The Promises and Pitfalls of Modernity: an Ethnography Of
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THE PROMISES AND PITFALLS OF MODERNITY: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF YOUNG CATHOLIC WOMEN’S MEDIA PRACTICES FOR CLAIMING CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP IN URBAN INDIA A Dissertation by MARISSA JOANNA DOSHI Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Antonio La Pastina Co-Chair of Committee, Cara Wallis Committee Members, Srividya Ramasubramanian Dongxiao Liu Head of Department, J. Kevin Barge December 2014 Major Subject: Communication Copyright 2014 Marissa Joanna Doshi ABSTRACT This dissertation is an ethnography of the media practices of young Catholic women in Mumbai, India. Media practices are conceptualized as cultural practices via which the participants in this study claimed cultural citizenship in order to challenge discourses that yoke national identity with Hindu culture and construct Catholicism as “foreign” and Catholic women as morally bankrupt and hypersexual. Media practices examined included practices related to photography, privacy, and safety using mobile phones and the consumption of television programs and movies. Through these practices, participants attempted to displace the link between Indianness and Hindu culture and show that Catholic culture can also reflect Indianness, when Indianness is defined in terms of being modern Indian woman because the discourse of modern Indian womanhood aligns with how middle-class Catholic culture is practiced in India. Indian modernity emphasizes cosmopolitanism and consumption (similar to Western modernity) but is also marked by an ongoing emphasis on valuing community building, particularly in the context of family. It is also gendered in that modern Indian women are expected to practice sexual sobriety. Through photography practices, participants showcased the various dimensions of Indian modernity. By using the mobile phone to ensure safety and privacy, participants navigated the gendered and classed dimensions of Indian modernity. Finally, media consumption patterns revealed how participants learned about and enacted Indian modernity. Thus, by expressing Indian modernity through their media practices, Catholic women claimed cultural citizenship. ! ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Bella Doshi (1944-2010), mother and best friend ! iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Like so many things in my life, this dissertation also would not have been possible without “my village:” the many people who helped me along the way by providing intellectual stimulation, emotional sustenance, and material help. A big thank you and bear hug to my chair, Dr. Antonio La Pastina: for taking me on when I was lost and confused about my research agenda, helping me find my academic niche and encouraging me to pursue projects about which I am passionate, and being an emphatic listener. I have truly appreciated your support as I navigated the graduate school maze. I remain incredibly grateful for having the opportunity to learn from my brilliant co-chair, Dr. Cara Wallis. Her commitment to excellence in research pushed me to become a better researcher, and under her mentorship, I was encouraged to explore ideas that I would never have thought of tackling a few years ago. Female role models are hard to find in academia, and I’m so glad to have found one in her. I also found a wonderful mentor in my committee member Dr. Srividya Ramasubramanian. I’ll always remember her as one of the first faculty members in the department to reach out to help me during my first year in the program. Thank you Dr. Srivi for sharing your knowledge and your friendship. I also want to thank my committee member, Dr. Dongxiao Liu. I always left our conversations feeling motivated and encouraged, and I appreciate the time she spent helping me clarify my ideas and encouraging me during the dissertation writing process. ! iv Tight hugs for Dr. Barbara Sharf: She “seduced” me into the communication discipline with one engaging, eye-opening class and has continued to be a mentor, friend, and confidant. Thank you for believing in me even when I doubted myself. This dissertation would not have been possible without the financial support provided by the Department of Communication, which provided a research grant for my fieldwork. I also received various other forms of support from faculty members: Thanks Dr. Richard Street Jr. for practical, hard-hitting advice (often hard to take, but much needed). Thank you Dr. Joshua Barbour for showing me that collaborations between quantitative and qualitative researchers are both possible and rewarding. Thank you Dr. J. Kevin Barge for providing opportunities for professional development, and arranging numerous colloquia, in particular, that provided me with the opportunity to interact with scholars conducting exciting research and helped shape my research program. This dissertation would have been impossible to complete without my participants, who shared their hopes, dreams and fears. I remain grateful to them for trusting me with their stories and hope this dissertation does them justice. In particular, I want to thank Erica, Zenia, and Naomi for their insights about the lives of young Catholic women in Mumbai and helping me establish relationships with participants. I feel lucky and blessed to call Ariadne Gonzalez my friend. Ari, I love you for your honesty, incredible kindness, and brilliant mind. Graduate school has been a roller- coaster ride and I’m glad we shared it—crying, laughing, and clutching each other along the way. May every graduate student be so blessed as to have a friend who will “keep it real” by (1) answering frantic calls at 2:00 am and (2) telling them that at 2:00 am, it’s ! v time to “put down the Foucault!” I also want to thank the other graduate students in the department and my graduate cohort in particular for providing me with a sense of community, stimulating conversations, and enduring friendship. Thank you also to the “Bandra girls:” Anjali Fernandes, Cheryl Travasso, Sheena Pinto, and Danaë Almeida. Long-distance friendships are hard to maintain, and I’m so glad ours has survived. Thank you for the long emails, group chats, gossip, and laughter that made home seem not as far away. I love you Shane Pinto for your unwavering love, support, trust, and confidence in me. You’ve been a partner in every sense of the word during my graduate school journey: from making sure that there was always a pot of freshly brewed coffee and staying up with me as I wrote the dissertation, to helping me see the humor in stressful situations. It might be repetitive, but I can’t say it enough: I love you, Chubs! I would have not been able to complete this dissertation without the support of my incredible, crazy family in India, who always cheered me on. My dad, Mukesh Doshi, in particular, always encouraged me to love learning and to work hard. Thank you, dad for modeling patience and perseverance. The last two people I have to mention will never have the opportunity to read this dissertation. My mother, Bella Doshi, and aunt, Annie D’Souza passed away just as I was beginning the program, leaving me a sense of loss that continues to feel unbearable. Everything I achieve matters a little less because I can’t share it with them. But everything I work toward, I engage with a little more passionately, knowing that it is part of their legacy. ! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...ii DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………… iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………….....iv TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………….vii LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………...xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 Theoretical frameworks: claiming culture through media practices ...................... 5 Intersectionality .............................................................................. 6 Hybridity ...................................................................................... 15 Cultural citizenship ...................................................................... 19 Theorizing media practices .................................................................................. 26 Research objective ................................................................................................ 34 Structure of the dissertation .................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER II CONDUCTING AND CONTEXTUALIZING THE PROJECT ............. 38 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 38 Rationale for ethnography ............................................................ 39 Politics of participation and representation .................................. 40 Locating the field ......................................................................... 46 Approaching the site and recruiting informants ........................... 47 Conducting fieldwork ................................................................... 50 Catholics in Mumbai ............................................................................................ 53 Conversion ................................................................................... 54 Contemporary conditions in Mumbai .......................................... 60 Media and telecommunications landscape: from 1991 to current ........................ 65 Television and movies .................................................................