ABSTRACT

This essay is concerned with the complex, changing identities of British Asians as they negotiate their cultural, ethnic, and religious identities through the expressions of religious ritual and dance. Using an ethnographic methodology, it examines the practices of the Gujaratis at the annual Hindu festival of Navratri, revealing how the folk dance forms of Raas and Garba are used to present, reconfirm, and transmit a particular British Gujarati Hindu identity along with its affiliated religious aspects. 1 How have the Gujaratis, predominately a dislocated community from East Africa, adapted and reacted to the dominant culture of the British host community, and how has this process of adaptation affected their ritual processes and dance practices? How are the global forces of Bollywood film dance influencing the interest of the young people in their traditional folk forms and classical dance styles?