CONTINUITY AND CHANGE OF CULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS: A CASE STUDY OF THE INDIAN DIASPORA IN PERTH ______
This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
By
Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan B.Mus (Durban-Westville), BA (Hons) (Natal), MA (NICE)
School of Arts Murdoch University
Declaration ______
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE OF CULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS: A CASE STUDY OF THE INDIAN DIASPORA IN PERTH ______
This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
By
Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan B.Mus (Durban-Westville), BA (Hons) (Natal), MA (NICE)
School of Arts Murdoch University
I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains, as its main content, work that has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution
………………………………………………
Abstract ______This dissertation investigates diasporic Indian cultural practices in Perth, Western
Australia with special reference to the performing arts. It examines, through the cultural practice of music and dance, different negotiations of diasporic cultural identity, consciousness, representation, and belonging. Drawing on theoretical discussions on diaspora in general, it investigates how an Indian diasporic group, a twice-displaced people, imagine and live their cultural practices, and how these are worked through within the context of Australia’s multicultural ethos. The study is interpretive insofar it is based on the perspectives and lived experiences of artists, teachers, parents, and students of an Indian diasporic community in Perth which has been successful in continuing traditions and embracing cultural changes. It is informed by the researcher’s own lived experiences of diasporic living, and cultural experiences with members of the diasporic body. During this experience, it was observed that continuity and change of cultural practices in the performing arts appeared to be a significant trend that was approached rather differently. Over the years, there were noticeable changes in social practices, experiences and activities in the performing arts, occurring across systems of communication, relationships and boundaries. The dissertation shows that the particular diasporic group becomes a significant ‘carrier’ or ‘host’ of changing Indian culture mainly through performances. Changes to cultural traditions are continuously reworked, reshaped and renewed. A significant contribution of this dissertation is the compelling case that, when the performing arts are responsive to changes in the wider cultural variables in a society through adaptation and transformation, mono-cultural world views of the dominant cultures may change. The diasporic group in the case study achieves this by transforming not only their own cultural behaviours, but by going beyond a ‘boutique’ multiculturalism. The dissertation includes an analysis of several performances of music and dance to demonstrate different cultural perspectives, interpretations and experiences from both the observer and the observed.
Acknowledgements ______
I acknowledge the One who strengthens me with inspiration - Proverbs 4: 6-7.
I wish to thank people who made it possible to complete this dissertation. I thank my supervisor Professor Vijay Mishra who extended my research skills and provided invaluable feedback.
I am deeply grateful to Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya (SMV) and the participants for introducing me to the wonderful way of seeing our world through the arts. Thanks to
Saseedaran Ananda, Sivakumar Balakrishna, Muralitharan Pillai for the generous time they graciously provided. I could not have come this far without their strength and humour.
I must acknowledge people who remain part of my diasporic life, even in memory. This thesis is dedicated to them. They are my father Jimmy Madrai Pillay who first introduced me to the world of Indian classical music and jazz and he would have been pleased that I have finally ‘finished the journey’; and my mother in law, Dhanalaxmi
Assaram, who could not see this thesis completed. I end by thanking the people who remain central in my life, my husband Prem Mudhan who has given a sympathetic ear to my research intricacies and who stood by me through all these years in this journey. I thank my daughter, Keturah Vashti Mudhan and son Caleb Eleazar Mudhan for their unwavering support and genuine interest in a research that involves part of their own history. I also wish to thank my twin sister Jennet Sunthoshum Hansen who shared a musical life with me and often acted as a sounding board, my mother Gairamah Thena
Pillay who nurtured a disciplined mind with her children, and Tchaikovsky and Puccini, who provided a calming presence during this journey.
ii Contents
Declaration ii
Abstract i
Acknowledgements ii
Contents iii
List of Figures 1
List of Images 1
Prologue Moment of self-reflections 2
Chapter One Introduction to the Research 8 Introduction to the Research 8
Part I: Scope and Sequence 14 Outline of the chapters 14 Justifications for the thesis 18 Research aims 21
Part II: Research Design and Methodology 24 Qualitative Research design 25 Cultural Studies approach 26 Concepts of culture 30 Cultural acculturation 31 Ethnographic approach and method 35 Lived experience 39 Research parameters 40 Data collection methods and triangulation of work 40
Chapter Two Interpretations of Diaspora 45 Origins, meanings, paradigms 45 Approaches 47 Categories and patterns of movements 49 Concepts of home and homeland 51 Notions of diasporic space and cultural identity 53 Globalisation—connectivity and cultural identity in deterritorialised places 55
Chapter Three The Indian Diaspora 58
Part I Historical Perspectives 59 Defining the Indian diaspora 59 Indian diasporic consciousness 60 Contextual migration trends 61 The colonial period—Rule Britannia 62 The postcolonial Period—Jai Hind 64 Contextual issues of Home and Homeland 66 Historical context 68 The first wave of Indian arrivals 68 Immigration restrictions: Implications for Indians and Australians 69
iii A new wave of Indian arrivals 71 Indian demographics 72
Part III Indian Culture and Practice 74 Indian cultural trends and realities 74 The performing arts in Indian culture 76
Chapter Four A Study of the Performing Arts at Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya Case Study—Part I 79 Introduction and Focus 79 Reconnecting culture, reclaiming lives—Malaysia 81 Resuming culture—changing lives in Perth 85 Collective strength in individuality and diversity 89 Fine arts as an applied art form in performance and pedagogy 91 Dance and cultural performances 97 The observer and the observed 100 Identity and belonging in intercultural engagement 104 Music shifts and the positioning of Indian classical music and fusion music. 113 The dynamics of music performance rituals 123 Cultural Organisation—Agent of change, transformations 126
Chapter Five Swan Festival of Lights: Case Study—Part II 131 Deepavali in Perth 131 Performances and the audiences 150
Chapter Six Performances: Conversations, Experiences and Interpretations 172 Feet on Fire 172 Hindustani instrumental recital–A learning experience 199 Conversations around the Margam—A dance of connected conversations 200
Chapter Seven Major Findings and Conclusion 217
Bibliography 235
Appendices 277 Appendix A: Table of Key Participants 277 Appendix B: Distinctions of the Indian Diaspora 278 Appendix C: SFOL 2010-2016 Program Outline. Tables 1 – 7 279 Appendix D: Research Information Letters 286 Appendix E: Indicative Questions for participants 292
iv List of Figures
Figure 1: Census of Indian Community profile Figure 2: Participants interpretation of the term ‘darkness’ Figure 3: A typical structure of North Indian instrumental music performance Figure 4: An outline of Feet on Fire – an interpretation Figure 5: An illustration of Rag Kirwani with Western notation form Figure 6: An illustration of the adaptions of Indian classical music in fusion musical form Figure 7: An outline of the rhythmic counts and sounds of two cultures. Figure 8: Illustration of the counting patterns, rhythm, accents and note values Figure 9: Basic melodic ostinato idea (gat 1-thematic notes) Figure 10: Melodic Variation I Figure 11: Melodic Variation II played on the Violin and Sitar. Figure 12: A representation using Charles Taylor’s four dialogical relationships.
List of Images
Image 1: Arrival of Indenture Indians in Natal (Brian 1985, 23) Image 2: Integration of cultures and arts –painting, dancing, singing to Sanskrit chants. Image 3: Henna Indian body art - Shirelle’s hand Image 4: SFOL Fireworks finale Image 5: A scene from An Indian Journey (Introduction) Sunday 3 November 2013. Image 6: WA Police Pipe Band (snares and bass) 2014 SFOL Image 7: Painting and dance in progress Action SFOL 2013 Image 8: A Personal diary of the event Image 9: SFOL 2016 central Perth position Image 10: Feet on Fire Ensemble at The Spanda, Elizabeth Quay. Image 11: The author in discussion with respondent SB.
(The images used in this thesis were taken with the permission of the participants at the festival events, from the participants’ personal collections and from my own inexpert photographic work carried out during the fieldwork. Other images from social media have footnote reference of source).
1
Prologue Moment of self-reflections ______
1st reflection—Why research Indian diaspora?
“I recall looking through my mother’s “How,” Ravi asks, “does one belongings and coming upon a length of describe the land one lived rich silk…There was also a dholuk, a in but never saw? It was tambourine, a silver-plated choker for a more tangible than the pretty neck and a string of tiny bells to tie concrete one we fitted around a slim ankle: to dance to the rhythm through every day” K.S. of the dholuk and bring back all the happy Maniam (1981, 14) village songs of India” Shanthee Manjoo (2008, 28)
The words of these two novelists, from Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia respectively, reflect typical nostalgic expressions by descendants from the colonial Indian indentured labour system and echo many of my own recollections of lived experiences in Kwa-Zulu Natal. It is where I experienced, in a fragmented way devoid of any holistic understanding, aspects of Indian cultural performances within the wider social construct of apartheid. The experience left me detached from people of other race groups and India as my ‘mother land’. And so, this prologue is not a recording of childhood nostalgia but a reflection of experiences of cultural performances related to my diasporic heritage. Nelson (1992 xv) writes that, as much as the ‘haunting presence of India’ underlines their diasporic writings of ethnic attachments and detachments, so too, it seems, are the creative works of Indian performing artists and communities in the Indian diaspora. They present through performance the memories and experiences of migrant individuals, the struggle for better awareness of a sense of self and worth in the community and nation. I bring these intersections of diasporic attachments and experiences across continents and
2 localities into this ethnographical account of people with the full realisation that, as a thrice-diasporic individual, the magnitude of being displaced stirs my thinking about belonging, identity, and representation.
I began writing Chapter One wondering if people generally study a country’s national statistics on population composition before contemplating migrating to it? In my case,
I searched for information on the Indian diaspora in New Zealand and Australia before emigrating from South Africa. They both appeared to be promising places, despite their colonial histories similar to that of South Africa, from where I had reasons for emigrating in the first place.
Being displaced was not a new experience in my lineage. I was a descendant of Indian indentured labourers, whose first displacement from India was around the year 1863.
The labourers were brought to South Africa to work in the sugar cane fields of Kwazulu
Natal Durban in 1863. Nowadays even as I find myself living as a contemporary diasporic individual in Australia travelling ‘beyond the situated practices of place and the lived experience of history’ (Katharyne Mitchell 1997, 534), I am often asked by those I meet during my visits to South Africa, ‘how many Indians live there?’ It is usually followed typically with another query, ‘what’s the culture like there?’ It is assumed that they are seeking information about Indian culture, traditions, and the acculturation process.
These more recent experiences resonated with earlier memories of first explorations of ethnography when I researched African music-making traditions for a postgraduate degree I undertook at a legislated Indian1 university in Kwa-Zulu Natal. I noticed a
1Anthony John Christopher, The Atlas of Apartheid (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press 1994),152. Christopher explains the1959 Extension of University Education Act No 45, which stipulated a series of separate ethnically-based institutions for Blacks, Coloureds and Indians. In Brian Lapping, Apartheid: A History (London: Grafton 1986), 184, the author explains that it was a criminal offence for a black student to register at an ‘open’ university without written consent from the Minister of Internal Affairs of the South African government under Prime Minister’s Hendrik Verwoerd’s rule.
3 divide between ‘here’ (Western world) and ‘there’ (ethnic, or non-Western world) in some works of ethnomusicology and ethnography by writers such as Helen Myers,
Anthony Seeger and John Blacking. Researchers appeared to have left their ‘home’
(country of birth) and entered the field of research, framing their findings of ‘exotic’ cultures from foreign land experiences into cultural studies or ethnomusicology and into the world of academe in Western societies. It seemed to be popular too, among
‘white’ academics2 at my alma mater to present African and Indian music as a World
Music course in music departments made up of Indian and ‘black’ students.3 In a racially volatile environment, I felt that non-Indian researchers were speaking to me about my own cultural traditions and values. I found this to be insulting at times. Still, it was my first inspiring introduction to the world of ethnography. Those ethnomusicology writers to a certain extent, between lectures disrupted by anti- apartheid demonstrations, provided temporary solace enabling me to escape to imaginary places of so-called ‘exotic’ music-making cultures, kindling my interest for a deeper understanding of ethnomusicology.
I became aware of a new consciousness in ethnomusicology research when Anthony
Seeger (1992) introduced music as a system of communication that involved structured sounds that members of a community produce to communicate. It felt strange as an ethnographer, having ‘left home,’ the country of my birth -South Africa- and entering the field of research in a different nation-state to study the Indian musical forms carried abroad by the Indian diaspora. The setting was familiar, however, where the ‘other,’ like myself, has departed from one foreign land to a new foreign terrain to be part of the diverse cultural landscape of Australia - it sounds even more bizarre, but that is the reality of transnational citizenship and the world today.
2 During the apartheid regime, very few Indians or Blacks were employed at Indian Universities. 3 The terms blacks and Indians are used because the South African apartheid system classified people into race and ethnic groups.
4 In this dissertation, I seek to answer this question: what is the nature of the Indian diaspora in Australia? More specifically, I will attempt to answer this question by examining continuity and change of cultural practices in the performing arts.
2nd reflection—changing perceptions of diaspora.
Upon reflection, the term ‘diaspora’ was an unfamiliar concept among descendants of the Indian indentured labourers in South Africa. I think it was due to the fact that immigrant groups prior to the 1960s were expected to assimilate to local customs
(Shuval 2002, 41).
I do not recall any personal anxiety for having to research aspects of diaspora that emerged in my early ethnographic research. Any memories of first contact with such research are dominated by experiences of being an undergraduate studying under an apartheid structured university system in South Africa rather that specific research content. Memories of tracing old, worn-out material from dust-covered shelves passed down benevolently from privileged White institutes are still vivid. Nowadays, I find that the term ‘diaspora’ has a nice ring to it; it evokes several interpretations from scholars and makes the notion of ‘homelessness’ something that does not necessarily have to end in hopelessness.
3rd reflection—maybe diaspora means prosperity.
As Indians I feel we are one of the most varied in terms of ethnicities, colours, languages, traditions, cultures, castes and religions. We are noted for originating from one of the most populated countries of the world. Our histories as people leaving India is still being written and is never-ending in many ways, despite inferences made by
Francis Fukuyama in his book, The End of History and the Last Man that, global integration of cultures is inevitable. Fukuyama suggests that the triumph of Western
Capitalism and liberal democracy has become the future in the postmodern world and the final form of government for our world where everything equals out and would end
5 humanity’s sociocultural evolution and ideological struggle.4 The idea of modernity, where the ‘past was historicised… has now come to an end of its productive life’ is past, as people of this age have moved beyond the end and passed ‘beyond something’ because the past as ‘end’ is behind us.5
4th reflection—food is central to the diasporic experience.
I find that at most Indian cultural events, Indian food seems to be integral to the experience. As a new arrival in Perth, I was curious as to whether the Indian food tasted like that ‘back home’. At one particular cultural event, my attention was drawn to the widely-advertised Annalakshmi on the Swan restaurant. At the time, the restaurant claimed to be the ‘Cultural Centre of WA’ and still reads on its website: ‘The mother of sustenance sits on the banks of the Swan and provides an ambient atmosphere where vegetarian dining is a cultural experience’ (Annalakshmi on the Swan restaurant website). The dining experience was excellent and was accompanied by live Indian classical dance and music. The food and performance initiated many conversations at our dining table regarding Indian cultural practice and stirred within me a curiosity to research continuity and changes in Indian cultural practices of Indians in Perth.
5th reflection— prominent celebrations can be yardsticks of diasporic change.
Funny thing, isn’t it, this notion of memories? The way memories take you to places, people and events that you never knew then would make lasting impressions. One such set of memories relate to the experience of Diwali celebrations I had grown up with, as a descendent of the Indian indentured labour system in Durban, South Africa.
They consistently revisit me each spring, around October and November. I can still remember the sweet aroma of sugar, sweets, rose syrup, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom,
4 Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 2006). 5 Keith Jenkins. Why History? Ethics and Postmodernity. (London: Routledge, 1999). Jenkins contextualises Jean Baudrillard’s readings on modernist ideas of the ‘end of history’.
6 and exploding fireworks, diffusing the kinetic energy of the fluids and scents of Diwali,6 as much as a Hindi film song can work its way into the subconsciousness as an
‘earworm’ long after the music stops playing.
For the other non-white communities of Black and Coloured people7, Diwali was an
Indian cultural practice during which food was liberally served to others. To the White race group, the event seemed to matter very little to them. Immured behind their barbed-wired fences, they seemed tolerant most times, seemingly oblivious of the emerging notions of acculturation between race groups. Racist whites referred to
Diwali as ‘Coolie Christmas,’ which angered my father because it was aimed at ‘us’ with denigrating intent. However, inspired by the ‘lawyer guru,’ Mahatma Gandhi and his
Satyagraha (truth-force)8 we refused to fall into low cultural-esteem and thoroughly enjoyed the event each year.
6 Diwali or Deepavali is derived from the Sanskrit word dīpāvali which denotes a ‘series of lights‘. Dīpam means light or lamp and ali translates to ‘glow of light’. Diwali is also known as dīpotsavam—‘festival of lights’. (The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998), 540. In the Sanskrit texts, Padma Purana and Skanda Purana, the word dīpāvali appears. The word diya (lamp) in the Skanda Purana represents parts of the sun, giver of light and energy to all life. James G. Lochtefeld, ‘Kartik’ in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism 1 (New York: Rosen Publishing, 2002), 355. 7 The population registration Act No. 30 of 1950 classified every person by race, namely white, coloured and ‘native’ (black) and Indians. The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, Act No. 46 of 1959 classified black people into eight ethnic groups. Yvonne Erasmus and George T. Ellison, ‘What Can We Learn About the Meaning of Race from the Classification of Population Groups During Apartheid?’ South African Journal of Science 104, no.11-12 (2008), 450–52. 8 The term denotes a practice that involved Indians engaged in peaceful marches presenting themselves for arrest in protest against unjust employment laws. Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1893, drawing political followers.
7 Chapter One Introduction to the Research
______Introduction to the Research
An abridged table adapted from the Australian Census of Indian Community profile completed just prior to the period of this research may answer the question: ‘How many Indians live there?’ The data can provide valuable information about Indian ancestry as well as place of birth.
Figure 1: Census of Indian Community profile9
The population trend of Indians in Australia is not the central focus of this study, but data are included to show that Indians constitute a significant proportion of the social fabric of Perth and wider Australia. My engagement, and the focus of this study, has been with a group of people who do not represent all Indians in Perth. The arguments I advance in this thesis draw on my own understanding and experiences of Indian diasporic living, their cultural traditions in the performing arts, and the participants and audiences that I have observed.
Change and continuity has affected all cultures and even more so in the current digital age. My dissertation, specifically, is a study of continuity and change of Indian cultural practice in the performing arts area of music and dance. I do this firstly, by contextualising my personal diasporic experiences as an Indian in Australia, and
9 Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘2011 Census QuickStats’, retrieved March 28, 2013 http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/0?opendocument ; ABS, ‘2016 Census QuickStats’, retrieved October 10, 2017 http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/Home/2016%20QuickStats.
8 secondly, through a close case study of the performing arts practice at Saraswati
Mahavidhyalaya Centre for Performing Arts and Education (SMV)10 in Perth and their annual Swan Festival of Lights event.
The research shows that continuity and change are driven and motivated by different social practices, experiences and activities across systems of communication and relationships and different encounters across time. As a result, different entry points of circulation or exchange of social practice are differentiated. To explain this differentiation, Shove et al. (2012, 7-8) refer to a logical distinction between ‘practice- as-an-entity’ and ‘practice-as-a-performance’ where ‘practice-as-a-performance’ implies the act of practising and doing within a particular time and space such as a performance, activity or event, whereas ‘practice-as-an-entity’ entails the gathering of repeated and continual enactments that results in reproductions over a period of time.
In the context of my case study, this analytical distinction can be interpreted as the relationship participants keep between practising the performing arts at a given performance or event and the performing arts practice of SMV that is understood in the fixed statement and mission outline of the organisation’s practice itself. Hence, following the logic of Shove et al. (2012), practice, perceived as an ‘entity’ of resources of creative input and output patterns established over a period, are reproduced and sustained through repeated performances within their community and places of dwelling. As a diasporic body and as individuals, I show that they now become what
Shove et al. (2012) terms ‘carriers or hosts’ of a practice that are not only established in specific time but is reworked, reshaped and transformed into new spaces.
Even though it is argued that music and dance in Indian cultural practice serve as an essential accompaniment to Hinduism (Frazier 2010), I do not intend to write about
10 Designed in 2004 by their Swami, the teaching and learning aspects of culture comes under the ambit SMV, with its performing arts wing still retaining the original Temple of Fine Arts (TFA) ethos under which it was previously operated. However, most members and participants embrace the new identity and refer to the performing arts as SMV’s performing arts division.
9 Indian religion. Instead, I examine specifically the cultural arts aspect of performance of the Indian diaspora, which is better phrased as ‘a diaspora in performance’. A ‘diaspora in performance’ typically could take on different shapes. It could be, for example, about temple rituals or a celebration of India’s Independence. However, this examination of ‘a diaspora in performance’ drawn from a group that defines itself as: a
‘Centre for Performing Arts and Education’ is not that, but rather one that shows the celebratory engagement of a diasporic group holding on to values embedded in religious practices as well as high art Indian forms of music and dance.
How these forms are adapted, transformed and replicated in the context of their contemporary displaced lives leads to an understanding of continuity and change in cultural practice as well as an engagement with questions about what they say and do, and why they believe themselves to say and do things in a certain way. In the process, this diasporic group imparts aspects of high Indian culture (especially music and dance) both to itself and to the broader Australian public. As Ulrik Volgsten (2014, 2) suggests,
‘there are constructive cultural roles for music to play’ and therefore in Indian cultural life, I argue that music and dance is used constructively to meet different aesthetic senses and needs, and it may be that an aspect of religious life through the arts brings more awareness of other cultures, through public ceremony and rituals. I find in my own experiences that we usually don’t focus much on how music and dance intersect with our existence and the way in which it affects us as well as those around us.
Other cultures may often misunderstand what seems to be familiar (music and dance) within our own culture and vice-versa. Hence, music and dance, in various stages of production, creativity and performance allow, in Ulrik Volgsten’s words, ‘a more human approach to cultural difference’ (Volgsten, 2014, 2). Nowadays, in Australia and in most
Western countries, diverse minority cultures mix and interact at different levels with the dominant culture, and at the level of the performing arts, music and dance fulfil an important function in bringing about a new understanding of the human spirit.
10 In this thesis I examine in detail the nature of specific Indian cultural practices in the performing arts, that is, their functions, productions, purposes and processes. I show how these displaced bodies project their own ‘high culture’ forms onto the bigger community becoming cultural mediators between a relatively progressive liberal
Australian society and the diaspora world. I show that through their own performing arts practice, SMV is not only transforming their own cultural practice but more importantly brings a degree of cultural awareness to the mono-cultural Anglo-Celtic world of the dominant culture. There are new meanings and interpretation of cultures that are emerging from minority cultures. In a way, they are challenging the liberal principles of nation control. SMV does this, I argue, by adapting and fusing Indian ‘high culture’ forms in music and dance, and by placing these high art forms on an equal footing with Western art forms.
I show that the practice of multiculturalism need not merely imply means through which a minority cultural group can manage the survival of its own culture. Instead, I show that when a culture and, in this case, its own ‘performing arts’ are responsive to changes in the wider cultural variables in a society through adaption and transformation, mono- cultural world views of the dominant cultures may change and can subtly transform multicultural practices into intercultural engagements. As a result, cultural performance transforms not only this diasporic group’s own cultural behaviours, but goes beyond boutique multiculturalism to a space where the dominant culture can admire or appreciate and enjoy through interaction, the traditions of other cultures. For instance, they raise awareness that a tabla or sitar performance is now a legitimate way of engaging in music. It need not be regarded as an exotic art style or primitive form in the way Western audiences once perceived it to be. A case in point is the promotional slogan that was advertised in New York for the sitar player’s performance that read,
‘take a peek at primitive folk sounds of India’ to which the performer, Ravi Shankar replied, ‘I do not play primitive songs. This is classical music’ (Farrell 1997, 177).
11 Therefore, the claim is that it need not be the piano, violin, the symphony ballet or any other western type of art forms that are perceived as being legitimate any longer.
The exposure, or rather disclosure of the cultural arts of minority cultures show musical and instrumental ‘craftsmanship’, a term that is associated with music composition and performance as a craft that must be learned and trained in every way (Dart 1963, 95).
Indian classical music has the musicality that enables us to engage in music and dance in sophisticated11 ways. Furthermore, research shows that musical ability is a social construction, and it acquires different meanings in different cultures, sub-groups and among individuals, involving the process of understanding, evaluating, appreciating, and communicating alongside the skills of playing and performing (Hallam and Prince
2003). Therefore, Indian classical music can be adapted as it has all kinds of possibility in the hybrid, fused, intercultural and diverse world that we inhabit. Through such intercultural engagement, I show a practice that is transformative, and interventionist whose practitioners wish to participate in the grand narrative of the nation itself. This dissertation aims to show that world-views are changing and these other resonances of minority societies now engage with and energise the old deficient paradigm with newer ones.
The research supplements the body of knowledge on the Indian diaspora in Australia at a state level, stressing certain areas: context (the diasporic situation), related themes of historical consciousness (collective memory), and the concept of space as a place. It aims to inform Indian diaspora theory through an ethnographic dialogue where I make visible some aspects of personal life history – memories, imaginations, dispositions, and diasporic living – with those of other diasporic Indians from elsewhere to explore
11 As a concept, ‘musical sophistication’ suggests that individuals who are identified with such attributes can respond to a greater range of musical situations, are flexible in responses, including aural skills, and can create different music. It is not biased to only art music or instrumental practice but includes other cognitive expertise of listening and evaluating. See Daniel Müllensiefen, Bruno Gingras, Jason Musil and Lauren Stewart, ‘The Musicality of Non-Musicians: An Index for Assessing Musical Sophistication in the General Population.’ PLoS ONE 9 no. 2 (2014) e89642. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089642. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
12 the intersections between historical events of Indian culture and the broader power relations that have shaped Indian cultural continuity and change.
13 Part I: Scope and Sequence
______Outline of the chapters
In writing about people and their cultural practice, I am mindful that I blend stories with theories, different meanings with interpretations, and my voice with the experiences of others in their Indian cultural life. As Clarke et al. (2003) suggest, biographies tend to create a pathway between people through the cultural spaces in which they are located. In my ethnography, the aim is to cut a path through and beyond expressions between persons, communities and societies in the fieldwork model of opinionated perspectives, as ethnographer; hence, I take liberties in digressing from the norm with theories, writing style and performative outlooks.
I present seven chapters in this dissertation. Chapter One offers an introduction tailed by two parts. Part I covers the scope and sequence of the dissertation, its structure, justification, and the aims and objectives applied within the scope of this research. Part
II introduces the methodology and outlines the key theoretical concepts that underpin the research.
Since the dissertation involves a study of the Indian diaspora, the next two chapters take a more in-depth examination of the concept of diaspora as a theory and the
Indian diaspora as a history. These chapters inform my research in an intrinsic and pertinent way. I show that many members who are part of the core group of SMV12 are descendants of immigrants from the ‘old diaspora’ of the colonial period whose identity is entrenched in strong cultural heritage of movements, attachments and traditions. They continue cultural practices and create new trends and manifestations of
Indian culture and its ‘roots’ by investing in allegiances through a sense of connectedness that transcends national boundaries.
12 I have used the abbreviated form of SMV throughout this dissertation.
14 Chapter Two looks at notions of diaspora theory. I focus on various diaspora arguments, motivations, histories, and theories that have shaped diaspora studies.
Chapter Three is in three parts. Part I presents a contextual understanding of the meaning and notion of the nature of the Indian diaspora, its historical perspectives and formation as observed through the writings of both Indian and non-Indian historians. In
Part II, I focus on the formation of the Indian diaspora in Australia, its demographic structure and migration patterns from India to Australia. Part III situates cultural practice in Indian diasporic living. Culture is described in transformative and transitional terms with focus on two key questions: ‘What are the cultural norms regarding family, language, marriage, and related associations?’ and ‘What role does the performing arts in Indian culture play in their lives?’
These two chapters depart a little from the usual ethnographical approach in two ways:
Firstly, they negotiate the path of interpreting the narratives of an individual’s own cultural experiences within a collective and participatory cultural activity. Secondly, they show that cultures have a long history of change, ideology and values and are relevant to any understanding of current social patterns in diaspora study. My point of departure is indebted to two writers. The first writer is Arlene Goldbard who suggests:
‘historical and theoretical ingredients form a mosaic of influences that interact with practice, shaping the work of community artists, and their thinking about it’ (2006, 101).
The second writer is Steph Lawler who asserts that any research that seeks an understanding of how people live in their daily lives must reflect on both the past and present, as both experiences of time influences the way people live (2008). Cultural practices, then, are strongly aligned with traditional habits, and therefore, I unpack the concept of identity and culture to ascertain how social and cultural environmental changes may affect the identity of individuals and a community.
Chapter Four focuses on the case study of the performing arts division of Saraswati
Mahavidhyalaya Centre for Performing Arts & Education (SMV) from the perspective of
15 the participants. I examine ways in which continuation and change in cultural practices shape their ethos and identity in the context of their own diasporic world and the
Australian world. It is an intense account, as I weave the stories of personal accounts of observations with the voices of SMV members against the larger sociocultural aspects of geography, globalisation, culture, arts, and education to show the dynamics of continuity and change in their cultural practice. In this chapter, my participants pay careful attention to cultural understandings of interpretation between the observer and the performer by considering certain questions: How relevant is this interaction between the ‘observed’ and the ‘observer’? Are there any cultural exchanges taking place? Does it lead to a deeper level of engagement? I examine these questions with reference to the Bharatanatyam, the classical Indian dance form, and inform my narrative with references to cultural practices, traditional and non-traditional forms, dance and performance, music practice and appreciation as well as identity politics, cultural organisation and transnational ties.
In Chapter Five, the Swan Festival of Lights (SFOL) is studied as Part II of the case study, which looks more closely at how diasporas make meaning of their cultural lives through the performing arts. The engagement necessitated becoming a part of the whole performance through the lens of the participants, the artists and the audience.
As the ‘practice-as-a performance’ unfolds at a particular time and place, I become part of the active performance, as the listener and the observer. Here, my observations stretch uninterrupted between the plane of my own Indian cultural experiences of
Diwali in Durban and Perth as an Indian diasporic individual, musician, educator, audience member, and as an artiste. Both experiences in different locations show diasporic lived experiences shaped around a Hindu celebration; however, they are not necessarily the same since each community holds its own meaning in nation states. A multifaceted account is taken interweaving my personal narrative with the cultural performances to bring my research and the reader a little closer to the interactions and engagement between audience and artist, and to a shared intercultural understanding
16 of what is observed and heard. In doing so, I show that their performances are more than mere experiences of boutique multiculturalism and they extend beyond the sort of gratuitous throw-away experience of minority cultures in Australia. I show that there are several transformations of the festival traditions that drive this diasporic group and make their lives more meaningful.
Chapter Six consists of conversations centred on performances. Three specific extracts depict different styles: Fusion, Carnatic vocal and a Margam dance. They typically engender diasporic experiences of cultural sharing. I analytically make sense of the music they make through graphic mappings and conversations, weaving my understanding and discoveries of the exchange of elements that occurs during the performance and the exchange of practice within systems and networks of relationships. The ethnographic writing consists of conversations and interpretations between the researcher and participants, and I take the indulgence of subjective reflexivity and biased approach simply because the research method allows it (Krüger
2008). In the first extract, Feet on Fire, which is a fusion piece, I examine closely the ways in which the composition, arrangement and performance are adapted and transformed to show how the complexities of ‘high art’ music elements complement
Indian dance with a different cultural counterpart of Flamenco. I aim to show, through interpretation and from an observer’s perspective that the oral traditions of Kathak and
Flamenco follow a music and dance scheme that is made of a set of complex rules, conventions, structure and form. For this reason, I use notation and graphs as illustrations to explain the composition, Feet on Fire, in terms of the differences found in Indian classical music and flamenco structures.
The second extract is based on my experiences at a Hindustani Instrumental music recital. I demonstrate the intricate conversations formed among observers, placing myself in this position to write my personal experiences of learning and listening.
17 The third extract, based on the Margam dance, reflects a teacher’s interpretation of the traditional ‘high art’ form of Bharatanatyam. I chose this dance, as it illustrates three particularities of my research. Firstly, in their performance practice, Bharatanatyam takes a significant place at the institute. Secondly, the dance attracts a substantial audience from the wider Perth public since dance students as well as professional
Indian musicians from abroad are observed at the margam and arangetram recitals.
Thirdly, the dance performance cannot be fully understood without including the role of the dancer in relation to the choreographed design and the interpretation of the story, as the design in the journey of dance is, to a large extent, directed at the audience and their participation in the performance. SMV pays attention to this interplay. The research takes a more profound meaning when the ambience around performance is described together with the performances that are staged. These voices are essential, enabling a more human approach to cultural dissimilarities
Chapter Seven concludes the study with further findings. I show what I have done and how the undertakings outlined in the introduction have been achieved. The key points that emerged in this dissertation are presented with the inclusion of limitations and recommendations for the future.
Justifications for the thesis
When I embarked on this study I wanted a topic that I would thoroughly enjoy exploring. Firstly, it would be related to the performing arts and education because that is an area I am confident in as a practitioner with work experience in three different countries. Secondly, it would be related to aspects of Indian diaspora and their cultural life. My interest is triggered by an interest in wanting a first-hand experience of the
Indian diaspora from the outside looking in and from the inside looking out, so to speak, and to probe deeper into the dormant dynamics of the cultural life of Indians in
Perth. In so doing, this experience would help me understand the relationship between diasporic homes, diasporic life and the ancestral homeland. Besides, there is a sense of
18 Indianness discovered when Indian diasporic individuals recount their experiences in relation to India from the ‘outside’ (Saha 2009).
I find this research original and different in many ways. It is a study of the cultural life of a group of Indian people who forefront new perspectives to the story of diasporic lived experiences and cultural practices. The performing arts are examined from a cultural perspective rather than from studying purely the music of a culture, as this work has been motivated by a wish to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of the performing arts, namely, how artists work together, what interpretations they make of traditional forms, the nature of experiences people currently have and the experiences they foreground while engaging in the performing arts. I also examine what kind of memories are reworked in their cultural performing arts practice.
Timothy Taylor (2014) has argued that there is a significant absence of culture in the study of music. The same may be applied to dance, as these two forms are interconnected in Indian culture. So, while I do focus on the moment of performance, it is carefully balanced with how meaning is made by people, their perceptions and conceptions of music and dance beyond the performance itself. The context, samples and approach are different. There is an exploration of how ‘high art’ forms in music and dance are used as cultural practice, and how continuity and change in traditional practice bring new proactive meanings of interpretations to a multicultural society. The argument I make is that what we see in music and dance performances is not the sort of reproduction of ‘cultural borrowing’ trends of musical and dance concepts as performances. Instead, my research shows a proactive reworking of different cultural
‘high art’ practices carefully woven into an adapted Indian traditional framework and practice that enables more than one culture to become involved. In brief, traditional music and dance skills and techniques are retained, but artists tend to be flexible in their interpretations of Indian classical styles to enable new cross-cultural engagements to take shape. The experiences of history and cultural traditions reveal the groups’ socio-centric milieu and their bearing on human relationships in Perth. It shows the
19 value their own culture plays in their diasporic life and therefore, the need for cultural recognition, identity and dignity enter deep into their psyche. In doing so, the links between geographical, social, cultural displacement and identity are explored. The research is based on case studies of a diasporic community and its practices in Perth and the extent to which they engage in intercultural interaction. In this context SMV’s approach to performing arts practice meets the needs of a Western society quite differently in as much as it tries to embed Indian music and dance in a larger Australian multicultural context.
From an academic and cultural perspective, the last two decades is marked by Indian diaspora debates covering anthropological, literary, historical, and political perspectives. A few names may be mentioned here: Amitav Ghosh (1989); Shyram L.
Sharma (2004); Mohit Prasad (2006); Brij Lal, Peter Reeves and Rakesh Rai (2007);
Gijsbert Oonk (2007); Vijay Mishra (2007); Loshini Naidoo (2007); Narayana Jayaram
(2009) and Subhas S. Chakraborty (2009). I found a dearth of information concerning cultural practices that involve music and dance in Australia, and perspectives of people on their lived experiences in this regard.
Research in the performing arts among the Indian diaspora has been relatively little worldwide. Of note, the following research stand out: Sabita Banerji’s (1988) article,
‘Ghazals to Bhangra in Great Britain’; Karina Ramnarine’s (1996) journal article, ‘Chutney
Indian music in the Caribbean and London’; Helen Myer’s (1998) Music of Hindu
Trinidad: songs of the Indian Diaspora; Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir Jairazbhoy’s
(2002) field recordings and track notes in compact disc form of Sidi Surfis: African
Indian Mystics of Gujarat, Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir A. Jairazbhoy’s (2005) article, ‘From Africa to India: Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean Diaspora’; Nilanjana
Bhattacharjya’s (2007) dissertation, ‘Aesthetic Fusions: British Asian music and diaspora culture’; and Catherine Servan-Screiber’s (2011) article, ‘Indian Folk Music and tropical
Body Language: The Case of Mauritian Chutney’. There are a few other related Indian arts studies purely from a performance perspective rather than a cultural perspective,
20 such as Sarasa Krishnan’s (2015), ‘Beyond the Architecture of Sensing’; Saseedaran K.
Anandan’s (2007), ‘Enhancing the performance experience: Application of design concepts of form, space and choreography in Indian dance theatre’; and Muralitharan
D. Pillai’s (2012) ‘Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as interpreted by the
Temple of Fine Arts International: A “personal” devotional poetics’.
This study of cultural practices reveals the distinctions between how cultural groups find meaning and purpose in how they live despite where they live, making it a unique study in Perth. It is through the process of personal recollections and memories, that community arts activities are mirrored. In shared societies, the study shows that artists are seemingly inter-dependent on each other in their complex activities, as much as diasporic members are within their own communities, and they also tend to reinvent their past to understand and change their living experiences in the present
(Goldbard 2006). Therefore, I show that in addition to making their own cultural styles open to other cultures, the inclusion of fusion forms and the way they are organised between cultures as performances may, in many ways, reflect the emerging communal or shared structure of Australia’s growing society. As Ulrik Volgsten (2014, 116) writes:
‘Our ways of relating to music are importantly similar to our most basic ways of sympathetically relating to each other in social situations… music articulates values in an affective way that distinguishes it from most other types of cultural expression’. The dissertation can, therefore, provide useful expansion to existing studies.
Research aims
The overall aim of the thesis is to enhance knowledge about the Indian diaspora in
Perth concerning its cultural expression and identity. Seeing that Indian cultural practices involve in no small extent the performing arts, I pay attention to the motivations, objectives and approaches of the practice with the intention of addressing the central research question:
21 What are the factors determining continuity and change of Indian cultural practice in the performing arts, and how are these factors evident in cultural performance?
I examine the nature of continuity and change in the performing arts by looking at
how it manifests itself in the cultural life of Indian people and the people around
them. In other words, I seek to understand the extent to which it is practised, the
role it plays in a culturally diverse society, and the ways in which it is adapted to suit
their diasporic lives. I pay specific attention to the interaction between music and
dance in both formal and informal environments and its role in the arts.
Furthermore, my study is underlined with the supposition that several factors
contribute to cultural expressions and influence within the community; hence I
include three broad aims:
1. To investigate the factors that motivate these members of the Indian diaspora to
retain/continue or change cultural practices.
2. To gain an understanding of how the motivating factors and the inherent
structures and relationships within a cultural group facilitate and shape group
members’ identity and representation within the larger Australian culture. I ask
two questions: What is the extent of their role? What is their involvement?
3. To establish patterns and characteristics of cultural performance in both sacred
and secular practice.
Concerning the first aim, it is essential to examine whether the existing cultural practice in the performing arts has any relevance outside the traditional setting of the home and the institute and whether their methods of practice suggest universal values that could inform performing arts education in general. I find myself inquiring where do the junctions of school, home, teacher, and learning occur in the modern context regarding cultural traditions in music and dance? Consequently, this case study
22 explores how traditional methods of training are integrated with contemporary context forms.
Regarding the second aim, the participants who are members of SMV will be prompted consistently to address the issue of identity and representation, as research shows that in this modern age, diasporic communities can be distinguished by their sense of self- mobilisation around an awareness of themselves as an Indian diaspora (Sahoo and
Maharaj 2009). In attending to the cultural distinctions of this particular diasporic group, I speak of them as an association that is formed within a multicultural society that has certain functions related to their Indian culture and religion; but its specialisation is the practice of the performing arts, so what the argument does here is emphasise that their continuation of its homogeneity also implies the continuation of diversity between its own Indian culture and other groups. Therefore, I am mindful that cultural practices of music and dance play a significant role in cultural expression and identity—what Kapila Vatsyayan (1963, 33) referred to as [describing] the social in the individual and the individual in the social’.
23 Part II: Research Design and Methodology
______‘You don’t really choose ethnography, it chooses you, it pulls you into it’
(H. Lloyd Goodall 2000, 9).
One of the first things I became aware of in undertaking this study was the questions raised by Norman Lincoln and Yvonna Denzin regarding the voice of the ‘other’. The theorists challenge researchers to constantly ask the questions: ‘Who is the Other? Can we ever hope to speak authentically of the experience of the Other or an Other? And if not, how do we create a social science that includes the Other?’ (2000,1050). The disciplinary orientation from which this study of Indian diaspora is approached is through a socio-cultural theoretical framework. I focus on cultural identity and integration of a diasporic community by addressing questions of continuity and change in its practice and the dynamics of this community in the context of multicultural practices. There is also an emphasis on the historical context of the diaspora. Hence, the questions raised above have ultimately led me to a process that combines qualitative research techniques underpinned by its associated cultural and ethnographic approaches.
I show awareness that portrayal of people cannot be only through formal objective theories because then my voice disappears. Individuals and cultures are multifaceted, but distinctive in various ways. Therefore, I postulate by examples, make implications by anecdote and form deductions by lived experiences because studying diasporic people and their cultural interactions require ‘thick descriptions’ (Geertz 1973, 6) which expounds deeper actions, oral stories and objects people are engaged within their everyday life.
According to Vijay Mishra, (2018, 39), there are very few remaining ‘testimonios’ of the
‘subaltern voice’ that provide current interpretations of the lived experiences of indentured people. I intend to tell dual stories of written ‘testimonios’ and spoken
24 words, as fragments that speak from everyday spaces, recall incidents, describe events, people, and places, and cite facts of participants’ lived experience as my methodology.
I also write from the junctions and interchanges of my own living experiences as a member of the Indian diaspora within and against other Indian cultural practices, bringing these junctions and interchanges with me into the scholastic space in which I labour in, mixing personal and theoretical thoughts. Hence, the writing style itself breaks into dialogue of recollections and reflections, disrupting traditional theoretical writing to varying degrees ranging from refined to transgressively structured and cluttered thoughts, notes and discussions, as any ethnographic fieldwork covering a long period of time, spaces and places, tend to do.
Qualitative Research design
I recall an elaborate discussion I had with my supervising professor regarding qualitative research and noted a few traits my research was already taking from the start: I need to examine the broader problems of Indian diasporic life and cultural practices to gain a deeper understanding of its performing arts practice; my research relies on the views of a limited number of participants in Perth and therefore would require a case study; my research requires broader and general questions and data mainly comprising of words, behaviour patterns and observations of performances; and
I need to analyse these words into themes, from which I could make inductive or theoretical conclusions. I knew that my inquiry would be subjective and biased, and it would require extensive fieldwork involving participant-observation and open-ended interviews, formal and informal settings in places of practice. These points, then, are characteristic of qualitative research located within an interpretive model. Furthermore, the critical elements of participation, camaraderie and engagement enables me to understand the hidden facets that mould a diasporic Indian community differently to the one in which I was raised.
25 Overarching the qualitative model is the fundamental aim to understand and interpret how people bring meaning to phenomena, hence the understanding of meaning through lived experience is a primary focus (Denzin and Lincoln 2008; Ezzy 2002; Rubin
2005). I also maintain the qualitative approach of drawing heavily on descriptive accounts of people and their actions (Bryman 1998) to create an analytical and interpretational account of participants’ perspectives and sustain the integrity of how I understand them.
Cultural Studies approach
The cultural studies approach is one of two interlinked approaches used in this research; the other is an ethnographical approach. I use this approach because cultures shape and design everything we do, where we live and our place in it. Viewed as learned and shared behaviour, individuals can express themselves in different ways through the arts, language and religious belief (Radocy and Boyle 1979). This approach enables an understanding of the human lived experience and condition, how these experiences are expressed, comprehended and shared with others and considers how individuals recreate their identities by reflecting on their own lives and social interactions (Kearney 2003; Pickering 2008).
In contemporary social worlds within which diverse cultures subsist, modern societies have become what Seyla Benhabib (2002 35) identifies as a ‘community of interdependence’ devoid of discrete boundaries, which necessitates the need for a shared understanding of cultures, a moral conversation in the form of a cultural dialogue in which the intention is of seeing the Other through interactive relationships
(Benhabib 1992). Similarly, Charles Taylor (1995) validates in considerable detail how cultural dialogue can shift the modern moral order of society from the supremacy found in religion and hierarchical rule to that which holds shared social practices that demand a kind of interactive relationship between people. Hence his ‘politics of equal recognition’ is distinguished by its two forms that sanction respect: The first form is
26 described as the ‘politics of universalism,’ in which a recognition of quality is implied making individuals the same due to their universal human potential as rational human agents, hence the claims of dignity and respect as recognition for all citizens (1995, 235; and see Mishra 2012, 44). The second form is described as the ‘politics of difference’ that also implies a recognition of quality, but makes individuals distinct from one another. Thus, ‘respect’13 in this regard, implies the possibility of expressing one’s own identity, autonomy and recognition, which are only achieved through dialogue (Taylor
1995, 235-236). In the context of this research, this kind of interchange of ideas, as intercultural dialogue may be achieved through music and dance experiences.
It is also significant to also explore the hermeneutical14 quality of human experience as defined through the language of the arts, as I find myself continually interpreting meaning through questions— how, what, who and why. In the arts, hermeneutics is applied as a study. Hans-Georg Gadamer, who advocates hermeneutical dialogue, writes:
In comparison with all other linguistic and nonlinguistic tradition, the work of art is the absolute present for each particular present, and at the same time holds its word in readiness for every future. The intimacy with which the work of art touches us is at the same time, in enigmatic fashion, a shattering and demolishing of the familiar. It is not only the impact of a “this means you!” ...it also says to us: “You must change your life!” (Gadamer cited in Palmer 2007, 131). Gadamer’s aesthetics shows that the ‘art’ in practice can dislocate and contest customary expectation of the observer or listener through different encounters.
Gadamer encourages participation of an arts experience that goes beyond oneself, as aesthetics, and therefore, he invites communal participation that brings a community in shared experiences. One such encounter that Gadamer (1986) mentions, which is
13 Other writers that see recognition as respect include Axel Honneth (2001), Nancy Fraser (2000), Simon Thompson (2006) and Vijay Mishra (2012) 14 An earlier Greek meaning translates ‘hermeneutics’ as that which brings something out of the world of the gods (its etymological origin coming from Hermes, the messenger of the gods), not the world of humans, or out of another world into one’s own. Richard Palmer ed., The Gadamer Reader: A Bouquet of Later Writings (Illinois: Northwestern University Press. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2007), 44.
27 pertinent to this research, is the experience festivals bring, as these types of events tend to gather people together to experience a communal spirit that not only transcends individuals, but characterises the real power of the ‘festive’ and the artwork performed. Therefore, festivals represent genuine creations that individuals can view, recognise and experience as presentations of their own reality (Gadamer 1986, 63). The language of arts also carries meaning in human interaction.15 There is, therefore, an intention in this research to show that the arts and intercultural communication enables a regeneration and transformation of cultural practice.
Since cultural studies explore the political and social dynamics of contemporary cultures and its histories within a dominant class (Grossberg 1997, 231), I mainly examine how social networks extend influence beyond boundaries, traditional, including institutional and family loyalties. To do this, I use the assertion that in diaspora mobile lives are continuously being created and recreated because of information technology and the process of globalisation, as both these processes of post-twentieth century conditions significantly impact cultural identity and education
(Naidoo 2007; Elliot and Urry 2007) as well as communication. Sonia Livingstone (2005,
18) affirms that media and technology have changed the way people communicate, initiating social shifts and the blurring of traditional margins between ‘work and leisure, education and entertainment, domestic and civic, local and global’. Because of these blurred lines, Livingstone (2005) finds that even entertainment audiences should be categorised to understand their role in performance, as well. In brief, what we identify
15 In her article, ‘Can Music Play a Role in Intercultural Dialogue?’ Judith McKimm-Vorderwinkler refers to Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the hermeneutics of intercultural communication. McKimm-Vorderwinkler reveals Habermas’ concept of ‘intact intersubjectivity’, as something that produces ‘communicative community of free and equal participants’, engaged in complete symmetries of dialogue partners. It is where an interchange of new learning and perspectives takes place and where intercultural understanding can be achieved. These cultures regenerate themselves through exchanges with ‘strangers’ and the ‘unfamiliar’ to mutually release their creative potentials. Judith McKimm- Vorderwinkler. ‘Can Music Play a Role in Intercultural Dialogue?’ Essay for Philosophical Issues in Intercultural Studies, Dublin: Dublin City University, 2010), 1-19. Accessed 20 October 2011 6, http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/acd/content/articles/2011loam/participant- papers/Can_music_play_a_role_in_intercultural_dialogue.pdf.
28 as people, spectators or crowds can be reclassified and categorised into ‘audience’ and ‘public’. I borrow these terms to describe the type of crowds that are drawn to
SMV’s performances making further adaptations to specify different audience types in chapters 5 and 6.
A further cultural studies approach used in this research is drawn from Deborah
Newton’s (2014) theory that centres on the performativity of the performer in relation to the audience. Newton frames her theory on the claims that culture is manifested as
‘performance’ instead of text and when contextually approached, the cultural role changes to that of performative and communicative acts within its own cultural setting
(Marvin Carlson 2004, 14 cited in Newton 2014, 3). Therefore, using the acts, Newton
(2014) introduces the theory of Metacommunicative Performative Competence (MPC), which places performance in three dimensions. The first dimension suggests performance is ‘culturally metacommunicative’. The second dimension demonstrates it as ‘unequivocally performative’, wherein reality, meaning-making and social sharing is played out for that moment. The third dimension suggests that performance is about as ‘cultural competence’, such as creating social interactions to effectively
‘communicate…and interact with other cultures (Newton 2014, 10-12). Newton’s MPC theory suggests that performance, like culture, is created through social encounters of people that enables a dynamic interplay of audience and performer in any setting. This theoretical approach, it is argued, challengers the ethnocentric stance in all societies that judge the other cultures’ value and their customs in preferences of their own cultural traits. Hence, from the perspective of Newton’s reasoning, SMV’s concept of
‘performance’ embraces all dimensions in its practice and is viewed as an ‘event’ delivering diverse cultural experiences, rather than presenting the ‘performance’ to be just a work of art.
29 Concepts of culture
My fieldwork is embedded in cultural interactions and practices; therefore, the term culture necessitates some clarification. The notion of culture has evolved in its meaning over time. Edward Taylor (1958, 1) in his book Primitive Culture, defined culture as, ‘a complex whole which included knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’. Almost two decades later, Daniel Bates and Fred Plog’s (1976) concept of culture included artefacts and the transmission of learned beliefs, values and behaviours of culture over generations (Bates and Plog 1976, 96-97). Twenty years later, culture appears to make more references to daily life underwriting people’s ongoing life-stories. A newer understanding comes from Helen Spencer-Oatey (2008) who stated that, as a basic set of assumptions, customs and values that serve as directions to life, culture also influences a person’s behaviour as well as an understanding of the significance of behaviour patterns of other people. In this regard, different meanings are formed. As
Clifford Geertz (1973, 12-14)16 contended, ‘culture is public, because meaning is’, therefore culture reflects how lives are expressed publically. In this interpretation, people as culture, especially ethnic groups, are no longer given a narrow meaning in which they can be categorised as material objects (what we can see, hear and smell).17
In the context of this dissertation, the cultural life of Indians in Perth is reflected as a progression of stories related to practices of beliefs, customs and symbols through generations of traditions and non-traditions. Culture is reflected in the varied performance presentations where participants and observers tell each other about the meaning of their lives, their attitudes towards it, lived experiences and their histories
16 Clifford Geertz states that culture denotes a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men (and women) communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life. Clifford Geertz, The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 89. 17 This was the reading of the Howard government in 2006, which expected only ethnic groups to responsibly integrate into the dominant culture. C. Hart, ‘Multiculturalism is a dirty word’, The Weekend Australian, no. 13, 096. November 4-5, 2006
30 that have shaped it. These stories play a central role in people’s lives and to the ways in which they interpret the world. As narrative experiences usually channelled through written forms and media works, they can also be found in ‘therapeutic encounters’
(Lawler 2008, 32). I tend to follow more closely the precedent set by Wolcott (1987, 4) who suggests that culture must be deduced by the words and actions of individuals of the group that is the focus of the study.
Cultural acculturation
There are a few cultural acculturation models that merits discussion in this dissertation, as the lived experience of a diasporic group also requires exploring of the process through which a culture comes to adopt the practices, and values another culture, while still retaining their own distinct culture. Early models of cultural assimilation and acculturation reflect a process of integration in which immigrants, such as ethnic minority cultures, are absorbed into the larger dominant culture of the host country. In the process, they assume its traits and behaviours while losing all characteristics, namely language, customs, ethnicity and self-identity. (Alba and Nee 1997). Susan
Keefe and Amando Padilla (1987) have identified one such model, the single continuum of cultural capacity, which maps a gradual process in which ethnic cultural traits are replaced with the host’s cultural traits (Keefe and Padilla 1987). An alternative cultural model that Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou proposed is ‘segmented assimilation’. In this model, the ethnic migrant retains a cultural practice with various degrees of success by adapting to chosen sectors or segments of society to which they can assimilate (1993).
Two other acculturation models in Keefe and Padilla’s (1987) study show that effective acculturation occurs mainly through adaptations. Their two-culture matrix model show that an immigrant’s original ethnic and cultural traits could be retained as one axis that enables a sense of identity, while the host culture is considered a cross-cutting axis that enables immigrants to accept certain dominant cultural traits. By implication, this
31 model allows immigrants to be more selective in their assimilation and to retain cultural traditions that secure their ethnic identity, such as child rearing, marriages, family structures, food, music and organisation; this is done while they possibly accept and conform to some practices and behaviours of the host country’s culture, such as language. The other model is identified as the multidimensional model and has two constructs. The first, identified as cultural awareness, allows the practice of dual culture identities, such as speaking both an ethnic vernacular and a host country language. The second is identified as ‘ethnic loyalty’ and is reliant on the ethnicity and groups that individuals become associated with (Keefe and Padilla 1987; Padilla and Perez 2003,
38). This model’s advantage is that it considers both migrant and ethnic minorities’ new practices of cultural and social displays (Keefe and Padilla 1987), which is applicable to the diasporic group that is the focus of this study. In all respects, this model of acculturation appears to involve some exchange or alteration of cultural features even though they remain distinct.
Jenna Bednar et al. (2010) presents a different reading of the multidimensional model, with an approach from an empirical perspective. It is also applicable to the group explored in this study. They argue that different strategies of cultural diversity need not exclude any form of interaction. This model, which signifies cultural differences as intra- cultural heterogeneity, holds three regularities: it reveals the differences between cultures, displays distinct cultural signatures and demonstrates diverse individuals.
According to these writers, effective adaptation occurs when people operate within two forces that guide human behaviour: it may lead them to an internal pressure to continue consistent behaviours, or to a social pressure that prompts them to conform to new behaviours of the host society; both these behaviours may also be combined
(Jenna Bednar et al. 2010).
The description of these three regularities that follow, illuminates, to a large extent, the behaviour patterns and adjustments of the diasporic groups’ adaptation in Australia.
The first regularity, ‘differences between cultures’, demonstrates how people tend to
32 act differently among distinct cultures because of their different belief systems, distinct behaviours and mannerisms (Jenna Bednar et al. 2010, 407). When applied to the study, one finds that intercultural differences based on language, religion and the region of ancestry, in this instance, India, occur within Indian cultures—hence the different signatures in their dress, habits, customs and food. However, despite these differences between them, some behaviours and mannerisms of Western cultures in
Australia are present among Indian individuals, as the younger generations tend to easily accept certain aspects of Western values and behaviours.
In the second regularity, ‘distinct cultural signatures’, the writers explain that cultures maintain signature characteristics that are consistent in their behaviour (Bednar et al.
2010, 407). In the context of the Indian diaspora, Indians are differentiated by the diversity in their origins, yet there are common cultural traits among each group that bind them, such as family solidarity and religion. While Indians in Perth do not have a distinct signature characteristic in a social space such as Sydney’s well known ‘Indian quarter’, a diasporic body such as SMV demonstrates a distinct cultural signature in the performance space where classical Indian music and dance are central as a fine arts practice of Indian culture.
The third regularity, called ‘diverse individuals’ (Bednar et al. 2010, 408), proposes that individuals within cultures differ. This regularity is compared with biculturalism, in which a person holds a mix of traditional traits and new cultural traits from the host country
(Keefe and Padilla 1987; Paulston 1978, 379). Writers describe this concept as a person’s ability to function effectively in more than one cultural environment and to hold an ancestral worldview that maintains traditional values of cultural practice regarding family structure (Harrison, et al. 1990, 357). This is applicable to Indian cultural practice and supports Brij Lal, Peter Reeves and Rakesh Rai’s (2007) argument, in which they state that not all Indians are the same, that they do not belong to the same religious group or organisation and that Indian individuals act and behave independently within their groups.
33 Recently, new models of acculturation have emerged that also describe the behaviour of diaspora artists in this study and their accommodation of performing arts styles in their traditional art forms. An understanding can be acquired from Robert Holton’s
(2016, 65) tenet that moves away from theories of global cultures: the point argued is that these theories have not helped in understanding the world we live in, but they instead tend to depict a world that produces a single global culture irrespective of cultural distinctions. Therefore, Holton (2016) argues for a cultural study approach built on an awareness that combines both the process of hybridisation and glocalisation, as it shows more promise in adequately addressing complex global cultures and diversity.
Both these approaches are worth outlining here because they provide a better understanding of cultural interaction in the context of this study.
In taking a closer look at hybridisation,18 this process implies intercultural mixing or syncretism (Clifford 1994). An example would be the mixing of phenomena, such as
Asian rap in London, Irish bagels, Chinese tacos (Holton 2016) or the South African
‘bunny chow’. Hence, hybridisation reveals an intercultural exchange that allows adaptations of cultural practices that are fluid. However, there are shortcomings in this approach: writers, such as Pnina Werbner (1997, 15) claim that its weakness is found in its ubiquitous position, which makes all cultures hybrid, as culture is understood as a creation of social worlds. Other writers believe it can instil doubt regarding racist and neo-colonial practices (Werbner 1997). Therefore, as a replacement of only a hybridisation awareness, Holton (2016) advocates Roland Robertson’s (1992) theory of glocalisation as a new form of awareness,19 as it offers an advancement for processes of global cultural complexities. As a process, glocalisation fuses global and local elements in social relations by importing other elements of cultural practice into local settings. By implication, in the performing arts, other global cultural styles in music, dance and drama are fused with local culture and in the Australian context, it really comprises of
18 See Chapter Two. 19 The study was initially conducted in Japan to understand its religious syncretism.
34 diverse cultures, and these styles are presented in ways that the local may find identifiable and meaningful. This approach certainly reveals more explicitly how micro- level cultural themes emerge between local and global identities. Transmigrants are found to be typical examples of such models: they do not fully assimilate completely, but culturally adapt to the host country’s essential traits, attitudes and behaviours while keeping some forms of their original culture and maintaining dual cultural identities
(Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton 1995), as shown in the case study later. It can be argued that the real strength of any affiliation, then, depend on the kind of relationships that diaspora groups such as SMV wish to keep with the host country and their community, as that determines the extent of their commitment to old values
(continuity) and the acceptance or rejection of new values (change).
Ethnographic approach and method
The ethnography process has drawn me into an approach wherein I can express the lived experience of Indian diasporic individuals through my own understanding and perspective. Hence the dissertation begins with an ‘opening of pages’ that I count as the Prologue. As Jean-Paul Dumont’s remarks, a prologue, even though uncustomary, can be recognised as ‘textual preliminaries’ that does not allow much to be said of the content to the actual ethnographical writing of the lived experiences of those examined, but it fits ‘one way or the other in front of something else’. I, therefore, use it as a ‘fore text and a pretext’, and as an ‘anteriority’ (Dumont 1986, 345-346) of the ethnography to come. It expresses my reflexive action enabling me to think about my own role before showing layered accounts of various lived experiences of diasporic people against the backdrop of my own diasporic life. The goal is to expose that a reality exists for both the researcher and the researched, external to how we think about it.
Ethnographic research progressed from the traditional focus of the lived experiences of people of non-Western cultures (Gobo and Molle 2008) to include
35 autoethnographically accounts of the self (Jones 2005) that are more intentional and personal. Ethnography refers both to the process of ‘doing a study and to the written product’ (Ellis 2004, 26). Scott Reeves, Ayelet Kuper and Brian Hodges (2008) suggest that ethnography involves the study of social interactions, behaviours and perceptions of various people, organisations and communities, as ethnography provides an all- inclusive insight into people’s views and actions and the sights and sounds that surround them
Primarily, the scholarship of ethnography is directly linked to culture. However, there is the concept of organisational ethnography, which looks at the culture of organisations such as SMV. Writers describe organisational ethnography as a study of the complexity of everyday organisational life (Ybema et al. 2009). From this perspective, the everyday organisational life is better grasped in the organisational field by ‘hanging out’, as such, rather than through questionnaires. Val Singh and John Dickson (2002, 120) suggest that if one looks at organisational culture as a concept that exists between the minds of people who create the organisation, then organisational ethnography can be argued as that which concerns settings and sites within which social relations take place between people with set visions and goals as well as their own rules, rites and symbols.
In the context of this study, organisational ethnography would imply following the everyday lived experience of planning, rehearsals, management, performances, meetings and so forth.
The non-applied ethnographic research approach as a mode of qualitative research is suitably applied, as it permits an examination of the day-to-day and lived space experiences of people, and answers questions without needing to solve a problem
(Schensul and LeCompte 1999). So, in this instance, my role as the interpretive ethnographer comes into play a great deal here. It allows me to reach my own understandings while interpreting, at a deeper level, the lived experiences of people at
SMV and situating them within the broader social and cultural contexts. H. L. Goodall
Jr. puts it clearly:
36 Our interpretive ethnographic work is always about joining together of two otherwise disparate storylines - the story of the self who has the stake, asks the questions, and does the interpreting; and the stories of others who help us find or create meanings (2003, 62) These storylines would involve extended periods of observation and will enable me to highlight continuities and discontinuities of traditions into a broader field of performance activities and interpret most situations, experiences and behaviours. In doing ethnography, SMV’s story is a shared story of meanings, which are interpreted and given back. It is not merely ‘first-person’ accounts (Wolcott 1987, 37) or ‘being there’ (Probyn 1993, 71), but rather, being aware of our own civic engagement and framing of the research as a form of meaningful social action (Goodall Jr 2003, 60). This position is an essential way to witness and analyse cultural behaviour and how people react to what life offers them
Although my ethnographic research is predominantly situated in one location (space) within Perth, the research will also include a multi-sited or multi-locale ethnographic approach proposed by George Marcus (1995, 1998) in which many spaces are explored. SMV’s network of people and artists are globally linked to Malaysia, India and other locations around the world. The ideas and performances that flow within the institute are spawned elsewhere in other spaces or places, and vice-versa. Accordingly, ethnography ‘lends broader moral and explanatory meaning to the local cultural events and acts’, as world history now comprises of forces that promote global integration and recreates local autonomy (Marcus 1998, 4, 43). Hence, I use ethnography to explore certain factors such as interconnectedness, media, adaptation, transformation, lived experiences, and recontextualisation with the way in which the process of globalisation and its increased technology has affected diasporic cultural identity.
The ethnographic research method I primarily use comprises of the three components that Wolcott (1999, 39) proposes. The first component is ‘description,’ consisting of details on observations, documents or objects, interviews, and surveys regarding cultural practice. The second component comprises of ‘themes’ or categories that
37 emerge from the data that has been collected. The third component, ‘interpretation’, involves clarifying and translating the information gathered.
In addition, I also find Anthony Seeger’s (1992) questioning method20 of ethnography useful as a guide, as it suggests the importance of rigour in fieldwork practice by covering the content (what), its significance (what and why), and context (where, when and who) of the case study and interpretation of the performances in dance and music.
Seeger suggests that connection between musical sounds and context is imperative in seeking meaning in people’s performance, so in lieu of asking what are they doing and why do they do it, we should be asking, ‘why are they doing it in that particular way’
(1980, 8). These questions are applied in conjunction with Simone Krüger’s (2008) simplified set of procedures, Ethnography in the Performing Arts: A Student Guide, with the additional question of ‘how’ is used to enable consideration of methods for data collection and analysis.
I have freely applied these questions as they enabled me to connect between the musical sound and cultural context. For instance, I transcribed excerpts of one ‘live’ musical performance, Feet on fire, into some graphic form using basic western notation. Music symbols in any form, I find, become a tool for analytical purposes because they present how the elements of music are used in fusion forms and how cultures approach music making. It is a process that enabled me to engage in the performance experience and to understand why they are doing it in that ‘particular’ way?
In the performance fieldwork, I draw inspiration from Gregory F. Barz (2008) who writes that fieldwork is about weaving experiences into text, and about experiences and representation in the field and out of the field. Barz (2008) also suggests how fieldnotes can be included in the dialogue by using first, my own voice in the field, second, a
20 Anthony Seeger ends his ethnography of the Suyá, indigenous Brazilian Amazon people reminding readers of the simple questions of who, what, where, when and why. Anthony Seeger, Why Suyá Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People. (Cambridge: University Press: Cambridge, 2004).
38 voice that reflects on my notes, and third, a voice that is detached from the experience.
Hence, I use multi-layers and multi-vocal conversations of being in and out of the field.
In brief, I am being caught in the world of the observed, the observer, the performing arts practice, the lived experiences and my own position in representing them.21 The ethnographical conversations are arguably justifiable because both the participants and I are: diasporic individuals with a hyphenated identity;22 Indian; descendants from an indentured labour background; by-product under the colonial system of coercion; twice-displaced migrants; and performing arts practitioners.
Lived experience
I enter dialogues of lived experience because it is significant in this study. Michael
Pickering (2008, 24) explains that our lives revolve around an interactive relationship of
‘situated’ and ‘mediated’ experiences through immediate and direct communication, and through experiences that occur ‘at a distance, in some unfamiliar elsewhere’. More specifically, Pickering (2008) points to how media and its visual component in different presentations influence people’s understandings of the world, the cultural differences and the manner in which they interact on a global level. SMV’s performing arts practice has this sense of interconnectedness. I explore their ‘situated’ and ‘mediated’ worlds as lived experiences and rely as well on my own lived experience to reflexively understand my own position in Indian cultural traditions. Therefore, I write myself, and my lived experiences of events and social interactions into the dissertation. My strategy is participatory and collaborative, it takes on what is described as a ‘subjective and non- objectivist, biased stance’ (Pickering 2008, 19) in interactions with people. As a result,
21 Margaret Drewal holds the view that the researcher is part of the social performance who emphasises the participant side of the participant/observer model. Margaret T. Drewal, Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 11. 22 Vijay Mishra. ‘The diasporic imaginary: theorizing the Indian diaspora’. Textual Practice 10, no. 3 (1996): 189. The author ‘s theory of the hyphen represents the hybrid experiences of diaspora people who are descendants of indentured labourers - they feel comfortable with a hyphenated identity that reflects their ethnicity and their country of birth.
39 texts are created where multiple voices speak or as George Marcus (1998, 36) puts it,
‘saying more’ by ‘letting others say it’.
Research parameters
I aim to achieve a rich description over a relatively small area in this research, that being the performing arts division of SMV. I have gathered data from a ‘reflexive’ stance positioning myself in the research with what Ping-Chun Hsiung calls ‘personal baggage’ (2008, 212) that may include personal characteristics, such as personal experiences, beliefs, biases, preferences, political and philosophical responses to participants. The research involves observing, participating, interviewing, and recording. In other words, reflexivity influences the process. I received full cooperation from SMV with four conditions. They were: restrict interviews to persons over the age of twenty; retain the anonymity and confidentiality of interview participants if participants request it; acknowledge all media related sources of information that SMV generates under the flagship of SMV; and engage in the research process unobtrusively especially during rehearsal and music or dance lessons.
To make any claims about the cultural practice of the Indian diaspora in Perth, I draw on a range of texts that include both the analysis of various texts online, multimedia, observation, and verbal responses of the participants. My research includes interviews, observations and informal focus group discussions from a diverse range of people such as dancers, choreographers, musicians and general members of SMV. It comprises of discussion of people’s perceptions and analytical feedback of performance extracts.
The dissertation is embedded in fragments of participants’ original words, their lived experiences and diasporic lives with bits of my own lived experience and diasporic life.
Data collection methods and triangulation of work
The primary data for the study has mainly been from participant observation at various events and education programs, and I triangulated it with interviews with ‘key informants’, informal conversations with members and informal sessions with artists. As
40 a guideline to observing participants, I settled on James Spradley’s (1980) framework of observation that covered nine dimensions. These are space (layout of place), actor
(people), activity, object (things), act (actions), event, time, goal (what people are trying to accomplish) and feeling (emotions felt and expressed).
The voluntary participants became event guides at times and some engaged in reviewing recordings of events with me. I have targeted five to ten per cent of SMV members over the age of 20 for the interviews, as there are no set guidelines in qualitative or ethnographic methods (Krüger 2008, 52) that I could determine. Since I had access only to volunteers over the age of 20, interviews were restricted to a smaller population of people and to those who eventually volunteered as participants. I completed 12 interviews and three incomplete interviews. Quoted responses of participants who were interviewed are retained in this dissertation using their coded names (P1 to P12). Only two participants consented to having their identities acknowledged, Saseedaran K. Anandan and Sivakumar Balakrishnan. I have used their initials SKA and SB respectively when referring to their points of view and statements.
Other names that are included are of people and artists who were introduced to the public at SMV recitals and major events and through the internet and media networks.
All participants have in some form engaged in the performing arts and have been exposed to more diverse multi cultures in Australia and diverse Asian cultures in
Malaysia and Singapore, which are the places of birth for most participants. For authenticity purposes, I have left the wording, spelling and syntax unchanged. I categorised and coded participants as OD (old diaspora) and ND (new diaspora).
Others were categorised as dancer, artist, member, parent, teacher, and Musician 1 and Musician 2. I coded the three event guides as EG1, EG2 and EG3 (See Appendix A:
Table of Key Participants). I used open-ended, broad and general questions to gather personal and collective cultural practice experiences, enabling participants to be reflexive so as to produce consistency and a ‘definite form to experience’ (Throop
41 2003, 234-235). Triangulation23 is particularly vital in this research. Since I could not only rely on observation notes, I constantly checked my observations and interpretations of them with my guides and participants as a form of triangulation.
I retrieved secondary data primarily from immigration and census data sources in
Australia such as the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and the
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) concerning population, geographical location, ancestry, country of birth and religious affiliation. I made references to manuals, texts, organisation charts, run sheets of programs, video recording, brochures, online websites, images collected from participants’ albums, SFOL mobile ‘app’, YouTube, press release, advertising, web pages and reports. I followed through with the reading and collation of data reducing the volume of data to a manageable coded form.
However, I realised there was no right way to derive the codes and recalled Simone
Krüger’s (2008, 121) own words: ‘In most ethnographic writings, how these codes emerge, and what causes them to emerge is often left unclear’. I therefore summarised the qualitative data in a way I could understand it, largely searching through participant’s words for themes to draw theoretical conclusions and create my own coding scheme from the raw data. In other words, I used an inductive analytical approach24 that involved beginning with a completely open mind without preconceived ideas of any findings. It is primarily a ‘process of data analysis and interpretation by building local theories…of how people think, believe and behave - that are situated in local time and space’ (Krüger 2008, 49). Following Krüger ‘s (2008) guide, I then worked around further themes and units made of short descriptive words and later sorted them hierarchically eliminating the bulk of data before making summative descriptions regarding history, organisation, people, practice performance, performance events, language, quotations, interviews, recordings, traditions, guru-trained music and dance,
23 Triangulation uses multi data sources in an investigation to create understanding. Norman K. Denzin, Sociological Methods (New York: McGraw-Hill. 1978). Norman K. Denzin identified four types: Method triangulation, triangulation of sources, analyst triangulation and theory/perspective triangulation. 24 Inductive theory is also termed as grounded theory.
42 and fusion. In writing the ethnographic account, I interpreted the data by continually revisiting the central question and aims of the research.
The first ‘port of call’ was my own diasporic journey of discovery for this study before narrowing the work and refining the framework for my case study. To this end, I embarked on conducting short five-minute anonymous surveys to increase my understanding of other Indian people in Perth and to determine what cultural symbols and tangible items they associated their Indianness with. I was mindful that while the
Australian Bureau of Statistics Census results for Greater Perth revealed Hinduism as a religion increased from 1.1 per cent (19, 842) in 2011 to 1.9 per cent (36, 684) in 2016,25 the data applied to both Indian and non-Indian persons. I took the quickest method of discovery and engaged predominantly Indian people who volunteered in completing the short survey with me. I met them at screenings of the latest Bollywood films at Perth cinemas and public spaces such as parks and gardens, casual cafes, cultural gatherings of different Indian associations, smaller Indian dance schools, Indian gourmet stores, churches, and shopping centres. In doing so, I became familiar with the different colloquial and everyday language use of different Indian vernacular terms.
Observations of performances in music and dance was on-going. This method of participant observation provided me with the opportunity to ‘participate in the daily life of the people under study…observing things to happen, listening to what is said and questioning people, over some length of time’ (Becker and Greer 1972, 102 cited in
Pickering 2008, 108).
Michael Pickering’s (2008, 26) logic of a researcher’s position and perspective has been an excellent guide for fieldwork and his voice constantly echoed in the field:
Any speaking of self or form from the perspective given to us by our own locations and cultural mappings has to be balanced by listening to others
25 Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2011 and 2016. ‘Community Profile’ (Cat. No. 2001.0). AusStats, http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/communityprofile/5GPER? opendocument.
43 and investigating the matrix of experience from which they speak of themselves. Consequently, the ‘observation and interrogation’ of participants and my own notes have been conducted over a long period, extending to more than the stipulated four years I had given myself, to gather the contextual and experiential information.
A final note pertains to the use of visual and audio media in this ethnographic study. In addition to the inclusion of texts, the stories told by the participants involved the exploration of the sensory, social and material aspects of music and dance performances, as images and recordings of the research participants are valuable for any analysis and reflection (Pink 2008). Participants were therefore active in interpreting their views of the images and videos that were taken during the fieldwork. Considered together, the research involves a participatory, collaborative process in which participants are active agents.
44
Chapter Two Interpretations of Diaspora
______
The past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity.
(Rushdie 1991, 12)
Origins, meanings, paradigms
The term ‘diaspora’ comes from the ancient Greek word diaspeirein, which denotes the scattering of seeds. The term was originally associated with a dispersal of people; firmly indicated in the Septuagint26 to refer to the scattered Jewish population as aimless wanderers seeking a home (Cohen 1996; Mishra 2007; Akyeampong 2000) and the
Bible, to denote the dispersion of the Hebrew people (Deuteronomy 28: 58–68 King
James Version). The term is also associated with meanings associated with forced displacement, victimisation, alienation and loss of a homeland (Vertovec 1999) and includes refugees who were escaping civil war, famine and overpopulation (Esman
2009). The meaning of diaspora in the modern age is less associated with banishment and represents more than one kind of dispersion.
Different diaspora theories fall into two broad paradigms: the classical model and the contemporary model. This research fits within both paradigms, as a significant part of it explores the emergence of a contemporary diaspora community’s cultural practice that partly grew from the old Indian labour diaspora of the colonial period. The classical model refers to the period before World War II and frames diaspora as a dispersal concerning the Jewish experience of exile and reflects elements of trauma, nostalgia, loss, exile and displacement (Safran 1991; Cohen 1996; Gorman 2011). This paradigm underscores two beliefs—one that demonstrates a link between a diasporic group and
26 The Jewish Hebrew scriptures
45 a homeland, and the other that reveals the dependence of ‘an essentialist identity paradigm of the nation-state’ (Toninato 2009, 3).
The contemporary model reflects diaspora in a broader context and applies to any group living in displacement (Tölölyan 1991; Clifford 1994; Karim 2003; Safran 2005).
This model typically reflects migrant movements that began after World War II, representing the advanced effects of globalisation on the occurrence of diasporization
(Reis 2004, 41). In this model, diaspora becomes a ‘culture-specific term’ within which older cultures become reshaped (Mishra 2007, 13). Broader cultures also become prototypical transnational communities due to the increased mobility of people across borders, money and cultural products such as information, ideas, images and music
(Tölölyan 1991; Clifford 1994). Economic, political and cultural dimensions are included in the depiction of postmodernism with diaspora (Brah 1996). The contemporary model reflects diasporas as a force that weakens the control of nation-states from its discriminatory trends and culturally homogenising power (Vertovec 2000, 5).
The definition of diaspora has since been modified to reflect changes in the flow of people within dimensions of international mobility and transnational networking.
Gabriel Sheffer (1986, 60-93), for example, provides distinctions that include newer
‘trans-state network’ groups who allow the maintenance and development of diasporic people’s own collective identity, the existence of an internal organisation distinct from the organisation that existed in the homeland or host land, and contact with the homeland that is ‘real’ (through travel) and ‘symbolic’.
To clarify contemporary interpretations of diaspora, Mishra (1992–1993, 1) links the definition of diaspora within the historical frame of ‘20th-century capitalism’ and outlines some defining parameters that include broader cultures. The first comprises the Indian diaspora of South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Surinam and
Malaysia, and the Chinese diasporas of Malaysia and Indonesia. The second group consists of the new diasporas that emerged from the free migration in the age of late
46 capitalism. They consist of the post-war South Asian, Chinese, Arab and Korean communities in Britain, Europe, the United States (US), Canada and Australasia. The third group includes any group of migrants that consider themselves to be on the periphery of any power or the sharing of such power.
Approaches
Specific approaches to the study of diasporas are pertinent in the context of this dissertation for understanding the specificity of everyday diasporic practices, contingency of historical processes, and the political and economic structures that give rise to different diaspora spaces. Theories of diasporas seem to be understood as well as disputed when based on different diasporic bodies, a home or a homeland. As an example, in Rogers Brubaker’s (2005, 3–6) critique of diaspora theories, he found that there is an inclination to essentialise understandings of diaspora under the themes of formation–dispersion, homeland orientation and boundary maintenance. However, in placing diaspora within these bounded themes, Brubaker (2005) omits consideration of factors that locate contemporary diaspora as social forms that operate within unstable boundaries.
In Sudesh Mishra’s (2006, 15-16) criticism of diasporic writings, he, too, found the diasporic writings of some theorists27 as being descriptive because they explained diaspora as a social formation linked to political, economic and ideological relations and networks within a historical frame. Their writings typify certain features of a community who linger between the homeland and the host land, but are devoted to a place of origin, and the retention of ethno-communal solidarity. Even though, in the global world, they recreate their homeland through artefacts, popular culture and shared imagination, they still find themselves ‘living without belonging in one’ and
‘belonging without living in the other’.
27 William Safran (1991), Robin Cohen (1996), Gabriel Sheffer (2003) and Walker Conner (1986)
47 Sudesh Mishra (2006, 18) goes further to draw on an archaeological approach of
‘specific diaspora’, in which meaning is recovered by exploring the remains of the past.28 In the context of this research, this archaeological approach enables the mapping of discontinuities and differences in a group’s diasporic history. In the process, it enables the researcher to consider the intersection of relationships between the old, new or border Indian diaspora.
However, there are post-modernist readings that shift diaspora concepts away from a preoccupation with peoples’ ancestral homeland, and ethnic or religious communities to diasporic concepts that focus on understandings and meanings related to situatedness and deterritorialised identities shaped by different conditions. James
Clifford (1994) outlines diaspora as a cultural and social process that affects the nation’s position, since diasporas think globally but live locally in fluid identity boundaries holding multiethnic identities. They continuously shift and belong to various communities. They are also considered social and cultural products of transnational capitalism because they link different worlds due to their transnational and deterritorialised situation. Sudesh Mishra (2006) considers their diasporic condition to be more accepting of class and gender and holding an awareness of other diasporas, such as the Tamil, Indian or African diasporas.
I found Steven Vertovec’s (1999), research study on diaspora to be one of the most comprehensive sources for addressing issues on South Asian diasporas. Vertovec (1999) divides diaspora interpretation in the form of ‘meanings’ that are enclosed in relationships, consciousness and production. This different perspective positions SMV as a diasporic body, as Vertovec’s ‘meanings’ are derived from a study of South Asian religions. The first set of meanings construct diaspora as a ‘social form’ that emphasises a group typified by a ‘relationship-despite-dispersal’ experience. Diasporas, therefore, seem to be caught in a triadic relationship, with one side keeping them globally
28 Sudesh Mishra’s listed theorists are namely Vijay Mishra, Donna Gabacciati, Brent Edwards, Khalid Koser, Martin Baumann, Kanishka Warden and Martin Manalansan.
48 dispersed as an ethnic group, another that keeps them residing within a territory and a third one that keeps them connected to a homeland or some sense of it (Vertovec
1999).
In the second set of meanings, Vertovec (1999) posits diaspora as a type of consciousness that emphasises the state of mind and sense of identity as diasporic experiences. In this type of consciousness, Vertovec (1999) outlines the paradox of negative lived experiences situated against positive ‘historical heritage’ awareness.
There is also a consciousness of multilocality, decentred attachments and shared imagination. Consequently, in this state of mind, a diaspora becomes absorbed with recollections of fractured memories and desire. Arjun Appadurai and Carol
Breckenridge (1988, 5–9) make this point clear:
Even for apparently well-settled diasporic groups, the macro-politics of reproduction translates into the micro-politics of memory, among friends, relatives and generations. Among contemporary diasporas, Vertovec (1999) finds a diasporic consciousness that includes a sense of ‘resistance’ that is posed through the diaspora’s engagement and visibility in public spaces. Indeed, diasporas are activists who seemingly challenge or support human rights issues or civic causes (Cohen 1996). The third set of meanings allows diaspora to be understood as a mode of cultural production related closely to the process of globalisation, which is discussed later in this chapter.
Categories and patterns of movements
There are different diaspora interpretations that detail broader outlooks beyond origins, approaches and meanings. These interpretations place emerging communities into categories that align this research of the Indian diaspora in a more definite position. Alain Medam differentiates two categories of diasporas: ‘crystallised’ and
‘fluid’. Crystallised diasporas aptly describe participants in this dissertation. These individuals operate within strong, organised institutions and networks that manage activities and culture. They have strong transnational networks and cultural power in
49 the host country. Their defining trait is their organisational strengths in the fields of enterprise, politics and religion (Medam, as cited in Anteby-Yemini and Berthomière
2005, 264). Fluid diasporas, conversely, are not stabilised geographically and they have poorly structured organisations.
Cohen (2008) introduces the term ‘global diasporas’ to describe the different cultural and ethnic dispersions of people. According to Cohen (2008), global diasporas consist of subtypes that are classified as labour, trade, imperial and cultural diasporas. In the context of this study, the ‘labour’ diasporas refer to the different ethnic immigrant communities that were established during colonialism, who are now located globally and search for work and trade (Cohen, 2008). Monika Fludernik (2003, xii) differentiates additional subdivisions in this category. She categorises the first subgroup as colonial and bases the second and third subgroups on Mishra’s (1996a, 421) distinctions of diasporas—the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ diasporas. The old diaspora here, belong to the indenture period of the nineteenth century. This group consists of people from the former British colonies who carried the memories of indenture and trauma with them.
The Indian indenture is placed in this category of labour diaspora.29 The ‘new’ late modern or late capitalist diaspora enjoy the pleasures of mobility, globalisation and technology (Mishra 2005b, 13–14).30
There are two terms that describe patterns of movement applicable in this dissertation.
One is labelled as ‘branch migration’ and refers to the international movement of immediate family members, including grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces (Parr et al. 2000, 216). The other is labelled ‘chain migration’, which is understood to be a process that represents the assistance and encouragement that migrants offer to relatives, friends and fellow villagers to immigrate and join them
29Cohen (2008) identifies the Chinese and Lebanese groups as ‘trade’ diaspora, the British and other colonisers as ‘imperial’/‘colonial’ diaspora and the Caribbean group as ‘cultural’ diaspora. 30 Incidentally, the Australian diaspora is described as a ‘gold-collar diaspora’ due to its mobile relationship to the global labour market. Fullilove, Michael. ‘World Wide Webs: Diasporas and the International System’. Lowey Institute Paper no. 22 (Sydney Lowey institute for International Policy 2008), 23. http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=753.
50 (Castles and Miller 1993, 102; Parr et al. 2000, 216). Both migration patterns unfold in the context of the case study.
While these different interpretations of diaspora demonstrate rich approaches and diverse categories that inform this research, words by Östen Wahlbeck (2002, 310) that one should consider ‘whether the concept of diaspora can be used to describe and study some specific qualities of the particular community in question’ also find meaning in this undertaking.
Concepts of home and homeland
To most diasporas, the concepts of homeland and home evoke a deeper meaning when they are in transit from one place to another. For people belonging to the old diaspora, they were connected to a sense of homeland through artefacts that activated imaginations and memories of their origin. Their feelings and memories of original movement were idealised in their longing for their homeland or a return to it. This longing is placed in an ‘imagined or mythical home' (Anderson 1983; Appadurai 1996,
300; Blunt 2003) and is retained through stories that are retold across generations.
However, in this modern age, the homeland is considered accessible, enfolded within the world of internet networking sites replacing the ‘imaginary’ (Mishra 2007).
Fragments of the past, whether in the form of memories, artefacts, networking communication or images, tend to become reconstructed in the form of nostalgia.
Diasporic individuals seem to be placed in positions of introspection when ‘coming home’, evoking overwhelming emotions of nostalgia and attachment. In reading
Tölölyan’s (2011, 11) argument that the diasporic’s home is not necessarily placed in an ancestral homeland, as researcher I address my own questions of home and digress a little with an anecdote, claiming this right as an ethnographer. In conversations with family members in South Africa, at least one member would ask the proverbial question: ‘When are you coming home?’ A usual response would be ‘I’ll be home for
Christmas’ and, when I do eventually board the plane, I find myself always uttering ‘I’m
51 going home’ with a certain warm anticipation. So, what is home to me? As a transnational citizen, my response is that South Africa is the first of my diasporic homes; it is where my ‘heart’ is and my place of birth—I can call it a homeland. This homeland is inescapable, as some of my family still reside there and this sense of place becomes more real when I complete departure or immigration cards for travel at airports.
As can be seen, the notion of home and homeland have changed since diasporas became transnational. Therefore, as James Clifford (1997, 249–250) asserted, transnational networks of diaspora should not be understood solely through a ‘real’ or
‘symbolic’ homeland, but in conjunction with a shared history of displacement, struggle, resistance and adaptation. It is from this perspective that the Indian diaspora is considered, as their condition reflects the creation of ‘new homes away from homes’
(Clifford 1997, 251). This ‘condition’, which Floya Anthias (1998, 5) points out as resulting from being in more than one place, tolerates sentiments felt toward a homeland while adjustments to the hostland are made. In turn, it produces different forms of ‘cultural accommodation or syncretism: in some versions hybridity’. For Avtar
Brah (1996), this condition of being in a tension between home and dispersion results in the creation of a ‘homing’ tendency or for a ‘homing desire’. Brah (1996 192–193) believes home and belonging are essential to diasporic people—as a place of desire and return in the imagination, and as a ‘lived experience of a locality’ in which sounds, smells and memory remain in the mind. These diasporas, in turn, also remind the nation-state of notions of homeland and its own past (Mishra (1996a). The notion of home is, therefore, understood as an emotional space, a physical structure or a geographical location—which is closely associated with ‘the elements of our earliest physical environment and psychological experiences as well as their ripple effect throughout our lives’ (Rubenstein 2001, 1). The concepts of displacement and diasporic consciousness should thus include a diasporic community’s strong attachment to the past (Mishra 1996a; Cohen 2008). However, Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge
52 (1989) acknowledge that even though diasporas always have a collection of memory, they are able to create new desires and attachments.
According to Appadurai (1996a, 5), the imagination in the ‘postelectronic world’ has new significant meaning: ‘the imagination has broken out of the special expressive space of art, myth, and ritual and has now become a part of the quotidian mental work of ordinary people’. Appadurai’s (1996a) construct of the ‘imagined’ is critical in this study, as the participants who come from both the old and new diasporas are no longer living under the imagined construct of colonial rule or nation-state in only
‘imagined communities’. Instead, they are now living under the imagined constructs of globalisation in ‘imagined worlds’. While it may be true that migrants play a crucial role as agents of social change in the global cultural economy, they are not a ‘by-product’ of the ‘global capitalism’ of the nation-state (Clifford 1997, 244). However, Slobin (1992,
12) cautions that one should not disregard the role of the nation-state in establishing such changes.
Notions of diasporic space and cultural identity
Michel Foucault’s (2001, 361) statement, ‘Space is fundamental in any form of communal life’, is filled with meanings that imply the existence of differing cultural spheres of identity and representation in individual relationships. Many theories have emerged concerning the spaces that diasporas occupy at border crossings and they provide an understanding of how identity and representation are created and recreated within Indian diasporic cultural spaces. In this dissertation, it is pertinent to theorise performances as a diasporic space.
Certain writers make references to spaces between borders that enable different power relationships to eventuate. Clifford (1994, 1997) positions diaspora in spaces between borders where diasporas are involved in transnational interaction and are absorbed in maintaining and identifying themselves as a distinct community. Avtar
Brah (1996), more specifically, establishes diaspora space as the location in which
53 physical borders are crossed as social, conceptual and psychological borders. This space in the nation-state is also shared with indigenous groups and in places where power relationships are always being negotiated politically, which weakens the divide between ‘us’, ‘them’ and the ‘other’ (Brah 1996, 209). Furthermore, by being continuously in transit between places, there is, according to Clifford (1997, 37), a kind of interconnectivity in the travel spaces, leading to travel dialogues that extends,
‘Where are you from?’, to ‘Where are you between?’. The latter lends itself to more dialogue of diasporic activity and an awareness of multilocality.
Clifford (1994, 312) also points out that the space between borders is where ‘diaspora consciousness lives loss and hope as a defining tension’. Diasporas have connections elsewhere (loss) that make a difference here (hope), where variances of cultural accommodation such as syncretism31 or hybridity are created (Clifford 1994, 322).
Clifford (1988, 22–23) uses the expression ‘inventive syncretism’ to indicate a kind of hybridity in which foreign cultures are consciously integrated into one’s own culture, which creates an increasing interconnectedness of the world. Perhaps Clifford’s paradox echoes the notions of the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel’s master–slave dialectic, in which tensions in the struggle for dignity always result in loss and hope. However, they eventually even out when the subservient person triumphs through different processes of attaining dignity. A recognition of one’s humanity may be realised in the form of cultural sharing, a kind of inventive syncretism in which the integration of cultures may emerge.
Homi Bhabha (1994, 2, 34), too, speaks of the process of hybridity occurring in the in- between spaces, which, as the ‘third space’, forms the dais for the emergence of ‘new signs of identity’ from which the ideas of ourselves and others are expressed.32 In this
31 The term syncretism refers to a partial and gradual blending of two elements. 32 Stuart Hall’s (1993 link with the idea of in-between spaces, as well, is found in his cultures of hybridity theory in which the new diasporas are displayed, as their cultural identities are always being constructed ‘in transition’ with both old and new traditions in which the past is retained. Here cultural identity is understood as a shared culture, a collective kind of ‘one true self’ concealed inside many other imposed
54 dissertation, the ‘other’, (i.e., the participants) is written in the third space—additionally because the third space negotiates a culturist form that influences new forms of cultural interactions and enables transformative practices in places of origin, travel and settlement.
Globalisation—connectivity and cultural identity in deterritorialised places
Some theorists focusing on globalisation have conclusively demonstrated that the term deterritorialisation in a cultural sense, or as a cultural condition, implies a disconnection from traditional cultural matrices as a result of migration. (Appadurai 1990; Tomlinson
1999). The concept of cultural deterritorialisation appears to be reflected as a main feature of globalisation and is regarded as an essential component of the modern world, and is manifested, according to Gil-Manuel Hernàndez i Martí (2006, 91) in three ways: homogenisation, differentiation and hybridisation. There are also debates on whether the process of globalisation will universalise, fragmentise or proliferate identities. For example, Fredric Jameson (1998), in his philosophical presentation on globalisation, proposes two visions of culture in the future: one that either involves an organisation-driven monoculture in which autonomy and identity are removed from nations and cultural groups; or another that involves cultural pluralism in which various cultural groups maintain their identities, values and practices and live in direct and harmonious contact with each other. From this perspective, globalisation can hardly be regarded as being exclusively an economic phenomenon. Instead, what materialises is that from an economic and a cultural awareness, diverse people will be brought together from various cultural backgrounds, with more movement of people from both rich and poor regions. However, Anthony Giddens (2001, 64) highlights that cultures conveyed through massive global network interactions may not have the same bearing as people have with their own local communities because direct interactions impact
‘selves’ that diasporic people hold. Stuart Hall, ‘Cultural identity and Diaspora’ in Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A reader, ed. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993), 227-237.
55 people’s lives, which is further marked by an individual’s personal history and upbringing. The conditions of globalisation, as argued by Giddens (2001, 61), allows advancement to a new individualism where people can ‘constitute themselves and construct their own identities’. In this study, the argument is that diasporic individuals tend to demonstrate such behaviour. As individuals, they respond to the globalising processes that are part of the transformation of their community from a private marginalised position to a public interactive one by using different urban spaces to their advantage. Their cultural performances seem to promote different cultural interactions in a more intimate mode, in which their own identities become known.
Simply put, as global and local subjects/agents, there is a relationship between globalising forces that are predominantly outside their control and the negotiation of these forces in local daily practices of identity-formation.
Although it is argued that globalisation connects people and assists individuals in achieving their own cultural realisation in their modern life, it does not, according to
John Tomlinson (1999, 9,18), reflect the everyday cultural experiences at a local level, because at this level, cultural difference is maintained despite the intruding connectivity of the modern age. From this point, and in the context of this study, one may interpret this argument in two ways: that intercultural events, such as festivals, through connectivity, can expose the uniqueness of a culture through the performing arts, as diasporic mobility can also be understood through touring cultures of performers; the other, and conversely, it may imply that the globally mediated market, such as the Bollywood films33 inspires and connects Indians or relates the lived experience of relationships of the diaspora, but it may not accurately reflect the cultural
33 Jigna Desai and Rajinder Dudrah explains that the Bombay film industry has had an impact on global popular culture in India and across the diaspora creating a global presence in countries that include North America, the UK and West Africa. Jigna Desai and Rajinder Dudrah, ‘The Essential Bollywood,’ in The Bollywood Reader, ed. Rajinder Dudrah and Jigna Desai (New York: Open University Press, 2008), 1- 17.
56 practices of the Indian diaspora.34 Nonetheless, from a cultural perspective, diasporic connectivity aided by technological advances will enable diasporic people to retain their cultural heterogeneity in a multicultural environment, and it is more likely that each culture will retain much of its cultural traditions without the fear of assimilation.
34 There is argument, however, that Bollywood re-producers the idea of diaspora and it is further extended and received in global localities bringing together global cultures, and therefore, Bollywood films have a profound effect on diasporic cultures. Alternatively, the author suggests that borderlands and diasporic lives are the ‘new imaginative places and spaces’ through which Bollywood films travel as a global industry. Rajinder Dudrah, Bollywood Travels, Culture, Diaspora and Border Crossings in Popular Hindi Cinema (London: Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series, 2012), 8-9, 12.
57
Chapter Three The Indian Diaspora
______We do not choose the moments of departure or settlement, we are chosen by them. And also, those moments, once they have touched us, make us different persons from the persons we were before, and place ceases to matter.
(Gooneratne 1991, 152)
58 Part I Historical Perspectives ______Defining the Indian diaspora
The Indian diaspora’s Indianness is not linked to a common language or a single religious belief. For example, Hindi and Hinduism are not necessarily characteristic traits. It is their country of origin that defines their distinctiveness. A closer look at how
India defines its diaspora reveals that the High-Level Committee on Indian Diaspora35 regards Indian diaspora as ‘communities of migrants living or settled permanently in other countries, aware of its origins and identity and maintaining varying degrees of linkages with [a] mother country’ (Singhvi et al. 2001). A few Indian diaspora writers focus on various nuances in their definition, linking the Indian diaspora to a kind of homeland or Indian identity. For instance, Gijsbert Oonk (2008) suggests that Indian identities abroad are presented as a mirror of India itself while Martin Baumann (1997) applies the term to any overseas Indian, of which most are Hindus. The Indian diaspora at large is thus not homogenous, but highly heterogeneous and originating from different backgrounds, regions, religions, castes, occupations, education, language and cultural circumstances (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007; Raghuram et al. 2008; Jayaram
2009; Singh 2012). A level of commonality is observed in the different diasporic expressions within social, religious and cultural realms and such expressions are considered ‘points of convergence and divergence’ that connect diverse Indians together (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007,13).
35 The High-Level Committee on Indian Diaspora is established by the government of India to facilitate the links of NRIs and PIOs with India under the Chairmanship of Dr L. M. Singhvi, M.P.
59 Indian diasporic consciousness
Indian diasporic consciousness in the twentieth century emerged with scholarly discourse probing its causes, effects and developments.36 The discourse focused on migrating patterns, socio-economic patterns and experiences of adaptation and assimilation in host countries. Therefore, to understand the Indian diasporic consciousness, in light of the core issue always being about people scattered and with experience of loss and struggle, this thesis’s point of departure is taken from Francis
Fukuyama’s (2006)37 argument. Fukuyama concurs with G.W.F. Hegel’s38 notion that human consciousness throughout history has evidenced the tensions of a master–slave dialectic. This tension arises from the struggle between people or society in a dominant (superior) and weaker (inferior) position. In this consciousness, the people in the weaker position desire to be acknowledged for their worth and abilities to gain a sense of respect and dignity. The argument posed in this master–slave dialectic is that, as a process it implies that every human and country will eventually reach a final synthesis. Consequently, Fukuyama echoes Hegel and suggests that human behaviours are fixed in a prior state of consciousness in history, one in which ‘all human consciousness was limited by the particular social and cultural conditions of man’s surrounding environment’ (Fukuyama 2006, 62). Fukuyama (2006, 62) goes on to argue that history should be both a succession of different civilisations with levels of accomplishment and a succession of different practices of consciousness:
Consciousness—the way in which human beings think about fundamental questions of right and wrong, the activities they find satisfying, their beliefs about gods, even the way in which they perceive the world has changed fundamentally over time.
36 There are many writers of this discourse; namely, Erikson (1970), Tinker (1977), Jain (1998), Vertovec (2000), Mishra (2003), Paranjape (2003) Prasad (2006), Mishra (1996, 2007), Lal, Reeves and Rai (2007, 10), and Chandra (2010). 37 Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Simon & Shuster Inc., 2006), 62. 38 G.W.F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind, trans. J. B. Baillie (New York: Harper Torch Book, 1967), 800.
60 Additionally, Indian diaspora history in this consciousness displays what Vertovec (1999,
8) described as ‘a variety of experience, a state of mind and a sense of identity’. Placed more precisely as a diasporic imaginary, individuals become mindful of their diasporic status through the act of introspection and ultimately recognition (Mishra 2005). The fight for one’s humanity is, in a sense, also a regaining of one’s self-consciousness.
Contextual migration trends
According to a United Nations report (United Nations 2017), India boasts one of the largest diaspora population in the world, exceeding 20 million people. They live in more than 70 countries (Bhat 2006; Jayaram 2009) and most form a minority group in the host country (Sharma 2004, 47).39 Since the turn of the century, India’s gift of dual citizenship is obtainable to persons who emigrated from India, up to four generations
(Singh 2012, 9).
As a singular identity and defined according to different contexts of migration and historical perspectives, the Indian diaspora may be divided into three periods.
According to Lal, Reeves and Rai (2007, 11), the first migration can be understood as the ‘age of merchants’, which occurred during the ancient period when the movement of Indian people centred on trade and religious connections across the Indian Ocean.
The second and third periods are identified as the colonial period and the postcolonial period respectively and are recognised as ‘the age of colonial-capital’ and ‘the age of globalisation’ respectively (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007, 11). While the colonial period predominantly marks the labouring systems in the British colonies, the postcolonial period reflects a further movement of Indians to Britain, the UK, US, Australia and New
Zealand (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007, 11). These two periods are a major area of focus.
People move from one place to the other for different reasons. Although research has revealed that in ancient times, mobility was integral among peasants who shifted their
39 Indians comprise the majority population in Mauritius and Guyana and were once a majority in Fiji until the 1987 coup that caused many Indians to leave.
61 loyalties between ‘masters’ across different regions (Jain 1993), the colonial period coerced larger movement of Indians as part of an imperial design of dominance. Hugh
Tinker (1977, 10) explained this lure of migrants as a pattern of push and pull forces: the push of inadequate economic opportunities in South Asia and the pull of healthier standards of living and employment prospects in the West. Simply put, when opportunities occur, people move with hope for a better life or experience, regardless of the realities on the other side.
The colonial period—Rule Britannia40
British interest in India and its colonies is a history that Indians seemingly hold with reservations, as historical associations that Britain has had with India are associated with dominion and expansion of British interests through human exploitation. Under the British Raj,41 Indians were enticed to various employment opportunities and various colonies. This group included a ‘tiny elite’, who received British education and adopted
English habits (Maddison 1971, 6). The subsequent departure of Indians began with ‘a moment of displacement’ (Prasad 2005, 13), in which they were lured into a system of indentured labour, which some writers regard as a ‘new system of slavery’ (Tinker 1974,
172; Sahoo, Maharaj and Sangha 2008) to assist British farmers to replace the use of forced labour after the abolishment of slavery in 1833 (Metcalf 2001, ix). For most migrants, the new land remained a place of misfortune in which a destiny of ‘false’ promises awaited (Sudesh Mishra 2006, 32).
Three categories of migration passages are distinct during this period: indentured labour, Kangani and Maistry labour and those given ‘passage’ or ‘free’ emigration
(Jayaram 2009, 398). The indentured labour system, which lasted some 80 years, was
40 ‘Rule, Britannia!’ is a British patriotic song originating from the poem ‘Rule, Britannia’, written by James Thomson in 1740. The Royal Navy and the British Army use it. The reprise of the poem, ‘Rule, Britannia! Rule the waves: Britons never will be slaves’ demonstrates the master–slave dominance of the British Empire. Percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1970), 897. 41 A term derived from the Hindi word raj, denoting ‘reign’ (Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition, 1989) and expressing British dominion of the Indian subcontinent.
62 marked by Indians who worked in colonies as plantation labourers and who were bonded to five-year renewable indenture contracts. Under this system, Indians experienced harsh treatment and hardships travelling in overcrowded steamships to
Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam, Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa and East Africa (Lal, Reeves and
Rai 2007). Ironically, at each of the ports of recruitment in India, Bombay, Madras and
Calcutta, recruitment agencies were constructed to protect emigrants against coercion.
For example, in Natal-Durban, South Africa—which is my place of birth—the Natal
Coolie Law 14 of 1859 allowed the appointment of the Coolie42 Immigration Agent to work in the Coolie Immigration Department (Du Bois 2012, 4–6).
Image 1: Arrival of Indentured Indians in Natal (Brian 1985, 23).43
The Kangani and Maistry labour system apply to Tamil-speaking labourers from Madras who worked under male overseers (supervisors) known as Kangani and Maistry, to work in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Malaya (Malaysia) and Burma (Myanmar). Unlike the indentured
42 Theories to the word ‘coolie’ varies, as its etymology has been linked to the Turkish word for slave, köle. However, it is associated with the British rule of Indian indentured labourers in the colonies; Karen Williams, ‘Coolie: A History,’ Media Diversified, last modified 29 June 2016, https://mediadiversified.org/2016/06/29/coolie-a-history/. Indians generally find it archaic, but insulting because during the indentured labour period, it was used as a term of hatred and abuse. 43 Joy B. Brian, ‘125 Years—The Arrival of Natal’s Indians in Pictures,’ Natalia 15 (1985), 23.
63 labourers, this group of South Indian labourers, assigned as contractual labourers in the coffee plantations, were legally free and labourers were recruited as family groups (Jain
1998; Sandhu 1969, 89). Sandhu (1969) confirms that the South Indian Kangani/Maistry system coexisted with the indentured system in Malaya between 1840 and 1910. These labourers also had substantial debts, were impoverished, lived in inferior accommodation, lacked medical assistance and experienced continuous and ruthless disciplinary actions (Jain 1984; Raghuram et al. 2008, 54). To remain employed in
Malaya, the indentured labourers who worked in the tea and coffee plantations joined the new Tamil Kangani recruits to work in the rubber plantations under the Kangani system. The system ended in 1938 (Sandhu 1969, 81; Bhat and Bhaskar 2007; Jayaram
2009, 398).
The third category, comprising of a small group of passage or free immigrants from
Gujarat and Punjab, travelled to South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda while some
South Indians ventured to south east Africa. They were exempt from any form of service contract and replaced the Kangani or Maistry systems of labour when they ended (Jayaram 2009, 398).
The postcolonial Period—Jai Hind44
Victory over colonial rule in 1947 was liberating in various ways for Indians, as freedom and independence from an entrenched history of authoritarianism meant a distinctive pathway to democracy with goals centred on individual development and social values.
Research shows that only 12 per cent of India’s population was literate when the colonial rule ended (Kattackal 1975, 22), yet 64 years later, under an Indian rule that followed similar British and American education systems, the 2011 census in India reflected 72 per cent of the total population as being literate—they could read and
44 Jai Hind is a Hindi word in India that is commonly used as a salutation and slogan to indicate patriotism towards India. It translates to ‘victory to India’ or ‘long live India’; P.N. Chopra, B. N. Puri, M. N Das and A. C. Pradhan, A Comprehensive History of Modern India (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 2005), 280.
64 write in a language of their region at various levels (GOI 2011). Given this vast improvement in literacy, the Indian education system produced professionals: this time, however, they outnumbered jobs available in India. Subsequently, the lure of employment and lifestyle opportunities, again offered by other countries, prompted many English-speaking Indians to seek other labour prospects.45
More recently, scholars have investigated another trend of Indian migration that originated from the descendants of indentured Indian labourers, known as ‘twice- banished’, who were forced through political circumstances to migrate from Fiji,
Surinam, South Africa and some other countries from the continent of Africa (Louw and
Mersham, 2001; Voigt-Graf 2004; Rahemtulla 2010). These descendants found themselves further fragmented, as the countries once controlled by an abusive empire, remained abusive in their treatment of Indians and compelled those who could afford it into a voluntary act of self-banishment to seek safer and better opportunities in a different host land once again. According to Kim Butler (2001, 201), this movement can be explained as voluntary, a choice of their own, which resulted from the insufferable relationships and actions of the host country that descendants could no longer endure.
‘Twice-banished’, however, should not be confused with ‘twice migrants,’ which applies to people living in Australia who are not born in India, but have lived for several years or generations in other Indian diasporic modes (Voigt-Graft 2018, 343) and their records are statistically more difficult to track (OECD 2004).
45 Patterns of India’s migration trends reveal that professionals and semi-professionals went to the UK, US and Canada, that skilled professionals and a large proportion of Anglo-Indians migrated to Australia and England and that skilled and unskilled labourers moved to West Africa. Later, more skilled and unskilled Indians desiring financial remittance moved to oil industries in regions around the Gulf, South-East Asia and West Asia. These patterns reveal the second movement of Indians. Ashwin Kumar. ‘The Coolie Connection: A Study of the Indian Diaspora’, Journal of Social Inquiry 14, no. 1 (1999): 7-32. Accessed 2 February 2013, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ashwin_Kumar39/publication/233422079_The_Coolie_Connection _A_Study_of_Indian_Diaspora/links/09e4150a8614990524000000/The-Coolie-Connection-A-Study-of- Indian-Diaspora.pdf.
65 Contextual issues of Home and Homeland
The romanticism of an ancestral home tends to be a characteristic of Indian diasporic communities (Bhat 2006; Jayaram 2009). According to Sarwal (2012), the sensory and spatial locations of the Indian diaspora imagining is made even more prevalent in several narratives of Indian authors who moved to Australia. For example, the narratives reveal how Indians live and experience life in Australia while keeping their myths, histories, legends and displays of cultural possessions. While they live in the present, they remain connected with their previous places of abode through certain feelings of memory, longing and desire (Sarwal 2012).46 Diasporic characters in the stories most often mirror the lives of real life diasporic individuals, including the writers themselves.
In this chapter, the review of literature on the Indian diaspora revealed that writers have a tendency in their definition to link the Indian diaspora to a kind of homeland or Indian identity, hence the past remains alive in some way in the present imagination of the
Indian diaspora. The contextual understanding of the history of Indian diaspora in
Australia showed that experiences of settlement, identity and belonging were underpinned by race and ethnic discrimination, which resulted in the struggle for identity and recognition. The different transition models of cultural assimilation and acculturation were presented to show that it is difficult for people to fully converge on identical beliefs, values and ways of living because of their diverse experiences and histories. Hence, for second-generation Indian people in Australia, as indicated by writers, diasporic individuals tend to be more flexible in their opinions and values and even in their association to Indian cultural organisations where the arts are intimately
46 Twice-banished migrants, following the Fiji Indian example, have a different perception of their homeland. India for them is an ancestral home that makes a claim to ancient cultures and the present- day India has no significance to them from a political and economic standpoint. They tend to have insubstantial knowledge of their caste background or locations in India. Carmen Voigt-Graf, ‘Twice migrants’ relationship to their ancestral homeland: The case of Indo-Fijians and India’. The Journal of Pacific Studies 27, no. 2 (2004): 177-203. Accessed May 10, 2015. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284168113_Twice_migrants%27_relationship_to_their_ancestr al_homeland_The_case_of_Indo-Fijians_and_India.The same perception may be applied to South African–Indians who live abroad due to political unrest.
66 destined in Hindu traditional practices because there is often a pursuit of transcendence through Indian theories of aesthetics.
67 Part II
The Indian Diaspora in Australia: Contextual Issues of Migration
______Historical context
Historically, Australia’s relationship with Indian people is classified into two periods, colonial and postcolonial. Both these periods offer much understanding in regard to the nature of work that Indian people were attracted to, as well as the development of their social and cultural life away from a homeland (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007).
The first wave of Indian arrivals
Among the first Indian arrivals, some were recruited to work as crews on ships that transported convicts, but they returned to India once their contracts expired (Dwight
1976, 121; NSW State Records 2003). Some left as convicts from the Bay of Bengal to labour in the penal colony in New South Wales (NSW). A record of nine Indian non- convicts received ‘free’ immigrant status as workers for a landowner (Jupp 2001, 427;
Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007, 383). Research shows that indentured Indian labourers were already working in Australia before 1840 as servants and labourers in NSW and South
Australia (Perkins 1988, 168; Slocomb 2014, 9) while individuals with Sikh and Muslim backgrounds from Punjab worked as agricultural labourers, traders and hawkers in the
Coastal Plains of NSW (DIAC 2014). A further group of Indians of a herding caste from
Chota Nagpur were recruited as labourers (Jupp 2001).
Reports show that Indian migrants protested against poor working conditions within a racialised workforce where their complaints were disregarded. Even though the Indian government banned ‘contract emigration from its territories’ in the 1830s (Chilsholm
1957; Dwight 1976) to protect the Indian labourers from exploitation in Australia, Indian workers continued to arrive in NSW to work as labourers at sheep stations or as domestic servants in Western Australia and Sydney (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007). There is also evidence that even the British colonial government in India recruited Indian
68 people, mainly orphans and young married couples to work in NSW under different sponsorship schemes (Cornish 1975, 305–306; Rickard 2003; Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007).
The second wave of Indian arrivals
The second phase of Indian immigration, between 1861 and 1901 (Lal, Reeves and Rai
2007), coincided with the withdrawal of British military support from the colonies and the last transportation of convicts to Western Australia in 1868 (Gibbs 2006). During this phase, cameleers47 and Indian people continued to arrive and work as agricultural labourers, hawkers and traders in rural areas and settled in Victoria to explore work opportunities in the gold mines (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007, 384).
According to government records, small towns welcomed them, but the general population still felt threatened by the larger number of Indian arrivals (DIAC 2014).
Indian horse groomers and crew for ocean liners were considered essential in Australia and, due to the positive feedback from their family members living in Australia and the protection provided by the Indian Coolie Act of 1862, more Indian people arrived with a licence to work on cotton and sugar cane plantations (Griffiths 2017). Indian people were inclined to live in small communities; those from Punjab settled in Queensland and New South Wales, while those who identified themselves with the Sikh religion preferred Woolgoolga.
Immigration restrictions: Implications for Indians and Australians
Nation-states that experience an influx of foreigners always seem to be dogged by fear. In Australia, the Indian population increased significantly from 300 in 1857, to 3000 over a period of 10 years. At the turn of the twentieth century, there were 4500 Indians and this surge in labourers, who accepted a lower standard of living and worked for
47 cameleers—commonly called Afghans from north-western Pakistan—were contracted to transport resources for various needs in the Australian outback areas and later the railroad constructions, from which the Ghan express takes its identity. Brij Lal, Peter Reeves and Rakesh Rai, eds., The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), 384.
69 lower wages (Doulman and Lee 2008), created discontent among the European settlers.
Persia Campbell (1921, 52-60) claimed that when a nation’s ‘self-interest [is] immediately affected, public action follows’—hence the emergence of the Immigration
Restriction Act of 1896, better known in its established form as the White Australia
Policy in 1901. To understand the pathways of migration that Indian people had to take to settle in Australia, we must be open to the possibility that these pathways were racially motivated. While the White Australia Policy in 1901 was regarded as a formative period in the history of Australia, attitudes to Indian immigration (Lal, Reeves and Rai
2007, 384) typified how white Australian society wished to preserve white superiority. By way of illustration, Joseph Chamberlain (as cited in Huttenback 1973, 108), in response to the Immigration Restriction Act of 1896, diplomatically advised against an ‘influx of people alien in civilization, alien in religion, alien in custom [who would] interfere with the legitimate rights of the existing labour population’. The Australian Prime Minister,
William Morris Hughes in 1919 claimed the White Australian Policy as ‘the greatest thing we ever achieved’ (Donaldson et al. 2009, 43).
The Immigration Restriction Act of 1896 created an authoritarian political culture that ensured a reign of supremacy with a sense of inhumanity that barred from immigration
‘insane’ people, people requiring charitable aid, people carrying infectious or contagious diseases, people with ‘loathsome’ or dangerous characters and people who are prostitutes, criminals or contract labourers (Campbell 1921, 61).
The White Australia Policy gave non-whites little chance of qualifying for citizenship in
Australia. The Policy included a mandatory written language test in English that would exclude those who could not write English (MacIntyre 1986). Consequently, Indian migration numbers remained around 6,500–7,000 until World War II ended.
70 Charles H. Pearson (as cited in Shiells 2009, 30), a leading political figure in Victoria, predicted nearly a hundred years ago when the White Australia Policy was emerging that:
The day will come, and perhaps is not far distant, when the European observer will look round to see the globe girdled with a continuous zone of the black and yellow races, no longer too weak for aggression or under tutelage, but independent, or practically so, in government, monopolising the trade of their own regions, and circumscribing the industry of the European … We were struggling among ourselves for supremacy in a world which we thought of as destined to belong to the Aryan races and to the Christian faith ... We shall wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by peoples whom we looked down upon as servile, and thought of as bound always to administer to our needs. While Pearson was not in favour of a White Australian Policy, his arguments may have speeded the cause to create one. However, Persia Campbell (1921, 52, 60) recognised what non-white countries, such as Asian countries, could offer to the world economy and suggested: ‘Whether justifiable or not, these deep-rooted prejudices will have to be reckoned with by any statesman who wills to establish relations between Eastern and Western civilisations on terms acceptable to both’. This reckoning soon became apparent in the years to follow.
A new wave of Indian arrivals
A new wave of Indian immigration followed when India became independent from
Britain in 1947. Anglo-Indians and India-born British citizens were readily accepted due to their British status (Anthony 2007; Naidoo 2007). This resulted in the Indian population increasing from 7,500 in 1947 to 14,167 in 1961. Records show that the
Indian population augmented significantly after the abolishment of the White
Australian Policy in 1973, and even though there was a demand for more professionals with varied educational qualifications, unskilled Indian workers continued to migrate to
Australia in large numbers (Chandra 2010, 2). In the 1980s, a wave of professional Indian migrants entered the country, increasing the migrant population to 41,657 by 1981
71 (DIAC 2007). At the turn of the twenty-first century, Australia had 77,689 Indian people working in the fields of engineering, education, medicine and IT (DIAC 2007).48
Whilst there were clear indications that most Indians arriving in Australia originated from India, more information started to emerge of Indians from other destinations. The
2011 population census revealed that South Africa was the 22nd most common place of origin of Indian immigrants to Australia (DIBP 2014). Other research indicated that
40,000 Indians arrived from Fiji after fleeing persecution and political unrest (Prasad
2006; Voigt-Graf 2004).
Indian demographics
The latest demographic profile of South Asians reveals that Indian people are one of the largest ethnic minority communities in Australia, and their population growth appears to be increasing at a faster rate than most other groups. The 2016 Australian census indicated that Indians constituted 1.9 per cent of the total population. The category of ‘ancestry’ is indicative of the cultural group with which individuals most closely identify, while not necessarily relating to an individual’s place of birth. Of the total responses related to ancestry, 619,164 people had ancestry in India, of which
245,416 people were born in India. The Australian State of Victoria boasted the largest number of Indian residents, followed by New South Wales, Queensland and Western
Australia (ABS 2016). Certain regions tended to have a higher concentration of Indians, such as Parramatta, in NSW (Badhwar 2012). Among India-born persons, the major religious groups comprised a mixture of Hindus, Sikhs and Catholics (ABS 2016). The
2016 census result showed that there were 68, 796 Indian people with Indian ancestry living in Western Australia (ABS 2016).
In Perth, Hindi is the most common Indo-Aryan language spoken at home, followed closely by Punjabi49 (ABS 2016). With regard to religion, Christianity amongst people
48 Indian migrants not born in India are not included in these statistics.
72 with Indian ancestry was the most common denomination, while Hinduism emerged as the fastest growing religion in the State. Referring to the 2011 census, Maginn (2012) predicted that the rapid increase in population of Hindu devotees from 4,700 to 10,800 would require further urban planning in Western Australia in the near future, as the need for more culturally-suitable services would grow accordingly.
The 2011 census data indicated that Perth was becoming significantly more cosmopolitan and diverse than Sydney and Melbourne (ABS 2012; Miginn 2012). In
Bernard Salt’s (2012) comparison of Indian people in Sydney and Perth, he revealed that Indian people integrated easily into Western Australian communities and were not inclined to assemble in one area. However, integration does not necessarily mean complete assimilation, as studies reveal that residential segregation and dispersal of ethnic groups does not end in complete assimilation (Kumaran 1995). In the political domain, as well, it has been argued that although Indians are integrated in professional and certain services within the Australian economy, such integration does not facilitate a sense of ‘Australian identity’, in terms of membership of the Australian political community. (Afsar 2004, 14).
49 Some of the other Indian languages included in the census are Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, Telugu, Marathi and Kannada
73 Part III Indian Culture and Practice ______Indian cultural trends and realities
Binod Satpathy (2013) established that continuity of Indian culture in various forms over a period arises from its cultural value (i.e., norms, beliefs, myths, traditions, art forms and literature) and on the grounds that cultural value is spiritual. However, cultural beliefs and values of Indian people, probably like those of any other group, may change significantly due to external forces, in this instance, through the pervasive power of western values. In other words, western society might influence a shift in an
Indian individuals’ degree of independence from the usual framework of collectivism where there is a high preference for belonging to a group or a larger social structure where the values of the Indian family and Indian community are important, to the
Western idea of individualism where individual identity, needs and interests dominate socially imposed ones (Lapierre 1986).
Research reveals that first-generation Indians in Australia seemingly retain some of their cultural identity through practice of endogamy; this is true of unmarried individuals who prefer arranged marriages from within an Indian cultural background to retain a sense of caste and religion (Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007). Even amongst migrants who travel single, they recreate and retain traditional social, cultural and family values in the host country (Raghuram et al. 2008). Retention of traditions include preservation of the patriarchal system where elders remain prominent figures within extended families
(Jain 1993).
Second-generation Indians, children of parents who had emigrated to Australia, appear to be more flexible in their opinions regarding marriage and choice of partners from their own or other ethnic groups. Writers such as Rita Afsar (2004); David Baptise (1995) and Thorsten Stromback and Rikshesh Malhotra (1994) attribute this trend to the loss of parental authority. Loshini Naidoo (2007) observed that Indians in Australia tend to
74 maintain their Indian cultural value at the immediate family level through memories and traditions alongside allowing themselves to be influenced by Australian culture in the form of speech accent, dress attire, the occasional strong opinion.
The trend among the Indian diaspora in Australia is the affiliation to cultural associations. Language-based associations appear to be most popular in this regard.
According to Lal, Reeves and Rai (2007, 1), associations form ‘sites of cultural expression’, including spaces in which the heterogeneity and multiculturalism of India and Australia are represented. Associations form sites in which Indians can display their
Indian identity at Indian national events through cultural performances, attire and food
(Lal, Reeves and Rai 2007, 386). Religious associations, as well, play a significant role among Hindu Indians. These associations assist in maintaining cultural values and
Indian identity (Sahoo 2006). According to Salim Lakha and Michael Stevenson (2003), religious associations also enable immigrants to communicate and socialise through varied activities such as seasonal festivals and birthday celebrations. For many Hindu women, their ‘temple’ association serves as a ‘symbolic anchor’ that connects them to a public role in the temple and the private duty of raising their children (Rayapol 1997,
32).
In Australia, Indian associations tend to identify to some extent with the host country.
For example, they might devote equal attention to celebrations of India’s
Independence Day, as well as Anzac Day and Australia Day events.50 Other Indian diaspora, such as the twice-banished South African–Indian community, I discovered, may devote attention to occasions celebrating their legacy of their arrival in South
50 Council of Indian Australians Inc (CIA). 2014. Council of Indian Australians celebrates Australia Day / Indian Republic Day on Sunday - the 26th January 2014. http://cia.org.au/wp- content/uploads/2014/02/CIA_Press_Release_Australia_Day_Indian_Republic_day_Bollywood_Under_sta rs.pdf; Indian Link. 2014 South African Indians enjoy Legacy celebrations http://www.indianlink.com.au/sa-indians-enjoy-legacy-celebrations/.
75 Africa as indentured labourers51 as well as prominent Australian celebration or commemoration events.
The performing arts in Indian culture
The performing arts in the Indian diaspora are not only avenues for self-expression and artistic talent, but platforms on which the past is recalled through continuity of traditions and memory (Smith 2004). The arts have been an integral part of Indian culture since the beginning of Indian civilisation. Dance theatre and music receive exclusive devotion in the ancient Indian treatise, Natya Shastra, which is written by the sage writer, Bharata Muni who devoted six chapters to music (Ganapati 1992). This work, in conjunction with the Ramayana (Hindu epic), created important foundations for
Indian music and other forms of arts (Rangacharya 2003; Satpathy 2013).
The Vedas, which are composed in Vedic Sanskrit, are the most comprehensive spiritual literature of ancient Indian culture. They include hymns and chants in each of their parts, such as the Sama Veda,52 the third of the four Vedas of detached verses
(Sadasivan 2011; Witzel 1997). These hymns were primarily composed to provide spiritual direction to Hindus (Radhakrishnan and Moore 1957; Ghose 2011).
Purushottama Bilimoria (1994) asserted that the evocative rites and hymns of the Vedas, initially confined to Brahmin priests in temples, inspired themes for dramatic performances among Hindu devotees. Bilimoria (1994, 108) stated: ‘If priests were not regarded as dramatic performers then the gods towards whom the sacrifices were directed surely were’. Typical examples would include Shiva, a cosmic dancer who is called the Lord of Dance, and Saraswati, the goddess of sound and music.
51 On 20 November 2010, South African-Indians in Perth commemorated their history and arrival in South Africa in a celebration event titled From Bondage to Freedom: Celebrating 150 Years. Indentured Indians in South Africa 1860-2010. 52 In Sanskrit, sāmaveda means sāman ‘melody’ and veda ‘knowledge’. S. V. Ganapati ed. Sāma-Veda (Delhi: Shri Jainendra Press, 1992)
76 Bigamudre Deva (2002, 7) described another significant ancient text, Brihaddesi, which was written by Matangi Muni. In this text, the naming of the traditional classical ragas53
(scales) emerged with their potential to develop a melodic idea (jati), as well as several possibilities of improvisation. Other ragas emerged in various texts, for example, the
Sangeet Ratnakara, written by Sarangdeva in the thirteenth century, references 264 ragas (Satpathy 2013).
In the context of this dissertation, it is essential to determine how cultural performances in the interrelated domains of music and dance seek to reconstitute identity in the
Indian diaspora. The arts and religion are intimately destined in Hindu traditional practices because there is often a pursuit of transcendence through Indian theories of aesthetics. Similarly, Saam Trivedi (2013) claimed that the arts in any form are an expression of all characteristics of the human mind. Trivedi (2013) referred to Bharata’s
Natya Shastra’s aesthetic theory, which defined 41 psychological states of mind, eight of which are regarded as durable states of: love, laughter, compassion, anger, energy, fear, disgust and astonishment. When they are presented in artwork, such as drama, music and dance, or painting and sculpture, they yield to eight rasas,54 as a sentiment in an aesthetic context (Meyer- Dinkgräfe 2001). What can be learned from the rasa theory, states Trivedi (2013), is that performer, performance and audience receive a supreme experience of life
Musical instruments are referenced in ancient texts because they form an essential component in performance. The classical raga uses instruments and voice to uphold the notes, rhythm and tempo. The stringed instruments usually used are the sitar, sarod, santoor and sarangi. The percussion instruments are traditionally rhythmic accompaniments and include the pakhawaj, tabla and mridangam. Popular wind
53 Raga is also known as rag in northern India or ‘ragam’ in southern India. I have used both terms rag and raga in this dissertation as descriptions. 54 Usually, one rasa is given dominance at a time in a production. Saam Trevidi, ‘Evaluating Indian Aesthetics,’ ASA 33, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 1. https://www.academia.edu/31994896/Japanese_Aesthetics_in_Newsletter_of_the_ASA_vol_33_no._1_Sp ring_2013_American_Society_for_Aesthetics_
77 instruments used in Hindustani music are the flute, shehnai and nadaswaram and additional instruments identified in Carnatic music are the veena and ghatam.
Both Hindustani traditions have the common element of oral tradition whereby the skills of memory and improvisation are ingrained as musicianship. Hindustani musicians follow the gharana tradition,55 which allow a guru–discipleship teaching of a specific musical style within a hereditary traditional field. Carnatic music follows the gurukul tradition, in which the traditions of education and learning are founded on service and the student’s bhakti (devotion) to the guru, known as guru-shishya (Reddy 2006;
Vijayakrishnan 2007). Research shows that while Hindustani hereditary practice relied strongly on patronage, the continuation of Carnatic music relied not only on the oral tradition, but on the bhajana tradition from the bhakti movement in South India (13th century), which instilled the working knowledge of music through a community under the guidance of the Hindu temple rather than solely through the family (Vijayakrishnan
2007, 3).
The less traditional forms of music, known as desi sangeeta (regional music), originated in the different regions of India and are regarded as music intended for pleasurable secular experiences—even the current ‘art music’ that is composed today might be regarded as desi sangeeta by ancient standards56 (Deva 2002). Brief as it may be, the preceding sketch might be enough to highlight some distinctive classical Indian music styles and history to enable some understanding of the nature of Indian music in practice today.
55 Gharanas signify the hereditary links of musicians that were discipled by a guru in an oral tradition. Each guru upheld a certain style of music, usually one, that was taught to the pupil. 56 Bigamudre Deva (2002) wrote that modern society makes a similar distinction between classical and light music, theatre music, film music and folk music. Bigamudre Deva, Indian Music (New Delhi: New Age International ℗ Limited Publishers, 2002), 9.
78 Chapter Four A Study of the Performing Arts at Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya
Case Study—Part I
______
‘To study a banyan tree, you not only must know its main stem in its own soil, but also trace the growth of its greatness in the further soil, for then you can know the true nature of its vitality’
(Rabindranath Tagore, as cited in Tinker 1977, iii)
Introduction and Focus
My first encounter with Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya (SMV) was at the Annalakshmi on the
Swan restaurant in 2009. A waiter shared his story with me on how he became involved in the performing arts. When I commented on the name Annalakshmi, he animatedly responded: ‘It has a good ring to it, it’s what we call it; better still it is athithi devo bhava, it’s what we do’. Foreseeing the next question as to the origins of the name, he continued: ‘It comes from the Sanskrit proverbial "Guest is God", so feeding is a kind of noble act, a karmic activity called Annadhanam’. The waiter further explained, ‘we follow our Swamiji’s teaching on Karma Yagna. It is a yoga of action that purifies us from within in acts of selfless service’ at this restaurant and our performing arts institute, Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya (SMV). The act of service in this study is recognised as being central to continuity and change in Indian diasporic cultural practice
According to written explanations of the practice of yoga, as a commitment to selfless service, the Swami stated: ‘Serve everyone with intense love, without the idea of agency, without expectation of fruits, reward or appreciation … Have the mind always rooted in the Self amidst activities. Then you will become a true Karma Yogi. Work elevates, when done in the right spirit’ (Sivananda 1999, 182). Yoga, in this sense, can be interpreted as a kind of everyday Hindu theology in which serving others drives thought and deed. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Annalakshmi restaurant is supported by a team of passionate devotees that has enabled the organisation to
79 consistently support its members, SMV, tourists and the wider Perth public with no expectations by devotees that they would receive any extrinsic rewards.
In this study, perspectives of the devotees in terms of how they live their lives around their cultural traditions of music, dance and theatre in their contemporary diasporic lives are important. I have also used stories from other participants at SMV who contribute to the performing arts areas as artists, students, parents, teachers and individuals in the audience.
During my field work, participants questioned why I chose music and dance as a study of the Indian diaspora. My response always remained the same: It was a topic of deep personal interest driven by observations of the performing arts of Indian diaspora as a resident in three countries. I hoped to theorise my observations and gain a deeper understanding of how Indians are impacted and how they impact on society through art forms when they settle in a new country.
Another question posed by participants was: why SMV as a case study? In response to this question, I tend to reflect on the words by Harold Lloyd Goodall Jr. (as cited in Ellis
2004, 26): ‘You don’t really choose ethnography; it chooses you’. I have been a teacher of the arts throughout my professional life and a descendent of a long line of musicians and performers. I was drawn to how SMV has seemed to thrive in their celebration of the arts in Australia, at times against great odds. There are many other reasons too.
Firstly, SMV is widely known as a performing arts institute. Secondly, their performing arts practice seems robust and reveals practice of traditional artforms. Thirdly, and most pertinent to the research area, some members who are part of the core group claim to be descendants of the colonial-period Indian immigrants who shared a history of labour under the Kangani/Maistry and indentured labour systems. The fourth reason is that, as part of the new diaspora, SMV’s members typically appear to be loyal to their organisation and hold a connectedness that transcends national boundaries and links them into a transglobal entity.
80 Reconnecting culture, reclaiming lives—Malaysia
As mentioned earlier, SMV’s history began with the Swami and the Shiva family in
Malaysia, a place where Indian people came to work as voluntary and involuntary workers, and found themselves detached from their homeland and Indian culture. A descendent from the old diaspora reflected:
We were a small group, overly anxious and felt isolated from our normal cultural setting. Even though we had our god lamps, prayer goods, and relics of our culture in KL [Kuala Lumpar] with us, we felt that we still lacked something, we needed guidance and our kids seemed restless too and needed further spiritual guidance.
The group yearned for connection with their spiritual roots. They were led in this quest by a spiritual guru,57 Swami Shantanand Saraswathi. As a spiritual leader or guru, he initially provided expert guidance to the group of devotees in Malaysia who respectfully called him ‘Swamiji’. The term guru is often used as a noun and, in Sanskrit, it means ‘teacher’. In this research, the guru had the same meaning to participants as that of their multitalented ‘Swamiji’, an accomplished musician, composer, philosopher, choreographer and dancer. Their close involvement and interaction with him have since led to the firm establishment of the Indian performing arts.
The Guru of Divinity was born during the colonial period in 1934 in Thirukoviloor, a southern town in India that is renowned for its religious temples. He commenced his discipleship as a teenager under Swami Sivananda Saraswathi in the city of Rishikesh
(Willford 2007), which sits in the foothills of the Himalayas and is recognised worldwide for its abundance of spiritual gurus and yoga practices.58 The Swami’s teachings were
57 In the 70s, spiritual gurus became a global phenomenon among Western societies. For example, the Indian guru from India, named Osho, became a phenomenon with his satsangs among multitudes of followers, claiming teachings on enlightenment. Liselotte Frisk, ‘The Satsang Network,’ The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 6, no. 1 (2002): 64–85. 58 Rishikesh was publicised when the British pop band visited in the 1960s, in their quest for spiritual enlightenment; The Beatles composed 30–48 songs in Rishikesh, which led to their White Album. Albert Goldman, The Lives of John Lennon (United Kingdom: William Morrow and Company, 1988), 197.
81 conceived in India and progressed with Satsang59 gatherings in Colombo, Sri Lanka, before materialising in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1971, fulfilling a divine calling to a
Tamil-speaking group of people, that came to be known as the Shiva family, who yearned for spiritual and cultural guidance (Shanmuganayagam 2005). This group mainly consisted of free passengers and some bonded labourers who migrated during the colonial period and middle-class Indians who arrived after India’s independence.
The free passengers, according to writers, were originally from North India, Kerala and
Madras who managed the indentured labourers. They also worked as clerks, educators and secondary civil servants in different local administrations, while the middle-class urban Indians, held an elite status due to their British form of education (Jain 2000;
Willford 2007).
The interview with P1, one of the original members of the group from the Shiva family, revealed details of struggle; he clarified his own background: ‘What must be understood is that my family of labour background needed to keep some saneness with spiritualism as our anchor, as Malaysia neglected the minority Indians at that time and so much unrest was going on’. P1 is referring to Malaysia’s history of widespread
Tamil movement and revivalism that occurred since India’s independence, the post-
Merdeka period (freedom from the Dutch and allied forces in 1945) and the injustice that thousands of Indian people endured in the form of confiscation and subdivision of their land (Muzaffar 1993; Ramachandran 1994; Belle 2015). The response by P1 also showed that spiritual life is closely aligned with Indian cultural life and, therefore, supports the argument that spirituality is an important factor in continuity and change in diaspora.
The search for spiritualism by the founding group at SMV led to the formation of a body of believers consisting mainly of middle-class Hindus. Their primary goal was to
59 Satsang carries the meaning of ‘company of truth’ or ‘collective worshipping’, often identified with a sect name around a gathering of people. Madhulika Khandelwal, Becoming American, Being Indian (New York: Cornell University Press, 2002), 83.
82 cater for the spiritual needs Indian families of all classes. P8 explained that the spiritual needs of the group exceeded the support provided by temples, which at that time, focussed on Agamic temple preservation, scripture readings and prescribed ritual observances because Hindu identity was vulnerable. Therefore, Hindu organisations like Divine Life Society emerged to meet the religious needs of Indians in Malaysia. The
Shiva family is regarded as the third movement of the Divine Life Society. Even though the principles are positioned on Tamil Saivitism,60 Divine Life Society background and respect to lord Sivananda (Willford 2007, 132, 169, 171), the participants in this research claimed that the role of the Shiva family extends beyond establishing a Hindu identity, as the Swami’s teachings focused on ways of living a fuller Indian cultural life from a spiritual perspective and was explored through regular satsangs and prayer meetings in Malaysia led by the Swami. The Swami’s ideology called followers to: ‘follow any path, religion, or doctrine, but believe in it sincerely, because the sincerity of your belief will illuminate your path and guide you to the ultimate common goal—Self-
Realisation—Oneness with God’.61
Within newly formed organisations, it would be expected that new migrant groups would form small groups, cliques or circle of friends to help them feel at home and settled in their new environment. They are likely to visit each other frequently, attend gatherings and participate in ceremonies related to Indian culture (Gautum 2013). In
Malaysia, the Swami focused specifically on reconnecting the youth with Indian cultural arts and helped devotees to reclaim a purposeful religious life that resulted in the creation of a performing arts centre, the Temple of Fine Arts. This was achieved with assistance from the Shiva family’s classical dance experts Master Gopal Shetty, Radha
Shetty, Master V. K. Sivadas and Vatsala Sivadas. The Swami’s unique teachings spread quickly to different diasporic locations. Over a period of ten years, the core group of
60 A branch of Hinduism. 61 Information retrieved from SMV’s website accessed April 4, 2015, Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya https://www.smv.org.au/our-founder.
83 100 followers, known as the Shiva family, were in support of the Swami at centres worldwide (Shanmuganayagam 2005; Tan 2008).
Participants recounted their own thoughts and experiences on continuity and change in their spiritual and cultural journeys after their arrival in Australia.
OD: We felt alienated and isolated from our cultural life in India. ME: The same anxiety and fears that people experience when they leave a country, perhaps? OD: Even worse at that time, we were worried about the young and whether they would lose their Indian culture and identity! ND: My parents spoke of family ties falling apart with work and all, it was hard, but they were wise, they followed the guidance of our guru Swamiji who realised that the cultural arts would meet the needs of the families there because they can find their own identify in it and share it with others Swamiji noticed they were a talented group of people. So, education in dance, music became their culture as well … I guess, they were looking after each other this way. It’s what we continue at SMV. OD: Swamiji provided us with a way of reconnecting with our spirituality and cultural lives creating one big family in KL, we went everywhere with Swamiji. I remember that the houses were small, but it was packed with people, so we sat mostly in the backyards listening. He kept us engaged with so many wonderful projects that made us feel at home once again. ND: My parents still speak of those satsangs they had every Friday. People ate, prayed, sang and they explored dance and music and projects. I heard this story many times and know some of the children songs. I was not born then, but even as sentimental memories of my parents and grandparents, these stories are inspiring, [and] it makes our satsangs today meaningful because we
84 still have that strong communal feeling at our satsangs here, it’s built on traditions of our own history. OD: The late Swamiji was a captivating spiritual leader, he drew the Shiva family together and they are a strong family that sustains us continuing the tradition set by the Swami. The conversation indicates that performing arts became a focus of Indian culture and spiritual representation to Indians in Malaysia.62 Willford (2007, 109) shed some light on why respondents possibly felt this way. According to Willford, the cultural arts centre for cultural engagement in Malaysia became an alternative to being just another Tamil
Hindu movement promoting a Hindu faith. Willford (2007) further explained that factors such as ‘meditation, devotion, charity and ecumenism’ were favourable ideas that attracted the middle-class Indians to the guru and to the establishment of the Temple of Fine Arts in Malaysia as a cultural practice.
Resuming culture—changing lives in Perth
When the Swami first visited Perth in 1975, he envisioned two institutions in Perth,
Annalakshmi and SMV, so that volunteers could continue to practice the Yoga of selfless service in their daily lives.63 The new identity, as Saraswathi Mahavidhyalaya:
Centre for Performing Arts and Education (SMV) was preordained by the Swami specifically to meet the needs of the members who moved to Perth. Many of the members had different academic backgrounds and professions in the fields of science, medicine and the arts. The organisation was registered as an institute and led by the
Swami, Gopal Shetty64 and Radha Shetty used their extensive administrative, performance and directing skills to develop the performing arts in Australia. They
62 Identity in Malaysia was indecisive for Malaysian Indians (Tamils) because they often felt displaced when lacking political or economic power and suffering ‘from the stigma attached to their ethnicity’ that led many to leave the country. Andrew C. Willford, Cage of Freedom: Tamil Identity and the Ethnic Fetish in Malaysia (Singapore: NUS Press, 2007), 7. 63 Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya. https://www.smv.org.au/about/. 64 Gopal Shetty’s extensive experience in the arts included working with the Ministry of Culture’s Kompleks Budaya Negara (KBN) in Malaysia, where Asian cultural practices are strongly understood, appreciated and supported.
85 focused on using expert talent from different parts of the world especially from the
Temple of Arts (International) to achieve high level performances in intercultural communication. SMV’s new premises65 is modest and located in the bustling part of central Perth on Beaufort Street, where I found that any search for a parking space can be difficult. The other two premises of learning and teaching are at Willetton Senior
High School and The Arts Sanctuary in Kelmscott.
I am mindful that cultural expressions in music and dance designed initially in one place for a purpose are likely to pose challenges when they are positioned in new spaces. Such was the case at SMV, where Indian culture and expressions were originally explored in a completely different setting—Malaysia, where predominantly South and
East Asian cultures subsisted and then became positioned into a new Western setting—Perth, where Western cultures coexist with minority ‘ethnic’ cultures and are legislated as Australia’s multicultural society.66 In this new space for SMV, where predominantly performances and cultural education occur, a new experience in music and dance seems to have taken a life of its own in engaging people with new cultural encounters. It has helped shape the group members’ identity and representation within the larger Australian culture.
In Perth, members’ cultural needs required certain changes in their cultural practices for them to feel settled.67 SMV, therefore, expanded Indian cultural arts in Perth by re- establishing and transforming cultural forms within the fields of a Western milieu. P12 explained this adjustment in the arts: ‘these changes were necessary in a western
65 SMV was previously located in Victoria Park. 66 Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, reported in his speech that for the most part, Australia is comfortable with the reality of multiculturalism as a form of practice that has been good for the country for the past three years. He has found that, unlike other democracies, Australia’s story can be considered a success based on educational standards, with immigrants achieving better average results than children of native-born Australians and citizenship, as the majority have become citizens. However, Soutphommasane cautions that such success demands vigilance. Tim Soutphommasane. 2016. ‘The Success of Australia’s Multiculturalism.’ Speech presented to the Sydney Institute, Sydney. 9 March 2016. https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/success-australia-s-multiculturalism. 67Interview with one of the SMV leaders on 11 March 2011.
86 country. We found that there are more western cultures here. It has brought on new changes in our practice and our lives, and I guess others too; we saw a need to connect with more diverse cultures here, which we never had in India and Malaysia’. P8 echoed these sentiments and viewed SMV as ‘a melting pot where new creative ideas can emerge and where all contributors in the arts can interact’.
For its newly formed members in Perth, the voluntary displacement to a new Western postcolonial country seemed different to the experiences of their ancestors, as the diasporic sentiments of homes and culture, in this instance, travelled with them across time as historical enhancements to form part of their new lives in Perth, where they negotiated their careers, employment and their talents. P1 explained this new undertaking:
Unlike some of our Indian families in Malaysia who first arrived there, we did not have to cross the dark waters again … we flew this time with other mixed classes of people each having their own needs of travel. Come to think of it, we Indians certainly were not human cargo for export this time. We also settled down far more easily with the help of the Shiva family members in Perth and SMV, they play a very supportive role. We did not really feel separated from our culture and families … we brought it with us. How amazing is that? That is what made it more attractive to come to Perth. We did not have to start all over again. Besides, many of us migrated as professional individuals. We are talented, confident and secure about ourselves and what we can do and even about what is achievable here According to participants, their voluntary displacement to Australia signified cultural adaptation in the arts that included the art forms of the dominant western culture. In this regard, P2 believed that the Swami’s directive and motto ‘adapt, adjust and accommodate’ is a good approach in any assimilation and it should involve a reciprocal process of communication and negotiation. With regard to the cultural adaptations at
SMV, P1 elaborated on the changes they made in greater detail:
Under the guidance of Swamiji, Master Gopal Shetty skilfully incorporated modern cultural trends of the West, rather than add tokens our traditional Indian forms into the Western frame. There is a big difference in this approach, I believe we have taken in rather than given into something.
87 Swamiji wanted to approach Western cultures from an Indian cultural perspective, as the spiritual elements of our culture, values customs and tradition is ingrained in us; it is our grounding and pillars that keeps us firmly rooted to our culture, Also the rasa experience is highly adaptable in all cultures.
The response from P1 indicates a complex level of engagement involved in approaches to changes of Indian cultural forms, considering that traditional western and Indian cultural perspectives in the performing arts are shaped rather differently. According to
Manoj K. Sortha (2013), Bharata’s Indian dramatic theory is based on karma that retains
Hindu spiritual dimensions and differs with Aristotle’s Poetics of dramatic theory in the west that focuses on tragedy. According to Sortha (2013), this approach of western dramatic theory cannot be applied to Sanskrit drama, but Bharata’s theory of rasa can be retained in any appreciation of the western drama. SMV’s pattern of cultural performance appear to be constructed along this idea, but they have effectively transformed diverse western cultural forms into Indian cultural arts to create shared experiences of cultures, rather than experiences that promote the ‘self’ or one culture separately.
Another participant, P8, who started as a young devotee with the Swami, also spoke of the inclusion of Western music and dance:
It is was not an issue, as most of the young are familiar with Western forms of educational practice; they understand its meaning and value to Western society. We were excited and eager too, to explore Western cultures and even indigenous cultures from our own cultural stance. This, I believe, is the difference in our approach when compared to other Indian cultural organisations , because it then also becomes of value to us and perhaps attractive to others [non-Indians] too.
88 Following this train of thought concerning the inclusion of other cultural styles into
Indian styles, P6 , who is a musician, called these transformations of traditional styles,
‘fusion art forms’68 that are a part of contemporary society:
I feel cultural artwork cannot be fully understood or have meaning to a person unless it is viewed from that culture’s perspective; but impressions are nevertheless left of that culture. We have a good understanding of Western forms already here, but I think fusion forms are expressions of interactions between cultures, I really feel that it has that kind of meaning and it is why people like it. We tend to indulge in fusion forms a lot here; in this way, as we actually bring our training and spiritual practicalities to create new forms. It definitely allows artists to interpret the aspects of Western or different cultural elements by reworking it into something we could understand about those cultural forms a little better … I find my own Indian music traditions take on a different meaning when I include an aspect of Western or any other cultural element in my music. It’s what this age is about, it cuts across so many boundaries. Even though I am not totally convinced that it is as rewarding as my own classical Indian music playing, it does show, I think, that musical distinctions can synchronise and a meeting of cultures are taking place. It is evident from these responses that by reconstructing components of contemporary and classical Western dance into structures of Indian classical dance and music forms, one could construe that this practice in the performing arts alone is a factor that not only enabled the sustaining and assimilation of members in their new space of dwelling, but also was being responsive to changes in wider cultural variables in a society: it has impacted, in a positive way, changes of the cultural arts traditions. As it has been pointed out by P6, Indian classical forms when rearranged can become more accessible and vibrant to mainstream audiences without losing their authenticity.
Collective strength in individuality and diversity
While the organisation is considered homogenous in its structure—in which the
Swami’s teachings are central—its people are not, as there is a multiplicity of differences in their art forms, experiences as artists, training and backgrounds. I sensed
68 An elaboration on fusion music is made later in this chapter.
89 an individuality in its primary aim as an organisation, which is, to promote young citizens of character to have faith in themselves and a love for the arts. This individuality is especially realised in their interactions with people and their performances.69 As
Dewey (1934, 330) stated, ‘every culture has its own collective individuality’, which
‘leaves its own indelible imprint upon the art that is produced’. This could be seen when artists, who are extremely confident about their own art form, develop their cultural art forms together with others. They are thoroughly confident in performing and exploring different art forms with other musicians, other cultures and societies, mostly as volunteers. In brief, their artistic works go beyond the experiences of familiarity. This supports the assumption of a collective individuality in the leadership style, as the organisation aims are to achieve goals collectively with the help of volunteers who work together and, in turn, the individual’s input eventually drives the collective outcomes. These dynamics of working together has enabled the continuity of
Indian cultural practice.
A collective strength was a focus that participants emphasised during the interview process. They consider SMV’s education and development of performance skills allows them to travel beyond ‘stage performance’ that focuses less on the ‘self’ and more on the group. This factor, according to P1 enables them to lead lives of service meaningfully because the focus is less on themselves. A reason was provided by P1 who pointed out that ‘Swamiji often spoke against vanity’. He shared a video recording of a satsang gathering in which the Swami stated that an artist’s flaw arises when ‘he thinks of himself too much’ and forgets his roots and training. The Swami added that acknowledging the guru is important, as success is not related to one person but the group. A little later in the video recording, the Swami relates the negative effect of a self-absorbed dancer and further cautions: ‘He [the artist] says I have achieved the goal, he says I became the great master … that is the curse’.70 In brief, it is assumed that the
69 Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya website http://smv.org.au. 70 From P1’s collections of recordings. Please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGlz9XSvRFM
90 ‘payoff’ of success does not depend on positions held or skills reached as members of an organisation, but only on the collective actions members choose. For this reason,
SMV demonstrates a robust, collaborative process of operation with its sister organisations around the world, and this collaboration has been a factor that has seen the continuation of classical art forms and variations of it in their practice. In an interview for Media Indian Link, one of the Artistic Directors, Sukhi Shetty-Krishnan,71 claimed that a close relationship continues to occur between SMV’s performing arts division and the Temple of Fine Arts International:
Though SMV teaches various dance forms like Bharata Natyam or Odissi in separate categories, the Temple of Fine Arts [bring] these different art forms together in its productions. Whatever movement best conveys the message is utilised. As Swami Shantanand’s vision envisioned the unity of various disparate art forms, [we] seek to implement that vision in its productions. It is not always the case in other schools (Shetty-Krishnan 2013). The statement suggests that the performing arts are embraced under the symbolic
‘house’ of fine arts and performance and has an international sense of collegiality.
Observations of performances have shown that there is a collaboration of production works and ideas revolving around new opportunities and new cultural arts
Fine arts as an applied art form in performance and pedagogy
It is a widely held view at SMV that the performing arts have divine origins for divine purposes. Participants often spoke of SMV as a ‘place for spiritual enlightenment’ (P2),
‘spiritual rituals of the mind and talent’ (P8) and ‘a house of fine arts practice’ (P6). This singular yet exclusive practice that is inclusive of all fine art forms is an identity that offers performers a sense of belonging to tradition and a divine purpose, and hence the continuity of music and dance, as cultural practice is an essential component in their lives.
71 Sukhi Shetty-Krishnan is a world-renowned dancer and lecturer who trained under her father, Master Gopal Shetty
91 Music and dance as ‘fine arts’ involves more than acquiring technique and skills. An explanation is provided by P1:
Swamiji shifted the notion of fine arts to one that is functional at the performance level. Historically, the five main fine arts were sculpture, architecture, music, painting and poetry, and we also include in the performing arts, theatre and dance. In the modern world, fine arts include other creative forms, such as film, photography, design, sequential art, and conceptual art.
Most participants’ response from interviews revealed that they believed that Indian classical dance and music were fine art styles. Only three participants considered both contemporary and classical arts as fine arts.
Upon examination, I found that the notion of fine arts is shifted by taking both the historical fine art form—objects designed purely for their aesthetic value, intellectual stimulation and beauty—and the applied art form—the application of beauty to everyday objects72 (Chilvers 2004), as functional value.73 Hence, music, dance and theatre are explored with other established fine arts performances such as painting, sculpture and architecture, to transcend the usual material world dynamics at play with transcendental experiences. What we can understand about their performances is that creative expressions are spiritualised as fine art and applied art in the daily routines of service to humanity. Simply put, acts of selfishness (serving oneself) shifts to acts of selflessness (serving others) through the performing arts.
The teaching and learning practice reflect aspects of the ancient Indian gurukul tradition that involves a communal activity. In this tradition of schooling, there is the
72 Ian Chilvers, ‘Fine Art’, ed. In The Oxford Dictionary of Art. (New York. Oxford University Press Inc, 2004). Accessed March 24, 2006. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001/acref- 9780198604761?btog=chap&hide=true&jumpTo=fine+arts&page=128&pageSize=10&skipEditions=true &sort=titlesort&source=%2F10.1093%2Facref%2F9780198604761.001.0001%2Facref-9780198604761 73 ‘Functional value’ here is not to be confused with ‘applied art’—functional objects have been designed with aesthetics in mind, such as those seen in industrial design, fashion design and interior design.
92 presence of a master–student type of relationship—of the guru74 and gurukul—in which the guru, guides and runs the student’s schooling in the house of the guru, which SMV represents. P4 explained its adaptation to suit modern diasporic living and her role at
SMV: ‘my dance students will still refer to me as their guru, as a respect for the teacher and in traditional Indian culture, I am entrusted to pass on my expertise and knowledge to guide the student in dance as an art form’. The continuation of a few aspects of dance tradition is noticeable here: They have resumed the original purpose of dance, as a divine purpose; using specialised nattuvanars,75 that is, dance masters (Sunil 2000).
This method of master–student relationship together with a divine purpose has continued at SMV.
The syllabus that is implemented at SMV is constructed on the treatise of dance that is expanded extensively in the Natya Shastra, which the Swami’s revitalised back into
Indian cultural life in the modern world.76 Consequently, as P1 explained, the Shiva family ‘continued to teach children about Hindu mythology through dance and music.
While we are primarily focused on Indian classical fine arts, Swamiji encouraged us to also explore and interpret other cultural arts as rich art forms’. P8 affirmed this point more clearly:
We are trained to also challenge the conventions of traditional forms of music and dance so that it can be understood by other cultures. While we keep the skills and technique of the artform, it does not mean we live in a bubble. I feel, if we are too enmeshed in traditions, we become too distant from the rest of society, we become disconnected, and lose touch with new creative stuff, so we are always seeking new audiences [and] networks and testing different ideas or looking at new types of performances. It is a
74 The word guru is derived from Sanskrit and is mentioned in the Vedas, which implies teacher, master or spiritual guide who has much experiential knowledge. Joel D. Mlecko, ‘The Guru in Hindu Tradition’, Numen 29, no. 1 (1982): 33-61. 75 An assigned male person in temples who accompanied the devadasi dance in the capacity of a dance- master, music conductor, and vocal percussionist. 76 According to Vijay Mishra, the notion of Indian culture is ‘built around a sublime poetics—and the culture’s dominant literary form, the devotional, as well as its dominant literary hermeneutics, rasa theory’. Vijay Mishra, Devotional Poetics and the Indian Sublime (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), 202.
93 gratifying experience. I would say a good example can be seen in the dance choreographed works of Umesh Shetty, he always pushes the performance boundaries using Bharatanatyam, Kathak and other styles with different forms of dance cultures. This is a creative way to express a character or story, and also to learn about other cultural styles. From P8’s response, there is clear indication that the teaching and learning processes are extended to the performance level at a deeper level. By sharing artistic work at the performance level, performances are not only about the demonstration of skills and technique or a culture, but rather, about creative ways in which other cultures can understand and find meaning in the performances. This factor is important in their lives; as they show that they are comfortable with changes in their cultural life, as well.
As P2 reflected during the recital of Olivier Tarpaga’s West-African percussion band in
2012, ‘sometimes when you look at another artist’s work, you try to make sense of what they are trying to communicate, you get ideas and inspiration for your own work, too’.
Yet, at a deeper level, P4 explained what fine arts performances do for him:
Our performances form a divine expression to the supreme, so naturally we are creative beings, our creativity is released when we share it with others … Carnatic music that I explore, was really an ancient Indian practice in the temples that became a tradition and has continued with us too. I really find meaning exploring the music from this perspective.
This response form P4 indicates that the original purpose of arts is what their practice is really all about; it brings meaning to them in this way
There is a deep sense of fulfilment felt among participants regarding the practice of fine arts with popular cultural forms such as Bollywood or jazz, and they are transparent about what drives their involvement. For instance, P8 stated: ‘I feel good when I perform because it does something for others’. P 10 who is a dance student, reflected:
I am here just to experience more deeply my culture and to learn classical dance and a little Bollywood dance. For me, Bollywood dance actually reflects a modern romantic image of Indian culture and entertains us with what I call synchronised communal fun bringing people together. However, Classical dance, I would say defines my own soulful needs...it is really real to
94 me from a spiritual sense and as rich traditions of an ancient culture I am proud of. P10’s response reflects an appreciation of both classical and popular cultural trends in the performing arts. P10 also affirms Bollywood’s global circulation of dance and song as popular culture, which author, Rajinder Dudrah argues as being part of Bollywood’s relationship to the South Asian diaspora through ‘non-linear and disjunctive ways’
(2012, 8-9).
A Bharatanatyam dancer responded:
I enjoy the experience of dancing and watching live performing tradition of other cultures, but the Bharatanatyam classical style that I do is for personal gratification, and a journey. I discovered that allows flexible interpretation of Hindu stories that is applicable in this age. In my performance, I was able to adapt it to my own religion, as I am not Indian nor Hindu. It took me over 12 long years to complete the Arangetram, and I remember my guru telling me then, that learning the dance has only just begun. I can see why it is so, as it takes you on a journey that allows you to realise your inner- self, different emotions of life and purpose in relation to others. From these reflections, engagement in Indian classical music and dance seem to be an intense experience for artists and is an important factor of involvement, as these art forms transmit folk art, the knowledge of Hindu scriptures, myths, and the traditions of various Indian cultures.
I pause briefly here to delimit the notion of traditional and classical, as participants tended to liberally use these terms. Considering the spiritual component that drives these artists in their creativity, transitions in their cultural practices of music and dance require constant reference to practices of their ancestors and kinship with India. Janet
O’Shea (2008) defined the term traditional as being that which is unbroken and passed down as heritage. To consider the term with specific North Indian Hindustani and south
Indian Carnatic styles, the term traditional in Bharatanatyam dance (Carnatic style), for example, would infer different connotations. Jon Higgins (1993) contended that it may refer entirely to certain dance genre items that is shaped within the conventional
95 Margam,77 or it may apply to the hereditary practice applied in oral schooling traditions. ‘Classical’ implies an observance of an established framework of principles that belongs to an age-old form or style.78 The term classical functioned as a high art form among the elite, as a reinvented ‘tradition and code of practice’ (Sorrell and
Narayan 1980, 5) and developed by practitioners of exemplary standard over the years.79 It became repositioned with the middle class, resulting in its history being re- established to very ancient origins (Subramaniam 2008).
The participants, as well understood these distinctions along the same line and responses in the interviews generally support these definitions. However, most participants felt more comfortable with the general understanding that classical and
Indian folk styles are traditions of Indian cultural practice. This can be seen in P6’s description:
The term classical as I understand it, is connected to a certain class of people who were aristocrats and intellectuals … and this form came from a human need to create a system of rules, discipline and structure to retain a higher spiritual and scientific path (marg) to living and finding moksha (liberation)— margi sangeet. We strive for that here, too. Folk (desi) music and dance came from people to celebrate everyday experiences of living and religious events and we call that desi sangeet, it is still meaningful to people, but lacks strict rules and structures, I believe. So, in [a] sense, folk music can emerge too from even our own diasporic living and encounters. This response indicates that music and dance reflect the cultural desires of people and is relevant to diasporic lives. The terms classical and traditional still hold meaning in their practice. Interestingly, when the participants use the word ‘traditional’ interchangeably with ‘classical’, they reflect an understanding of both the music and
77 The Margam is a Bharatanatyam dance repertoire or program and means ‘way’, or a path. It is a sequenced repertoire of a solo performance that was originally designed by the musicians who played in the Thanjavur Court in the nineteenth century. Higgins, ‘From Prince to Populace’, 20-26. 78 Using the term classical, however, does not imply the classical age of ancient India, which is also known as the golden age from which Hinduism and the caste system emerged. 79 In this context, one might think of the celebrated Indian Bharatanatyam dancer, Tanjore Balasaraswati, who developed the Bharatanatyam performance style and is followed by many Indian classical dancers in history.
96 dance styles of north and south India in their traditional senses—ones that retain the creation of music and dance and the meanings of divine involvement and mystical pleasure, outlined in the Natya shastra.
Dance and cultural performances
I have included selected discussions on dance in this dissertation because they are intrinsically interwoven in the music elements of melody, rhythm and tempo. As an expression in classical dance, there are certain key elements: the visual (posture, expression), auditory (music, tempo, rhythm and intonation) and lyrics are linked to convey a story (Caudhurī 2000). In addition, the gestures of dance, echoed on the manjira (hand cymbals), expand the verbal mnemonic rhythmic syllables.80
The research data indicated that there is a demand for more Indian classical dance recitals. Over the years, audiences have increased and exceed 400 people, and most often larger auditoriums are required. Participants believed that this surge in audience size alone is a result of certain factors: more people are understanding Indian performing arts and the diasporic community has become more aware of Indian classical art forms through the interactions that SMV initiates at various performances with other cultures. Other factors include the wider public interest, as well: many non-
Indian people show an interest in learning Indian dance; there is increased number of non-Indians at SMV’s performances; and more students are finding the art form appealing. Also, as P11 reflected, ‘the presence of the Consulate General of India in
Perth and the significant increase of the Indian population in Perth have seen an increase of diverse Indian audience at our classical recitals’.
One of the leading questions addressed to participants concerned reasons for engagement in classical dance. The participants who were involved in classical dance indicated that the dance art forms reminded them that they are part of an ancient
Indian tradition and culture and that they still consider these dance forms relevant in
80 The mnemonic symbols are known as sollu-kattu in South Indian music, or bols in north Indian music.
97 their modern lives. While P4 explained: ‘dance and music will always be part of Indian spiritual life’, P9 commented: ‘dance has continued as a tradition in our own community, and here, at SMV, it’s unavoidable because it has become a practice and a part of our lives.
However, participants indicated that the nature of participation in dance has changed for a few Indians, especially those who have a family member learning a classical dance; many of these students are not usually members of the association. Participants believe that the attainment of classical dance skills holds specific connotation in their cultural lives—even more than artistic expression. Further discussion, in this regard, showed how classical dance places individuals at a different level in Indian society. P4 said that
‘a dancer is given a certain amount of respect for the discipline and professionalism that are associated with classical dance form and training’. P8 believed that for some people, ‘acquiring Indian dance skills is becoming an in-vogue thing among Indian family members in Perth, even in Singapore and Malaysia, because it gives an individual a good standing of being cultured’. P9, who is a parent said: ‘classical dance skills attract a certain amount of respect and status within Indian society because it shows one as being culturally conscious or having someone in the family educated in
Indian classical dance; one would feel proud of that achievement, well, for me it does’.
As a non-Indian, P10, who completed her Arangetram (first solo recital), maintained:
The dance solo recital was a way in which I could honour my parents, myself and an old Asian custom that has become a part of my life (giggles). Even my father (non-Indian) followed certain Indian customs that followed at the end of the recital and announced, in his vote of thanks that the door is open for a suitable beau for me. In this view, Indian customs can become assimilated into other cultures through the performing arts, continuing as established traditions. Cultural value, here, seems to take on different meaning and purpose; the purpose, irrespective of ethnicity and the art form, lies in the responsibility one feels within the family structure. It is evident that
Asian cultures in general have a different perspective to family responsibilities when
98 compared to Western culture. As P10 said: ‘I am proud of the way we show respect to our parents’.
Participants also spoke of the nature of classical dance that usually requires elaborate, and colourful costumes that are expensive. Regarding the solo dance recital preparation, participants considered that while presentation, costume and live musical accompaniment are part of the cultural life of a dancer, first solo recitals, specifically among some traditional families are approached rather differently. P7 said that ‘solo dance performance can become a pricey and an excessive project that modern living demands’. P4 confirmed that ‘the dance budget can run on the same scale as the budget for a large Indian wedding’ because, ‘some families use the solo recitals as an opportunity to initiate suitable partners for their children’. The Swami (as cited in Jit
1988, 76) recognised such changes in solo performances in Malaysia and addressed dancers in this regard: ‘It was originally understood, an arangetram occurs when in the opinion of her guru, a dancer is ready for her first stage performance … but the original concept has deteriorated … into a way of acquiring a good bride’. This form of
‘cultural’ practice shows that classical dance, to an extent, has changed; it has become transformed to serve the needs of Indian diasporic individuals. Yet, most participants believe that even though these extravagant preparations have become a custom for some Indians, the classical dance forms do require specific decorative costumes that are part of the attraction of the dance. Even so, they believe that the art of the dance form and technique should not be compromised. In this regard, P1, who completed his
Arangetram in Malaysia before living in Perth, said:
The purpose of excelling in classical Indian dance was taught to me by Swamiji and different dance gurus … it was a devotional journey and still is today, I believe. Even then, the solo performance part was expensive and the preparation distracted me from the dance, and I think this is why Swamiji initially opted for ensemble works rather than solo performances; because he did not want us too absorbed in that sort of stuff—the fancy trimmings and such—because dance can do that when you are in the spotlight and it’s a hard thing to avoid, especially in this age.
99 It can be seen that the reasons for engagement in classical dance varies among participants, as there is a need for divine purposes, social responsibilities and family needs.
Further questions regarding engagement in dance concerned contemporary fusion dance styles. Participants felt that these forms play an important role in keeping people engaged with other cultures. Participants find that these styles are more suitable at festivals to meet the needs of the wider Perth public. There is a tendency to invariably draw on traditional and folk-dance forms as the basis from which other dance cultural forms continually emerge or evolve. This process of using authentic tradition and folk styles are an essential part of SMV’s diasporic expression and cultural identity that also runs parallel to the practices in India today. As Ketu H. Katrak (2011, xviii) asserted,
Indian contemporary artists ‘engage with and transform Indian traditional dance in multiple ways’. It is confirmed in P8’s statement:
Strong foundations in dance are built on traditional forms and techniques with continuous training under the canopy of SMV. This form and technique will always remain with us, and made stronger when we combine it with other forms. Traditional forms are essential for our students as part of what we call their Sadhana; it’s a Sanskrit word we use to describe the dedication and discipline process of accomplishing something in preparation for major performances. While traditional dance styles represent an essential diasporic expression of Indian culture in Perth, the participants unwaveringly agreed that, changes to traditions such as fusion styles could hardly weaken the appeal for traditional forms because it is the complex techniques, skills and Indian aesthetics that dancers, musicians and the audiences find appealing.
The observer and the observed
The ethnography led me to the relationship between the performer, performance and audience from a cultural perspective, rather than only from an artist’s perspective, as these aspects were interlinked in the performances I observed. The performances
100 revealed that both the observed and the observer become creative and active in the narrative of the performance. The act of viewing in performance is addressed by
Jacques Rancière (2009, 13) who explains that audiences ‘see, feel and understand in the same way as those who act, compose, direct, or perform hence audiences can also be considered as actors’. Rancière’s (2009) argument is that audiences should be respected as participants, as the observe what is performed to generate new personal knowledge. Therefore, he challenges performances to become dialogues:
[Performance] requires spectators who play the role of active interpreters, who develop their own translation in order to appropriate the ‘story’ and make it their own story. An emancipated community is a community of narrators and translators (Rancière 2009, 22). In this view, the observers are also responsible for the continuation of a performance, as they can question their own roles in both artistic events and society. For me, this notion takes a central position at SMV, as there is awareness that performance is a three-way process built upon the emotion and expression of the performer, audience and the performance itself, in shared, mutually constructive relationship. However, I found this to be more noticeable when audience members are predominately Indian, as they engaged actively with the narrative of well-known stories, such as the
Ramayana. At classical recitals, the quality of performances is dependent to a certain degree on audience knowledge of classical art forms, as they are expected to respond with gestures and exclamations, communicating positively to the different improvisations and recognition of nuances of body movement in dance or regular rhythmic cycles of music. The performer, in return, is expected to respond amenably to the audience's expectations. However, during the latter part of the fieldwork that spanned a few years, I noticed that there was an increased participatory response from non-Indian audience members, who copied similar gestures when they recognised or understood certain elements of the performance. I found that whether the observer is knowledgeable or not, there is, to an extent, a level of questioning that occurs in which individuals probe for an understanding of what they have experienced as feelings.
101 P8’s response, regarding the engagement of the performer and the audience demonstrates the complexity of the process:
As classical dancers, our motive is not to see whether the audience is connecting until later in the repertoire, as the main idea is for the dancer to focus on himself. When I dance, I engage in my own journey of expressions and feelings to the divine. Yes, I give off the emotion that the audience captures, but I cannot control that. I would certainly hope that the audience would follow that journey with different experience: they may see the music and dance coming to a visual point, get caught in the movement, expression [and] mood, hear the rhythm and melody, and watch the dancer at play with the accompanist, or they may create their own story, as I do when I also watch a performance. Indeed, during the intermission of a Margam recital, an audience member who claimed very little knowledge of Indian classical dance technique expressed: ‘I really like the way the vocal and rhythmic accompaniment draw certain feelings, which the dancer captures. I could feel that, even though I did not understand the words. I was able to follow the dancer showing Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the lord of dance’. Another audience member was moved by ‘the expressions of the eye … I forgot about time and waited for the changes in the eye expressions alone’.
As mentioned earlier, music and dance are tightly integrated and interrelated
(Vatsyayan 1963, 330–380) and, in classical performance, the relationship can last for hours. As an audience member, I became inadvertently drawn into the dancer’s world, in which aural acuities awakened with the interpretation of the musical composition.
The different pulse of the Margam81 and Arangetram82 recitals engaged me in following rhythmic tensions that supported the dancer’s strong footwork attempting to match every syllabic sound she heard. However, this was not the case for some audience members. While some audience members seemed preoccupied with the excitement at seeing familiar dancers and family members on stage, a few around me complained of
81 See Chapter 6 for an explanation and analysis of a Margam performance. 82 The Bharatanatyam dance repertoire of the Arangetram means ‘ascending the stage’. It is a debut public performance that is performed only after the training of Bharatanatyam is completed and the graduation recital Margam is performed.
102 the lengthy Varnam83 dance segment, even though they enjoyed the complex emotions that the music generated. A young non-Indian observer with contemporary dancing skills who observed the Margam recital for the first time said: ‘The last two segments were really intense and long and I could not concentrate that long, perhaps a contemporary version would be more appealing’. It is not a surprising response that one would receive from another culture, as there is always a certain level of unfamiliarity among audience members concerning what cultural performance brings to those performing it within their own cultural environment.
In this regard, Jones (2006, 34) suggested that cultural traditions of a community and people are valuable to them for their benefit, and that having recognition of that culture matters because it matters to them. For instance, P8 maintained that the
Varnam dance segment performance is a communion between dancer and the divine:
The dancer is purely in a meditative trance of the dance … that takes one to places; the audience at this point is far removed from the dancer’s mind. One needs to understand the cultural dance in this context to find its meaningful. Otherwise, it’s just entertainment of a foreign art form, and we really try to avoid that scenario. This relationship between the dancer and the divine, I find, may extend to the audience in the form of sound and image. From a musical perspective of the classical Indian dance, for example, Carnatic, it can be argued that experiences of music bring a connection between audience and performer: I found that it is the sound in that space that transforms the mind. For P6, the sound of the bansuri or flute is the sound of
Krishna, while P8 finds the sound of the vina or tamboura evokes images of Saraswati.
The sound of a Carnatic rag for P1, ‘brings back images of temples in India’ and the sound of the violin to many, including myself, is the sound of the Carnatic voice.
Perhaps the translation of Nandikeśvara’s Mirror of Gesture describes the relationship between the observer and the dancer from a better perspective:
83 The Varnam is a penultimate dance of the Margam repertoire. See Chapter 6.
103 Wherever the hands go, there the eyes should follow. Wherever the eyes go, there the mind. Wherever the mind goes, there the feeling. Wherever the feeling goes, there the mood (rasa) or flavour is found.84
Identity and belonging in intercultural engagement
During the fieldwork of this study, I have come to understand that when individuals call themselves Hindu, Tamil, devotee of Swami Shantanand Saraswati, member of SMV,
North Indian or South Indian, Malaysian Indian and Singaporean Indian, they are signifying the multifaceted descriptions that are identifiable by others. SMV’s intercultural engagements in the ‘in-between spaces’ that writers speak of, where different cultures meet and their ideas become expressed (Bhabha 1994; Hall 1993), enable its members to establish identities and a sense of belonging among other cultures. The research data indicates that it is done by necessitating the continuation of cultural traditions within three consistencies: a religious awareness, a collective memory of Indian culture and through intercommunity relationships.
In the first consistency, members’ religious awareness, mainly in the form of a Hindu awareness drives the artistic expression of classical Indian arts, as their performances are dedicated to the divine and most of the times form part of a Hindu celebration.
These art forms are kept alive with the traditional guru-driven teaching of technique, form and skill in dance and music. Other Hindu organisations join together regularly in intercommunity engagement that appear to unite people who have origins in India into a collective identity. Scholars agree that new Indian migrants of various cultures typically affiliate to a faith-based organisation to retain a sense of identity (Desai 1963;
Sinclair and Cunningham 2000; Gautam 2013).
With specific reference to the role of the guru in organisations such as SMV, one cannot underestimate the importance of the role of the guru in facilitating spiritual
84 Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Gopala K. Duggirala, The Mirror of Gesture, Being the Abhinaya Darpana of Nandikesvara (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1935), 36.
104 affiliations especially across borders, especially if religion is to remain relevant to increased mobility of people across national and international borders (Sahoo and Kelly
2013). To use the words of respondent, P8, ‘The Swami is an everyday spiritual bond, a kind of adhesive that binds our shared performing arts practice globally and, therefore, defines our identity’.
During various discussions with participants, SMV emerged as a key agent in transforming religious and cultural practices into interconnected activities through transnational participation at festivals and recitals, and collaboration with TFA international. According to John Mlecko (1982), this interconnection may extend to employment, marriage, education, housing and clients. SMV members typify such interconnection as well, as the organisation, through its religious and cultural networks creates opportunities for study, work and the development of dance skills for members throughout the world.
The second consistency relates to a collective memory of Indian culture and the memories of both the old and new diaspora cultural experiences that may be both imagined, and real and based on ideas of nostalgia. In discussions with participants, they constantly reflected on their own and past diasporic experience and the journey of hope found in the Swami’s teachings and Indian culture. These memories are recreated and recollected through the performing arts in various ways, such as performances of
Indian music and dance and the enactments of diasporic travel and Hindu epic poems.
Examples of such recreations and recollections were observed in performances of The
Indian Journey and Ramayana,85 and other recurring performances, such as the Water
Ceremony, Rangoli and folk dances convened at SFOL events. These public performances, that are largely participatory, enable further distinctions of identities— religion, culture, ethnicity and artistic skill. While their multi-identities are multinational—with participants now identifying themselves as Malaysian Indian,
85 The Ramayana is one of two epic Indian poems, the other being Mahabharata. They hold meaning as scriptures, literature, myths and religion.
105 Australian Indian and Singaporean Indian—their identities are also located in their affiliation to SMV as a cultural organisation, SFOL as an event, the Swami, Hinduism and TFA international.
In the third consistency, SMV offers ways of reconstructing and reconciliating relationships through an interactive triadic communication process between: Indian communities, the host countries and the ancestral land in their performances. In these active roles, they seem to be agents of social interconnection and cohesion, as they are attempting to contribute to the transformation of a multicultural society into one that is becoming more involved in intercultural engagement. A specific case in point is the performance of an Arangetram recital, which was performed by a non-Indian
Australian. The performance revealed an intercultural engagement in which there was no claim to ownership of traditional Indian art forms. Instead, the performance showed a shift towards a universal transformation of customs. According to participants, they believed that Indian cultural art forms in the modern age cannot claim boundaries and ethnicity. This point is illustrated by a point made by respondent P2 who stated:
The West does not restrict us in learning ballet and we at SMV are not custodians of the Indian art form, as the temple priests once did for south Indians. We live in a global world now, where knowledge is shared, it is available for everyone and you will find it clearly revealed even in our institute’s declaration: 'Where knowledge is there not to be possessed but to be shared, in an organic, holistic environment'. I particularly like this statement of ours. The response by P2 indicates that traditional forms of cultural practice will always require adaptation in the process of individuals making sense of their new places of dwelling; through interactive means of global cultural flows (Appadurai 1990), transnational encounters and influences in new environments in the host country.
The notion of communication between cultures is, therefore, an important factor in identity and belonging. Some writers regard communication to be the most essential characteristic for enabling an intercultural approach ‘to facilitate dialogue, exchange and reciprocal understanding between people of different backgrounds’ (Wood,
106 Landry and Bloomfield 2006, 9). Other writers uphold the view that the celebration and expression of different cultures at events such as festivals is one form of communication, yet still allows cultural groups and individuals in the minority sector to maintain and preserve their culture, and retain identity. They also find that such practice enables the continuation of traditions from generation to generation (Guss
2000; Fong 2004; Lentz 2001; Lee, Arcodia and Lee 2012). Findings from the observation and interview data reveal that SMV’s religious rituals, ceremonies and cultural performances lean strongly on the use of Indian languages to describe performance items, dance styles and segments and Hindu narratives. They use the vernacular in a traditional sense to understand, recite, sing or count bols. Therefore, it can be argued that the performing arts play a central role in sharing language as part of SMV members’ identities. By extending Indian language (Tamil) as part of their cultural educational program, they are making their language more visible to the public86. This form of public representation of the Tamil language identity is important to participants, as they find that in Australia, the option of studying Tamil is left to community-run organisations, rather than mainstream schooling; at SMV, they rely on passionate volunteers seeking to preserve knowledge of their ancient language in written and oral form. Respondent P2 explained his own understanding of the survival of his language and Indian culture as part of his lived diasporic experience in his previous host country:
In KL, our first migrant home, the Malaysian government understood its importance to our culture after the Tamils pushed for it and they introduced Tamil as a second language in the mainstream schools. Now, SMV and other Tamil organisations too, offer this continuation, so that our young and old fluent bilingual speakers and writers. In Perth, by making our arts and language more visible and heard, we find ourselves mingling with other cultures more naturally, despite the fact that we are deprived of the resources that are available to language classes in mainstream schools. Also, I think these days we don’t feel different because we live among different cultures that speak so many different languages now in public, and we are also speaking Tamil more freely in public. I
86 Indian Language associations are central in Indian culture. See page 80.
107 remember my parents reminding me to speak Tamil only at home when I first came to Perth as a child, as they wanted to show the Australians that we can speak English and are not foreign, but now no one seems worried about that anymore. We are very proud of our Tamil identity. This response indicates awareness by the participant of the impact their cultural organisation plays in establishing and shaping their culture in Perth, and acknowledgement of a lack of investment in Indian language education. However, participants also indicated that when a minority culture’s language is confined within a cultural group, they really only attain a sense of belonging to that group, whereas identity, which they regarded as the other important diasporic need, could only be achieved when it is ‘revealed to others when [they] are with others’ (P7), irrespective of whether it is recognised or ignored. Therefore, their language is used as a form of intercultural communication.
Participants were aware of their transnational identity which, according to Hall (1993,
392), is an ‘identity that is never complete … always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation’. Accordingly, the transnational identity allows participants to keep a relationship with other communities and countries, as well as enjoying SMV’s strong ties with local agents, international organisations and artists. In this regard, participants believe that they had already started an intercultural and intracultural dialogue with other communities that are part of Australia’s legislated multicultural society;87in turn, interaction with diverse cultures in Australia have facilitated the development of performing art networks across borders. According to
P2, ‘holding a transcontinental [transnational] identity has enabled us to feel we belong anywhere and not just one place.’ P8 said that he often regards himself as a transnational individual and is a suitable representation of his diasporic life of travel
87 Australia’s multicultural policy, The People of Australia, was launched in Sydney 16 February 2011 and remains a feature of modern Australian life. It aims to give distinct social, cultural and economic advantages to all cultures; DIAC, Fact Sheet 6—Australia’s Multicultural Policy (Canberra: Australian Government 2011), 1; Also, multicultural societies exercise tolerance between cultures and multicultural places are not always open places. N. Wood, M. Duffy and S. J. Smith, ‘The Art of Doing Geographies of Music,’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25, no. 5 (2007).
108 between countries, which his work requires of him. According to P8, it is easy to settle because of the Swami’s teachings:
We follow the Swami’s advice: adapt, adjust and accommodate. It has become a motto and I think it is a way forward for us as we tend live settle in different places now and in developing communication and cultural understanding among the different communities, especially over here [Perth]. A further response was presented by respondent P1 who recognised that ‘multicultural society is made of transnational people. In order for that society to develop cohesively, participants have learned to accept changes in a positive way, which is “adapt, adjust and accommodate”. This philosophy is encapsulated by SMV.
Participants, thus far, have shown that identity and belonging evolve in the process of interacting. For SMV, this occurs largely through interactions with mainstream educational entities, such as schools and universities in Perth. For example, Sukhi
Krishnan-Shetty lectures at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
(WAAPA) and artists, such as Vickneswaran Ramakrishnan are invited, as a ‘guest artists’ to deliver workshops and performances. One of such workshops/performances, titled:
‘Music and Society in North India’ was delivered to music students at the University of
Western Australia in 2015. It is also not unusual to observe artistic directors and members of SMV engage with students from schools in the city, depicting stories from the Ramayana through dance and movement, or sharing Rangoli art designs in the city.
The response by P5 provides the perspective of a participant:
I feel minority communities, here are interacting a lot these days with the Australian culture, and we are being, to an extent, accepted as a performing arts body. We are recognised this way for what we represented and for who we really are, as people of Australia. So, we wish for more engagements with the dominant community as well. It all comes down to education and sharing, and doing things in a way that will make them understand more easily, so we are meeting them halfway through education and through interactions and performances. I think as minorities, we play a big part in bringing communities together—we bring internationalism with us, so we have a lot to offer, rather
109 than only the other way around, and we should be understood on these grounds. It is one of the reasons I think SMV turns a religious celebration into a public celebration, because it not only represents us, it involves much more: celebration involves people and interactions. So, I think we are telling the world that we are actually inter-dependent on each other, globally.
Participants seem to clearly exhibit a sense of belonging when they share their cultural lives and artistic flair collectively with others and when their performances appear to be reflective of cultural intersections. As a theatre artist (coded) pointed out:
There is a lot to learn from other cultures through shared learning, provided that we are respectful of other cultures and what they do. The way forward too, is to find common and uncommon elements to share; they are the balance that I find unique in SMV. I must say, even though each of us have strengths in our respective classical art form, the fusion stuff we do here with TFA are new identities that we wish to keep. I would say, the hype that surrounds Sarasa’s action abstraction performances these days is a very good example; many people associate those types of art works with her and SMV.88 Appadurai (2006, 167) refers to ‘new identities’, mentioned by the respondent, as new designs for collective life, which is essential because it creates new social realities and identities. In this sense, respondent P5 implies that their fusion forms are the syncretic blending of cultural art styles89 and artists’ unique identities. By closely examining the
‘action abstraction’ performance works of Sarasa Krishnan, as mentioned earlier in the theatre artist’s response, I found that this artist intersects aspects of her own Indian identity, Indian art identity and artistic identity in her paintings using dance and music together with other cultural identities that artists share with her in a performance.
These different interpretations of art forms have become an astonishing enterprise, taking Indian performing arts to a different level of artistic excellence that certainly
88At the 2014 International Canning World Arts Exchange (CWAE) concert, Sarasa Krishnan and accompaniment dancers painted two images on canvas—women in a Sari and Krishna playing the flute. The painting process, called action abstraction, was painted while the University of Western Australia Choral Society (UWACS) sang Sanskrit chants from the rig veda as the musical backdrop to the dramatic performance that was titled, ‘Ahuti’. 89 The syncretic blending is described as glocalisation. See page 40.
110 represented SMV as an organisation committed to progressive practice. It can be argued that SMV artists’ visionary projection of their own cultures within contemporary societies really implies a syncretic engagement of cultural styles fusing the disparate elements of Indian classical music and dance styles, Indian mythology and rituals with other cultural styles in order to highlight the dynamics of their own culture in transition.
The disparate element that constitutes their performance culture of music, dance and drama is largely determined by encounters of different ethnicities and western cultures.
Their open-mindedness to outside cultural influences is also in response to their own changing conditions and needs, self-respect and desires.
Image 2: Integration of cultures and arts—painting, dancing and singing to Sanskrit chants.
111 There is a sense of new heightened engagement among artists and mixing of cultures at a performance level. For example, apart from the extensive list of international artists that SMV interacts with, artists represent SMV at local Perth productions such as the Oz
Concert, Canning World Arts Exchange and WA Ballet’s season of Under the Stars.
Other collaborative works include the Vibes project, supported by the Australian
Institute of Music (AIM), The Uniting Church (Sydney), KULCHA and Western Australian
Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). At these intercultural events, fusion styles seem to dominate the performance repertoire, while light Indian classic forms and fusion art forms emerge as trendy art forms in inter-diaspora relationships. These creatively syncretic conditions that provide diasporas with new, vibrant cultural forms seem to be popular. Respondent P 6 commented on what these compositions and choreographed works mean to him:
These forms are wonderful ways that express our present cultural living and conditions. I find our identity becomes distinguished, too, in such fusion works. We don’t need to hide in our own cultural forms or preserve it, but we know for sure that even when we make adaptions to our art form, it also reflects our Indianness, it still has that element of beauty, I would say, and that is a vital representation of us, and involves hard work and much effort. Feelings described by respondent P6 are indicative of a new condition of the Indian diaspora, one of a shared cultural identity, which is valuable to Australia because their practice can be seen as developing a unique language of exchange that could be used to promote three consistencies: distinctions of cultures, harmony between cultures and cultural understanding. To illustrate this point further, an Australian of non-Indian descent accompanied me to an Arangetram recital, which was performed by a non-
Indian dancer. While she considered the recital to be ‘a lovely experience’ she also said: ‘it is artful and it must have taken years of training…did she really learn all this in
Perth for twelve years?’ This comment indicates that people are becoming aware that
Indian art forms are not foreign forms any longer, but rather locally developed, cultured and refined. There is recognition in this comment that a component of Perth’s diversity
112 has sustained and continued the traditional art forms that demonstrate craftsmanship and expertise, and it is something SMV wishes to share as part of Australia’s diversity.
Music shifts and the positioning of Indian classical music and fusion music.
An Indo-Islamic civilisation produced a distinctive Hindustani music tradition in the north and a Carnatic music tradition in the south. In the contemporary diasporic world,
Indian music is further shaped by an Indo-Western civilisation in which cross-cultural borrowing and Indo-Western encounters continually occur.90 In the contemporary world, SMV has balanced several encounters and histories of cultural arts practices in performance spaces, regardless of whether meanings may differ from one Indian culture to another over time. For instance, participants claim that they have adopted the practice of both ancient cultural traditions, that is, Hindustani and Carnatic music as their own, even though they have a South Indian background, and follow the tradition of guru training, namely the Gurukal tutelage system.91 Similar to dance, the music of ancient times that was once used for a divine purpose in temples or for pleasure in regal courts has been reclaimed and used for diasporic needs within a contemporary world. Participants explained that these traditions are still relevant as a cultural practice.
In the field of Indian music education, pedagogy extends to both contemporary and traditional forms. However, there are both push and pull factors in approaches to these forms that reflect a continuum rather than a set of binary choices. With traditional music, the research data showed that there are strong pull factors that motivate artists’ cultural behaviour to music. First, artists desire to continue the rich Indian tradition of oral teaching methods as authentically as possible, to heighten their aural perceptions
90 Arpan Banerjee. ‘Copyright and Cross-Cultural Borrowing: Indo-Western Musical Encounters’. IP Theory 5, no. 1 (2015): 35-59. Accessed July 4, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10739/823. 91 Participants also acknowledged that a few newer diasporic members (musicians) who contribute to SMV’s education and performance, are born in India and are descendants of certain practices of the Gharana and Gurukul system who continue to follow traditional training; even though they may not necessarily be Hindu, they understand Hindu philosophy and the concept of rasa and Vedas.
113 in music. Second, participants and artists recognise a need to return to the foundation of both Hindustani and Carnatic practices, as a transcendental experience in line with the teachings of their Swami: they argue that both these music cultures of ancient times were principally Brahmanical-ordained activities before becoming secular entertainment. Third, musicians are reclaiming traditional music (classical and folk), as nostalgic markers of their Indian culture rather than of a homeland.
It can be argued that SMV’s performance practice does not necessarily align with musicians’ performance practices in India: musicians and music performance practices differ considerably, as SMV’s continuation of traditional Indian classical music performance showed strong spiritual links. In his observations of Hindustani musicians and performance in India, Martin Clayton (2014, 1) observed:
Most musicians don’t talk much about music as a spiritual practice or as being related to religion in any way. Very few talk about music as an aspect of heritage or something with a deep history ... None of our informants is much interested in talking about communal issues, except to claim that there is no such issue between musicians. As for aesthetics, very few have anything to say about the classical theory of rasa, although many technical terms are widely shared. Clayton (2014) claimed that musicians in India are preoccupied with music (resources, technique, marketing) and status (quality of musicianship, performance opportunities, acknowledgement of experience). It is clear that musical identity and cultural traditions aligned to Indian treatise as a starting point may not be as strong as it is for musicians among the diasporic group in this study. Indeed, at SMV, musicians tend to seek a better relationship with cultural traditions of Hindustani and Carnatic music, and they tend to publically declare the transcendental qualities that shape both traditions in the performance practice. Put simply, the data evidenced in this research, highlights that the musical process formed by diasporic communities is intricately related to ethnic musical identity, and extended to cross-cultural identity establishing who they are an where they belong. In addition, I argue that there is a purposeful attempt to demonstrate to western audiences that Indian instruments, such as tabla and sitar or
114 Indian music styles, such as the Dhrupad voice style and Carnatic voice are now legitimate ways of engaging in music. Musicians have demonstrated that Indian instruments and forms consist of musical craftsmanship, dexterity, and sophistication, and require several years of training. Therefore, it need not be regarded as an exotic art style or primitive form in the way Western audiences once perceived it to be.
Indian classical music takes a stronger role in participants’ education and diasporic lives. They tend to draw on their knowledge of the traditional art forms to make sense of the contemporary Indian music cultures. Simon Frith (1996, 109) reminds us that we need to ask not how it ‘reflects’ people, but how it ‘produces’ a culture—hence the many orientations emerging in this study regarding issues of the representation of their cultures in the arts. In the study of their musical practice, I found myself constantly questioning: why are members at SMV so confident that their approach to cultural practice is in the best interests of members? Participants responded that contemporary
Indian music, such as fusion92 music has cultural value because ‘it is part of Indian cultural behaviour as well, especially at Indian-based festivals’ (respondent P8).
Moreover, respondent P1 believed that by introducing other cultures to a predominantly Indian musical structure, rather than the other way around, ‘[their] own
Indian ideas, Hindu worldview, and emotions are represented in the composition and music [they] create and interpret’.
Participants who are musicians indicated that they find contemporary music easier to perform and compose, as they usually have excellent aural skills learned from their own classical music training. Those who teach music, however, said that younger students find contemporary fusion styles easier to listen to because they are exposed to such music via peers and social media, and it requires less time to learn. Even so,
92 The use of fusion forms is not new in Indian music. Research shows that fusion experiments with Indian classical music involved a spiritual pull, starting with the violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin’s encounter with musicians such as Ravi Shankar (sitar), Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (Sarod), in the 1950s and L. Subramaniam. A decade later, fusion music emerged in popular music with the Beatles and in Jazz with musician, John Coltrane, due to encounters with Eastern spiritualism. Peter Lavezzolli, The Dawn of Indian Music in the West: Bhairavi. (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006).
115 respondent P6 believes that at SMV, the adapted Gurukul system of teaching and learning impacts students at a greater level and awakens an inner awareness of music- making. As respondent P8 stated: ‘As teachers, we are concerned about what matters to the whole person, rather than what matters to the whole world’. Musician 1 (coded) has a slightly different perspective:
‘It’s about making fusion forms meaningful for the individual because it is about encounters, and it is certainly not for mass consumption or mass appeal, as one would expect in our global world. We believe that it is producing pleasant cultural changes’.
These shifts in the music-making process is pointed out by participant SB: ‘It does not take classical trained musicians away from their first love because I believe there is a strong correlation between the music we desire to listen to and the people we are’.
Here, participant SB’s argument can imply that ethnicity membership influences a person’s preference to music style as they are influenced by that cultural practice.
Evidence from the data indicates that most Indian teaching staff received personal guidance from the Swami, who inspired their artistic advancement, careers and even life choices. For example, participant SB claimed: ‘I did not choose the tabla, the tabla chose me’. He explained that the Swami chose the tabla as a suitable instrument for him to play when he was a little child and that he considers it a perfect choice. Playing the tabla is an important cultural habit and is symbolic of the transcendental relationship he keeps with the late Swami. He affirmed:
There is definitely a spiritual connection there, even in my teaching practice. There is also a spiritual connection I personally feel I have with the Swami when I play the tabla because to me it is an ordained musical calling. So, it is a cultural way of life for me, I feel. Even our birth names have spiritual significance in Hinduism. You asked me what I took away as a student. Well, it would be what I nurture in my students—sadhana; it means dedication, a journey that I first started with the Swami and the tabla. It is what I want to pass to my students, a journey of dedication to whatever you believe in as your calling; it is what SMV is really about.
116 The instruments offered for study included the sitar, veena, vocal (Carnatic), harmonium, violin (Carnatic), tabla, sarod, the Western drums, keyboard, piano and guitar. The teachers are experts in the various arts-related fields and many are professional and skilled musicians in Western musical instruments.
It is not unusual to find students learning more than one instrument or style of music, or to find them sitting an external Australian exam.93 In addition to traditional Indian instruments, other cultural instruments were introduced in 2010, such as the African drums under the tutelage of Djibril Diagne, a drummer from Senegal, West Africa. I found myself asking again: why do they introduce cultural music in this particular way?
One of the leaders explained that African music has similar patterns derived from similar concepts as Indian music making, such as off beats and repetitive rhythmic cycles. There are similarities between this explanation and the argument presented by
John Blacking (as cited in Merriam 1977, 193) who said:
If we accept the view that patterns of music sound in any culture are the product of concepts and behaviours peculiar to that culture, we cannot compare them with similar patterns in another culture unless we know that the latter comes from similar concepts. In addition, there are similar patterns of communal attachments, oral traditions music practice, and knowledge of other cultures transferred from person to person in a guru– student relationship. Participants indicated that there was a tendency to value the music of other cultures because music is important to these cultures, as well.
There are subtle music shifts in the teaching approaches, as well. Most teachers I spoke to reflected that the oral tradition is supplemented with graphic representations, teaching soundtracks and recordings of great masters, as part of their adaptation to a digital world. They believed that these teaching tools present virtual digital
93 Records show that students undertook the Australian Music External Board (AMEB) examination in 2009.
117 performances and associated musical sounds of artists that were not previously available. In this regard, respondent P3 said:
Visible learning is a current trend in modern education, and why not adapt that to our practice too? Therefore, both ancient and modern traditions coexist in our teaching styles because we can see and hear recordings of the great experts who become part of my guru–student classroom setting.
Another teacher, respondent P6 was cautious about deviating from the guru-student interaction:
I believe the one-to-one interaction is crucial and non-negotiable because technique and skill cannot be compromised if you want standards to remain, such as the personal nuances of musical communication, gestures, call and response, improvisation—it’s a different aesthetical experience when you work with a guru and the whole experience becomes authentic in terms of training. Unsurprisingly, there were no changes to perceptions of excellence in performance, as
, participants agreed that it was essential to aim for excellence because their motivation and drive are purpose-driven. When I asked respondent SB about the factors that motivated him, he replied:
I was taught that everything we do is a spiritual offering … if we are to play to the divine, as we always do, then we should strive for excellence and make it into a perfect art in composition and performance. If that aspect is perfect, then the audience benefits with the purity of that expression. Every member here is on the same page in this regard, most certainly. It makes a huge difference in our cultural understanding of what performance is. I have a feeling that even some contemporary Western artists are still seeking that too, I think … maybe it is what makes our Indian music forms with the West popular; they see something more than just music or dance as performance tools. Looking more closely at the processes used to create fusion, I discovered that there is a tendency to apply different musical elements of Western music into traditional forms.
When questioned, participants generally agreed that the process of assimilating other cultural elements into traditional Indian music forms maintain aspects of traditional skills and Vedic mantras that are important to them. One may even align this process
118 with the notion of a spiritual domain or inner domain that carries ‘the "essential" marks of cultural identity’, which Partha Chatterjee (1993, 217) discovered in her study of minority cultures in a nation-state. According to her, ‘the greater one’s success in imitating Western skills in the material domain … the greater the need to preserve the distinctiveness of one’s spiritual culture’ (Chatterjee 1993, 217). In the context of SMV’s music practice, Chatterjee’s claim would imply that SMV’s outer domain runs parallel with technology and contemporary music trends, while the inner domain, which implies spiritual development, values and divine practices, are kept virtuous and unblemished from outside influences. The Swami, in his book, May I answer that? addressed the misuse of music and dance when the spiritual component is disregarded.
It is a pity that these two divine arts-music and dance-have been brought down to the level of sensuous entertainment. It is the sacred duty of every lover of God and of the fine arts to raise them to their original standards of purity and divinity … the very fact that the worldly man has taken such an interest in these three (Music dance and drama) and misused them to fulfil his nefarious purposes, show what a tremendous power they have over the heart and soul of man. What a blessing they will be if they are used for spiritual ends (Sivananda 1999, 124–125). Therefore, there is continuous interest among participants to return to the beginning of
Indian cultural arts expression.
There are shifts in the tradition of preparing for a performance. Many compositions for major productions, as mentioned earlier, comprise of Indian fusion styles.
Communication involved modern ways of virtual interaction. Such artists from different global locations often depend on video and audio recordings for the preparation of music pieces before they meet and perform as an ensemble. According to respondent
SB, there is still strength in using this approach, as the direction, to a certain extent, are still orally presented and most often in ‘real time’. SB’s response reflects this virtual instructive relationship:
119 We are told specifically what to do and how to do it with cultural sensitivity and expression in a “show and tell” communication, as one did with a guru. I think it can be justified in this way, but a great deal of aural perception is required’.
There is general agreement among musicians at SMV that fusion forms reveal different encounters. There is integration of ancient with modern, folk and other ethnic or cultural styles. Evidence of education practices show that SMV has become an entity that claims for its own purpose, past arts cultures of India from across regions, castes and people—which can be considered a type of cultural borrowing between Indian cultures. Seeing that social and cultural borrowing actively shapes musical traditions
(Neuman 1985),94 it can be argued that SMV’s performing arts practice is implicitly developed due to social and cultural borrowing.
Even so, some participants are cautious against music that has an ‘Indian touch’ (P2), and believe that fusion music involves far more. According to Musician 1:
When a Punjabi dance is performed at our festivals, we attempt to show that it the sounds of the dhol that make the Punjabi song or dance come alive in conjunction with the vocal tones. When we see the Kathak dance with Flamenco dance, it is hoped that it is not be just the dress attire that is liked or the dancer’s pirouettes? There has to be more than mere visual representation and appreciation? The response by Musician 1 implies that the strength of SMV’s performance approach is found in the music, where sounds and tones are closely associated with culture. This can be interpreted in the following way: without the ghungaroos on the feet, reflecting the sound of the percussion instruments of tabla or pakawaj for the Kathak, and without the cante jondo (flamenco singing style) and the toque (playing the guitar) for the flamenco, both reflecting the typical polyrhythms of the dances, it would lack reflection, impressions and discoveries of personal stories for the listener and artist, and of the historical background and encounters to the creation of that fusion form.95
94 Dance traditions may also be included. 95 In Chapter 6, a more detailed analysis of this specific performance, Feet on Fire is provided.
120 Musician 2 (participant) explained that fusion forms that are presented to the wider
Australian society ‘do not require a distinctiveness outside their original cultures because then it will lead to misunderstandings of a culture ’. The inference, in this response, is to world music, exotic or boutique multiculturalism that focused only on the ethnicity of different music cultures outside the west as entertainment. Musician 2 is suggesting that SMV is trying to change the misunderstandings that the dominant culture may still have of minority cultural art forms. While there is a sense that cultural differences are displayed to show that diversity and unity can co-exist, I found that SMV intends to expose Australian audience to the possibility that a greater cultural understanding can occur through fusion art forms. They acknowledge that both contemporary fusion and classical forms are important components of Indian cultural life and that they serve different cultural needs. I also found that concurrently, they are reiterating, through intercultural engagement, that listening to Indian classical music,
Indian folk, Indian instruments and Indian dance or fusion forms are now legitimate ways, too, of engaging in music.96 These forms are presented on equal footing as arts for art’s sake. One of the participants, P6 suggested that ‘fusion music is about sharing, experiencing, experimenting and playing the music of our encounters outside what we have been trained in, so people tend to be really interested about such encounters in music’. Indeed, there is a strong sense of intercultural interaction and engagement.
In addition to Indian-based classical composers of the past, India’s contemporary artists, musicians, composers and producers maintain a significant influence on the lives of this diasporic group. Participants explained that these artists expose the different Indian folk and adaptations of classical music examples to the rest of the world, marketing their products and skills. P1 spoke of his admiration for Madras-born
A. R. Rahman’s music and new technology-based instruments, asserting that ‘music does not necessarily have to remain fixed in tradition’. P6’s musical influence is from
‘the many authentic Indian folk music from remote Indian villagers that Coke Studio
96 SMV is also showing other minority cultural art forms, as well.
121 productions have introduced on YouTube. These responses strengthen the argument that fusion music does reflect encounters that people experience and that global flows have also exposed the untainted music of remote cultures into a closer virtual engagement with the world.
In the fieldwork of this research, I found that postcolonial cultural encounters have impacted the way SMV performs classical music traditions. According to Amanda
Weidman (2006), the Carnatic music of South India shows that colonial and postcolonial encounters changed the way Indian classical music was initially performed, processed, circulated and reinvented in the twentieth century, as it copied certain Western classical performance conventions, such as recital procedures or the violin’s mimetic quality of being able to closely stage the Carnatic voice.97 SMV performances demonstrate some postcolonial encounters as well: there is for this diasporic group, a tendency to expose experimental works that use Western instruments, such as the violin, guitar and sarod, to emulate the Carnatic voice; they use concert halls and auditoriums to host important performers who draw larger crowds of more than 500 people; and they tend to hold smaller chamber-like concerts at homes for Indian classical enthusiasts. Consequently, more non-SMV members and non-Indians seek training in Indian classical music. Furthermore, SMV uses the same Western nomenclature in the presentation of Carnatic and Hindustani music—such as ‘classical’,
‘art’, ‘recital’, ‘repertoire’, ‘production’, ‘festival’, programme, and ‘institute’—as these terms are understood in their diasporic cultural life. It is, therefore, argued that as part of a diverse society, this diasporic group realises a need to adjust and accommodate certain aspects of their programs to meet the needs of a more diverse audience, who may be either familiar or unfamiliar with Indian classical performance traditions. While most performances tend to avoid the lengthy etiquette of formal introductions, SMV
97 L. Subramaniam, is an acclaimed Indian violinist, who is renowned for his virtuoso Carnatic playing techniques and fusion compositions for orchestra. The artist is popular for transforming the violin from the position of an accompaniment instrument to the rank of solo Carnatic performance, demonstrating that violin can replicate the Carnatic voice.
122 retains the tradition in which the performer continues ownership of opening introductions to performance items. The noticeable change in cultural practice in Perth is the explanation of the taal or rag before a performance, for individuals who may be unfamiliar with the style.
However, at smaller recitals, there are no written programs, as most audience members are usually content with experiencing the raga because the performance is more than an auditory experience. Most often, they do not require the lengthy preamble. I found that audience is usually sensitive to traditional theatre etiquette. Shoes are removed before entering the performance space, and audience members still retain a close relationship with the artists by sitting, on the floor, closer to the performer who also sits on the floor without footwear. During the show, audience members engage in discussion, gesture when they enjoy the performance or walk about during the show; these form part of the behaviours of cultural interaction at Indian classical recitals.
The dynamics of music performance rituals
In making sense of music’s relation to culture, Clayton (2014) suggested that focus should be placed on the ideas and practices that are shared between people and how these ideas and practices help them as part of a group and performance. One example at SMV is the student-focused performances at the annual Hindu Navaratri Festival.98
The performances, which are part of an in-house local event at SMV’s headquarters in
Perth, are presented to parents and friends after the rituals of prayer and fasting each evening for a week, exulting in music, dance and food. At such sublime levels of spiritual intimacy, students highlight their music and dance-learning achievements together with their guru as an offering of praise. Another student-focused performance was the ‘Anything goes’ concert in 2013 at the Annalakshmi restaurant, titled Taal
Sampoornam. It featured a musical ensemble of SMV students playing with their guru,
98 Navaratri is a Hindu festival that is usually convened during the Gregorian calendar months of September and October over nine days to honour the Hindu goddess Devi (Durga) and to celebrate a new season.
123 Master Vickneswaran Ramakrishnan. He led students in performing a repertoire of rhythmic patterns that highlighted the seven swaras (notes in an octave scale in music).
The performance also followed the customary rituals of prayer before and at the end of the performance. At the event, which included an authentic Indian vegetable buffet dinner with the cost tagged as ‘eat as you like and pay what your heart feels’, students were not only enthusiastically absorbed in a recital of music and dance showcasing different levels of skills, but as P7 remarked, ‘they [were] engaged in presenting an understanding of a fine art, only achievable through experiences and the discipline of learning under a guru–master tradition’. Here again, it can be seen that the historical and cultural processes shape the performing arts practice.
While the prayer offering to a deity is part of the ritual tradition that has continued through the ages, another performance ritual is the respect that artists direct to the guru at recitals. For example, at a recital featuring the acclaimed visiting Hindustani music brothers, Pandit Kumar Bose (tabla) and Pandit Debojyoti Bose (sarod), SMV’s tabla teacher, Master Vickneswaran Ramakrishnan, was invited on stage to play with the maestros and accompany the South Indian dance that was performed by two SMV dance teachers. During the improvisation segment, the maestros gave Master
Vickneswaran Ramakrishnan an opportunity to imitate the very complex improvised motifs that Pandit Kumar Bose played, to match the tempo, proficiency and skill exhibited of hereditary trained musicians. While the maestros’ gesture may have been regarded as a public acknowledgement of a musician’s outstanding skills on the tabla through such shared communal participation, the crowd thoroughly enjoyed the interaction of skills and musical exchange between these artists. Still, the most gratifying experience was actually the continuation of the tradition of respect that
Master Vickneswaran Ramakrishnan demonstrated to the maestros: at the end of the performance, he left his place on the stage, presented himself in front of the maestros, bowed and touched the feet of the Pandits. The Pandits, in turn, continued with the customarily blessing by touching him on the head. The audience appeared moved by
124 these gestures, as there was an unfamiliar quietness among the audience members.
Participants value such customs. As P9 revealed, the ritual of blessing and respect between elder and young or guru and student, ‘is the spiritual connection and acknowledgement that Swamiji taught his disciples to follow, as part of cultural tradition of respect and humility’.
Performance rituals are considered a part of the educational process, as well. I discovered that students are trained in how to communicate between musicians, maintain eye contact when first beats are played and cueing the ending of different rhythmic cycles, as observed in the tabla ensemble lessons. Researchers would classify these as behaviours associated with looking, or eye-to-eye contact (Clayton, Dueck and
Leante, 2013; Moran 2013). Although participants agree that these skills are essential and are heightened when individuals attend concerts and observe well-acclaimed artists at workshops and performances, these concert experiences, I found, are really part of SMV’s larger strategy to make, in this instance, students aware of ways in which they as audience members are allowed to respond and engage with the performer, performance and each other. Hence, students are also learning how to use gesture of the head or hand to acknowledge a distinction in the music they hear and see. Martin
Clayton’s (2007) argument is relevant in this regard, as he claims that audiences at
Indian music recitals do not become the context for the musician’s performance, but rather they are active participants drawn into the music and gestural acts of the performer, who share experiences that takes them to motions of the past. This unique cultural relationship at a performance then, is inexorable in Indian classical music practice and goes beyond the joy of being entertained because the senses are visually and aurally captivated.
There is another dynamic of performance rituals that is continued as tradition; female artists are fairly represented in SMV and their roles are significant. Respondent P4 stated that they are ‘inspiring role models that earn the same respect as male artists’.
To name a few visiting artists: the North Indian sitar player, Jyoti Thakar, who offered
125 SMV audience six generations of sitar playing tradition; Kumari Chitra Poornima from
TFA (Singapore) is known for her South Indian vocal style; and two Carnatic musicians,
Mayoory Bhardwaj (vocalist) and sitar player Kalpana Paranjothy who perform North and South Indian melodies.
Cultural Organisation—Agent of change, transformations
It is argued that organisations play a significant role in driving transnational exchanges and circulations (Appadurai 1990) and their events become spaces for the construction of transnational and ‘translocal’ belonging (Mercer, Page and Evans 2008). As a result,
James Rosenau (1997, 43–44) declared that new institutional forces are eroding nation- state powers with their ‘transnational and supranational organizations, social movements, NGOs and subnational groups’. In this regard, SMV has shown that transformations in the performing arts practice itself can initiate certain positive changes for its own diasporic people and the host country: Firstly, their performance events such as festivals involve multi-ethnic partnerships, which implies that members from a variety of ethnic groups interact by sharing their artforms in creative ways. In this light, their performing arts practice can be interpreted as an ‘interethnic’ engagement.
Secondly, their performance practice show that transformations of multicultural practice occur when cultures become more involved in intercultural interaction and participatory engagement causing the formation of new traditions within a multicultural society. An example is the Swan Festival of Lights event that has become a major annual attraction and a tradition among Perth’s society.99 Participants spoke of the effect of being involved in intercultural engagements: ‘It provides us with knowledge about ourselves when we come together’; it connects us with others through the performing arts’; and ‘such engagements foster deeper respects between cultures and even between our countries’. These comments show that participants tend to resolve aspects of their own social and cultural identity. They show that the interactions of cultures not only imply a sharing of cultural life really, but that various cultural practices
99 See Chapter 6.
126 remain distinct. Therefore, it can be argued that SMV has moved beyond the notion that globalisation destroys cultural identities100 or the notion that cultural identity in music and dance needed protecting and preserving101.
Regarding the formation of cultural organisations, diaspora formation and engagement in Australia, respondent P9 had a realistic perspective:
I think that the establishment of the multicultural organisations was a carefully designed ploy to keep minority ethnic cultures happy, but separate from the white Australian dominant culture. Yet, German, French and English people, too, have an ethic heritage. In theory, anyone can become members of these ethnic organisations to fit in, but in practice, it is unusual for anyone who does not share the same ethnicity to join. I feel organisations like ours outdid this ploy by constantly trying to bring all cultures together in a meaningful way, and we do this through the performing arts. It is different to some multicultural events where I have performed because sometimes I feel we become a display there. I think our events, especially the festival really engages different cultures to be part of something, to become part of a new tradition in Perth, we gather each year to interact and understand what is important to us. The perspective by respondent P9 indicates that participants generally regard themselves as part of an established Indian diaspora community and institute considered progressive because participants acknowledge cultural differences and changes that can occur in cultural traditions. They show a desire to interact with others.
SMV can be considered transformative in their approach to cultural understanding, as they promote and embrace non-Indian classically trained artists as part of their diasporic world; participants find that they play a unique role in enriching the musical heritage of Indian culture and are recognised as experts in their own musical fields. By embracing the participation of non-Indian classically trained artists, SMV demonstrates to the dominant culture that their arts and education practice are about transcending barriers, cultures, nations and languages. There is an acceptance at SMV that
100 Yusef Örnek, ‘Globalisation and Cultural Identity’. The Proceedings of the 21st World Congress of Philosophy 13, (2007): 83-88. https/doi.org/ 10.5840/wcp2120071312. 101 Daniel M. Neuman, ‘Indian Music as a Cultural System’. Asian Music 17 no. 1 (Autumn -Winter 1985): 98-113. http://www.jstor.org/stable/833743?origin=JSTOR-pdf.
127 individuals from different cultures can become ‘experts’ in each other’s cultural art forms and find personal meaning. While it is still relatively uncommon in Perth to see
Indian classical recitals performed by non-Indian musicians, such performances tend to draw large audiences from non-Indian cultures. A reason was provided by respondent
P11 who said that ‘many of these performers have their own followers that support their concerts and artistic work’. As a case in point, the performance of Australian-born vocal and percussion artist, Branan Dubh, who is an exponent of the ancient Hindustani classical Dhrupad form, showed that many in the audience were familiar with the artist, while some, listened to the artist for the first time. When Branan Dubh explained the
Dhrupad’s poetic musical style of north and south India, the audience became quiet.
P11 explained that complete audience silence when performers speak implies that they are showing a sense of respect and acceptance. In this case, the audience seemed impressed that his proficiency in the art form and knowledge of the vocal style had been a musical journey that lasted 14 years in India under the Guru-Shishya Parampara tradition. The Meditation on Music Recital in 2015, which also featured the accompanist
Vickneswaran Ramakrishnan playing the tabla, was performed to a packed audience. I asked respondent P11, a self-confessed follower of this specific style, for his review of the performance. His response was that the alap102 and dhrupad103 sections ‘were sung with purity and clarity, which could be only attained under years of rigorous training’.
There were further comments made by P11:
The artist was totally engaged in the meditation of singing. It’s a spiritual rendition and I felt that devotion, the solemness, pure uplifting emotion and the spiritual component he sings from within. From a cultural stance, such artists demand our respect because they do interpret Indian music with authentic purpose. We try to show this to the wider Perth society, as well. The relatively small audience of about 300 people were quiet and seemed absorbed in the performance of the alap early into the performance. People seated around me appeared to follow the artist’s exploration of the raga, by each note and noted the
102 Sounds without words. 103 A fixed composition with words.
128 performer’s accurate pitch without support of any instrumental accompaniment. Some people stood up when applauding to show their appreciation. For me, the alap section created a state of anticipation and it set the right mood. Respondent P11 was also drawn to the mood of the raga and showed his appreciation with various gestures of his hands in support of Dubh’s tonal quality of the voice. I found that such performances surpass ethnicity distinctiveness and leads to an appreciation of the potential that people have. John Blacking’s (1995, 153) argument stands firm in this regard: ‘Music is the best equipped of the performing arts to express both the ever- changing realities of biological and social life, and the continuity of the concepts to which human societies depend for their existence’. Therefore, it can be argued that
SMV is an agent of change; participants show themselves not only as agents of their own cultural transmission and change, but also, they wish to enhance the human experience through activities that involve integration. In so doing, the organisation has adopted a position that it upholds equality in how society accommodates the social beliefs of cultures and people. In this regard, the interview response from respondent
P1 reflects that change is essential in Indian cultural practice: ‘In my experience, I find that Indians living outside India tend to be more critical and protective of Indian classical forms and are often critical of non-Indian artists’ interpretation or non-Hindu interpretations of Carnatic styles. At SMV, we do not hold such views at all, but allow different spiritual interpretations’. Respondent P8 also commented on changes in cultural practice: ‘we are actually, very committed to promoting Indian dance and music to non-Indians’. It can be seen at various cultural events that religion is used to transmit important values to them and to society, as they often share aspects of unity, harmony and peace in the form of celebration.
Against the larger sociocultural aspects of geography, culture, arts and education, this chapter has shown, through participants’ personal accounts and observations, how the dynamics of continuity and change in participants’ cultural practice occurred in their every day lives. Participants revealed that by a history of reconnecting to their culture in
129 Malaysia they have reclaimed their lives. In Perth, they resumed such culture through reorganising cultural traditions. They have formed a collective identity with SMV where the practice of fine arts involves more than an acquiring of technique or the development of skills. This collective identity is spiritualised as fine and applied art in daily routines. SMV’s cultural practice has shown that traditional music and dance can co-exist and that identity and belonging can be achieved through intercultural engagement.
130 Chapter Five Swan Festival of Lights: Case Study—Part II
______‘We all exist between the lines of our narrated lives, the stories we tell and the stories that are told about us’
(Alexander 1999, 310).
Deepavali in Perth
Unlike summer when on most days people await the afternoon’s ‘Fremantle Doctor’, a cool coastal breeze around Perth, to lower temperatures, the days and nights of spring in Perth are warm. The scent of almost 12,000 species104 of wildflowers in reserves and parks is unmistakeable. Around October and November in the southern hemisphere, the Hindu festival, Deepavali, is celebrated. During this festival, Hindus celebrate the dominion of hope, knowledge and light over darkness and despair. The Deepavali festival has become a huge opportunity for SMV to affect a positive change in social and cultural relationships in the city.105
When I attended SMV’s first Deepavali festival as a SFOL event in 2008, it was apparent that the religious event would rapidly become a popular community expression among diasporic Indians as a new way of celebrating an ancient Indian religious practice. This familiar religious celebration used to be a comparatively self-contained ritual celebration among the old diaspora and their descendants in their colonial places of origin, but appears to have become a celebratory event in western countries.
Traditionally, the practice of Deepavali106 was a ritual ceremony in the form of a puja107
104 Wildflower season in Perth. Accessed October 12, 2014. http://www.experienceperth.com. 105 SFOL is the abbreviated form of Swan Festival of Lights and is identified by members on social media and SFOL website. This abbreviated term is used throughout this dissertation. 106 The participant explained the term Deepavali has having Sanskrit origins, but became modified by north India people and called Diwali. However, both terms imply ‘row of lights’. A closer examination of the terms revealed that Deepavali is associated with South Indian people who celebrate Krishna’s (deity) victory over the demon Narakasura while Diwali among North Indian people tend to celebrate Rama’s (deity) return to his kingdom. Some 107 The term puja is derived from Sanskrit and implies prayer as an act of worship, honouring the divine through various offerings.
131 practiced in homes among neighbours and within temple communities. Recently,
Hindu communities seem to have repositioned Deepavali into a public expression of
Indian identity in various locales under the broad label of ‘festival’. However, the word festival is not a new phenomenon in Indian culture, as the name has been associated with numerous ancient festivals in India that culminated with feasting and prayer.
According to Waldemar Cudny (2016, 13–14), festivals have always been a major art of human culture and dominated religious beliefs. In contemporary cultures, Cudny (2016,
13-14) asserts that festivals have evolved to become:
Part of the non-material culture, as they present art, customs and cultural symbolism. They may be an emanation of the local or regional culture (small, e.g. community-based or regional festivals), but also of the global culture (large-scale film or music festivals). They represent high culture (e.g. classical music, ballet festivals), but are also organised by the creators of pop-culture … they are used in politics, too … for the promotion of a political party or individual politicians, perform important social functions and play a growing economic role. Festivals are an important element of most aspects of culture. Although, in this argument, there is recognition that festivals ‘present’ different cultures and often have economic or political motives behind them, among the Indian diaspora,
Deepavali, also known as the ‘festival of lights’, may be the only festival that unites the
Indian diaspora as a whole: the Indian diaspora either recognises the relevance of
Deepavali to the Hindu community and/or commemorates the festival as an Indian cultural tradition.
During the first Diwali Mela108 festival in 2007, which the Indian Society of Western
Australia (ISWA) hosted, I realised that there were two identities acknowledged in the event title: Hindu and North Indian identities. However, at the event itself, there was no distinction between these two identities. All participants were just acknowledged as
Indian participants and the Indian organisations they represented. The event showcased how participants promoted Indian culture through food, dance and music
108 The Hindi word Mela denotes a public event or fair that is organised to celebrate a special religious festival.
132 to commemorate the homeland and experience India again. According to an ISWA leader, the Diwali Mela festival has attracted more than 25,000 people since 2014.
In 2008, SMV and Annalakshmi hosted their first public festival of lights event, branding it fittingly as the Swan Festival of Lights. The festival upheld the key principles of ‘give, love and serve’ and ‘art for art’s sake’. Designed to be an annual civic event in Perth, it is unquestionably one of the biggest festivals in the city and attracts over 35,000 people from diverse cultures across states and national boundaries and usually lasts 3–
5 days. Each year, private sponsorship and funding from the city of Perth enables the event to offer patrons free entry. The performance sites vary each year, usually at
Perth’s picturesque tourist locations, such as the Supreme Court Gardens, Elizabeth
Quay and Langley Park.
During the Deepavali period, there is a noticeable bustle of religious preparation leading up to the festival. Most visible, and underpinning the daily life of Hindus,109 are family preparations for the event starting several weeks ahead of time. It is especially evident at stores specialising in Indian products, where prayer goods and sweetmeats110 are sold in abundance. It seems that these stores in Perth are playing an important role in enabling Indian people to maintain the unique local character of
Indian diaspora traditions.
Some older non-Hindu Indians I encountered in the aisles of Indian speciality stores spoke nostalgically of their homeland and a longing for the affectionate company of friends in old neighbourhoods. Sadly, many acknowledge they now had settled for convenience foods associated with the Deepavali festival, such as prebaked, frozen and sealed that had some resemblance to homemade food.
Participants in the study also spoke of their Deepavali experiences in Perth and described it as different to what they were used to in Malaysia as well as Singapore.
109 The festival is also celebrated by the Jains and Sikhs. 110 A mixture of baked Indian snacks.
133 While respondent P8 found that, ‘Australian society is diverse and Indians don’t live together in the same neighbourhood’, respondent P12 said that ‘there is a lack of large neighbourhood celebrations’. Another respondent, P10 said: ‘there is hardly a mutual sharing of the festival food in our neighbourhood’. I often found myself nodding and agreeing while reflecting on my own past experiences of living in a racially segregated neighbourhood consisting only of Indians in South Africa.
Sights and sounds of Perth neighbourhoods during the festival period are quite different to those I had experienced back in South Africa. Unlike back in South Africa, where fireworks and clay lamps set the tone of the festival, there are no such sounds and sights. The only places with some evidence of celebration of the festival are the houses of participants in the form of lit diyas at entrance doors. The lit diyas, according to respondent P4 ‘guides the passer-by in reaching their destination’.
At participants’ homes, festival rituals include puja (prayer) and the lighting of the diya
(lamps) in front of the house on each day. Some participants draw Rangoli patterns (a sign of welcome) at the entrance, and some female participants revealed that they acknowledge commitment to their spouses by placing a garland around their shoulder.
My participation with members of the SMV and Annalakshmi community during the festival was intensely interactive. I found myself recording details of activities related to preparations as they unfolded. Activities included, observing discussions, note taking, mapping of performance spaces, analysing performance standards, and discussions of repertoire. The activities seemed spontaneous. Participants were enthused working within an environment that mirrored an extended family of creative people who enjoyed working in a multicultural setting.
Three additional participants, coded as EG1, EG2 and EG3, became self-appointed event guides during the fieldwork over the years. They explained that the event is well- planned because of a kind of intergenerational leadership found within the organisation. The event guides considered this style of leadership to be significant in
134 meeting the needs of members, and productions such as SFOL. The event guides explained that individuals from each generation found within the body of SMV and
Annalakshmi, work collaboratively; they use their strengths to make the festival a success. For example, a younger member, with professional skills in digital technology and design, manages the websites, social media accounts and media feed. Older members generally are of the leadership group responsible of mentoring younger members and deciding on the strategic direction of the organisation.
With regard to communication and adverting of the festival, technology has changed the way the hosts—SMV and Annalakshmi—communicate with its members and the wider population. Social media and the internet, the SFOL App for mobile devices,
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and SMS are used. Additionally, SFOL is widely advertised on different media networks, and targeted at the general population rather than exclusively to Indians. Events are usually advertised on local television stations, and radio programs, which includes, Radio Garam Masala, SBS Free to Air channels and India Link. These purposeful networks, keep viewers informed of SFOL events. At times, prominent artists, and leaders from SMV and Annalakshmi are interviewed on radio and television. Further advertising of the event through local Indian organisations and university guilds make SFOL a widely advertised social event as well.111
While media in this digital age may be efficient in reaching people, it does not guarantee that the SFOL will be well attended. However, attendance numbers did not seem to be the most important outcome. According to one of the SFOL leaders:
SFOL event cannot be deemed successful because of the number of people it attracts, as some festivals in Perth aim for. Those numbers may be an important component for funding and the economy, but here, we actually measure our success differently—by our involvement with people, the level of face-to-face interaction, shared learning and teaching experiences, standards of
111 It is argued that technological devices provide imagined mobility to maintain connection with imagined communities. Linda Leung, ‘Mobility and Displacement’, M/C Journal of Media and Culture 10, No. 1 (2007): 3.
135 performances and cultural expressions. It is about the quality of living, not quantity of people.
In an interview with the local radio station, Radio Garam Masala, Arun Krishnan, a member of SMV, regarded the 2015 SFOL event as a successful, fresh enterprise and highlighted the strong family focus:
Common goals of service drive us. We bring joy to a whole lot of people…It’s the people who make this a success … the idea is to get the whole family together like families in India [did]; a festival is not a festival if [it is] made of one family … the whole idea is to promote the culture of India and mainstream it … for a certain population so that they see us as part of the global culture. That’s what we are trying to do (Krishnan 2015). These responses suggest that SFOL attempts to create spaces in which relationships can develop with family, friends and cultures. Even though festivals are common manifestations that are appealing to Perth’s society, the way they engage people to interact makes this cultural event different to other Indian cultural festivals. The face-to- face interactions become heightened when performance items, as well as the workshops and food stalls, achieve an interactive community experience. The event guides explained the approach to SFOL as: ‘purposeful’, ‘new contribution and development of the notion of festival’ and ‘a religious festival that is committed to a greater and deeper cause’. According to respondent P1, the approach to SFOL events, at the performing arts level, is about ‘enabling different ethnic cultures to experience and explore the distinctions between Indian cultures’. Respondent P5 said: ‘we are really trying to initiate an interchange, a sort of conversation between cultures’. In short, SFOL events offer a qualitatively distinctive mode of experience and a cultural dialogue with the ‘other’.
By incorporating music and dance traditions of different cultures, the SFOL event has established international networks and has represented various diasporic cultures at large. As explained earlier in this chapter, SFOL is not uniquely about Indian culture; the event is genuinely about an engagement between cultures with elements of
136 specific traditions—classical and contemporary music, dance, drama and, adaptations of those traditions. It is also about fusion forms, which reflect the different encounters of diasporic lives in correlation with the traditions of other cultures. In the process, cultures are finding commonalities to share in the performing arts across organisations and societies. Therefore, this multifaceted event evidently necessitates the network of collaborative partnerships and associations112 and is dependent on social capital. As a theory, social networks imply that humans connect with others who share common values and attachments as members of a network or various communities, thereby creating social capital. Individuals in diasporic communities, therefore use existing resources and social capital, which leads to multiple benefits (Keles 2015; Hall 1999). It can be argued that one of these benefits answers the research question that seeks to understand why the organisation does things in a particular way. The group is attempting to create among multicultural societies an intercultural dialogue of traditions and belief with a view to expanding mutual understanding
Over the years, different Indian cultural themes that focus on different regions in India have been highlighted at SFOL. This is an important finding in the understanding of the nature of this group in terms of representation. Although they wish to show other cultures that Indian cultures are quite diverse in terms of places of origin and language, a sense of intercultural appreciation remains paramount. More profound is the awareness, a root–routes perspective this group seems to hold. In this perspective,
India is the root of different Indian cultures (place attachments) and the initial movement across borders (routes) for the Indian diaspora. Therefore, India’s cultural forms have become experiences of enactment at festivals and recitals. This particular
112 The event sponsors vary each year and include Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, Malindo Air, Jogia Diamonds, City of Perth, Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries Office of Multicultural Affairs, Synergy, Lotterywest, Consulate General of India Perth, SBS Radio, Liveligher, Perth Radiological Clinic, Healthway, Spectrum Health, Insight Clinical Imaging, Incredible India, Toram Finance, Close Comfort, Radio Garam Masala, Yoga Australia, Tax Guru, Sitara, LRY Group, India Link, Quality Press—Just love Printing and Perth Homeguard PTY LTD (http://sfol.com.au/items/2017/10/7/turban-tying-by-turbans-and-trust).
137 way, capturing different cultural elements from across India, is captured well in Arun
Krishnan’s (2015) response when Radio Garam Masala interviewed him:
It’s very simple, our mentor Swami Shantanand Saraswati always said [that] our culture is a wonderful thing, we need not only know of our mainstream culture here, but we should also know of ourselves and India … Bollywood has made it more possible, differently, everybody knows everybody else right? But interaction is more important and real … in this place [Perth] we thought one of the very nice ways of talking about our own [Indian] state [of] our own culture is reflecting India this way. Another reason, also important if you notice here that, the space for projection of Asian culture is somewhat limited and I think we find that this is a nice space a wonderful … vehicle by means of [introducing] a broad Asian culture … with the hope that one day Diwali would be a national holiday, it would be wonderful to see that happen. The manager of Annalakshmi Cultural Centre stated:
What we are also trying to achieve … to do is make each and every one of them [Indians migrating, visiting groups from India, our artists] to feel part of this whole festival too. So, the only way to do it is to get them involved so it is not just us celebrating [Deepavali], it’s about us as Indians … so every year we highlight something beautiful from each state (Nataratan 2015) There is a sense of longing for cultural recognition in these responses, not necessarily drawn to heritage sites, but to the cultural heritage of India and, to an extent, an acknowledgement of a Hindu religious celebration. This longing for recognition of an important religious celebration is echoed by one of the artistic directors who stated: ‘a time might come when Deepavali may even be a public holiday’ (Shetty-Krishnan 2013).
This yearning for more engagement of past traditions and cultural ways of Indians can be considered an attraction that contemporary diasporas have with ancestry, as roots- searching of different Indian cultures that they may be familiar or unfamiliar with. As seen over the years, members, together with other Hindus, appear to enjoy a sense of solidarity when they come together during a religious festival. However, what seems to be marked more clearly is the gratification they feel when unity is formed with other cultures through their own shared Indian rituals and performances in public spaces, such as the water ceremony at the Swan River and the lighting of the lamp with
138 dignitaries from Perth and international countries. This process shows that religious rituals publicly demonstrated reinforce an identity that helps ‘Indians to preserve their individual self-awareness and group cohesion’ (Sahoo 2006, 90).
As a performing practice, SFOL negotiates people’s sense of Indianness. The festival allows participants to reflect their own versions of what Indianness means to them.
Some of the expressions that participants used to describe their demonstrative actions include: ‘lighting of the lamp is a transcendent experience of being Indian’, ‘bowing to the guru and elders ‘, ‘receiving blessings on the forehead by the elders and guru’,
‘dressing up in full Indian attire’, ‘participating in the water ceremony’, ‘participating in
Indian crafts and activities’, ‘using Indian language’, and ‘eating Indian food’.
Another way to illustrate perceptions of being Indian is found in the conversation I had with participant EG2 and a few Indian artists on the final day of the 2016 SFOL event.
The conversation commenced with a discussion of Indian festivals and the performance of the visiting group of Kerala drummers from India who performed a traditional
Shinkary Melam (combination of instruments with dance used as temple celebrations in
Kerala), but steered towards the concept of Indianness and the continuity of cultural knowledge:
EG2: The Kerala drummers often perform at temple festivals as part of their performance routine. I don’t think India-born Indians worry about their Indianness as much as we do. They own it and live it every day, as they have festivals for every day there. The Dancer: They take for granted a few cultural things in India that we hold on to and continue as tradition because it defines us here. ME: Such as? The Dancer: Well, Indian clothes, jewellery, bindi … extended Indian families and neighbourhoods. Indian clothing is not used every day here, but we do dress up for Indian shows, communal prayer, festivals, weddings and even funerals. EG2: I don’t think we need the Indian clothes. We look Indian like in every possible way. Besides, it is the values we keep and our
139 solidarity is still with family; that matters to us still. The Helper: Yeh, but Indian language usage and expressions make us Indian too, and I think when we seek to learn something of our own Indian culture such as dance or play an Indian instrument, we are in fact exploring our own Indianness. The Artist: No, I feel there is something more that defines our Indianness. It’s about a sense of spirituality, that connection to the Vedas … being familiar with our Indian poets at least. So, expressing that on stage merely shows Indian culture, other non-Indians can do that too. ME: Which poets are you thinking of? The Artist: For me? Kalidasa and, of course, Bharata. We rely on our parents and their stories and SMV who shares a lot of this stuff with us. The Dancer: Well, as classically trained dancers we really get into these texts, we experience the rasa and bhava. EG2: Most definitely. Understanding Indian aesthetics is what makes one Indian … not only in the performing arts, true. The Artist: Being Indian means, we are knowledgeable about our history and background, customs and values. The Dancer: Huh-huh, Indianness too is about having that dharmic presence in your life and SFOL allows these opportunities of experiences.
It is apparent that participants distinguish Indian culture at a higher level.
It can be argued that SFOL is representatively complex as a social form. I found that while SFOL appeared as a religious event, there is clearly a revitalisation of tradition in which new program content, practices and interpretation are worked into old social traditions. A further dimension to this social form is the claim that the identity of SMV is closely associated within their locale. By way of illustration, the name of the festival is worth examining. Branded as SFOL, the festival name does not prefix the city name to its title, as other Diwali festivals tend to do globally,113 Rather, the Swan River, as place, is given significance. According to EG1: ‘the Swan river defines Perth’s identity and the
113 In New Zealand, the event title combines the city in which it is hosted with the ‘Diwali festival’, for example, Wellington Diwali Festival of Lights or Auckland Diwali Festival of Lights.
140 name itself symbolises grace, beauty, love, devotion and partnership’. Respondent EG2 said: ‘the Swan River is an identity that belongs to the Indigenous people of the land; it is associated with a past and is a sacred ground they once inhabited’. Respondent E3 also recognised the Swan River’s significance to the local Indigenous Noongar people’s identity and added: ‘so, we honour and acknowledge them because it is an important site to them’. Respondent P1 explained that attaching the Deepavali festival of lights to the Swan River is symbolic in Hinduism, as ‘water’ symbolises the spiritual and cleansing powers and ‘rivers’ are symbolic of the goddess Ganga in India. Therefore, the water ceremony performed each year at the river remains a sacred ritual, and the title Swan Festival of Lights is a significant representation of their diasporic lives.
This skilful branding of the festival, as SFOL, suggests a practice that includes both minority and dominant cultures as well as local and global cultures. According to De
Mooij (2005), branding is more than a product name, trademark or assurance of performance. Instead, it generates a system of associations among its people and users and it involves the process of communication (Feldwick 2003). Instead of only meeting
Perth society’s needs, the festival fosters a robust global cultural interaction. While the title of the event itself may not allude to the practices and presentation of South Asian culture or Deepavali, its ambiguousness signifies Western encounters, and places it on neutral ground for all to share. As respondent P5 puts it: ‘SFOL is welcoming as the river’—hence the neutral identity of place in the in-between space. These responses indicate that identity and representation is important to participants and supports the idea that diasporic people think globally and live locally in fluid identity boundaries
(Clifford 1994) and they enjoy ‘the experience of being from one place and of another
… where one is constructed in and through difference’ (Anthias 1998, 565).
In creating meaningful ‘local’ living, there are certain diasporic elements that connect participants to certain realities. One of the elements, I argue, is the notion of nostalgia.
Although it has been argued that food, music, lyrics and odours communicate and stimulate memories and creates nostalgia (Holtzman 2006; Hirsch 1992; Baumgartner
141 1992), the larger impression made at the SFOL event is that nostalgic imaginings114 of cultural traditions at festivals, such as fireworks, Ramayana extracts, lighting of diya (clay lamps), gathering of friends and family, can connect the past with the present. I have found that when the past is evoked or triggered through these events at the festival, what follows is the instinctive nature of nostalgia to replace participants’ emotions in a new state of well-being, rather than in a state of melancholy because they no longer yearn for it longingly, but rather, in the present they reflect happily on it. This was illustrated when participants were asked the question in its simplest form: What does
SFOL do for them? Respondent P9 said: ‘SFOL makes us feel like we belong. We feel at home now in this environment’. She further explained her ‘feel at home’ concept:
When I say I feel at home, it means that I feel less anxious about this celebration because I am surrounded by familiar things of my culture. For all of us, I guess SFOL captures moments of what we usually used to experience before migrating here, for example, larger families and friends. Also, parents, grandparents, cultural clothes, dance and music, Deepavali sweets, cooking entertaining, fireworks, the scent of burning incense sticks and the story of the Ramayana enacted … these are meaningful things to us during Deepavali and we recall fondly of our experiences when we are together. Another participant, P5, focused on the food that SFOL presents: ‘It feels like home again. Annalakshmi makes the foodstuff and sweets just the way we used to do it in
Malaysia. It’s authentic food’ which makes us even more excited celebrating it here’.
Another nostalgic memory triggered is family. SFOL seems to have supplemented family needs. It can be argued, SFOL has initiated new social traditions that participants tend to value. Several participants spoke of how their parents and children who live abroad make an annual trip to Perth to attend the event and spend time with family and friends who are most often involved in the festival. Sunday satsangs with
114 Nostalgia should not be confused with ‘historical nostalgia’, which old diaspora experienced away from their country of birth, as nostalgia in their history is reflective of a deep dissatisfaction they have with their ‘present’ and long for the way things were long ago, which they also might not actually experienced.
142 followers, add to the celebration. Respondent P3 explained that these ‘special gathering of families during Deepavali used to be a diasporic experience in Malaysia that members fondly remembered with parents and the Swami’. Respondent P1 recalled: ‘feasting, singing of the Swami’s composed songs, the dramatic presentations, dance and music involved everybody in our community in KL’.
Respondent P6 showed her appreciation of the event by stating: ‘SFOL is now an event that brings the family together from abroad, instead of us travelling to family to celebrate. I find this to be a major change in how we live our lives now’. As is evident, there is a positive feeling among participants who can be described as having, what respondent P8 calls, ‘a utopian cultural setting’, in which the authentic, cultural experience of food flavours, archaic music, dance rituals, religious rituals and traditional patterns of Indian social behaviours can exist with families in Perth and among other cultures.
Responses from other participants were varied and reflected various social changes to the traditional practice of Deepavali that not only refresh their memory of past practices, but also create new experiences that they find equally meaningful. These were made apparent when respondent EG2 said:
SFOL has renewed what we truly believe Deepavali should be in this age— service to others, making the religious cultural tradition more relevant to our lives in Perth and being together and sharing it with others through the arts. Respondent EG2 added: ‘we find that we are doing something positive, it is widening my own experiences of Deepavali, as a universal symbolic reminder that the story is about harmonious living when evil is conquered’. Respondent EG3 reflected on his own increased level of understanding of other cultural art forms and how new friends were created at SFOL events. He also said: ‘I particularly like the way SFOL welcomes new cultures to partake of our culture’.
The responses of three volunteers (coded as AV1, AV2 and AV3 respectively), at one of
Annalakshmi’s food stalls, provided further insight into how the SFOL event has
143 transformed the Deepavali festival for them: ‘SFOL brings the true spirit of Deepavali.
Otherwise, it would be a quieter, small gathering in our households with party sparklers in Perth’ (AV1), ‘it’s an alternate solution to not having a public holiday here’ (AV2) and it ‘brings back the festival’s broader significance in our modern lives with a new twist; and we are mixing with strangers in an appealing way’(AV3). The various responses indicate that SFOL extends individual and collective memories,115 as part of their transition to a new lifestyle in Perth. By connecting people to childhood experiences of
Deepavali celebrations, the festival strengthens personal continuity of that identity that had become stored memory.
SFOL events demonstrate that a succession of transformations is occurring in the space of performance. For example, the practice of Diwali with its sacred puja offerings, service and worship is transformed into a visible, secular public space as part of a universal practice. These rituals run alongside the performing arts where local and international artists participate, partly for entertainment and partly as an experience of cultural sharing. In turn, artists are encountering new experiences of cultural interchange, by swapping ideas and traditions. The obvious interchange is between
SMV and TFA international, as observed in the major productions.
Similarly, transformations of Indian secular folk dances are observed. For instance, the popularised secular Bhangra folk dance style of Punjabi culture has become transcendental experiences at SFOL. The respondent, P9, found the folk-styled dance constructive and said: ‘The sound of Bhangra music is inviting and drives a communal type of celebration and learning of another Indian culture, their habits and behaviour’.
In this regard, respondent P9 further explained: ‘It is the first time I danced with Punjab people and they appear loud, very energetic and party-loving people. I must add that it was a pleasurable and enjoyable experience being in such company and dancing
115 Writes speak of additional types of nostalgia such as real, simulated and collective nostalgia. Collective nostalgia, as sentimental learning is experienced by a community, culture or generation Baker, S. M., Kennedy, P. F. (1994). Death by nostalgia: ‘A diagnosis of context-specific Cases’. Advances in Consumer Research 21, (1994): 169-174.
144 with them. It’s is a very different style of music and Indian folk style’ This response suggests that intercultural interaction promotes a greater understanding of different cultures, even if perceptions are drawn from only people’s appearance and behaviours during a communal dance.
While perceptions of behaviour and habits of people are not the goals of SFOL, in observing these interactions, I became mindful while observing intercultural communication between individuals or groups during the Bhangra dance that in endeavouring to foster intercultural understanding, SFOL uses secular cultural Indian dance forms to open up interactive spaces of dialogue and engagement, thereby helping people to realise how distinct individuals and cultures really are.
SFOL has confidently advanced into the public sphere and has become a tourist attraction since 2008. It is a profile that the city of Perth promotes and this advancement in the public space demonstrates the transformative power religious events can have. Consequently, SFOL is becoming a representation of India’s diaspora in Australia thereby playing a part in increasing cultural diplomacy with India and its diaspora worldwide. The strong presence of government dignitaries from Australia, the city of Perth and the Consul General of India in Perth is noticeable, especially on opening nights. Even though respondent EG1 circumspectly asserted: ‘I suppose SFOL now becomes the platform from which Australia can boast its successful, sustained multicultural communities’, what is really revealed is that SFOL demonstrates a practice that advances cultural understanding: SFOL events show that minority culture can transform cultural festivals into a participatory performance in which cultures can interact meaningfully. This transformation is made more significant because of what the outsiders, as minority ethnic cultures, bring to festivals. In this context, they are not the
‘other’ living at the margins or the ‘outsider’ that is detached from the mainstream.
Instead, they have become the ‘insider’ who draws the broader dynamics of minority cultures into the foreground to demonstrate through the performing arts how people can engage with each other to make meaning in their lives. In brief, they indicate ways
145 in which they could participate in the grand narrative of the nation itself. Other diaspora communities of Perth that interact at SFOL include cultures originally from
Ukraine, China, Spain, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, West Africa, Latin
America, Singapore, Bali, Japan as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and
Maori people.
Transformation in the way diasporic communities celebrate during SFOL is not only restricted to the performing arts in the evenings, but also includes the ways in which arts and entertainment are conducted. Attendees can interact in different arts, crafts and workshops while children are treated to a variety of fun-filled, learning experiences, such as camel rides accompanied with its respective history in Australia, or trialling ayurvedic healing therapy. These activities facilitate further interactions in which identities can become distinct at an individual level, as people tend to be curious about each other’s culture, ancestry and customs. For example, at the henna stall where people can learn about the process involved in the traditional Indian ‘body art’ form, there were different ways in which cultural interaction occurred and identities shared:
Henna We use this art form in other Indian Hindu artist: festivals, like Karva Chauth and our Indian weddings and classical dance too, as adornment; it goes hand in hand with jewellery to make us look beautiful. Indian In my South Indian culture, as Telegu people, a lady: female is perceived beautiful with such body art on hands, feet and the forehead too. My great granny had a distinctive tattoo across her forehead; she was a Kuchipudi dancer. Henna Over here, Australians call it ‘tattoo’, so we call it artist: that because everyone understands what it means, but I personally like to call it 'Indian body art’ or Mehndi because it has more meaning in its ancient terms that come from Sanskrit and Hindu Vedic origins. It is a paste made of leaves from the
146 Henna plant and the word henna has Arabic origins. Did you know that? Non- Hey, according to Google [looking at her mobile], Indian: apparently, it’s about arousing the light within us. I also have a tattoo on my arm, but it’s not a cultural thing. I have English and French ancestry, but am Australian by birth. I notice the hands and feet are a focus with the Indian art. You are Indian, right? Henna My forefathers came from India. It’s my ethnic artist: identity, but I am Malaysian-Indian, with an Australian identity too; I also have citizenship here.
Image 3: Henna Indian body art—Shirelle’s hand.
This interaction typically demonstrates the types of conversation I witnessed between people of different cultures over the years at SFOL events, as they seemed inclined to contribute different aspects of their own identity to discussions. Some Indian people preferred to emphasise one identity over another, such as one visitor from TFA
(International) who revealed in a light conversation that her daughter, studying contemporary dance in Perth, is also a ‘Kathak dancer trained in India, and has learned
Bharatanatyam since the age of 8 in Singapore’. It can be argued that the visitor was actually showing that identities, even in the arts, are also transnational. Other people
147 responded in a similar, more pronounced manner as the Henna artist did: ‘I am Indian but live in Australia’, ‘I am Singaporean Indian’, ‘My background is South African-
Indian’, ‘I am Indian too, but born in Malaysia’, ‘I am born here, so that makes me
Australian Indian’, ‘I have Indian and African ancestry so I am Indo-African’, and ‘I have
Indian ethnicity’.
At the Evening performances of SFOL, there seemed to be a higher ratio of non-
Indians. The event guides shared certain pull factors that they believed attracted such large crowds to SFOL:
EG1: People enjoy being happy. SFOL creates that, for sure. Seriously, it is about connecting with people positively and enjoying culinary delights. EG3: I feel they come to engage in essentially an authentic experience to dress up Indian, put henna and join in the dance. EG2: We showcase different cultures of Perth in the performances and they feel represented being with other cultures at that level; it’s about fitting in and tolerance, and sharing with them what is important to us. EG1: This crowd is what makes Perth cosmopolitan; they want to learn about each other’s cultural music and dance and even about their values and customs—what they actually do. EG3: It is the outstanding professionalism in performances they come to see for free. EG2: Yeah, but I think some still look at our cultural dances and music as something strange and oriental. But, more and more people over these years I find are getting familiar with different cultures and their habits—even participating and positively exploring our food too. Look at the stalls and the long queues; that’s a good sign.
The festival nights that I attended each year, as an observer, kept me engaged in different activities. The experience ‘behind the scenes’, as part of the ethnographic research experience, indicate that some level of participatory experience is at play between artists, participants and onlookers themselves and, in turn, the participation
148 creates the communal spirit that becomes a part of the festival. There were elements of increased human interactions and reactions to instruction and preparation that uniquely shaped each performance experience.
In my role as an audience member, I noticed that the mythical Hindu story of Rama,
Sita and Ravana was comfortably woven in the festival and is ubiquitous in the Hindu festival experience that is surrounded by the cultural artefacts of sculpture, songs, architecture, art, craftwork, poetry, dramatisation of myths and sacred texts as well as puppet shows.116 In keeping with the narrative of Deepavali, participants explained
SFOL with the following symbolic and religious clichés: ‘Peace is a universal longing’,
‘we come together to celebrate in union’, ‘good deeds will overcome evil’, ‘light is a universal theme, and it’s there in all religions’, ‘it’s the light conquering the darkness’ and ‘it is about the triumph of light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance’.
Participants were specific about references made to ‘light’ and ‘darkness’. While the symbolic meaning of ‘light’ was explained as knowledge, life, purity, goodness, morality and power, the concept of ‘darkness’ was explained as forces that threaten morality. The responses are personal and normative and from an ethical perspective, distinguishes good from bad within their own community and social setting. Both terms are used interchangeably and form part of three themes: internal conflict, moral behaviour and judgement, and ethical issues that emerged from participants’ responses.
116 Discussion with Indian puppetry artworks are traditionally linked to a ritual context and its origin in Indian history is associated with the dancer’s mask. The Mahabharata refers to different kinds of puppet. Manohar L. Varadpande. History of Indian Theatre: Classical Theatre (New Delhi: Shakti Malik Abhinav Publications, 2005), 32
149
INTERNAL CONFLICT • ‘humans can be in constant battle with their negative nature, it’s about conquering that’(P1) • ‘intolerance’ (P3) • ‘darkness is disunity’ (P8) • ‘fear’ (P6)
MORAL BEHAVIOUR AND ETHICAL ISSUES JUDGEMENT • ‘ignoring poverty’ (P1) • ‘evil’ (P2) • ‘divide and rule DARKNESS • ‘darkness stands for everything authority’ (P12) opposite virtue and harmony’ • ‘destroying the earth’ (P5) (P9) • ‘unforgiveness’ (P7) • ‘injustice’ (P6) • ‘war’ (P8, P2) • ‘racism’ (P12) • ‘hatred’ (P4) • ‘dominance and superiority’ (P3) • ‘lack of compassion’ ((P10) • ‘discrimination’ (P2) • ‘detention camps (P11)
Figure 2: Participants interpretation of the term ‘darkness’
These responses show that SFOL represents a universal shift in the participants’ views of the world and these views can be attributed to their transnational experiences and exchanges.117 Therefore, I would not consider SFOL as just an annual countryside event. My opinion of the event had changed from the one I had when I first attended in
2008.
Performances and the audiences
In the first three years since its inception, I attended the festival as an individual seeking a night out with family as an escape from daily routine. On one of the occasions, I was keen to hear the acclaimed international sitar player, Ustad Usman Khan, perform live.
117 See Margaret Walton-Robert’s (2004) perspective in Chapter 4.
150 On another, I looked forward to watching an expert Indian chef demonstrate the art of creating Marsala dhal dorsa.118
A large crowd attended the festival each night. According to respondent EG1, the size of gatherings usually peaked to about 10,000 people at the beginning of each evening performance. In such a relaxed and informal outdoor setting, performers could easily be disconnected from such crowds because of the absence of the intimate auditorium ambiance of recitals. However, at SFOL, I found that by maintaining certain standards of performances in music and dance, the audience remained connected to the performer and performance itself. As one of the musicians explained:
The artistic directors are extremely fussy about the quality of performances. If the standard of item presentations from different cultures are balanced correctly, and performers of different cultures respect SFOL’s purpose of sharing the quality found in each culture’s arts, then the audience truly becomes part of the whole performance. Performers too, don’t just feel it is another gig
Another musician from SMV confirmed: ‘we really aim for excellence here’. He paused for a moment and asked: ‘Do you know why? Not because it’s a competitive business, but because “guest is God” even over here’. I found that the audience as ‘guests’ are invited to participate in the performance space. Even though I was expecting a more distant, detached performance due to the outdoor atmosphere, the ensembles and artists engaged the audience to participate and respond—at times, they drew different reactions from the audience through different gestures and actions.
Upon closer examination of the audience at SFOL, subtleties in the relationships developing between performer and audience became more apparent, as both performer and audience seemed to make meaning in different ways. Therefore, a reconsideration of the terms used to describe people at events such as crowds, participants, observers, viewers, listeners, spectators and audience is essential, as these terms seem to be oversimplified and wide-ranging. Before I make any distinctions of
118 A thin pancake made from a fermented dhal (lentil) mixture.
151 people at the event, it is necessary to return to the subject of the rasa, as it is a sensation that both performer and audience would consciously or subconsciously experience
Interpretations of performances should occur within the rasa, which is an aesthetic experience that evokes emotion. As Namita Bhatia (2016) argued, it requires ‘a response to the art’, rather than to the performance being a work of art. Thus, at the
SFOL event, I found that rasa also enables individual stories to be created. To illustrate this point, I draw on my own experiences as an audience member to describe the stories I created, as the ‘rasa’ or emotion really cannot be described. I found that the
Aboriginal dance (SFOL 2009), with its distinct stylised posture and complicated dance movements, mirrored the creation stories that connected them to the land and sea.
The Capoeira (African–Brazilian martial arts) performance generated stories of understanding one’s body and self in the space around the artists, and as audience members we can be transformed into that space. The performance was meaningful to me because I became energised with the sounds and visual aesthetics of the different body formations created within a synchronised structure. The Ramayana finale depicted at the SFOL events created different imaginations each time. I found myself accepting the characters portrayed by actors, feeling the nuances of the different music and dance interpretation and sharing the life of the imaginary people being created. I also became emotionally connected with all characters, especially that of Ravana.
The significance of performance interpretation within the rasa could also be demonstrated in relation to the Japanese taiko drumming. For this event, I felt that I had the freedom to recontextualise the drumming against the background of a different story – one that framed the dance and movement to the Samurai warriors and their own history. Another example of my personal rasa experience as an audience member is Sarasa Krishnan’s ‘Action Abstraction’ in which the artist’s ‘self’, as both dancer and painter became one with the performance. Here, I found myself watching the gestural painting, which was personal in all respects, and marvelled at how space
152 could be interpreted in multiple ways, awakening my own subconscious associations of time and movement.
In Bharata’s words (as translated by Rangacharya 2003, 55):
But what is this thing called rasa? Here is the reply. Because it is enjoyably tasted, it is called rasa. How does the enjoyment come? Persons who eat prepared food mixed with different condiments and sauces, etc., if they are sensitive, enjoy the different tastes and then feel pleasure (or satisfaction); likewise, sensitive spectators, after enjoying the various emotions expressed by the actors through words, gestures and feelings feel pleasure, etc. This (final) feeling by the spectators is here explained as (various) rasa-s of nâtya. These illustrations and the explanatory note reflect how audiences who reach a state of rasa are able to unite his or her own cognitive reasoning to the elements of the performance presented on stage. The performance becomes transformative for any observer, as it involves both the artist and the observer, such as myself, in becoming what Deborah Newton calls ‘co-subjects’ or ‘co-creators’ of meanings in the performance, which she explains as causing a metacommunicative reversal of roles to occur and terms it ‘metacommunicative performative competence’ (MPC).119
To further illustrate how the MPC experience affected a collective group, I refer to the
2015 SFOL event. During the Ramayana sketch, artists spontaneously deviated from the choreographed work when rain threatened cancellation. The artistic directors and actors ushered the students, already attired in costume for a totally different scene, the monkey battalion scene, to mingle with the audience who encouraged the children with applause, or joined in mimicking the movements. According to respondent EG1, the young performers felt reassured of being an integral part of the organisation. Both the performers and the audience connected to the story in different ways. I later discovered that this smaller audience, still estimated as a few thousand people, consisted predominantly of members and friends of SMV and members of the Hindu community.
119 The MPC theory is outlined in Chapter 1.
153 Returning to discussion of the audience, the responses to the raga demonstrate that audiences themselves can be distinguished by how they participated in the performances. There are those who come to view and experience an event at a superficial level. They attend the performance purely for entertainment value or for something ‘different’. Then there are those who experience the performance at a much deeper level. Sonia Livingstone (2005) describes these two types of audiences as
‘public’ and ‘audience’ respectively. Livingstone (2005) asks: when is an audience a public and when is a public an audience? Accordingly, the author applies audience to a public gathering of spectators who act as listeners and viewers at an event. They are considered a group of ardent admirers, or ‘like-minded’ people who listen but don’t participate in co-located places (2005, 216).120 In brief, they are pleasure oriented, passive and not committed to what is being displayed. Conversely, ‘public’ is applied to describe a renowned public figure or a group of people who have a shared interest, such as a film star’s public or public school, respectively. In this group, people are informed and engaged and they reflect and act accordingly with deep understanding.
Ulrike Meinhof (2005, 115)121 adapted these terms to suit a music performance, renaming them as ‘public audience’ and ‘world music audience,’ and found that they coexist and often swap roles at different events.
Using these contextual dimensions of public and audience, I have further recontextualised these and applied them to SFOL by using an add-on word to describe the nature of audiences that I was accustomed to seeing. This subsequently led to the terms ‘SMV’s public audience’ and ‘world culture audience’, which I shall briefly expand on.122 SMV’s public audience has common interests with SMV. They are not necessarily ethnically defined, but I noticed that they are active participants and performers, and
120 Includes concerts and television audiences. 121See Ulrike Meinhof, ‘Initiating a Public: Malagasy Music and Live Audiences in Differentiated Cultural Contexts’, Audiences and Publics: When Cultural Engagement Matters for the Public Sphere (UK: Intellect Books 2005): 115-138. 122 These terms may be applied to any SMV event.
154 they are socially engaged with Indian cultural activities. They value Indian music and are informed of its practices in a strong communal spirit. They are members and supporters of SMV and are part of the larger TFA international guild-type associations and Indian cultural groups. I find that there is usually a special audience ambience between SMV’s public audience and its cultural performances because the artists themselves attract their own distinct audiences of traditional123 and non-traditional forms. In addition to personal enjoyment, there is a stronger participatory interaction and response to the performer’s skills, improvisations and interpretations—there is a deeper understanding of the meanings at play with the performances, irrespective whether it is secular or sacred. SMV’s public audience appear to understand the stance that the performer adopts on stage because they are allied to the larger international body of Indian performing arts. It became clear with P4’s explanation:
My audiences, mainly those who follow the art form and know my own journey as a classical dancer, are aware that SMV artists such as myself tend to perform our heritage, actualising and aestheticising, in a way, our traditions because it is spiritually ingrained in us to maintain a form of divinity into traditional and non-traditional forms … most of our regular audiences would know that too. The same could be said of India’s playback singer, Kavita Krishnamurthy,124 who could sing devotional songs as part of the 2014 SFOL repertoire to SMV’s public audience, which I found to be dispersed among the world culture audience. They, as well, form part of Krishnamurthy’s own public audience. They tended to sing along with her and therefore demonstrated the participatory nature of the performance. Her husband and co-performer, the well-known violinist, L. Subramaniam,125 related the experience to a sense of familiarity that they as artists share with Perth’s audiences—a sense of familiarity that SFOL and SMV create, as it enables them to choose their repertoire
123 Examples include performances of Arangetram and Margam, which can exceed 400 people, or the larger recitals of artists such as the Bose brothers, Ustad Ali Khan and L. Subramaniam, who have their own ‘public audience’. 124 SFOL 2014 guest performance. 125 Also recognised world-wide as Dr L. Subramaniam.
155 according to audience needs (Subramaniam 2014). The inclusion of classical, light classical, devotional and contemporary Indian music and dance styles tend to be understood in context. Respondent EG3 agreed that many Hindus would find the devotional songs especially significant, while others in the audience did not link the item to any poetical or religious meaning.
In contrast, ‘world culture audience’ applies to those people who are not obligated to any public engagement with the festival, recital or SMV. These are individuals who attend the festival and watch different cultures as representations of world cultures.
However, they should not, in any respect, be considered in the same way in which the notion of ‘world music’ was presented in the past. Regarding this point, I draw caution to a previous notion of world music that was conservatively defined by Carl Rahkonen
(1994, 1):
[W]hat it is not. It is not Western art music, neither is it mainstream Western folk or popular music. World music can be traditional (folk), popular or even art music, but it must have ethnic or foreign elements. It is simply not our music, it is their music, music which belongs to someone else. The term world music as framed in this definition typically indicates a colonial expression. It tends to imply the ‘other’ who perhaps communicates in a foreign vernacular and comes from exotic world locations. In lieu of the term ‘world music’,
‘world culture audience’, as an alternative term, presents a more global perspective of the cultural approach to understanding music and dance cultures of the world. It somewhat suggests a cultural engagement. This audience type will also have different experiences of aesthetics and rasa. As respondent EG1 suggested concerning the 2011
SFOL performances:
Music and dance of different cultures in both contemporary and traditional forms provide different experiences and understandings, and we invite people to become part of it, to participate in it, so that it does not become a spectacle to them, but rather an experience. Respondent EG2 presented another perspective:
156 What we are trying to do is entice their senses through performance. We want them to see that each culture’s performing arts hold levels of dexterity and expertise within their own complex cultural systems. I found through meeting other cultures that cultures are different and unique. We cannot judge it; people will experience that when they encounter other cultures. For one visitor who accompanied respondent EG3, the experience was rife with diverse people listening to different cultural performances. The visitor described her involvement as engaging in the cultural aspects of:
Smell, fragrance, food, chatter, visuals—all these stimulate the mind and inform people of what matters to others. Even though I do not understand some of the music, such as the Indian music, I found myself engaged in my own stories of it and asking questions about it. These responses indicate that World culture audiences, therefore, enjoy cultural exchanges. These exchanges may not only be understood as common cultural occurrences between transnational migrants and global inhabitants, but form a part of the involvement that contributes to the continuity of cultural traditions.
For most of the time, the world culture audience appeared to enjoy other cultural forms, as I did. They danced and clapped along as the rhythmic pattern accompaniment matched artists’ enactments on stage. They enjoyed watching others participate in communal dances, such as the Bollywood synchronised dance, Bhangra
(SFOL 2014), the open Gujarati Garba Hour (SFOL 2015), or forming their own imagining of stories from the performances. I spoke with some people whom I placed in this category and their responses included: ‘much pleasure’, ‘good vibes’, ‘creation of own imaginations’, ‘a feeling of beauty’, ‘something different’, ‘excellent visual entertainment that is pleasurable and stimulating’ and ‘a good feeling of the spirit of the celebration itself’. They might not have fully understood what they were listening to, or knew the social background of artists, but they felt the experience of the performance together. However, the relationship between both audiences sometimes becomes blurred at SFOL—they are interchangeable. As I discovered, placing myself in this interchange, the SMV’s public audience will have similar experiences of becoming
157 a world culture audience when they observe a Chinese performance, Irish dance, ballet or flamenco dance.
The festival usually ends at 9.30pm each night with a firework display because it is considered a fitting end for most Hindus and in keeping with tradition. Moreover, in
Australia, respondent EG3 explained: ‘Australia’s fireworks restriction in neighbourhoods has caused more Hindus to celebrate the event together in a public space, so in a way, Australia has unintentionally played a small part in bringing its society together’.
The official opening begins with a short procession of performers from different cultures in traditional attire. Respondent EG2 explained that ‘they are guests as well, and we created a new tradition, heralding the path to cultural interactions; this is the performance change we have brought to our traditional cultural Indian practice’. The accompanying polyrhythms and the soundscape of various drums played by African,
Indian and Aboriginal musicians together represented, to me, the symbolic intersections of cultural harmony and diversity. It is followed through with the customary opening, ‘Welcome to Country’ or ‘Acknowledgement of Traditional
Custodians of the Land’. The official inauguration of the event usually begins in the presence of prominent public figures from the government of Western Australian and representatives from the Indian Consulate in Perth with the lighting of the lamp, the
Aarthi, as a Hindu ritual of puja. The Aarthi performance itself shows a continuity of cultural practice as choreographed dance to signify divine grace and blessings. Even the audience participates by waving light-emitting devices in unity and support, as one would see at a large open-air concert. The performance demonstrates that traditions can be transformed effectively and successfully in a contemporary Western domain. At the 2013 SFOL event, respondent EG1 drew attention to the lighting of the lamp:
EG1: It is more than an acknowledgement of the self. It’s a spread of goodness that we pray for from a Hindu deity that I guess becomes meaningful to Hindu or
158 person praying to it. What is it showing you? ME: [I pause, trying to formulate a respectful yet understanding response]. It seems to form a symbolic agreement in the presence of people. EG1: Yes! Exactly! It is an open invitation on stage to unite everyone in prayer and a collective agreement of blessing to all and the event.
Image 4: SFOL fireworks finale.126
There is usually a short preamble to each item, leaving only solo Indian music performers to traditionally introduce their music as part of their interaction with the audience. The compères each year present the program in English. The preambles are extremely short. Respondent EG3 explained: ‘we don’t want to jeopardise the performance time. Look around; there is too much talking, eating, noise—is anyone really listening to the speaker? They can get all the info from the app’. I looked around
126 SFOL fireworks display. From SFOL website. Accessed August 12, 2012. https://sfol.com.au/whats-on- items/2018/11/9/act-belong-commit-swan-festival-of-lights.
159 and realised that no one around me lacked the confidence, the savoir-faire in accessing the brief synopsis of the artists and the line-up of items from the event’s website.
Internationally acclaimed Indian artists at other major events usually have an allocated
45-minute slot. These include artists such as L. Subramaniam and Ustad Usman Khan,127 who tend to play shortened segments of classical pieces instead of authentically formatted repertoires of around three hours. Respondent EG3 provided a good reason for this: ‘There is no time for the lengthy classical repertoire of three hours here.
Besides, we would lose the diverse crowds we want to attract; that is why we have separate recitals for a different audience type’. Respondent EG1 found that acclaimed dancers and musicians are allocated more time as a sign of respect for their professional achievements and skills:
We take as much as we can from them. They have undergone years of training to master the technical complexities of the art form and style and they have much to teach us. They deserve our respect so … we expect them to display their virtuosity, their strength, their interpretations and mastery— and that is what I want to see when I hear them play in a ‘live’ performance … even the public wants to know what makes them so renowned … what an opportunity for them too, and it's free. Respondent EG2 asserted: ‘Another significant reason is that participants and members of SMV value Indian high art forms and traditional folk forms that cannot be reduced to a ten-minute composition; it loses its authenticity. Therefore, it attains a degree of respect on stage’. Usually, abridged versions of music or dance are rearranged and performed by these artists who draw from their cultural heritage of the north or south. For instance, L. Subramaniam is one such artist who comes from a musical lineage of the traditional Guru-Shishya Parampara; he demonstrates that traditions can be adaptable in the Western world without compromise and performs his own compositions showing the violin’s solo position in Indian music. For SFOL’s
127 Both maestros are deans of Hindustani and Carnatic music respectively at the Temple of Fine Arts International.
160 audiences, his repertoire consists of light classical, Western and fusion-styled music.128
Such adaptations in music demonstrate that even acclaimed performers who are expert in their own art forms are also transforming their own practices to suit Perth’s environment.
Indian classical artists also tend to articulate their sensitivity to the different performance crowds. During the 2014 SFOL, L. Subramaniam (2014) shared his thoughts about SFOL audience:
It’s a very good cosmopolitan crowd to play to, you almost get a mixture of our own people, Indians [rather] than local people, who are very musical because I had the opportunity to listen to different people over a period of time. So, it’s not that you are coming and playing for a totally new audience, but we [wife and son] feel very comfortable in these situations. Subramaniam’s response indicates that performances of this nature demonstrate what writers refer to as the interconnectedness of countries and cultures that transnational migrants bring (Firth 2006; Mohanty 2006; Vertovec 2003). An interesting claim from
Subramaniam is that of a shared identity of being Indian when he refers to Perth
Indians as ‘our own people'. He demonstrates that Indian artists from India also feel at home among Indians in such interactions.
The SFOL event reflects the different approaches to continuity and change in Indian cultural tradition that artists take in a contemporary society. These artists keep strong ties by maintaining a connection with SMV and the different Temple of Arts organisations around the world, sharing their skills and expertise. For example, in instrumental music, Ustad Usman Khan does not deviate from performing only classical
Indian music to a Western audience, even though he tends to play only extracts at
SFOL to keep the audience enthused. According to respondent EG1, Ustad Usman
128 Subramaniam was tutored by his father, a violinist and teacher. The world famous Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival (LGMF) was established in 1922 in memory of his father, V. Lakshminarayana Iyar. To this date, the festival has been held in 55 cities across 22 countries. It hosts up to 20,000 people at a single event. From Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival website. Accessed 3 October 2015. http//www.lgmf.org/about/.
161 Khan is not a fan of fusion forms of expression, but he appreciates other instruments and listens to jazz and Western music when he tours Western countries. The artist shared his stance of being a custodian of a cultural art form in a global community:
It is the responsibility of us senior musicians to guide the next generation and stress the importance of Classical music. It’s our ibadhat.129 I’m hopeful that a few musicians can keep the purity of the art intact. We have a lot of young talent, but these days, commercialising the art has become a norm. I’m not very happy with that … Fusion music to me seems like a big confusion. See, I’m all for improvising within the limits of the freedom that basic music theory gives us, but for everyone to take up fusion music just because it is popular is just short sighted (Khan 2017). Conversely, L. Subramaniam maintains his classical South Indian traditions of music playing in a more connected and pronounced way. He tends to engage with fusion forms to connect more deeply with the violin at a different level and to engage with different cultures at SFOL, which he calls light classical Indian music:
The opportunity to play with musicians outside our traditional sphere opened up a number of things … my own innate connection with my instrument, the ability to learn about how the violin is approached in the West, their technique and their dedication to the craft. Whether playing with a Stanley Clarke or a Jean-Pierre Rampal [band], it is … my quest in connecting with my instrument that has held me in great stead (Subramaniam 2015). Other musicians shared that, when contemporary fusion forms are combined with traditional Indian styles, it enhances the understanding of their musical traditions. A musician from the Indian percussion orchestra, Damaru,130 explained:
My parents were worried that I would lose interest in an Indian classical instrument. I really want to become better at it, and fusion styles are only experimental for me and is there to add variety and ways in which Indian music could be modernised; I feel I can connect to other cultures this way too. SMV’s tabla teacher, SB, explained:
129 Arabic term that means service or servitude. 130 Damaru is a Singapore-based Indian percussion orchestra established at the Temple of Fine Arts International. The composer and conductor is Nawaz Mirajkar.
162 My first love is the tabla and once you graduate and acquire skills, you cannot actually lose it because the discipline of practice established over the years stays with you, and continues each day; it's a devotion each day, actually. I find different fusion styles give a change to the normal classical training. Its meaning is found in the merging of styles. There are people in many countries that I play with who find it pleasurable and even easier to listen to, and that is a nice to know, so Perth is not unique that way with audiences, I feel. From these responses, it is evident that musicians are comfortable with their own traditions but acknowledge the benefits of exploring other cultural forms of the west.
As Paul Gilroy (1993) indicated, engaging with one’s cultural roots is essential because it enables people to position themselves in society and it does not mean that they are controlled by tradition. In this regard, Umesh Shetty (2005) stated:
Tradition is like the roots of a tree. Very necessary, but the growth of the tree is seen in the movement of the branches skyward. Therefore, both are essential to the thriving of an art form. Aren’t we all products of traditional and modern concepts? We wear Western clothes, eat traditional food, speak a combination of our mother tongues as well as English, sing pop songs as well as songs in our mother tongue. So, I guess we are always as a society becoming more and more inclined to taking the best from all cultures and making it ours, be it in food, fashion, language, music and dance. Umesh Shetty’s argument is suggestive of ‘cultural borrowing’, a taking of ideas and styles of another culture, as a natural progression that tradition permits because creativity allows that. His contemporary choreographed works, typically borrowed from different cultures, was reflected when his Malaysian-based dance troupe, Inner Space, performed Inside Out at the SFOL event in 2010. Respondent EG1 considered it a
‘trendsetter piece’ that set a new creative pace for contemporary dance performances five years earlier in Malaysia, before it was performed in Perth. According to Shetty
(2006), his choreography arrangements are not about merging cultures, but about bringing different dance forms together to create a character and the music for it.
Regarding the music, he stated:
We tried to retain the traditional framework of the music of Allaripu and Jathiswaram [two components of the Bharatanatyam repertoire]. Composing
163 music for this dance is also different because we could not work in seclusion but had to work hand in hand with the dancers, making these combinations symbiotic. In addition, we were trying something new (Shetty 2005). The interaction between these dances in forming an art form demonstrates that in a contemporary setting, shapes and forms of classical Indian dance can be organised within traditional forms, yet unrestricted to its structures and rules when interpreting stories and characters on a stage. Using dance styles to drive the music composition, rather than the other way around, demonstrates that the continuation of tradition also implies changes that include adjustments, adaptations and different interpretations.
The participants have shown a similar understanding and believe that continuity and changes of their Indian culture in the performing arts are part of their practice that include exchanges of ideas, integration of performing artworks and intercultural interaction.
Turning now to the drama performance based on stories from the Ramayana at an
SFOL event that ran at times for 80 minutes per session, the performances engaged audiences in Indian theatre that consisted of dance, music, drama and narration. I was disappointed, however, by the use of soundtracks instead of a live orchestra or band.
Respondent EG3 justified it as ‘a suitable and convenient practice in this digital age’, given that artists from different Temple of Fine Arts organisations performed, and an original production previously designed for an Asian audience was presented in an abridged version, especially created for the SFOL event that consisted predominantly of a Western audience. It therefore can be argued that between cultures of the east and the west, transformation of stories, in this context, the Ramayana131 is necessary.
Although respondent EG1 indicated that important segments of the story can be lost, as there is a tendency for people to be absorbed in their own conversations that shape interactions and memories of their lived experiences unrelated to the performance
131 The sketch depicted the struggle of the exiled prince, Rama, who rescues his wife from the demon King Ravana after kidnapping her. It is the story of Diwali that Hindus relate to fervently and it is retold as a story of love, war, revenge, struggle and hope.
164 itself, most participants considered the Hindu epic at SFOL to be the high point of the festival because it is an established story that has shaped their religious belief.
Respondent P5 found that the dramatisation serves two purposes:
Firstly … even as [a] shortened version, people as spectators and members, that run into thousands, can learn about an ancient story that is relevant to us, spiritually and terms of our Indian identity, and secondly, the dramatisation of this epic is symbolic, as the lighting of lamps is about light over darkness. The wars fought in these stories, I believe, were for a reason—not to expand empires, but to overcome evil and right the wrong that was done during King Bharat’s time. It is significant today and could easily apply to us as people living in a country that has a dark past, or even as descendants of colonial and postcolonial injustice. We are reminded that good overcomes evil and we can right the wrongs of the past. We have this unique voice of SFOL, always to make people aware that light overcomes darkness. This reflection indicates that even while performance works draw on past cultures for inspiration, they are actually linking their diaspora to histories and stories that are significant to them. Subsequently, they have conceptualised the Deepavali story into deeper meanings that tap into the consciousness of people. As diasporic individuals, it is suggested, participants have responded to their own spiritual development seeking to spread a message of hope, rather than loss.
Furthermore, the narrative which they enact each year, as indicated by respondent P5, is a ritual that evokes more than one sense of diasporic consciousness in participants—
Indian and Hindu. Participants rely on the ritual of a selected text, Ramayana, which advances their spiritual life into service and influences their performing arts practice in the process of promoting their Indian identity and culture. As it is suggested: by
‘working together, artists and other community members have drawn on reservoirs of cultural memory, reinventing the past in order to understand and change the present’
(Goldbard 2006, 107).
A further example of SMV’s sense of diasporic consciousness can be seen in the 2013
SFOL production titled An Indian Journey. The production involved cultural styles and
165 narration that displayed different Indian travels. Typically narrated in dramatised form, the travel stories centred on Assam (Guhan scene), Bhangra, Kuala Lumpur, Dhandia
Raas (Gujarat and Rajasthan), the Indian drums and Kerala as small and big journeys.
The performance ran for 80 minutes and the identities and associations of spaces, places, travel and locale on stage indicated diasporic struggle and hope for a brighter future. Although the stage production represented Indian travel between India,
Malaysia, Singapore and Perth as their life journeys, there was an underlying message in their depiction of diasporic living and adaptations that there is a need for greater cultural recognition of minority cultures.
Image 5: A scene from An Indian Journey (Introduction), Sunday 3 November 2013.132
There is a balanced repertoire of folk, contemporary, traditional and fusion styles in a ten-minute slot to include more diverse performances of different cultures.133 During the 2014 SFOL event at Langley Park, respondent EG2 and I looked at the repertoire of the different SFOL events over the years.134 We noted the changes in the types of
132 Image courtesy of SMV and accessed from Swan Festival of Lights (SFOL) website on July 2, 2014. https://sfol.com.au/ 133 See Appendix C. 134 Ibid.
166 performances presented at SFOL since its inception in 2008. It became apparent that the significance of this event lies in the way performers transfer cultural diversity into the practice of inclusivity. As respondent EG2 pointed out, ‘showcasing difference is not the same as embracing it, and it starts with the artists as well, because they also understand SFOL’s ethos’. Therefore, it can be argued that SFOL is not about only showcasing Indian culture or cultures, as I initially thought; it is about how cultures engage in the performing arts. Respondent EG2 stated:
Look at the line-up of international artists and the local diverse cultures mixing with the locals and even audiences here, they are really interacting, sharing and learning from each other and supporting different art forms; Don’t you think they are reshaping themselves in contemporary culture and taking their own traditional cultural arts beyond their own conventions through engagement? I paused then, concurring and observing the local WA Police pipe band performance with only snare and bass drums. I found that they, too, were using their music to represent one of the cultural traditions of Western Australia and to break down barriers between the community, police and government.
Image 6: WA police pipe band (snares and bass), 2014 SFOL.
167 Although it is argued that the agenda of local governments is to use festivals, in collaboration with cultural organisations, as a marketing tool to boost attendance and therefore revenue (Booth 2016), it is really part of the larger multicultural strategy to make, in this instance, Indian communities more inclusive (Johnson 2007, 80). SFOL, it is suggested, has been more responsive to the latter agenda, as its scope has been more utilitarian. The evidence presented so far strengthens the case that SFOL participants have taken the lead to create a decidedly intercultural relationship between Indian communities and other communities in Perth. It has been a two-way process: developing confidence about one’s own culture and acquiring capacity to interact creatively with others. Unsurprisingly, this has led to the creation of more intercultural performances aimed at fostering harmony and respect for cultural difference. Thus, instead of grouping Indian South Asian items or ethnic cultures together, SMV strategically mixes African, Irish, Spanish, Cossacks, Aboriginal, Maori, Indigenous
Australian, East Asian and Latin American cultures. While there is interest in the variety of performances, such practice, more importantly, shows that the process of intercultural understanding is occurring, and at the same time, such depiction of different cultures in new spaces enable the Indian diaspora to feel less insulated in
Perth. This form of performing arts practice is an effective means of exhibiting a cross- cultural awareness. For example, at two SFOL events, both ‘SMV’s public audience’ and
‘world culture audience’ participated in the open Garba135 (Gujarati folk dance and song) in 2015 and the Bhangra dance (Punjabi folk dance) in 2013 and 2014. These forms of cultural celebratory dances depicting specific Indian folk culture encouraged audience participation. These activities created a space for cross-cultural exchanges and intercultural engagement.
In light of the SFOL event, representing what P1 describes as ‘wider aesthetic rasa experiences’, it seems fitting to conclude this chapter with discussion of a
135 Garba is a ceremonial dance honouring a deity named Durga and Bhangra is a harvest-celebrating dance of thanksgiving and is more secular in nature.
168 contemporary performance that portrays the adaptability of ancient texts to contemporary living. In November 2013, I attended a performance with respondent
EG2 and an art teacher. The segment comprised of Sarasa Krishnan’s improvised performance that involved movement, painting and music and was titled, Action
Abstraction. It incorporated other cultural styles, such as ballet, flamenco and Thai martial arts. The painting was formed from a consciousness of what is seen, experienced and heard using past sensations of the artists’ personal experiences.
Image 7: Painting and dance in progress—Action Abstraction performance.
Artists on stage moved to fusion music that varied slightly in tempo. They were barefoot, dressed in contemporary clothes. The movements were dissimilar at times, yet they were fluid and harmonious. For me, it was a perfect representation of cultural diversity and harmony and a formation of new meaning. I wondered if this was what
Sarasa Krishnan intended for the event—something that shifted to performance as an experience rather than performance as a work of art. I became aware of the ‘third space’ (Bhabha 1994) that creates further in-between spaces for cultures to meet in this performance. According to Homi Bhabha, it gives rise to something different, ‘new’ and ‘recognisable’—a new area of meaning, negotiation and representation (Bhabha
169 1994, 211). Our dialogue framed the paintings in this space as aesthetic impressions that reflected different cultural interactions:
Art I feel it [performance] sort of fulfils a spiritual teacher: purpose of sharing something good from personal experiences. Just watching them is therapeutic. EG2: Very abstract. Me: The title is action-abstraction. Art It’s about perception as an entity that transforms teacher: consciousness. EG2: I don’t understand this abstraction business. Art We learn from what has been ingrained in our teacher: minds. You know, like experiences, cultural experiences too—what [we] have seen, what we have heard and what we have learned in our experiences. It is what they are showing us now: their experiences. EG2: So, we are what we are because of our relationship with others and things. Art You can say that. teacher: Me: So, our actions and movements reflect how we see the world. Art Correct. But, we don’t necessarily have to teacher: understand it. It is their experience. They are interpreting the music, feeling it and moving to it, not us. EG2: You mean reacting to the music? Art True. Also, I think we are reacting to what we are teacher: seeing—their shapes, actions, movements and gestures as part of the expression of their own cultures. EG2: A brilliant idea, but very abstract. So, Sarasa is learning about them and their perceptions and they are learning about her and her perceptions…that’s rasa! I can feel that.
170 ME: And bhava too, something that becomes; it is quite absorbing…I wonder what the painting will eventually look like. Art Does that really matter, sitting here is that teacher: experience? By the way, what is rasa?
171
Chapter Six Performances: Conversations, Experiences and Interpretations
______‘All Rasas are dominated by pleasure, because of being the manifest and uninterrupted form of tasting one’s own consciousness’ (Ghosh 1950, 8).
Feet on Fire
EG1: You like Indian fusion stuff? EG2: Mostly cultural fusion music of ancient traditions and folk music, but not the techno mixed music; it becomes just another music subgenre. And you? [addresses ME]. ME: I do listen to a variety [of] fusion music. It takes you to different places of origin. EG1: Me too, especially with Indian fusion sounds. EG2: I wished there was a better word, like ‘blended’ or ‘melded’, because it is about mixed styles. EG1: Definitely. And more mixed art forms from different folkloric people, not the popular culture stuff that is produced for radio audiences.
Feet on Fire drew my attention for the following reasons: it incorporated classical
Indian forms and instruments with majority of artists traditionally trained in their own art form; the Indian artists received their tutelage in the traditional gurukula, guru–student relationship; and the fusion piece uses two distinct traditional cultural forms of two different cultures.
I take a moment here to explain that the analytical interpretation of the following performance extract is not only to reveal the intricacies of musical elements and structures found in the composition; it is to describe what is heard when listening, from
SMV’s public audience perspective, and to explain the differences between Indian and
172 flamenco cultural music and dance. They may only remain as prints on a page, but this print significantly illustrates the strong oral traditions of the cultures that are firmly located in the artist’s mind. I have used this process because it is part of the ethnological process of decoding sounds, as it is a means of communication to determine not only what cultures do, but also what these combinations of sounds do for cultures. The translation of the performance experience into words thus reveals how the elements of music—such as pitch, melody, rhythm, harmony, dynamics, expression, tempo and timbre—are perceived and interpreted differently between two cultures.
This cultural fusion composition occurred as a result of an individual cultural encounter between two artists.
Feet on Fire was performed at the new Elizabeth Quay landmark, ‘The Spanda’, at the
2016 SFOL event. Even though I carried a notebook, I knew I would be unable to write in the night’s darkness, surrounded by scintillating lighting directed at the stage and the flickering flashlights from mobiles and cameras around me. I therefore, relied on my mobile device to record images of the event and conversations between myself and the event guides, EG1 and EG3.
Image 8: A personal diary of the event. Image 9: SFOL 2016 central Perth position.
173 When the stage lights were raised, it revealed the impressive 29-metre Spanda sculpture.136 The preamble was brief, introducing the leading artists and hints of fusion of Kathak and flamenco styles.137 For me, it revealed more—it revealed that transformations of performing arts practice can occur in a three-way cross-cultural pattern: adaptation, recreation and commonality. In the first pattern ,the process involved an adaptation of an original piece for the SFOL event in Perth. Besides, the composer and Indian vocalist, the performance predominantly consisted of musicians and dancers from SMV and Perth. In the second pattern, recreation, the performance of the piece demonstrates how artists from two different cultures are willing to explore and recreate through transforming aspects of their own cultural traditions that have roots traced to ancient India. The recreation of music and dance in this way, through collaboration, can be considered a form of intercultural communication conveyed through ongoing transnational diasporic travel. The third pattern, commonality, shows the composition’s acultural identity in the title, Feet on Fire, which abstractly highlights the commonality of cultures in which an understanding of diverse cultures can occur through dance and music. Thus, dancing together in this way, becomes a celebration of our distinctiveness and similarity. It also indicates that, as artists, they are there to cultivate the joy of ancient forms in new ways.
Feet on Fire is an eclectic fusion piece composed by TFA Singaporean-based musician and composer, Nawaz Mirajkar, who conducted the ensemble while playing the tabla.
136 Spanda is an art sculpture designed by Christian de Vietri. The artist’s inspiration is drawn from Perth’s Swan River, land and sky. The sculpture depicts this landscape. According to the artist’s description, ‘Spanda is a Sanskrit word that means "divine vibration". The term is used to describe how consciousness moves in waves of contraction and expansion. The sculpture gives form to this primordial energy. My intention in making this sculpture is to express and facilitate oneness of the individual with the universal’; Christian de Vietri, ‘Spanda,’ Metro Redevelopment Authority (MRA), accessed November 29, 2016, https://www.mra.wa.gov.au/see-and-do/elizabeth-quay/attractions/spanda. 137 I had earlier heard a different Spanish and Indian classical fusion involving music and dance in 2013, at the recital of Pandit Kumar Bose and Pandit Debojyoti Bose. The recital included Vicky Ramakrishnan, dancers and flamenco musicians joined to create a fusion piece. The only vocal was the bol count for the Kathak dancers, Sukhi Shetty-Krishnan and Manjula Radha Krishnan.
174 The lead dancers, Farida Rabih138 and Manjula Radha Krishnan,139 danced traditional flamenco and Kathak traditions. The Indian musicians who played Indian instruments assumed traditional seated positions on the stage-riser: they were cross-legged and bare-footed. The tabla player, Indian vocalist, who articulated the taal (theka or bols), and the sitar player were positioned on the left, while the Spanish guitarist and cante flamenco singer sat on stage chairs on the right next to the Cajón player. The binary seating positions of the musicians demarcated the two traditions, while the piano and violin retained a centre stage position in the background. There was, for the observer, an anticipation of polyrhythms, as musicians were seated to keep their own sense of synchronisation with their dancers and the rhythmic traditions of the cultures.
Respondent SB, the only Indian playing on the Spanish side, sat on the Cajón percussion box (musical instrument), which was required when playing the instrument.
He is more familiarly observed in Indian classical performances playing the tabla in the traditional cross-legged position seated on the floor with the—bayan and dayan.140
Respondent EG1 also noticed the intercultural exchange and commented: ‘But, look, he is still barefooted, and wearing a short white kurta shirt and scarf; that’s authentic, even though he has switched sides and instruments’. I agreed, noticing that the two other Spanish musicians wore typical dark suits and formal black shoes.
When the first sounds were produced, respondent EG1 noted: ‘There is no tuning like we do in the classical recitals, you noticed?’ Respondent EG3 agreed and added: ‘but I can hear the striking of two notes on the dayan in tune with the sitar. I was taught to pitch notes in this traditional way too, when I used to learn the tabla’. I then realised that EG1 and EG3, too, had assumed reflexive stances.
138 Farida Rabih is the Principal of Casa Del Compás, a Spanish dance school in Perth. 139 Manjula Radha Krishnan is a professional dancer and teacher based at SMV who trained under several TFA dance masters. A detailed profile is accessible via SMV’s website: https://www.smv.org.au/our- people/j615ulqab4zduwv8svef1x0q86gwwc; A Shastram, Season 2, Episode 17, ‘Among Giants with Manjula Radha Krishnan’, July 18, 2016; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNyvx1hviT4. 140 The tabla drums are called bayan (left or base head drum) and Dayan (right or tonal head drum).
175
Image 10: Feet on Fire ensemble at The Spanda, Elizabeth Quay.
I had prior knowledge of North Indian music in South Africa, but acquired a broader understanding of it by attending the various recitals at SMV over the years. I had some idea of what to expect and how to experience it using my own understanding of musical structure. However, it is essential to briefly outline the structure of North Indian classical music structure, as I understand it, before progressing any further. In traditional North Indian classical instrumental performance, the audience is aware of the musical style and understands, to an extent, the unique improvisations that performers are likely to present. Traditionally, the music is not usually explained or followed in written or notational form. North Indian music is structured into two sections: the alap and the gat. Musicians usually introduce their piece by playing the first few notes in the first section, called the alap, that has three parts: alap, jor and jhala. The alap comprises the first few notes and the first and fifth pitch is played on a drone instrument (tambura) to provide a continuous indication of the tonality and pitch of the raga that the performer will use. While it lacks a melody or rhythm, the notes of the raga are played first, in descending order, then in ascending order. The jor forms the introduction to the improvisation. This is where the musician creates simple
176 melodies over the raga. The melodies are short, but they extend to longer motifs that begin on the lower notes and then progress to the higher notes, before they lead into the third part, called the jhala. In this part, there is fast, energetic strumming usually on the sitar or sarod and long melodic passages that use the full melodic range on melodic instruments. It is generally understood that while the role of the musician is to sketch the shape of the raga, expecting his or her audience to identify, in stages, its mode, pitch and theme, the audience is expected to follow the musicians as they build on these aspects, revealing the mastery of skill, interpretation and improvisation.
The next section is the gat, which is a fixed rhythm and melody section in which the tabla determines the taal, or rhythmic cycle. At the end of the gat, the jhala emerges again as improvisation and demonstrates the artist’s virtuosity and the complexity of improvisation with the taal, providing the continuous rhythmic cycle as it alternatively interlaces with the gat. The illustration, which follows, outlines the basic structure.
177 Alap (± 45 minutes) Gat
alap jor jhala gat gat gat jhala
• 1st & 5th notes on • Pure improvisation • Fast-paced • Faster section. • Rhythmic • Rhythmic • Climax of drone backing for only. ending of the • Composition cycle cycle piece sustained pitch. • Emerging steady raga. begins. repeated. repeated. showing • Tambura used as pulse. • Seamless • Beginning of tala • Improvised • Improvised virtuosity and drone. • Begins with short transition to cycle. melodies melodies mastery of • No composed melodies on lower climax of alap. • Tabla entry. around the around raga skills. melody/rhythm. & middle register • Vigorous • Tabla establishes raga composition • Descending notes on instrument. strumming. the rhythmic composition . of raga (scale), • Tempo increases. • Fast playing. cycle. . followed by Melodic range • Long • Short framework ascending notes. expands. melodies. aimed at raga Relaxed, calm. • Full and tala player for instrumental improvising. range. • Melody fits the tala exactly 1 or 2 times around the rhythmic cycle. • Sarangi, violin, harmonica, sitar.
Raga Raga/Tala Figure 3: A typical structure of North Indian instrumental music performance.
While this basic structure of Indian classical music may represent the way North Indian
instrumental music may be structured according to my own understanding, I was keen
to understand whether the audience regarded as ‘world culture audience’, as
introduced in the previous chapter, paid closer attention to elements of structure and
form, or the thematic motifs and sections of improvisations when they listen.
Participants in the research, for example, showed that they were familiar with the
sections of any basic contemporary song that usually comprise of verses, a chorus and
perhaps a bridge. However, this fusion piece challenges different understandings.
There is an argument that all audiences ‘act in culturally significant ways, using their
knowledge to adapt cultural forms and performances in meaningful, even potentially
subversive and critical ways’ (Meinhof 2005, 115). I find that, even with such conceptual
distinctions between the two types of music meaning, Indian classical and fusion, both
can coexist and sometimes become blurred in the performance space. At times, it even
178 reveals more of the audience’s nature (SMV’s public audience and the world cultural audience) and what they see and experience. The observation and analysis took shape against this distinctive classical structure and form that I am familiar with. Such perceptions of the nature of intercultural performance negotiate new meanings that are occurring between the musicians, dancers, composition and audiences.
In my interpretation, the composition, Feet on Fire, is positioned in an Indian classical mode of a specific taal and rag framework and is outwardly structured around a straightforward ternary (ABA) musical form consisting of a separate, yet significant introduction. Elements from the traditional alap and gat are arranged to accommodate the rhythmic flamenco patterns. As already mentioned, the alap is brief and devoid of the traditional jor and jhala to form the introduction. It deviates from the lengthy improvisations that the musician usually owns over the raga notes. Instead, the Kathak dancer assumes this improvisation role and introduces the Kathak style.
Within a ternary structure, the composition is based on the scale, Rag Kirwani, and the time signature of Ek Taal (12 beats) captures the notion of the Indian classical gat in a theme and variation form (A section), followed by a flamenco intermezzo141 (B section) before returning to the gat (A section) in a modified thematic variation as seen in the illustration that follows. The interpretation of this composition only explores the Alap as well as the theme and variation sections.
Alap Gat—Fusion Siguiriyas— Gat—fusion traditional Exposition Theme and variations Flamenco A variation of the theme rag Kirwani & Ek taal Siguiriyas rag Kirwani & Ek Taal Intro A B A Figure 4: An outline of Feet on Fire—An interpretation.
141 In music, the Italian word intermezzo, in the most general sense, applies to a composition that fits between other musical frameworks, such as acts of a larger musical work.
179 The crowds became quieter as the performance began. They seemed curious and listened to the first new notes, perhaps the 1st and 5th pitch of the scale notes that I was trying to hear. The first few notes as drones came from the sitar, as the musician strummed only twice in descending order on the Chikari strings (drone strings) in a free-form introductory set of bars. I usually understand this part of the piece from a western perspective of classical form, known as the exposition.142 In this composition, it set the mood with descending melodic notes that is recognised as Rag Kirwani (the melodic scale of the composition). The violin responded to the call from the sitar player.
Me: I know the notes of this scale very well. EG1: You know the Rag Kirwani scale? It’s one of my favourite scales too. ME: I know it as the Western Harmonic minor scale. EG1: Exact, same? ME: Identical in sound, but more involved with the tonal formation of the swaras (notes). EG1: This rag is very melodious [and] full of emotion. That is why in Indian culture it is used a lot, especially in popular Indian songs and filmi music. I was actually playing Yeh Raat Bheegi Bheegi Chori Chori,143 on the harmonium today; it has this same rag. What Western song comes to your mind? ME: The Beatles song, Girl. I heard that on the radio today.
Figure 5: An illustration of Rag Kirwani with Western notation.
142 In Western music analysis, an exposition is found at the beginning of a piece forming a preliminary presentation of the theme to be found in the composition. 143 A Hindi film song
180 These illustrated notes that set the scales are not merely sounds to culture; I describe these sounds because they draw meaning to the performer and the player. There is order, anticipation and a signal for the beginning of an event. Respondent EG1 expressed it well:
When we hear these first notes, in Indian culture, we believe it is an invitation to the audience to get ready, to anticipate the experience of becoming. It’s a reminder to tune in, focus and become one with the performer; that is the respect she [Kathak dancer on stage] commands on stage. The illustration, which follows in table form, displays an overview of the key elements of
Indian classical music that are used in the fusion composition. The theme and variation section, which I refer to as the gat in this interpretation, develops the theme with variation patterns that are formed on the taal and raga. The variation begins with the augmentation of notes on the higher strings of the violin as a compositional technique that allowed the dance to improvise on these long notes.
181 Alap Gat144 (slow, medium, fast) A—Introduction/exposition B—Development (theme and variation)
Alap A Alap B Instrumental support to a few extracts of the Kathak form—subdivisions Uthaan145/Aamad146 (hints of Thaat, Gat, Tihai, Ladi, Palta, Chal, Tukra)147 • Sitar Chikari (drone • Beginning of tala cycle with tabla. • Pre-composed • Repeated cycle • tala and melodic • Flamenco guitar • New developed • Climax of strings). • Vocal used as solo instrument. melodic motif-4 of raga melody cycle as repeated introduced as only melodic motif on Kathak, • Pitch established. Theka or bols accompanying bars begins with composition framework. accompaniment. Violin and Sitar – flamenco • Descending notes dancer (classical form). violin and sitar in and tabla • Continued vocals • Establishes new high notes based on the played twice. • Tabla establishes the rhythmic unison. rhythm cycle. (bols) accompanying accents on the introduced. tala rhythmic • (D Harmonic minor cycle. • lower & middle • Vocal flamenco & Kathak rhythmic cycle of 4 • No tabla and bols. cycle. or Kirwani). • Kathak solo dance. register on (bols/theka) dance. bars. • Improvised • New melodic • Sitar improvisation. • Steady pulse no accents. instrument. with Kathak • Improvisation from • Flamenco solo dance melodies around motif with a • No composed • No Rhythmic solo. dancers only. only. raga composition. new emergent melody/rhythm. backing). • Steady rhythm flamboyant • Violin responds with • Accents to • Melody fits the flamenco improvisation flamenco count. tala around the melody on the confirming the pitch. • Short framework rhythmic cycle. violin. • Relaxed, calm. raga/ tala a dance • Chordal • Virtuosity of improvisation. textures on sitar tala and raga. /keys • Virtuosity
Tala Raga/Tala Figure 6: An illustration of Indian classical music adaptions in fusion musical form.
144 The gat in instrumental music signals the actual short composition that is built around a framework to remind the players of both the tala and the raga of what they are playing. The gat is also used in Kathak dance as one of the subdivisions of the Kathak composition. Implied as ‘walk’ or ‘gait,’ the visual movement depicts scenes from daily life and, in this context, ‘intercultural interaction’. 145 An introductory tabla composition of heavy tabla bols. 146 Persian word for ‘entry’. It is an essential part of the Kathak dance in which the dancer presents himself or herself in front of the audience. 147 Different formations and sections of the Kathak were identified in the composition. Thaat means structure, in which the dancer introduces the definite dance form that ends on a fixed pose (sam). Tihai is the footwork composition based on bols. Ladi, also a footwork composition, consists of variations on a theme. Palta signifies the change of the order of rhythm (bol) and the dancer walks depicting certain movement from one defined position to another position. Tukra depicts the single rotation of the bol (rhythm).
182 The gat, which forms the instrumental statement of the composition in traditional music, is transformed for the Kathak dance. This, in turn, demonstrates the abstract visual gaits of the Kathak dancer. The variation of the raga and the Kathak dance styles is set over a fixed taal, but with a tempo that ranges from slow, medium to fast. The melody develops into various variations until an emergent flamenco melodic line is formed. Dance forms the final variation in this section, with all instruments playing together in an increased tempo with the Kathak dancer. The piece would have become a performance on its own even without the dancers on stage, as the music is captivating on its own. However, in this arrangement, it is inseparable from both flamenco and Kathak dance styles because, as I have discovered, this fusion piece has originated from social and cultural borrowing and interaction.
The musicians who played the raga and taal followed the traditional Indian classical method of performance by performing the musical score from memory. The only musician who followed some form of scribbled scoring, at times, was the Indian vocalist, who kept the bol rhythmic shape for the Kathak performer. It was intense and brilliant to the point that, as a performer, the vocalist shared the same attention on stage as the dancers, even though one senses that the Kathak movement itself delivers its own message. The illustration outlines the adaptations made to traditional North
Indian instrumental performance in the ‘introduction’ and the ‘theme and variation’ sections.
Engagement with the audience is somewhat communal, with musicians and dancers sharing a space, yet inviting the audience into the shared experience. For example, the audience clapped when the dance sequences were intricate and complex and was silent when the sorrowful nuances of the Spanish Cante Jondo vocal (flamenco singing style) sung by the ‘cantaor’ (male cante singer) were sensed, as the feeling was intense.
They applauded when the taal and kathak synchronised together, especially when the footwork ended exactly with a dance pose that matched the last note of the rhythmic cycle. The dancers appeared to draw the audience into a communication that they
183 seemed to share with the musicians on stage. A closer look at the gestures from the tabla player, guitarist, Kathak vocalist and flamenco vocalist, indicated an interchange of ideas and communication. This occurs at times when the dancers engage in a dance- off display or, as EG1 expressed, ‘an anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better sort of feel’.
The friendly exchange kept the crowds cheering and applauding.
This form of participatory, shared engagement in its new setting does not narrow the conceivable meaning of classical cultural forms in music. It is rather placed on a level at which individuals could reinterpret its meaning. Audiences are introduced to new layers of meaning that influenced its creation—that is, cultural encounters. Behind us, a group of women were dancing on the grass, imitating fragments of the flamenco style while the enactment of the dance was taking place; younger children tried to strike the same pose of the kathak dancer and many were wholly absorbed in the performance that engaged them through their own feelings. Such visible participation changes the dynamic of the event, as the performance becomes reconfigured by the intervention and partial involvement of the world cultural audience as well. They were possibly taking their first steps in becoming SMV’s public audience or the flamenco dancer’s public audience, wishing to learn something new or understand more of the ‘other.’
A closer examination of the rhythmic structure of the composition revealed the way in which the elements of rhythm, roots and history can become a common ground for understanding different cultural art forms. For me, this common ground, that SMV calls
‘fusion’, was set within polyrhythms that were created with the mixing of two cultures’ rhythms together, forming different accents and beats, which shaped the performance. While Hindustani and Carnatic music have cyclic rhythms, in my understanding, polyrhythms, as a notion and word, are rarely linked with Indian classical or folk music, except that in Peter Magadini’s (2001) book, Polyrhythms—A
Musicians Guide, it details polyrhythms that can be found in Carnatic music. These cultures brought two rhythms into new equalities of play for musicians and dancers and, in turn, established a prerequisite for coexisting as musical cultures on stage.
184 Respondent EG3’s interpretation was more philosophical, as he found that ‘the dance symbolically shows that just as the rhythm defines the dance, SFOL has become the vibe that brings people together, making them aware of each other’s cultural history of the dance form’. Upon closer examination of the structure of the music, the composition reveals the complex ways in which the elements of music are adapted to create a fusion form of ancient cultural styles, also demonstrating that fusion arts have their own sophistication and craftsmanship that represent new diasporic cultures.
The tabla was struck with four solitary beats on the dayan, while the Kathak dancer entered onto the stage and walked to the beat. At this point, it hinted a beat count as its pulse. It was further split into two sections with accents placed on different stages of counts to accommodate the counting systems that the two traditions use. I quickly wrote the beats and made a note to chart the rhythms out. However, respondent EG1 and I could not resist counting the rhythms on our fingers and palms to determine the rhythmic cycle. We were overwhelmed by the complexity of it all.
For this composition, the 12-beat quaver rhythmic cycle, Ek taal, was structured into six sections (bars) of two beats. I worked out an equivalent Western notation beat with the
T he im ag quaver count ( e ) representing the mantras. A Spanish guitarist had earlier provided a pa rt wi th rel ati on 148 brief lesson on sh counting one of the Bulería rhythms in the composition, which I ip ID rI d2 6 T w T h as h e no e i adapted to fit thet Ek taal counts in quaver notes ( i ), rather than in the crochet ( m ) fo m a un a g d g e in e p th p a e a r fil r t counts. The guitariste. explained that the compás (rhythm)t count follows the ‘clock’ 12w - w i i t t h h r r e e l l a a t beat pattern, with the count beginning on 12 instead t of 1: ‘being ahead or behind the i i o o n n s s h h i i p p I beat is totally unacceptable in flamenco, but the danceI must be on the beat (or the offD - D r r I I d d 2 2 6 6 w w a beat) all the time, every time’. I realised that as much asa the taal cycle becomes seconds s n n o o t t f f o o u u n n d nature to the tabla player, the flamenco artists tendd to have an unerring ear for the i i n n t t h h e e f f i i l exact core of the beat. l e e . .
148 Bulería is a fast flamenco rhythmic style in 12 beats, with emphasis in two general forms of accents on beats.
185 Ek taal:6 measures (bars) of 2 beats (quavers).
Adaptation: 2 measures of simple triple time and 3 measures of simple duple time .
Bulería: 2 measures of time, followed by 3 measures of time. Figure 7: An outline of the rhythmic counts and sounds of two cultures.
In this composition, Indian music sounds are adapted by keeping the 12-unit cycle, but changing the accents to suit the flamenco style—which accents the 1st, 4th, 7th, 9th and
11th count. The pre-composed raga melodies for the violin and sitar are short and lyrical and they eventually fuse with the flamenco style by using syncopation, anticipation and irregular rhythmic accents. Adaptions to the flamenco style are in its structure and form, which works around the bols; it demands specific footwork rhythm, yet blends well with no hint of dissonance. Western harmonic chord patterns are played on the electronic keyboard, adding to the texture created on the sitar and Spanish guitar strum. This composition obviously demonstrates how a composer uses acquired knowledge and skills of his own traditional music to negotiate fusion music and adapt it to others’ cultural musical elements. In this regard, it can be argued that the composer is under the effect of assimilating his own distinct traditional form to a wider cross-cultural understanding. The illustration, which follows compares such understanding by displaying a breakdown of the different metric modulations.
186
Compound quadruple Time
(flamenco) 4 main beats 1 2 3 4 in the cycle Sections – Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 (Ektaal) EKTAAL 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 count /bol Quaver counts Theka/bol Dhin Dhin Dhage TiRaKiTa Tun Na Kat Ta Dhage TiRa Dhin Na KiTa
Flamenco
Time Ek Taal - adaptation to time signature EK Taal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Bol accents ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 12 and attacks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 (adaptation) Traditional 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Flamenco ‘clock’ count begins on 12 Figure 8: An illustration of counting patterns, rhythm, accents and note values.
This rhythmic illustration places Feet on Fire in a compositional structure that could be
studied for deeper meaning, as such fragmentation reflects the general feel and pulse
that one experiences as an audience, as well as the shades of intercultural
understandings that are symbolically occurring. For the musicians and dancers, there
were no set frameworks in writing, as they depended on oral instruction, recordings,
aural perception and the embedded knowledge of their own counting systems such as
the taal and bol for Indian music and the ‘clock’ counting system that is used in
flamenco dance. Respondent SB, who played the Cajón, indicated that there is a
strong understanding among the musicians, of historical context, in which forms and
187 structures of music and dance are located and constructed. The transformative effect of the experience of listening, playing and dancing is indicative in a dialogue that I had with a musician, dancer, cantaor and the flamenco guitarist:
Guitarist: It was a fantastic experience witnessing how it all came into fruition. Dancer: Fitting footwork with the rhythms requires skill [and] hard work, but keeping the Flamenco dance technique and style of the art form together with the Kathak was a beautiful dialogue that emerged…it was communication created between us each time we performed it. Musician Among the musicians as well we carried our own musical conversation, but we entirely depended on each other. What I realised was that art forms are equal in so many ways in [their] classiness. ME: How are you guided in this whole experience, in this interaction? Is it just another ‘gig' for you? Cantaor: The dance company is invited to participate. It opens new communication [and] we always do it every year, but this performance interaction is new and innovative. We are motivated by considering each other’s perspectives, listening to each other and the composer’s intention. Guitarist: It’s the subject matter too—nobody except the vocalists understood what beat counts meant or each word of the lyrics, yet we were caught in these different languages enjoying the aesthetic it creates. It’s a unique experience even at rehearsals and climaxes at the performance because we share this with others. The gat section of the composition, which could be understood as the development of the composition, showed how the flamenco rhythm changed into a highly sophisticated form when the cantaor (flamenco singer) accompanied the flamenco dance. The singer later explained that the Siguiryira belongs to the cante jondo vocal
188 style of Andalusian folk tradition. In this composition, Kathak dance, the taal and raga paused for a considerable amount of time to allow the Flamenco art form take the lead in free form structure that involved cantaor, guitarist and dancer to perform. We became thoroughly engrossed in this section and the dialogue resumed between us:
EG1: The singer moves me, he sings soulfully. Me: So, you understand what he is singing? EG1: No, do you? Me: Jose (the guitarist) said that the song is about pain, anguish, lost love, tragedy, loss and despair, and death. EG1: I can feel it. Me: In the whole performance, dance or music? EG1: No, it’s his voice; its captivating. It sounds like the qawwali devotional style singing used in India and Pakistan. ME: Yes, it is similar. Jose said that the voice is most important; [it's] the ‘heart and soul’ of flamenco. EG1: Yeh, it has a harsh, thick tone. I think maybe that’s what makes the singing style so unique [that] I connected to it—but the baile is just as evocative and haunting, too. Me: Baile? EG1: See, I know this stuff. It means flamenco dance. I picked up this word when they were rehearsing. The performance structure is built on a rhythmic cycle (Cajón tabla, bols and footwork) and a melodic ostinato pattern (violin, sitar and keyboard). Repetitive patterns of the taal and melody are constructive links for thematic structures, as they unify the two cultural musical and dance elements. It is seen in the gat section where the taal and raga become the short framework for the dance soloist to improvise.
Similarly, the short repetitive melodic line links the audiences to the performance, as a home base in sensing the variations of melody and reminds the performer and audience of the composition’s original theme. I discovered that, for the experience to
189 be a positive one, the audience must be influenced and predisposed to believe that what they are hearing falls into a comfortable, familiar sound that is interesting, hence the repetitive melodic line, as shown in the illustration which follows, is extremely valuable to both the performer and audience member.
Figure 9: Basic melodic ostinato idea (gat 1 thematic notes).
The illustration, which follows, show three different melodic shapes
190 Melodic shape 1 ( bars 1-7)
Melodic shape 2 ( bars 9-12)
Melodic shape 3 ( bars 17-24)
Figure 10: Melodic Variation I.
In this variation, there are three melodic shapes, which use distinct rhythmic patterns
set to the contour of Kirwani raga; it reflects the creative aspect of the composer with
the third variation showing syncopated and off beat accents. Western influences are in
the use of the keyboard that essentially holds three primary chords to hold the
harmonic texture and tonality. It is alternated with the guitar presenting textures that
are distinctly flamenco in technique and sound when the flamenco dancer performs
with the Kathak dancer.
191
Figure 11: Melodic Variation II played on the Violin and Sitar.
Variation II portrays hints of the melodic flamenco style and syncopated rhythm and is different to the classical Indian musical approach. The note transitions (portamento) are smooth, as they are implemented with an Indian inflection of micro-notes. The melodic range is limited to an interval (tessitura) of a sixth only, while the cantaor’s ornamentation of vocal notes and improvisation expresses sad, dark feelings typical of the cante jondo style. The higher to lower notes are sung while skips of a fourth or third interval are kept to a minimum. The compás (time signature or rhythm) sustains the guitar and hand clapping (palmas) and guitar chords emphasise the downbeats. The rhythms are irregular, alternating within the 12-unit count. These compositional devices have been blended into the Indian taal and raga, while the alap and gat have been adapted to fit these flamenco elements. SB later highlighted that the Indian vocal and tabla maintained the rhythmic footwork, while the guitar and hand clapping kept the syncopated feel of the flamenco rhythm.
In an earlier discussion, the guitarist pointed out to us the typical flamenco stances, such as the movement of the arms or legs in opposite formation to each other
(opposiciones): ‘that is what you must look for, and the torcido too, which is the twisting movement motif performed by flamenco dancers’. He continued with further advice: ‘look for the round…the circular movement of the dancer on stage with the
192 wrists and fingers and the butterfly-like movements…fanning-like movements done on the fingers‘.
We observed these finer details, more closely, on the following night. Respondent SB, who played the cajón,149 also reminded us to pay close attention to the dancer’s footwork in the performance. This was because:
[The composition] is really about the precision of footwork and how cultures use the feet as an expression of rhythm. I understood it this way because it is what the tabla player follows in Indian classical dance performance when he performs the rhythmic accompaniment. I find it is different for the flamenco footwork; it is pronounced by the guitar, but the footwork fills the in- between beats. The guitarist spoke about the footwork of the dancer:
It is a cultural thing unique to a gypsy tradition and the Southern Spanish culture. It can represent many things, such as the complicated, nomadic existence of gypsies. I once read that it symbolises … unfolds a sociocultural evolution of people’s history with every stomp the dancer’s foot makes; seriously, it brings the memory of nomadic life and travel and all that stuff. For this performance, respondent SB explained:
I perceive the footwork in my own way, I watch both dancers and rhythms that they…like form in dance…there is a lot of tension in that rhythm which I can’t really explain, but I feel it…there is a word for it, I am sure. I looked for this tension on stage with respondent EG1 and he pointed to the Kathak dancer’s torso movements and the angles that it created with the shoulder line, providing the fluidity of a balance scale with one shoulder raised and the other depressed. Respondent EG1 reminded me to observe the difference in the Kathak dancer’s style saying, ‘look, she did not make the geometric shapes needed in the
Bharatanatyam dance‘. I tried to notice this but I was distracted by the Kathak dancer’s footwork, which respondent SB wanted me to experience. .
149 Cajón is a box-shaped percussion instrument that has its origins in Peru.
193 The Kathak dancer’s footwork echoed the bols that the vocalist uttered. I observed the way the ghungroos (feet bells worn around the ankles) echoed and intensified, her foot movements as the beats synchronised with the tabla. There were carefully choreographed jumps, leaps and pirouettes in different stage spaces. She used her head for accented movements and made limited facial movements, but emphasised the movement of the eyebrows and eyes while her hands gesticulated and accentuated the beat. I also observed that she exited the stage recapitulating the same four beats she used to enter, as the flamenco dancer took to the stage with straight back and chest held out proudly. The footwork still bothered me until, with relief, I recognised the rhythmic tensions that respondent SB tried to explain in the beats. I mentioned this aloud, creating a new dialogue of synonyms:
Me: Syncopation! EG1: Yeh, like off beats. Me: Yes, irregular rhythm. EG1: Accents too. Me: And attacks. EG1: It creates anticipation. The words from this dialogue describe how footwork rhythms blend and contrast, imitating the cultural contrasts on stage. Kathak dance and Indian taal beats continued in the 12-unit cycle and after a while, the counting stopped because the texture of sounds and the rasa of the performance became known, leaving us with pleasurable feelings. Such performance is valued at a greater level for its mastery of skills and emotions, as one would value in a classical Indian performance, irrespective of whether there is an understanding of the composition itself. The musicians displayed an inter- reliant and symbiotic relationship, which made the composition more effective. In this way, both the world culture audience and SMV’s public interacted in a shared experience. These experiences can be representatively applied to the way in which diverse cultures work together finding common ground in the performing arts.
194 The performance presented several forms of interaction with the different audiences. I found myself mingling among them a great deal and engaging in conversations about each performance. I asked them what they thought of the performance, Feet on Fire.
Their responses were centred on feelings of novelty, enjoyment of fusion, and appreciation for learning about different cultures and what they do. Two individuals visiting from Spain appreciated the identity Feet on Fire produced for the Spanish diaspora. One of them found it: ‘different and creative because it shows a real reflection of cultures together and it actually shows us we express our different cultural arts‘. The other said: ‘I learned something new because I have not seen these two dance styles performed in this way before … it was appealing and enjoyable’. These individuals did not use music or dance language as indication of their knowledge of the art form, but they enjoyed the pleasure that the music gave them and the informal engagement that occurred between audience and performers. A number of people from the audience remained and tried to converse with the performers, who were keen to reciprocate.
Respondent SB said he liked this informal aspect, but on stage, he did not know what the crowd was doing because the dancers demanded his complete attention. The guitarist reflected: ‘I sensed the audience there even if their faces could not be seen, because the applause is heard. Besides, performances are generally shaped by the audience in some way or other. We are not performing to ourselves'. In brief, there seemed to be no barriers between the artists and the audience and between cultures.
As one individual with limited knowledge of the musical style, its musicians or its roots asserted: ‘these types of performances from organisations are very relevant in our evolving society; we need more like these in Perth to see what is meaningful to other cultures‘. This seems to be the intention of SMV in their purposeful approach that targets specific artistic and audience experiences.
I was pleased about the time I had taken to learn about the tabla as part of the ethnographic process. Respondent SB’s short demonstration of the tabla left me with
195 an understanding that the dayan and the bayan have their respective sets of beats and some of these beats are played in unison on the drums. I listened for the basic bols played on the dayan—tete, taa, naa, thu—and on the bayan—ghe, ke, kat. I was aware that the Kathak dancer’s footwork was realised in these rhythmic bols, the tabla and the sound of the ghungroos while the dancer’s movement accentuated the Kirwani raga.
Respondent SB taught the basics, which were sufficient to understand a little of what was performed. I became part of SMV’s public audience.
The music and dance performed as fusion are symbolic of two identities, a North Indian and Spanish identity. The fusion allows both cultures to celebrate and represent a culture of origin, the place they associate as their roots and the presentation of an art form that they deem is part of an all-inclusive identity, created by intercultural musical and dance encounters. This leads to a concept that writers call cross-cultural fertilisation (Rzeszutek, Savage and Brown 2012). Ironically, the artists, including the composer, are not geographically attached to the areas of origin of the art forms, nor do they bear any ancestral attachments to these places. It is through intercultural encounters that these art forms transformed into sublime experiences. Respondent SB explained that the composer, Nawaz Mirajkar, who is also respondent SB’s tabla teacher (guru), was born in Pune, India and descends from a proud lineage of musicians. He is a teacher at the Temple of Fine Arts in Singapore and draws inspiration from Western, Oriental and Indian elements as inspiration for composing.
His exposure to and collaboration with flamenco through Antonio Vargas, a Sydney- based flamenco dancer and choreographer, led him to compose the fusion piece, highlighting the similarities and distinct flavours of the two dance styles that have origins in India.
Concerning the dance style, research shows that Spanish flamenco dance, song and music origins are linked to the Southern Andalusian Roma gypsies who migrated from
Rajasthan, a north-western region in India, to Spain between the ninth and fourteenth
196 centuries.150 As they travelled throughout Asia and the Middle East, they became known as Kathakars—storytellers—and used song and dance to share their art. They intermingled with Sephardic Jews and the Moors, establishing the art form of flamenco as a tradition.151 Today, the traditions are celebrated worldwide; in India, the JFG festival (Jodhpur and Flamenco Gypsy Festival) was established in Jodhpur in 2014 and has since highlighted gypsy influences in folk music.152
Feet on Fire is the result of collaboration and cultural encounters; it is appreciated in
Perth, as reflected by the local professional artists who identify with the cultural interaction it offers them. Respondent SB provided further background to the piece, which he had learned from the composer, his music guru:
The gypsy tribes who travelled from Rajasthan to Spain told stories around a bonfire and it inspired the title that the composer chose. The title also shows the inspiration that he drew from the physical posture of the dancers; the pirouettes, footwork and the claps symbolised the structure of flames. This composition and its performers reflect two styles, as traditions that share a collective past that is revisited and adapted to create new expressions. The background information of this piece strengthens the fact that cultural borrowing is part of human history and is inevitable in a globalised world,153 yet it cannot be associated with notions of cultural appropriation in music, as one Indian classical musician suggested when he visited the SFOL event. While the concept of cultural appropriation is a contentious topic, the two cultures, in this instance, are sharing their art form together as practice in the performing arts, and they are brought together through the composition for this engagement. Therefore, concepts of cultural understanding from this perspective are not restricted to a closed system, but rather it
150 Encyclopaedia Britannica. ‘Flamenco‘. Ninotchka D. Bennahum. https://www.britannica.com/art/flamenco. 151 Jose Manuel Giraldo, in discussion with the guitarist, October 2016. 152 The Jodhpur Flamenco and Gypsy Festival. Accessed 30 October 2015. https://jfgfestival.com/. 153 Mobile lives are continuously being created and recreated because information technology and the process of globalisation has affected cultural identity and education. Naidoo, Loshini. ‘Rupture or Continuity? The Impact of Globalization on Cultural Identity and Education in Indian Immigrant Families in Australia‘. Transnational Curriculum Inquiry 4(1): 1. http://nitinat.library.ubc.ca/ojs/index.php/tci.
197 is open for change and development as a process of human interaction. While the performance makes distinct reference to different histories of Indian or flamenco culture, the title remains authentic to its public audience and performers, who recognise a cultural connection of structures, forms and traditions. I find there is a sense of ethics in such music practice, as it reinforces shared aesthetics and awareness of the other in the music and dance. It highlights the hermeneutical idea of intercultural communication and ‘intersubjective understanding‘, in which cultures become revitalised and reworked through interchange with ‘strangers and the unfamiliar‘ (Sölter
1993, 38 cited in Judith McKimm-Vorderwinkler 2010, 2). As can be seen, in pieces of artistic expression, the performance’s strength lies as much in the history of the location as in its musical form.
Later, when reviewing the recording, respondent SB said that he had never viewed a written score for this piece but knew that the composer worked with a famous Spanish dancer for this composition. Most of the music was taught to the musicians orally and was demonstrated using recordings of the dance styles. Respondent SB explained, ‘we see the recordings of what Nawaz demonstrates and we…know what to do’. I asked,
‘how are the beats remembered…the bols…without a score?’ He replied [with a smile]:
‘through years of strict training; the tala remains with you’.
198
Image 11: The author in discussion with respondent SB. SB discussing his performance on the cajón (in contrast to the tabla) and his interpretation of the cultural interaction that occurs in the process of performing. Hindustani instrumental recital–A learning experience
When one attends a Hindustani or Carnatic music recital, it seemingly takes the form of a learning experience, as teachers tend to offer some knowledge and insightful ideas to students. For me, simply being in proximity with two legends of Hindustani music from India became an educational and cultural experience. Pandit Kumar Bose and
Pandit Debojyoti Bose are internationally recognised seventh-generation North Indian classical artists from the Benares Gharana tradition for their tabla and sarod skills, respectively. I arrived very late for the show and P6 reminded me, ‘this style [Benares] is the most rigid Gharana style, set in tradition and is uncompromising in all aspects of its style’.
The performance introduced me to the world of the Hindustani rhythmic cycle of beats that never seem to change the counts in the compositions. I could not keep up counting the time; it was completely new to me. Respondent P6 explained that Pandit
Kumar Bose and all Hindustani-trained musicians could improvise on any given pattern
199 and directed my attention to the stresses in pitch, dynamics and the rhythmic cycle of the taal. At times, respondent P6, a tabla player himself, could not contain what he felt, blurting and gesturing with his hands: ‘the bayan bass tones sound warm’, ‘whole’,
‘amazing’, ‘the dayan high tones are short and crisp, its technique, it’s his fingers…they are magical, especially the cross-rhythms…his fingers are just too agile, can you hear it? I was rather drawn into listening more attentively to the left and right drums’.
I asked respondent P6 why he was listening to those specific tones on the drums. He explained that many of the pandit’s compositions are for Kathak dancing as part of the tradition of Benares. He said, ‘Benares rhythm patterns are pretty crisp but the way the bass tones and high tones are played are important because the sounds become different in tones; have you noticed that?’. As a musician and observer, he focused entirely on Kumar Bose and his virtuosity on stage and expression as an artist and said that listening to such music is enriching to him as a musician, hence he was completely absorbed with Kumar Bose’s art form. As an observer, I was disappointed that I did not feel part of that shared participation moment, as my Western aural training left me focused on time signatures and the counting of beats. Respondent P6 cautioned, ‘you are paying too much attention in following the cycle of beats. Counting is not everything; you need to feel it, feel the beat cycle too, to experience it and follow the form of the piece and remember the original melodic theme, forget the counting’. My disappointment showed and later respondent P6 sent numerous internet links and video clips of the pandits’ compositions.
Conversations around the Margam—A dance of connected conversations
Narrating conversations around the Margam dance from the perspective of a dance expert is one way to ‘access’ subjective practices and experiences about change and continuity in cultural practice. In this instance, the dance style is Bharatanatyam, which takes its name from the sage Bharata and the Tamil and Sanskrit word natyam, meaning ‘dance’. Bharatanatyam as a South Indian classical art form, endured much
200 restructuring over the centuries. In the early twentieth century under colonial rule, the tradition of temple dancing was banned as part of India’s social reform to protect helpless women dancers in the temple, as temple dancing, which was originally identified with the Devadasi community, was associated with the demeaning status of a lower caste. Later, the decision was revoked, because the dance offered different classes of people a vibrant art form and tradition (Vatsyayan 1974). Women such as
Tanjore Balasaraswati, a seventh-generation Devadasi temple dancer was first to perform the Bharatanatyam dance outside the temple in India and popularised it as an art form to the Western world (Knight 2010). More women from affluent backgrounds explored it as an artistic expression of a time in Indian culture and history (Munshi 2010,
29). Nonetheless, it is a dance that originated in temples in the south before it made its mark in Tamil Nadu and the rest of the world as a long-established classical dance form. For the Devadasi, it remained an offering to the deities in the temple, but in the princely courts with poets and musicians, it took a secular form (Vatsyayan 1974).
The conversation regarding the Bharatanatyam dance begins with an examination of the Margam154 repertoire, as performed by a student at SMV. I draw on the perspectives of a dance expert, Saseedaran K. Anandan155 who has extensive experience in Bharatanatyam dance. I use his initials SKA, as an abbreviated name form. Respondent P10 also contributed her perspectives on the Bharatanatyam dance repertoire. While my own interpretation and understanding of the dance, in the role of
‘SMV’s public audience’ forms part of the conversation, respondents SKA and P10
154 The Margam is the Bharatanatyam dance that has an ordered repertoire of seven segmented dances and means ‘way’ or a path Balasaraswati 1976, 3; Higgins, ‘From Prince to Populace’, 20-26. Bharatanatyam is derived from Bharata’s treatise Natya Shastra. It is a South Indian classical dance from the Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Karnathika regions and was known before 1930 as ‘Dasi Attam’ or ‘Sadirattan’, the dance of the Devadasi (woman servants of God in the temple). Shovana Narayan, The Sterling Book of Indian Classical Dances. (UK: Sterling Publishers, 2007), 20-24. 155 Saseedran k. Anandan has undergone training with the Swami and dance masters. He is an original member of the Shiva family, a multi-talented artist in visual art and Bharatanatyam dance and holds advanced academic skills and a PhD in theatre design. As a professional artist, his background of teaching, performing, choreographing and theatre designing for Indian dance forms provided an excellent opportunity for me to further determine continuity and change in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam.
201 explained the intricate, more delicate details of the dance and provided essential points of their practice, positioning these against the traditional form that Shovana
Narayan (2007) interprets in her book, The Sterling Book of Indian Classical Dances:
SKA: [Stands up from his chair and strikes the Bharatanatyam pose]. In perfect form, see? [Looking at his form reflected in the mirror across us]…not bad for my age, too. [Reflecting]…also, this frame, the technique is what defines it; its fixed physical form, a rigid upper torso, outward bent knees, intricate footwork, hands, eyes and facial gestures to the accompaniment of melody and rhythm...it is what I look for as an observer of the dance and it is what I think we try to retain in students at SMV. ME: Very similar to the still shots I have from the video recording. SKA: What do you see in the Bharatanatyam? ME: I see a whole production form of dance that combines music, poetry, drama and rhythm. SKA: Ahh…so true. The sage Bharata beheld that too in the second century.
Centuries have passed and the form and technique still seem to remain the same. I enquired about the adaptations and changes in the Margam recital:
SKA: SMV continues the classical solo recital as an art form tradition but with re-established spiritual enlightenment that Swamiji awakened regarding its purpose and meaning—transferring that expression into public awareness. ME: The approach is different, then. SKA: Absolutely. It is a different matter, as it comes from within. [It is] a philosophy of life and the journey involves how the dancer devotes it to life and meaning for oneself and others. The pose, movement, rhythm and music—these all create the nritta, you know—pure dance.
202 ME: Interpretation? SKA: Now, that will always be different because there is a technique of story performing that connects the body, mind and soul between the literary text and the visual. It allows for different interpretations.
The performance we viewed had changes that primarily incorporated contemporary interpretations and creative ideas. SKA explained that this approach is common, as dancers are encouraged to interpret the Margam from a personal and contemporary perspective:
SKA: It takes years, usually eight plus years minimum, of rigorous training under the guidance of a guru. ME: Has the name changed over the years? SKA: Why should it? Margam means path or course. In dance, it refers to a traditional order and it remains a first solo recital. A hint is given to Westerners with our title, Margam—A Dancer’s Journey, because it really is a personal journey of reawakening for each stage of the dance, in addition to the mastering of a technique and style…one that the guru shares with the student, where the student brings their own spiritual interpretation and meaning into the choreography. ME: So, it can be considered to be graduation recital? SKA: That sounds too cold, business-like. I look at it in another way. It’s to do with coaching, nurturing, cultivating, dialogue, relationships, sharing, obedience and so on. There is a difference there. I prefer the description, ‘ceremony of advancement’. Further on from the Margam, the dancer will continue additional training to become more experienced and competent enough to do their Arangetram, which is a debut performance; that too, only after a few more intense years of training.
203 ‘So far so good’, I thought, as SKA answered the question concerning the relevance of using so many segments for a solo dance recital. In other words, the Margam segments serve a specific function, which is to lead students into a spiritual awareness that at each segment of the dance, there are various levels of spiritual understanding in which stories are created with each movement and gesture. The Margam, therefore, enables the dancer to demonstrate the skills, techniques and complexities involved in each dance segment, as these segments are well-ordered and multifaceted, demonstrating the artistry of a cultural art form.
Continuing the classical tradition, the Margam is performed in front of a carefully selected audience: some of SMV’s public, guests, teachers from other Indian dance schools in Perth and a smaller number of those that fit the description of ‘world cultural audience’. The performance draws an average of three hundred people.
Since Bharatanatyam requires a certain amount of knowledge from a cultural stance, I looked for a deeper understanding of the choreographed story and its cultural significance. Therefore, I also examined the meanings in Indian dance language. SKA paid attention to the technique and footwork, but above all, he focused on sentiments
(rasa), psychological states, emotions (bhava) and how it can be reflected in a dancer’s performance. He declared: ‘if the performer feels it [rasa], then the audience will experience it because rasa is a transcendental experience met under a psychological perception of joy‘.
Respondent P10, who completed her Arangetram, explained her journey in
Bharatanatyam as a consciousness-raising that releases emotions in one epic moment:
‘At times, during the performance, it became more intense than the technical aspect of footwork; these feelings are quite overwhelming because of the different emotions I have to feel and express when portraying several characters‘. SKA listed these emotions as: ‘love, heroism, sadness, awe, fury, laughter, fear, revulsion and peace‘ and
P10 provided another set of synonyms: ‘romance, bravery, sorrow, wonder, anger,
204 content, terror, disgust and tranquillity‘. All these take a central position in the presentation of Bharatanatyam. As SKA stated, ‘feeling all these emotions in one performance is demanding of the dancer—as such, [it] becomes too a journey of emotions‘.
Bearing these concepts in mind, the review of the Margam and Arangetram took shape. The traditional Margam comprises of a set of seven dance compositions enacted in different stages. When I presented Shovana Narayan’s version of the traditional order and interpretation, SKA compared it with his own knowledge and experiences at SMV.
Traditional form of Margam Introduction.
The dance begins with an opening prayer to two deities, Ganesh and Shiva. The dancer’s posture takes on its customary strong triangular shape, with the torso, arms and legs forming triangles. It is typified by the aramandali position, which is a half sitting position with half stretched parted knees that the dancer retains for the entire duration of the dance (Narayan 2007, 23).
SKA: There is the same consistency in the dance positions. The physical formation remains the same, but we teach our dancers to acknowledge and bow to eight Ashadik Devas. ME: It’s noticeable in the video recording. How is this interpreted? SKA: Asha means eight, and dik means quarters. Hinduism acknowledges these eight quarters as divine rulers who keep order in the universe and protect the occupants in it. The dancer visualises these deities in different directions on the stage as an opening prayer. ME: It is customary on stage too. SKA: Because in keeping with its original purpose, the dance is an offering to the divine; He is everywhere
205 and a blessing to the people watching.
Traditional form of Alarippu.
The first dance—Alarippu—means to decorate with flowers (Telegu). Traditionally, it is a short rhythmic dance accompanied by distinct rhythmic syllable utterances—known as sollu-kuttu—from the guru, who also plays the manjira (hand cymbals). It is meant to be a direct offering to the divine (Narayan 2007).
ME: An opening prayer? So, a warm-up dance? SKA: Many would think so from a western perspective. In the context of the dancer, I see this dance as the blossoming of the dancer in portraying pure dance, rhythmic movement, skills and technique in a graceful way, called nritta even though it does not carry any overt meaning. Me: The manjira seems to be traditionally continued as an accompaniment. SKA: That has not changed at all since ancient times. It is essential in our practice as well. This sound and ring of the manjira intrinsically connects the teacher to the student…it is undoubtedly a continuation of tradition and discipline we retain. It is used to keep the measured time and it becomes embedded in the mind. ME: How do you prepare students for this first piece? SKA: I draw on visual representations…imageries of the Great Temple and its different sections. I was taught this way and I suppose the legendary Tanjore Balasaraswati has been largely responsible for presenting it this way, visuals are important in describing each layer of the Margam… ME: How are these presented to the student? SKA: I use my own classical dance skills and research skills of design and architecture and try to take them into the inner worlds of origins, temples of India. I
206 picture those structures even though I was not born there, but that is precisely where the arts all started in Hinduism—in temples. I try to bring students to the origins of what the dance was created for and to an understanding of the architecture of Indian temple structure. They usually have no idea of the physical structure, so they need to know—and perhaps the audience too—that the dancer interprets the grand entrance of temples. ME: The gopuram, the outer tower structure, pyramid- like tower over a temple entrance gate, right? SKA: Yes, Balasaraswati sees it as a starting point and we use some of her analogy too: it is the beginning of the dancer’s journey and it is symbolic of the passing of daily life into a life with the divine on stage. Our dancers are taught to offer the dance to the audience at the beginning through specific hand gestures and body formation too. ME: I am trying to visualise this whole repertoire. SKA: OK, the dancers see themselves entering on stage (temple) through the gopuram (outer tower) which is this dance segment, the Alarippu. They then cross the halfway hall of the temple which is the next dance segment, Jatiswaram, and into the great hall for the Shabdam dance before entering the holy zone of the deity to perform the Varnam. A further, closer sanctum area is where the next dance segment occurs—the Padam—before reaching the inner sanctum of the temple to pray and that is the Tillana dance segment. ME: Interesting visual for the dance segments. SKA: It is mainly for dancers to see it, but I like this imagery she [Balasaraswati] uses and maybe the audience should understand it this way too. However, it is the transcendental aspect that is important, as each person in that performance creates their own stories. However, the training and retention of spiritual understanding in classical dance form is an essential technique and skill we like to share with our dances and audience…it
207 cannot be compromised from a performing perspective, I feel.
Traditional form of Jatiswaram.
The next dance, Jatiswaram, derived from the words jatis (time measure) and swaram
(notation), uses an adavus (rhythmic cycle) and a strong melodic line. There is no storyline but merely movement and technique devoid of expression (Narayan 2007).
SKA: What we ensure is that forms like rhythmic cycle and notes conform to a specific pattern to retain the authenticity and purity of dance. ME: I notice that during this segment, Jatiswaram…the intricate footwork, timing, synchronisation and body formation are important. SKA: That is what Carnatic dance is all about. You will notice that the audience are usually more silent than usual. ME: Hmm…I was aware that some people around me were counting the taal with their fingers on their laps, some nodded and many were expressionless as the dancers were. SKA: [Laughs]…you watched all this? You are a typical musician. I concentrate on the footwork and the symmetry, yes, but look for the nuances of movement because a dancer can get lost in the calculations of the footwork itself, counting but not feeling.
Traditional form Shabdam.
The next movement, Shabdam (expressed words), is a fixed form without variations in expressions that combines the rhythm and melody of the previous two dances and adds the element of abhinaya, which leads the audience towards a meaning or theme.
It is an expression of experience (bhava) and sentiment (rasa) as a prelude to the
208 Varnam segment that follows (Narayan 2007, 27).
SKA: Abhinaya, the art of communicating—this is what students find hard and this is what I think SMV focuses on a lot…to carry the story to the observer. It is all about facial expression to show emotions. ME: The Shabdam is a spiritual dance. SKA: Well, I interpret it as one too, but it used to be a dance rendered to kings as well. It is usually words of praise in those days. We keep the spiritual tradition intact. I think we have also altered the devotion to the king bit because we treat all people as important—guest is God, you know, so we offer the dance to all people because we treat them equally. The dancers are specifically taught facial expressions and movement of legs to the words in the poetry because each word has a meaning and that sets a specific mood and expression. The emotions shown by the dancer evoke a response in the audience. ME: Where do you take your source of emotions from? SKA: Mostly poetry in the music itself or it could be from a scriptural character that they wish to enact. There is always a cause, consequence and passing feeling for each sentiment, all within a central emotion. The dancer may present many passing feelings to show the effects of the emotional state to reveal the central emotion eventually. ME: For example? SKA: OK, look at this scene. [Rises, sings and creates a dance movement]. The vocalist sings of ‘lotus eyed’, the dancer’s expression becomes ‘lotus eyed’ and so the student is taught different gestures and movement for lotus and many alternative eye expressions and movement. I noticed that we tend to dance to a slower pace to allow the singer to have control, as well. ME: How can sadness or love be enacted? What
209 expressions would you use? SKA: Well, the central emotion such as love would cover a lot of passing feelings: weakness, excitement, anxiety shall we say as longing for a beloved? For sadness, one cannot shed tears—the make-up will probably disappear—but we would teach students to use the hand movement, a gesture with the eye and face expression. ME: I notice that there are no long pauses between words. SKA: It allows the student to coordinate the bol lines better from an early age; it’s an asymmetric talam...see, music is linked to dance very intimately; the dancer, vocalist and musical form a tight-knit ensemble here. I like that we teach students cooperative and interpersonal skills here, even though it is a solo work. Swamiji always promoted this interdependency on each other, often reflecting the philosophy that people need each other and cannot function alone. It is about teamwork.
Traditional form of Varnam.
The Varnam dance traditionally follows the Shabdam to test how the dancer applies and interprets the rhythmical skills they have learned. It is the longest dance (30–60 minutes); its intricate dance technique, choreography and emotions make it ‘the focal point of the Margam’. The mood of the abhinaya communicates themes of longing, yearning and love (Narayan 2007).
SKA: I interpret the abhinaya themes in this dance by literally infusing the meaning of abhi, which means to move forward or bring forth all nine rasas together through Varnam. Varnam literally means colours. So, if students seek some guidance, as we often encourage students to seek perspectives from more than one dance guru at SMV, I direct students to understand Varnam as meaning a ray of light
210 filled with intricate colours and hues that represent the rasas until they all meet in splendour. ME: Why is it done in this way? SKA: It gives them a point of focus in their respective interpretations. See, the abhinaya can portray transient inner feelings too…like poetry in dance, and images of light help in that way; it goes beyond the lyrical theme of even the music. I believe the hues of light will help reflect this because light helps us to focus and contemplate. [We review a video clip of this scene]. ME: There is much complexity in this form. SKA: That’s what the Varnam does; it is a combination of all three components of dance namely the nritta, nrityal and natya. it allows the dancer to improvise, demonstrate all the skills taught to her, the dancer now proves the power she has with stamina [pointing to the synchronisation of footwork and the hand gestures that show the meaning of what is sung and nods approvingly]…she is taught well…I have been to some local Indian dance schools here and I have seen that many students can miss these and merely follow patterns, but look, can you feel that facial expression? What is it telling you? ME: I can see the theme of love, sorrow and longing expressed clearly. SKA: It is an expressive dance here that feelings of yearning for a beloved at a physical level, but really, on a spiritual level, the relationship is transformed to that between the devotee and deity. We teach this segment in its traditional format too because students should understand that feelings in dance are related to aspects of divinity. The dancer must demonstrate skill, technique, versatility and stamina and be able to show more abhinaya. Then the footwork must synchronise with the rhythm and the hand gestures, and facial expressions must portray the meaning in the song. ME: I find the rhythm to be quite complex. SKA: True, true. Varnam requires the dancer to have
211 musical skills too. They should demonstrate the complexity of rhythm and expression, showing different rhythmical cycles and paces of tempo from fast, then slow to stillness. These nuances are what I personally enjoy watching in the performance…what about you? What are you seeing? ME: [I hesitantly add a comment] … I recognise that the Varnam has the similar structure to the music composition that is also called Varnam. [SKA nods in agreement] … I see a build-up of the rhythm, melody and can clearly follow the Adi taal (8-beat rhythmic cycle). SKA: Yes, that is the nritta, there is no emotion and expression of a theme and no link to the song or words. We retain its original purpose that Bharata intended, the purpose is not to convey meaning but produce beauty. But this segment we are seeing is about the nritya mainly and how incorporates the nritta and natya and deals with the language of gesture and interpretation. ME: I am seeing the expressions forming, gestures and body movement showing the emotions. I do not know the story well enough, but it is expressive and there is tension, as well, which makes it a beautiful scene. SKA: That’s why it is interpretive, the dancer is expected to improvise on the rasa; it is nritta so we can make different interpretations of it. The rhythmic cycles give off that tension. Perhaps it’s what you are feeling too?
Traditional form of Padam.
The Padam, which is purely expressive, is based on a seven-line lyrical song on the theme of love. The thematic line of the song (Pallavi) is repeated several times and the dancer acts out pictures, images and stories (sanchari bhavas) of the lyrics. Another repertoire may include the Kaveli, an expressional piece dealing with the anger or
212 frustration of a person in love or the Kirtana, which is an expressional piece based on a devotional text (Narayan 2007, 26).
SKA: We don’t usually teach the Kaveli, as it is challenging yet quite flexible. We prefer to teach the Kirtana because it has a more lyrical sense and allows the dancer to discover more intimately the different abhinaya in the form of facial expression, eye movement, hand gestures and body movement to interpret the lyrics and the story. Unlike traditional practice that disapproved students questioning interpretation, our students freely ask questions, contributing their own interpretations and experiences into story. ME: It seems that the elements of rhythm, melody and abhinaya expression with its technical brilliance are given the same focus by the professional musicians too. SKA: Yes, they [musicians] are hired from India, Singapore and Malaysia as live musical accompanists because of their own expertise…they took years of training as well to reach this standard. In music, SMV is still growing, but we do have skilled musicians who are called to join the ensemble. There is a shared practice and support among musicians and dancers. Carnatic music demands that attention from both the listener, musician and dancer. We give both forms equal attention. ME: What about the lyrics? SKA: [SKA stands up and demonstrates] …the lyrics depend on are the different ragas selected by the dancer; the audience will not know it unless they speak Tamil. The story is, here she is showing Krishna playing his flute and interacting with the shepherds based on the music played by a flautist [watching the video clip]. We tend to focus on uplifting stories and this dance segment…keeps the tradition of devotion to the deities.
213
Traditional form of Tillana.
In traditional dance, Tillana is the finale of the Margam, showing pure dance forms of
‘sculptured poses and foot works‘ that are based on lively rhythm and melody, ending with a prayer (Narayan 2007, 26).
SKA: The dance reminds both dancer and audience of their ties with the divine; We often tell our students that is not really the final dance. Our students are taught dance in terms of the dancer’s journey, as a commemoration dance celebrating the stages of passing through the temple areas, as such, in a spiritual sense. It’s really is the end of ‘basic training‘. ME: Where does this dance sit in the framework of the temple structure on the stage? SKA: Ahh…yes, we must go back to the origins of the dance, where it started with the dancer, by closing all the nritta that were introduced, exit all expressiveness and go back to the nritta style again…the pure movements and only the rhythm again. ME: No expression, no emotion and no themes. SKA: Exactly. Tillana is that space and point reached by the dancer where it all began, where the dancer now can see the inner sanctum of the temple concealed by a veil waiting to be parted, to reveal to the dancer, evoking an explosion of joy as part of their journey of the fulfilment of the Margam. Most dances will keep this traditional form, I believe. ME: It seems significant now, more than a feeling. SKA: To the performer and audience—there are aspects to feel; it is very much a symbolic thing, too, of our cultural life. I see this final dance taking us culturally back in time and travel to the roots of Carnatic, the
214 inner sanctum to reach fulfilment.
Traditional form of Margam ending.
Mangalam is a prayer sung at the end of the Margam requesting blessings from Lord
Vishnu wherein the dancer bows before the divine (Narayan 2007).
SKA: We follow the classical tradition and at SMV, the dancer also acknowledges the divine, mother earth, orchestra, spectators and the guru. It is a tradition set by Swami, who directed that it is the guru who has dispelled the darkness into light in the dance. We offer a prayer at the beginning and the end, completing the full cycle of the Margam. As you can see, our approaches are traditional, but not unresponsive to the social changes around us, but rather we look forward to the possibilities of the dance itself and the strength of the forms that can be linked with other arts. We make sure it does not lose its purity of balance, the formation of the joints and the geometrical shapes formed by the body.
I looked at the traditions continued in the dress attire. Respondent P10 asserted that there is hardly any change in its classical form but contemporary dancers borrow aspects of it. I discovered that the make-up remained typically heavy, accentuating the eyes to enhance expression. The costume remained of silk texture with gold handsewn embroidery; some garments are imported. The dance apparel, including jewellery, bells and flower adornment, remains similar. SKA explained that the temple-style jewellery to the face and hairline are customary pieces of jewellery draped on either side of the head to reflect the sun and the moon. Respondent P10 commented:
215 I see this tradition of dance style continuing in our practice. If you look at the classical dance technique, the training itself, the dance ritual, live Carnatic orchestra—it all keeps the cultural practice continuing. It is exciting, don’t you think? We still value tradition in this age, passed down from an ancient and rich culture. I am proud when I see this. Still, a subtle form of permutation is reflected in the modern forms of presentation, the notably input of a lighting designer, the different media, the inclusion of make-up artists, the green room preparation, the recital arena and the introduction of contemporary interpretation of the story. SKA explained:
There are subtle shifts he has experienced in the art form as dancers tend to seek new directions and interpretations. He finds that these are ‘necessary interpretations as dancers should be sensitive to the space between their own lives and what they perform on stage for the dance to be relevant to them.
Regardless, the Bharatanatyam dance form and practice at SMV is continued as a high art form of dance and is respected for its near transcendental nature, even if changes in practice naturally accommodate the tensions and anxieties that artists feel regarding artistic interpretation and cultural value. These changes are manageable, says SKA, ‘as it all has to do with adapt, adjust and accommodate‘, as Swamiji advised.
216 Chapter Seven Major Findings and Conclusion
______The aim in this dissertation has been to address the research questions: what are the factors determining continuity and change of Indian cultural practices, and how are these factors evident in cultural performances? These questions were informed through active engagement with members of SMV who volunteered to participate in this study.
The methodology was underpinned by an ethnographic approach that focused on participation, observation and interviews, and by a cultural studies approach that enabled an understanding of the hermeneutical quality of participants’ lived experiences. A noteworthy point to be made here is that the findings in this research cannot be generalised to the cultural practices of the broader Indian population in
Perth.
In this thesis continuity and change associated with diaspora are not introduced as new findings of a cultural practice because, as extensively demonstrated by many scholars, cultural practices in any location will show some evidence of continuity and change across time and space. However, the research undertaken in this thesis uncovers, more significantly, particular types and shapes of continuity and change in the performing arts of a diasporic group of Indians in Perth. It was found that performers were not interested in cultural continuity for its own sake or, for that matter, the replication of
Indian cultural forms for the sake of preserving traditions. Instead, what has been found in the research is that cultural practices through the performing arts are continuously undergoing hybridity and change. Performing arts practice within this diasporic group integrated Western cultural forms, multicultural art forms and Eastern cultural forms. An example of such integration is the Spanish influence in their Indian interpretation of the classical art form of Kathak music and dance analysed in Chapter 6.
Also, in this thesis, a different perspective on the notion of continuity and change of cultural practice has been determined. The thesis points to continuity of a different nature. This continuity is not an endless repetition of certain performances or certain
217 cultural practices of set rituals common in South Indian culture, but rather Saraswati
Mahavidhyalaya goes out of its way to incorporate other multicultural art forms in its performance practice. In doing so, the thesis shows that performances by the diasporic group present new compositional works and produce performances that have a combination of more distinct multicultural elements that can be identified as hybrid types of performance, which while being heterogeneous in form do not lose their grounding in Indian musical and dance structural forms. The art form of the dance and musical structures tend to remain relatively intact but their expression and appearance follows from interactions with other cultural practices.
The thesis has not explored general factors contributing to continuity and change.
Rather, the analysis has revolved around ‘continuity’ taking a specific or a particular shape quite different from how it has taken shape in other Indian cultural communities in Perth. In these other organisations, the author found cultural practices to be orientated towards the sole purpose of preserving traditions. Continuity of cultural practices from SMV’s perspective involves intercultural dialogue. Their practice ceases to be monocultural, but moves into a multicultural form which is really in some ways the defining characteristic (shape, and entity) of this cultural group.
The entry points found in social engagement and cultural practice were conscientiously explored within the two concepts used by Shove et al. (2012), that is, practice-as-a- performance (recitals and productions) and practice-as-an-entity, the latter appropriately describes SMV’s performing arts practice as an ‘entity’ that was established over time in their diasporic lives under the spiritual leadership of a guru,
Swami Shantanand Saraswati, and restructured as an institute in Perth under the banner of the performing arts. When described as a diaspora in performance (practice-as-a- performance), their identity is realised through an induction of intercultural interactions and reactions through performance. The findings reveal the organisation’s unique approach to cultural practice in the performing arts due to its religious orientation and
218 the Swami’s teaching, which focused on a form of everyday Hindu theology within the broader social context.
Chapters 2 and 3 looked more comprehensively at the literature pertaining to the concept of diaspora as a theory with reference to Indian diaspora history. It explained the ‘classic’ and ‘contemporary’ models of diaspora classification, and the old and new diaspora respectively, showing that the cultural practice of a contemporary Indian diaspora community grew in part out of the old Indian diaspora of the colonial period.
While the older ‘classic’ diaspora reflects diasporic experiences associated with trauma, nostalgia and loss of a homeland, the contemporary diaspora reveals a broader group of diasporic individuals living in voluntary and involuntary displacement and experiencing the effects of globalisation, as part of their dispersion, in locations that some writers define as the ‘third space’ or an ‘in-between’ space, in which new social dynamics emerge. The dissertation has shown that SMV’s performing arts practice is positioned in this ‘space’ and aligned with theories that inform an understanding of diaspora as a cultural and social process (Clifford 1994) in which the remains of the past are explored and individual diasporic histories are probed and as ‘meanings’ enclosed in relationships, diasporic experiences and awareness and cultural production
(Vertovec 1999).
Given that ethnography is a central methodology in this thesis, I have sought to answer the questions, ‘why are they doing it in a particular way?’ (Seeger 1980, 8) and ‘how’ are they approaching their particular cultural practice? (Krüger 2008). The research has shown that cultural encounters can successfully produce cultural interaction among diverse cultures and different individuals. As a result, the writing of the thesis has enabled the researcher, myself as author and ethnographer, to examine my own feelings, reactions, responses and motives in the context of my prior understanding and reading of Indian cultural practices. Doing ethnography, that is, the field work with
SMV participants, led to the recognition that there are other rhythms in diasporic life worlds. Ethnographic understanding of the diasporic life of this group of people
219 therefore became more relevant and real to the author because the research focussed on people who appeared as themselves, as real people with individual voices. It focussed on everyday life as ‘lived’ in a time and space; existential lives relevant to their community’s outlook on diasporic experiences. Sharing a common Indian past clearly had its value as the ethnographer's research revealed points of Intersection between my diasporic life – isolated, separated, removed, exclusive, within monolithic structures of apartheid in South Africa – against the open, experimental, hybrid, energetic and inclusive practices of the SMV.
By closely examining the formation of the Indian diaspora with its many discreet cultures, the dissertation showed that, in Chapter 3, there was more than a broad historical context for a discourse on diaspora. It was argued, first, that diaspora negotiates the path of interpreting the narratives of individuals’ own cultural experiences within collective cultural activity and, second, individuals and their communities are built on a long history of change, adaptation, ideology and values.
Fundamental to the Indian diaspora journey is the notion that the past remains alive in the present and, to an extent, defines the future. By presenting a contextual understanding of the history of Indian diaspora in Australia, Chapter 3 showed that experiences of settlement, identity and belonging were underpinned further by a master–slave relationship in which race and ethnic discrimination implied white supremacy. The struggle for identity and recognition of equality, therefore, became more urgent. In this chapter, a description of different transition models that pushes diasporas towards cultural assimilation and acculturation within nation-states were presented with the understanding that identity cannot fully be unified into one culture, as human experiences and histories are too diverse for all individuals and groups to converge on essentially identical beliefs, values and ways of living. Further points were made in Chapter 3 regarding diasporic cultural realities in terms of family, language and culture. Generally, the findings show that there was a continuation of Tamil language tradition in written and speech forms: most members have fluent bilingual
220 skills in English and Tamil. While family loyalty remained important, most individuals were freed from the custom of arranged marriages and patriarchal direction. However, parents nurtured their children in classical Indian art forms for various cultural and social reasons 156 while, as a family unit, the focus was directed to lives of service that build relationships at different levels of communication.
In Chapters 4 and 5, the case study focused on the performing arts practice of SMV. An examination was made of the ways in which continuation and change in cultural practices shape participants’ identities and SMV’s ethos in the context of its own diasporic world and the Australian world. Discussion in Chapter 5 showed, more specifically, how diasporas make meaning of their lives through the annual Swan
Festival of Lights (SMV) event. The case study involved twelve participants, as members of SMV who reflected on the changes and continuity of Indian culture and different interpretation of traditions.
The findings showed that there were several factors directly related to how participants at SMV recreated their own cultural backgrounds, customs and forms in a displaced environment. A major factor was that, as a diasporic group, they showed distinct departure from longing for a homeland or for the ‘homing desire‘ (Brah 1996) to one that involves a shift in the direction of their own diasporic imagining. The shift involved negotiation around factors that related to Indian cultural arts and spirituality. One of the ways participants negotiate these factors is through the performing arts. Here, performance follows a long-established tradition of music and dance (and drama). The research revealed that, by following traditional art forms through performance and learning performance skills and technique in the traditional way, participants were able to recreate their cultural backgrounds, and retain something authentic and meaningful in their diasporic lives and as social individuals within a diverse society. Participants claimed that ‘performance’ is essential for their well-being, as it enabled them to retain
156 The research indicated that classical dance or a music skill may be an advantage for more traditional families, as such skills hold a certain status in the Indian community.
221 some form of Indian cultural identity and cultural value in their lives. This factor is argued as one of the deciding points that determine their level of cultural practice and its continuity, which is built on the ethical aspects of authenticity and recognition.
Further to this finding, the argument made was that they have shown awareness that voluntary displacement would require a certain degree of accommodation, adaptation and adjustment that their Swami directed of them. It has been argued that as displaced
Indians, they sensed that not only do they need to recapture and reclaim Indian cultural art forms, such as Carnatic and Hindustani traditions to maintain cultural identity and value, but they must also present these art forms with the bigger picture of cultural diversity in Australia. In other words, while Australia’s multiculturalism is structured to preserve inherent differences of cultures, this group exemplified the cosmopolitanism that is part of their lived experience in Perth, that is, to bridge cultures by a willingness to accept different encounters on equal terms. Participants and SMV were, therefore, considered as agents of change. The factor that should also be considered, as part of the findings is: the likelihood of sharing cultural performances with diverse cultures in a western environment also spurred SMV and the members to ensure that their own
Indian art forms became sustained at a suitable standard. This group was able to achieve a sharing of cultures due to the nature and strength of the performing arts
‘space’; it enables other cultural forms of expression to become repositioned, making any ownership of such space to become a shared space. It was more noticeable at
SFOL events and SMV’s engagement with different cultural organisations that also included Australia’s dominant culture (see chapter 5).
In this space, it has also been argued that the performances of individuals in this study were neither transformed nor translated into inferior representations of the ‘Orient’
(Said 1994). Chapters 5 and 6, for example, showed that transformations, changes and continuity of the traditions of the various art forms are inescapable because of encounters, and these encounters have now become experiences of cultural interactions, rather than boutique multiculturalism. In this space, in the context of
222 Indian and other minority culture’s performing arts, the dissertation has shown that traditional music and dance have sophistication, expertise and artistry equivalent to the art forms of the dominant culture in Australia. Audiences and the organisation themselves were more open-minded about different cultures and ways of looking at the world in which they live. It strengthened the case that SMV has taken the lead in showing that cultural practices can be transferred, transmitted and transformed into social interactions and contemporary spaces.
In addition to the performance space being the new ‘home’ for cultural expression, the findings show that participants’ concept of ‘home’ also extends to the idea of ‘family’ in this new performance space, as it gives them a sense of belonging. Participants showed strong attachments to people, ideas and events; hence, the Swami, Shiva
Family and the organisation are components of ‘home’; it is where spiritualism and cultural traditions are nurtured. It can be argued, therefore, that home is multi-located between that which is reserved (private) and that which becomes shared (public). As
David Morley (2000) argued, it is a place of contentment, not necessarily a physical place but a concept, a rhetorical construction. Home, then, is not only found in ‘its sounds and smells, its heat and dust, balmy summer evenings‘, as Avtar Brah (1996,
192) suggested or envisaged in the prologue of this dissertation, it is found when people with common purpose and interest, such as in performing arts, cultural traditions, spirituality and artistic expressions gather to feel a sense of belonging. The findings show that participants in this research have transformed home from spatial notions to that which is perceived as a concept or feeling, leading them into a sense of being ‘at home’ in the ‘House of the Guru’ that SMV embodies. The findings show that this being ‘at home’ feeling has been an essential factor that determined the retention of cultural arts practices.
There were other findings that showed the factors that determined continuity and change of Indian cultural practices and how these factors were evident in their cultural activities. These factors were: the ‘Arts for art’s sake’ slogan that concerned not only
223 them, but the performing arts of other cultures; they have shown that performance does not necessarily become a work of art, but transcend experiences for all cultures; there was a desire to develop SMV’s public audience and retain a reverence of classical
Indian forms; they have shown that collective strength and collegiality found in the organisation itself contributes to stability and continuity of cultural practice; they have demonstrated that highly skilled and naturally gifted leaders trained under the Swami determined continuity and effective changes of cultural practices; an awareness of divine purpose of the performing arts; feelings of belonging; religious festivals and
Indian arts and its relevance in diasporic living; SMV’s motto: adjust, adapt and accommodate, which became a suitable approach to retain Indian culture; recognition of talent and use of such talent as selfless service; and lastly, the yearning for identity; and representation of Indianness in a diverse cultural society.
The dissertation required an understanding of how the motivating factors, and the inherent structures and relationships within a cultural group facilitate and shape group members’ identity and representation within the larger Australian culture. The interview questions were, therefore, directed to the extent of participants’ role and their involvement in Australian society. One of the key findings came from the participants’ interview responses— the notion of ‘cultural-awareness’. The argument made is that as a cultural group, they became aware that there is a difference in the kind of homogeneous culture performing for itself and a culture within a multicultural context performing for the other, as well. Put differently, in any homogeneous context, one would expect individuals of that culture to be indifferent to whether other cultures understood what they say or do, but in this group, the argument was: How do you perform for yourself and make a performance intelligible for the ‘other’? The findings show that, by continuing a path of a communal traditional Indian culture, such as
Deepavali festival, in a ‘particular’ way, as seen in Chapter 5, participants and SMV realised that they could extend their practice into a shared religious celebration with the ‘other’ through SFOL. At this event, traditional art forms were presented as ‘light
224 classical’ and in modified ways. The SFOL event showed that intercultural understanding takes place when cultures meet informally to socially interact and share in cultural experiences. This leads to a further argument, that is, they decided to not only perform something cultural for the other, but also incorporate the others’ cultural forms within their own, in turn, this action instantly saw the creation of performances which were not merely classical and pure in its form, but also intercultural and intracultural, and hybrid and dynamic. What followed was performances from other cultural groups and fusion forms of cultures, as seen in the composition Feet on Fire
(see chapters 5 and 6). Here, in this ‘third space’, it is suggested, there is integration of knowledge and understanding between cultures and a mixing of cultures and ideas, which allows the performance space to become more democratic and dialogic, rather than only a traditional homogenous cultural performance practice. Based on the results of the interviews and performance observations, one of the most important implications from the finding is that this diasporic group can be understood in terms of the approach they use, which is cultural creativity. In other words, they can be considered to be ‘Cultural Creatives’.157 In brief, they appear to be transformative by adding new perspectives to well-established ideas and traditions.
The argument presented earlier was that SMV and participants are considered to be active agents of social change: performance itself, being a catalyst to generate change.
What participants have shown is that within cultural organisations and in roles of artist and artiste, they are really sharing stories of people. SMV’s practice itself, in Chapter 5, demonstrated how equal communal understanding and appreciation of cultures can be
157 Cultural Creatives is a term devised by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry R. Anderson to represent a growing portion of people and groups in Western society that have developed beyond the standard paradigm of Modernists versus Conservatives. In their study, they reveal that the ‘Cultural Creatives’, among other characteristics, care deeply about relationships with others, peace, helping other people find purpose with their talents, see spirituality or religion as important in both personal and public life, and do voluntary work for one or more good causes. Paul H. Ray and Sherry R. Anderson, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World. (New York: Harmony Books, 2000).
225 realised through events that engage people purposefully. Respondent P12 made this point clear:
Events like ours makes Perth look great to the world and it is always something the City of Perth boasts about on the net and that, too, makes us happy, but that groundwork is done by us, really. We have shown through our performances that we can participate and be an important part of Australia, and we have moved closer to the mainstream action by bringing others into performances. It makes Perth look great, but seriously, it’s meaningful. We are actually helping [to] make our country become truly multiculturally engaged through awareness and knowledge, not just multiculturally designed to live apart ... so, through intercultural interactions we see people amongst us rather than countries between us. Here, we naturally interact and, therefore, it becomes a moral way of living. While respondent P12’s response indicates a typical view held by other participants’ in the case study, it actually revealed two important findings: the reason they practice
Indian cultural arts in this ‘particular’ way; and the way Perth is now beginning to recognise them. As artists and participants, they have, indeed, become social agents because they have shown that really want to change the world’s fixed views and the others’ perceptions of them. Unsurprisingly, they have modelled new ways in which
Indian festivals could be celebrated and performance can be transformed; they have demonstrated that it can be done by exemplifying mutual respect for other cultures through communication in the performing arts.
In this regard, Charles Taylor (1992) extensively writes about this dialogical nature of people as a way forward to cultural understanding. Pertinent to the findings in this dissertation is Taylor’s model of dialogical relationships. This model is based on four kinds of dialogical relationships that humans have—spiritual relationships, relationships with others, relationships with themselves and relationships with the world around them. This model is relevant because it runs parallel to the participants’ responses regarding their role, involvement, identity, representation and relationships.
Participants and the organisation have displayed, to a large extent, a commencement
226 of this dialogue and a desire for the dominant culture to also actively engage in this dialogical relationship in its practice, as depicted Figure 12.
Figure 12: A representation using Charles Taylor’s four dialogical relationships.
Figure 12 outlines Taylor’s (1992) dialogical relationships that are discovered in SMV’s practice. The first dialogical relationship relates to the self (virtue and character), which can be realised and traced through history, ending in the forms of spiritual and secular traditions such as meditation, yoga or prayer. The second dialogue involves human interaction in the form of discussion, communion, and teacher–student relationships.
This relationship acknowledges a mutual recognition through mutual learning that eventually enables individuals to agree and act together. The third kind of relationship extends beyond the dialogue of words and speech, as it is grounded in practices of specific activities such as dance and music. Such ‘communion’ with humanity is the
227 basic form of dialogue involving all the senses, eventually engaging individuals to work together in harmony (Taylor 1994). The author believes that the capacity to communicate with others is what makes us truly human and that we cannot, in our individualised identity and autonomy, be authentic unless we express a dialogical quality.
For me, SMV’s practice of these dialogical relationships, which are really the principles of Taylor’s (1994) politics of recognition, have shown that a deeper cultural awareness through interactions can take place: where minority cultures can be recognised so that they can move away from the margins of Australian society to the centre. Therefore, the underlying motivating factor found in this research, which determines the continuation of Indian cultural traditions for this group, is found in the way they move to the centre. It is done not only by showing a desire for respect of one’s own culture
(South Indian) or Indian cultures in general, but also the inclusion of the culture of others. In other words, in the performing arts, they have demonstrated that they can do it not only by performing to themselves, but performing to others as well, in an intelligible way that will necessitate a kind of interactive experience. That is, cultures can enter into a relationship where they also meet at the halfway point to create new social meanings. Thus, in the performances, sharing of cultural traditions have been shown to allow equal recognition in all respects: it is not unusual to find a non-Indian engaged in excelling, for example, in the art of Bollywood dance, a Bharatanatyam dance, playing an Indian instrument or singing in the Carnatic or North Indian Dhrupad style—it shows individuals are the same.158 It is also not unusual to find audiences enjoy the rasa experience when they view or participate in a classical Indian performance, fusion composition or the performance of other cultures—thereby showing that individuals are distinct from one another. Taylor’s (1994, 64) theory requires the
158 According to Charles Taylor, equality of cultures gives people dignity among other cultures. This leads to his politics of equal recognition, which views individuals as the same (politics of universalism) as well as distinct from one another (politics of difference). Charles Taylor, Philosophical Arguments (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 235.
228 dominant culture to give positive value to each culture’s identity, to give recognition to
‘the equal value of different ways of being’ so that they not only subsist, their worth is acknowledged.159
The notion of assigning positive value to each culture’s identity would be well received.
However, if assigning positive value infers that some evaluation of a culture is a requirement to determine whether they meet up to the standards of the dominant culture, then this kind of practice will always keep minority cultures separate. For example, although the Department of Communications and Arts has listed a ‘Register of Cultural Organisations’ that can receive tax deductible gifts if the ‘principal purpose’ is to promote an endorsed list160 of cultural activities, I found that there is no indication that these activities promote any intercultural activity, but mere activities of creative works. This leaves cultural organisations to take their own initiatives to engage with other cultures. If there are not enough events such as SFOL that earnestly seek to bring cultures together—and if there is insufficient funding for such events—then minority cultures might remain at the margins of Australian society, contained under the banner multiculturalism. Nonetheless, the findings reveal that SMV is recognised as an institute and is accommodated to an extent in a public sphere (SFOL) through much negotiation. This is because SMV has demonstrated that it represents a culture that offers good beliefs and values that do not undermine, but conform to standards, core values and morals of the dominant culture (Parekh 2003), thereby engaging in a practice that is considered a ‘politics of compromise‘ (Mishra 2012, 85). Perhaps this form of compromise is what Francis Fukuyama implied—that the end of history allows
159Here, Taylor sees specifically the ‘recognition of difference’ in Hegel and Fukuyama’s ideal democracy, in which individuals are recognised for their worth as equals in their respective difference of religion, ethnicity and culture. 160 The list specifies: literature, visual arts, community arts, performing arts, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts, music, crafts, design, television, video, radio, film, movable cultural heritage. DCA, ‘Register of Cultural Organisations’ (Canberra: Australian Government). https://www.arts.gov.au/what- we-do/cultural-heritage/register-cultural-organisations.
229 postmodernists to equalise the master–slave dialect of the past through a compromise in which the actions, representation and accommodation of the powerful and powerless even out. The data from interviews reveal that participants are comfortable with this compromise. Already, some of their dance experts and musicians are enjoying dialogue with a few mainstream institutions. For example, one of SMV’s artistic directors, Sukhi Shetty-Krishnan has lectured on Bharata Natyam at the Western
Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and the tabla teacher Vickneswaran
Ramakrishnan delivered a workshop-performance titled, ‘Music and Society in North
India’ at the University of Western Australia in 2015.
However, participants showed a desire for a deeper level of recognition. For example, respondent P1 argued:
A review of the political practice of education is necessary; we have proved already that our ethnic cultural traditions in the arts [are] adaptable to modern changes and meet the benchmarks of educational practice, but it’s been too long now that some of our certification of an art form is overlooked in the mainstream education. It would be nice to see an Arangetram or Margam in dance and music recognised as part of the performance degree at universities, trained by our own professionals and credited as one does with exams or even recognised in the mainstream at an exam level in senior schooling or university. They do this for ballet and here, we have students performing their arts at that remarkable level and we have the resources to support such undertaking, even at schools. When will this be included in the curriculum and syllabus for students at examination levels in schools? I really don’t like this type of separation of culture in the Western education system. The respondent’s response clearly indicates that participants seek to narrow the gap of such cultural imbalance; they wish to be more than a representation of Australia’s multicultural mosaic. This factor, if addressed, would further define changes and continuity of cultural traditions. By cultures becoming more engaged in the design path of intercultural ‘political’ practice, traditions originally used in the structures of authority in contemporary western democracies can be changed, as well. Thus, equal respect to the participants may imply that a significant religious festival such as
Deepavali can be brought into the enterprise bargaining agreements, as fair work
230 practice or even recognised in the way the members suggested, as a public holiday in
Australia. Likewise, it may, as respondent SB implied:
An equal respect of cultures is what we truly would like and it should not be understood only in terms of being invited by western performing arts institutes to play the tabla part for a percussion orchestra, as I did, to add an Indian texture to a composition: that is simply creativity. Instead, the tabla should be offered as an instrument of study in conjunction with other Western instruments: that is what I call respect, and SMV has the staff resources that could support such endeavours with such institutes.
In other words, respondent SB is implying that participants do not hold the view that ethnic cultural practices such as skill levels or graduations of Indian art forms should be recognised only within cultural communities or their own institutes such as SMV.
Instead, they are seeking a wider recognition of the art form because it matters deeply to them as people and as a cultural group. Perhaps merit in the public sphere, which has been demonstrated through performance, is one way of forging recognition of worth. As Peter Jones (2006, 35) argued, recognition is about ‘giving people what matters to them … our [dominant cultures] recognition of their cultural identities should be grounded in the recognition that we owe them as people, not in the value we find in their cultures’ (Jones 2006, 35).
The dissertation also establishes patterns and characteristics of cultural performance in both sacred and secular practice to ascertain, within the interrelated domains of music and dance, cultural performance and presentation of participants’ identity. The dissertation has shown in Chapters 4, 5, and 6 that cultural dialogues are central in their spiritual lives, as a result of the transformation that participants have undergone in their own spiritual practice as Hindus across time and space. The Swami’s teachings enlightened them into new interpretations of Hinduism and relationships, a practice of karma yagna, the yoga of action. Hence, as a community of believers, their cultural practices are embedded within SMV, it is where the performing arts and cultural education, the training and technique of Hindustani and Carnatic traditions, and
231 contemporary Indian styles, are studied. Since this diasporic group is built on a tradition of Indian arts and Hinduism, the findings show that all participants are either grounded in or exposed to some understanding of Indian cultural practices because of their devotion to the Swami. There is indeed a new level of ‘cultural hereditary‘ practice, of religious enlightenment and of cultural arts, within most of the Shiva family members.
The findings from the case study reveal that participants’ understanding of transcendence and aesthetics are based on Vedic literature, Hindu texts and the
Natyasastra, in which theatre and science are systemised around the divine and human psychological state of mind to achieve rasa experiences. In the presentation of identity, participants have shown that they are mainly shaped in their arts practice by their
Hindu beliefs embedded in SMV’s practice. The name itself, Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya, which participants called the ‘seat of knowledge’ that constantly enlightens the changing and flowing mind, forms their identity. In either of its settings—within a secular or sacred realm of music and dance—the Swami’s spiritual teachings are realised.
In Chapter 5, the research investigated SFOL as an event that marks a religious festival and showed that a transformation of religious traditions and rituals has occurred. It has been suggested that SMV, Annalakshmi and SFOL participants have set a new pattern of intercultural celebrations, as the sacred festival has become recontextualised and recreated in their diasporic lives as cultural stories and delivered into a secular setting to form meaning within a wider Australian narrative. Rituals that were previously constrained to private spaces at home or within the confines of Hindu temples have been transformed into a public space and ritual, with the reason: ‘light’ is symbolic of unity. Within the public sphere of the festival, the dissertation not only showed a celebration of cultural interaction, it also showed that sacred and secular art forms, fusion and classical forms and Indian and other cultural forms can co-exist as a result of cultural encounters and interaction. The chapter showed an increased awareness
232 among participants that practicing performing arts in this particular way increases people’s understanding of Hindu culture and Indian cultural life.
The evidence from this dissertation suggests that, as an established organisation that operates on a global level, SMV holds strong cultural traditions in Perth. SMV has much to offer Western countries in terms of cultural arts and new practices in education. How they are presented to Australian society is important. For example, they are engaged as a suitable performing arts organisation within the ArtsEdge program that offers its services to government educational schools in Western Australia,161 which lists SMV as one of the twelve Western Australian cultural arts organisations that schools can access for cultural arts performance workshops. However, it is problematic that the program categorises SMV under ‘Asian’ cultural organisations, because in doing so they have already, in mainstream education, demarcated them as the ‘other’. Sadly, the categorisation reflects Australia’s diverse minority cultures to students in a particular and prescriptive way and knowledge becomes misdirected. Moreover, the intercultural activities for students to engage with are limited and the organisation becomes merely a spectacle—a brief encounter for larger crowds of students as a break from the classroom and the teacher. From the author’s own experience witnessing such displays over several years, a cause for concern was the feedback form offered to students to evaluate the level of entertainment of the artist or group, how skilled the performer was and the extent to which the students enjoyed the workshop. In such evaluations, worth, value and respect were measured, and questions about aesthetics, cultural engagement and cultural specificity, knowledge and cultural understanding were not properly articulated or critically evaluated. It is these types of cultural understandings that SMV is slowly targeting through interactive workshops aimed at, to use a well- known phrase, 'consciousness raising'.
161 The ArtsEdge Program, initiated in 1989, is a strategic body that partners with the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and the Department of Education with the aim of bringing more diverse cultural awareness into school programs. In the performing arts, they acknowledge Asian cultural forms of dance, drama and music as being inseparable.
233 As an education institute, SMV provides a suitable platform with which Western
Australian education systems can successfully work neutrally rather than partially. For instance, the Department of Education’s Instrumental Music School Services (IMSS) offers free Western instrumental training to students in more than 450 public schools, reaching more than 15, 000 students from Years 3 to 12 during school hours (IMMS
2017). An effort should be made to include non-Western instruments of Australia’s diverse cultures in such programs. Students in schools should be offered lessons in different cultural instruments, as well and organisations such as SMV are able to provide expertise to support students.
One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that a sense of
‘Indianness’ becomes more distinct in intercultural engagement, especially when different cultures coexist. Indianness surfaces in the retention of SMV’s name and the use of vernacular words in the language of tradition for performance items, as well. The
Swami’s directive, ‘adapt, adjust and accommodate’, steered SMV away from a mono cultural lifestyle because such an existence does not consider the creation of multi- identities. The use of the Indian vernacular alongside Western terms is an example of this accommodation. This understanding of cultural identity reflects Stuart Hall’s (1990,
226) definition of a shared culture, which is a culture that is associated with a group’s country of ancestry and realised in their everyday historical experiences and cultural codes, rather than remaining fixed to origins. Cultural identity is considered to be a
‘positioning‘. The point made, and this thesis supports the argument, is that this
‘positioning’ shows the transformative interaction of a group’s cultural habits with the dominant culture through the performing arts.
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276 Appendices Appendix A: Table of Key Participants
Representation of artists Codes: Additional Gender Country of birth and length of stay Interview of coding in Perth in years (yrs) Participants (P) OD/teacher/parent P1 EG1 Male Born in KL, Perth - 25+years ND/artist P2 Male Born in KL, Perth - 15+ years Musician/artist P3 Male Perth – 8+years Dance Teacher P4 Female Born in KL, Perth - 16+years Member/elder P5 Male Perth - 21+ years Musician/Teacher P6 EG3 Male Born – Singapore, Perth - 8+ years Dancer P7 Female Perth 24+ years Multi-Artist/ P8 EG2 Male Born – KL, Perth – 8+years Parent /dancer P9 Female Perth - 7years Dancer/NI P10 Female Born – Singapore, The Dancer Male Perth -10+ years The Artist (theatre) Male Perth 10+ years Musician 1 (FOF) Male Perth – 10+ years Musician 2 (FOF) Male Perth – 10+ years Dancer (FOF) Female Born – Spain, NI, Perth - 30+years Guitarist (FOF) Male Born – Spain, NI, Perth - 30+years Helper (dance student) Female Perth – 10+years Lady 1 SFOL food stall Volunteer 1 AV1 Born – KL, Perth – 25 +years Lady 2 SFOL food stall Volunteer 2 AV2 Born -Perth Lady 3 SFOL food stall Volunteer 3 AV3 Born KL, Perth 35 years Sivakumar Balakrishnan SB Perth 8+ years Saseedaran K. Anandan SKA Born -KL, Perth 20+ years.
Key: OD - Old Diaspora ND - New Diaspora NI - Non-Indian EG - Event Guide FOF - Feet of Fire
277 Appendix B: Distinctions of the Indian Diaspora
Indentured Labourer Kangani /Maistry Labourer New Diaspora workers Bonded labour, involuntary Voluntary, one that required a Voluntary movement, attracted to the movement (expelled from the host future employee to obtain a host land for personal gains ( country) or a semi-voluntary flight license form at the expense of the “tricked by force and fraud” to enlist Labour Department in Malaya into a forced migration Peasant backgrounds Originally worked as labourers in Attracts those from all ‘classes’ with temple lands. different skills (Mishra 2003, Sandhu 1969) Under colonial rule, they suffered Under colonial rule, they were Under Indian rule, invited by Western appalling working and living treated relatively well. Provided countries for various kinds of skilled conditions under coerced labour with a ‘cheroot’ and ‘betel’ for employment, (Rao 2013). Working contracts. Carried very little food, chewing, a weekly ten-minute oil and living conditions are protected treasuring relics to remember their bath and wash, a shave, and new under equal employment ‘home.’ sets of clothes if required, and opportunities and Occupational carried relics as a reminder of Health and Safety regulations home. administered by state and federal governments worldwide and global agencies such as OHCHR. Bonded to a five-year indenture, Allowed male and female Individuals have freedom to choose allowed both male and female. labourers, license was valid for the length of stay (except for those one to three years. that work in the gulf). Alienated from both host cultures Were able to travel back to the Are aware of the ancestral land, have and hostland in all dealings. temple lands in South India after a close relationship with the one year, but felt alienated from it homeland Scholars examine them in their past They are examined as a South Examined in their present conditions, conditions of lived experience in Indian migration phenomenon are characterised by their dispersion non-metropolitan British colonies of confined to plantations fields in in major metropolitan areas namely, Fiji, South Africa, Malaysia, Mauritius, Malaya, Ceylon and Burma, but Australia, Britain, the United States Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam scholars criticise the recruitment and Canada ( between 1830 and 1917. process and the Kangani’s exploitation the labourers. Travelled in crowded boats and Travelled via railway and steam Travels fast, in routes of air travel and steam ships as ‘human cargo’ for an ships for a journey of four days, most likely experience luxury ship estimated forty days or three months experienced some sense of travel nowadays as holiday cruises with a high death rate. humanity (food, water, clothes and entertainment. and a few comforts). Alienated in the hostland and the Found the year’s work long, hard Travels more contentedly under the homeland. and they missed home, yet felt a process of “globalisation and sense of alienation in the hypermobility” in which dual hostland. citizenship for the homeland and the host land is attainable Relied on ‘imaginary’ images of a Had access to the homeland yet Access to the homeland, advanced homeland due to the distance and retained cultural relics as virtual networks, retains vibrant alienation from the homeland. memory away from the relationships with their families in homeland India
278 Appendix C: SFOL 2010-2016 Program Outline. Tables 1 – 7
TABLE 1 Swan Festival of Lights Performances - 2010 (Supreme Court Gardens) Key: Blue – reflects predominantly continuity of elements of traditional format or practice, retention of cultural form.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Thursday 4 November Friday 5 November Saturday 6 November Sunday 7 November Item & Type of Group & Item Group & Item Group & Item Group & performance Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin River ceremony All Procession Vande Mataram TFA Vande Mataram TFA Vande Mataram TFA Vande Mataram TFA
Opening –Lighting Lighting of Lamp Lighting of Lamp Lighting of Lamp of Lamp & & speech and welcome and welcome Speeches Aboriginal Wadumbah Aboriginal Wadumbah Fusion Music AkaashA Inside Out Inner Space Dance (Perth) Dance Cross cultural Contemporary Traditional music-tabla, sitar, Dance to Indian guitar, piano, music soundtrack Indian vocal Fusion Music AkaashA New Gold Chung Wah Ballet Youth Ballet Kubansky & Rozthiazka Cross cultural Eclectic world Mountain Western Art WA Boys of Kiev Ukranian music-tabla, sitar, fusion band Depicting Chinese (Perth) Dance form guitar, piano, (Malaysia) migration to (Perth) Indian vocal Australia Tarana (Kathak) TFA Zapin ASWARA Tarana (Kathak) TFA Salsa Danza Loca Traditional South Malaysian Traditional South Indian dance Contemporary Dance Indian dance Latin American (Perth) Dance Academy dance Wild Things WAAPA Wild Things WAAPA African Drums Bolo Varsha Inner Space Contemporary (Perth) Contemporary Senegal Contemporary Dance Dance (Perth) polyrhythms (Perth) Dance Indian music soundtrack Inside Out Inner Space Samba! Batuque Puspanjali Spirit of Bali Fusion Music AkaashA Contemporary Live Music and Bacana Dance with Indian (Malaysia) dance from Brazil (Beleza Traditional (Perth) (Malaysia) Music soundtrack Samba) Balinese dance (Perth) Asturias (Neo- Casa Del Capoeira Ancestrais Inside Out Inner Space Ramayana TFA Classical) & Compas Afro-Brazilian Capoeira Contemporary Tarantos martial arts using Dance to Indian (Malaysia) Traditional drama, (Flamenco) Perth aerobics, music & Perth music soundtrack dance & music Spanish dance Bollywood TFA Chinese/Malay ASWARA Kubansky & Rozthiazka Fireworks – with TFA Contemporary Contemporary Boys of Kiev Aarthi Dance Dance Cossack Dance (Perth) Ramayana Fireworks TFA Ramayana TFA Bollywood TFA Close Traditional drama, Contemporary dance & music Aarthi Dance TFA Fireworks – with TFA Fireworks TFA (Lights Finale) Aarthi Dance Ramayana Close (9:30PM) Close Aarthi Dance TFA Close
279 TABLE 2 Swan Festival of Lights Performances – 2011 (Supreme Court Gardens)
Day 1 Day 2 Friday 21 October 22 October Item /Type of Group & Item Group & performance/ Band Origin Band Origin performance time River Ceremony TFA (private) Vande Mataram TFA Vande Mataram TFA
Opening Opening Lighting of Lamp Lighting of Lamp & Speeches & Speeches (20 minutes) Aboriginal Dennis Aboriginal Dennis Dance Dance (Perth) (Perth) (10 minutes) (Traditional)
Chinese Dance Chung Wah Spanish Dance Casa Del Society (10 minutes) Compas (8 minutes) (Perth) Perth
Cossack Dance Rozhtiazka Ballet Youth Ballet (10 minutes) WA Ukraine (Perth)
Sitar Ustad Usman Cossack Dance Rozthiazka Performance Khan Ukrainian (30 minues) (Pune, India) (10 minutes) (Perth)
Ramayana TFA Ramayana TFA (abridged (abridged contemporary contemporary version) version) (40 minutes) (38 minutes) Fireworks – with TFA Fireworks – with TFA Aarthi Dance Ramayana (Ramayana) (2 minutes)
Close Close
280
TABLE 3 Swan Festival of Lights Performances – 2012 (Supreme Court Gardens)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Saturday 10 November Sunday 11 November Monday 12 November Tuesday 13 November
Item & Type of Group & Item Group & Item Group & Item Group & performance Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin Water ceremony TFA Procession + TFA Procession + TFA Procession + TFA Procession + Anjali Anjali Anjali Anjali (prayer) Lighting of lamp
Didgeridoo Digeridoo Didgeridoo Digeridoo
Aboriginal Music music Aboriginal Music Aboriginal music
Lighting of Lamp Ananda TFA Damaru Lighting of Lamp TFA & Speech Nartana Indian orchestra Ganapathy fusion music Singapore
Ananda Nartana Malay – Piring Aswara Contemporary Oliver Ananda Nartana TFA
Ganapathi Dance Taparga & Ganapathi TFA Bharatanatyam Folk dance (Malaysia) Indian/African TFA Bharatanatyam (7 minutes) (7 minutes) music & dance (Perth) (7 minutes)
African Olivier Chinese – Fan Aswara Chinese – Fan Aswara African Olivier Percussion Tarpaga Percussion Tarpaga West African Chinese folk Chinese folk West African music / dance West Africa dance (Malaysia) dance (Malaysia) music / dance (15 minutes) (5 minutes) (5 minutes) (15 minutes)
Kavanagh Youth Ballet Tarana TFA Irish Dance Ballet Tarana Dancers WA Kathak dance Kathak dance (Perth) TFA segment segment
(7 minutes) (13 minutes) (7 minutes) Nagada TFA African Oliver African Indian Sidi Goma Nagada Indian Percussion Taparga Folk music (India) Indian Contemporary Sidi music & Contemporary Dance dance from A group of Dance West African rituals. African Indian TFA African Features the Sidis from the based at malunga bow Bharuch Princeton instrument district of (8 minutes) (15 minutes) University (10 minutes) Gujarat (8 minutes) Sitar Ustad Usman Cossacks Folk Rozhtiazka Vishwa Vinayaka Sitar Ustad Performance Khan Dance Indian traditional- Performance Usman Classical (Pune, India) (Perth) Contemporary TFA Khan segments with Tabla Ukraine Dance (Pune, (30 minutes) and Vox (10 minutes) (50 minutes) (30 minutes) India) Vishwa Vinayaka Damaru Vishwa Vinayaka Indian traditional- Indian orchestra Indian traditional- TFA contemporary fusion music & Fireworks (5) contemporary TFA TFA Singapore dance instruments dance (50 minutes) (45 minutes) (50 minutes) Vishwa Fireworks (5) Vinayaka TFA End Fireworks (5) (50 minutes) Fireworks End End (5 minutes))
End
281
TABLE 4 Swan Festival of Lights Performances - 2013 (Supreme Court Gardens)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Friday 1 November Saturday 2 November Sunday 3 November
Item & Type of performance Group & Item Group & Item Group & Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin
Procession / Welcome to Aboriginal Procession /Welcome to Aboriginal Welcome to Country Aboriginal Country (6 minutes) Elder Country (4 minutes) Elder (4 minutes) Elder
Premanjali TFA Premanjali Premanjali Opening Bharatanatyam adapted Opening Bharatanatyam Opening TFA dance adapted dance Bharatanatyam adapted TFA
(8 minutes -3 stages) (8 minutes) dance (8 minutes) Lighting of Lamp & MC welcome Lighting of Lamp & Welcome Lighting of Lamp & Anjali Anjali welcome , Anjalai (5 minutes – Main Stage) (5 minutes – Main Stage) (5 minutes)
Classical Indian Music Ustad Usman Ballet Youth Ballet Classical Indian Music Indian
Khan (sitar), WA classical
D.M. Laitha & (Perth) (12 minutes – Stage 2) musicians (10 minutes – Stage 2) M. Nandini (Malaysia) (Violin) Indonesian cultural performance Indonesian Classical Indian Music Indian Lion Dance CCC Lion (8 minutes –Stage 2) artists (10 minutes – Stage 2) classical Chinese cultural dance Dance (Perth) musicians (8 minutes) troupe (Malaysia) (Perth) Fashion Show TFA Maya Swan Japanese Fashion Show TFA
Indian inspired fashion International Japanese fused performance Artists Indian inspired fashion International (13 minutes) (5 minutes) (Perth) (13 minutes) Music Ankur Fashion Show TFA Sitar Performance Ustad Distinct Malaysian music & Indian Orchestra Indian inspired fashion Accompanied with tabla Usman classical traditions. and Vox. Khan (45 minutes) (Malaysia) (13 minutes) (30 minutes) (Pune) Deemahi (Fusion) ASWARA & Deemahi ASWARA & Deemahi ASWARA & Contemporary Indian dance TFA Kl TFA Kl TFA Kl
Cossack Dance Rozthiazka Music Ankur Maori Performance Te Arohanui Ukrainian Distinct Malaysian music rooted Orchestra Cultural singing, haka Maori Club (7 minutes) (Perth) in Indian classical traditions. and poi dancing. Original compositions (Malaysia) (Perth) (45 minutes) Procession TFA Procession TFA Pr ocession TFA Chinese Dance Chung Wah Indian Journey &
(5 minutes) Society Fireworks Indian Journey & Fireworks Indian Journey & Fireworks Scenes: Procession Scenes: Procession Scenes: Procession (Perth) Assam (Guhan scene), Assam (Guhan scene), Bhangra Assam (Guhan scene), Bhangra (Kuala (Kuala Lumpar), Dhandia Raas Bhangra (Kuala Lumpar), Lumpar), Dhandia Raas Indian drum, Kerala – Kai Kotti Dhandia Raas Indian drum, Kerala – TFA Small and Big Journey -(Kids TFA Indian drum, Kerala – Kai Kotti TFA Kai Kotti, Small and Big from Perth and KL), Bollywood Small and Big Journey -(Kids Journey -(Kids from from Perth and KL), Bollywood Perth and KL)Bollywood Fireworks Fireworks Fireworks (80 minutes – all 3 stages) (80 minutes – all 3 stages) (80 minutes – 3 stages)
Note: 4: 30PM ACTION-ABSTRACTION (Painting Dance Performance) by Sarasa Krishnan
282
TABLE 5 Swan Festival of Lights Performances - 2014 (Langley Park-River Side Drive)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Wednesday 22 October Thursday 23 October Friday 24 October Saturday 26 October Sunday 27 October
Item & Type of Group & Item Group & Item Group & Item Group & performance Band Band Origin Band Band Origin Origin Origin Procession –all Processions days Welcome Welcome Welcome Welcome Welcome Lighting of lamp Lighting of Lighting of Lighting of Lighting of lamp lamp lamp lamp (15 minutes) Welcome to Welcome to Welcome to Welcome to Welcome to
Country Country Country Country Country Pushpanjali - TFA Indian Music Kavitha Bhangra - TFA Pushpanjali - TFA Pushpanjal Vijaya Bollywood & Krishnamurt workshop + Vijaya i - Vijaya Vasantham Indian spiritual hy (USA) dance Vasantham Vasantham Classical dance music with (Indian film TFA (5 minutes) L. Subramaniam playback Classical Classical (52 minutes) singer) Dance Dance
WA Police WAPOL Bhangra - TFA Indian L. Ballet Charles Chinese Chung Wah Pipe Band workshop + classical - Subram Performance worth dance fusion music aniam (10 minutes) Ballet Society
(30 minutes) (45 minutes) Institute
Indian Classical Subrama Pushpanjali TFA Cossack Roztiaz Indian and TFA Lottery Music (Extracts) niam Vijaya Dance hka fusion music (int) + Draw (classical Vasantham Ukrainian SMV (45 minutes) Violinist) Classical dance
Bhangra TFA Sattriya Dance Assam Sattriya Sattriya African Djibril & Sitar Ustad Punjab folk Assamese folk Association Dance Dance dance & friends Performance Usman dance) dance of WA group music North Indian Khan classical (52 minutes) (15 minutes)
African drums Djibril Ala -rip-pu & TFA Bhangra - TFA Bhangra - Dr Mike Nahan West African Diagne Get-this- (Int.) workshop + workshop + TFA speech Swaram dance dance Ala-rip-pu & TFA Ala-rip-pu & TFA(Perth - Narakasura TFA Ala-rip-pu & TFA TFA Get-this- Internati Get-this- (based)Internation Get-this- (Int) Ala-rip-pu Int swaram onal Swaram al) swaram Contemporary fusion (Bharatanatyam -Allarippu & Jathiswaram Narakasura(25 minutes) TFA Narakasura TFA Fireworks TFA Maori Te Wai Spanish Traditional Indian sketch (3 minutes) Maori Casa
Indian dance based on Indian Club Del and sketch folk story Comp based on Indian (Perth) as folk story (40 minutes) Narakasura TFA Fireworks Fireworks Get-this- TFA TFA TFA Close Dance/ (3 minutes) (3 minutes) swaram Int sketch Narakasura Close Close Fireworks TFA
Close Fireworks TFA
283
TABLE 6 Swan Festival of Lights Performances - 2015 (Supreme Court Gardens)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Friday 6 November Saturday 7 November Sunday 8 November Item & Type of Group & Item Group & Item Group & performance Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin Water ceremony TFA Procession TFA& Gujarati Procession TFA& Gujarati Procession TFA Chanting & visual Chanting & visual arts & Gujarati groups arts & didgeridoo didgeridoo Chanting, Visual Arts & TFA Swagatham TFA Swagatham Krishna TFA didgeridoo performance Didgeridoo artist Krishna (7 minutes) (15 minutes) (7 minutes) Swagatham Krishna TFA MC welcome MC welcome Classical folk Dance Welcome to Country Ballet Charlesworth Nalinakanthi TFA (16 minutes) Ballet Jathiswaram segment of
Institute Bharatanatyam dance MC welcome, lighting of Nalinakanthi TFA Tarana TFA lamp & speeches Jathiswaram Kathak dance Chinese performance Chung Wah Tarana TFA Balinese Pribumi dance Balinese artists Society (Perth) Kathak dance form (Hindustani) (10 minutes)
Nalinakanthi TFA Cossack Dance Roztiazhka
Jathiswaram segment of Ukraine Raffle draw Bharatanatyam dance (Perth) Tarana TFA Garba Gujarati Samaj Indian Fusion Music Manish, Vicky Kathak dance form Of WA light Indian-classical & co Hindustani (5 minutes) (Malaysia) Spanish performance Casa Del Odissi - TFA Garba (10 minutes) Compas Shankarabaranam Traditional Gujarati folk Gujarati Samaj Pallavi Garba Gujarati Samaj S arod performance Praashekh Odissi - TFA Traditional Gujarati folk of WA (Pune) Shankarabaranam dance & song (6 minutes) North Indian fusion Pallavi Japanese Drumming Taiko On R amayana TFA Sitar performance Ustad Usman Wadaiko & Didge (Perth) (Surpanakha - International Hindustani classical music Khan ensemble Pattabishekam) (25 minutes) (10 minutes) Odissi - TFA Fireworks Ramayana (Surpanakha - TFA Shankarabaranam International (3 minutes) Pattabishekam) Pallavi (Oldest Indian Segment from the major classical dance Indian epic . (11 minutes) (45 minutes) Music Slide Guitar Manish Pingle Open Garbha - on Gujarati Samaj Fireworks TFA Indian classical guitar (India) & Vick field & TFA
Ramakrishnan Gujarati folk dance (25 minutes) Malaysia (1 hour) (3 minutes) Ramayana (Surpanakha TFA Close - Pattabishekam) Segment from the major Close Indian epic (45 minutes
Fireworks + Close TFA
284 TABLE 7 Swan Festival of Lights Performances - 2016 (Elizabeth Quay)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Friday 28 October Saturday 29 October Sunday 30 October Item & Type of Group & Item Group & Item Group & performance Band Origin Band Origin Band Origin Water Ceremony & Water Ceremony & Water Ceremony & Procession Procession Procession Swagatham Krishna SMV Swagatham SMV Swagatham Krishna SMV Main Stage Krishna Welcome, Speech Welcome to Country, Welcome / Speech MCSpeech Welcome Kalaripayattu Wadumbah Lighting of lamp Kerala Martial Arts Aboriginal dance Speeches Kathakali dance TFA Kathakali dance TFA Taiko Japanese drums Taiko On (10 minutes) (10 minutes) (Perth) Chung Wah Dance Chung Wah Shinkary Melam Kerela group SMV and WAAPA Chinese Society Kerala drums and Fusion music (Perth) thalakali (dance) Indian fusion music Praashek and Sitar Performance Ustad Usman Sarangi performance Dilshad Khan Sarod and Tabla –light Vick R Indian classical Khan (Hindustani classical (Rajesthan) classical fusion (Perth & KL) Music Music) Sikar Gharana training Pribumi Balinese artists Fusion SMV and Kalaripayattu Balinese folk dance (Perth) WAAPA Kerala Martial Art Bharatanatyam Dance Shankar Cossack Dance Roztiazhka Feet on Fire Farida Raih (Casa (extract) Kandasamy Ukraine (Perth Spanish / Indian del Compas school (TFA -Malaysia) Dance /music SMV (TFA) Kaikottikali SMV(TFA) Feet on Fire Farida Raih Khaii Music Myk and Ray Kerala folk dance Spanish / Indian SMV (TFA) (Australian) Reggae, RNB, Dance /music Pop, Motown and Disco (Perth) Taiko Japanese drums Taiko On Kesha Paasha SMV (TFA) Hadhi by Harshini Harshini (Perth) Classical Indian Fashion show Sukumaran dance (Malaysia) Hadhi by Harshini Harshini Aarthi dance (SMV) SMV (TFA) Chinese fused music Crystal Jade Fashion show Sukumaran + fireworks instruments: yang qin, Trio (Malaysia) bamboo, & woodblock Kalaripayattu Kesha Paasha SMV (TFA) Kerala Martial Art Classical Indian dance Music from WAAPA’s SMV (TFA) & Aarthi dance SMV Defying Gravity Ensemble WAAPA Indian dance and SMV musicians Cossack Dance Roztiazhka Ukraine (Perth Kathakali demo TFA Hindustani dance technique Feet on Fire Farida Raih Spanish and Indian fusion (Perth) dance and music. SMV (TFA) Kesha Paasha SMV (TFA) Classical Indian dance Aarthi dance SMV Indian dance Fireworks + Close
285 Appendix D: Research Information Letters
Information Letter – Organisation
Project Title – The current nature of Indian cultural practice among the Indian diaspora in Perth
Investigator Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan Contact Person Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan Email Address [email protected] Telephone No. xxx xxxx xxx Dear ______(Name of the Governing Board Secretary)
I am writing to request permission to conduct a research study at your institute. I am currently enrolled in the Doctor of Philosophy (Arts) at Murdoch University under the supervision of Professor Vijay Mishra.
Nature and Purpose of the Study Diaspora is a term that is used to describe a population, which originated in a land other than which it currently resides. I would like to conduct research among the Indian diaspora in Perth to understand the current nature of Indian cultural practice and what Indians in the diaspora may think about such cultural practices in relation to their identity and representation. The term ‘cultural practices’ refers to the traditional habits developed within the Indian cultures. Specific focus in the study is given to the usage of dance, music, drama and religion. Part of the study examines the extent to which these traditional and non-traditional forms are practiced at cultural centres and how such practices relate to their identity and representation.
What the Participation Involves? Participation in this research will involve the recruitment of participants from the organisation who are 20 to 80 years of age, and have Indian ancestry originating in India. Due to the nature of study, I hope to recruit male and female participants. Interested participants may participate in one or more research tools for data collection; they could volunteer to be interviewed, complete a questionnaire (online or hard copy) be observed in their religious and other cultural practice, namely music, dance and drama, and be part of a focus group. Except for the questionnaire, a separate Information Letter and Consent Form will be provided for participation in the interview, group focus and observation.
The interviews and observation of activities may be conducted at the public locations used by the institute or at the participants home, if the participant wishes. The group focus meeting may be convened at the institute if permitted by the organisation.
What is expected of the organisation? The organisation may wish to share information regarding its mission, activities or history. Any Information of this nature, regarding the organisation will only be channelled through an authorised representative of the organisation if consent is given. The researcher will request for the following: A room for interviews and a focus group meeting, permission to observe some cultural activities conducted by the organisation at the centre or a public location, permission to advertise the research flyer on the noticeboard, and permission to distribute the information sheet to interested volunteers at the centre.
286
Voluntary Participation and Withdrawal from the Study It is important that the organization understands that recruitment of participants will be entirely voluntary and non-coercive. While it is pleasing to have the organisation as part of this study, the organisation’s right to decline at any stage of the study will be respected without providing an explanation. If the organisation withdraws, all information provided will be destroyed. I have attached a copy of the following documents for perusal: Guided Questions for interviews, Questionnaire, Information Sheets for the respective research participation.
Your privacy The organisation’s privacy is very important in this research. All interviews, questionnaires, group focus and observation that may result, will be strictly anonymous; identities will not be revealed in any written or verbal format. Only pooled results will be documented. All information provided is treated as confidential and will not be released by the researcher to a third party unless required to do so by law. Neither the organisation, nor the individual participants will incur any costs.
Following the study, the data will be kept in a de-identified format, in a locked cabinet in the office of the researcher. The Consent Form that is signed by participants will be the only document that includes the name and signature.
Research Period If approval is granted, the interviews, observation, focus group and questionnaires will be conducted within period of 18 months until data is saturated; this will enable the observation of varied cultural practices.
Possible Risks There are no specific risks anticipated with participation in this study. The researcher will not be participating (unless invited), or interrupting any activity conducted at the institute. Hence, any discussion of the activity will be scheduled at a convenient time chosen by the participant. As your recruiting researcher and interviewer, a Murdoch ID card and a name badge will be won at all interviews.
Benefits of the Study While it is possible that the organisation may not personally benefit, the knowledge gained about the Indian cultural practice from participation may help others in the diaspora and other diaspora communities to develop a greater understanding of the Indian diaspora and its place in a multicultural society.
Questions and Concerns The organisation’s approval to conduct this study and contribution to the research will be greatly appreciated. I will follow up with a telephone discussion or meet with a representative if you are interested to be part of this study, and will be happy to discuss any aspect of the research. Once information from this study is analysed, the findings of the survey will be reported to the organisation. In addition, any background information provided by the institute for the study will be reported to the authorised representative for approval. Feedback will be available at the end of 2014.
I would like to thank the organisation in advance for assisting with this research project. I look forward to hearing from the organisation soon.
287
Consent If the organisation agrees, an authorised representative’s signature is required below. Alternatively, a signed letter of permission on the institution’s letterhead acknowledging consent and permission for the study may be submitted.
Yours sincerely, Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan
Authorised Representative (please print) ______
Authorised Representative’s signature ______
Date: ______
288 Information Sheet – Research Study Interview and Observation ______Project Title: The nature of Indian cultural practice among the Indian diaspora in Perth Investigator Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan
Contact Person Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan Email Address [email protected] Telephone No. xxx xxxx xxx
You are invited to participate in this study.
This study is part of my Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree in Arts at Murdoch University. I am researching the current nature of Indian cultural practice among the Indian diaspora in Perth under the supervision of Professor Vijay Mishra.
Nature and Purpose of the Study Diaspora is a term that is used to describe a population, which originated in a land other than which it currently resides. I would like to conduct research among the Indian diaspora in Perth to understand the current nature of Indian cultural practice and what Indians in the diaspora may think about such cultural practices in relation to their identity and representation. The term ‘cultural practices’ refers to the traditional habits developed within the Indian cultures. Specific focus in the study is given to the usage of dance, music, drama and religion. Part of the study examines the extent to which these traditional and non-traditional forms are practiced at cultural centres and how such practices relate to their identity and representation.
You can help in the study by consenting to share your perspectives and experiences about your cultural practices in an interview if you consent to take part in this interview, it is important that you understand the purpose of the study and the procedures involved in the interview. Please feel free to ask any questions pertaining to this study and that all your questions have been answered to your satisfaction before you agree to participate.
Interview Process and /or observation
To be a participant, you must be between 20 to 80 years of age, male or female and have Indian ancestry originating in India. It is anticipated that the time to complete the interview will be one hour. The interview may be conducted at your home or a designated public space. You may also choose whether you wish to be observed in your practice as part of the study.
Voluntary Participation and Withdrawal from the Study
Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary. You may withdraw at any time during the interview process and observation (if permitted) without providing an explanation, and all information that is directly related to you will be destroyed.
Privacy
Your participation will be strictly anonymous; no names or other information that might identify you will be used in any publication arising from this research. All information given, including photographs and documents during the interview is treated as confidential, and will not be released by the researcher to a third party unless required to do so by law.
An audio recording may be used if you consent to the interview being recorded. The researcher will use such recordings for analysis purposes only. If you do not consent to being audio recorded, then notes will be taken.
289 Benefits of the Study
It is possible that there may be no direct benefit to you from participation in this study but a greater understanding and awareness of the Indian diaspora among the Indian diaspora could be attained. The knowledge gained from your participation may help others in the future understand the Indian diaspora in Perth, its different cultures and cultural practices, and its contribution to society.
Possible Risks There are no specific risks anticipated with participation in this study. However, there will be questions related to identity and representation of Indians in the diaspora and questions related to individual diaspora journey to Australia. As your recruiting researcher and interviewer, a Murdoch ID card and a name badge will be won at all interviews.
Feedback on this study will be provided to you if you desire, on completion of this study. You can expect to receive feedback at the end of 2014.
If you are willing to be interviewed in this study, could you please complete the details on the Consent Form and return to me using the self-addressed envelope provided. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions pertaining to this study
Thank you for your assistance with this research project and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
290 Consent Form Interview
Research Study of the Nature of Indian diaspora Cultural Practices in Perth
Participator I have read the participant information sheet, which explains the nature of the research and the possible risks. The information has been explained to me and all my questions have been satisfactorily answered. I have been given a copy of the information sheet to keep.
As part of this research, I am happy to be interviewed and consent to be: (please mark the appropriate box) Audio recorded Yes c No c Video recorded Yes c No c
I understand that I do not have to answer particular questions if I do not want to and that I can withdraw at any time without consequences to myself.
I agree that research data gathered from the results of the study may be published provided my name or any identifying data is not used. I have also been informed that I may not receive any direct benefits from participating in this study.
I understand that all information provided by me is treated as confidential and will not be released by the researcher to a third party unless required to do so by law. I have provided my first name and contact number so that the researcher can contact me to arrange an interview time.
Please complete the details on the Consent Form and return using the self-addressed envelope provided.
First name ______Contact number ______
______Signature of Participant Date
Investigator I have fully explained to ______the nature and purpose of the research, the procedures to be employed, and the possible risks involved. I have provided the participant with a copy of the Information Sheet.
______Signature of Investigator Date
Jennifer Shanthi Mudhan PhD Research Candidate Print Name Position
291 Appendix E: Indicative Questions for participants
Indicative Questions for Participants
1. Tell me about the countries and places in which you lived? (Prompts) Was it your birthplace? How did you come to live there? What did you like about these places?
2. How different are these places to Perth? Are there any feelings of isolation?
3. What are the factors that motivate you to retain Indian cultural practices in the arts? The role of music and dance performances. The role of the organisation. Drives and motivation. The role of music/dance as a cultural expression in your life. How does music/dance contribute to your cultural maintenance.
4. What identities and representations do you hold within the larger Australian culture. What is the extent of your role in SFOL? SFOL meanings? What is your involvement? In your role as artist or participant in the performing arts, what is the extent of your role and your involvement in shaping your identity?
5. How do you balance the sacred and secular forms of Indian cultural expression?
6. What do you think of classical Indian art forms in relation to other contemporary forms? How important is classical dance and/or music to you What role does it play in your cultural life? What contemporary styles do you like and explore? What are the difficulties in learning an Indian classical instrument or dance form?
7. How important is the audience to you as an active member of TFA Perth?
8. How do you interact with other cultures (at a deeper level)?
292