Varma, Piya;
Siromahov, Metodi;
(2023)
Practising cultural identities: British Indians' use of Indian classical dance.
Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology
10.1002/casp.2703.
(In press).
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Abstract
The Indian diaspora has faced many obstacles including the challenge of navigating their dual identities, in order to belong in the UK. Music and dance are popular ways of practising cultural identities, which could mean that British Indians (BIs) use Indian Classical Dance (ICD) for maintaining cultural continuity and establishing a strong cultural identity. This qualitative study explores the reasons behind ICD practice, the relationship between ICD practice and the cultural identities of BIs, and the role served by themes of cultural continuity in their talk about identity. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 UK-based, Indian classical dance artists and analysed them using Thematic Analysis to identify the following themes: (1) Dual-Identity Struggle (Sub-themes: Confusion and Isolation and Racism and Stereotypes), (2) Parental Influence, (3) Embracing Dual-Identity (Sub-themes: Growth with Age and Impact of a Diverse Community), (4) Benefits of ICD (Sub-themes: Education & Connection to Indian religion and history and Expressing & Understanding Identity) and (5) ICD: Authenticity versus Modernity (Sub-themes: Authentic ICD in UK and Modernising ICD). The results from this piece of exploratory research have generated further data that improves our understanding of how BIs maintain a sense of collective continuity, and how they practise their Indian identity in daily life. Limitations of this study include the lack of balance between participants of different genders and dance styles. Therefore, further research can be developed including large-scale studies on the role of ICD between genders, nationalities or generations.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Practising cultural identities: British Indians' use of Indian classical dance |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/casp.2703 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2703 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
| Keywords: | Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, British Indian, cultural identity, Indian classical dance, national identity, PERCEIVED COLLECTIVE CONTINUITY, MUSIC |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10171110 |
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