<p> When discussing Asian Indian population in the U.S. their economic success and scholastic achievement dominates the discourse. Despite their perceived economic and scholastic success and their status as a &ldquo;model minority&rdquo;, Asian Indians experience discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization from mainstream American society. These experiences of discrimination and perceived discrimination are causing second generation Asian Indians to give up on total assimilation and re-ethnicize. They are using different pathways of re-ethnicization to re-claim and to create an ethnic identity. This thesis provides evidence, through secondary sources, that Asian Indians in the U.S. do experience discrimination or perceived discrimination, and it is historic, cultural, and systemic. This thesis also uses secondary sources to explain several pathways of re-ethnicization utilized by second generation Asian Indians who have given up on complete assimilation. The process of re-ethnicization provides second generation Asian Indians agency, positionality, and placement in American society. Asian Indians through re-ethnicization occupy and embrace the margins that separate mainstream American society and the Asian Indians community in the U.S. It allows them to act as &ldquo;go &ndash;betweens&rdquo;.</p><p>

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

Shakespeare's dramatic work occupies a strange and double-edged position in the Indian literary consciousness. On the one hand, it is a colonial text that the British imported to India as a tool to illustrate proper 'moral' behavior to their Indian subjects. On the other hand, it has taken on a decidedly Indian identity, an identity marked by the post-colonial conditions of hybridity, subversion, and negotiation. As a result, the Shakespeare industry as it exists in contemporary India is a multifaceted and even contradictory institution. In this dissertation, I study how Indian directors and scholars have appropriated and adapted the Shakespeare canon to suit their individual needs. In the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, the continued teaching of English literature resulted in a growing class of hybrid Indians who, by their successful absorption of English education and culture, persisted in fracturing colonial authority. In "Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority Under a Tree Outside Delhi, May 1817," Homi Bhabha argues that these subjects articulate a discourse that subverts and alters the colonial status quo through intervention. Subversion and intervention articulated through forms of mimicry offer limited alternatives to colonial subjugation. I have found that Indian productions and interpretation of Shakespeare engage in such mimicry, simultaneously asserting and disrupting colonial authority. Infusing the English texts with Indian concerns both challenges colonial authority and articulates post-colonial realities. Indian appropriations of Shakespeare's drama are not new, post-colonial phenomena. During the colonial period, the plays were often used to explore cultural and political tensions. Today, Shakespeare's plays serve as vehicles to investigate the realities of post-colonial existence. Shakespeare productions, particularly those staged in English, best represent the multiple, ambiguous, hybrid, and hyphenated realities and identities of post-1947 India. The cross-culturation that marks this growing genre situates Western, canonical texts within the dual institutions of Indian theater and literary criticism. Shakespeare has, in effect, become an Indian commodity.

As a strategy of subversion and domination, recodification was deployed by the colonizer and the colonized under colonialism to reach their goals. In either case, the result was a deep impact of the other on the agents involved in recodification. In early nineteenth century, institutionalizing Persian was a product of colonial devaluation of vernacular languages, which recodified Persian as a classical language used for literature administration and law-making. As rewriting the cultural codes became a way for historiography to display the arguments and discursive models, it combined “useful” adaptations with the question of power, as we also notice in the case of the reform movement, the Arya Samaj. A return to origins of Hindu theories was an attempt by the Aryas to frustrate hegemonic models of colonialism. Recovery in this case led to an image of the Hindu woman that was at the intersection of tradition and modernity. Can new models replace colonial epistemologies? Can the nation indeed allow redefinitions to include everyone? These are among the questions that Ismat Chugtai's “Lihaaf” brings up. The heterogeneous nature of the nation may challenge patriarchal scripts only to be rewritten in re-positioned scripts that attempt to redefine the nation in dominant voices. Through the act of recodification, marginal positions intersect with hegemony where both are changed and marginality never takes center stage.

This interpretive description qualitative study explores the perceptions of alcohol use among South Asian (SA) Punjabi affected family members (AFMs) and their experiences with problem drinking from a Canadian community context. It is important to recognize the SA Punjabi community’s perceptions of alcohol use in order to develop a foundational understanding of this phenomenon from a socio-cultural perspective, an area of research that remains poorly understood. This preliminary investigation provides relevant contextual information to deepen our understanding of the experiences of SA Punjabi AFMs. Fourteen SA Punjabi AFMs were interviewed in both English and Punjabi. Analysis of participant narratives reveals five major themes: normalization of the SA Punjabi drinking culture; socio-cultural gender norms of alcohol consumption; socio-cultural gender related tolerance towards problem drinking; my relative’s drinking is the elephant in the room and I feel helpless and stuck. One of the themes, my relative’s drinking is the elephant in the room, had three sub-themes: fear of social judgement; fear of causing additional problems and fear of the relative. Interpretation of the participant experiences was facilitated through the use of the Stress-Strain-Coping-Support model (SSCS) (Orford, Velleman, Natera., et al., 2013). Participant stories highlight the unique socio-cultural experiences of SA Punjabi AFMs impacted by problem drinking. Findings from this study suggest a need for culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health and addictions supports for this community as they navigate the challenges of problem drinking within their families. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

This dissertation argues that friendship can enliven the revolutionary humanist politics of twentieth century anticolonial movements. Twenty-first century nationalism, including that of former colonies, extends the violence of empire and breaks from the visions of anticolonial revolutionaries, such as Frantz Fanon, who sought to overthrow imperial domination by also progressing beyond the nation-state. Through a study of friendships that emerge in the context of anticolonial struggle and form across racial, class, caste, national, gendered, and religious differences, I argue that friendship is crucial to the development of a politics rooted in the wellbeing of the global collective and oppositional to both colonialism and nationalism. The main focus of this project is South Asia. Taking the fortification of Hindu nationalism in postcolonial India as a departure point, I read a set of literary texts situated in the South Asian anticolonial context that depict friendships formed across racial, class, caste, national, gendered, and religious difference. I demonstrate how many of these friendships contest strict divisions between self and Other and the colonial, class, and nationalist structures that keep these divisions intact. I organize each chapter according to three spaces that recur in South Asian literature as crucial to the creation and mobilization of friendship across difference: the ship, the home, and the ashram. Moving between these three spaces, I argue that in the emotional bonds of friendship, we can trace the emergence of a collective politics—one that refuses the divisions of self and Other central to the projects of empire and the basis upon which contemporary nationalisms thrive. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / This project explores the anti-nationalist possibilities of friendship. Anticolonial revolutionaries of the twentieth century, such as Frantz Fanon, envisioned a humanist politics that refused the violence of both empire and the nation-state. Such a politics, rooted in the wellbeing of the global collective, has been lost in the proliferation of nationalisms in both former empires and colonies; however, I argue that the study of friendship can help enliven these collective politics. This project focuses on the political possibilities of friendships formed in the specific context of South Asian Independence movements. I read a set of South Asian literary texts that depict friendships established across racial, class, caste, religious, gendered, and national difference. Tracing these friendships as they take shape on the ship, in the home, and in the ashram, I ask: how might these depictions of friendships help reinvigorate a revolutionary, anticolonial politics that seeks to progress beyond the violence of the nation-state?

No description available.

This thesis is an investigation into migration, identity and labour among South Asian immigrant women in the Greater Toronto Area. It is an ethnographic exploration of how South Asian migrant’s relationship with precarity and how it informs the process of subjectification when faced with the realities of downward mobility. I focus on the practices and narrative repertoire that aid the relationship between labour and the making of the self. This inquiry has implications for the study of migration and expands on previous conceptualization in the literature on precarity. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Purpose: In Ontario, there is a steady rise in the HIV incidence among South Asian women. However, the health-related challenges and the disability experienced by this population are under reported. Hence, this study aims to understand the disability experience and utilization of rehabilitation services by the South Asian women living with HIV in Southern Ontario, Canada. Method: I used an interpretive phenomenological study design to explore the ‘lived experience’ and ‘meaning’ of disability experienced by South Asian women living with HIV. I recruited English-speaking immigrant South Asian women living with HIV through the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP). I conducted in depth face to face interviews using body mapping and photo-elicitation techniques. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic analysis approach was utilized to understand the disability experiences and rehabilitation needs of the women. Findings: Eight women volunteered for this study with six agreeing to be interviewed on a second occasion. The mean age was 47.1 years (s.d=5.8), and mean length of time since HIV diagnosis was 15.1 years (s.d=6.7). Analysis resulted in four major themes: “experiencing disability”, “building resilience”, “experiencing discrimination” and “accessing health care”. The women described several health challenges due to the side effects of anti-retroviral medications, compounded by challenges associated with immigration, HIV stigma, and discrimination. The complex intersection of illness, gender, ethnicity, and discrimination affected their overall disability experience. Despite these challenges, the women manifested resilience by re-constructing their identities, specifically by exhibiting perseverance in the midst of their health challenges, isolation, and patriarchal culture. Women lacked understanding about rehabilitation services in the context of HIV. Conclusion: This study draws attention to marginalized women living with HIV whose voices are rarely heard, and profiles their experiences of disability. Understanding the disability needs of marginalized women living with HIV, through a phenomenological lens could help to facilitate the development of culturally safe treatment approaches and health care policies, which can lessen their disability and improve their quality of life. / Thesis / Doctor of Science (PhD)