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The spread of globalization tendencies in modern world has the objective and universal nature; it facilitates to join all national cultures to these processes. These tendencies have both positive (standardization, cooperation) and negative (unification, conformity) aspects. Globalization goes hand in hand with modernization. Modernization also plays an important role, as it washes off the peculiarities of each culture. However, the exchange of ideas has been developing very fast.
Asian people have always felt their responsibility to preserve their own culture and originality. It is obvious that cultural traditions differ in each country. The same happens with the realization of Asian pop-culture. The review of both articles has shown that people from the USA and Europe do not completely take into the consideration the characteristic features of Asian culture. The aim of this essay is to show the disputes over Asian culture disagreements.
Comparison of Articles
The article “Labels, Histories, Politics: Indian/ South Asian Dance on the Global Stage” by Avanthi Meduri (2008) shows how representatives of different streams consider the Indian culture as the part of South Asia and vice versa. The discussions are held because of the misunderstanding of the meaning of the word “South Asian”. The article is mainly about Indian dances. Nevertheless, there are many kinds of dances, which are not Indian in origin but are truly South Asian. The question is, when did Indian dances received the doubled prefix South Asian? Indian dances are performed all over the world. However, not only Indian people perform them. Immigrants of different Asian countries take part in those performances. That is why, it is fair to say that those dances are South Asian.
The author uses different methods of comparison in this article. First of all, Meduri (2008) compares the ideas of different continents. Moreover, the author compares the ideas of different schools, which represent Indian/ South Asian dances. The main topics that have been addressed were the distinguishing and common features between Indian and South Asian pop-culture. The task was to discover whether those definitions are similar or not.
When reading the article, it was obvious that the author used empirical methodology together with sociological. In order to make the arguments close to reality, Meduri used words of people and real facts from people’s lives and practices.
However, the article lacked the author’s statements. Everything in the article is based on someone’s theories and experience. However, Meduri did a great work gathering all this information in order to show how different people consider the same subject. The conclusion comes from the last paragraphs when the author told the story of Mira Kaushik. She received the reward saying that it was the achievement of all South Asian dancers.
Speaking about the second article, “Yearning for the Spiritual Ideal: The Influence of India on Western Dance 1626–2003” by Vincent Warren (2006), it should be noticed that the author gives the full description of the historical events, which show the influence and collaboration of Indian culture in the Western World. The author demonstrated not only the historical events, showing the appearance of Indian dances in other countries, but he also showed the peculiarities of the costumes and shoes of the dances. Here is the difference of both articles, as the authors emphasized on different aspects. Vincent Warren (2006) put the aim to give the general description of Indian dances and their influence on Western people. His article is more like a historical overview that completely differs from the Avanthi’s article. Moreover, Warren’s article also includes the features of a theoretical study. The information about costumes can be used as the real guide for those who make Indian performances.
It is hard to compare two different articles. The first one was aimed to distinguish the Indian culture from other. The second article had the aim to show the history and examine the main historical facts.
It is fair to say that the article “Labels, Histories, Politics: Indian/South Asian Dance on the Global Stage” is more informative in real facts, when the article “Yearning for the Spiritual Ideal: The Influence of India on Western Dance 1626–2003” is rich in historical facts. It would be unfair to say that one or another way of representing the information is better. Each author decided to use different methodologies, different theories to deliver their points of view.
Vincent Warren was right when he said that Indian culture has always been the imaginary country for people from Europe. In addition, Avanthi Meduri said that Indian dances are the art of the whole South Asian culture. That is why, both conclusions have a point.
Based on the two articles, one can say that Indian culture appeared because of the formation of Indian republic. India became a patron of the South Asian region, representing culture on the Global Stage. The biggest strength of Avanthi Meduri’s article is the use of the facts from lives of real people.
As described above, Meduri’s (2008) main aim for writing this article is to discuss issues revolving around history, historiography, alterity, difference andotherness concealed in the doubled Indian/ South Asian label used to describe Indian/ South Asian dance genres in the UK. The author bases analyses of each of these purposes on the actions of the dancers and their personal thoughts and practices which they experienced.
However, Avanthi Meduri sometimes was too technical and verbose in writing the article, which makes it hard for some readers to understand. One example of this is as follows. Meduri (2008, pp. 225-226) states, “Jeyasingh locates herself adroitly in-between the two essentialists and anti-essentialist critiques of identity and does this by claiming and disclaiming identity situationally. However, identity for Jeyasingh is discursive: it is not some ethnic or Asian trace that she was born into and/or received from her Asian ancestors. Neither is Jeyasingh’s identity captured in her urban proper name and/ or the surname attached itself to her proper name”. These sentences make it difficult or hardly understandable for the average reader to catch everything said. A reader can easily get frustrated when trying to make out the author’s meaning due to complicated words, and this is a sort of writer’s weakness.
When speaking about weakness of writing by Vincent Warren, first, it should be noted that the author’s professionalism makes the article unique among simple historical overviews. The key points addressed in the article are the issues facing the spread of Indian culture. However, the key concerns were not fully described. The author has put an emphasis on historical facts. There is a huge lack of his personal thoughts and discussions; even something that could be biased. His contention is supported by excellent facts from the history. However, he is not an academician, embittered by the lack of attention. Jones is too much the scholar to make the mistake. Although Warren (2006) accounts the rise of India and the patterns of growth in the world history. He explained that in the frames of culture and wealth. However, such an emphasis is overwhelming, placed here upon the economic and political determinants of growth.
Andrea Lunsford (The St. Martin’s Handbook, 2008) stated that “reading critically means asking questions about what you are reading - questions about the meaning of the text and how that meaning is presented or about the author and his or her purpose for writing, for example. A critical reader does not simply accept what the author says but analyzes why the text is convincing (or not convincing).” This phrase absolutely expresses the feelings about reading both articles.
Conclusion
To summarize, it should be said that Indian culture is interesting to discuss. Indeed, its culture is widespread, that is why it is so controversial. Both authors have shown that people are concerned about Asian/ Indian culture (mainly dancing). The main differences between the contents of these articles are the facts that Avanthi Meduri stated that South Asian culture became dominant due to the globalization processes, while Vincent Warren claimed about the Indian culture as a patron.
As for me, none of them is right, since every culture has the right to exist. No practitioners, dancers, scholars, scientists etc. have a right to determine the destiny of another culture. That is why, the conclusion from the article “Labels, Histories, Politics: Indian/South Asian Dance on the Global Stage” could be the conclusion to this essay, “although Indian dance might look Indian, it is South Asian dance in the UK because it is performed notjust by immigrant dancers from India but by ‘hundreds of South Asian dancers’ belonging to the different nations of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Africa. Her explanation is challenging because it urges scholars and spectators alike to think outside the box and identify the ‘same, but not quite’ differences between Indian and South Asian dance” (Meduri 2008, p. 238).
