Sweating saris: Indian dance as transnational labor

239 Pages·2011·3.158 MB·English

by  Srinivasan, Priya

Sweating Saris

Priya Srinivasan
Sweating Saris
Indian Dance as Transnational Labor
temple university press
Philadelphia
TemPle UniversiTy Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2012 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 2012
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
srinivasan, Priya
sweating saris : indian dance as transnational labor / Priya srinivasan.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4399-0429-9 (cloth : alk. paper) —
isBn 978-1-4399-0430-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
isBn 978-1-4399-0431-2 (e-book)
1. Dance—social aspects—india. 2. Dance—social aspects—United states. 3. Women
dancers—india—social conditions. 4. Women dancers—United states—social conditions.
5. Bharata natyam—social aspects—United states. 6. Foreign workers, east indian—United
states—social conditions. 7. east indians—United states—ethnic identity. i. Title.
Gv1693.s75 2011
793.3′1934—dc22
2011016213
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American national
standard for information sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed library materials,
Ansi Z39.48-1992
Printed in the United states of America
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
For Ashok
and for Rishi and Anjan,
feminists in the making
May they always remember the past
while looking toward the future

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
introduction 7
1 An invocation for ethnohistories 25
2 Death, Citizenship, law, and the Haunting of the
Oriental Dancing Girl 43
3 Archival Her-stories: st. Denis and the Nachwalis of Coney island 67
4 legal Failures and Other Performative Acts 83
5 intermission and Costume Changes 103
6 negotiating Cultural nationalism and minority Citizenship 117
7 The manufacturing of the indian Dancer through Offshore labor 141
epilogue 165
Glossary 171
endotes 177
references 201
index 213

Preface
We are in a garage. The floor is concrete, and the slapping of
feet against it creates loud thwacking sounds. The open win-
dows mercifully allow air and light to circulate in the space.
The guru chants complex rhythmic syllables: Tam tata kita naka jam,
takun tari kita taka, tata kita taka naka jam, kukun tari kita taka. Taka
jam taka nam, taka rum, taka dhim. The dancers move their arms and
shift quickly between several different mudra formations (symbolic hand
gestures) while their feet slap out intricate rhythms. Their bodies jump,
twist, and turn depending on the step they are performing. Tam taka kita.
suddenly, the guru stops her chanting. “Girls, you do not look graceful,”
she admonishes them. “your anga suddha is nonexistent, and your rhythm
is completely off. And not only that—look at the way you are all dressed.
your saris are just spilling out because you have not tied the cloth cor-
rectly. Any minute either you will trip over yourself or the saris are going
to fall off you.” she says this in a very calm voice, but it implies a great
deal of frustration. The five students are indeed unkempt and disheveled,
sweating profusely, and panting. The garage is becoming hotter with the
presence of many bodies. i try to sit unobtrusively in a corner, having met
the guru only recently and been invited to visit her classes as an observer.
The girls smile sheepishly, looking at each other and at me from time to
time. One student lets out what sounds like a fart in nervousness, or perhaps
it is her sari ripping as she steps on it one too many times. This student
has tied her sari too loosely, and the pleats are falling out in front. it is very