Cultural Heritage Transformations of Weddings and Marriage among Women in the Tamil and Parsi diaspora communities in India and the UK

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The network project will examine the effects of migration and diaspora on transformations of tangible and intangible cultural heritage in diaspora communities in India and the UK, and the effects this has on the homeland of origin in India. Weddings and marriage are a significant driver of migration for women, and we will focus on women in the Tamil and Parsi diasporas in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and London to examine contrasting examples of cultural heritage transformations in different communities due to both internal and external migration. Through this, we will explore what is gained, lost, exchanged and preserved in the diaspora, and how this affects the homeland in India, as well as questioning the tensions between preservation and adaptation of cultural heritage. Women are seen as bearers and preservers of cultural heritage objects and traditions, however pressures of different cultures, economics, marrying outside the community, changes in fashion, and intergenerational conflict can lead to changes to cultural heritage in the new home of the diaspora. This may create contestation over the diaspora wanting to preserve heritage as it was when they brought it with them, and the process of transformation through fitting into the new place of home. The project will conduct fieldwork in India and the UK to examine these tensions and transformations, including conducting interviews with women in the diaspora. We will also explore the economic benefit of the wedding industry in the diasporas to the homeland of India. This industry is part of globalisation and neoliberalism, and is bringing increased wealth to India through the NRI communities wanting to have a large-scale, lavish Indian wedding. Indian wedding fairs are increasingly popular in both India and the UK, and the related tourism of travel to India to buy wedding goods, and attend weddings, has led to increased economic benefit. The effects of digital technology, the internet, and social media have a major impact on the transformations of cultural heritage in the diaspora, but also act as a connector with the home, and a means of influence for changing practices at a global level.The project will bring together a team of interdisciplinary and international scholars to share research, and exchange knowledge and methodologies. This will create a multi-perspectival approach with academics in India and the UK from disciplines including archaeology, history, cultural studies, performance and ritual studies, social anthropology, and gender studies. We will meet as a team for two workshops in Bengaluru for core network discussions, including holding a public symposium. We will also share and exchange relevant literature though a scoping exercise, which will identify gaps of literature in the other country, to then approach publishers and booksellers to address this gap. In addition to the academic team, we will engage with cultural heritage institutions with curators from the DakshinaChitra museum in Tamil Nadu, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, UK, being part of the workshop discussions. Through this, we will explore how museums display and represent cultural heritage relating to weddings in both India and the diaspora, and develop new creative methodologies for the museums to engage visitors with their collections. We will show the project exhibition in both museums, and hold community engagement workshops with women from local Indian communities to engage them with the objects in the museum, and issues of migration and transformation in cultural heritage.Outputs from the project include a journal article, symposium, and literature review. There are a number of public outputs including the website, which will include extracts from the interviews, and the exhibition, which will include replicas of Tamil wedding jewellery from the RAMM collection made by jewellery craftspeople in India, and a policy document regarding abandoned women in the diaspora.