Diaspora invokes a way of living. Geographic displacement, either voluntary or forced, brings about heightened processes of negotiation between the past, the present and the future. Effectively, diaspora creates a space for dialogue about notions of individual subjectivity and group representation, as well as global and local belonging. These processes contribute pivotally to the identity development of diasporic people, and this plays out continually as is evident in the choices diasporic people make about the way they live. This thesis explores one aspect of the lives of elite diasporic Indian families in Singapore - cricket. The central question is how these diasporic people become 'Indian' through their participation in the sport. There are two major components - cricket and family. Firstly, I identify cricket as a site of diasporic negotiation in the lives of these Indians. I explore their practice of this activity as a physical and ideological space in and through which they negotiate their identity. In a country where cricket is not common practice, the Indian domination of the widespread 'public culture' of their country of origin reflects their intensified investment in Indianness. This results in the creation of a minoritized and largely exclusive social space. By participating in cricket, they play out their diasporic Indian identity. This is a myriad process of social construction and transformation of Indianness at individual and collective levels. Through active and concerted social labour in the cricket arena, translation of relevant Indianness into a foreign setting effectively creates a new Indian ethnicity. It is the very negotiation and mobilization of their ethnicity that facilitates the thriving of this elite Indian diaspora. The other major component in this thesis is that of the family in diaspora. This is important because most of the elite Indians moved to Singapore as nuclear family units. Decisions made and the structures of their lives take into account the impact upon the household at individual and collective levels. I explore and highlight the importance not only of families doing diaspora together, but that of the varied individual contributions of family members to cricket and how their various parts support one another's negotiation of their Indianness. Divided broadly into three categories of fathers, mothers and children (male and female), I look at their different ideals, attitudes and involvement in the sport. From my research, I found that fathers were the ideological spearhead and instigators of interest for cricket within families; mothers played support roles; and children participated for a variety of reasons. Boys played because it was deemed the natural thing for Indian boys as it is 'in their blood'. Girls on the other hand, played for a variety of different reasons which differed from their male counterparts. Their participation was a concerted effort in an attempt to get forms of Indianness that are reflected and constructed in cricket, 'into their blood'. This thesis is framed by the concept of doing Indian diaspora in Singapore. I explore the cricket arena as a key site of identity negotiation in three realms - the individual, the family, and the wider Indian network/community. This analysis seeks to highlight the importance of each realm in reinforcing and supporting one another's projects of constant and complex formation processes of Indianness.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis concerns the performance of identity in the music of Indian American jazz musicians Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer. In combining the use of Indian classical music elements with jazz, Iyer and Mahanthappa create music that is inextricably tied to their multifaceted identities. Traditional musicological analysis is juxtaposed with a theoretical framework that draws on postcolonial theory and the history of Asian immigrant populations to the U.S. I chronicle the interactions between Indian and Western music and link it to larger issues of Asian American identity formation and activism through music. Through interviews and transcriptions of studio recordings, I identify specific compositional and improvisational strategies of the musicians. I emphasize the role of individual agency in the formation of second-generation identities, drawing attention to the distinct ways that Iyer and Mahanthappa approach their music. Finally, I connect this research to a larger discourse on Indian American artistic identity.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-194). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnographic study of the cultural formations of moral and political community among Tamils displaced and dispersed by three decades of war and political violence in Sri Lanka. Drawing on twenty months of field research among Tamils living in Toronto, Canada and Tamil Nadu, India, I inquire into the histories, discourses, and practices of diasporic activism at the end of war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Tamils abroad were mobilized to protest the war, culminating in months of spectacular mass demonstrations in metropolitan cities around the world. Participant-observation among activists and their families in diaspora neighborhoods and refugee camps, and their public events and actions, as well as semi-structured interviews, media analysis and archival work, reveal how “diaspora” has become a capacious site of political becoming for the identification and mobilization of Tamils within, across, and beyond-nation states and their borders. Part One of this study considers how migration and militancy have historically transformed Tamil society, giving rise to a diasporic politics with competing ethical obligations for Tamils living outside Sri Lanka. Chapters One and Two describe and analyze how distinct trajectories of migration and settlement led to diverse forms of social and political action among diaspora Tamils during Sri Lanka’s 2002 ceasefire and peace process. Chapter Three turns to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka to contrast narratives about the emergence of Tamil politics, nationalism and militancy with diaspora narratives developed through life history interviews with activists. Taken together, these chapters provide a layered social and historical context for the ethnography of Tamil diaspora life and activism. Part Two of the dissertation ethnographically explores how and why Tamils in Canada and India protested the recent war, soliciting their states, national and transnational publics, and each other to “take immediate action” on behalf of suffering civilians. Chapter Four examines diaspora community formation and activism in Toronto, a city with the largest population of Sri Lankan Tamils outside Asia, in the wake of Canada’s ban on the LTTE. Chapter Five turns to refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, India, to discuss how camp life shaped refugee politics and activism, while Chapter Six follows the narratives of two migrants waiting and preparing to migrate from India to the West. Chapter Seven examines how Tamil activists in Toronto and Tamil Nadu publicly invoked, represented, and performed suffering to mobilize action against the war. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the modes of Tamil migration, asylum-seeking, and diaspora activism that emerged in response to the war’s end and its aftermaths. In their actions of protest and dissent, I argue that Tamils from Sri Lanka create new modes of belonging and citizenship out of transnational lives forged from wartime migration and resettlement in multicultural and pluralist states. A political subject of “Tamil diaspora” has thus emerged, and continues to shape Sri Lanka’s post-war futures. This ethnography contributes to scholarly debates on violence, subjectivity and agency; the nation-state and citizenship; and the politics of human rights and humanitarianism at the intersections of diaspora, refugee and South Asian studies.

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Shadow Sounds: an Original Collection of Poetry and an Essay on Questions of Femaleness and Diaspora in Meena Alexander’s Illiterate Heart. The thesis comprises two parts: an original collection of poetry entitled Shadow Sounds, and a critical essay exploring the issues of diaspora and femaleness in Meena Alexander‟s Illiterate Heart. Shadow Sounds is a compilation of poems which examines the interrelations of a South African Indian familial structure, the emergence of a strong female sexual identity, and the open, even experimentally processual approach which influences the exploration of lyric voicing. The critical essay on Alexander investigates two major thematic concerns in the collection Illiterate Heart, namely, diaspora and gender. I postulate that the diasporic experiences of the writer have inflected all aspects of her identity, occasioning both rhizomatic compositions and the ongoing composition of a dispersed subjectivity. Alexander‟s hypothesised „selves‟ are observed and identified as constantly shifting and changing throughout Illiterate Heart, and effectively recast the popular conceptualisation of identity as singular and coherent. / M.A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

abstract: The Bharata-Natyam student in the United States (US) is challenged by how to effectively translate their dance into contemporary lived experiences. Research reveals that this dilemma is sometimes addressed by transplanting learnt choreographies into a new theme, sometimes adding verbal text to connect learnt choreography to contemporary issues, or sometimes simply giving up the dance form. Years of training in prevalent Bharata-Natyam education methods make students proficient in re-producing choreography but leave them without the tools to create. This is due to emphasis on guarding traditions and leaving interpretation for later stages that never arrive or get interrupted, because students leave their spaces of Indian-ness for college or a job. This work considers how Bharata-Natyam teachers in the US might support students in finding agency in their dance practice, using it to explore their lived experiences outside dance class, and engaging meaningfully with it beyond the Indian diaspora. The desire for agency is not a discarding of tradition; rather, it is a desire to dance better. This work reinforces the ancient Indian tradition of inquiry to seek knowledge by implementing the principles of Bharata-Nrityam, somatics and engaged pedagogy through the use of creative tools. This took place in three stages: (i) lessons in the Bharata-Nrityam studio, (ii) making Kriti with non-Bharata-Natyam dancers, and (iii) designing a collaborative action dance project between senior Bharata-Natyam students and community partners who are survivors of sexual/domestic violence. The results, in each case, demonstrated that the use of creative tools based in the principles above enriched the teaching-learning process through deeper investigation and greater investment for both student and teacher. Students in the early stages of learning thrived, while senior students expressed that having these tools earlier would have been valuable to their practice. These results suggest that when Bharata-Natyam education in the US is refocused through the lenses of Bharata-Nrityam, somatics and engaged pedagogy, teachers can access tools to empower their students in their practice of Bharata-Natyam not only within the context of the Indian diaspora but also beyond. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Dance 2020

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