British by Right Punjabi by Heart

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‘BRITISH BY RIGHT, PUNJABI BY HEART’

Ranjanpreet Kaur Nagra
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To cite this article: Ranjanpreet Kaur Nagra (2011): ‘BRITISH BY RIGHT, PUNJABI BY HEART’, Sikh
Formations, 7:2, 161-175
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Sikh Formations, Vol. 7, No. 2, August 2011, pp. 161–175
Ranjanpreet Kaur Nagra
‘BRITISH BY RIGHT, PUNJABI BY

HEART’
Diaspora portrayals in Punjabi films
Media serves as a medium for self-assertion and identity formation by identifying and dis-
Downloaded by [117.199.84.125] at 22:25 10 December 2011
tinguishing Punjabi identity from Indian identity. Punjabi films assert a separate identity
from Hindi cinema. This distinct identity is also found in representations of Punjabis living
abroad. Punjabi films portray a self-contained and insular Punjabi diaspora that is gen-
dered. While more nuanced than the male chauvinism found in Punjabi films from the
1990s, current films still depict hyper masculine spaces within the Punjabi diasporic com-
munities. I analyze three Punjabi films Munde UK De, Jee Ayaan Nu and Asa Nu
Maan Watana Da to show how they reinforce hyper masculine and hyper nationalist
Punjabi image through the diasporic characters.
Introduction
This study explores diaspora communities’ relations and possible reactions towards
media, in this case, Punjabi diaspora communities in the US and Punjabi films that
portray diaspora characters. Sikhs are a minority religion in India and are thus margin-
alized within Indian films and other popular media. In the West, they are a conspicuous
religious minority group being subjected to xenophobic violence since 9/11. Media texts
such as television programs and Punjabi films play a crucial role in displaying represen-
tations of their identity. Media constructs and represents diasporic identities. Minorities
fret about their representation in the media because it affects their everyday lives. Racist
and stereotypical representations of conspicuous minorities like Muslims and Sikhs can
mean racism and stereotyping in their lives. In order to be accepted in the host culture,
diaspora constructs identities that suit the host culture, often using terms like peaceful
and tolerant. Media representation helps diasporic communities to assimilate and
survive in the host culture. This paper explores the kinds of diasporic and native iden-
tities these films create and promote.
Punjabi films, as a regional cinema, follow the Hindi film romantic main plots with
songs and dances. These films partially address social issues in Punjab, which is the
homeland to the Punjabi diaspora audience in the West. The subplots show glimpses
of social issues: Punjabi farmers whose crops are suffering from droughts, women
abused by their in-laws after marrying Punjabi men in the West, and young Punjabi
ISSN 1744-8727 (print)/ISSN 1744-8735 (online)/11/020161-15
# 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17448727.2011.593298
162 SIKH FORMATIONS
men who give money to unscrupulous travel agents, and the shady business of illegal
immigration to Western countries. The films also gloss over the technicalities of
casting and actors’ speech. The Non-Resident Indian (NRI) actors are playing native
characters and native actors are playing NRI characters. The films do not recognize
this disjuncture. As a result, their English and Canadian accents in Punjabi and
English are well off their mark from being considered authentic. In Munde UK De,
Gurpreet Ghuggi plays DJ and tries to imitate the British accent. He speaks anglicized
Punjabi, which sounds similar to an actual diasporic Punjabi speaker. But DJ’s friend
Roop speaks what sounds like an Indian dialect of English and non-anglicized Punjabi.
He speaks less English and when he does, he has no British accent. The film disregards
this disconnect between the character and their language as long as they speak intelligible
Punjabi. This could be viewed as a simple miscasting because the Punjabi film industry
lacks diaspora actors, but this miscasting also reinforces that the moral core of Punjabi
identity remains the same even if the characters migrate out of Punjab. Even as the plot
focuses on authenticity, the inauthentic casting suggests that the core of the Punjabi iden-
tity remains in all Punjabi actors, regardless of whether they are diaspora or native. We
see no acknowledgement of the subtleties of cultural differences that develop when
people leave their home and go to live abroad. The filmmakers ignore the linguistic
and cultural nuances and how these differences can suggest different ideologies and life-
styles. This miscasting also downplays cultural differences and shows a depreciative atti-
tude towards different modes of life and cultural diversity.
Jee Ayaan Nu (2003) and Munde UK De (2009) are directed by Manmohan Singh.
Other titles like Asa Nu Maan Watna Da (We are proud of our homeland), and Mitti
Wajaan Mardi (The homeland calls) have a sentiment of bringing the diaspora home.
The notion of homeland is built into the title and the plot of the film and the narratives
highlight the diaspora’s strong connection with the homeland through Punjabi language.
All diaspora characters speak Punjabi. The films’ use of Punjabi language shows that the
characters speaking Punjabi are still connected to the homeland and have their authentic
Punjabi identity intact. Language is a strong marker of identity, in films and in Punjabi
culture, which I will discuss further throughout the paper.
The title of the film Jee Ayaan Nu is a common expression that means ‘welcome’ and
the film itself welcomes back NRI Punjabi families to Punjab. Mr Jasbeer Singh Grewal,
his wife Kuldeep Kaur, and daughter Simar return to Punjab after 15 years. In Punjab,
Simar meets a young Punjabi man named Inder and they fall in love. The families are
happy about their union. The problem arises when Simar’s family finds out that Inder
has no intention of moving to Canada after their wedding. Simar, however, prefers
the Canadian lifestyle to the difficult life in a Punjabi village and returns to Vancouver
with her parents. Inder follows Simar to Vancouver to convince her to come back to
Punjab. Inder makes several attempts to convince Simar to come back to Punjab,
while Simar tries to convince him to stay in Vancouver. As a last resort Inder invites
Simar to his singing performance and sings about his love for his homeland, during
which Simar leaves the audience hall. Inder goes back to Punjab where he finds
Simar, dressed in a bride’s dress waiting for him with his family and the whole
village. Simar declares that she has found her love of her homeland, which she had for-
gotten while living in Canada. Simar and Inder reconcile over their shared love of their
homeland.
DIASPORA PORTRAYALS IN PUNJABI FILMS 163
Figure 1 Actor Gurpreet Ghuggi on the set of Munde UK De. Reproduced with permission.
Source: http://punjabiportal.com
Munde UK De is a West meets East story where England born Roop (played by
Jimmy Sheirgill) and his friend DJ visit his grandfather in Punjab. Roop’s family in
Punjab welcomes them and tries to fix both of their marriages with Punjabi girls.
Roop meets Reet who is a proud Punjabi woman and dislikes NRIs who come to
Punjab to get married and mistreat their wives by leaving them behind or abusing
them. Reet taunts Roop that he has come to Punjab only to find a wife, but Roop
denies any such designs. Eventually, she falls in love with Roop. Reet’s father, ironically,
intends to use his daughter’s marriage proposal so he can send his son to England. He
asks Roop to fix Reet’s brother’s marriage with an English girl. Roop refuses to give in
and schemes to get out of this problem with the help of his friends DJ and Candy. Roop
and Reet get engaged at the end. The film shows how Roop maintains his Punjabi mor-
ality even though he was born in England. Reet’s brother, on the other hand, is a
depraved, drug user who has lost his Punjabi morality. The film depicts the negative
aspect of patriarchy and unscrupulous Punjabi fathers who use their daughters to
send their sons to the West.
164 SIKH FORMATIONS
Connecting language to authentic Punjabi identity
In Jee Ayaan Nu, the North American west coast with its frontier, wild, and agricultural
setting sets it apart from metropolitan cities like London or New York where the Bolly-
wood diaspora films are set. The Punjabi diaspora of these films lives in an agricultural
setting, in their suburban homes. The green open space is almost identical to the rural
Punjab. In this setting, a Punjabi family can live with other Punjabi families with no need
to interact with other ethnicities. These films take place in Vancouver, Canada and Yuba
City, California, which are warm, sunny and welcoming. The film’s setting in sunny and
agricultural California shows that the diaspora is living in another land similar to Punjab
and is responsible for making California look like Punjab. The first song that plays in the
background in Asa Nu Maan Vatna Da tells us that Punjabi people make foreign lands their
own and build them to look like the heaven that is Punjab:
Jugni pair jitthe vi paaye

Wherever Jugni sets foot
Os Dharti de bhag jagaaye
She brings prosperity to that land
Ja Junglaan vich mangal laaye
She makes the wilderness a livable place.
On screen we see green fields and harvesting going on indicating Punjab-like verdant
landscape in the California valley. The diaspora does not adapt to the host
community, it imbibes the host culture with Punjabi culture instead. This cultural super-
iority obviates the need for assimilation and prescribes insularity for the diaspora. The
insularity of diaspora is strikingly visible in the films. The Punjabi diaspora lives in an
insulated Punjabi community where the neighborhoods are Punjabi; families have
their social gatherings and only other Punjabi families are invited.
Punjab is pictured as a rich agricultural land with friendly people who are affluent, live
in big homes, and have plenty of servants. The Punjabi village in the films is a big village
with broad streets, beautiful women, and handsome men. The village has a Satth, a meeting
place in a shady area of the village, where men sit all day and play cards. Punjab is a desir-
able place with its charms of village life with family values and comical village bumpkins
who are lazy but know that they grow food for the whole country. In Jee Ayaan Nu, the
men in the Satth tell the protagonist that Punjabi farmers feed the whole country even
though they sit in the Satth and play cards all day. These men retain their moral core
and identity because they live in Punjab; they are connected to their roots, unlike the dis-
placed diaspora. These farmers know who they are. Punjab is the center of culture, mor-
ality and authenticity, and it has to be reconstructed by the diaspora in their new setting in
the West to retain Punjab’s cultural values. The Punjabi landscape, as well as Punjabi
language, are produced and retained in the West to keep one’s core identity.
In these constructed Punjabi enclaves in the West, the non-immigrant is hardly
visible. There are no non-Punjabi characters because Punjabi characters do not come
in contact with White, Hispanic or African Americans. The films present no possibility
of interracial romance between the main characters. Only minor characters or those
who provide comic relief, display any romantic connection with other ethnicities.
For example, in Jee Ayaan Nu, the main character, Inder has a friend, Iqbal, who is
married to a white Canadian woman. Initially Inder is surprised that his friend has
married a white woman but when she speaks to him in Punjabi, he accepts her and
warms up to her. For Inder, her language is an indicator that she is a moral Punjabi
person. The couple has a son who looks Punjabi as opposed to mixed. He speaks
Punjabi, dresses like a Punjabi boy. The Canadian wife speaks Punjabi and has
changed her name to Basant Kaur. The whole family is part of the Punjabi culture. A
non-Punjabi wife is allowed in the community because she is willing to assimilate,
learn Punjabi, change her name and be a hospitable Punjabi wife. She gains Punjabi mor-
ality by speaking Punjabi. When she comes into the community she gains Punjabi mor-
ality by assimilating into the community. We see that morality when she speaks Punjabi.
The film does not address the difficulties and challenges of mixed marriages. The white
woman’s transition to a Punjabi wife is shown to be seamless. This aloof attitude towards
and forced insulation from other ethnicities reeks of Punjabi chauvinism. In the preced-
ing example the white woman comes to resemble a moral Punjabi person because she
speaks Punjabi. To be accepted she has to assimilate into Punjabi culture by learning
Punjabi. Interracial relations are accepted only when the non-Punjabi character is
willing to assimilate to the Punjabi culture and not vice versa. We see no interracial
relationship where a Punjabi character has to step out of the Punjabi community. Any
outside culture is not allowed to trespass into and influence the Punjabi community.
The characters that have assimilated are expected to exhibit Punjabi culture and morality
especially by speaking the Punjabi language.
The films do not focus on one set of immigrants who migrated during a particular
time period. Some people from the diaspora are recent immigrants and others have been
living in the West for decades. So language becomes crucial in understanding old
immigrant and new immigrant dynamics because new immigrants have not yet assimi-
lated and learned English, or learned to privilege English over Punjabi. If a character
only speaks Punjabi, it also shows their lower class as opposed to the upper or
middle class who speak both Punjabi and English. New immigrants can only speak
Punjabi but old ones can speak both English and Punjabi. So language indexes the
level of assimilation and the class division among the diaspora. Characters’ language
displays their proximity to the homeland and their socio-economic status in Punjab.
The homeland carries the core moral identity and the diaspora has to carry this core
to the new place. The films are not concerned with the characters’ assimilation in the
host country. On the contrary, the main concern is that the diaspora stays within the
Punjabi community for fear of its moral corruption. In the films, a diasporic character’s
distance from the homeland is shown to be a cause of confusion of identity and moral
corruption, which manifests itself in the character’s language.
The films tell us that language carries a moral identity because an immoral character
will only be able to speak anglicized Punjabi or no Punjabi and a moral Punjabi will speak
fluent Punjabi. In Jee Ayaan Nu we see two children whose identity is judged by their
language competence. Inder’s Canadian nephew, Bobby, cannot speak Punjabi. When
his mother introduces him to his ‘mama’ or maternal uncle, he responds with a ‘Hi’
and goes to his room. Inder’s sister apologizes and says that ‘the poor boy doesn’t
know what “mama” means’. The nephew cannot understand Punjabi culture because
he does not know the nuances of Punjabi kinship terms like the word for his
mother’s brother. The nephew’s ignorance of Punjabi jeopardizes his morality. His
166 SIKH FORMATIONS
linguistic incompetence points to the loss of Punjabi culture and also to a loss of mor-
ality. Inder’s friend’s son, however, greets him in Punjabi. His father says that his son
loves to visit India. Inder is impressed with his Punjabi and expresses disappointment
in his nephew’s language incompetence. Inder’s nephew is inauthentic and his friend’s
kid is a confident Punjabi, connected to his Punjabi roots and his Punjabi community.
He is morally sound compared to Bobby. If a character speaks anglicized Punjabi or
no Punjabi, it indicates certain moral failures on their part. The non-Punjabi characters
speak Punjabi in the films in order to become part of Punjabi community. Punjabi
language ensures that characters get accepted in the community.
The characters also employ code switching to dissociate themselves from the commu-
nity. They choose to speak English to identify themselves as non-Punjabi. The code switch-
ing adds additional meaning to the conversation where a specific code is employed to declare
one’s Canadian or Punjabi identity. The female characters, especially, switch to English to
disavow their Punjabi identity in order to escape the traditions of Punjabi patriarchy. In Jee
Ayaan Nu, Simar, who should follow her husband and go to Punjab after marriage, protests
this tradition in English language. In an argument with Inder, she tells him that she wants
Inder to live in Canada because she is Canadian and she wants to live in Canada. She does not
want to follow her future husband to Punjab as the tradition prescribes:
Inder: Simar, our real home is Mullapur village.

Simar: If that is the case then you will go back alone. I won’t go with you. I belong
here.
Inder: This is wrong Simar, even though you live here, but you belong to Punjab.
And not just you, everyone living here belongs to Punjab and this is a fact that if
forgotten, we will be severed from our roots and we will not be able to see
what is ahead of us in the future.
She protests to Inder in English: ‘I belong here’. Inder responds in Punjabi: ‘That is
wrong, you live here, but you belong in Punjab. Not only you but every Punjabi who
lives here belongs to Punjab’. Simar tries to prove her Canadian identity in English;
Inder negates her in Punjabi and reminds her of her Punjabi identity. He points out
that she may live in Canada but she belongs to Punjab. Her identity is rooted in
Punjab. Inder’s reinforcement of Simar’s Punjabi identity also reinforces her place
in a patriarchal Punjabi society. The tradition of a wife living with her husband’s
family will follow her even in Canada. She cannot escape the tradition of the home-
land even if she lives abroad. Inder’s point that Simar belongs to Punjab is significant
because it shows that the Punjabi diaspora will always be identified with Punjab, their
homeland.
To summarize my points, the diasporic communities in these films try to recon-
struct the homeland since it is the center of morality and culture. Other ethnicities
are allowed into the community if they can assimilate. In this isolated space similar
to the space in Punjab, characters’ morality is shown through language. Characters’ lin-
guistic behavior points to their moral behavior, which is contingent on their relation to
the center, the homeland. Inauthentic characters speak English or anglicized Punjabi
because they have abandoned the language of the community and are stepping out
into the corrupt space outside the community.
Constructing diaspora identity: ‘British by right,

Punjabi by heart’
In the previous section I discussed that diaspora maintain Punjabi identity through
Punjabi language. Only those who can maintain the culture of the homeland through
language are considered part of Punjabi community. The diaspora can gain entitlement
to Punjabi identity in a foreign land through identity markers like language, and by insu-
lation and endogamy. The homeland does not abandon them as long as they maintain the
Punjabi identity within their spirit. This section further explores how Punjabi films
promote this pan-national Punjabi identity and imagine a global Punjabi community
that supersedes international boundaries. I also explore the slippages within this
global Punjabi identity because this identity is not only cultural and geographical but
also a religious one. The films juggle with Sikhism and Punjabiyat often by muting
one over the other. The Punjabi identity also takes on several layers of mimicry when
we see native actors playing diaspora characters in the films.

The film titles Dil Apna Punjabi (Punjabi at Heart) and Munde UK De emphasize Punjabi
nationalism by doing away with Indian nationalism altogether. The Indian state is hardly
mentioned in the films and the homeland is always named as Punjab. The films also down-
play specific religions to appeal to a Punjabi audience of all religions: Hindu, Muslim and
Sikh. In Asa Nu Maan Watna Da, we see a Muslim Punjabi couple in Canada, each from East
and West Punjab. They share a common Punjabi identity even though they are divided by
national boundaries. The films promote Punjabi nationalism instead of Indian nationalism
seen in Hindi films like DDLJ, Pardes and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.
Appadurai, while discussing ethnoscapes, says that ‘the central paradox of ethnic
politics in today’s world is that primordia, (whether of language or skin color or neigh-
borhood or of kinship) have become globalized’ and ‘sentiments whose greatest force is
in their ability to ignite intimacy into a political sentiment and turn locality into a staging
ground for identity, have become spread over vast and irregular spaces, as groups move,
yet stay linked to one another through sophisticated media capabilities’ (Appadurai
2008, 306). These films are an example of how mediascapes and ethnoscapes are able
to affect each other. The films appeal to a diasporic audience to strengthen the
primordial, i.e. their culture, language and ethnicity. Punjabi nationalism or Punjabiyat,
as a global Punjabi identity, is conferred to diasporic communities since taglines like
‘British by Right, Punjabi by Heart’ turn diaspora identities into global Punjabi
identities.
Additionally, the songs in the films reinforce Punjabiyat by reminding characters and
the diasporic audience of their roots and their homeland. The first background song that
plays during the titles in Munde UK De says that the UK boys live in Southall as if they
were living in Ludhiana. The song claims that the diasporic Punjabis are still connected
to Punjab while living abroad and they want to come back to Punjab (mangde Punjab aona
UK De Munde). Songs are also a reminder of homeland for the diaspora. In Jee Ayaan Nu,
Inder sings a parting song for Simar where he says that he is proud of his homeland
Punjab (Asa nu maan watna da, asi haan tere yaar pardesi).
These films legitimize diaspora identity as Punjabi identity. Diaspora is viewed as
part of Punjabi community in India and not as outsiders. The UK boys are portrayed
as Punjabi at heart even though they were born and raised in the UK and have never
168 SIKH FORMATIONS
lived in Punjab. The song lyrics of the first song in Munde UK De is in Punjabi but uses the
word ‘mangde’ (mangde Punjab aaona UK De Munde), which means to ‘to ask for x’
instead of ‘chahonde’ which means ‘to want x’. Here ‘mangde’ is a direct translation
of the English verb ‘to want’ into Punjabi. This use of hybrid anglicized Punjabi acknowl-
edges other versions of Punjabi used by diasporic Punjabi communities and validates the
hybrid language as part of a global Punjabi culture. Punjabi nation is imagined to be
everywhere in the world. Punjabi community as international community, where
people of Punjabi heritage living in England and Canada are accepted as legitimate
inheritors of Punjabi identity. Roop and DJ, and Simar are imagined to be Punjabi,
and they belong to Punjab, not Canada or the UK. They may be British by Right,
but they are Punjabi by Heart.
These films are meant to appeal to Punjabi culture, and not specifically to Sikh reli-
gion, even though most of the people involved in the filmmaking and the plot characters
are Sikh. Sikhism is not central to the plot, but Punjabiyat is. Alcohol, therefore, comes
to symbolize Punjabi culture. We see Mr Grewal and Arjun Singh drinking together the
day Mr Grewal visits Arjun Singh. The opening scenes of Asa Nu Maan Watna Da show a
group of Punjabi men drinking whiskey at a social gathering in Canada. In Munde UK De,
Roop’s grandfather, Gurdit Singh, drinks before he goes to sleep and wonders if his
grandson Roop drinks or not. He also pretends to blame his servant Khoji for
forcing him to drink every night. He likes to drink but also thinks that it is a bad
habit, while Khoji tells him that it is like medicine that will help him with sleep and
his overall health. But the portrayal of alcohol culture as part of Punjabi culture
would still be a contentious subject from a Sikh point of view because alcohol is prohib-
ited in Sikh Rahit Maryada (code of conduct). Sikh ethics prohibit alcohol, but in popular
Punjabi culture drinking is part of Punjabi male culture. Gurdit Singh’s dilemma about
alcohol is a reflection of broader conflicts of religion and culture, especially among the
Punjabi diaspora. His double identity of a Punjabi-Sikh male leaves him in a cultural-
religious conflict. These two identities are different but can usually merge together
since most Sikhs identify themselves as Punjabi and vice versa. Maintaining both iden-
tities is problematic when it comes to alcohol and wearing a turban. In the film,
Gurdit Singh wears a turban but drinks alcohol, his grandson has a haircut but he
does not drink alcohol. The two identities are, therefore, carefully balanced through
Roop and Gurdit Singh. Roop is not a turbaned Sikh and does not drink while his tur-
baned and bearded grandfather does drink. Roop can identify himself as Punjabi Sikh
because despite having a haircut he does not drink which shows his Sikh morality.
The film affirms that the NRI characters like DJ and Roop can easily become ‘pure
Punjabi’, mostly by modifying their clothing. DJ wears a British-style turban to express
his hybrid British-Punjabi identity. DJ wears a shirt that says ‘Puré Punjabi’ to show his
love interest, Kulwant Kaur, that he has transformed into an authentic Punjabi man. The
pure with an accent on e, ‘puré’, is pronounced ‘pooray’ to mean whole or full in
Punjabi. DJ and Roop’s clothing points to the fluidity of diaspora and native identities
that we see because of constant media flows. The intercourse of ethnoscapes and med-
iascapes create identities that cannot be identified as wholly native or wholly diasporic.
Homi Bhabha further discusses this fluidity of identity in his essay ‘Of Mimicry and
Man’. He theorizes that ‘colonial mimicry is the desire for a reformed, recognizable
Other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite’ (1994, 86) contending
that mimicry is constructed through the slippages and ambivalences of identity, which is
indeterminate, ambivalent: ‘almost the same, but not quite’. Bhabha explains that the
colonial subject aspires to become Western or British by mimicking language, clothing
and culture of the Empire, but never actually becomes fully Western, he mimics and
therefore can never be authentic. Bhabha says this ambivalence of identity and the
process of never becoming pure or authentic is where the power of the Empire lies.
The colonized subject can never become the colonizer. The postcolonial diasporic
subject adds another layer to Bhabha’s notion of mimicry and ambivalence of identity.
DJ and Roop exemplify ambivalent diasporic identities. They are neither entirely
native Punjabi nor entirely British.
This ambivalence of identity is apparent in DJ and Roop’s clothing when they first
come to Punjab. They are not dressed as authentic diasporic characters but are mere
caricatures. A diasporic commentator made this remark online (www.straight.com)
on Munde UK De:
This film is so embarassing! (sic) nearlly (sic) killed myself in the cinema, how can
freshies get it so wrong and who the hell would dress like that in England? you’ll get
shot walking down the road in fucking gold trainers. If the guy is from the UK why
does he have a freshie accent? honestly embarassing and clichéd.
This commentator points to the caricature portrayal of diaspora in Munde UK De and

expresses anger at exaggerated misrepresentation of British Punjabi youth. A careful obser-
vation tells us that DJ’s outfit has layers of mimicry. Gurpreet Ghuggi, who is native of
Punjab, plays the British born DJ. Ghuggi intends to mimic a diaspora male, but he ends
up mimicking a typical diaspora singer who is mimicking a native Punjabi singer. Therefore,
his sartorial choice is atypical of a Punjabi male from the UK. Instead, it resembles the dia-
sporic music artist who is trying to become an authentic Punjabi. DJ’s clothes resemble
those of diasporic Punjabi singers like Jazzy Bains, also known as Jazzy B, who is a Cana-
dian-Punjabi singer. Jazzy B wears blatant symbols of Sikhism to reclaim his Punjabi identity.
Jazzy B and other diasporic artists like Hard Kaur and Apache Indian are consumers of
Punjabi culture by wearing cultural and religious symbols and using Punjabi language in
their songs to claim their space in both native and diasporic Punjabi culture. Bains imitates
native Punjabi singers like Gurdas Mann or Kuldeep Manak who wear gold rings and gold
jewelry. He mimics the native to gain authenticity. DJ mimics Jazzy B and wears symbols of
Sikhism like Kara and Khanda. His hair is braided into cornrows and he wears colorful shiny
clothes. In trying to become an authentic diasporic character, Gurpreet Ghuggi, mimics
diasporic singers who are mimicking native Punjabi singers. Hence, Ghuggi ends up
partly mimicking native singers instead of impersonating an authentic diasporic person
from the UK. Ghuggi’s portrayal of DJ’s character makes us aware of the layering of differ-
ent identities and series of mimicry and imitation going back and forth between the home-
land and the diaspora.
The films create an inclusive and eclectic Punjabi identity by including Punjabi-
speaking characters from both East and West Punjab. The Indian identity is superseded
by the pan-national Punjabi identity. Diaspora in the West is also included even though it
is hybridized and layered with postcolonial mimicry of the West. This identity gains
another layer with the reverse mimicry of culture of the homeland. Diaspora artists
like Jazzy B become consumers of Punjabi culture as they display symbols of Punjabi
identity in their appearance and work. Consequently, this hybrid, yet Punjabi, identity
170 SIKH FORMATIONS
is mimicked and layered again when native actors play these hybrid diaspora characters.
The films further convey that the diaspora male is fluid and can claim his Punjabi identity
by modifying his attire and speaking Punjabi. This male privilege is important because it
marginalizes the diaspora female and forces them into isolation and insulation in the
West. Diaspora women are held responsible for maintaining the nation and the
culture because they represent domesticity and purity. The next section discusses
how females represent the purity of the homeland culture and are expected to maintain
this purity when the males in their lives control their sexuality.
Women’s role in forming national identity
Patricia Uberoi (1998) in her analysis of Hindi film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (hence-
forth DDLJ) explains that the crisis of Indian identity among diaspora community mate-
rializes when diasporic males control sexual behavior and marriage choices of first and
second-generation diasporic women. Indian family, kinship and marriage indicate auth-
entic Indian identity. Therefore, in DDLJ, Simran’s father and her lover Raj guard her
sexuality to protect the culture and tradition of homeland within the West. Additionally,
Purnima Mankekar in her essay ‘Brides Who Travel’ says that the NRIs, like Raj, return
to the homeland to ‘consummate their desires within the confines of marriage’ to safe-
guard themselves from the ambivalences of modernity, ‘rampant sexuality and promis-
cuity’ of the West (Mankekar 1999, 737). In this diasporic setting in the West, ‘the
sexual purity of Indian women becomes iconic of the purity of national culture’
(1999, 739). DDLJ portrays the West as a menace to Indian identity and the homeland
represents a seemingly monolithic locus of tradition and identity. We must realize that
such representations of the West and the homeland are monolithic and therefore con-
tentious and problematic. Such dichotomous representations of the West and the home-
land engender cultural chauvinism, which discourages the diaspora from assimilating to
the Western culture.
Additionally, as Uberoi and Mankekar point out, women become victims of their
own culture when they are held responsible for continuation of the culture of the home-
land in the West. Punjabi films create a Punjabi identity by imagining a Punjabi nation
reinforced through and forced on the women. In Jee Ayaan Nu, Inder and Mr Grewal
become protectors of Simar’s sexuality. Characters like Simar and Reet become respon-
sible for the maintenance of Punjabi culture and tradition. The story is not resolved until
both of them follow the tradition of male patriarchy. In Jee Ayaan Nu, Simar and her
mother initially try to coerce Inder to come and live in Vancouver, but at the end
Simar has to give up her nationality and go back to Punjab. She gives up Western
values and feminist thinking to embrace her love for her homeland. She has become
part of the Punjabi nation. She acknowledges her loyalty to her motherland at the
end of the movie:
Simar: I had forgotten the fragrance of this soil and you all have familiarized me with
this fragrance once again. Look, today your Simar has become Shamo again.
Inder: I had a message for Shamo: ‘Canada is your maternal home and Punjab is
your in-laws’ home. Those here are your own and those over there are your
own as well’.
She follows the Punjabi tradition that women stay with their husband’s family and not
vice versa. Simar becomes Shamo, which is her childhood name from when she lived
in Punjab. Simar, a freethinking feminist, changes to Shamo, a loyal participant in
Punjabi nationalism. As the female subject in the nation, she is responsible for carrying
forth the traditional values of the homeland. In Munde UK De, Reet is the female char-
acter who represents the feminine voice when she refuses Roop’s proposal the first time.
She also questions the extent of his identity as a diaspora Punjabi. Reet, the female lead
challenges Roop’s Punjabi masculine identity by criticizing Roop for flirting with her and
taking her acceptance for marriage for granted. She also criticizes Roop’s bhua (Aunt) for
assuming that all Punjabi women are willing to go to England and are submissive to their
husbands and in-laws and serve them well when they go there. She also says that when
Punjabi women become independent and earn their own money, they will also be
treated equally like they are in the West. Her feminist ideals, however, do not convince
Roop’s Bhua as she carries on telling Roop that any Punjabi girl will be ready to get
married to him so that she could go to England with him. Reet’s feminist ideology
becomes a challenge for Roop when she refuses his proposal, but at the end, Roop
wins Reet’s affections and Reet gets engaged to Roop. The film ultimately enforces
Punjabi patriarchal ideology by validating the diasporic Punjabi male who comes to
Punjab to get married. Like Raj in DDLJ, Roop is the NRI who will marry a Punjabi
girl to carry on the purity and tradition of the homeland while living in the seemingly
corrupt and sexually rampant Western society. Punjabi patriarchy validates Roop’s
actions to find his wife in Punjab where he can reclaim his Punjabi identity through a
romantic relationship with a Punjabi girl and also take her to the West where she
will reproduce and maintain Punjabi culture as a domestic wife. When Punjabi
women are forced to carry the tradition and purity of culture, their demands for
sexual and economic freedom from Punjabi patriarchy are muted. So, like in DDLJ’s
Simran, Reet and Simar represent feminist voices, ultimately suppressed to establish
male patriarchy and the national culture.
Humor: voicing the nuanced realities
While the main plots remain within the acceptable boundaries of tradition and Punjabi
culture, the films rely on humor to highlight more serious social issues that might not be
popular among the audience as the main plot. In Jee Ayaan Nu, Inder’s friend Ghuggi is a
travel agent and is the owner of ‘Ghuggi Travel Agency’. He is constantly moving his
office from one city to the next so he can avoid his previous clients who have not
reached their foreign destination yet. To avoid his customers to whom he owes
money, he moves his office from Amritsar to Jalandhar to Moga and Ludhiana. Inder
calls his business illegitimate and shady (‘Thaggi-Thori’), but Ghuggi claims that he
does legitimate legal work in his travel agency adding that he even gives receipts to
his customers, ‘Ik number da kamm karida hai, raseed kat ke dayeedi hai’. However,
Ghuggi owes money to Inder’s servant Gopi’s friend who had given him Rs. 25,000
to take him abroad. Ghuggi tells him that he will return the money as soon as he
gets money from another customer. He also tells some of his customers that Mr
Grewal’s daughter is here to marry a Punjabi guy and he will send about 30 men to
Canada as part of the wedding party (barati). Thus Ghuggi’s actions disclose the
172 SIKH FORMATIONS
unscrupulous conduct of travel agents because desperate Punjabi young men will give
anything to these agents to go abroad where they hope to find work.
This comic scene from the film reflects on the actual state of events today in Punjab.
Punjabi young men leave Punjab to become migrant workers in the Arabian countries
like Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain. Margaret Gibson describes this economic crisis in
Punjab that has been going on since 1970s: ‘Indira Gandhi’s governments. . .discrimi-
nated against the interests of the Indian farmers and the rights of states to govern
their own internal affairs’ (Gibson 1998, 18 – 19). Despite the green revolution,
Punjab’s economy has been declining and young people are looking for employment else-
where: ‘because of central government interference, Punjab has not been able to
develop its industrial base as rapidly as some other states, and therefore many educated
Sikhs have been forced to search for work outside of Punjab’ (Gibson 1998, 19). This
trend that Gibson points out in the 1980s is still prevalent in Punjab today. Many land-
owners often sell their land to go Europe and North America to earn a living and send
money to their families in Punjab. This desperate migration to the West due to financial
problems since the 1970s virtually brought an end to the Punjabi spirit of travel and
entrepreneurship. Punjabi men do not go abroad because they want to and can afford
to go, but they go and work abroad so they can support their families back home.
Another comic scene in Jee Ayaan Nu cleverly comments on this desperation. Ghuggi,
the travel agent, compares the statues at rock garden at Chandigarh to the Punjabi
men he sees sitting outside the embassies in New Delhi, waiting in line for their visa
stamps on their passports. He says he pities our boys (apne munde) who sit outside
the embassies like beggars. He tells Simar that his ambition is to send his customers
who are unemployed young guys, to countries like ‘Canada, America, England, Italy,
German, France, Belgium, Holland, Austria’ and disperse them all over the world.
Ghuggi, the dishonest travel agent, as a character is a warning to Punjabi youth to be
wary of unscrupulous agents. This scene brings forth the desperation of young
Punjabi men to try their luck in a foreign country in the face of economic crisis and
lack of opportunity in the homeland.
While the main plot does not address the issue of migration and foreign travel, the
comedy, as portrayed by Ghuggi in the film, is able to highlight this issue. In the main
plot, Inder, as a Punjabi male, is able to easily go to Canada and even become a successful
artist. He does not have to stand in line to get a visa. But in the comedy Punjabi people
like Ghuggi are cheats, who make foreign travel a big risk for the youth. Harjant Gill in
his essay ‘From Putt Jattan De (Sons of Jatt Farmers) to Munde UK De (Boys of UK)’
explains how the fluidity of the Punjabi male, his ability to travel and be successful any-
where, is portrayed in films of two different genres. If we compare Inder from Jee Ayaan
Nu and Rocky from Videsh, we see a paradox of spatial fluidity of the Punjabi male within
the films (Gill 2010, 5). Gill compares two films, but we can see the contradiction of
fluidity within Jee Ayaan Nu as well. Inder belongs to a rich family and can easily travel to
Canada. He is the glamorous and charming protagonist who has the talent and resources
to become a successful artist within days of his arrival in Canada. The reality, on the
other hand as Ghuggi the travel agent points out, is that Punjabi men have to queue
up outside the embassies like beggars to travel abroad. Travel and fluidity is not only
difficult for Punjabi natives but for the Diaspora as well. In Jee Ayaan Nu Mr Grewal
rues the fact that he was not able to come home when his mother died in Punjab. At
Ghuggi’s travel agency we see many men like Gopi’s friend paying a lot of money to
go abroad. Ghuggi’s clients will sell their land to go abroad where they have no guar-
antee of employment and prosperity. Ghuggi’s traveling travel agency is a warning to the
Punjabi youth about the many risks of foreign travel. These practical problems are dis-
regarded in the main plot. In the main plot, Inder represents the Punjabi spirit of travel
and entrepreneurship, while in the subplot and comedy Mr Grewal and people in
Ghuggi’s travel agency represent the inability and desperation to be fluid. The
comedy brings out the social issues that affect Punjabi community, while the main
plot glosses over such nuanced realities. Comedy in the films appeals to both native
Punjabi and diasporic audiences on important transnational social issues of travel and
fluidity. The comedy holds more substance than the glamorous and romantic main
plot because we can discern the real issues of both diaspora and native communities
by paying closer attention to the comments made by comic characters. The marginaliza-
tion of these complex social issues to prioritize romantic main plots suggests that the
producers are more concerned about the market value and the commercial aspect of
their product.
Many other pressing issues of the diaspora youth are not addressed in Punjabi films.
Where other independent films like Namesake have tried to address inter-racial marriage,
Punjabi films are reluctant to address inter-caste marriage among the diaspora. Misce-
genation is a taboo and the films refuse to address many issues that the diaspora youth
face when it comes to their choice in their prospective marriage partners. Other studies
on inter-racial marriage namely Nancy Netting’s (2006) article ‘Two-Lives, One
Partner: Indo-Canadian Youth between Love and Arranged Marriages’ tells us that
many young South Asians are marrying outside their communities against their conser-
vative parents, and many face resistance while others have parents who are gradually
relenting to their children’s choices. The Punjabi films, however, adamantly depict
insular romantic alliances that are conveniently made within each caste and religious
community. Inter-racial marriage might still be a crime for the conservative
members of the community, but it is a real issue for the Punjabi diaspora and it
demands attention, especially in popular media like Punjabi films. The films fail to
address the Punjabi diaspora’s issues with racism, their issues of missing their family,
facing hardships, and their obstacles to successful assimilation. Instead, the films
implicitly indicate that the Punjabis living in the West lead easier and more affluent
lives than people living in Punjab.
Conclusion
The recent surge in the production of regional yet global Punjabi films can potentially
encourage cultural chauvinism and create insulated Punjabi ghettos in the West. The
films enforce the culture of the homeland to the diaspora in the form of a commodity.
They depict the diaspora as bound within the cultural confines of the homeland. This
space is insulated from outside communities and cultures to preserve the culture and
heritage of the homeland. The films thus avoid inter-racial relations and imagine the dia-
sporic communities living in insulation from the broader Western society. Punjabi
language is the marker of their authentic Punjabi identity. Films also forge a distinct
Punjabi identity that disregards national boundaries and constitutes a predominantly
male hybrid British-Punjabi identity. Punjabi male is fluid, hybrid and yet able to
174 SIKH FORMATIONS
claim his Punjabiyat through language and attire. In this process, women are margina-
lized and expected to carry the culture by maintaining sexual chastity and a strong sense
of nationalism. The nonconforming feminist voices get muted when patriarchy forces
women to display the tradition by maintaining sexual purity.
Punjabi films however show that the diaspora can either become corrupt Wester-
ners or they can become Pure Punjabi. The films thus create and promote identities
for diaspora by telling them that they belong to Punjab because they are Punjabi by
heart and always will be. They cannot escape this identity since it is their core identity.
Such a binary of identity reinforces the divide between modernity and tradition exem-
plified by the West and Punjab. This dichotomy leaves no space for any fluid and hybrid
identities that lie in between these two extremes. When the West only constitutes
corruption and immorality and the homeland exemplifies purity and morality, the
diaspora is forced to become either pure Punjabi or the corrupted Westerner. The
Punjabi immigrant cannot become American or Canadian for fear of losing his cultural
identity and his morality. This cultural chauvinism breeds isolation and insulates
immigrants in the West. Extreme pride in one’s own culture discourages one from con-
necting with other communities and cultures. When they create and enforce Punjabi
nationalism and national pride, films prevent groups from assimilating, connecting
with American society, keeping them isolated.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank the anonymous reviewer for giving me invaluable commentary and cri-
tique on this paper.
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Chopra, Aditya. 1995. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.
Ghai, Subhash. 1997. Pardes.
Mehta, Deepa. 2008. Videsh – Heaven on Earth.
Singh, Manmohan. 2006. Dil Apna Punjabi.
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Internet
Straight.com, Vancouver’s online source, April 23, 2010.
http://www.straight.com/article-219916/munde-uk-de-another-halfbaked-nri-cliche
Ranjanpreet Kaur Nagra. [e-mail: ranjanpreet@gmail.com]


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Ranjanpreet Kaur Nagra

‘BRITISH BY RIGHT, PUNJABI BY

Connecting language to authentic Punjabi identity

Jugni pair jitthe vi paaye

Inder: Simar, our real home is Mullapur village.

Constructing diaspora identity: ‘British by right,

we see native actors playing diaspora characters in the films.

This commentator points to the caricature portrayal of diaspora in Munde UK De and

Women’s role in forming national identity

Humor: voicing the nuanced realities

Ranjanpreet Kaur Nagra. [e-mail: ranjanpreet@gmail.com]

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