Bhangra Moves

Whether one likes Bhangra or not, whether one celebrates it or denigrates it, whether one prefers the hybrid to the pure, it is in so many places that one cannot ignore it. Bhangra, the beat with which South Asians boomed their invasion of Britain and later, of the world, means so many things to so many people in so many locations today that its several meanings need to be unpacked. The term Bhangra is normally used to refer to the hybrid genre produced by mixing Punjabi folk melodies with western pop and black dance rhythms, made popular by Apache Indian, Panjabi MC and Rishi Rich, but here Bhangra will be used to mean all Bhangra mutants derived from the Punjabi genre of the same name. This book looks at Bhangra's global flows from one of its originary sites, the Indian subcontinent, to contribute to the understanding of emerging South Asian cultural practices such as Bhangra or Bollywood in multi-ethnic societies. It seeks to trace Bhangra's moves from India and its return back to look at the forces that initiate and regulate the global flows of local texts such as these and to ask how their producers and consumers redirect them to give new definitions of culture, identity and nation. The critical importance of this book lies in understanding the difference between the present globalizing wave and previous trans-local movements. Gera Roy contrasts the frames of cultural imperialism with those of cultural invasion to show how Indian cultures have constantly reinvented themselves by cross-pollinating with 'invading' cultures such as Greek, Persian and Arabic in the past. By looking at Bhangra's flows to and from India, the book revises the relation between culture, space and identity and challenges boundaries. It weighs both the uses and costs of visibility provided by global networks to marginalized groups in diverse localities and explores whether collaborations between Bhangra practitioners, largely of working class origin, give ordinary people any control over the circulation of culture in the global village. Finally, the book considers whether cultural practices can alter hierarchies and power structures in the real world.