Twentieth Century Feminist Thought

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Chapter 3: Feminist theory within the Indian context

Introduction

The previous chapter has established that according to the history of feminism in both the Anglo-American and Indian context, the position of all women in society must be redressed (Kumar: 1989: 20). When studying feminism in India, it is imperative to locate this feminism in the historical context of the Indian nation because India is a nation that was culturally embedded within the dictates of colonialism and imperialism (Jayawardena, 1986:73). This chapter will incorporate the various critical perspectives regarding India; more specifically, it will examine India as a postcolonial nation. Even though India has emerged from the dictates of colonialism as a postcolonial society, it is still characterised by strict patriarchal regimes. As Biswas (2012) observes,
There is deeply entrenched patriarchy and widespread misogyny in vast swathes of the country, especially in the north. And the state has been found wanting in its protection of women.
Both the historical trajectory of women and their position and role in Indian society has been and continues to be controversial. The study of women in India becomes even more essential in light of the atrocities that continue to be perpetrated against women in India currently. As Dwyer (2010: 381, emphasis mine) claims, even though in this twenty-first century, ‘India emerges as one of the world’s largest growing economies with unstoppable momentum’, it has simultaneously been ranked as the ‘worst G20 country in which to be a woman’ (Biswas: 2012). One incident can be used as an example to demonstrate this statement, namely, the gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in Delhi, India in December 2012. This is not the first assault of this nature and, based on the continuing violence against women in India it certainly will not be the last. However, this single incident, or more appropriately, heinous crime, sparked outcries from the world at large and is being treated as a landmark case. As Delhi correspondent for BBC news, Biswas (2012) states,
When the unidentified woman died in a Singapore hospital early on Saturday, the victim of a savage rape on a moving bus in the capital, Delhi, it was time again, many said, to ask: why does India treat its women so badly? Female foetuses are aborted and baby girls killed after birth, leading to an appallingly skewed sex ratio. Many of those who survive face discrimination, prejudice, violence and neglect all their lives, as single or married women. TrustLaw, a news service run by Thomson Reuters, has ranked India as the worst country in which to be a woman.
This crime has been classified as an act that has ‘shocked the collective consciousness of the people’ (Gummow: 2013). As a result, a national and international dialogue on the treatment of women in India was ignited. On Friday, September 13th, 2013, an Indian court sentenced the four rapists to death (BBC News India: 2013e). However, whether or not this sentence will be carried out is debatable because, as Colvin & Kotoky (2013) reveal,
Indian judges hand down an average 130 death sentences every year, but India has executed just three people in the past 17 years.
Clearly, there is a need for stringent law enforcement. Even though India is a strong global economic power, within the country, intensively obsessive traces of deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes and mindsets are prevalent, and as a result, women continue to be victimised. As Colvin & Kotoky (2013) further note, ‘sex crimes are commonplace in India, and social commentators say attitudes towards women have not been diluted by rapid economic growth’. In order to understand where these crimes originate from, it is necessary to examine the history of the position and role of women in India from a historical perspective. Women’s roles and positions have evolved over the centuries. . However, in light of the violent crimes that continue to be committed against women, it can be argued that this evolution has been imaginary. The following headlines in newspapers worldwide bear testimony to this statement:
How India treats its women (Biswas: 2012);
End culture of rape in 2013 (Wolfe: 2013);
India’s bitter culture of rape and violence (Hundal: 2013);
Is Delhi gang rape India’s ‘Rosa Parks’ moment? (North: 2013);
Indian acid attack victim fights for justice (Udas: 2013);
Delhi Conviction won’t end India’s rape epidemic (Choudhury: 2013);
Does the Delhi gang rape sentence bring closure? (Biswas: 2013);
The Economic case against rapes in India (Tulshyan: 2013).
Reading these articles closely, one can argue that in India, rape has almost been adopted as a cultural practice. It is important to note that rape is not only a concern in India, but throughout the world. Greer’s (1971: 251) views on rape and the sentiments of men toward women are pertinent to this discussion,
It is a vain delusion that rape is the expression of uncontrollable desire or some kind of compulsive response to overwhelming attraction. Any girl who has been bashed and raped can tell you how ludicrous it is when she pleads for a reason and her assailant replies, ‘Because I love you’ or ‘Because you’re so beautiful’ or some such rubbish. The act is one of murderous aggression, spawned in self-loathing and enacted upon the hated other.
Greer’s views lend credence to the fact that rape is an issue and crime that affects women across the globe44. Due to the wide media coverage of the Delhi gang rape, numerous activists, feminists, celebrities, government officials and even members of the general public have come forward and voiced their views on this matter. As a result, it seems as if this incident has initiated a global call for the end of violence/rape against women. Muslim academic Ashgar Ali Engineer argues that it was not God but men who barred women from mosques. He is quoted as follows,
There’s something wrong with men, if even in the presence of God they cannot control their desires. (North: 2013)
In support of Engineer, American philosopher Michael Sandel calls for a debate on ‘attitudes toward rape and moral parallels between the sexual and the communal violence India sees so much of’ (North: 2013). In addition to the above factors, the representation of women in Bollywood films has also been identified as contributing to the increased violence against women. The manner in which Bollywood cinema contributes to the ongoing dialogue on women’s position in India will be examined in the following chapter45.
There is general consensus that India is in need of an urgent societal mind-set change. This sentiment comes to light in response to the worldwide dialogue that was ignited by the Delhi rape case. As Tulshyan (2013) reports, since that ‘fateful day in December 2012 when a student was assaulted on a moving bus, there have been countless other such incidents. From as far back as 1953, sexual crimes in India have increased close to 900 percent’. Subsequent to this high-profile rape case, a twenty-seven year old female student46 has come forward after being silent for ten years to report on how three men threw acid on her, leaving her blinded (Udas: 2013). As a result, she has undergone twenty-seven intensive surgical procedures because the acid melted her eyes, eyelids, nose, lips, scalp and chest. Instead of receiving sympathy from her community, she has been alienated from society because of the way that she looks. Her perpetrators were freed from jail after only two years in prison. In August 2013, a photographer was gang-raped in Mumbai (Tulshyan: 2013). These are just the reported cases. Clearly, the time for change has come. In an interview with BBC’s Kirsty Wark entitled, ‘Film star Shabana Azmi on why India rape sparked outcry,’ Bollywood film star and women’s rights campaigner Shabana Azmi observes,
Women are in top positions in politics and business and the arts and all of that, but on the other hand, female foeticide is also being practiced, so it is essentially a country that is living in contradictions and trying to come to terms with it. Having said that, without any doubt, India is a patriarchal society and we have an internalized patriarchal mind-set in which the girl-child is not given the value that she deserves. (BBC News, 2013c)
In her capacity as an Indian woman who understands the nuances and challenges that women in India must deal with on a daily basis, Azmi acknowledges the need for attitudes to change. While this particular case has been catalystic in exposing embedded patriarchal mind-sets in India, Indian males will have to undergo a radical mental change if there is to be progress at all. In line with these views, the founder of Delhi-based NGO Jagori47 notes,
Even though there is a growing awareness and reporting of sexual violence, men are not able to accept women’s increasing assertiveness and use heinous ways to punish them. India is full of brave, independent female icons, but they have succeeded despite cultural norms, not because it encourages them to be independent. This epidemic won’t end until this mentality is challenged to its core. (Hundal: 2013)
Within an Indian context, even though the feminist movement travelled to India from the West and was embraced as a discourse that promised freedom from subjugation and oppression, it seems as if even today, the rhetoric of theory is far-removed from reality. This is substantiated in a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal (2013) in which the following reasons for the continuous culture of rape in India came to light:
• Women in India are raped and tortured because men in India find this to be entertaining.
• Westernization in terms of women wearing short skirts and dating has been blamed as a reason for rape.
• Poor law enforcement as well as a lack of respect for women.
• Bollywood cinema.
As a consequence of media exposure, the perils of being a woman in India are being candidly brought to the fore. Clearly, internalised patriarchal mindsets in India will have to change if there is to be progress in terms of the manner in which women living in India are treated. As Wright (1993: 115) notes, if there is to be feminism at all, it is necessary to look beyond gender differences and focus on the lives of actual women. In reality, there are reports of women, who claim that to this day, ‘men in India rape you with their eyes and grope you whenever they are in close proximity (Singh & Kapur: 2013). There seems to be a divide between women who are living in India under the ideologies of the nationalist project and Indian women who are living outside of India. In searching for better lives, these women have embraced a new identity and are often referred to as women of the ‘Indian diaspora48’.

The Indian diaspora

Although much younger than the other two major diasporas of colour (the African and the Chinese), the Indian diaspora is one of the fastest growing diasporic communities in the world. (Mishra, 2002: 235)
In relation to the classification and categorization of the Indian diaspora, there are a few factors that need to be clarified. Firstly, as Mishra (2002: 235) points out, it is important to be aware that the Indian diaspora has grown out of two distinct moments in history. These moments can be further divided into two movements:
• The migration of indentured labourers to various colonies (South Africa, Fiji, Trinidad, Mauritius, etc) for the production of sugar, rubber and tin for the growing British and European markets.
• The post-1960’s movement during which migrants willingly moved into metropolitan centers such as the US, UK, Australia, etc.
The first group of Indian diaspora (indentured labourers) were working class immigrants whose main aim it was to survive in the foreign countries that they migrated to (Mishra, 2002: 236). The post-1960 Indian diaspora are the more affluent emerging middle-class people who transcended international borders out of choice. Even though the word diaspora was indicative of particular groups of people (specifically Jews and Armenians), since the late 1970s, the term diaspora has ‘experienced a veritable inflation of applications and interpretations’. As Mishra (2002: 236) notes,
The Indian diaspora of today is very different from the traditional nineteenth and early twentieth-century diaspora of classic capital which was primarily working class and connected to the plantation culture.
Today’s Indian diaspora is re-defining itself within the realms of Western culture. It is also of relevance that these migrants have not been uprooted or traumatized into leaving India. Instead, they have left of their own accord, often in search of employment49. Within this context, the Indian diaspora can be identified as communities that attempt to reconstruct and redefine their identities in foreign lands. As Sahoo (2006: 89) notes,
Diasporic Indians share among themselves and with the next generations not only the history of their dispersion but also the history of the people in general, including myths, legends and traditions that constitute an integral part of their contemporary identity.
Since the early 1990s, transnationalism has become one of the fundamental ways of understanding the contemporary practices taking place across borders, especially in relation to immigrants (Dahinden: 2010: 51). In other words, it is important to take note of the socialisation patterns of Indians. Even as they emigrate from their homeland, the nature and essence of their distinctive Indian identity, be it individual or part of a community, is something that they often treasure. These migrants then become members of transnational communities. The issue of Indian diasporic identity is therefore an important issue in a transnational context. According to Sahoo (2006: 90) the Indian diaspora participate and take pride in various cultural practices such as traditional Indian dance, cuisine, music, clothes and the viewing of Bollywood films. It can be argued that collectively, these cultural practices aid the Indian diaspora in retaining their personal and individual ethnic identities. At the same time, within this space, interaction also takes place in a ‘transnational space’ that allows for the creation of new expressions of belonging. According to Carling (2008: 1452), migrant transnationalism is ‘built on interpersonal relationships across borders’. It is thus essential to acknowledge the link between the Indian diaspora and transnationalism.
As a consequence of such transnational processes, many Indian women have ‘broken away’ from the traditions, rituals and strict patriarchal regimes that are enforced upon women who are living in India. According to Roudometouf (2005: 113) the transnational experience should be conceived as ‘involving several layers ranging from the construction of social spaces to the formation of transnational communities’. The ‘nation’ in transnational usually refers to the territorial, social and cultural aspects of the nations concerned (Kearney: 1995: 548). For the purposes of this study the ‘nation’ is India, and by using the transnational approach, Indian migrants who go beyond the borders of their nation-state (India), become classified as the Indian diaspora. The processes of transnationalism allow for the development of these communities. In turn, these communities keep the ‘old’ India alive without the burden of patriarchy. When addressing the impact of transnationalism on Indian society, one also has to consider the Indian/Western dichotomy.
The influence of the West on Indian society has been a point of contention for centuries. As Prakash (quoted in Chaturvedi: 2000:165) notes, the Indian/Western dichotomy emerged because of colonial dominance, Of course, the two essential entities, the spiritual India and the materialistic West, made sense only in the context of each other and the traces of each in the other, which suggested that heterogeneity and difference lay beneath the binary opposition, although the process of rendering India into an object external both to its representation and to the knower concealed this difference.
In other words, culture is destabilised by the emergence of new value-systems. As Loomba (1993: 271) argues, In India, I am shaped by a political ethos where the terms ‘Indian’ and ‘Western’ are often made to signify a series of binary opposites: authenticity and false consciousness, ‘real people’ and ‘upper class’, indigenous and colonized. While such a dichotomy was obviously shaped during nationalist struggles, it has increasingly been invoked in contemporary India too for defining ‘the nation’ in ways that exclude certain class, gender, or caste positions and interests.
In an article dealing with the tangled histories of Anglo-American feminism and Indian feminism, Loomba engages with the ongoing debate about the West being regarded as a disruption to the spirituality and wholesomeness of the East, or in this instance as represented by the Indian nation. As Chaudhuri (2004: xiv) argues, ‘for us, our very entry to modernity has been mediated through colonialism’. Clearly, the colonial encounter was influential in fuelling the feminist movement in India.
In a transnational context, however, it is necessary to understand gender relations within the geography of location. In other words, since migration from India increased, female identities became ‘fluid’ in the context of the greater global world. Cognisant of the various factors that affect women in India, this chapter will be structured as follows:
• A brief overview of ancient India and its traditional structures will be provided. This discussion will be guided by aspects such as diversity, various myth and personal laws;
• Within the context of ancient India, an analysis of the role of Hindu women in Indian society will be forwarded; firstly because the Hindu people constitute the majority of the population of India and secondly because it is primarily the journeys of Hindu women that Johar focuses on in his narratives. However, it is important to bear in mind that Muslims are the largest minority in India and within the narratives of his films, Johar also grapples with various aspects of Hindu/Muslim issues. Therefore, a brief discussion of Muslim culture and religion will also be given.
• The period of cultural revival that ensued from the early 19th century in India will be discussed.
• The role of British colonialists in relation to the emancipation of women in India will be examined.
• The theories and ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi and his role in the women’s liberation movement will be considered;
• India as a postcolonial space, will be examined by taking the following into consideration:
• Postcolonial feminist discourse;
• The role of subaltern studies within postcolonial feminist discourse will be discussed, taking into consideration Spivak’s (1988) notion of the subaltern as well as Bhabha’s (1994) theory of cultural hybridity.
• Lastly, the role of transnationalism in aiding the Indian diaspora with processes of change will be discussed.

Ancient India

In the Indian context, over the years , various scholars such as Jayawardena (1986); Mohanty (1988, 1991); Kumar (1989); Tong (1992); Loomba (1993); Whelehan (1995); Chatterjee (1993,1997); Bagchi (1996); Dasgupta (1996); Forbes (1996); Spivak (1988, 1993, 2003);
Hashim (1999); Ray (2000); Rosella (2002); Mullally (2004); Kishor & Gupta (2004); Chaudhuri (2004), Jamal (2005); George (2006); Niranjana (2006); Roy (2006); Shome (2006); and Gangoli (2005, 2007); Rudman & Phelan (2007); Tong (2009); Dwyer (2010); Jain, Jasbir (2011) and Bhattacharya (2005, 2011) have contributed to the body of literature that encompasses feminist theory in India.
In ancient Indian society, women were forced to mould themselves according to the expectations of their social roles. As Bhattacharya (2011: 5) notes,
Women were led to believe that their only aim in life was to prepare themselves for marriage and marital life and duties. Traditionally, they had a dependency syndrome. Women have always been misled by the imposed ideal of womanhood.
It is important to take note that this ‘imposed ideal of motherhood’ was one that women in both the Anglo-American and Indian contexts were expected to embrace. In an Indian context, according to the social order as depicted in a Marathi50 street verse, an Indian woman must measure up to the following:
Do not abandon the vow of womanhood taken by you; You have to mind the hearth and children;
Do not ask questions; do not exceed the boundaries, Do not get out of control,
Do not abandon the vow of womanhood,
Do not speak with your face up, be inside the house, Wash clothes, clean utensils, cook and serve food, Observe the fasts and perform Vratas,
Bend your neck downwards, look downwards,
Walk without looking up; do not let your eyes wander51.
Roy (2006: 118) argues that this image of femininity (as depicted in the above verse) is imposed on young girls before they are old enough to realise that there are two sexes. In other words, differences in relation to sex-roles are created through the various demeanours that are mentioned in the verse above. This in turn, leads to sex-role stereotyping which has, in general, been a norm within the Indian family system. The discussion that follows must therefore be read with the above verse in mind, because for Indian women, these images are consistently proffered by means of religion, personal laws, tradition and Indian mythology.
Indian women who have any link to their Indian heritage are always subconsciously aware
that their place in Indian society is ‘under’ men, be they fathers, brothers, husbands or sons.

Traditional Structures

Jayawardena (1986: 73) notes that the traditional religious structures of ancient India rested upon Hinduism, which can be traced back to 2500BC. The religion of Hinduism grew and evolved from a variety of cults and beliefs (Thapur as quoted in Jayawardena: 1986: 73).The Vedic religion was one such cult that was practiced by many Indians. During the Vedic age which spanned from 2500 – 1500 BC., Hindu society, had a flexible social structure according to which women shared an equal status with men (Roy, 2006: 35).
In terms of the social and religious standing of women, Rossella (2002) notes that during this Vedic age, according to particular Indian religious life, in social and religious gatherings, women occupied a prominent position; women had an absolute equality with men in the eye of the religion. Roy (2006: 35) substantiates this claim and notes that Indian women during the ‘Golden’ Vedic age shared a responsible position with men and played an important role in evolving a definite culture and tradition. Women were not considered to be impediments and their roles were deemed to be an absolute necessity in religious services. According to Cormack (quoted in Roy, 2006: 34), in ancient traditional India, women were accorded equality with men. Even so, society during the Vedic Age was patriarchal. Yet, within this male-dominated society, women were not subjugated (Rosella: 2002).
Through the progression of time, subsequent to the Vedic Age, there are records up to the 13th and 17th centuries of many Indian women who made their mark in Indian history of their own accord (Roy: 2006: 37-39). These strong women included warrior queens Sultana Razia, who succeeded to the throne of her father, the King of Delhi, in the 13th century and led her troops into battle, and Nur Jehan who exercised real power and led the army to war in the early 17th century during the reign of her husband, the Emperor Jehangir (Ibid). In 1857, the legendary Lakshmi Bai, famously known as the Rani of Jhanis52, rode on horseback in fierce battles and died in combat (Jayawardena: 1986: 78). From these historical records of Hindu and Muslim women, it can be assumed that within both Hindu and Muslim societies, there were women who enjoyed a certain amount of freedom.
Subsequently, over the years, barbarous practices developed which forced both Hindu and Muslim women to be relegated to a subordinate status (Singh: 1981: 75). Roy (2006: 125) notes that the oppression of women was further fuelled under the banner of traditional patriarchal law, according to which women are regarded as slaves to society, tradition and male domination. As time progressed, these injustices became cemented within society as traditional structures and norms. According to De Souza (quoted in Roy: 2006:51), this resulted in women being denied equal rights in marital, familial, social, educational, economic and political fields.
The literature of ancient Indian history regarding the ‘true’ status of Indian women is both contradictory and conflicting. According to Jayawardena (1986: 78), through the progression of time, the status of women in India varied in different historical periods and in different regions of the country. Essentially, the implementation of Indian mythology and the enforcement of personal laws53 upon Indian women were major factors that contributed to the status and position of women in India. This will be discussed in the section below.

Indian Myths/Mythology

There have always been people, in every age and in each tradition, who have fought the modernity of their day. (Armstrong, 2001: xiii)
Modernity arises in stark contrast to ancient and past belief systems. Even though Western civilization was progressing, in India, there was a firm belief in mythology. Many Indian myths were translated into tales that were used to subjugate women. It is interesting that these various myths were embodied in rituals and traditional ceremonies and Indian women were expected to place themselves within the paradigms of these stories in the real world. As Armstrong (2001: xvi) observes,
Myth only became a reality when it was embodied in cult, rituals and ceremonies which worked aesthetically upon worshippers, evoking within them a sense of sacred significance and enabling them to apprehend the deeper currents of existence.
In the pre-modern world, people who believed in myth had a deep faith in spirituality. When these myths were then embedded within their respective belief-systems, often through religion, they did not need rational or scientific proof as substantiation. Instead, they immersed themselves into these created worlds and believed in the mythological tales that were not only embedded within religion, but also within their own psyches. Indian mythology, more specifically, Hindu-Indian mythology is filled with various tales. Two popular tales that are often represented by female characters in films are those of ‘Draupadi’ and ‘Sita’, the goddesses who represent the glorification of female suffering. Through these tales, suffering is portrayed as being equivalent to purification and is further endorsed by Indian nationalists as a fate that is both inevitable and highly recommended for women (Katrak: 1992: 398).
The figure of Sita, the respected Hindu goddess is hailed within mainstream Hindu tradition as an example of the ’ideal’ wife. Sita’s story is part of the Hindu epic Ramayana, a text that Hindu’s revere. She was the consort of Lord Rama and she underwent a number of trials and tribulations, which included her willingly following her husband in a nomadic and penurious life when he was unjustly exiled for fourteen years. She was then abducted and after her husband rescued her, he accused her of being unfaithful. To prove her chastity, she underwent a ‘trial by fire’. This entailed walking through fire and because she emerged unscathed, it was assumed that she was still pure and chaste.
Several years later, when Sita fell pregnant, her husband doubted her again and banished her from his home. According to Indian mythology, instead of protesting against this injustice, she happily carried her children to full term and gave birth to twins. She raised them into fine men and then waited until they were finally acknowledged and accepted by their father. Then she asked Mother Earth to swallow her as a sign of her virtue. According to the myth, not at any point did Sita doubt her husband or question him. According to Jayawardena (1986: 96), it is through the propagation of this myth that Indian nationalists promote the notion that a woman is the ‘ideal woman’ if she is without any purpose of her own, except to ‘worship her husband and continue to constantly prove herself worthy of him. Interpretations and reverence to epics and myths such as these resulted in Indian women being coerced into emulating the lives of goddesses such as ‘Sita’ as closely as possible in order to be considered ‘good’ and ‘pure’.
‘Lakshmi’ is another goddess that Hindu-Indian mythology idolises. Historically, the status of women in India has fluctuated drastically, and even though Hindu culture has afforded women the title of Lakshmi54, and Mother55, the same culture has forced women to climb onto the funeral pyres of their dead husbands and accept self-immolation or sati56 as a symbol of virtue (Roy: 2006: 33-39). Sati is an upper-caste Hindu custom in India in which the widow is burnt to ashes on her dead husband’s pyre. This woman is then described as a virtuous woman (Gangoli: 2007: x). In past nationalist discourse, as Niranjana (2006: 78) rightfully notes, sati was perceived and accepted as a norm.
Social customs based on mythology were a common practice during various points in the history of India. For example, in Hindu culture, a widow who willingly and happily ascends the funeral pyre of her dead husband in order to be burned alive is revered. However, if, for some reason, the widow did not ascend the funeral pyre of her dead husband, strict Hindu law codes immediately became effective according to which ‘a widow should lead a chaste57 life’ (Roy: 2006: 44). As Roy (2006: 45) further observes, Indian women were often subjected to intolerable situations and lived through dark periods during which they were abused and treated unfairly. The strict adherence to myth can be explained by Armstrong’s (2001: xiv) observation,
Myth could not be demonstrated by rational proof; its insights were more intuitive like those of art, music or poetry.
Since belief in myth did not require scientific or rational proof, and because many people were content to follow intuition instead of science, Indian mythology was and is to this day, central to Hindu culture. Based on prevailing belief-systems of the times, ‘the notion of female suffering was glorified through the use of mythological models’ (Katrak: 1992: 398).
In addition to being subjugated through myths, both Hindu and Muslim women were also subjugated by personal laws.

Preface
Abstract
Chapter 1:
1 Introduction
1.1 Rationale
1.2 Purpose of the Study
1.3 Theoretical Framework and Literature Review
1.4 Methodology
Chapter 2: Anglo-American Feminism: a brief overview
2.1 Early Feminist Theory
2.2 Twentieth Century Feminist Thought
2.3 Womens’ image
2.4 Feminist film theory
2.5 Concluding thoughts
Chapter 3: Feminist theory within the Indian context
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Indian diaspora
3.3 Ancient India
3.4 Cultural Revival
3.5 Mahatma Gandhi and Women in India
3.6 India: A Postcolonial Space
3.7 Concluding thoughts
Chapter 4 Bollywood Cinema: A Transnational/Cultural Role Player
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Brief overview: origins of Bollywood films
4.3 Audience Reception/tastes
4.4 India – an imaginary space
4.5 Bollywood and the Indian diaspora
4.6 Diasporic Bollywood films
4.7 Transnationalism
4.8 Cultural hybridity
4.9 Growth in diasporic markets
4.10 Concluding thoughts
Chapter 5 The Films of Johar
5.1 Johar as Auteur
5.2 Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (KKHH)
5.3 Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (K3G)
5.4 Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK)
Chapter 6 Conclusion and recommendations for further study
Bibliography
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