i understand that ykb is meant to be an open space. i also understand that over time it is evolving. my attempt, and this one more so even than the last one, is to contribute to that evolution, not to tear it down. i acknowledge that in 2008 piece, this wasn’t obvious. i’m making it obvious now.

language is tricky, but it needs its play. the openness of the space can be completely undermined by a tag or rubric that is or seems to be homogenizing. desi does that. yoni does that. it doesn’t necessarily mean that neither should be used, but that what is used should be complicated.

here, though, what i’m really saying is that there is a definite difference in the priorities and the language of those who have “made the US their home” and those who have not. i have always found this difference glossed over in US South Asian communities. I appreciate that you’ve complicated by take on it by pointing out that some South Asian Americans are born in S. Asia and others in the US – which I hadn’t acknowledged. But I stand by my larger point that the difference in language matters especially where you’re dealing with “homeland” (for lack of a better term) versus “diaspora” communities.

Best of luck for the coming production. I really wish I could have been there.

“A project like Yoni ki Baat (which is how this whole thought process got started for me) needs to acknowledge that, when it’s talking about South Asian, it’s not talking about every kind of South Asian.”

yes and no. i performed in 2008 and am directing the 2009 production. we send our call and do outreach in all sorts of SA communities, and we hear back from all sorts of SA communities. some choose to participate, others opt out. YKB doesn’t claim to represent every kind of south asian, nor does it need to make any acknowledgments to the contrary. what it does claim and uphold is an OPEN space for EVERY kind of south asian, self-identified, where you are invited in and you have a choice to speak about whatever you want. There are plenty of South Asians in this production, myself included, who were born and raised in South Asia before making the US their home.

of course, terms for South Asians are as messy as the concept itself, as you outline. We are often not sure whether we’re South Asians or Southeast Asians! But the dream is to find solidarity, rise above divisions and acknowledge a shared history and heritage without glossing over diversities and differences. this is a big task and brings big speed bumps, yes, and language is tricky. but desi means “of the land” and my punjabi friends use “apne” or “our own.” i assume there are reflections of this in other SA languages too. so even if i don’t understand the word, it’s nice to know that i’m being included, celebrated, broadly, as one of our own.

i think that’s beautiful.

I can imagine the immediate euphoria….relate to it even…and even agree with most of what you write…and also I am reminded of what Azar Nafisi in her latest memoirs mentions: similar feelings in the last days of the Shah….histroy, unfortunately, proved them worng…and that makes me think and happy as I am… I wonder at how amazing is it that sometimes we neglect to attach to ‘identity/ies’ much importance, consciously. Who I am, who I want to be has to be defined as it defines my collective alliances.

In Pakistan, a strange hotchpotch of ideologies have come together to raise a, seemingly, ‘collective’ voice. We have the lawyers, the civil society (including human rights activists like Asma Jahnagir) in the same chanting crowds on the street as the Jamaat e Islami (whose pre 1947 stance was United India and which provided the ideological legitimacy read obstinate Islamization to the martial law regime of General Zia ul Haq) , the incubated politicians of PML-N and ofcourse the confused cricketer turned politician and ultimately the administration itself as it was clear that the law enforcing agencis had decided they would give free passage despite the road blockages and riot police. When the histroy books are written, I wonder to whom would this victory, be attributed to? Us, the people are so diverse…our ideologies conflicting, our voices a cacophony, our messages mumbled, our meanings??? our identities???? …is it really a win for the liberals? Was it really a nation coming together as one then? I could see far too many Jamaat e Islami flags than I would care to in any street rally in my country…and in true fascist fastidiousness theirs was the most organized procession as they came out to join the rest…and in true street politics suaveness theirs was the most expert retaliation to the police and the barricades…. how many of us actually supported this as a harbinger of an Islamic revolution? Are we making way for liberal democracy or religious/ideological despotism? Where are the taalibans? What are they thinking? Laughing at us celebrating while they are biding their time till they strike big to control thought with guns? I want to celebrate, wholeheartedly, yet I am unable to…I am happy this is solved, I am happier still that people came out…th bigger problem for me remain religious fanatics turned suicide bombers and being bestowed control of parts of my country and for me the questions looms large how would the contradictions within those who came out be reconciled? who will gain from this, who will claim victory?

I expect there’s a similar disconnect with a lot of hyphenated U.S.Americans of various origins and people who actually live in/are from that other country.

I had a (family) friend visiting from Argentina on an author’s circuit who was talking about this a bit, how she was staying with this other American during her tour who was very earnestly trying to reconnect with his Jewish roots. (She’s Jewish too). Like, being the uber-Jew, culturally speaking, everything was about Israel even though he’d never actually been. And she said…I forget what exactly, but something to the effect of how Americans seemed so concerned with getting it right, identity, or…something along those lines, I wrote it down somewhere when it was still fresh.

and I said something to the effect of, I think it’s because a lot of us from (various) diasporas don’t really know who we are, and sometimes overcompensate. certainly it’s at least partly a backlash to the earlier paradigm about America as a “melting pot” where you were supposed to lose your background, origin, past, to blend in.

but still i think a lot gets lost in translation, somehow.

i think your sense of pessimism about the restoration is well founded. We will see what actually happens. How people are co-opted.