Gabbah Shareef Bhalwan
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- 237
Some questions, to establish clarity:
1. Has it been customary, in bhangra of Punjab, to be concerned with this issue? What has been the general custom/attitude there? I say "general," because we all know there are some specific people that may just harp on certain things, that don't necessarily represent the general well. For example, Balbir Sekhon (a prominent dancer) is known to have harped on this idea that dancers should not stoop forward (paraphrased) "because Punjabis bow to no one except God." This is clearly not true about Punjabi dance, but rather his individual opinion forming a prescription.
So, is there any/much evidence of this particular effort not to touch khundas and sapps with feet?
(Is it even an issue? I've never seen attention drawn to the issue, but admittedly i was not looking too hard. And anyway it seems like Indian teams just place the samaan down without any problems.)
2. Does what is customary in Punjab have any bearing in the Diaspora circuit? I ask because some seem to be answering with the embedded assumption that it does, while others are talking about customs being decided or emerging independently.
3. Are the beliefs, about feet-touch = disrespect, universal enough to apply to bhangra participants generally? For example, do those brought up in Muslim culture have the same attitude as Hindus and Sikhs?
4. What role do judgements on cultural propriety have in judging a dance performance? It's acknowledged that so many of the aspects of the North American bhangra performance will not conform (indeed, by design) to customs in India. So how does this sort of departure rate against others in the grand scheme of things?
Anecdotally, I remember talking to a team in the early 2000s who didn't wear paggs. I asked them why, and they said it was because turbans were religious symbols. I thought, hmm, no, it just seems to be the custom to wear paggs as the general cultural practice. But I wouldn't have imagined that perhaps, years later, someone would downgrade their performance due to lack of turbans.
Another tangential anecdote. When you go into the homes of many "vade lok" in India, it's presumed you're to take off your shoes. But when I would visit the home of dhol ustad Garib Dass, he'd just say, 'Why are you taking off your shoes? There's no need." The is a similar "shoes in house" divide in America. My family and most of my friends' families had the custom of wearing shoes in the house when I was growing up. I learned when visiting other people's homes though -- "rich" classmates on "the other side of town" -- that they wanted shoes off. I kind of felt like they judged me as a poor slob for my custom, and I thought them to be uptight bitches for theirs.
Bahman's in India, for example, tend to be much more concerned (stereotypically at least) with taking all these ideas to extremes. Let's not only not eat meat, but also not eat vegetables that look like meat or which are used to season meat (??). Others are more pragmatic, and thus more lenient.
My point is, even within a society, the values vary. That feet are generally "unclean" seems a pretty broad idea in India, but the extent of what that implies is what varies; I don't know if one can assume based on one's own values, what others will do, much less to prescribe it.
Unless there really is a strong custom there established, in that space. I mean, yeah, of course I'm going to take off my shoes in my friend's house who requests it, no problem. Where I draw the line is if they judge me for my custom in my home, or try to argue that theirs is more correct.
1. Has it been customary, in bhangra of Punjab, to be concerned with this issue? What has been the general custom/attitude there? I say "general," because we all know there are some specific people that may just harp on certain things, that don't necessarily represent the general well. For example, Balbir Sekhon (a prominent dancer) is known to have harped on this idea that dancers should not stoop forward (paraphrased) "because Punjabis bow to no one except God." This is clearly not true about Punjabi dance, but rather his individual opinion forming a prescription.
So, is there any/much evidence of this particular effort not to touch khundas and sapps with feet?
(Is it even an issue? I've never seen attention drawn to the issue, but admittedly i was not looking too hard. And anyway it seems like Indian teams just place the samaan down without any problems.)
2. Does what is customary in Punjab have any bearing in the Diaspora circuit? I ask because some seem to be answering with the embedded assumption that it does, while others are talking about customs being decided or emerging independently.
3. Are the beliefs, about feet-touch = disrespect, universal enough to apply to bhangra participants generally? For example, do those brought up in Muslim culture have the same attitude as Hindus and Sikhs?
4. What role do judgements on cultural propriety have in judging a dance performance? It's acknowledged that so many of the aspects of the North American bhangra performance will not conform (indeed, by design) to customs in India. So how does this sort of departure rate against others in the grand scheme of things?
Anecdotally, I remember talking to a team in the early 2000s who didn't wear paggs. I asked them why, and they said it was because turbans were religious symbols. I thought, hmm, no, it just seems to be the custom to wear paggs as the general cultural practice. But I wouldn't have imagined that perhaps, years later, someone would downgrade their performance due to lack of turbans.
Another tangential anecdote. When you go into the homes of many "vade lok" in India, it's presumed you're to take off your shoes. But when I would visit the home of dhol ustad Garib Dass, he'd just say, 'Why are you taking off your shoes? There's no need." The is a similar "shoes in house" divide in America. My family and most of my friends' families had the custom of wearing shoes in the house when I was growing up. I learned when visiting other people's homes though -- "rich" classmates on "the other side of town" -- that they wanted shoes off. I kind of felt like they judged me as a poor slob for my custom, and I thought them to be uptight bitches for theirs.
Bahman's in India, for example, tend to be much more concerned (stereotypically at least) with taking all these ideas to extremes. Let's not only not eat meat, but also not eat vegetables that look like meat or which are used to season meat (??). Others are more pragmatic, and thus more lenient.
My point is, even within a society, the values vary. That feet are generally "unclean" seems a pretty broad idea in India, but the extent of what that implies is what varies; I don't know if one can assume based on one's own values, what others will do, much less to prescribe it.
Unless there really is a strong custom there established, in that space. I mean, yeah, of course I'm going to take off my shoes in my friend's house who requests it, no problem. Where I draw the line is if they judge me for my custom in my home, or try to argue that theirs is more correct.