South Asian Heritage Month: Unpack Indo-Caribbean Roots +Indian Arrival Day

The Muslim Indo-Caribbean Collective (MICC) is hosting a Critical South Asian Heritage Month Event that will be UNPACKING:

- South Asian Arrival Day and Indian Arrival Day as Problematic

- Mainland South Asian/Indian Supremacy (coined by Karimah Rahman 2021)

- Indo-Caribbean roots of South Asian Heritage Month

Date: Monday May 16th

Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm EST

Location: on Zoom (link will be sent closer to the date)

Due to Mainland South Asian/Indian Supremacy (coined by Rahman 2021), " #IndoCaribbean voices are regularly marginalized, silenced and invisibilized in #SouthAsian #Indian spaces due to problematic ‘purity/authenticity’ politics" (Rahman 2021)

"South Asian/Indian spaces, culture, history are overwhelmingly represented/equated as Mainland South Asian/Indian (coined Rahman 2018) as the default, where they have a superiority complex +are deemed the ‘authentic’ South Asians/Indians, leaving Indo-Caribbeans (+Indentured Diaspora, especially Muslim Indo-Caribbeans and Muslim Indentured Diaspora) deemed as ‘impure’, ‘polluted’+‘bastardized’" (Rahman 2021).

"This is so problematic, especially since there would be no #SouthAsianHeritageMonth without the Indo-Caribbean community, who can be attributed to its existence, by advocating, using grassroots mobilization +lobbying for an ‘inclusive’ celebration of South Asian culture in the #SouthAsianHeritageAct, 2001 in Ontario" (Rahman 2021).

"The intersectional positionality of Indo-Caribbeans are regularly marginalized, silenced, invisibilized in all these spaces +transnational diasporas with Mainland South Asians/Indians as the gatekeeper at the zenith in the hierarchy of ‘authenticity/purity’ in South Asian/Indian spaces, where they have more power/privilege in claiming South Asian-ness/Indian-ness" (Rahman 2021).

"What I coined as;

- The South Asian/Indian ‘Authenticity/Purity’ Hierarchy Theory (Rahman 2021)

- Mainland South Asian/Indian Supremacy (Rahman 2021)

- Mainland South Asian/Indian Privilege (Rahman 2021)

- Mainland South Asian/Indian Fragility (Rahman 2021)

- Mainland South Asian/Indian Colonial/Orientalist Gaze (Rahman 2021)

can be used to unpack these intersectional forms of marginalization, structural oppression +inequity"

- (Rahman 2021).

Source:

Karimah Rahman. (2021).

Muslim Indo-Caribbean Marginalization: In Indo-Caribbean, Indentured Diasporic, Caribbean, West Indian, Indian, South Asian and Muslim Spaces. The Brown Girl Diary

https://www.browngirldiary.com/post/muslim-indo-caribbean-marginalization