Bollywood Weddings
Bollywood Weddings
Kavita Ramdya (author)
Date: 10 March 2010Time: 5:30 PM
Finishes: 10 March 2010Time: 7:00 PM
Venue: Brunei GalleryRoom: B102
Type of Event: Seminar
Series: CSAS Seminar Programme
Kavita Ramdya’s debut book, Bollywood Weddings; Dating, Engagement and Marriage in Hindu America (Lexington Books; November 28, 2009), is this year’s answer to the age-old questions, “Why do we fall in love with the people we fall in love with?” and “Why do we marry the people we choose to marry?” To answer these questions – the ethnic, religious, linguistic, cultural, and financial qualities – and what our choice means in terms of expressing our national identity, Kavita Ramdya does an anthropological study of Indian-American Hindus in the tri-state New York area.
By interviewing twenty couples, “Bollywood Weddings" addresses the various methods of meeting a potential future spouse including using family & friends, personal ads, and internet dating services as well as family tensions that arise with inter-marriage (Hindus marrying Christians, Jews, Muslims, African Americans and Atheists). Attending their weddings and watching wedding videos, she successfully describes how this community negotiates between antiquated, Old World values such arranged marriage and modern, individualistic values such as love marriage. She finds that in this day and age, a discussion about who and how we choose to marry cannot be had without recognising the significant influence popular culture has on our ideas about how to best express love. In Kavita Ramdya’s book, the Bombay-based Indian film industry “Bollywood” emerges as a significant force in formulating conceptions of love and identity. Bollywood culture – it’s fashionable aesthetic and symbolic representation of a modernised India – becomes the method by which American-raised Indian Hindus negotiate two diametrically-opposed value sets: that of pre-modern India and mainstream America.
Kavita Ramdya integrates the love stories of twenty couples, which makes her book about why and how a sub-community falls in love and expresses their identity a wonderful read. She provides readers with a window into second-generation Indian-American Hindu couples who are navigating identities through a major life rite of passage, marriage. In her book, she affirms that this sub community flaunts all things Indian (be they more traditional or Bollywood style) as a way to assert their American identity. Beautifully written and containing gorgeous photographs, with insight into matters concerning love, marriage, and identity 'Bollywood Weddings; Dating, Engagement and Marriage in Hindu America' is that rare find: an insightful first book which is both an excellent choice for the classroom and the wider general readership.
Biography
Kavita Ramdya was born in New York City and raised in Long Island where she attended Smithtown High School. She received her B.A. from New York University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Boston University where she was a Presidential University Graduate Fellow.
She currently works at an American bank in London and is a regular Arts Opinion-Editorial columnist for “News India Times". She also writes about popular culture and current events for a variety of publications, both mainstream and academic, including "India Abroad" and "The Indian American". Kavita Ramdya co-chairs the Junior Leadership Circle for Women for Women International, a charity which provides financial and emotional assistance to women survivors of war. University teaching credits includes “Modern British Drama”, “Contemporary British Literature”, “Literature of the American Dream”, and “Literature of the American Frontier.”
In her spare time, Kavita enjoys biking, practicing yoga, reading, writing and blogging (they’re not the same!), and watching TED Talks. . Finally, she enjoys dancing, attending theatre and travelling with her husband.
Further information about Kavita Ramdya’s Bollywood Weddings
Further information contact Centres and Programmes, centres@soas.ac.uk or Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4892/3
Organiser: Centres & Programmes (REO)
