Date: 25 Jul 2000 17:49:20 EDT
Subject: Re: east is east



In regard to Sangeeta Ray's useful elaboration of the Hindu/Muslim debate  in Britain (gendered in the sari/salwar conflict, as she notes)  reflecting or evoking the Hindu/Muslim divide in the subcontinent, it was interesting that the movie began with text saying that the father, ("a Pakistani", it called him) immigrated to Britain in the late 30s and then married in 46, or thereabouts. My  immediate response was (and I couldn't even keep myself from muttering it out loud in the movie theater), How could he have been a Pakistani then--the word hadn't even been thought of back in the 30s. As I see it, it was the frustration with being isolated, out of it all, while the 1971 war over East Pakistan/Bangladesh raged, that made the father even more passionately "Pakistani". I very much doubt if he would have come to Britain with such a strong sense of being Pakistani, or even Muslim.

By the way, that feeling of drawing together as immigrants, desperate for news from home while a war rages there is evoked well in the Jhumpa Lahiri story, "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine." There, of course, the experience temporarily draws the Hindu family  into empathy with the Muslim father, far away from his wife and children.  


Josna

----Sangeeta wrote-----------
Another point that she made and which I would like to add to is the issue of
salwar kameezes being worn in Pakistan as opposed to sarees.

Since so much of the movie focuses on the conflicts between India and
Pakistan and given the ease with which displaced South Asian tend to
identify with their particular homeland and then generate discussions about
authenticity etc--one should keep in mind that the debates around
authenticity get gendered in terms of women's role etc. In this case the
true Pakistani woman (i.e Muslim woman) is she who wears salwar kameezes to
distinguish them from the Indian woman who to a greater extent can be
represented as sari clad.

Cracking India By Sidhwa does a great job addressing this issue in terms of
teh character of Ayah who eventually becomes a prostitute

I thought that the Bradford Pakistanis who visit the family, especially the
mother, evoke this issue thereby reminding the audience about the continuing
Hindu-Muslim divide that has been so central in the subcontinent.  Gender as
well as class issues are quite interestingly handled in that segment.
--- end of quote ---


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