Singing Through the Screen: Indian Idol and the Cultural Politics of Aspiration in Post- Liberalization India
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SINGING THROUGH THE SCREEN: INDIAN IDOL AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF ASPIRATION IN POST- LIBERALIZATION INDIA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Anaar Iris Desai-Stephens August 2017 © 2017 Anaar Iris Desai-Stephens SINGING THROUGH THE SCREEN: INDIAN IDOL AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF ASPIRATION Anaar Iris Desai-Stephens Cornell University 2017 This dissertation examines how discourses and practices of aspirational self-transformation are circulated, consumed, and materialized through sites of popular music practice. Focusing on reality music television shows, such as Indian Idol, and the new music schools that are emerging around them, this study combines nearly two years of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Mumbai with close analysis of musical and visual media texts. I argue that popular music practice has become a privileged medium for imagining and cultivating new kinds of selves in the aspirational economy of globalizing, liberalizing India. Simultaneously, I show that these sites of aspirational musical practice re-inscribe social hierarchies based on class, caste, and gender, even as they espouse a meritocracy grounded in talent. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Anaar Desai-Stephens received a B.M. in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from Boston University. She has studied Hindustani violin with Kala Ramnath, and Hindustani vocals with Warren Senders and Rajeshree Pathak. Her doctoral work has been supported by the Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship from the American Musicological Society and the Randel Fellowship from the Cornell Department of Music. Anaar has an article forthcoming in MUSICultures, and she has presented her research at national conferences in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, and South Asian studies. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she is teaching courses on music and colonialism, film music, and South Asian musical culture. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work emerges from a lifetime of travel to India; more than a decade of studying, living, working, and researching in Mumbai; and out of a journey from being a professional musician to being a scholar of Indian music. As such, it is made possible by intellectual guidance, emotional support, and artistic mentorship from innumerable individuals. Woven through with insights enabled by so many, any mistakes are, of course, my own. In India, I am fortunate to have a large and loving family. In Ahmedabad, my extended family - Shrutimami and Falgunmama, Chitramasi and Maulibhai, Vijaymama and Hetalmami, Tikumama and Keyurimami, and all my cousins - have always welcomed me back to 38 Jawaharnagar at a moment’s notice, nourished me with the tastiest Gujarati food possible, and enthusiastically supported my burgeoning interest in Indian classical music and then my research in reality music TV shows. Thanks, in particular, to Vijaymama and Hetalmami for thoughtful conversations on changes in Indian music and for introducing me to their musician contacts. In Mumbai, the Mehta-Vakil clan taught me how to navigate and love that crazy city; you, quite literally, kept me alive. My special gratitude goes to Jagumasi: from teaching me how to cook Indian food to offering a practitioner’s rich perspective on the world of Indian performing arts and aesthetics. Your home has always been a place of great care, learning and reflection for me. This dissertation research was enabled by a network of informants whom I often met through the most improbable of circumstances. Many have subsequently become good friends iv and, often, creative collaborators. For your insights and friendship, my sincere thanks to Himanshu Malik, Jake Charkey, Ram Badrinathan, Shirish Malhotra, Mugdha Hasnabis, Aditi Paul, Mirande Shah, Hemani, Manjri, Neeta, Amrit, to the cast and crew of Rajit Kapur’s “The Glass Menagerie,” and, of course, to Nirali Kartik, Kartik Shah, and all the collaborators in Maati Baani. I am also grateful to the many individuals who graciously took the time to speak with me about their profession and their experiences in the world of Hindi film music and television: Tajinder Singh Ahuja, Ila Arun, Sunidhi Chauhan, Abhilasha Chellum, Vishal Dadlani, Parthiv Gohil, Ujal Jain, Yasmin Jain, Abhas Joshi, Jasraj Joshi, Preeti Kamani, Poorvi Koutish, Shankar Mahadevan, Anupama Mandloi, Vipul Mehta, Salim Merchant, Mangal Mishra, Deeksha Piyush, Shekar Rajviani, Indro Roy, Saurabh Sarkar, Harshit Saxena, Gaurav Seth, Anand Sharma, Rimmi Sharma, Anand Singh, and Gautam Talwar. My fieldwork in Mumbai was also enriched by a wonderful community of friends who supported us with insightful and wide-ranging conversation, joyous music making, and much love. My period of research for this dissertation coincided with two disturbingly violent and highly publicized cases of gang rape and murder, the first in Delhi, the second in Mumbai. During this time, I was lucky to fall in with a most fierce group of female changemakers. To the ladies of Badal Ja!: thank you for showing me the power of small steps in making the world you want to see and for reminding me that the best ideas are developed through supportive dialogue. My participatory research on reality music TV shows and the changing world of Hindi film song built on the decades I have spent training and being trained as a musician. My violin teachers over the past three decades - Roberta Tzavares, Joanna Jenner, Mitchell Stern, Burton Kaplan, Bayla Keyes - attuned me to a path of practice and taught me that music making is an embodied act that requires courage, commitment, and gentle, persuasive discipline. Kala v Ramnath generously took on a naive young violinist and introduced me to the magnificent ocean that is Hindustani music, while Warren Senders helped me start to swim in that ocean. Warren, your intellectual rigor, passionate warmth, and “no-B.S.” approach are ever an inspiration to me. My sincere thanks, too, to Rajeshree Pathak, who welcomed me as a student during my time in Mumbai and shared from her amazing repertoire of bandishes and ghazals. On either side of fieldwork, developing a research project and then condensing years of rich experience into a coherent and meaningful ethnography can often feel like such a solitary endeavor. Yet I am intensely aware of the multiple forms of support - intellectual, personal, financial, familial, and musical - that have enabled this work to come into being. There are more people to thank than I can name here, but my gratitude encompasses many across Ithaca, New York City, Boston, East Meredith, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and beyond. This dissertation would not have been possible without the generous support of a Howard Mayer Brown fellowship from the American Musicological Society, a Randel Fellowship from the Cornell Department of Music, and travel grants from Cornell’s Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Society for the Humanities. During my PhD Studies at Cornell, my advisers - Steve Pond, Alejandro L. Madrid, Durba Ghosh, and Amanda Weidman - have enabled me and this project to grow in unimaginable ways. Steve has provided me with unwavering support and passed on his passion for teaching and mentoring. Durba has taught me to trace intellectual genealogies and to attend carefully to the stories I tell; her combination of warmth and intellectual rigor has been a model for me. Alejandro’s savvy guidance, astute questions, and theoretical fluency have made this dissertation infinitely better. Finally, this project has been made richer by Amanda’s careful vi reading and sharing of her extensive knowledge of the field; her work has been an inspiration to me since the beginning. My participation in the International Doctoral Workshop at Hildesheim, Germany allowed me to begin the dissertation writing process in conversation with a group of ethnomusicologists at a similar stage of career. The encouraging scholarly community that emerged out of this workshop continues to be a source of support for me. Jayson Beaster-Jones and Matt Rahaim offered thoughtful feedback and analytical guidance, both in the field and while I was writing. I am grateful for their ongoing collegial mentorship and to have them as ongoing interlocuters. At Cornell, fellow graduate students generously read and commented on drafts of these chapters. I am particularly grateful to the Popular Culture Reading Group, and to Nicole Reisnour (my ethnomusicology-sister) and Hayden Kantor, who have been both close intellectual companions and dear friends during my time at Cornell. And to all the friends alongside whom I wrote for so many days, nights, and weekends, in homes and in cafes - your camaraderie made this possible. My deepest thanks go to my writing group: Charis Boke, Ashley Smith, and Beth Reddy. Your willingness to read my writing, no matter how messy and often at the last-minute, your thoughtful and insightful feedback, and gChat-enabled support has structured the writing of this dissertation. Our conversations and email threads are implicitly footnoted throughout. Finally, what would the writing process be without caffeine? My thanks to the staff at Gimme! Coffee, who have provided invaluable and delicious coffee and a convivial atmosphere for the sometimes grim task of dissertating. vii The roots of this project are with my family. My cousin Antara first introduced me to these show, and through her loyal fandom, she has shown me what these shows mean to viewers both in India and in the diaspora. I continue to rely on her as an invaluable informant and research assistant. My aunt, Vishakha Desai, has been my role model for elegantly uniting the arts and intellectual exploration. Thank you, Nanumasi, for encouraging my research and continually prodding me with the question “And how’s the dissertation going?” And my aunts, uncles, and cousins in the United States have been great sources of support, offering their memories, cultural knowledge, intellectual insight and excitement to this project.