DIASPORA AND REINFORCING OF IDENTITIES IN FILMSMulticulturalism and the Diaspora have become much debated and contested terms in
the politics and cultural ethos of the 21st century. Th e ‘melting pot’ that Britain and the USA
have oft en been described as is highly confl icting – in that it oft en seeks to marginalize the
very notion of preservation of cultural diff erence through a hegemonizing of the dominant
cultural identity. If as Stuart Hall contends, marginality “has never been such a productive
space as is now”, the dominant multiculturalism paradigm, operating simultaneously as
a curricular structure and consumer ideal, territorializes the margins in order to harness
and tame the “productivity” of diff erence . Global changes and conditions have led to the
emergence of new discourses that posits questions and challenges to the assumptions of
culture, state, nation, national identity, etc. and these in turn have led to challenges to the
concept and understanding of multiculturalism. Th e changes that have in part, produced new
forms of theorizing about globalization, the politics of the diaspora, immigration, identity
politics, multiculturalism, and postcolonialism are as profound intellectually as they are
disruptive politically . Giroux is concerned here with the position that does not diff erentiate
among radical, liberal, and conservative forms of multiculturalism within the politics
of the nation state as such generalizations
oft en recycle and reproduce the colonialist
discourse. It is within this framework that the
exploration and analyzing of the construction
of a quintessential “Indian identity” through
the lens of the diaspora becomes imperative.
Not only through the proliferation of the mass
forms of diasporic literature, but also through
the more mass-consumed and visually
satiating and more dominant medium of
cinema. Th e reason to study fi lms is because
they are a more accessible medium and have
been able to reach out a large majority of
people because of the large gamut of images. It
is for this reason that fi lms are still so popular
for almost a century.