"The making of indigeneity" - Santali popular VCD-films and the mediation of culture beyond a region

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Karl-Heinz Kohl
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 191445706

Popular Santali-VCD-films target the "indigenous" population of rural areas of Odisha, West-Bengal and Jharkand in India, and do reach audiences at places far beyond, for example in Assam or Bangladesch. So far an estimate of 250 video clip compilations and 150 popular films have been produced by newly emerging small-scale film- and video production companies. The recent enfolding of this media circulation is connected to the formation of countless further VCD circulations of popular films in regional and "indigenous" languages during the past decade. This research project investigates articulations of a belonging to the "indigenous" group of the Santal on the basis of Santali-films, and inquires the position of everyday culture within these processes. The study includes a total twenty month multi-sited field research based on the method of "participant observation" together with film viewers, and also film producers, in differing settings in Assam, Odisha, Kolkata and Bangladesh, which aims to identify and describe cultural practices as a part of identity building.The empirical data collected confirmed that everyday practices of articulating a belonging within the Santal community are of high importance within the media-based identity building of this group, and it has been shown that these practices do also differ strongly within respective settings. These various ways of articulating a sense of belonging have been described, whereby it could be stressed that specific "regional" ways of articulating a belonging (also of further communities) have often become part of Santal's identity building. Furthermore, the circulation of VCDs itself can be seen to be significantly shaped by the cultural practice of film production, and, at the same time, everyday practices of film viewers are part of the ongoing formation of media infrastructure. Therefore, a further field study intends to investigate production contexts of the new start-up film- and video production companies in order to reveal socio-cultural impacts on media circulation there, like cultural negotiation patterns, but also professional and/or artistic self-identification claims. Providing empirical data facing the interplay of various contexts and simultaneously on fragmentations as a significant part of the media-based identity building of an "indigenous" group, the research will critically contribute to a recent debate on proclaiming "indigeneity" as an affirmative category in South Asia, and in this respect will develop a concept which recognizes distinctions and contradicting interests within an "indigenous" community. Besides, it is aimed at providing empirical data focussing on cultural aspects of the formation of media infrastructures in South Asia.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants