Beyond Culture ; There Is More to America's Engagement with the Orient Than Just Henna, Bollywood and Yoga

Summary

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The 1990s saw an explosion of Indo-chic in the US. India, it seemed, was everywhere-refashioning American food, music, films, clothing, and home decor. India has long occupied a particular place in the American imagination, symbolising a place of spirituality and a land of timeless tradition in keeping with the Western fascination with the "Orient". Beginning in the mid-1990s, the Orientalist fascination with India took a new, mass-marketed turn with Madonna's henna-painted hands, Indian remix music and bhangra parties, the appearance of Bollywood films in the US, and the mainstreaming of yoga.

India came to the US at a time when Indian and South Asian immigrants themselves were arriving in the US in greater numbers since 1965. It was also a moment when American corporations were going to India to find cheap products and labour with the liberalisation of the Indian economy. However, Indian immigrants in the US did not really benefit economically from this trend, for most purveyors of Indo-chic were US-owned companies. Indo-chic helped diversify American culture while Indian Americans struggled with racism and anti-immigrant sentiment-as was also apparent in the American backlash to outsourcing of hi-tech work to India. American workers complained that "their" jobs had been taken by Indians- working at lower wages. Globalisation, it seemed, had been touted by the US, but only so that Americans could win all.

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Beyond Culture ; There Is More to America's Engagement with the Orient Than Just Henna, Bollywood and Yoga

However, after 9/11 things got worse. South Asians living in the US, especially Muslims and Sikhs and also many others, who p...

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