University of Huddersfield Repository Willis, Michael P Establishing Identity: Gender, race and class in British South Asian cinema Original Citation Willis, Michael P (2021) Establishing Identity: Gender, race and class in British South Asian cinema. Masters thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35574/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD Establishing Identity: Gender, race and class in British South Asian cinema MA by Research Michael Paul Willis 5/17/2021 2 Abstract This study focusses on British South Asian diaspora history, specifically diasporic film and its portrayals of class, gender, race, sexuality and generational divide. Using postcolonial and Marxist analytical technique, this research aims to gain insight into way South Asian filmmakers portray their experiences and what this tells researchers about the diasporic community, how these portrayals have changed over time, and how accurately they relay the experiences of the diaspora and are received by audiences. The results are a range of ambiguous hybrid identities and experiences which, whilst authentic, simultaneously reproduce many cultural and class-based stereotypes. 3 Contents Introduction: Methodology and Historiography ............................................................................ 4 Historical and sociological analysis of film ......................................................................................................... 4 Historiography of South Asian diaspora ............................................................................................................. 6 Hospitality, Identity and Belonging .................................................................................................................... 7 Hybridity, Mimicry and the cultural ‘enclave’ .................................................................................................... 9 Marxism: Cultural Hegemony and Capitalism .................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1: Overview of South Asian Cinema ............................................................................... 12 Bollywood: A brief history of Indian cinema .................................................................................................... 12 Lollywood: The oppressed cinema of Pakistan ................................................................................................ 14 A brief history of Bangladeshi cinema .............................................................................................................. 15 Diasporic cinema .............................................................................................................................................. 16 Chapter 2: The Emergence of British South Asians ....................................................................... 18 Early Arrival: Lascars and the British East India Company ................................................................................ 18 Post-1950 migration.......................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 3: South Asian Women: Gender and Sexuality ............................................................... 23 Marriage and cultural misconception .............................................................................................................. 23 Misogyny, stereotyping and gendered expectations ....................................................................................... 26 Chapter 4: South Asian Men: Gender and Sexuality ..................................................................... 31 Sex, homosexuality and breaking down barriers ............................................................................................. 31 Masculinity, patriarchy and violence ............................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 5: Race, Identity and Generational Divide ...................................................................... 40 Racism in context ............................................................................................................................................. 40 Experiences and portrayals of racism .............................................................................................................. 41 Identity and ‘Home’ .......................................................................................................................................... 44 Mimicry, Hospitality and generational divide .................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 6: Class and Capitalism .................................................................................................. 50 Portrayals of class and the cultural ‘enclave’ ................................................................................................... 50 Gendered division of labor ............................................................................................................................... 51 Identity and class conflict in My Beautiful Launderette ................................................................................... 52 Representations of the white working class .................................................................................................... 54 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 57 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 60 4 Introduction: Methodology and Historiography British South Asian film has been a primary platform for cultural diasporic experience. However, these films often fall into the same stereotyping tropes that previous western interpretations established in cinematic portrayals of eastern culture. This research aims to explore British South Asian films’ stereotypical representations of the diaspora, how these representations emerge through South Asian filmmakers, how they influence historian’s understanding of the diaspora, and how these portrayals deal with and help to construct hybrid identities through the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality. I will also analyse what South Asian filmmakers intended to portray with their films, how successful they were and how the films were received by the British South Asian community. For this study I will employ a range of film analysis techniques, coupled with analytical theory developed by Marxist and postcolonial scholars, to analyse eight British South Asian films. I will layout a historical background for the emergence of the South Asian diaspora in Britain, and for South Asian cinema. I will then use these analytical techniques to uncover how issues of race, gender, class and sexuality are treated in British South Asian films, what these portrayals reveal about cultural identities of the South Asian diaspora in Britain, and the wider impact of these films on British society. I have selected a group of films produced from 1980-2011 as they reflect a time after primary migration from South Asia, when hybrid first- and second-generation migrant identities had established themselves, and because there are few films by British South Asian directors or writers from before this period. This allows me to explore how South Asians chose to deal with cultural tropes that ‘Other’ them in the eyes of western audiences, and use these tropes and the cinematic medium to construct a more nuanced representation of their cultural identities, class, race, gender and sexuality. Historical and Sociological Analysis of Film Films are similar to written sources in the sense that they must be analysed in terms of objectivity, bias, content and aesthetic.1 History as a discipline inherently prioritizes certain narratives, points of view and key events in order to further understand wider issues. According to Rosenstone, to a degree, films are “visual fictions” just as written sources are “verbal fictions” that serve to represent the past rather than mirror it.2 It is important as historians to analyse films not just in terms of the historical events presented on the screen, but also in terms of what those events say about the era the media was created in. Events that are displayed in cinema may be ahistorical, unrealistic or overtly vulgar, but this does not mean we should dismiss them. As Rosenstone