Global Muslim Audiences' Polysemic Reading of “My Name Is Khan”

Portland State University PDXScholar International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations International & Global Studies 5-2018 Global Muslim Audiences’ Polysemic Reading of “My name is Khan”: Toward an Emergent Multiculturalism Priya Kapoor Portland State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/is_fac Part of the International and Area Studies Commons, and the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Kapoor, P. (2018). Global Muslim audiences polysemic reading of My name is Khan: Toward an emergent multiculturalism. Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 10(5), 34-45. This Article is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Vol. 10(5),pp. 34-45, May 2018 DOI: 10.5897/JMCS2018.0610 Article Number: 5AEEBE957535 ISSN: 2141-2545 Copyright ©2018 Journal of Media and Communication Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournlas.org/JMCS Studies Full Length Research Paper Global Muslim audiences’ polysemic reading of “My name is Khan”: Toward an emergent multiculturalism Priya Kapoor Department of International and Global Studies, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, United States. Received 16 February, 2018; Accepted 2 May, 2018 In this study, we learn how audiences make sense of a non-dominant text that is conveying a non- Western story about the Global War on Terror (GWOT). The audiences affective narratives affirm Deuze’s argument that media is not separate from our lived experience; we live in media rather than with media. This study was conducted on an urban campus in the Pacific North-West, with film audiences of over fifty Saudi Arabian, Baharanian, Iranian, Iraqi, Yemeni, and other Arab and non-Arab Muslims. Multiple screenings of Hindi language film, My Name is Khan, shows that it speaks to a global, transcultural, primarily Muslim audience that has lived in the pall of a world changed by 9/11. As audiences, they weave an oppositional narrative of security, multiculturalism and Muslim identity. While their visas define them as students, their experience as simply Arab or Muslim women and men situates them, in a wider articulation of their transnational identity. Key words: Media, audience, ethnography, qualitative research for media, Muslims, Islam, Indian cinema, transnational, Bollywood. INTRODUCTION Scholars believe that current discourses of European empires began the period of colonialism in the multiculturalism, as doctrine for modern urban life, seventeenth century. In the United States, multiculturalism (Madood, 2013) are co-opted by forces of neoliberalism. is fast losing its value as a guiding principle for domestic Neoliberalism, which relies on market forces to bring and foreign policy. Therefore, it must be critically re- social equity, suggests new strategies of governance that examined, especially in the context of homeland security, minimize cultural rights, signal the advent of civil society, immigration, racially motivated policies, and the and downplay the importance of intercultural equality expanding scope of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). (Hale, 2005). Recent developments in these areas threatens the The discourse of multiculturalism, an ideal of sorts, peaceful ways in which migrants and refugees have seeks to shun persistent racial hierarchies. Ironically, crossed borders while also undermining historically however, it introduces new systems of domination that marginalized communities that have maintained amicable align well with existing hegemonic relations or dominant- working relations with the power majority. In the public subordinate dialectics that have persisted since Western sphere, the spike in hate-based crimes reflects social E-mail: [email protected]. Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Kapoor 35 realities such as Islamophobia, targeted killing, Muslim women and men suggests a much more complex harassment of migrants and of people who are mistaken global identity. My Name is Khan (MNIK) was screened in for migrants, decimation of indigenous rights, ICE raids venues that were open to the public and in large on Latinx families, desecration of farmworker graves and Intercultural Communication classes on multiple an emergent Black Lives Matter movement that highlights occasions. Over 60 persons were interviewed over a two- police profiling and the unwarranted killing of Black and year-period about their memories of 9/11, their audience- Brown youth (Ortiz, 2017). Individual citizens and response and connection to MNIK, and their beliefs about government organizations including police departments religion, democracy, media and life in general. Over 40 as well as well as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration respondents are Muslims from the Arab/majority Muslim Services have broken with legal convention to wrongfully world (Dubai, Bahrain, Yemen, Kuwait, Iran, Palestine, target and surveil Arabs and Muslims (Alsultany, 2013) and Saudi Arabia). Varied participants from the U.S., and in turn, all “brown folk” who look the same to these North Mariana Islands, China, Chile, and India were also surveilling eyes. interviewed. The participants were self-selected and This trend has laid the groundwork for violent attacks signed up or gave me their contact numbers so I could on persons of Indian origin, especially gurdwaras, since reach out to them for conversation. The words of a small 9/11 (Grewal, 2005). Further, we have seen an cross-section of the participants help capture the depth of accompanying upswing in the stock markets and growth the study group‟s discussions of religion, multiculturalism of transnational companies, almost as if the financial and gender. We learn (1) how film with no Hollywood market has high tolerance for grassroots inequity and antecedents is understood by a world audience and (2) protest without needing to address much of it. Consumer how audiences make sense of a non-dominant Hindi industries continue to commoditize difference and language film text that is conveying a non-western story grassroots mobilization as in the case of the recent Pepsi about the GWOT i . The audiences as travelers and advertisement (Solon, 2017), which invoked the Civil cosmopolites are disadvantaged by the ongoing racial Rights era of the 1960s, and the Black Lives Movement. social discourse disfavoring Islam. It remains difficult for Hale (2005), terms the relationship between the newly them to find a forum to articulate their lived experiences. articulated avowal of cultural rights and neoliberal political Therefore, their audience status provides a way for a economic reforms as neoliberal multiculturalism. While researcher to understand their identity vis-à-vis their own mediated texts like the Pepsi ad command power in a social, religious and geographical positioning, which then neoliberal securitized mediascape, so does global cinema presumably leads to richer narratives of resilience, strife, and its vast audiences. Cinema often gets associated struggle and protest. with product placement and sponsorship, yet the In this media study of audience and filmic text, the cinematic text bears meanings other than the obvious participants view the blockbuster My Name is Khan commercial ones. It is polysemic by virtue of its diverse (directed by Karan Johar in 2010), to intertwine an audience and their diverse lived experiences. Paying oppositional narrative of security, multiculturalism and attention to polysemy is an effective way to open up the Muslim identity. The film, MNIK, for its multi-star cast, and meanings of a text in order to understand social expat-defined Bollywood hero Shah Rukh Khan, who relationships that are fraught with power struggles coincidentally, was held up by airport immigration officials (Ceccarelli, 1998; Fiske, 1986). at New York‟s Kennedy Airport for his distinctly Muslim name, seemed the most compelling film for a global audience whose experience transcends South Asia (the Non-Hollywood fare and oft-ignored audiences: origin of the film). MNIK weaves a tough socio-political Viewing a multicultural film as a multicultural activity climate of hate into a multicultural story of love, hope, racial unity, and healing. The film argues for its own This study proposes to understand how a blockbuster version of multiculturalism through its dialogue and Bollywood text, with its aggressively marketed glitz and dramatic scenarios. It asks the question: can urban melodies, is able to speak to a global transcultural Western society actually overlook race, religion and audience that has lived in the shadow of a world changed nationality in the legal, social, policy and political spheres? by the communal and hate infused events following the Audiences of film, in turn, question multicultural policies attack of 9/11 in New York City. The study was and philosophies, express empathy with religious “others” conducted in 2011 to 2013 on the urban commuter and try to transcend the legacy of hate and terror handed campus of a University in the Pacific Northwest when a down to them through modern national politics. large number of Saudi Arabian nationals were

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