside its immediate historical and social context in the work of contemporary dancers in the UK. As I demonstrate, the British multicultural context becomes an extension of the colonial encounter as the generational frictions that exist between dancers and their predecessors speak to the tensions between temporal categories that shaped, and were shaped by, coloniality.

Nation-Building, Education and Culture in India and Canada, 2019

As South Asian arts—especially Indian classical dance—gain increasing prominence in transnational... more As South Asian arts—especially Indian classical dance—gain increasing prominence in transnational settings, travel to India for artistic training has become a major milestone for both amateurs and aspiring professionals. The global networks that are thus instantiated enable diasporic members to return to the ‘homeland’ of their art forms and communities, as well as non-diasporic enthusiasts—many of whom first encounter South Asian arts in the diaspora—the opportunity to learn their chosen art in its ‘original’ context. In this paper, I analyse this global network of artists to study the cross-cultural interactions that are made possible as a result. Some of the questions to be addressed include: How does artistic training in India serve to provide other forms of cultural education for diasporic and non-diasporic artists? How does the contemporary transnational practice of Indian classical dance sustain and/or produce particular identities relating to nation-culture, race and ethnici...

The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 2021

The development of the Hindi/Urdu cinema is intimately connected to the history of artistic perfo... more The development of the Hindi/Urdu cinema is intimately connected to the history of artistic performance in India in two important ways. Not only did hereditary music and dance practitioners play key roles in building this cinema, representations of these performers and their practices have been, and continue to be, the subject of Indian film narratives, genres, and tropes. I begin with this history in order to explore the Muslim religio-cultural and artistic inheritance that informs Hindi/Urdu cinema, as well as examine how this heritage has been incorporated into the cinematic narratives that help construct distinct gendered, religious, and national identities. My specific focus is on the figure of the tawa’if dancer, often equated with North Indian culture and nautch dance performance. Analyzing the ways in which traces of the tawa’if appear in two recent films, Dedh Ishqiya and Begum Jaan, I show how this figure is placed in a larger representational regime that sustains national...

Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2018

In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump... more In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump drew international media attention in India and the US for their political mobilizing for the Republican candidate. In this paper, I examine the political campaigns of "Hindus for Trump" and its affiliated groups to analyse the diverse ways in which these diasporic activists engage in and advance a number of distinct nationalist projects simultaneously. Tracing links between the "Hindus for Trump" platform, Hindutva ideology that seeks to redefine India as a Hindu nation, and the racist "alt-right" movement that forms the political base for President Trump in the US, I argue these diasporic activists enact a synergetic nationalism that has productive effects in both "home" and "host" countries. The result is the perfection of Hindutva on the global stage through the very activities that legitimize the isolationist xenophobia associated with the Trump administration.

South Asian Diaspora, 2019

Now contained under the rubric 'classical', several dance practices in India underwent significan... more Now contained under the rubric 'classical', several dance practices in India underwent significant 'reconstruction' in the heyday of twentieth-century anti-colonial politics reliant upon the nationalist claim of a cohesive cultural identity. Such restoration of prestige to a supposedly denigrated cultural practice offered a positive 'artistic' counterpoint to alleviate nationalist anxieties regarding the purity of the nation and the uniqueness of its identity. Within a few decades of this nationalist reconstruction, Indian classical dance forms were regarded as emblematic of Indian culture and tradition. This article builds on important critiques of the nationalist reconstruction of Indian classical dance in India to examine how this project is enacted in the transnational present. It argues that both diasporic and non-diasporic (British) dancers uphold the foundational assumptions of the reconstructive Indian nationalist movement even as they are located within, and identify with, a very different national and political context, namely multicultural Britain.

Indian Classical Dance and the Making of Postcolonial National Identities, 2017

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2015

Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness, 2021

Anthropology in Action, 2015

Decolonisation, we know, is an historical process: in other words, it can only be understood, it ... more Decolonisation, we know, is an historical process: in other words, it can only be understood, it can only find its significance and become self coherent insofar as we can discern the history-making movement which gives it form and substance … Decolonisation, therefore, implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation.

This thesis examines the performance of Indian classical dance in the contemporary 'diaspora ... more This thesis examines the performance of Indian classical dance in the contemporary 'diaspora space' (Brah 1996) represented by the city of London. My aim is to analyse whether and how performances of "national" art, assumed to represent an equally "national" culture, change when performed in transnational contexts. Drawing upon theories of postcolonialism, multiculturalism and diaspora, I begin my study with an historical analysis of the reconstructed origins of the dance in the intertwined discourses of British colonialism and Indian nationalism. Using this analysis to ground my ethnography of the present-day practice of the dance, I unearth its relation to discourses of contemporary multiculturalism and South Asian diasporic identity. I then demonstrate specific ways in which the relationship between colonial and postcolonial artistic production on the one hand and contemporary performances of national and multicultural identity on the other are visible...

MUSICultures, 2017

Abstract: The twentieth-century “reconstruction” of Indian classical dance forms can be regarded ... more Abstract: The twentieth-century “reconstruction” of Indian classical dance forms can be regarded as part of a larger nationalist push to assert a sense of enduring cultural lineage in the wake of colonization. In this paper, I examine the different ways in which the reformist logic central to this project is reproduced outside its immediate historical and social context in the work of contemporary dancers in the UK. As I demonstrate, the British multicultural context becomes an extension of the colonial encounter as the generational frictions that exist between dancers and their predecessors speak to the tensions between temporal categories that shaped, and were shaped by, coloniality.

Nation-Building, Education and Culture in India and Canada, 2019

As South Asian arts—especially Indian classical dance—gain increasing prominence in transnational... more As South Asian arts—especially Indian classical dance—gain increasing prominence in transnational settings, travel to India for artistic training has become a major milestone for both amateurs and aspiring professionals. The global networks that are thus instantiated enable diasporic members to return to the ‘homeland’ of their art forms and communities, as well as non-diasporic enthusiasts—many of whom first encounter South Asian arts in the diaspora—the opportunity to learn their chosen art in its ‘original’ context. In this paper, I analyse this global network of artists to study the cross-cultural interactions that are made possible as a result. Some of the questions to be addressed include: How does artistic training in India serve to provide other forms of cultural education for diasporic and non-diasporic artists? How does the contemporary transnational practice of Indian classical dance sustain and/or produce particular identities relating to nation-culture, race and ethnici...

The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 2021

The development of the Hindi/Urdu cinema is intimately connected to the history of artistic perfo... more The development of the Hindi/Urdu cinema is intimately connected to the history of artistic performance in India in two important ways. Not only did hereditary music and dance practitioners play key roles in building this cinema, representations of these performers and their practices have been, and continue to be, the subject of Indian film narratives, genres, and tropes. I begin with this history in order to explore the Muslim religio-cultural and artistic inheritance that informs Hindi/Urdu cinema, as well as examine how this heritage has been incorporated into the cinematic narratives that help construct distinct gendered, religious, and national identities. My specific focus is on the figure of the tawa’if dancer, often equated with North Indian culture and nautch dance performance. Analyzing the ways in which traces of the tawa’if appear in two recent films, Dedh Ishqiya and Begum Jaan, I show how this figure is placed in a larger representational regime that sustains national...

Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2018

In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump... more In the 2016 US Presidential election, a small but vocal group of Hindu supporters of Donald Trump drew international media attention in India and the US for their political mobilizing for the Republican candidate. In this paper, I examine the political campaigns of "Hindus for Trump" and its affiliated groups to analyse the diverse ways in which these diasporic activists engage in and advance a number of distinct nationalist projects simultaneously. Tracing links between the "Hindus for Trump" platform, Hindutva ideology that seeks to redefine India as a Hindu nation, and the racist "alt-right" movement that forms the political base for President Trump in the US, I argue these diasporic activists enact a synergetic nationalism that has productive effects in both "home" and "host" countries. The result is the perfection of Hindutva on the global stage through the very activities that legitimize the isolationist xenophobia associated with the Trump administration.

South Asian Diaspora, 2019

Now contained under the rubric 'classical', several dance practices in India underwent significan... more Now contained under the rubric 'classical', several dance practices in India underwent significant 'reconstruction' in the heyday of twentieth-century anti-colonial politics reliant upon the nationalist claim of a cohesive cultural identity. Such restoration of prestige to a supposedly denigrated cultural practice offered a positive 'artistic' counterpoint to alleviate nationalist anxieties regarding the purity of the nation and the uniqueness of its identity. Within a few decades of this nationalist reconstruction, Indian classical dance forms were regarded as emblematic of Indian culture and tradition. This article builds on important critiques of the nationalist reconstruction of Indian classical dance in India to examine how this project is enacted in the transnational present. It argues that both diasporic and non-diasporic (British) dancers uphold the foundational assumptions of the reconstructive Indian nationalist movement even as they are located within, and identify with, a very different national and political context, namely multicultural Britain.

Indian Classical Dance and the Making of Postcolonial National Identities, 2017

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2015

Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness, 2021

Anthropology in Action, 2015

Decolonisation, we know, is an historical process: in other words, it can only be understood, it ... more Decolonisation, we know, is an historical process: in other words, it can only be understood, it can only find its significance and become self coherent insofar as we can discern the history-making movement which gives it form and substance … Decolonisation, therefore, implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation.