| ashu |
Posted
on 07-Feb-01 02:56 AM
What follows is a very interesting/thought-provoking book review by Seira Tamang. This was first published in The Kathmandu Post
Review of Books this past January. That issue of the Review was co-ordinated by Anil Bhattarai. The last few paragraphs of
this review are especially relevant for Nepali communities.
Seira went to college near Boston at Clark University.
She is a regular contributor to the Review of Books. She
pursues post-doctorate work in the social sciences
in Washington DC.
Enjoy this review -- to stir your thoughts.
oohi
ashu
*******************************************
Brown Folk and their Karma
A book review by Seira Tamang
BOOK: The Karma of Brown Folk
AUTHOR by Vijay Prashad
PUBLISHER Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000
In "The Karma of Brown Folk", Vijay Prashad extolls South Asian
Americans to awake from their a-political complacency in the "land of opportunity."
In a multi-layered analysis encompassing both historical and current
political turmoils embedded in race, class and gender issues in the US, Prashad,
true to his leftist commitments, critiques the political apathy of South Asians
in the US and their commitment to embracing the continuing stereotypes of
South Asians as the "model minority" at the expense of the class struggle.
Stating that "South Asian Americans prefer to detach themselves from the minutiae
of democracy and to attach themselves solely to the task of capital
accumulation," he quotes a former mayor of New York as summarizing the
position of South Asians in the US: "They give us their culture and their
taxes - and their wonderful restaurants." And Prashad adds "And we are
happy to oblige."
In a book that is fun, informative and a rally cry, Prashad analyses
notions of the mysterious, spiritual and exotic East which informed images
of the desi in North America (the first desi arrivals are pinpointed around
the late 1700s) and which have enabled "Sly Babas and Other Gurus" to ply
their spiritual wares in the US, thereby reinforcing stereotypes of Indians as
exotic, spiritual specimen.
Much of his critique is reserved for Deepak
Chopra, a best-selling author of "spiritual" books and the latest in the
line of "Sly Babas,"/ New Age Orientalists. Chopra's bland messages belie
insidious messages which merely reinforce the capitalist ethos of personal
responsibility and de-politicalization.
Depictions of spiritual stereotypes go hand in hand with images of
South Asians as a "model minority." The image of the pliant, non-complaining,
hard-working South Asian, Prashad argues, enables arguments that racism
poses no barrier to success and is of particular use as a weapon against Black
folk. Issues of institutionalized racism and structures of class
inequality are thus neutralized.
Such concerns are taken in three main directions. One is to reveal
the particularly privileged class of Indian immigrants who came to the US in
the 1960s and early 70s as a result of American demands for professional
educated labor. This artificially created community, apart from rendering
illegitimate comparisons with a population suffering under the legacy of
slavery institutionalized racism, is also shown to reflect a class bias
towards other more recent South Asian immigrants who increasingly number
among the US working class and petty bourgeoisie.
Concern over their
welfare takes the backseat to, as one desi is quoted as saying in reference to
taxi-cab drivers in New York City, worries that they are "ruining our
image."
Adhering to the girimitiya resolution, that desis are in North
American to work hard and make money, and not to interfere in political matters,
even in the face of anti-immigration sentiments and racial attacks which reveal
"as our community is being recomposed, we are told that we are only wanted
her for our labor and not to create our lives," Prashad notes that
"struggle is seen in South Asian American terms as antidesi. .....The ideas of
social justice are rarely considered: the global desi bourgeoisie has put Gandhi,
the icon of struggle, in mothballs and retired his activities to another
time, another place."
This a-political attitude is secondly contrasted with historical
examples of political activism of South Asians in both the Indian sub-continent and
in the US. From the Ghadar Party formed in San Fransciso in 1913 by Punjabi
migrants, to associations formed following the Indian Emergency of 1975
and the destruction of the Babri Masjid, current docility is sharply
contrasted with "deep roots of radicalism." And in a whole chapter devoted to
"Yankee Hindutva", the author critiques the fact that if the "homeland" served in
the past as inspiration for making the world better, it now serves as a source
for chauvinism.
In the third main turn, Prashad shows that while racial tensions did
exist between South Asian and Blacks in the US, they also have had a
history f sharing political and emotional support in their respective struggles
for social justice. Historical data reveal that not only did relations between
the two not have to be mediated by white Americans, but that cross-racial
support can be empowering.
Concluding with more recent examples of political activism crossing
racial and class lines - notably the organizing of taxi-cab drivers in New
York City in 1998 for better working conditions, but also including
organizations such as those working to help battered women within South
Asian communities - Prashad extols the necessity of a new political
consciousness.
The latter would not only enable a fight again institutionalized racism
and class-ism that undeniably affects South Asians, but also a rethinking of
the so-called "desi values", and "tradition" for the future of South Asians in
the US.
As much the "brown folk" as other South Asians in the US, this book
is of particular relevance for the Nepali community in the US. The existence
of numerous associations for Nepalis in America, regularly scheduled
conferences, newsletters and an even a TV program speak to the growing
organizational capacity and search for community - perhaps most recently
epitomized by the 2000 opening of a Nepali cultural centre in Maryland.
Yet one wonders, as I did some years ago while attending a Nepali conference
in Maryland in which the tone was set by former Ambassador Julia Chang
Bloch's admiration of Nepalis as "a model minority" and in which
self-congratulatory remarks ran rampant (talks included "How I made it
in America" - success marked by home ownership and angst over whether to give
college-aged children cars of their own), of what form this community is
taking.
In that conference questions and issues of patriarchy and son
preference within Nepali communities when raised were neatly dismissed
while a concern for the growing number of Nepalis who entered the US to study
but consequently dropped out and were working manual jobs, was met with
admonishments, as good citizens of the US, to report these incidents.
Clearly concerns of "ruining our image", rather than the well-being of
fellow Nepalis, was prioritized. Apart from the need for a specific history of Nepali immigration into
the US, which I suspect will draw many parallels with the ones sketched by
Prashad for South Asia as a whole (including the initial draw of
professionals - especially sent for "development" training purposes; and
the later, less privileged and increasing less Bahun-Chettri composition of
immigrants), issues of ethnicity, class and gender, forms of Nepali
"tradition" to retained or dismissed, and what the political and other
priorities of Nepalis in America should be, needs to be entertained.
Prashad's book can serve as a useful catalyst for discussion.
THE END
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