{"id":12335,"date":"2023-03-23T20:54:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T20:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yogajournal.com\/?p=109975"},"modified":"2023-03-23T20:54:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T20:54:54","slug":"a-historic-oscar-performance-left-indian-performers-out-and-south-asian-americans-arent-having-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/a-historic-oscar-performance-left-indian-performers-out-and-south-asian-americans-arent-having-it\/","title":{"rendered":"A Historic Oscar Performance Left Indian Performers Out\u2014and South Asian Americans Aren\u2019t Having It"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 2023 Academy Awards gave the Indian diaspora a lot to celebrate. I was quite happy that an Indian documentary won an Oscar. The Elephant Whisperers,<\/em> about an Indian couple caring for orphan elephants in the forests of Tamil Nadu, was a very heartwarming story. And three of the producers were Indian women. The Oscar win was a lovely acknowledgement.<\/p>\n

Then \u201cNaatu Naatu\u201d\u2014which can be translated as \u201cDance Dance<\/a>\u201d\u2014became the first Indian song to win an Oscar. The Telugu song is from the soundtrack of the movie RRR,<\/em> an action film<\/a> about two Indian revolutionaries fighting against British colonizers. It\u2019s performed in the language of Andhra Pradesh, a state in the southern region of India. It\u2019s unusual to have a song from the Indian film industry be nominated for an award, so that was the talk of the Indian community. Everyone was very gung ho.<\/p>\n

But in the days following the Oscars, headlines signaled a problem. \u201cIndians Disappointed at Naatu Naatu<\/a>.\u201d \u201cNaatu Naatu at the Oscars: A Cultural Triumph Gone Wrong<\/a>.\u201d \u201cSouth Asian dancers feel betrayed<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disappointment emerged from the fact that, although the performance featured two Indian singers and a diverse mix of dancers, there was not a single South Asian dancer in the group. Someone thought to cast Brown men as the lead dancers, but they didn\u2019t think it was important to have any representation from the culture the dance was celebrating.<\/p>\n

I was quite shocked. When I watched the performance, I assumed that the people who were dancing would be the actors from the movie or at least Indian. Instead, the lead dancers were a mixed-race American dancer and a Lebanese Canadian. It was a sad reminder of how appropriation and erasure take place in so many contexts.<\/p>\n

Whitewashing, Brownwashing, and Tokenism<\/h2>\n

In the yoga world, South Asian erasure is changing but it is still very prevalent.<\/p>\n

Over the years, as the practice became more popular in the West, it became increasingly whitewashed. Images of yoga presented it as a fitness activity primarily represented<\/a> by thin, affluent, flexible, White women, some of whom even took on Indian-sounding names<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, we see more Indian people as teachers and leaders in the Western yoga scene, but they are often those who are considered \u201cpalatable.\u201d It is a form of brownwashing when South Asian participation is limited to people who fit dominant-culture norms. The message is, \u201cYes, we can accept a South Asian person or other person of color, as long as they have a big following on social media or if they speak a certain way, look a certain way, or fit the Western norm in some way.\u201d  That means that there are people who have knowledge of yoga but, because they aren\u2019t savvy about packaging themselves well, aren\u2019t heard, aren\u2019t seen.<\/p>\n

In other cases, we are tokenized. \u201cHere, this is your Brown representation for the week.\u201d That happens in yoga spaces all the time\u2014especially when people are trying to correct the whitewashing. They want to include a Black or Brown face, but they\u2019re not really interested in that person\u2019s culture. It has happened to me. When I was new to teaching, I was like, \u201cOh, wow, people are calling me and asking me to do this and that.\u201d Now I see through that.<\/p>\n

In a way, that\u2019s what happened at the Oscars. The main dancers were Brown men\u2013but not Tamil. Not Indian at all. The choreographers included people of color, but not people of the culture. Of course, the people they chose are all fantastic dancers. But you can\u2019t tell me that, as rich a dance culture as India has, they couldn\u2019t find Indian dancers<\/a> to perform. That\u2019s bullshit. It\u2019s the Oscars. It\u2019s not like you decide today and do it tomorrow. If they don\u2019t have time and money to do a proper search, who does?<\/p>\n

Like the choreographers who couldn\u2019t seem to find Indian dancers, we hear the same thing in yoga spaces. When it comes to finding South Asian people to teach or speak or lead workshops, \u201cWe don\u2019t know anyone,\u201d is a common refrain. But we\u2019re out there. You just have to take the time to look. The people you find may not fit your Westernized framework. They may not have a million followers. They may not be familiar to you or part of your circle, but they should not be overlooked.<\/p>\n

Of course, not every Indian does yoga. Just because I\u2019m a South Asian doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m an expert in all things related to the practice<\/a>. I don\u2019t expect to be invited to do things just because I am from India. But there are South Asian experts and it\u2019s upon us\u2014yoga teachers, practitioners, and students\u2014to do the research, find them, and listen to them.<\/p>\n

The Irony of Colonization<\/h2>\n

There is this tension that exists for us that is a product of colonization and White supremacy. That\u2019s what causes us to still see White people as \u201cexperts\u201d on a culture that is not theirs. It\u2019s why more teachers aren\u2019t promoting Indian yoga scholarship that has existed for at least a thousand years. Instead, we quote White people\u2019s interpretation of yoga. They may have done good scholarship and studied the texts, but does that overrule the knowledge of Indian and South Asian people who have been steeped in the culture and ancient knowledge?<\/p>\n

Colonization is why we\u2019re still looking to the Motion Picture Academy\u2014an external, fairly White body\u2014for acknowledgment of our talent and our contributions to film. It is the same in the yoga space. Too often, we\u2019re still looking for that Western acknowledgement that we are now legitimate and our work is good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that the premise of the movie\u2014and particularly that song and dance\u2014is about anti-colonialism. In that energetic scene, they\u2019re telling the British that \u201cYou think we\u2019re not sophisticated because we don\u2019t dance like you, but we dance like this.\u201d And the Telegu dance is powerful. But the fact that the song that we\u2019re celebrating is being performed by people who are not desi<\/a><\/em>\u2014people from the South Asian diaspora\u2014creates a sort of cognitive dissonance.<\/p>\n

The View from India<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s another nuance about a situation like this that is not really talked about. When you complain about this kind of erasure, people will say, \u201cOh, but the Indians in India are so happy that your song got nominated and awarded and that the song is being danced on the Oscar stage. Why are you nitpicking?\u201d<\/p>\n

When you are an Indian living in India, you don\u2019t really have to fight every day to take up space and be acknowledged. Your culture is<\/em> the dominant culture. When a song like \u201cNaatu Naatu\u201d is recognized on a world stage, you\u2019re happy people are appreciating your dance, your stories, your creativity.<\/p>\n

But those of us who are in the diaspora see ourselves being erased in so many realms. We have to fight harder to get our voices heard and to be on stage, so to speak. We see it in every space. Every day. We have to work harder than the dominant culture. I\u2019m an immigrant and when I get up and say something, I have to make sure I\u2019ve got all my data completely right and do my research really well and say things in a way that feels more palatable for the Western ear. My accent is different and the way I say certain things is different because my English was learned on another continent. So there\u2019s a part of us which is always judging or evaluating the way we are and how we are perceived by the outside world.<\/p>\n

So not having a South Asian person as one of the main dancers may seem like a small thing. But it is a completely different experience for us than it is for our relatives in India. It\u2019s a reminder of our erasure in this culture.<\/p>\n

Building Equitable Systems<\/h2>\n

How can we address this?  We need to recognize where we are privileged\u2014and leverage that privilege to become allies and speak up. For example, the people who were planning the \u201cNaatu Naatu\u201d production could have said, \u201cYou know what? Let\u2019s get an Indian choreographer. They should have had an ally<\/a> who said, \u201cWe have 20 dancers who are doing a Telugu dance without a person from that culture. What are we doing here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There are times when I think that we have to completely dismantle the existing systems and build something new. Many people are doing this already, and that is a route I feel most drawn to. I see myself as a representative for people like me.<\/p>\n

But  don\u2019t want to be a part of spaces where I\u2019m the token desi voice. I would rather be a part of something organic, authentic, consistent. I\u2019m learning, I\u2019m studying, and I\u2019m gathering people around me who are on this path of abolitionism\u2014figuring out how to create spaces where people feel welcome, heard and accepted. The opposite of being erased.<\/p>\n

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 <\/a>Anjali Rao<\/a> is a yoga teacher, intersectional health advocate, and activist deeply interested in sharing the ancient wisdom of yoga in service to the challenges of the times. She is the Vice President for Accessible Yoga and a member of the organization\u2019s faculty for yoga teacher training and continued education.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/figure>\n

An Indian-American yoga teacher explains how on-stage exclusion hurts as much as the in-studio erasure she’s observed in yoga. <\/p>\n

The post A Historic Oscar Performance Left Indian Performers Out\u2014and South Asian Americans Aren\u2019t Having It<\/a> appeared first on Yoga Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37,35,36],"class_list":["post-12335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ayurveda","tag-blogs","tag-yoga","tag-yogacourseware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}