“Looking for ah Indian Man”: Popular Culture and the Dilemmas of Indo-Trinidadian Masculinity

Abstract

Introductionin many ways in this essay i speak with no authority, I am neither IndoTrinidadian nor a man, yet I seek to claim this space. I claim this space as an interested observer, one who seeks to understand process taking place in and around me, changing dynamics of gender and its intersection with ethnicity, class and identity, and ways in which popular culture shapes and is shaped by these continuous interactions. I claim this space also as a citizen whose identity is as much defined in opposition as in relation to my others', and who therefore needs to understand my others in order to understand myself.1 It is on this basis, therefore, that I proceed. This essay takes its cue from popular soca song of Denise Belfon during 2004 Carnival season in Trinidad and Tobago and varied responses to it. These debates provide a lively context for analyses of ongoing negotiations on ethnicity, nation, citizenship and gender currently taking place in region. The essay also provides an opportunity for a further contribution to still limited literature on Indo-Caribbean masculinities. This essay is also about Indo-Trinidadian men and Afro-Trinidadian women, a dyad that has been of some concern to historians. Interestingly, it has been of less concern to Indo-Trinidadian cultural nationalists who have been more concerned with opposite dyad - that of Afro-Trinidadian men and Indo-Trinidadian This dyad, therefore, is one that is replete with politics of racial and sexual transgression, and imbrication of race, gender and sexual desire.Trinidad and Tobago is a two-island nation-state located in southern Caribbean. While its economy has been largely dependent on oil and gas from its energy sector, its ethnic diversity and popular culture have been major components of its national identity. According to 2011 census, total population was 1, 328,019 with 50.1 percent male and 49.9 percent female. With respect to ethno-demographics, people who for census purposes define themselves as African (34.2 percent) and Indian (35.2 percent) comprise majority of population. The fastest growing 'mixed' group comprised 22.8 percent, an increase from 20.46 percent in 2000. The other minorities - White/European, Chinese, Syrian/Lebanese - though small in number, are highly represented in social and economic elite. Small numbers of mixed descendants of indigenous people also exist. The population of Tobago is 82.5 percent of African descent, a decline from 92 percent in 2000, reflecting small but increasing group defining themselves as 'mixed' - African-Indian, 4.3 percent, and 'other mixed', 4.2 percent. The proportion of Indo-Trinidadians in Tobago remained stable at 2.5 percent.2For decades, historians pondered situation where for most of first three to four decades of Indian presence in country, few intimate relationships were recorded between Indo-Trinidadian men and Afro-Trinidadian Bridget Brereton, writing in 1981, noted reluctance of Indian men to cohabit with Creole women, despite shortage of Indian women. She continued:As late as 1871 Protector of Immigrants believed that no single case of cohabitation existed and up to 1917 such cases were very rare. Of course language, customs, religion and caste were powerful obstacles to such unions, but individuals have always broken through such sanctions, and in Caribbean miscegenation was general rule. Perhaps Indians, who were mostly Hindus from northern India, brought with them caste-linked Indian contempt for darker-skinned, which reinforced existing race and colour prejudices in host society. Whatever reason, miscegenation was not to be an integrating factor in this period.3While noting that these relationships have generally received limited attention by Caribbeanist scholars, Audra Diptee, in her critique of this position, rejects these cultural arguments, especially those based on the prejudicial nature of Hindu caste system. …