Archive for maj, 2009
Bollywoodfilm as an entry to societal debate
Posted by Johanna in India, Popular culture on maj 30th, 2009
I have been watching Bollywood films frequently for about five years, and while conducting fieldwork in Delhi, I saw all the latest releases, because my informants related to this media. My informants watch both Bollywood and American films, and during conversations Bollywood often came up as a topic. Referring to Anthropologist Jacobs-Huey’s concept, the native card, I call this competence the Bollywood card. Knowledge might be an entry to some fields, one entry point for me in my research was the Bollywood knowledge. The Bollywood card functioned as an icebreaker, as an entry point to societal debate, and serves as a common topic of discussion.
In India, Bollywood film is a large part of the entertainment sector. “Every day about 15 million people throng the 13,000 movie halls in the country” (Varma 2004:154). Bollywoodfilms are frequently debated in the media, and the controversial films are often banned in certain states according to the local state government which has a major influence in the entertainment. New Bollywood films tend to challenge conventions by portraying unconventional relationships like extra-marital affairs, inter-caste relationships, divorce, pre-marital sex, as well as portraying people who challenge the heteronormative sexuality or climb the social ladder from poverty to wealth, in its own collective fantasy (Kakar 1996:25).
The film Dostana (Hindi = friendship), for example is challenging the heterosexual norm. Another film that premiered during my stay in Delhi was Rab Ban Na Di Jodi (Hindi=A match made in heaven), about a good girl who conforms to her father’s wishes to get married, when the father lies on his death bed. The fathers last wish is to know that his daughter is in good hands when he passes away, and she is united with a man of her father’s choice. The girl in the film challenges the conventional norm of a good wife with telling her husband that she will never love him, and then eventually falls in love outside of her marriage.
I consider films cultural narratives, which provide a commentary on Indian society, challenging conventions and bringing societal change
Hello Madame- where you from??
In India I need to compromise my identity, by applying the behaviour of the Indian woman. This is a strategy for my well-being. I don’t look around me. I do not meet the eyes of the crowd. I do not answer when being spoken to and approached by men. “Hello madame where are you from?”, “How are you?”, “Are you from England/Germany?”
These questions, in my interpretation can be polite conversation openers, but in India they can also be questions with a hidden agenda. It is not about the question itself. It is a matter of establishing contact; I, as a white woman am viewed as approachable, available, there. The Indian women when approached by strangers on the street, do not answer. They confirm the role of being unapproachable, unavailable not there. Because of my obvious foreignness, it is assumed that I am available on a whole other level than the Indian women my age strolling around Delhi city centre CP for example.
How do I know if the questions on the street are friendly or just looking for an opportunity? That question I can never answer but the Delhi girls I know, seem to think I am naive, thinking that “strangers can be friendly people I have never met”. My Delhi girl friends never give guys on the streets a chance. They are quick to judge, and say that “only dodgy men approach strange women on the streets”. I am thinking there must be a good reason for Indian women never to agree or answer when approached. They just keep walking. That is why, In India, I follow their example.
Symbol for the evil eye
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, India on maj 19th, 2009
Chilli and lemons on a string, are a symbol used in India to protect homes, business and vehicles from evil eye.
The Abstract
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Gender, India on maj 14th, 2009
Today, May 14, I am handing in my Master Thesis, in Anthropology that has craven my attention for the past months. This is the abstract;
This thesis attempts to understand how gender is expressed and negotiated in the everyday lives of young urban girls in South Delhi. To approach the topic of gender I engaged in participant observation including semi-structured interviews and spending time with young middle-class girls during two months in Delhi at the end of 2008. The girls I encountered in the field are all college students in a phase of transition; being young, educated and of marriageable age.
In constructing a body of knowledge with a foundation in the theoretical framework of discourse analysis, I illustrate how institutions like marriage, family, societal norms, space, and relations between the sexes are juxtaposed in the area of gender. This thesis reveals how gender identity is constructed not as individual accounts, but as juxtapositions of perspectives of individual agency and manifestations of discourses.
Marriage in Delhi is commonly arranged by the parents and is considered a union in which gender needs to be re-negotiated. Aware of the patriarchal ethos imbuing their society, the informants are preparing for the after-marriage talk. After marriage their individual freedom lies in the hands of their husbands, therefore they intend to negotiate with their husbands-to-be to have a marriage based on equality.
Being a Desi girl is a paradox: on one hand they want to be good girls – subservient, humble and obedient – but on the other hand they are negotiating and challenging the normative behaviour when it comes to issues like marriage, go out pubing, or to talking back to their parents. In this thesis, I investigate the societal femininity discourse and the possible discrepancy between the discourse and the actual behaviour. I have concluded that the concept of negotiation plays a key role in the Delhi girls’ constructions of gender.
Key words: Delhi, Gender, Girls, Middle class, Discourse analysis
Respect Ganesh
A café in Stockholm, Sweden has distastefully decorated their costumer toilet with a big picture of Lord Ganesh and a smaller picture of Lord Krishna and his gopis. I think this is about the most distasteful and ethnocentric toilet decoration I have seen. Religious items, symbols and artefacts are to be treated with respect. The staff must be so blunt that they donot realise that they are offending one billion Hindus by their ‘festive’ decorations. I give a big thumbs down Café Blå Lotus, Skånegatan in Stockholm. Please give Ganesh and Lord Krishna honorable places. You can be forgiven. The toilet is the most polluted place and it is not appropriate to hang a divinity there. It is as simple as that.
