Sukhmani Khorana

Civil Society Movements and the ‘Twittering Classes’ in the Postcolony: An Indian Case Study

Abstract Using Partha Chatterjees insights on the formation of ‘civil society’ and how this is distinct from ‘political society’, this paper theorises the mobilisation of popular support via social media during the so-called ‘anti-corruption movement’ in India in 2011. It tracks the main themes of the civil society-led movements Twitter feeds during two crucial phases of fasting by its self-proclaimed Gandhian leader, Anna Hazare. This highlights the mixing of nostalgic pre-independence discourses with new media savvy and provides a means of contextualising what such discursive mobilisation means for contemporary political formations in a post-colonial society such as India. The case study also sheds light on the urban- and middle-class-centred nature of the protest and its preference for media over electoral representation—this is in line with Chatterjees conceptualisation of a civil society that undermines the authority of the state and excludes the rural and urban poor.

Self-distribution and Mary meets Mohammad: towards ethical witnessing

Heather Kirkpatricks Mary Meets Mohammad is a noteworthy case study of an Australian documentary feature that was not only privately funded, but one that was also used in unconventional community screenings and social media publicity to eventually get the attention of the mainstream media, distribution networks and human rights film festivals. In other words, it bypassed the local and international film festival exhibition route traditionally used by independent film-makers, yet still received a Walkley Award nomination. What is significant in this case is not the distribution/exhibition context in isolation, but how this intersects with the political content of the film (based on an unlikely friendship between an elderly Tasmanian woman and a Muslim Hazara asylum seeker) to invoke particular responses and establish a dialogue. In this article, I will simultaneously map the screening trajectory of the film, the growing responsiveness of the mainstream media and film distribution networks to the very existence and content of the documentary and the framing devices utilised by the film-maker to advocate for refugees in a way that is most likely to resonate with Australian audiences who might otherwise be indifferent or unsympathetic to the plight of asylum seekers. This simultaneous mapping falls within the framework of ‘ethical witnessing’, that is examining the content and reception of a media text to understand how it facilitates a range of ethical and dialogic responses amongst its audiences.

From ‘De-wogged’ Migrants to ‘Rabble Rousers’: Mapping the Indian Diaspora in Australia

This article maps the trajectory of Indian migration broadly, and specifically to Australia, to first highlight the heterogeneity of the Indian diaspora, and second, to comprehend the impact of this heterogeneity on the homeland alongside recent events involving the diaspora, such as the highly publicised attacks on Indian students in Melbourne in 2009–2010. While there is abundant literature on the history of Indian migration, as well as on diasporic identity formations in a globalising context, the Indian-Australian migrant subject is a recent subject of media and academic interest. The ‘new racisms’ perspective is used to examine the mediation of the student attack issue through the comments of ‘integrated’ Indian-Australians in a random sample of Australian media outlets. Feature articles, news items and opinion pieces appearing in the media covering the student attacks are examined for mentions of, and comments from a carefully selected group of professional Indians living in Australia who are often cast as a ‘model minority’. Conclusions are then drawn on how the remediation of India and its newly assertive commercial media offered by these comments effectively redraws a nation previously receiving limited coverage (literally and discursively) in Australia. What is significant here is not merely the ‘de-wogged’ views of a seemingly integrated minority, but also how oppositional readings (by way of diasporic cultural production) signal a way forward for the Indian diasporas representation in Australia, as well as for its relations with both the home and host societies.

Gender mores on Indian TV: The 'respectable' middle class and NDTV's the big fight

While Indias booming entertainment channels are often examined for their lifestyle content, the nations equally vibrant English-language news networks can also be read as offering lifestyle-oriented content and advice. Talk shows of both the controlled panel debate and the more interactive studio audience discussion variety often veer into social commentary, particularly on issues pertaining to the transitioning social values of the middle classes, including normative gender. In light of this, this article examines a recent love, sex and marriage-themed episode of leading news channel NDTV 24×7s debate-style talk show, The Big Fight. Such discussions are often cast among ‘respectable’ middle-class Indian households as being ‘too forward’ to watch with the family. Do the panelists on these shows simply articulate ‘respectable’ middle-class sentiments, or are they drawn from a wider social pool? What is the role of the host in re-mediating the material under discussion? How do studio audience questions impact on form and content? Most importantly, what role does such programming play in the ongoing transformation of gendered social norms among the middle classes in India today? These questions are considered within the broader framework of the transnational talk show genre and its appropriation in a specific instance in the contemporary Indian context.

Film festivals and beyond: Activist discourses in the reception of Samson and Delilah and The Tall Man

ABSTRACT In the last five years, Australian films centred on Indigenous characters, such as Ten Canoes (de Heer and Djigirr, 2006), Samson and Delilah (Thornton, 2009) and The Tall Man (Krawitz, 2011) have been applauded for their sensitive engagement with traditional Aboriginal stories as well as with contemporary issues. While all three films premiered at Australian film festivals, received limited cinema releases, did the rounds of the international arthouse circuit, and have been broadcast on one of the national public service television networks, their reception, as opposed to a consideration of their textual attributes, has not received much scholarly or popular attention. This article draws on the authors experiences of attending the premiere of Samson and Delilah in Adelaide, and hosting the Q&A after the screening of The Tall Man in Brisbane to explore the Australian-based local-international film festival screening of an Indigenous film as a very specific reception framework; and the Q&A sessions, viewer voting forms and online discussions in the wake of television and/or private viewings as an important aspect of non-institutional responses to the films that are often replete with activist connotations.

Asserting nationalism in a cosmopolitan world: globalized Indian cultures in Yash Raj Films

Yash Raj Films is one of Indias most successful film production studios with a massive global market. The influence of a powerful Indian diaspora provides film directors from the Bollywood stable of Yash Chopra (Yash Raj Films) with a wealth of international settings. These settings in turn provide a site for an assertive Indian nationalism based upon the adoption of cosmopolitan lifestyles. This paper examines three recent films, Khabi Kushi Khabhie Gham, Khabie Alvida Naa Kehna, and Salaam Namaste!, to see how London, New York, and Melbourne are reconfigured as cities in which Indian émigrés make their mark – they are successful in their careers (mostly) and comfortable in their new surroundings. Such films are suggestive of a new ‘global cinema’ in which the geographical confines of national cinema are being stretched. Drawing on a tripartite thematic framework, we explore the visual geographies, the heightened consumption patterns, and the sense of global cosmopolitanism presented in these films. And while the underlying sentiment is that one always sees ‘home’ (i.e., India) as an idealized paradise, the new cosmopolitanism adopted by Indian émigrés in these films serves to highlight the ease with which Indian nationals can find success in global environments.

Public spheres and the media in India

This themed issue of MIA highlights the complex nature of evolving, emerging, mediated public spheres in India, a large, imperfect democracy that is home to the most diverse mediated public spheres anywhere in the world. The history of the public sphere in India has followed a trajectory that is very different from – even at odds with – the history of this sphere as described by Habermas.

Orientalising the emerging media capitals: the age on Indian TV's 'hysteria'

This article foregrounds the manifestation of a contemporary Orientalist discourse in the global media sphere by reading the increasingly robust non-Western ‘other’ that is the Indian TV media through its remediation in the Melbourne-based paper, The Age. The particular institutions have been chosen due to the ‘quality journalism’ reputation of the latter outlet, and the frequency of references to the Indian media – particularly its numerous news television channels – during the spate of allegedly racist attacks on Indian students in Melbourne in 2009–10. Feature articles, news items and opinion pieces appearing in the paper on this issue from May 2009 to June 2010 are examined for mentions of, and comments on, the Indian TV media. Conclusions are then drawn about how the remediation of India and its media offered by The Age effectively redraws a nation previously receiving limited coverage (literally and discursively) in Australia. What is significant here is not the resurgent Indian as reflected in the coverage of the Indian media, but its specific television might remediated by The Age as powerful yet Bollywood-esque in its drama and spectacle.

Watching to Witness: Responses Beyond Empathy to Refugee Documentaries

This chapter takes the preoccupation with empathy in Australian documentaries advocating for asylum seekers as a point of departure to look at alternative modes of responding. The focus here is on audience responses to ‘Freedom Stories’ (Steve Thomas 2015) that uses the community screening model, and puts the spotlight on former refugees who are now Australian citizens. Reactions to the film, recorded through a pilot study at the University of Wollongong, are analysed through the lens of Roger Silverstone’s notion of ‘proper distance’ in an attempt to unpack the difference between spotlighting one’s own feelings (or the conventional use of ‘empathy’ in humanisation discourses), and perceiving the feeling of the other in a way that is likely to lead to responsibility action (what I call here ‘witnessing’).

MasterChef and the ‘Everyday Australia’: Reception Amongst First- and Second-Generation Migrants

Sukhmani Khorana decentres the normative white viewer/reader/listener of Australian media content, and instead puts the spotlight on a range of migrant responses to a mainstream television show, namely MasterChef. The chapter begins by tracing the genealogy of culinary television in Australia, which helps understand the current popularity of MasterChef, and why certain aspects of food culture are considered to be synonymous with cultural diversity. This is then located within the global context of food programming and national identity in comparable settler nations with a multicultural population, such as New Zealand and Canada. In the final section, the chapter discusses the notion of ‘food audiences’, followed by an analysis of the results of a qualitative questionnaire on MasterChef given to 10 first- and second-generation Australian migrants ranging in age from 18 to 50 years.