Generational Practices in Diaspora: Shared Memories in Morari Bapu’s Ramkatha
This paper explores the generational shifts in subjectivities, memories and community building among diasporic followers of the religious-cum-artistic practice of Ramkatha, staged narratives of the Ramcharitmanas by the popular kathakar, Morari Bapu. Since the 1980’s, Morari Bapu’s performances have...
| Published in: | Nidān |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Univ.
2022
|
| In: |
Nidān
|
| Further subjects: | B
Memory
B Migration B Diaspora B Performance B Generations |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This paper explores the generational shifts in subjectivities, memories and community building among diasporic followers of the religious-cum-artistic practice of Ramkatha, staged narratives of the Ramcharitmanas by the popular kathakar, Morari Bapu. Since the 1980’s, Morari Bapu’s performances have been popular across the Indian diaspora and offer a rich illustration of how religious practices are reframed and renegotiated to meet the challenges of living ‘here-and-there’. Drawing on participant-observation and in-depth interviews, among differently positioned first-generation adults, predominantly from a Gujarati background who migrated abroad from India, and second-generation adults who grew up outside India, this paper highlights how identities are performed, categorised and emplaced. While the first-generation grapples with migration, by trying to hold on to their culturally and historically specific Hindu practices that focuses on engaging with strategic home-making outside India and maintaining profound links with the homeland, the next generation sustains affinities with the diasporic Hindu youth, as well as identifies with the local community. How do the two diasporic generations draw on the Ramkatha and modify it in the course of coping with issues related to family structures, religious beliefs and practices, social customs, and attitudes? The result of a generational analysis confirms the multiplicity of diasporic experiences and the role of sharing and inheriting memory across time and place, that enables its circulation in oral modes as informal centres for meaning making. I bring into focus the agency of the Ramkatha to develop this connection through material and discursive practices that entails from living across transnational spaces and promoting enduring inter-generational links. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2414-8636 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nidān
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.58125/nidan.2022.2 |