7 - Being Indian in Post-colonial Metro Manila: Identities, Boundaries and the Media Practices

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Contrary to the assumption that members of the Indian diaspora identify with a pan-Indian identity, current studies demonstrate that they have complex and plural identifications, constructed in gendered (Radhakrishnan 2008; Warikoo 2005), classed (Bhattacharya 2008), ethnic (Lock and Detaramani 2006) and “racialized” (Bhatia 2008) terms. These dimensions may overlap and are complicated by individual and migration histories, the diaspora's sense of belonging and identifications, and the specific cultures of the Indian diaspora in the host society. Recent scholarship on the Indian diaspora has explored the roles media play in the lives and identity formations of its members. On the one hand, consumption of media from the Indian homeland indicates a process of re-territorialization or how migrants “recraft a sense of community and cultural identity in new socio-geographic contexts” (Punathambekar 2005, p. 151). On the other hand, it suggests identification with the popular culture of the host society (Gillespie 1995). Analysing the role of the media in the diaspora, Roger Silverstone (2007, pp. 95–96) suggests that media offer diasporic groups various competing cultural spaces and alternative imaginaries. However, in relation to identity and community formations, media's influence is premature as identities by their nature are dynamic and changing (Silverstone 2007, p. 96). Ascertaining the roles of the media in identity productions of diasporas, without presuming its centrality, indeed needs further investigation. Warikoo (2005) finds that media, among other factors like school and family, affect ethnic identity choices among Indo-Caribbean youths in New York City. In similar vein, this chapter examines the role of the media in the identity formations of the Indian diaspora who are not in major cities of the global North where most studies in the field of Indian diaspora studies originate, but those in the global South, like Metro Manila in the Philippines. This study therefore attempts to represent the experiences of the Indian diaspora or peoples of Indian origin (PIOs) in lesser known destinations or host societies and consequently provides evidence for comparisons between experiences of the Indian diasporas in First World and Third World contexts.

I focus on the identity formations of young people or second/third generation members of the diaspora. What does it mean to be Indian in Metro Manila? How do the media contribute to the meanings of being Indian?