The ‘boxed’ options for race include several different kinds of Asian. “Chinese,” “Vietnamese,” “Korean,” and “Japanese” are fairly predictable Asian nationalities, rightfully listed. The census uses “Asian Indian,” presumably to differentiate from “Native American” or “American Indian,” but interestingly, hints that “Pakistani,” (and by extension, “Bangladeshi” and “Sri Lankan”) would go under “Other Asian.”

Obviously, for Sepia Mutiny, which has always defined itself as an inclusive blog for the “South Asian” diaspora, this divison of the South Asian community is a little frustrating. How am I, whose family all originate from what is now Pakistan, of a different racial background from a Mohajir Pakistani, whose family all originated in what is now India? What does it mean to ask a question concerning “race,” and then lists three definite categories that might be understood as “racial,” only to then list nine further options, most of which are clearly nationalities, not “races”?

This is a discussion post. I am curious whether readers have read any backstory on how the census might have arrived at this rather idiosyncratic way of dividing up the communities from the Indian subcontinent? (The Census has a “Race and Ethnicity Advisory Committee” with an “Asian” sub-group. However, I haven’t been able to find much evidence of discussion over categories at Census.Gov. Most of the committee’s focus, perhaps rightly, seems to have been on making sure everyone has the opportunity to fill out a census form.)

Another discussion-related question: anyone want to speculate on how or whether this division on the census form might matter for the South Asian community down the road?

Finally, for readers from Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan backgrounds, who have received the census form — are any of you thinking of checking “Asian Indian”? Since the census allows us to fill out more than 1 box under race, is anyone thinking of filling out both “Asian Indian,” and “Other Asian”?

UPDATE: A nice op-ed by Susan Straight on the evolution of Census race categories is here. She doesn’t focus on the “Asian Indian” question in particular, but it’s a good read.

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Now Marathi nationalist Raj Thackeray, nephew of the infamous Bal, has started a campaign to try and kick the foreign “junior artists,” as backup dancers are called, out of Bollywood. Normally, one feels a kneejerk hostility to opportunistic populists named after famous Victorian novelists, but in this case I can’t help but hope that the results of this campaign might actually be some constructive reevaluation of the Bollywood obsession with gori backup dancers.

Most of the politicians and Bollywood types named in the Telegraph article say pretty predictable things. Rakhi Sawant is in classic classless form (“These white girls are like lollipops that only last for two days.”) The one foray into partial intelligibility might be Jag “Night Eyes” Mundhra, who for some reason is identified as a “leading Indian film director.”

Leading Indian film director Jag Mundra last night criticised the campaign and said it could push up costs and force film-makers to shoot more scenes overseas. To save money, directors usually hire attractive backpackers passing through Mumbai and shoot dance scenes in local clubs or film sets.
“The reason producers pick white girls is because a lot of them have better figures and are willing to expose them,” he said.
“If you need a bikini shot, not many Indian girls are willing to turn up in a string bikini. But most white girls will not have an issue with that. Titillation has been an important part of Bollywood.” (link)

On bikini shots and the demand of the mass audiences for titillation, yes, maybe (the man knows his titillation). But on “better figures,” is he really saying that with a straight face in this day and age?

To be clear, I’m not agreeing with Raj Thackeray; hell, I’m one of those old school Pinkos who continues to insist that the name of the city, when we’re speaking English, should be “Bombay.” I’m not offended by non-desi backup dancers, just embarrassed for the filmmakers who feel they need to go this route when there’s no narrative justification within the films they’re making. I’m also surprised we haven’t seen much controversy on this issue before — it’s so obvious.

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Five years ago, Abhi first brought the Mutiny’s attention to Goldspot, the Los-Angeles-based band founded by multi-talented frontman Siddhartha Khosla. Remember their first album, ‘Tally of the Yes Men?’ This past fall, Goldspot released their second full-length album ‘And the Elephant is Dancing,’ which I’ve been playing in heavy rotation on iTunes for the last few months. Their work, often described as ‘Bollywood-inspired’ and ‘Beatles-influenced,’ is getting even more attention this time around. In the past year, Goldspot has gotten play on television shows such as ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ and soundtracks including ‘Today’s Special,’ starring Aasif Mandvi and the Bollywood release ‘The President is Coming.’

If you get the chance, be sure to catch one of their live performances, so you can see first-hand how Khosla brought sexy back to the harmonium. I attended one of their shows in Philadelphia this past November and the band’s energetic show had half the crowd dancing by the stage towards the end of the night. (Philly fun fact: Did you know that Khosla, a Penn alum, at one point wanted to be a lawyer and was the first musical director of acapella group Penn Masala?) Take a listen to ‘And the Elephant is Dancing’ on iTunes and judge for yourself. My favorite song? ‘One Year Anniversary.’

UPDATED: This just in from Goldspot. “Sorry for the sudden change, but Goldspot’s segment on NPR’s “Tell Me More” has been been pushed back. As it is a news program, other matters (like health care reform) have taken center stage. We will keep you posted as soon as we have an air date.”

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Actually, there was not much sleeping — it was more of a Hang Out than a Sleep Out and we had pizza and burgers — but the issue wasn’t lost. Finding warm and dry shelter is a challenge for an increasing number of South Asians, mostly Sikh men, in the southwest London neighborhood of Southall.

Lodging isn’t supposed to be a problem. Southall is the center of London’s vast Punjabi community, one of the most significant Little Indias in the world, home to one of the largest gurdwaras outside India, and a cultural nexus that brought the bhangra phenomenon to nightclubs around the globe. It’s also a hardscrabble quarter that, like New York’s Lower East Side, gave immigrants the means to establish themselves in a new land. The community took care of its own and looks back fondly on its achievements.

So it has come as a shock that in 2010 there are about a hundred homeless men, mostly Sikhs but including Sri Lankans and Somalis, sleeping rough in one of London’s proudest immigrant neighborhoods.

SWAT is collecting money and clothing, working with gurdwaras and other community organizations, providing drug and alcohol counseling, and trying to make other public services available to them. Its volunteers from other parts of London come to Southall regularly to deliver clothing.

But the challenges are complex. In addition to providing basic necessities, SWAT is trying to raise support for people in circumstances that are often considered shameful. The presence of the Sikh homeless runs counter to the narrative of the hardworking self-sufficient immigrant, and discussion of drug and alcohol problems within the community is still taboo.

“People feel that helping the Southall rough sleepers will only further fund drug habits,” says Tina Gahir, one of the organizers of the sleep out and a volunteer with Crisis and Shelter from the Storm, two prominent homelessness organizations in the UK. “For most Indians, charity begins at home. Many send remittances to their village or relatives in India or make donations to a religious cause. We don’t really have a sense of uniting to tackle problems in the UK currently.”

She hopes that community activism among younger people can alleviate some of these problems and promote honest discussion about them.

But some initiatives take time. Our 20-odd crew of Londoners stamped our feet to keep warm, made bathroom runs to a nearby house, drank tea, and enjoyed conversation beneath the sodium-vapor lights of Norwood Green Park. The neighborhood was silent and still, except for the occasional car slowing to see what was going on. The intermittent rain became steady, and we huddled under umbrellas.

We had been expecting about 70 people who had responded to the Facebook invitation, but there is always a challenge in translating online support to offline action. But people came through in the end — to the tune of £7,000 to support SWAT.

Let’s hope this is the start of something big on behalf of Southall’s homeless.

Photo by Preston Merchant

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On February 10, 2010, SAMAR in collaboration with THAW (Theaters Against War) put out a call for letters to be sent to Fahad Hashmi at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). Fahad has been held in pre-trial detention at the MCC for over 850 days in severe solitary confinement. He has been detained over 1,350 days in all (more about Fahad’s case: freefahad.com). [samarmagazine]

The following mini-documentary enlightens us more on the who Fahad is and the situation he finds himself in.

It’s a horrible situation, and the charges against him are reflective of a civil rights injustice that continues to establish how Desis, 2nd-generation immigrants, and Muslims are not given equal rights provided to the “other” Americans. At nine years after 9/11, this case is clearly evidence that the South Asian American community is still feeling the repercussions of the Patriot Act, at least in the legal system.

The FreeFahad campaign is asking for people to write a letter to Fahad in prison. Though the chances of Fahad receiving the letter is slim, the campaign hopes the act of writing the letters will “offer a simple and necessary challenge to the inhuman conditions of Fahad’s detention and help send a message to Fahad’s jailers, the U.S. Government and Attorney General Holder, that the world at large cares for Fahad and is outraged at the violations of his civil and human rights.”

I am a turban-wearing Sikh and have faced a great deal of racism since 9/11, which is a part of the backlash and repression the Muslim and Arab communities have been subjected to. When someone calls me “bin Laden” or “terrorist” or tries to pull off my turban, I think about individuals and families who have been detained and deported simply because of their Muslim identities….The struggles the Sikh community faces are inherently linked to the struggles of the Muslim community, and we are working here on the outside to unite our communities to build a stronger movement for social justice. [samarmagazine]

To partake in the campaign, get involved and write your own letter. Mail it here:

SYED FAHAD HASHMI—REG#60011-054

MCC NEW YORK METROPOLITAN CORRECTIONAL CENTER 150 PARK ROW NEW YORK, NY 10007

Or you can e-mail letters2fahad [at] gmail.com to be considered for the website or to be read at vigils.

My prayers are with you, Fahad. Here’s to getting access to a fair, just and judicious trial - the trial date is currently set for April 28th.

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Not since Margaret Cho’s 1994 TV-series All-American Girl has there been an ensemble cast entirely of Asian Americans on prime time television. The show infamously imploded as cast and execs clashed and Cho has not been quiet about it. That was sixteen years ago.

Since then, we have seen the rise of Desi ensemble casting but…in other countries. You have the Kumars at No. 42 from the BBC network; Brazil’s Indian themed soap opera Caminho das India; and yes, I’m even counting Canada’s CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie. Well, it looks like network U.S. network execs are finally jumping on the bandwagon.

They are the two comeback stories of this pilot season, projects developed years ago that have been resurrected and have landed orders at the broadcast networks…The two comedies — “Nirvana” at Fox and “Outsourced” at NBC — have something else in common: They both are ensemble shows about Indians and Indian Americans.

A third project, a U.S. version of popular British comedy “The Kumars at No. 42,” about an immigrant Indian family, also is poised for revival. Eight years after NBC took a stab at the format, the show’s British producers are shopping it to U.S. networks, including FX. [thr]

Outsourced looks like it has the potential of being really funny…

NBC picked up “Outsourced,” written by Robert Borden (“The Drew Carey Show,” “The George Lopez Show”). Comedy tells the tale of a demoted novelty company manager who is sent to India to manage a motley crew of customer service reps.

Based on the independent movie of the same name, “Outsourced” has been in development at NBC for more than two years (Daily Variety, Oct. 7, 2007), under the guidance of twice-Emmy-nommed director Ken Kwapis, who helmed the pilot of the American version of “The Office.” George Wing and John Jeffcoat wrote the film. Exec producers on the pilot are Tom Gorai and David Skinner. [variety]

Nirvana also has some pretty big names signed on to work on the pilot episode and is written by Ajay Sahgal.

Sakina Jaffrey (“Third Watch”) has scored a role on the comedy pilot, about two grown Indian-American brothers who clash with their controlling immigrant parents as they assimilate American culture. She’s believed to be playing Dr. Sarita Mattoo, the boys’ mother. Scott Ellis (“30 Rock”) has also signed on to direct the half-hour, which was penned by Ajay Sahgal. Harish Patel, Rachael Leigh Cook, Ravi Patel and Utkarsh Ambudkar also star in the project, which comes from 20th Century Fox Television. [futoncritic]

You never know with these pilots, what gets picked up and what doesn’t. It’ll be interesting to see how these two shows pan out over the next few months. I know I’ll be watching!

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But there was one film. I hadn’t heard of it till last night, but as I saw the nominees scroll for short films, I saw Kavi scroll by. Though the film did not win last night, I was still curious to see what it was all about.

‘Kavi’, American director Gregg Helvey’s short film about an Indian slave boy has lost out the Oscar in the Best Short Film (Live Action) category to the Danish entry ‘The New Tenants’…The 19-minute-long fictional film in Hindi, was the only India connection at this year’s Oscars, as opposed to last year when the Mumbai based potboiler ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ bagged eight golden trophies. [ptinews]

I’m not usually a fan of shorts, but I may have to check Kavi out. I do find some of the language on the movie’s website slightly problematic though, and I wonder if the film has a similar undertone. Has anyone out there seen the movie? Also, thoughts on last night’s Academy Awards in this post Slumdog era?

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A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to investigate allegations that a Texas apartment complex had a policy of refusing to rent to Muslims or segregating them in buildings away from other tenants.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to determine whether StoneBridge at Bear Creek apartment complex in Euless, Texas, violated federal fair housing laws.

According to an investigative media report, former leasing agents for the complex say Muslims, whom managers referred to as “curry people,” were routinely refused apartments even when there were vacancies. The leasing agents said they were told by their supervisors that they could only rent to Muslims if they were all kept in two buildings of the 21-building complex. [Link]

The one thing that is obvious from the story is that when it comes to even talking about discriminations, Muslims, South Asians, Arabs, etc. are often all conflated. Any shade of brown with a “funny” name or associated with “smelly” food falls into the same category.

The folks at CAIR weren’t too surprised that this type of thing happens given some Gallup Center for Muslim Studies poll data from last month:

More than 4 in 10 Americans (43%) admit to feeling at least “a little” prejudice toward Muslims — more than twice the number who say the same about Christians (18%), Jews (15%) and Buddhists (14%). The findings are based on a new Gallup Center for Muslim Studies report, “Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Toward Muslims and Islam,” released Thursday. [Link]

That being said, if these allegations turn out to be true it is encouraging that these two women were willing to stand up and blow the whistle on such practices. As for the Curry smell, Pavani points me to a similar incident in California a few years ago.

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Not really new news, but new to me news - In January, comedian Aziz Ansari premiered his Comedy Central stand up special: “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening.” We’ve talked about Aziz plenty of times on Sepia Mutiny in the past as the latest up and coming funny man. He can also be seen on Parks on Recreation on NBC Thursday nights, otherwise known as ‘every show has a Desi sidekick’ night. The clips from his Comedy Central special are up [NSFW] and I wanted to share. (h/t Channel APA)

Russel Peters is the only other Desi person I know to have had a Comedy Central special, though I could be wrong on this one. What I do find interesting though, is how different Peters and Ansari’s comedy styles are from one another. I could be snarky and say style differences reflect a Canada vs. U.S.A. thing, but that could just be the residual Olympic effect speaking. In reality, it seems that Peters relies on his Desi background for his jokes, and Ansari has moved away from that, using Desi references more as seasoning than crutch. But maybe, that really is reflective of a Canada vs. U.S.A. thing.

More from an ‘Intimate Moment for a Sensual Evening’ after the jump.

This is the point where I encourage you to go online and buy Aziz Ansari’s DVD where you can watch the whole show. But, if you are proficient in google, I’m sure you can find a way to watch the whole thing online. I would never encourage you to do that though. Never.

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