Ijtihad'20

IJTIHAD

Annual Academic Journal
Volume 7, 2020

Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College of Women

Ijtihad is the annual academic journal of the Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for
Women. Besides its religious association etymologically, “Ijtihad” also means the “independent
interpretation of legal sources.” True to its name, the journal seeks to reflect the spirit of an
unhindered, ceaseless quest for the many contemplations of the “historical truth.” Started in
2014, the compilation invites undergraduate student research papers covering various historical
themes, with an aim to nurture historical imagination and critical thinking among young
scholars.

LADY SHRI RAM COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

L a j p a t N a g a r I V, N e w D e l h i - 1 1 0 0 2 4

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©Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, 2020

The moral rights of the contributing authors are reserved. These are the views of the authors
themselves and do not intend to make assertions on the sensitivity of any community or social
group. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any
means without prior permission in writing from the Department of History, Lady Shri Ram
College for Women, New Delhi.

ADVISORY BOARD EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr. Sonali Mishra Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Akanksha Narayan Singh Ushni Dasgupta

HISTORY UNION (2019-20) Deputy Editors
Khushali Tulsian, President Areeba Hasan
Alina Naqvi, Secretary Mou Sarmah
Shreya Sharma, Treasurer
Editors
Nyxa Kataria
Anushka Saxena
Soumyaseema Mandal

Cover design by Nyxa
Cover Art: Painting in the Time of Corona, April 1, 2020, lockdown day 8.

©Dhruvi Acharya, 2020

Ijtihad, the Annual Academic Journal of the Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for
Women, attempts to encapsulate the true essence of knowledge. Knowledge is a light within the
self, which guides one through the caliginous realities of existence into a realm of heightened
thinking, reasoning and understanding. The cover of Ijtihad Vol. 7, painted by the illustrious
Dhruvi Acharya, depicts illumination within the self - a light no individual can actually touch or
tarnish, but one that radiates to all who are near it.
For centuries, since history archiving began, there has been a potent attempt to obscure the truth
and conform to the mainstream upheld by the conservative stakeholders of society. This has not
only hindered the quest of research, but also stopped one to experience an honest reflection of
their spirits. A crucial aspect of historical research is taking into account the multitude of
perspectives that one can fully comprehend only after delving deeper. This diversity is also
symbolised through Ms. Acharya’s artwork.
In these challenging circumstances and omnipresent uncertainty, the illuminated light of self acts
as a ray of hope, making one immune to the ailments of ignorance, negativity, superficiality and
manipulation. It allows one to carve their own space, emblematic of their dynamic individuality,
and remain undaunted by the sublunary hands trying to reach them. Everyone possesses the
incandescence within them - which may be concealed by the heavy covers of worldly vices. And
it's just a matter of time and effort before one finds it within themselves.

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Dear Readers,

We live in unprecedented times. Beginning with a nation-wide student-led political campaign, and
ending with a global health pandemic, this year has truly tested our indomitable spirit and resilience,
often bringing to the forefront salient questions of existence, purpose and perseverance – Who sur-
vives? What have we achieved? Where do we go?

The past few months have proffered us a time of retrospection, and this insurmountable ambiguity
has been offset with a dedicated attempt to critically think and understand the pursuit of civilisation
that we have undertaken so far. In this uncertain environment, it is important that learning and critical
thinking continues, even if it cannot happen in person. This volume of Ijtihad has been manifested
with the spirit of questioning, reckoning (and re-reckoning) and reification that is embodied within
the four walls of your classroom. With research essays that revisit and reclaim queer narratives, gen-
dered religious topographies, popular and imperial cultures, amongst other themes, Ijtihad is all set to
take you on a journey of contradictions, interpretations and reinterpretations.

Beginning with introductory workshops on research paper writing and unconventional research
themes, we continued our efforts to embolden the spirit of questioning and research with a series of
lectures dedicated to the reading, handling and interpretation of primary sources. We had hoped to
continue the momentum and cultivate critical discussions around sexuality in our Annual Academic
Meet, ‘Maazi-o-Mustaqbil’. Imbibing the spirit of selfhood that the theme encapsulated, the paper
presentation competition had sought to revisit the essential foundations of selfhood that governed us
at multiple levels. However, given the unprecedented circumstances, our academic meet was can-
celled; and in a first for us, the paper presentation competition was held online. The winning submis-
sion by Urna Chakraborty offers a textually-grounded, critical (and queer-ing) analysis of feminine
literature, presenting a brief insight into the discussions we had hoped we could have held.

While we are unable to celebrate the culmination of this year-long collaboration in person, we cannot
overlook the efforts that have gone into the curation of this journal. On behalf of the Editorial Board,
I extend my gratitude to our staff advisors and the other faculty members, for supporting all our en-
deavours and kindling the spirit of critical thinking within the student body. I also extend my grati-
tude to the Department Union for supporting all our undertakings this year. We appreciate the papers
submitted across the student body for consideration and thank them all for making this a competitive-
ly driven process. I must also extend my commendations and congratulations to the members of the
Editorial Board, whose wholehearted efforts and dedication has truly invigorated this issue.

We hope that Ijtihad Vol. 7 offers you a quintessence of introspection. In these tumultuous times,
where the spirit of academic enquiries and free thinking is challenged and further impeded by a
health crisis, Ijtihad aims to foster research, critical thinking and enquiry that has forever embold-
ened, challenged and redefined the contours of historical understanding.

Happy reading!

Ushni Dasgupta
Editor-in-Chief

CONTENTS

1. Locating the Contribution of Gastronomy in Articulating the Mughal World 1
Adrija Chakraborty 8
16
2. Playing 1950: 22
The Personal and Historical in King Princess’s “1950”
Ishani Pant 29
37
3. Seats of Symbolism: 46
How the Shift from Kyoto to Tokyo Reconfigured Tokugawa Power 53
Divya Godbole 60
66
4. Conjugality in the Matrilineal World: 72
Placing Ammaveedus in the Historical and Social Landscape of Modern
Travancore
Vinaya K

5. Colour me Lavender: Queering Écriture Féminine
Urna Chakrabarty

6. Popular Culture in China:
An Instrument of Regulation and Dissent
Aditi Majumdar

7. Investigating the Dual Personas of Begam Jahan Ara:
Reconciling Spirituality and Politics
Siddhidatri Mishra

8. “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord”:
The Function of Religion in the Politics of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Madhulika Banerjee

9. Yoginis: Maverick of the Brahmanical Pantheon
Diba Hussain

10. Kawaii and The Kitty
Preeti Gokhale

11. Index

Ijtihad Vol. 7 |1

Locating the Contribution of Gastronomy in Articulating the Mughal World

Adrija Chakraborty
Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

The Indian subcontinent has witnessed an array of political crests and troughs, but none
comparable to the unfathomable spirit of the Mughal Empire until the English takeover. Its
establishment brought to the fore innumerably intricate and intertwined facets, which have
garnered scholarly attention since more than a century now. This paper is a humble attempt to
locate and examine gastronomy as one such facet and channel that continued to flourish in the
face of altering political configuration of premeditated or impromptu changeovers. The first
section throws light on the changing trajectory of some aspects of ‘dining,’ as a political function
of the broader realm of ‘etiquette’ that was fundamental to the Mughals. The next section is a
simple analysis of a few monarchical actions, with food as the cynosure, and has been done to
evince that every imperial gesture was pregnant with symbolic denotations.

In popular imagination ‘Mughal Cuisine’ presides predominately here, where culinary
entered the Indian subcontinent with Babur traits after being borrowed by the empire
to be inherited, improvised and revamped from various spaces underwent experiments
under his descendants according to the and spatial modifications to branch out as
geographical, social and cultural regional marvels. This idea should be
environment they encountered here. But it embedded in the minds of the readers before
is disheartening to register how we take the leap forward.
contemporary studies on the Mughals have
however long been dominated by nationalist, I. A Trajectory of Table consuetudes
sectarian and ideological agendas that
typically present the idea of Mughals as a A very identifiable and distinct praxis
singularly Indian phenomenon, politically developed around dining with the
and culturally isolated from the advancement of the Mughal Empire,
subcontinent.1 The conferring of a singular syncretic enough to not be called a uniquely
patronage to such foods, without taking Mughal proprietary. For a Padshah, to
cognisance of the fact that a substantial comport himself with political education
proportion of the cooking styles, recipes and was synonymous with the absorbance of the
even ingredients have their genesis in Nasirean Ethics of Adab and Akhlaq that
Central Asia, Persia, Middle East, etc., is a ideally regulated his conduct towards
misnomer. The idea of ‘transculturalism’2 governance, subjects, religion, and every
facet of life. Dining, and the ancillaries
1 Lisa Balabanlilar, “Lords of the Auspicious intertwined with it, established itself as an
Conjunction: Turco-Mongol Imperial Identity on the art under Akbar, only to strengthen under the
Subcontinent,” Journal of World History 18, no. 1 subsequent regimes.
(2007): 1.
2 The term has been borrowed from Fernando Ortiz’s Sharing of food and feeding people “for love
idea of ‘transculturalism,’ which lexicographically of Him” has always been a source of
means involving, encompassing or combining attaining spiritual merit apart from forging
elements of more than one culture.

conviviality and camaraderie across Ijtihad Vol. 7 |2
civilisations.3 Babur’s common drinking
parties and feasts with his begs and soldiers method of exemplifying the single paternal,
in their peripatetic quests of Samarqand, dominant position held by Akbar by
Delhi, etc., show that the notion of a requiring him to have a sequestered dining
celebrated sequestered dining had not taken space, in order to not pollute himself with
roots yet, nor had become that rigid under those lower in the hierarchy, to conform
Humayun. with the halo Fazl had created around him.

The concept of “homosocial” domestic An increased importance given to hygiene
environment4, where men and women had becomes evident from the Ain since while
ceased dining with each other, had not carrying the food to the dining space,
definitely strengthened under Babur, who “...lookers on kept away... The cooks tuck up
regularly dined with both Gulbadan Begum their sleeves and the hems of their garment,
and Khadija Begum while on conquests.5 and hold their hands before their mouths and
The marriage feast (commonly addressed as noses when the food is taken out.”8 This was
the ‘Mystic Feast’), hosted for Mirza Hindal a practice common to Hinduism (alike
too, shows Humayun sharing a space with jharokha darshan), while the bhog was
the other women attendees.6 But the harem ritualistically translocated from the kitchen
had become under Akbar a forbidden space - to the temple’s garbha griha, decently
where nothing happened without the epitomising the Hinduisation that the empire
monarch’s cognisance, due to which even had undergone.
the food for the seraglio was served
separately from the kitchen and certain The observance of Sufiyana became
special foods reached them only if the redundant under the later Mughals, although
padshah consented. prohibition of slaughter as a public practice
was maintained in foreign accounts. Since
By the time Akbar came to power, channels the emperor was ‘divinely ordained,’ and
of legitimisation had become more germane drinking water at least while on throne was
and acceptance of Akbar as ‘Insan-i-Kamil,’ beyond human considerations, it was a rare
the primary. “He is (was) accustomed to sight for Tavernier to witness Aurangzeb
dine in private, except on the occasion of a drinking water thrice.9
public banquet.”7 This was a feasible
Both at home and on travels Akbar drank
3 ““Surah Al – Insan” or “Surah At Dahr”,” The Holy Ganges water, “the water of immortality.”10
Quran, trans. by Maulawi Sher Ali (United Kingdom: Shah Jahan drank nothing but the water from
Islam International Publication Limited, 2015), 76.8- Yamuna and all imperial cooking was done
9. alike, with pure rainwater added. The
4 Ruby Lal, “The Making of Mughal Court Society,” etiquette of gift giving was an
Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World acknowledgement of status differences,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 70.
5 Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, The Baburnama in trans. J.S. Hoyland (New Delhi: Asian Educational
English, trans. by Annette Beveridge (London: Luzac Service, 1992), 199.
and Co., 1922), passim. 8 Abul Fazl Allami, Ain-Akbari, Vol I, trans. H.
6 Gulbadan Begum, The History of Humayun Blochmann (Delhi: Low Price Publications, 2011),
(Humayunama), trans. by Annette S. Beveridge 56-59.
(Delhi: Idrah-i-Adabiyat-Delli, 1972), 118. 9 Harbans Mukhia, “Etiquette and Empire,” The
7 Fr. Monserrate, The Commentary of Father Mughals of India (Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing
Monserrate, On His Journey to the Court of Akbar, House, 2004), 100-106.
10 Allami, op. cit., Ain 22, 55.

which seems to have gradually evolved into Ijtihad Vol. 7 |3
a norm in the Mughal court. Humayun
“ordered all the mirzas and begams to bring one of the main considerations while
gifts” during The Mystic Feast. During a dining.13 He should avoid eating with a man
meeting with Jahāngīr, Thomas Roe narrates ignorant of table manners, and who does not
that the Emperor presented him (Roe) with pick his mouth after meals or while chewing
“a very fatt wild boare” and half a stag, pan. An ideal mirza should consume less
saying that “he (Roe) should eat half the than his capacity, as Akbar did, at least in the
stag... as Jahāngīr had killed this stag public eye to avoid lowering of prestige.14
himself.”11 Also, feeding the hunt to the poor
fits into a familiar pattern through which II. Dining: A conduit for Political
Mughal emperors traditionally bestowed Symbolism?
their beneficence; this was coterminous with
the subcontinental ritual of danam or charity. Every procedural arrangement governing the
empire, from bureaucracy to household was
A sequential study of the norms orbiting a concerted attempt to attain and sustain
dining in the Mughal world remains diplomatic stratagems. A premeditated (or
inadequate without an overview of the two otherwise) usage of ‘symbols,’ as accurate
treatises of Mirzanama. A manual for techniques of ‘embodiments,’ helped to
regulating the code of conduct for mirzas, quantify the complexity and intricate designs
the ideals of Adab and Akhlaq had a direct that underline every political gesture by a
bearing on the political and social simple single expression.15 This part of the
demeanour of the ‘gentleman,’ be it the king paper tries to detect and examine a
or otherwise. A section of the anonymous minuscule fraction of the plethora of
Mirzanama, of the two extant mirzanamas, obscured connotations the empire has
deals with the etiquette governing food and offered to its readers so far.
alcohol consumption. A part of it begins
with seeking the Divine's blessings, instructs In the Mughal paraphernalia, apart from the
every Muslim to invoke ‘Bismillah-ir- multitudinous authority articulation symbols
Rahaman-ir-Rahim’ before partaking a like awrang, jharokha, khutba, the shamsah
morsel, and ends with an ‘Alhamdulillah.’12 emblem, etc., certain subtle gastronomic and
The dastarkhwan of the drinking feast was table praxis rendered an implicit meaning to
to be adorned with a gold-embroidered the process altogether ingeniously. The
table-cloth, pleasing glass bottles and cups, decorum of dining covered orbit
jewel-studded jugs and golden goblets, performances, ranging from the preparation
white linen table cloth, along with white of a table to the kinds of ceramics and
China ware and no handsome assistant crockeries deployed, all of which in the
catering to the guests. The mirza’s humble mirza’i trajectory substantially influenced
meal should be one that greases the least, and figuratively depicted a microcosm of the
geometry and prototype of the empire per se.
11 Thomas Roe, “The Journal of Sir Thomas Roe,” in To begin with, the cooking guides and
The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court Of The manuals were considered articles of prestige
Great Mughal 1615-1619, ed. by William Foster
(Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint Limited, 1967), 250. 13 Aziz Ahmad, “The British Museum Mīrzānāma and
12 “Imam an- Nawabi, Hadith 732,” Riyad as-Salihin the Seventeenth Century Mīrzā in India,” Iran 13
or Gardens Of The Righteous, trans. by Muhammad (1975): 103.
Zafrulla Khan (London: Curzon Press Ltd., 1975), 14 Ibid., 103-104.
149. 15 David F. Lindenfeld, “On System and
Embodiments as Categories for Intellectual History,”
History and Theory 27, no. 1 (1988): 27.

Ijtihad Vol. 7 |4

and representative of normative styles monarch. Several medieval civilisations,
proved by the patronised nomenclature of following the insights of the Quran and
pre-set recipes like the Nurmahali, Jahangiri Hadith prohibited eating and drinking with
etc. variants of khichdi, although most of the the left hand.20 This is evident when Babur
other contents were verbatim copied from was seated on a divan set in the “right hand
the former manuals.16 The khichdi, a place of honour”21 by Badiuzzaman Mirza at
veritably ‘Hindu’ food, was so popular with Herat. During the feasts, the cup was always
the royalty that Jahangir was said to have handed to the king from the right-hand side
consumed only this on the days of only.
abstinence.17 Similarly, Aurangzeb literally
pleads Islam Shah for the transfer of the Another channel with multifarious latent
cooks who had a mastery over all rice
dishes, including khichdi.18 This reflects the meanings were feasts. For instance, ‘The
gradual percolation of Hindu scheme of
food, which soon assimilated flawlessly into Mystic Feast’ under Humayun was not just
the Mughal repertoire. The astonishment
with which the table etiquettes were an affirmation of the Mughal imperial
perceived in Manrique's frolicking
description of a banquet hosted in Shah authority and grandeur, but also a
Jahan’s honour shows that these were
impressive enough to stir a foreign celebration of dynastic survival - for it had
traveller’s impression of Mughals,
“Ambergris, eaglewood, and civet burned in been attended by the descendants of Timur
perfume holders arranged around a fine
white muslin tablecloth with cushions and Chengiz Khan and those from the
encircling it. The dishes were brought in . . .
to the deafening sound of instruments and extended royal family.22 In Abul Fazl’s
the food was served by eunuchs, richly
attired in... trousers of different coloured writings, banquets hosted under the aegis of
silks and white coats of the finest transparent
muslin.”19 All of this is a hint of the Akbar were greater in divine attributes in
immense grandeur and status of the
comparison to those of Gayomars and

Faredun.23 He even got farmans

disseminated for inviting his subjects to the

feasts of Hindu and Christian festivals like

Lohri, Dussehra, Easter etc., held at court,

actions which moved beyond the ideas of

resilience, syncretism and secularism and

helped reinforce alliances, strengthen the

hold over his secular nobility, expedite

relations.24

16 Divya Narayanan, “Cultures of Food and As sources suggest, the imperial kitchen did
not welcome women. Yet, the kitchen
Gastronomy in Mughal and Post Mughal India,” history is fraught with instances of how

(Unpublished Inaugural dissertation, University of

Heidelberg, 2015), 5. 20 “Muhammad Al- Bukhari, The Book of Foods,
verse 5376,” Salih Al- Bukhari, trans. by Muhammad
17 Neha Vermani, “A Beautiful Mess,” Business Muhsin Khan (Saudi Arabia: Darussalam Publishers
and Distributors, 1997), 188.
Standard, November 4, 2017, accessed October 30, 21 Babur, op. cit., 297-299.
22 Lisa Balabanlilar, “The Begims of the Mystic
2019, 23:36, https://wap.business- Feast: Turco-Mongol Traditions in the Mughal
Harem,” The Journal of Asian Studies 69, no.1
standard.com/article/opinion/a-beautiful-mess- (2010): 123-124.
23 Abul Fazl, “Chapter II,” Akbarnama, trans.
117110400002. by Henry Beveridge (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society,
1939), 62-63.
18 “Letters to Prince Mahammad A'azam Shah 24 Ibid., passim.

Bahadur,” Ruka’at-i- Alamgiri or Letters Of

Aurangzebe, trans. Jamshid D. Bilimoria (Bombay:

Cherag Printing Press, 1908), 12.

19 Lizzie Collingham, “Biryani: The Great Mughals,”

Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors (New York:

Oxford University Press, 2006), 13-14.

royal women helped change the course of Ijtihad Vol. 7 |5
dining. Hamida Begum has been credited
with the introduction of dry fruits in the Indian subcontinent due its vitality beyond
halwa. An “Indianisation” was suggested by an appetiser. For a foreigner it was meant to
the first instance of panchrangi dal and sweeten the breath and redden the lips. But,
navratan qorma, two exclusively popular the action of ‘taking up’ a pan, carefully
vegetarian dishes of the Rajput household. prepared with kattha, areca etc., implied the
Nur Jahan’s culinary prowess was acceptance of royal command; and serving
represented by her innovation of rainbow of a pan, prepared with spices, implied the
yoghurt, and the special meat dish prepared conclusion of the feast or the undertaking.27
at the feast in Mandu. Similarly, the usage of Like many other gifts of honour in South
certain ceramics portrayed the extent of their Asia, royal gifts of pan were part of an
importance, some of which detected the asymmetrical symbolic process by which a
presence of poison in the food by changing ruler ‘marked’ the bodies of his subjects;
their colours to certain degrees. According to thus, both subordinating his subjects and
the Risala-i-Sahebiya, Jahanara Begum was honouring them in his polity.
adept at a sag and nan dish made
exclusively for Sufi Hazrat Miyan Meer.25 Narcotics, such as wine, in the Indo-Persian
These examples in collusion are significant cultural ecumene, has had a particularly long
in showing how the gendered hierarchisation history of representing and mediating social
and separation of spaces was fluid; and and cultural intercourse, both materially28
women were stakeholders, if not equal, in and symbolically, in the royal psyche. It had
the empire. far surpassed its association with hedonism
to represent allegories of ‘wine and verse,’ a
In the twilight years of the empire, qahwa cynosure to depict ‘divine reality of the
khanas of Chandni Chowk became rule.’ Mystical intoxication constituted the
quintessential ‘public spaces’ that became wine cup, which was a ‘world in miniature,’
hotspots for socialisation, entertainment and and the wine, an elixir of life, thereby
a platform for men of letters to debate and legitimising the monarch in the
deliberate. These actually resembled cosmological framework of universal and
Western soirees, where eloquent budding immortal rulership.29
poets were patronised and people of no
strata could suppress their desire of visiting Within Ṣūfī discourse, wine symbolised the
these.26 breaking down of barriers that blocked
access to a true experience of the divine.30
Although symbolically assessing particular Drinking parties provided occasions for
food products would be too vast to deal with male bonding over wine and the celebration
in our scope, two necessary products - pan of kinship ties.31 According to Jauhar
and wine - deserve special mention. Pan
became an important political symbol in the 27 David L. Curley, “Voluntary Relationships and
Royal Gifts of Pān in Mughal Bengal,” in Robes of
25 Ellison Banks Findly, “Life in the Women's Honour: Khilʿat in Pre-Colonial and Colonial India,
Palaces,” Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India (New ed. Stewart Gordon (New Delhi: Oxford University
York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 109. Press, 2003), 51.
26 Dargah Quli Khan, “Miscellaneous,” Muraqqa-i- 28 Narayanan, op. cit., 172.
Delhi, trans. Chandra Shekhar and Shama Mitra 29 Meera Khare, “The Wine-Cup in Mughal Court
Chenoy (Delhi: Deputy Publication, 1989), 25. Culture - From Hedonism to Kingship,” The
Medieval History Journal 8, no. 1 (2005): 143.
30 Ibid., 177.
31 Ibid., 189.

Āftābchī’s account, when Kāmrān paid Ijtihad Vol. 7 |6
homage to Humāyūn, “they brought in a
goblet and gave half to the emperor and half and symbols simply blanketed the entity
to Mirzā Kāmrān…”32 This sharing of wine called dining in the Mughal empire,
from a goblet clearly symbolised a ritual rendering it a distinct identity in world
coming together, after Kāmrān’s rebellion cuisine, now ubiquitous. This explains
against Humāyūn had created acrimony cultural syncretism perfectly and aptly
between the two brothers.33 Similarly in justifies the aura it has today.
Babur’s case, a resolve to lead a pious life
by hailing the cause of Holy War (The Bibliography
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of household, army, etc., and consequently,
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Susannah Beveridge. New Delhi: Oriental
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The above unstintingly accentuates food Balabanlilar, Lisa. “Lords of the Auspicious
beyond its desideratum qualities. The Conjunction: Turco-Mongol Imperial
unconnected nomenclature of strikingly Identity on the Subcontinent.” Journal of
similar recipes, dining etiquette and World History 18, no. 1 (March 2007): 1-
metaphorical qualifications has made food 39.
the simplest language of communication
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Throughout the course of its journey, the Mystic Feast: Turco-Mongol Traditions in
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nearly nothing devoid of meanings. A Studies 69, no. 1 (2010): 1-39.
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Adabiyat-i Delli, 1972.
32 Jauhar Aftabchi, “Tadhkiratu i- Waqiat,” in Three
Memoirs of Homayun, ed. and trans by. Wheeler M. Collingham, Lizzie. Curry: A Tale of Cooks
Thackston (California: Mazda Publishers, 2009): 144. and Conquerors. New York: Oxford
33 Ibid., 192. University Press, 2006.
34 Babur, op. cit., 552.
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Drunken Mughal: Islam, Alcohol and Imperial and Royal Gifts of Pān in Mughal Bengal.”
Ambition,” Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 29 In Robes of Honour: Khilat in Pre-Colonial
(2015): 24. and Colonial India, edited by Stewart

Gordon, 50-79. New Delhi: Oxford Ijtihad Vol. 7 |7
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Court Culture - From Hedonism to Press, 1926.
Kingship.” The Medieval History Journal 8,
no. 1 (2005): 143-188. Rukaʿat-i Alamgiri or Letters of Aurangzeb.
Translated by Jamshed H. Bilimoria. Delhi:
Lal, Ruby. Domesticity and Power in the Luzac & Co., 1908.
Early Mughal World. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005. Smith, Stephanie Honchell. “The Story of a
Drunken Mughal: Islam, Alcohol and
Lindenfeld, David F. “On System and Imperial Ambition.” Social History of
Embodiments as Categories for Intellectual Alcohol and Drugs 29 (2015): 4-28.
History.” History and Theory 27, no. 1
(1988): 30- 50. Vermani, Neha. “A Beautiful Mess.”
Monserrate, Fr. The Commentary of Father Business Standard, November 4, 2017.
Monserrate, S.J., on his Journey to the Accessed October 30, 2019, 23:36.
Court of Akbar. Translated by J. S. Hoyland https://wap.business-
standard.com/article/opinion/a-beautiful-
mess-117110400002_1.html.

Ijtihad Vol. 7 |8

Playing 1950: The Personal and Historical in King Princess’s “1950”

Ishani Pant
Department of English, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

This paper proposes to explore the intersection of history and literature through an analysis of
the song ‘1950’ by contemporary artist King Princess. The significance of this analysis lies in the
overlap of gender-queer identities as they existed historically, as they are perceived today, and
the manner in which they are subsequently represented through popular media forms. The issue
of representation arises when we see literature as a means of rendering historical essence as
opposed to historical fact. In line with this characterisation of literature, the poetic sentiment of
the song ‘1950’ explores a homosexual romance through historical and religious metaphors,
making it an exemplary instance for the observation of historical and literary intersection. The
question of language and the history of pop music also plays a role in the understanding of the
song, and its subversive intent. The use of metaphors and symbols allow the artist to reclaim
what might have been a purely historical space through the imposition of a personal narrative.
Therefore, ‘1950’ as an artistic piece must be viewed in the context of American mainstream
history, the history of queer representation, the history of popular music and simultaneously
understood as a deeply subjective response to issues of identity, which paradoxically both rejects
and accepts historical precedents.

I. Introduction which acknowledges authentic sentiment
and prioritises the personal. This paper
“1950” was released in February 2018 by therefore proposes to study “1950” in the
Mikaela Straus, popularly known as King contexts of the personal narrative it contains,
Princess (KP) as her debut single. As a piece in light of American history as a whole,
of queer art, it presents a case of historical under notions of a lesbian history as
essence taking precedence over historical encapsulated in the song, and finally as a
fact. The intersection of history and part of popular culture and music.
literature in the song is permitted through a
use of ambiguity which implies more than it II. The Personal
explicates. Thus, we have a sense of what
the time period entailed, but not a Sexuality and romance are integral to the
categorical retelling. The literary and conceptualisation of queer identity.1
emotional sense of the song is opposed to an
in-depth analysis of the era, and 1 The sexuality of the speaker is established in the
communicates through popular culture; a first verse of the song through a negation of
system of communication that does not rely heterosexuality, while avoiding any clear assertions
on formal academic analyses or of homosexuality. The beloved is referred to using a
intellectualisation of issues. neutral pronoun, “you,” providing no indications of
gender identity until the context is examined. The
This intersection of history and literature listener is made to look beyond the initial
manifests concretely as it creates a space implications, setting the tone for the remainder of the
song.

Consequently, one of the means of tracing a Ijtihad Vol. 7 |9
historical lineage is through shared
emotional experiences of romance and early Byzantine periods3 how castigation of
heartbreak. In “1950,” the themes of homoerotic love between women was
sexuality, romance and loss continue to be associated with social structures of male
expressed through heterosexual language. dominance.4 Early Christian conceptions of
As a result of repression of one’s queer female homoeroticism were similarly
identity, there appear fissures in the influenced. The presumption followed that
romantic experience of the speaker within every sexual partnership must include an
the song; an indication of fissures in the active and a passive member.5 KP retains
larger historical experience of queer these categories in the song, but does so as a
individuals. As far as the form of the song is means of defiance.6
concerned, the lover asks a series of
recurring questions which have no answers In the third verse, the term “pretty,” as an
or explanation. Ultimately, the listener is left adjective, questions the heteronormative
to conclude for themselves the reasons for standards for attractiveness. This is not
this incompleteness, and are perhaps simply a neutral term, and entails a
forewarned of the complex relation between patriarchal perspective of a lesser female
the historical and personal.2 partner in a heterosexual relationship, who is
meant to be inherently passive due to her
Patriarchal labels and tropes are used by femininity. Such characterisation is part of
King Princess to define a homoerotic the gendering in American culture which
relationship because ‘alternate’ and developed in the post-war period. The post-
marginalised sexualities are compelled to be war period saw a need to rehabilitate
understood within the history and language veterans through a return to the male
of the heterosexual mainstream. The phrase domination of the workplace, glorification
“save me” and the lover’s reference to of the masculine war effort, added emphasis
themselves as a “lady” feeds into patriarchal on domestication of women’s roles as
conceptions of the ‘damsel in distress’, mothers and housewives, and a shift away
espousing the hierarchy of chivalry. In her from the popularly “irreverent” female
book Love Between Women - Early
Christian Responses to Female 3 Brooten sees a continuity of “ancient patterns and
Homoeroticism, Bernadette J. Brooteen practices” of lesbian history in later periods, given
concludes, through a study of the that drawing a historical line would act as an artificial
Mediterranean world of the Roman and marker. Thus, her study is relevant to analysis of
contemporary queer work. Bernadette J. Brooten,
2 “I think it’s an analogy. It’s a metaphor in the sense Love Between Women - Early Christian Responses to
that I think I was using the idea of the way that queer Female Homoeroticism (Chicago: University of
people had to hide their love in history, throughout Chicago Press, 1996), 18.
our history. Being a parallel to unrequited love...how 4 Ibid., 24
that looks very similar to the way people once 5 Ibid., 1-2.
couldn’t be gay in public. I wanted to pay tribute to 6 “Isn’t that funny? Because I’m not a lady. It was
that point in history, in an empowering way.” “King supposed to be a joke, that line, because I fall
Princess – 1950,” Genius, February 23, 2018, somewhere in between everything, and I love that. To
accessed January 20, 2020, 21:15, genius.com/King- say, “I’m just a lady” once was an insult. It’s
princess-1950-lyrics. reclaiming it.” Genius, op. cit. KP’s genderqueer
identity is visually depicted in the “1950” music
video in which she has a pencil-moustache and shows
intimacy with a girl, as well as the ‘Talia’ music
video which shows her in bed with a female
mannequin.

independence of the 1930’s and 40’s.7 I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 10
However, KP attempts to use the term in a
reclamatory fashion. presented as a political statement, but rather
as a personal lamentation.
“It goes back to “I’m just a lady.” ...I
have these moments where I feel very It is in the bridge that the personal anxieties
feminine...Then I have these moments of the lover underlying and interspersed
throughout the song are finally openly
that are polar opposites, where I acknowledged.10 The bridge functions as a
definitely feel more masculine and I space for self-exploration and its transience
wanted to play around with that.”8 allows the personal to be strongly expressed
before reconnecting to larger political
“1950” was inspired by the novel The Price themes of queer subjugation. The end of the
of Salt, by Patricia Highsmight. The bridge reverts back to the first verse and re-
historical aspect is referred to through the establishes historical themes.
specific date - “1950.” However, emphasis
is laid on vagueness and lack of precise III. Contextualising: 1900-1960
contextualisation within the song. The
second verse explores ideas of pretence and The linking-up of history or historical
play-acting associated with the given essence to narratives across time, through
historical era. The lover and beloved “play literary expression, creates a history for the
1950,” the word “play” suggesting that queer individual by subverting the highly
sexuality is performative and the heteronormative conception of romance.
homosexual relationship is acted out. The
implication is ironic, and exemplifies the “The denial and erasure of queer lives
pretence of keeping up appearances of and contributions in historical
heterosexuality in a hostile society. Fear is
thus embedded in the historical context of accounts of twentieth-century U.S.
queerness itself. Brooten points out how, culture reflect that culture’s suffusion
in homophobia. Homophobic culture
“Since the extant sources nearly all
express disapproval of sexual love provides ample incentive for non-
between women, fear must have been queer-identified commentators to
a common feature of life: fear of
discovery, fear of disapproval, fear of uphold queer-effacing views,
including the dominant myths that
reprisals on the part of family assert heterosexuals’ exclusive place
members, neighbours, and in cultural and social production and
strangers.”9
reproduction.”11
“Play” further has connotations of a non-
serious identity, a game which is temporary McDonald charts out the context of
and transient. This recurrent anxiety is not American culture in the first half of the 19th
century in his book, American Literature and
7 Gail McDonald, American Literature and Culture
1900–1960 (Singapore: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 10 “The song is about love and fear and the way you
201-202. present yourself in relationships. There’s a lot of
8 Genius, op. cit. uncertainty in the lyrics...it’s these moments of
9 Brooten, op. cit., 16. uncertainty that we all feel when we’re in love.”
Genius, op. cit.
11 Nadine Hubbs, The Queer Composition of
America’s Sound - Gay Modernists, American Music,
and National Identity (California: University of
California Press, 2004), 5.

Culture 1900–1960. The national history of I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 11
America is contextualised through certain
ideals and thought processes like the ideas The era in American History known as the
of the Declaration of Independence12 and ‘Lavender Scare’ can be placed in the same
later developments in the notion of temporal context of the Red Scare and the
“freedom.” He juxtaposes the traditional McCarthy era. On April 27th, 1953
“truths” espoused by Thomas Jefferson with President Eisenhower officially banned
the argument of Justice Felix Frankfurter in homosexual individuals from working in
the 1949 Supreme Court case that the notion federal agencies through ‘Executive Order
of freedom evolves over the course of 10450.’ Private contractors and even global
history and is thus not stagnantly “self- allies were told to enact similar “purges,” on
evident.”13 The influence in American the basis of the idea that homosexuals17
culture of Puritanical religious sentiment, “were a threat to the security of the country
the hostility towards immigrants, the because their immoral lifestyle left them
pressures of the workplace, and notions of a susceptible to blackmail by foreign agents,
specified American value system were being who would presumably induce them to
criticised by American intellectuals and reveal sensitive government information in
artists since the 1920’s.14 exchange for avoiding exposure.”18

Through mass media and advertising, an Despite the pluralism of American society,
image of mainstream American life and the the post-war period experienced an increase
American Dream was conceptualised. The in “racism, isolationism, nativism, and
1950’s saw a family system comprising the puritanism,” evidenced by the revival of the
docile and domesticated wife, the perfect Ku Klux Klan, the occurrence of the “Red
children and the bread-earner patriarch.15 Scare” and anti-immigration policies.19 The
For the queer individual, the American value growth of the African American resistance
system entailed either an active participation has been attributed by McDonald to an
in American beliefs, or an ostracisation from increasing public awareness and a focus on
mainstream society. The post-war period “rights” as a primary meaning of “freedom”
included heightened emphasis on the in post-war America.20 The African
American way of life, a way of life thought American movement for liberation inspired
to be highly threatened by foreign forces other movements later on for women, the
like communism during the Cold War era.16 queer community, ethnic and racial
During this era, events like the Lavender minorities and the disabled. Such
scare linked homosexuality with notions of movements culminated in a focus on the
the Un-American. individual and their rights, while also
maintaining a sense of group identification
12 McDonald refers to the speech of Thomas to demand freedom.21 It is within this social
Jefferson, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, and psychological space that we place a
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that 17 Referred to as “perverts” by the New York Times.
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Josh Howard, “April 27, 1953: For LGBT Americans,
Happiness.” McDonald, op. cit., 167. a Day That Lives in Infamy,” HuffPost, December 7,
13 Ibid. 2017, accessed January 15, 2020, 05:45,
14 Ibid. www.huffpost.com/entry/april-27-1953-lavender-
15 Ibid., 188. scare_b_1459335.
16 Ibid., 189. 18 Ibid.
19 McDonald, op. cit., 150.
20 Ibid., 206.
21 Ibid.

song like “1950” which makes use of the I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 12
history of a community and turns it into
ahistorical experiences in the personal was writing it from the perspective of
sphere. somebody who moved from New York to
LA.”25 Alienation, also becomes an integral
The space of the city in the second verse part of the homosexual lifestyle in the public
encapsulates the sentiment of alienation sphere. Nadine Hubbs writes,
within the public space. “Did you mean it
when you said I was pretty? That you didn't “The most consequential and neglected
wanna live in a city.”22 Starting from the aspect of queer identity, however, was
1930’s onwards, cities were seen as centres
of degeneration where crime, disease and more social than sexual. The social
social ills were rampant. The increase in aspect on this site bore an intensity owing
immigration caused insecurity among those not only to shared minority status, but to
who saw themselves as the real Americans.
“The decade after World War I saw a the unspeakability of this status among
powerful resurgence of suspicion regarding the outsider majority. A freighted
“other” Americans…”23 This sentiment was
carried forward to solidify the notion of a sociality attached, in other words, to
monolithic American way of life. bonds forged by secrecy...”26

Although American thought was shaped by While alienation in romance in the
specific historical events, this structure is heterosexual context is seen in the
similar to structures referred to in the work Petrarchan love tradition, it is replicated in
of Brooten. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the song to display social and linguistic
the household is seen as a domain under the constraints preventing independent lesbian
patriarch’s control, and the relationship expression. Furthermore, alienation in the
between the husband and wife is allegorised 1950’s due to ostracisation, and alienation in
through the relationship of Christ to the a contemporary lesbian relationship are
church. associated in the song as an active attempt at
placing and creating a lesbian history. “I
“Not only does the envisaged love it when…” in the second verse
household have no room for a presumes that the emotionally distant
relationship between women, but such relationship is the only possible form of an
love confounds its very structure. accessible relationship for those stepping out
According to the theology of of the acceptable and heterosexual sphere of
Ephesians, reverence for Christ calls romance.
for hierarchically organized
IV. Religious Imagery
households.”24
The reconceptualisation of religion27 in
The song is, however, also about a personal ‘1950’ in the lesbian context contends with a
form of alienation for KP who links it back
to her own life. “When I was writing that, I 25 Genius, op. cit.
26 Hubbs, op. cit.
22 Genius, op. cit. 27 “I love to play with religious imagery, because its
23 McDonald, op. cit., 171. traditionally being gay and being religious have been
24 Brooten, op. cit., 265-266. oil and water...If I could use that religious imagery to
talk about gay love because, there’s nothing different
between gay people and straight people. I think that
the issue is when these outside elements like religion
and where you’re from come in to play. It is a

long history of Christian and pre-Christian I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 13
ideas of homoeroticism between women.
Religious imagery significantly adds to the V. Popular Culture
symbolism of the song. The phrase “save
me” in the first verse associates gender According to Moody, in her essay
relations to notions of religious salvation. In ‘Feminism and Popular Culture,’ a text must
Romans, Paul28 mainly promotes the idea have heterogeneous appeal to multiple
that all humans are sinners and need cultural identities in order to be “genuinely
salvation, through the figure of Christ the popular,” and thus it is open to contradictory
saviour. Homoeroticism is an example in the and ambiguous interpretations allowing for
Romans of “human behaviour that runs the negotiation of cultural values.31 KP
counter to this universally known decree of writes “1950” with full awareness of the
God,” for Paul it is a sin against “the social space it occupies within the genre of popular
order established by God.”29 music. She has asserted the subversive
nature of the genre in the past, and further
In the pre-chorus, the lover visualises their extends the boundaries of the genre by
“gods” as images of the beloved30, alluding representing the narrative in ambiguous
to the issue of institutionalised religion and terms. “I feel pop music can be really cool
its persecution of the queer community. “My again… I think that pop music has been
gods” signifies the personalisation of what has changed our world for so long, and
religious identity through association with I think it's definitely going to have a
sexuality. There is a subversion of the renaissance much like the rest of our
traditional God of the Judeo-Christian country.”32 Additionally, the analysis of
tradition. However, the system of religious popular culture done by Antonio Gramsci is
power, like heteronormative traditions isn't that popular narratives appeal to majority
entirely done away with and the structural mindsets while allowing for minor outbursts
framework is retained. The multifarious between the lines. In her essay, Moody uses
identity of the queer artist is conflicted, and Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to
the only available traditions are those of understand the role of popular culture in
skewed heteronormative romance and queer establishing a “political consensus, an
oppression. For KP, true subversion involves arrangement whereby the subordinate class
a deep connection with opposing ideologies accepts the worldview of the dominant class
and reclamation of said ideologies, which as common sense.”33 There is a struggle to
inexorably exist historically and socially. shift the hegemony and popular culture
becomes a space “for imagining radical
conscious choice to use religious imagery.” Genius, change,” although the temporary resistance
op. cit. will ultimately give way to the dominant
28 “Paul has held greater authority within Western ideology once again.34 Thus, the entire
culture than any other author I discuss. Paul's presentation of the song is a means of
influence exceeded their own in subsequent centuries. destabilising historical contexts in which we
The most authoritative theologians within Christian are usually accustomed to studying form and
history have commented on his letter to the Romans: content.
Origen, Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and
Karl Barth.” Brooten, op. cit., 192. 31 Nickianne Moody, “Feminism and Popular
29 Ibid., 264. Culture,” in The Cambridge Companion to Feminist
30 “...The whole song’s about being in love with this Literary Theory, ed. Ellen Rooney (New York:
idea of a person and being in love with a figure and Cambridge University Press, 2006), 174-175.
turning the person that you love into more of a shrine 32 Genius, op. cit.
than an actual relationship.” Genius, op. cit. 33 Moody, op. cit.
34 Ibid., 173.

For KP, pop culture is inherently linked to I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 14
queerness. Queer art was an important part
of KP’s socialisation as a child, and her own McDonald in analysing American culture
artistic creation is influenced by her desire writes about how the influence of comic
to inspire the next generation of the queer books, rock-and-roll and movies as part of
community. “I think that pop music has been popular culture became a pressing concern
what has changed our world for so long…”35 with the potential to corrupt values of the
Thus, the need for rejecting narrowly “American Way of Life.” American youth
heteronormative art is felt, as well as the were using pop culture as a “mode of
need for rejecting heteronormative identity separate from the more regimented
language36 and its categorisation of the aspects of adult life in the 1950s.”39
world into a gendered reality. Language is a Meanwhile, within the literary sphere, the
critical part of lesbian history as a field of Beat’s were undertaking a return to the
study.37 The sources used to understand Romantic principles to counter the
lesbian history as part of female history, are institutionalisation of modern poetry and the
based on male records and perceptions, New Critics. Poets like Ginsberg were going
exposing us thereby to “ancient against Eliot’s dictum that poetry must be
conceptualizations of female homoeroticism impersonal by focusing on how poetry
in the context of cultural constructions of the should be “a representation of intense
female.”38 It is therefore the responsibility of feeling and opinion...whatever critique of
popular modes of artistic representation, and society the poem undertakes must be
not of historical studies to reclaim cultural understood to have personal
expression for the queer community. consequences.”40 The “confessional” form
as seen in the works of Plath, Lowell and
35 Jill Gutowitz, “King Princess Is a Genderqueer Pop other American poets contained,
Icon for the Next Generation of Queer Youth,” them.,
June 15, 2018, accessed January 18, 2020, 21:10, “The language of psychoanalysis,
www.them.us/story/king-princess-make-my-bed. coloured by dream imagery and
36 KP has subverted notions of language earlier as
well, by using words like “fag” in ‘You Destroyed recollections of trauma, and
My Heart,’ to assert queer pride. KP spoke about revelatory of feelings and subject
creating a vernacular of her own in which she shares matter that can shock readers, these
a queer language with her friends. “Me and my gay poems differ one from another in
friends are the gickity-gak...There was a reason for nearly every way but this one basic
coded language in history; now it’s become commitment to a kind of fierce truth-
mainstream. What better way to unify our community
than to use language to familiarise yourselves to each telling.”41
other?” Eve Barlow, “Bend the Knee King Princess,
Brooklyn queer pop royalty, is ready for the throne,” They are not overtly political in their themes
Vulture: Fall Preview 2019, September 9, 2019, but carry political undertones in their
accessed January 18, 2020, 19:30, articulation.42 KP appears to be writing
www.vulture.com/2019/09/king-princess-cheap- within this tradition of expression.
queen.html.
37 In a phallocentric world, the homoeroticism of 39 McDonald, op. cit., 191.
women is difficult to define. Male homoeroticism 40 Ibid., 197.
was identified through “sodomitical acts,” while the 41 Ibid.
term used for women who engage in homoerotic acts 42 Ibid.
was ‘tribas’/‘tribades’ (plural) in Greek, and ancient
sources reveal ambiguity with regards to their
orientations and actions. Brooten, op. cit., 24.
38 Ibid., 25.

VI. Conclusion I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 15

“1950” explores lesbian desire through the www.them.us/story/king-princess-make-my-
historical development of homosexuality bed.
and the socially imposed restrictions which
defined individual queer lives. It voices the Howard, Josh. “April 27, 1953: For LGBT
repressed sentiments of the figure of the Americans, A Day That Lives In Infamy.”
lover struggling with a queer love affair on HuffPost, December 7, 2017. Accessed
personal and political levels. The genre, January 15, 2020, 05:45.
form and popular nature of the song create a https://www.huffpost.com/entry/april-27-
means of subversion, and simultaneously 1953-lavender-scare_b_1459335.
undermine the pattern of containment
previously practiced by minority groups in Hubbs, Nadine. The Queer Composition of
the arena of popular music to express America’s Sound - Gay Modernists,
themselves. The contexts of America in the American Music, and National Identity.
1900’s and the evolution of social California: University of California Press,
institutions, like religion and family, provide 2004.
sources for mainstream historical analysis
while the song constantly prioritises the McDonald, Gail. American Literature and
contemporary personal space of the lover. Culture 1900–1960. Singapore: Blackwell
Thus ultimately, the narrative of the song Publishing, 2007.
effectively works toward a reclamation of
the history and politics of queerness at Moody, Nickianne. “Feminism and Popular
multiple junctures, through the use of art. Culture.” In The Cambridge Companion to
Feminist Literary Theory, edited by Ellen
Bibliography Rooney, 172-192. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2006.
Barlow, Eve. “Bend the Knee King Princess,
Genius. “King Princess - 1950.” February
Brooklyn queer pop royalty, is ready for the 23, 2018. Accessed January 20, 2020, 21:15.
genius.com/King-princess-1950-lyrics.
throne.” Vulture: Fall Preview 2019,
Straus, Mikaela (King Princess). “1950.”
September 9, 2019. Accessed January 18, Youtube (video), February 22, 2018, 03:45.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNxWTS25Tb
2020, 19:30. k&feature=emb_logo.

www.vulture.com/2019/09/king-princess- Genius. “King Princess “1950” Official
Lyrics and Meaning|Verified.” Youtube
cheap-queen.html. (video), May 29, 2018, 04:56.
https://in.video.search.yahoo.com/search/vid
Brooten, Bernadette J. Love Between Women eo?p=1950+king+princess+meaning#id=1&
- Early Christian Responses to Female vid=4ec74650e3a1afa4a1d6e495c271e93c&
Homoeroticism. Chicago: University of action=view.
Chicago Press, 1996.

Gutowitz, Jill. “King Princess Is a
Genderqueer Pop Icon for the Next
Generation of Queer Youth.” them., June 15,
2018. Accessed January 18, 2020, 21:10.

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 16

Seats of Symbolism:
How the Shift from Kyoto to Tokyo Reconfigured Tokugawa Power

Divya Godbole
Department of Sociology, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

While the titular emperor of Japan continued to rule from Kyoto till the Meiji Restoration, the de
facto head of the nation—the Tokugawa Shogun—decided on the city of Edo or modern-day
Tokyo as his seat of power. This move in 1600 CE changed the sleepy town of Edo into a
metropolis. The decision to not rule from Kyoto, a town with historical and traditional sanction,
reflected the state policy that the Tokugawa Shogunate was to undertake in subsequent years.
The symbolism associated with capitals of territorial domains colours the dynamics of urban-
planning and urbanism. The contours of politics are embossed upon the city that acts as the
nucleus of power. The shift in the de facto seat of power from Kyoto to Tokyo allows for an
investigation of parallel developments of two cities that were not only functionally different but
were also contradictory in character. This paper examines the effects that the ideology held by
the Shogunate at Tokyo had on the interface between the city’s cultural and physical space.
Conversely, it would also look at how the city, as an embodiment of those ideals, endorsed
Tokugawa rule.

I. Introduction where the individual is not seen as having
been induced to behave in certain ways by
The city is the epicentre of commerce and the two drivers of the city’s existence - the
administration. It emerges at the intersection economy and the polity. The capital city
of the economy and polity. As a because of its political importance, by
geographically constricted space, cities tend default, becomes commercially viable as
to adopt the character of both the economy well. Those in power use the spatiality of
and the state that operate through it. But the city to further their own standing in the
looking beyond the city’s functionality, one imagination of their people through
must comprehend it in its symbolism. It symbolically important acts.
became imperative to choose a kind of city
that best represented the duality between its The shift of de facto power from Kyoto to
supposedly independent urban character and Tokyo demonstrated a conscious effort to
factors that construct it. The capital city reimagine the texture of power in medieval
provides the most apt illustration of the Japan. Officially, the Japanese capital did
same. not shift from Kyoto to Tokyo till the Meiji
Restoration in 1869, when the Emperor
Does the capital foster its own unique thought it fit to retain the functionality of
culture? The example of Kyoto and Tokyo Tokyo’s infrastructure. But here we look at
as two Japanese capitals affirms this the symbolic shift that occurred in 1603
proposition. Cultural formations in the city when Tokugawa Ieyasu established his base
appear to form organically through social in the town of Edo and created conditions
interaction only in an analytical framework for its transformation into one of the largest

metropolises in the world. Kyoto continued I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 17
to remain the capital city and the residence
of the Emperor of Japan, but was cannot be mistaken as a dilution of the
systematically stripped of its functions that importance of military power.
lent it the status of being a seat of power.
The emperor was reduced to a figurehead Recalibration of mindsets was accompanied
and his capital followed in his footsteps. by a recalibration of space. Tokugawa values
were projected upon the Shogunate’s empire
After the victory at the Battle of Sekigahara even if they were not consonant with those
and having outlived his companions, held by the imperial court. Rather, they were
Tokugawa Ieyasu was in a position to enforced more because of their separate
negotiate for a military capital for his and character. The word shogun translates as
his retainers’ protection.1 This city was Edo, ‘general’ and the Shogunate system is
about five hundred kilometres east of the hinged upon the military prowess of those
imperial capital Kyoto. The relative who are at the helm. The daimyos, or feudal
autonomy afforded by the isolation and lords, were the knights’ counterparts from
underdevelopment of the region surrounding medieval Europe. Rather than being
Edo was conducive to the Tokugawa answerable to the emperor, they were under
Shogunate’s aim of restructuring a city in the control of the shogun who was also once
the image of its values and power. The a powerful daimyo. The daimyo maintained
Shogunate was particular about protocol, their own han or domains, and were
was superstitious about architecture, and supplemented militarily by the samurai.3
was fiercely protective of Japan’s assumed The two parallel systems of power
cultural superiority.2 These ideals distribution—one stemming from the
engendered by the administration shaped the imperial court and one from the shogun’s
way Tokyo emerged as a leading city in military leadership—were always in
Japan that reflected the military, economic, contradiction.
and artistic might of the Shogunate that
allowed it to emerge as a rival to the As opposed to emerging Edo, the much
historically important Kyoto. older Kyoto4 had been the home of Japanese
art and culture, especially the fields of
II. Shift from Imperial to Military Power theatre and aesthetics. It upheld the values of
the Heian period of classical Japan, held in
Before the Tokugawa Shogunate and during high esteem because of its religious and
the Warring States period, the reiteration of artistic development. Kyoto was also one of
Japanese identity was accomplished through the first few places in Japan to accept
military excursions abroad. The lack of Buddhism and allowed it to co-exist with the
programs for capturing territory elsewhere
during the Tokugawa Shogunate though 3 Ibid.
4 Kyoto’s status in the Tokugawa Shogunate cannot
1 Conrad Totman, “Tokugawa Ieyasu,” Britannica be understood independent of the institution of the
Encyclopaedia, August 16, 2019, accessed July 16, imperial household, although that tends to change in
2020, 11:35, britannica.com/biography/Tokugawa- the 20th century. Kyoto’s equivalence with the
Ieyasu#ref7326. emperor himself is presented in the values and
2 Elise Tipton, “Tokugawa Background: The ideal occupations most exalted here - traditional
and the real,” Modern Japan: A Social and Political occupations such as fishing and rice farming as well
History (New York: Routledge, 2016), 24. as the familial quality of village life, which obliquely
confer legitimacy to the ruler. Hugh Smythe, “The
Japanese Emperor System,” Social Research 19, no.
4 (1952): 491.

indigenous Shintoism.5 The I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 18

commercialisation of kabuki theatre, the which today makes up Tokyo’s commercial
district, was used by the Shogunate as a
need for the geisha culture in a trading constant reminder of its all-powerful
existence through the proclamation of edicts
centre, and the patronage provided by the or through public punishments in its square.9

shogun to artists such as Hiroshige According to Screech10, the newly
established Shogunate co-opted Mt. Fuji to
cultivated a cultural scene in Tokyo as well. fit its own purposes. A popular motif in
Japanese paintings and scroll art, Mt. Fuji
III. Edo as the Eastern Capital was a symmetrical mountain till its eruption
in 1706. Till this change in appearance,
Tokyo or Edo quite literally means eastern artists patronised by the Shogunate were free
capital (to- east, kyo-capital). As part of the to be ambiguous in their perspective of the
Kanto region, it fell under the territory of mountain. They could manipulate the vista
Hideyoshi after his victory at the battle of to let the viewer interpret whether the
Odawara in 1590.6 In order to undermine mountain was being depicted from Kyoto’s
Ieyasu’s territorial powers, Hideyoshi viewpoint or Edo’s.11 The eruption initiated
offered to exchange the land captured from a shift in the portrayal of Mt. Fuji from the
the Hojo clan with lands controlled by Kyoto side to the Tokyo side. The
Ieyasu in the west.7 Despite such apparently inconsequential move was a
underhandedness, Tokugawa Ieyasu used the subtle but incisive way of showing the
Kanto region to his convenience by setting Japanese citizens who were in-charge. The
up base at Edo. imperial capital may have been in Kyoto but
the legitimacy accorded by the appropriation
A. Spatial Iconography of a powerful cultural symbol by the
Shogunate was testament to its role as the
Timon Screech8 says that the civic actual rulers of Japan.
iconography and architectural layout of the
eastern capital was in tandem with the image Similarly, Screech12 points out the attention
that the Shogunate wanted to project of itself to traditional spatial configurations
to its new citizens. It undertook building borrowed from Chinese architecture that
projects that drove home the omnipresence ensured that the harmful flow of demonic
of the Shogunate administered State as energy did not pervade the city boundaries.
opposed to the powers of the emperor. The The city was also segregated into the left
radius around the Edo castle consisted of and the right in congruence with the
Nihonbashi, a bridge whose name can be structure of Nara or Heijo-kyo, one of
translated as the ‘bridge of Japan.’ The Japan’s ancient capitals. Edo attempted to
government redirected all roads branching emulate Nara, which was laid out in an
off towards the provinces to begin at imitation of the human body, with the head
Nihonbashi. This site in the backyard of the (Edo castle) at the top and the heart on the
castle acted or at least hoped to act as the
physical nucleus of Japan. Nihonbashi, 9 Marcia Yonemoto, “Nihonbashi: Edo’s Contested
Centre,” East Asian History no. 17/18 (1999): 57.
5 Otis Cary, “Kyoto,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, May 10 Screech, op. cit., 74.
10, 2017, accessed July 16, 2020, 11:40, 11 Ibid.
britannica.com/place/Kyoto-Japan. 12 Ibid., 75.
6 Totman, op. cit.
7 Ibid.
8 Timon Screech, “Encoding ‘The Capital’ in Edo,”

Extreme-Orient Extreme-Occident no. 30 (2008): 76.

left. The city was divided into two vertical I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 19
halves with the right side (from the viewer’s
perspective) more sacred than the left since development in 18th and 19th century Edo-
it housed the heart or its modern equivalents that of Mini Fujis. Edo’s physical proximity
in the form of important government offices. to Mt. Fuji created a strong cult around the
Therefore, the departments on the left (from mountain and its divinity that was not in
the castle or the king’s point of view) were conjunction with the Confucian values of the
held in higher esteem and were functionally Tokugawa Shogunate.14 Mini Fujis were
more important for the regime. replicas of the original mountain and were a
means of subverting norms surrounding the
The dominance of the sun in Japanese visitation to Mt. Fuji that was restricted for
culture is evident in its name - Nippon, women. All sections of Japanese society
which translates to ‘origins of the sun.’ The could take a pilgrimage to the Mini Fujis
name also ties in with the euphemism often and Edo’s diverse population readily
used for Japan – the land of the rising sun. embraced these changes.
Sun worship in Japan dates back to the
origins of the goddess Amaterasu, who was Hiroshige, known for his ‘Hundred Famous
also the goddess of the sun and everything Views of Edo,’ was a master of Japanese
bright. The modern Japanese flag also prints in the 19th century. Perhaps one of the
symbolises the sun. Given the prominent most famous artists of the period, Hiroshige
representation of the sun it comes as no did not completely abandon the depiction of
surprise that the easterly direction is also the Mini Fujis but he certainly maintained a
considered auspicious by association. It can sense of “propriety and distance”15 while
therefore be interpreted that the more painting them. The Shogunate had no part to
eastward one goes on in Japanese territory, play in the shaping of Hiroshige’s personal
the more sacred and closer to god will one perspective, but being a man of minor
be. In this aspect, Tokyo’s popular samurai status, it was in his interest to
understanding as the ‘eastern capital,’ and its maintain the old-world order that was being
location east of Kyoto, assisted in its questioned by the rise in cults.
elevation to a city that had the sanction of
divinity. Katsushika Hokusai, another print-maker
who has gained most recognition in the
B. Prints as Extensions of West, was also a product of his times.
Political Authority Through his upbringing in Edo and through
interaction with Dutch traders, he was able
The art form of the ukiyo-e produced several to cultivate his own style of ukiyo-e that
new dimensions of Edo that were majorly employed multiple perspectives. The
citizen impressions. Various artists not ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji,’ including the
associated with the court showed the city in ‘Great Wave off Kanagawa,’ simultaneously
its resplendence. Nevertheless, the artists depicted an increased awareness of Japanese
also implicitly presented a sterilised version topography (that betrayed a nationalist
of Edo that was consonant with Tokugawa interest) and used Dutch artistic methods.16
values. Takeuchi13 exposes an esoteric
Hundred Famous Views of Edo,” Impressions no. 24
13 Melinda Takeuchi, “Making Mountains: Mini (2002): 25.
Fujis, Edo Popular Religion, and Hiroshige's 14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., 44
16 Christine Guth, “Hokusai's Great Waves in
Nineteenth Century Japanese Visual Culture,” The
Art Bulletin no. 93 (2011): 470.

Such a fusion was in opposition to the I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 20
isolationist position of the Shogunate.
with its own while maintaining the
IV. Conclusion: Contemporary geographical integrity of the previous era.

Relevance and Continued As a microcosm of the Japanese success in
balancing traditionalism and modernity,
Traditions Kyoto has proven its mettle. It continues to
be a site of pilgrimage for Buddhism and is
The separation of Tokyo and Kyoto’s status also home to the headquarters of Nintendo-
as capital cities and their individual urban the video game manufacturer. It successfully
character is difficult to achieve. Most straddles the line between older and newer
development in these cities, be it in the values.
establishment of mints or in the construction
of temples, was geared towards the purpose The 20th and 21st century saw a resurgence
of political domination. The cities in in the importance of Kyoto as a melting pot
themselves were political tools because of of traditionalism and modernity while Tokyo
their special position in the nation. The shift transformed into a large metropolis. What
from Kyoto to Tokyo was initiated with a was unprecedented though was that Kyoto
symbolic colonisation of popular notions but and Tokyo would be cities of almost equal
was eventually converted into a real status—for different reasons—in the
dichotomy in the late 20th century. Modern era.

Meiji Tokyo, ironically, continued to operate Bibliography
using the topography that had been set-up by
the Shogunate. The Imperial Palace, which Cary, Otis. “Kyoto.” Encyclopaedia
now houses the ruins of the Edo Castle, is Britannica, May 10, 2017. Accessed July 16,
still aligned with landmarks that were of 2020, 11:40. britannica.com/place/Kyoto-
importance in the Shogunate period. When Japan.
the railway line was constructed in Tokyo,
its first station was located in the promenade Coaldrake, William. “Authority in
overlooking the palace. The Tokyo Station Architecture.” Architecture and Authority in
of the subway network is only a couple of Japan, 1-16. London: Routledge, 1996.
kilometres away from Nihonbashi.
Similarly, the second station of the railroads Guth, Christine. “Hokusai's Great Waves in
was established at Ginza, the minting district Nineteenth Century Japanese Visual
that is still Tokyo’s commercial district. The Culture.” The Art Bulletin no. 93 (2011):
relationship between architecture and 468-485.
authority has special importance in the case
of cities planned primarily as government Screech, Timon. “Encoding ‘The Capital’ in
capitals.17 Just as the Tokugawa Shogunate Edo.” Extreme-Orient Extreme-Occident no.
had superimposed its power onto physical 30 (2008): 71-96.
locations within Edo, the Meiji government
replaced the Shogunate’s symbols of power Smythe, Hugh. “The Japanese Emperor
System.” Social Research 19, no. 4 (1952):
485-493.

17 William Coaldrake, “Authority in
,” Architecture and Authority in Japan (London:
Routledge, 1996), 7.

Takeuchi, Melinda. “Making Mountains: I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 21
Mini Fujis, Edo Popular Religion, and
Hiroshige's Hundred Famous Views of Totman, Conrad. “Tokugawa Ieyasu.”
Edo.” Impressions no. 24 (2002): 24-47. Britannica Encyclopaedia, August 16, 2019.
Accessed July 16, 2020, 11:35.
Tipton, Elise. “Tokugawa Background: The britannica.com/biography/Tokugawa-
ideal and the real.” Modern Japan: A Social Ieyasu#ref7326.
and Political History, 1-21. New York:
Routledge, 2016. Yonemoto, Marcia. “Nihonbashi: Edo’s
Contested Centre.” East Asian History no.
17/18 (1999): 49-71.

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 22

Conjugality in the Matrilineal World:
Placing Ammaveedus in the Historical and Social Landscape of Modern

Travancore

Vinaya K
Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

This paper attempts to throw light on the lives of the consorts of Travancore maharajas and their
children. Despite enjoying considerable social and economic privileges during the day, these
individuals never made it into mainstream history. Reconstructing the history of the Travancore
royal house by incorporating members of ammaveedus will provide a clearer and wider story,
connecting the royal family with the larger social relations that existed outside the walls of the
palace and consequently placing them in the macro social life of Travancore. The ammaveedus
and the members of these fabulously rich houses are a piece of the puzzle yet to be fixed in order
to get a complete picture of the royalty, aristocracy and social relations of a bygone era.
Through this paper an effort has been made to explore the emotions constituting the conjugal
relationships of that time, and to rethink the presumed normality and universality of the
constitution of domestic and private life all over the world.

The private lives of the Mughals and argument that the absence of women in
Travancore maharajas are not similar, given sources did not imply a lack of their agency
the difference in time and space, as well as is significant in understanding gender
due to the matrilineal system.1 While in the relations, including that of the period
Mughal tradition of inheritance, the kings’ concerning this paper.3
wives were queens and children were
princes and princesses; in Travancore, the This paper seeks to reconstruct the history of
king’s sister was the queen and nephews and the modern Travancore royal family, from
nieces were princes and princesses. the beginning of the reign of Karthika
However, Ruby Lal’s insights on the fluid Thirunal Rama Varma in 17584 to the end of
“meanings of motherhood, wifehood, love, Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma’s in 1924.
marriage, filial relationships and sexuality”2 Over these 153 years (excluding the regency
due to different historical and cultural of Gowri Lakshmi Bayi and Gowri Parvati
experiences is worth exploring in every Bayi), it is interesting to trace the
historical context. More importantly, her constitution and evolution of the institution

1 This paper is inspired by the book ‘Domesticity and 3 Ibid., 1-23.
Power in the Early Mughal World’ by historian Ruby 4 The history of modern Travancore starts from the
Lal. Her work focuses on the history of Mughal reign of Marthanda Varma. Since the paper focuses
private life in the time of the first three Mughal on ammaveedus, the time period taken starts from
emperors. The Persian traditions of the Mughals were Karthika Tirunal’s reign. The history of ammaveedus
entirely different from the practices followed by the took a new and ‘modern’ turn during his lifetime, not
royalty of Travancore. in Marthanda Varma’s.
2 Ruby Lal, “Introduction,” Domesticity and Power in
the Early Mughal World (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2005), 5.

of marriage among the maharajas.5 By I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 23
incorporating the stories of the consorts and
children of the kings, who stood at the I. Reconstructing the History of
fringes of royalty6, this paper tries to Ammaveedus - Sources Employed
complete the grand picture of the life of
nobility and royalty of Travancore. The There is a large corpus of secondary sources,
domestic life of a Travancore maharaja had both fiction and non-fiction, on Travancore
only included his matrilineal kin; while the history. It includes biographies of various
consorts and children formed his private life, rulers and important texts commissioned by
not domestic life.7 Therefore, a historian has the state, amongst others. The state
to search outside the palace walls for the commissioned texts, such as the state
Ammachies, Thampis and Kochammas, as manuals (Aiya, 1906 and Pillai, 1940), are
they were outsiders to the palace in the more or less an administrative account that
matrilineal system.8 give a general view of Travancore - its
geology, people, language, caste, history,
Drawing from the underlying assumptions in different departments of the state, etc. Books
Lucien Febvre’s essay, ‘Sensibility and like ‘The Native Life in Travancore’
History: How to Reconstitute the Emotional (Mateer, 1883) and ‘The Land of the Conch
Life of the Past,’ the paper will attempt to Shell’ (Blanford, 1906) provide valuable
delve into and analyse emotional histories. It micro-details on the everyday life of the
is always a question, whether we will ever natives, but as understood by outsiders. Both
be able to know what the dead felt, as Mateer and Blanford were foreigners related
opposed to what has been recorded as they to Christian missionaries, who worked in
felt. Nevertheless, the history of emotions Travancore and were trying to make sense of
will help us make history a discipline richer this foreign land and its customs.
and wider in scope. Considering the little
amount of private papers recovered of Blanford found the marriage customs among
people who held power, it is a herculean task the Naris “very revolting”9 and reported that
to rebuild the emotional life of the past. “education has greatly modified this bad
Here, an effort has been made to discover practice.”10 As a historical source, these
what must be the feelings and thoughts of texts can only be taken with a pinch of salt.
the people under discussion. The biographies referred to in this paper,
namely ‘The Ivory Throne’ (Pillai, 2015)
5 This paper only focuses on the marital customs and and ‘New Light on Swathi Thirunal’ (Raja,
relations of the male members, especially the kings of 2014), were more informative as they
the royal family, not the female members. depicted the ruler’s personal life as well. R.
6 Ammaveedus are the family houses of women P. Raja’s work provided considerable
whom the kings of Travancore marry. information on Swathi Thirunal’s marital
7 R.P. Raja, in discussion with the author, life based on huzur accounts. The data
Thiruvananthapuram, July 2, 2019. included in this research paper has been
8 Ammachi, Thampi and Kochamma were the titles largely collected from the Mathilakam
given to the king’s wife, son and daughter records and huzur accounts11, found in the
respectively.
9 Augusta Blanford, “Chapter 4,” Land of the Conch
Shell (London: Church of England Zenana
Missionary Society, 1903), 39.
10 Ibid., 44.
11 Mathilakam records and huzur accounts are the
official records of the then Travancore government,
used mainly to record economic transactions.

form of royal writs (neetukal and I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 24
thiratukal), in the book ‘Charithrathinte
Edukal’ (Folios from History) by Kizhakke “When such adoptions were done
Madathil Govindan Nair and Dr. B. Pushpa. some of the very close relatives were
also adopted, partly for elevating the
Since the paper largely focuses on the status of the girl’s family as a whole,
private life of the royalty, interviews with and partly to give a sense of security
the members of ammaveedus helped to get a
clearer picture of their lives than the archival for the girl in her new
data collected from regional and central surroundings.”13
archives in Thiruvananthapuram. Interviews
with local historians and journalists gave a As recorded in the palace manuals, the
more neutral, nuanced and an academic marriage ceremony was known as ‘Pattum
vantage point to the topic under discussion. parivattavum kodupp’ (the bestowal of
Though not entirely reliable, conversations clothes). The consort was given the title of
with elders in the town helped to reconstruct ‘Pana Pilla’ after the ceremony. R.P. Raja
the popular perception and form an further describes, “The marriage ceremony
alternative narrative of recorded history. The was a very simple affair. It does not involve
secondary sources were accessed from Sree any Vedic rites. The king gives ‘Pattum
Chitra Library, Vanchiyoor, which is home parivattavum’ (clothes) which consisted of
to a large number of old, rare books and silk and brocaded cotton clothes on a silver
manuscripts, and the KCHR Library. plate on an auspicious moment, prescribed
by the astrologers, in the presence of
II. On Ammaveedus: What the relatives and some invited guests.”14 In an
Recorded History Tells Us interesting account, we find the marriage
ceremony of Utradom Tirunal Marthanda
The history of modern Travancore starts Varma narrated in his own words, in his
with battles that preceded and followed biography:
Marthanda Varma’s succession to the throne.
The brave prince initiated a new era in “Ceremonies were short and simple.
Travancore history. But, the modern history As in the case of most of the events in
of ammaveedus begins from the reign of his our lives, the oil lamp was the witness
successor, Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma. to the nuptials. The only ritual that I
He shifted the capital from had to carry out was to accept from
Padmanabhapuram, in present day Tamil Radha Devi a tray laden with gold,
Nadu, to Thiruvananthapuram. This great silver and flowers, while I gave her a
ancestor married from four houses situated
in different places in Tamil Nadu, namely tray containing the traditional
Nagarcoil, Vadassery, Arumana and wearing of the malayalee bride. The
Tiruvattar. The tradition thereafter allowed whole ritual was performed in the
the ruling king of Travancore to marry only presence of elders and close relatives
a ‘Thankachi.’12 If a girl did not belong to of the bride and the groom. Tempered
one of these ammaveedus, she was adopted with sobriety, the bestowal of Pattum
to one: parivattavum symbolized the wedding
rituals of a Kshatriya. A garden party
12 A title given to girls born in one of these four
ammaveedus. 13 R.P. Raja, “Personal Life,” New Light on Swathi
Thirunal (Thiruvananthapuram: Centre for
Interdisciplinary Studies, 2006), 234.
14 Ibid., 236.

was followed by a simple banquet at I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 25
Kanakakunnu Palace.”15
(the children) can never become a member
The banquet following the marriage of the royal family of Travancore…the
ceremony must have been a later addition in children of the male members of the royal
the 20th century. Usually after the marriage, family are just ‘blood relations’ of the royal
the bride and groom visited the family, that is all.”18 Not only in court and
Padmanabhaswamy Temple to seek the the palace, but such differentiations
blessings of Lord Padmanabha. Thereafter, governed the personal sphere as well. Kings
the consort would continue to live at her could never touch the food prepared by their
natal home, with her parents and siblings, wives. Certain other constraints have been
visiting the maharaja only on certain days of enumerated upon by Pillai in his work,
the month. “When the maharajas’ daughters were
married, the fathers could never attend the
“The Ammachi is not a member of the ceremonies – they were his offspring but
royal household, and in nowise they were not his matrilineal kin. And when
a maharaja died, his children were not
associated with the royal court. She permitted at the funeral…as late as the
has neither official nor social position 1940s; wives of royal men were not
at court, and cannot even be seen in entertained at feasts.”19
public with the ruler whose wife she
is. Her issue occupy the same position These individuals, who stood at the outskirts
of royalty, have been conveniently forgotten
as herself, and the law of Malabar and ignored in the grand political narrative
excludes them from all claims to of the royal family. The matrilineal system
of inheritance followed by the Travancore
public recognition.”16 royal family (and by all the royal families of
Kerala and the upper caste groups) ensured
Samuel Mateer has described the position of that the first loyalty of a sovereign is
Ammachies as that of a mere outsider, who towards his territory and his family. And this
is “just the mother of His Highness’ family was his mother’s family, which
children.”17 consisted of his mother, siblings, nephews
and nieces. The children of the king were
Caste played a significant role in forming also supposed to be loyal towards his
such rigid norms. The male members of the mother’s family and not his father’s family
royal family married ‘Nair’ girls. The (royal family). Therefore, the reality remains
offspring of such a union could never be that they have never been recorded enough,
elevated to the status of a Kshatriya - they for the matrilineal society never granted
would continue to hold their mother’s caste, importance to marital relationships.20
that is Nair. “Because of the rigid caste
customs which prevailed in those days, they 18 Raja, op.cit., 234.
19 Pillai, op.cit., 228.
15 C. S. Uma Maheswari, Trabancore, the Footprints 20 According to the customs and traditions of that
of Destiny - My Life and Times Under the Grace of time, this was completely normal. This was before
Lord Padmanabha (Delhi: Konark Publishers, 2010), the time Victorian sensibilities redesigned the way
173. Malayalis looked at family and marriage.
16 Manu Pillai, “The Ammachies of Travancore,” The
Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin:
Tales from Indian History (Chennai: Westland
Publications, 2019), 226.
17 Ibid.

III. Beyond Recorded History: I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 26
Amalgamating Emotions and
Experiences the privileges enjoyed by the consorts, based
on their relationship with kings.
Customs and practices enshrined in the texts
and rule books were not always A more personal side of the story would
emphatically practiced. For human life is far reveal that the rajas were also emotionally
more colourful and real, especially when it engaged, and that the place held by emotions
comes to human relationships. and sentiments were no less important than
Reconstructing lives based purely on what logic and reason. Lucien Febvre has
has been written and recorded would surely observed that “emotions became a sort of
not give a complete picture, because on institution. They were controlled in the same
numerous occasions sources acted as a tool way as ritual.”23 The information in state
for hiding human emotions and projecting records depicted this institutionalised form
final decisions and achievements of emotions. Therefore, it is essential to
accomplished after successfully (or observe the acts and behaviour that fell
unsuccessfully) overcoming such emotions. outside the line, especially in a social
structure that “looked upon the emotions as
A huge number of archival materials show a disturbance, as something dangerous,
the privileges bestowed upon ammaveedus troublesome and ugly.”24
and its members. Mathilakam records have
accounts of financial aids, police protection, Visakham Thirunal, who ruled Travancore
tax exempted lands and travel expenses to from 1880 to 1885, is an example of clear
ammaveedus. Mansions built for consorts deviance. He found solace from court
and their family members, situated in the intrigues in his private life. Breaking the
West Fort area in Thiruvananthapuram, still protocols, Visakham Thirunal attended his
hold testimony to the aristocratic life led by daughter’s wedding. In 1885, when he was
them. Huzur accounts, found in neetus on his deathbed, he sent for his consort and
(royal writs), have details of adoptions to children to see them for the last time.25
ammaveedus, expenses incurred for Pattum Another example of such ‘unusual’
parivattavum, etc. A huzur account from behaviour is that of Visakham Thirunal’s
1006 M.E (1830-1831) explains the lifestyle nephew, Mulam Thirunal. He was ‘married’
of Ayikkutti Narayani Pilla, Swathi to Ananthalakshmi of Nagarcoil ammaveedu
Thirunal’s wife, “Having become the in 1879, who died soon after giving birth to
consort of Swathi Thirunal, Narayani had his child in 1882. In a letter written in 1882,
become a lady of rich aristocratic house and he wrote, “The loss is an irreparable one and
her lifestyle also changed.”21 R. P. Raja has it is more than I could bear with all my
also cited the accounts that showed the fortitude.”26 His son, Nagarcoil Sri
amounts incurred by her on a monthly basis
towards ‘danams’ (gifts to Brahmins) and 23 Lucien Febvre, “Sensibility and History: How to
deekshas for priests, with an additional Reconstitute the Emotional Life of the Past,” in
expenditure for the cost of clothes presented French Studies in History, Volume 1, ed. Maurice
by her for Onam.22 Thus, we find records of Aymard et al. (New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited,
1988), 102-121.
21 Raja, op.cit., 236-237. 24 Ibid.
22 Ibid. 25 Nandini Harikrishnan, in discussion with the
author, Thiruvananthapuram, July 6, 2019.
26 Letter from Mulam Thirunal to Valiya Koil
Thampuran, dated April 3, 1882. Manu Pillai, “The
Second Favorite,” The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of

Narayanan Thampi, grew up not in his I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 27
maternal home, but with his father, at the
palace - an instance happening for the very intimacy, which is clearly visible from
first time in the history of Travancore. The Visakham Thirunal’s times.30
maharajas often visited Rameswaram with
his wife and children. It is said that this trip IV. Conclusion
was for leisure as well as for religious
purposes. The sons, since they were not History is far more complicated than what it
allowed in the funeral of their father, appears to be. It is problematic to view it as
performed certain rituals similar to a monolithic entity. While a number of
irrikkapindam (rites and rituals related to decisions were taken by a group of people
death performed for a living person), beside sitting around tables, on the basis of ‘logic’
the holy waters in Rameswaram. The father and ‘reason’; some are more intuitive in
and son took holy dip in this water as nature, driven by adrenaline and innate
well.27 human emotions. Both types of historical
acts are important for history, for they make
All these customs point to the significance the present we live in. What is/was hidden
held by conjugal relationships in a from the public eye will give clues on a
matrilineal setup. These changes have also subject that will help us get a more nuanced
been attributed to the coming of ‘modernity,’ sense of history.
or more appropriately Victorian sensibilities,
in the Malayali’s intellectual and public In the case of the people who belonged to
sphere. In her book, ‘There Comes Papa,’ G. the ammaveedus, being outsiders to the
Arunima writes about Raja Ravi Varma’s court and palace did not make them
much celebrated painting (There Comes outsiders to history. They were active
Papa) as a “clarion call for the end of participants in the social life of those days
matriliny.”28 According to Arunima “the and still remain indelible integrants of the
absent yet approaching papa signifies the popular stories and histories of the locality.
crisis in Nair matriliny in the late nineteenth It is unfortunate that this still remains an
century. The fact that Ravi Varma chose to unexplored arena, since “the ammachies
celebrate conjugal domesticity and the were strong, accomplished women”31 and
nuclear family at a time when these were the contributions made by thampies32 are
comparatively unknown amongst large also worth remembering. A history of the
sections of the matrilineal population reveals house of Travancore without such stories
his growing patrilineal sensibilities.”29 Thus, will only be an incomplete and partial
the contact with British ‘modernity’ and history, and it would be a grave injustice and
‘morality’, as well as English education,
opened new definitions for family and 30 Although this can only be viewed as the most cited
reason, there can be several other explanations for
the House of Travancore (Noida: HarperCollins such transforming intimate relations; and thus, is
Publishers, 2015), 106. open to further research and investigations.
27 Prathap Kizhakkemadam, in discussion with the 31 Pillai, 2019, op.cit., 229.
author, Thiruvananthapuram, July 6, 2019. 32 The first bus transport service in Travancore
28 G. Arunima, “Introduction,” There Comes Papa: (Commercial Transport Corporation Ltd.) was set up
Colonialism and the Transformation of Matriliny in by A. Narayanan Thampi, the son of Visakham
Kerala, Malabar, C. 1850-1940 (New Delhi: Orient Thirunal Rama Varma. The contributions made by
Longman, 2003), 1. Sundara Lakshmi, a dancer from Tanjore and Swati
29 Ibid. Thirunal’s third wife, in the field of dance is also
commendable.

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 28

disservice towards this ancient land, Maheswari, C. S. Uma. Trabancore, the
reverberating with tales and mysteries. Footprints of Destiny - My Life and Times
Under the Grace of Lord Padmanabha.
Bibliography Delhi: Konark Publishers, 2010.

Aiya, Nagam. The Travancore State Mateer, Samuel. Native Life in Travancore.
Manual, Volumes 1, 2 and 3. New Delhi: New Delhi: Asian Educational Services,
Asian Educational Services, 1989. 1991.

Arunima, G. “Introduction.” There Comes Menon, Shungoony. A History Of
Papa: Colonialism And The Transformation Travancore. Trivandrum: State Gazetteers,
of Matriliny in Kerala, Malabar C. 1850- 1983.
1940, 1-25. New Delhi: Orient Longman,
2003. Nair, Govindan and Pushpa. B.

Blanford, Augusta. “Chapter 4.” The Land of Charithrathinte Edukal.
The Conch Shell, 33-46. London: Church of
England Zenana Missionary Society, 1903. Thiruvananthapuram: Self-published, 1992.

Febvre, Lucien. “Sensibility and History: Pillai, Manu. “The Ammachies of
How to Reconstitute the Emotional Life of Travancore.” The Courtesan, the Mahatma
the Past.” In French Studies in History, and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian
Volume 1, edited by Maurice Aymard and History, 226-31. Chennai: Westland
Harbans Mukhia, 102-121. New Delhi: Publications, 2019.
Orient Longman, 1988.
Pillai, Manu. “The Second Favorite.” The
Kizhakkemadam, Pratap. Pattum Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of
Travancore, 105-33. Noida: HarperCollins
Parivattavum. Kollam: Saindhava Books, Publishers, 2015.

2018. Raja, R.P. “Personal Life.” New Light on

Lal, Ruby. “Introduction.” Domesticity and Swathi Thirunal, 228-72.
Power in the Early Mughal World, 1-23.
New York: Cambridge University Press, Thiruvananthapuram: Centre for
2005.
Interdisciplinary Studies, 2006.

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 29

Colour me Lavender: Queering Écriture Féminine

Urna Chakrabarty
Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi

This paper offers a textually grounded and historically sensitive account of l’écriture féminine’s
exclusion of non-binary identities in its struggle for self-determination against the patriarchal
foundations of Western thought, and defends the unacceptability of said exclusion, in the context
of modern-day feminist politics. The paper goes on to explore the historical existence of LGBT
(anti-)languages in regions all over the globe, and delineates their similarity with l’écriture
féminine in terms of a focus on the body and sexuality as a site for defining the self.

I. Introduction writing”, a proposal for an alternative
language through which women can express
One of the most important items in the their sex outside of phallocentrism.2
feminist bucket list(s) is the formulation of a
language that can accurately and honestly The primary claim of this paper is that the
express feminist selves. Feminist subjects - femininity movement as a whole cannot be
functioning within an alien, patriarchal hailed as a viable blueprint of political
discourse - have long been frustrated with struggle in an era where mainstream
the narrow margin of activity relegated to feminism is no longer restricted to the
them therein. By subverting dominant liberation of cisgender women alone. This is
notions of identity and problematising the because said theories speak only to the
notion of ‘identity’ itself as derived from a experiences of the narrow, biologically
masculinist rationality, the feminist and essentialist category of ‘woman.’ They do
queer political movements have fought to not address the psychosexual specificities of
make space for an inclusive discourse. individuals who don’t fall within the
heterosexual binary of male/female or
Feminisms of the 20th century have focused man/woman and so, cannot be paradigms of
in particular on the tyranny of masculinist
thinking as robbing women and other Rutgers University Press, 1991), 357-70. The idea of
oppressed sexes of their bodies, and féminine writing was put forth by Helene Cixous at
therefore the right to self-determination and the height of the second-wave feminist movement in
self-expression. Seeking liberation from 1970s France, which took up the cudgels against the
male-centred ways of perceiving (and exclusion of women from public institutions and
therefore appropriating) reality, feminist public discourse. Convinced that this erasure had its
philosophers in France have developed the roots in language and the male bastion that was
schools of féminité, i.e., femininity, which literature, feminist theorists who were part of the
celebrates the féminine body and libido in movement strove to build a discourse that was native
opposition to male sexuality; and within it, to women and that centralised their bodily experience
that of l’écriture féminine1, or “féminine and unique subjecthood. It is within such a paradigm
that Cixous came up with the concept of féminine
1 Ann Rosalind Jones, “Writing the Body,” in writing in her piece The Laugh of the Medusa (1975).
Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and She saw féminine writing as the launchpad for both a
Criticism, ed. Robyn Warhol et al. (New Brunswick: singularly female consciousness and for the
movement against patriarchal power relations at
large.
2 Ibid., 247.

self-expression for non-men who fall under I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 30
this description. The secondary claim of this
paper is that a striking number of LGBTQ+ further, suggesting that resistance to
argots display a trait that is basic to féminité- phallogocentrism arises from jouissance or
oriented doctrines and especially to the “direct re-experience of the physical
l’écriture féminine, in the way both cultural pleasures of infancy and of later sexuality.”5
products treat the body and sexuality as a Cixous argued that women must write
site for defining the self. directly from the body, i.e., their diffuse
sexuality. The idea of l’écriture féminine, or
II. Féminité: a female subjectivity ‘féminine writing,’ held that the body
entering the text destroys the masculine
In the 1970s, in a France electrified by economy of superimposed linearity and
deconstruction and cultural revolutions, tyranny. Cixous was certain that women’s
French feminist theorists Helene Cixous, unconscious was totally different from
Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and Monique men’s, but her commitment to anti-logic led
Wittig (among others) embarked on a her to say that even men can engage in
campaign against masculinist thinking by féminine writing by occupying the
developing féminité (translation: femininity), marginalised position of ‘woman’ within the
an intellectual and political movement that Lacanian Symbolic.6 Julia Kristeva, on the
celebrates the féminine and locates female other hand, called for a pre-phallocentric
subjectivity in physiology, particularly “semiotic discourse,” which consisted of
women’s sexual experiences and the repetitions and spasmodic separations from
unconscious.3 the masculine text of reason and order.7
Luce Irigaray posited that women’s self-
Scholars of féminité cited Jacques Derrida’s consciousness arises from the “two lips” of
concept of phallogocentrism to explain the the vulva, and suggested that women have a
violent erasure of female bodies and problematic relationship with language and
experiences in Western language and logic (which is convergent and ordered in
literature.4 Some of them went one step nature) due to this diversified “geography of
pleasure.”8 Lastly, Monique Wittig diverged
3 Ibid. from these biologically deterministic, quasi-
4 Catherine Borders, “Écriture féminine,” Eidetic mystical takes by offering a Marxist
Traces (blog), last modified February 5, 2010, interpretation of femininity that separated
accessed October 20, 2017, 21:33, ‘woman,’ the myth, from ‘women,’ a class
https://eidetictraces.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/ecritu within which women fight.9
re-féminine/. Phallogocentrism is the term Derrida
used for the system of metaphysical oppositions III. Critiques: trapped within the belly
predominant in Western philosophy. The term stems of the beast
from the older notions of phallocentrism, or the focus
on the phallus/penis as a system of male dominance, Féminité and l’écriture féminine have been
and logocentrism, i.e., the focus on language in condemned for supporting patriarchal and
assigning meaning to the world. In phallogocentric
binary opposition, terms and concepts are ascribed a 5 Jones, op. cit., 359.
positive or negative valence, with the second term 6 Hélène Cixous, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” in
being seen as the absence/lack of the first term (A/- Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and
A); e.g. Reason/Passion, Light/Darkness, Criticism, ed. Robyn Warhol et al. (New Brunswick:
Man/Woman, Speech/Writing, etc. Derrida held these Rutgers University Press, 1991), 381.
oppositions to be arbitrary and inherently unstable, 7 Jones, op. cit., 361.
and condemned phallogocentrism as privileging the 8 Ibid., 360.
masculine in the construction of meaning. 9 Ibid., 361.

psychoanalytic norms. Judith Butler has I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 31
been a particularly vocal critic: in Gender
Trouble, she argued that the drive for the cosmic waves of the féminine libido.
representation of women rests on the myth Such heterosexist formulations celebrated
of a unified, universal féminine subject.10 cisgender women’s sexuality as diffuse,
The very category of ‘women’ only finds while ignoring the plethora of sexualities
stability within the context of the and gender identities lying beyond the
heterosexual matrix, which is a binary heterosexual matrix. When Cixous and
produced by phallogocentric power Kristeva spoke of the ideal of the biological,
relations.11 This is where problems related to lactating mother13, they ignored the
inclusion, as well as the dubiousness of possibility of non-women being mothers.
écriture féminine’s claims to universal Kristeva came closest to including non-
legitimacy, enter the scene. What alternative binary individuals in the campaign against
discourses could genderqueer or non-binary phallogocentrism when she characterised
people lay claim to, as a means of ‘woman’ as not so much a sex as an attitude
expressing their eroticism? In an era when that resists conventional culture and
the queer movement and the feminist language.14 However, by acknowledging
movement go hand in hand, do theories of that the universal subject of the anti-
féminité have political relevance? These phallocentric discourse is named ‘woman,’
feminist schools took ‘féminine’ to mean she may, contrary to her anti-identity
both non-patriarchal and non- position, have actually been carving out an
phallogocentric, which makes the authoritative subjecthood for the féminine,
experiences of genderqueer people, of while also excluding all other identities.
struggles against patriarchal and
phallogocentric culture, invisible. Both Non-phallocentric discourses like écriture
Kristeva and Cixous allowed men access to féminine saw self-knowledge as arising from
anti-phallogocentric discourses. Are such sexuality. In this formulation, is it possible
methods of resistance therefore open only to for people inclining towards asexuality on
cisgender men and women? How viable are the spectrum to have unmediated linguistic
they, then, as universal political strategies access to their biological selves? Contrary to
against phallogocentrism, which claims the claims of féminité and écriture féminine,
many victims besides cisgender women? unmediated self-knowledge can never
emerge from a sexed body, which is
When Irigaray spoke of féminine self- acculturated by gendered social
expression arising from the “two lips” of the experience.15 It may be concluded, therefore,
vulva12, she alienated transgender women that feminité is an acephobic and a trans-
who weren’t born with a labial ticket to ride exclusionary radical feminist (TERF)
doctrine.
10 Judith Butler, “Chapter 1,” Gender Trouble:
Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: IV. Queer-gots: finding LGBTQ+
Routledge, 1990), 8, 15. modes of self-expression
11 Jones, op. cit., 363. To Luce Irigary’s proposal that
women constitute the unrepresentable within our In modern times, gender-neutral and gender-
closed phallogocentric signifying economy, Butler inclusive language serves to legitimise non-
responded that gender is a signification in itself, binary identities, such as using an
because phallogocentrism constrains the imaginable
domain of gender. Butler, op. cit. 13 Ibid., 250.
12 Jones, op. cit., 367. 14 Ibid., 248.
15 Ibid., 258.

individual’s preferred personal pronouns and I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 32
respecting the names transgender people
choose as part of their transition. In the of the section will cover scholars of lavender
1990s, a wave of transgender activists and linguistics who have worked to irradiate the
academics coined inclusive pronouns like rich linguistic culture of queer communities
‘ze’ and ‘hir’ that fall between ‘he’ and across the world and throughout history.
‘she’, ‘her’ and ‘him.’ Various gendered
European languages have also had Historical writer Rictor Norton affirms the
campaigns to make their languages more existence of indigenous queer languages and
gender inclusive.16 sees them as proof that queer culture thrives
in entirely queered spaces.18 He draws from
Reconfigurations of mainstream language his study of the molly subculture19 to cite
aside, do queer communities have a examples of gay men calling each other by
language that is self-cultivated, that arises féminine names in “almost entirely queer
from their self-perception and adequately contexts where no heterosexuals were
represents their specificities: psychosexual, present.”20 Tracing queer language all the
cultural, and socio-historical? Is queer way to the eunuch mendicant priests of the
culture ever free of heteronormative Anatolian mother goddess Cybele, Norton
hegemony? These questions are the focus of clarifies that these ‘languages’ are really
LGBTQ+ linguistics, or lavender linguistics. slangs meant to be spoken among queer
Chadwick Moore of OUT Magazine reports, people and not written.21
“In 1993, anthropologist Bill Leap created
the Lavender Languages and Linguistics The search for LGBTQ+ paradigms of
Conference…the longest-running LGBT- expression also leads one to camp culture.
studies conference in the U.S., and the only An aesthetic style described by Susan
one dedicated to language issues.”17 The rest Sontag as “self-conscious kitsch,” camp
culture challenges modernist perceptions of
16 Charles Bremner Paris, “Gender-Neutral Version of high art by praising pieces that reflect bad
taste and ironic value.22 Because camp
French Language Angers Purists,” Sunday Times, last
exclusives/2016/8/17/lavender-linguistics-queer-way-
modified October 7, 2017, accessed October 19, speak. Leap called this field of study “lavender”
because the colour “has been associated with the
2017, 20:30, occult and mysticism, with women’s power in Africa,
and with forms of power in the West in the Roman
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gender-neutral- Imperial Court and the Catholic Church.” Leap traces
its usage to a lesbian movement in England in the
version-of-french-language-angers-traditionalists- 20th century, where the protestors wore lavender-
coloured rhinoceros pins on their lapels.
ggv5xdhgt. Most recently, French purists have been 18 Richard Norton, “Queer Language,” A Critique of
Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer
outraged by the mainstream political usage of Theory, last modified July 16, 2002, accessed
October 19, 2017, 23:42
ecriture inclusive, which wipes out the dominance of http://rictornorton.co.uk/social23.htm.
19 Homosexual men who dressed in drag in 19th
the masculine grammatical gender when applied to century England, and pioneered slangs like ‘bitch’
and ‘trade’ with alternative connotations as popularly
human beings. There have been movements in Spain used today.
20 Norton, op. cit.
to use the neutral @ symbol or ‘x’ in place of gender 21 Ibid., 206.
22 Susan Sontag, Notes on ‘Camp’ (New York:
signifiers in common nouns, e.g. amigos/amigas Penguin Random House, 2018), 2. It is hailed as a

become amig@s or amigxs. Sarah Hayley Barrett and

Oscar Nn, “Latinx: The Ungendering of the Spanish

Language,” LatinoUsa, January 29, 2016, accessed

October 19, 2017, 19:36,

http://latinousa.org/2016/01/29/latinx-ungendering-

spanish-language/.

17 Chadwick Moore, “Lavender Language: The Queer

Way to Speak,” OUT Magazine, last modified August

17, 2016, accessed October 19, 2017, 18:19,

https://www.out.com/out-

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 33

emphasises gender as performance, it resists indicative of the oppressor class’ sense of
heteronormative essentialism.23 entitlement regarding the cultures that have
arisen as responses to their brutality).
The now-obsolete British homosexual cant,
Polari, is the epitome of camp culture. V. Connections amid conflict
Speaking Polari was often a way of
demeaning the mainstream, most apparent in This section explores how l’écriture
the usage of feminising words to refer to the féminine and LGBTQ+ anti-languages have
police.24 Following linguist M.A.K. a common aim and method: both seek to
Halliday’s classification, such cants have subvert oppressive realities in order to freely
been called anti-languages.25 Thus, they are self-determine, by focusing on the body.
creations of stigmatised subcultures that This shared trait could be attributed to how
allow them to reconstruct reality according both phenomena are tools of resistance
to their own values. Let us take, for against a cultural system that literally
example, the African-American Vernacular polices the bodies of the oppressed; but such
English (AAVE)-heavy language used by a take is reductive at best. At worst, it
drag queens in America, popularised by TV frames LGBTQ+ culture and féminité as
shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race26 and merely reactive in nature. Rictor Norton
ironically appropriated by Caucasian, warns against seeing queer culture as mere
cisgender young women (which is deeply strategies to cope with or undermine straight
culture, as there are queer cultural values
postmodernist breakthrough in the gay community. In that exist “for their own sake.”27
camp, gayness is marked by effeminacy, and so it
contains elements such as swish (the use of The overt eroticism and deliberate obscenity
superlatives in speech) and drag (exaggerated female
impersonation). Sontag also labels camp as “the of queer cants is often dismissed today, but
triumph of the epicene style,” i.e., it celebrates
androgyny and depictions of indeterminate sex. it could be argued that the sexual character
23 This performance angle (along with widespread
cultural appropriation by industries that are otherwise of queer anti-languages makes them prime
massively queerphobic) is what led to camp being the
theme of the 2017 Met Gala. examples of écriture féminine, i.e., self-
24 Paul Baker, “Polari, a Vibrant Language Born out
of Prejudice | Paul Baker,” Guardian, May 24, 2010, expression that emanates from the libido.
accessed October 19 2017, 13:09,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/m Queer argots emerged as a way for non-
ay/24/polari-language-origins.
25 Richard Nordquist, “Definition and Examples of binary people to dissociate from the
Anti-Language: Glossary of Grammatical and
Rhetorical Terms,” Thoughtco., last modified March heteronormative. It is precisely on grounds
20, 2016, accessed October 20, 2017, 18:33,
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-anti-language- of sexual difference that the genderqueers
1689103. An antilanguage is a minority dialect that
excludes members of the main speech community. are persecuted by the heteronormative
Smitherman says that antilanguages are “speech
characteristic of a group which is in but not of a society. That queer argots are explicitly
society.”
26 It is an American reality competition television sexual, merely distinguishes queer
series documenting RuPaul in the search for
“America's next drag superstar.” Produced by World autoeroticism from mainstream
of Wonder, aired from February 2, 2009 to May 29,
2020. heterosexuality.

In the exchange of sexual activities and
vernacular, straight and LGBTQ+ cultures
have a dialectical relationship.28 When

27 Norton, op. cit.
28 Consider the prevalence of heterosexual role-play
among same-sex couples, and the spread of

Bernie Sanders, in May 2017, accused the I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 34
Democratic National Committee of
“throwing shade,” he was using a phrase that conception of the accessibility of écriture
comes from the lingo of American drag balls féminine: féminine writing is said to be
in the 1980s.29 Contemporary Stan Twitter universally accessible, provided that the
language, which is often deemed as the writer occupies woman’s marginalised
cultural creation of queer people within both position in the Lacanian Symbolic; similarly,
the millennial and Gen-Z demographic, is by injecting femininity into masculinised
actually almost entirely derived from spaces, the sharp male/female dichotomy
AAVE30, and more specifically from the that constitutes heteronormative perceptions
slang of gay Black men; for example, using of reality is blurred.
‘girl’ as a form of friendly address among
non-girls. Definitions of camp as queer-parody relate
to the notion of laughing at the
She-ing (a linguistic practice that feminises performativity of gender. Camp acts like
people and objects) is rife in queer cants all drag shows and cabarets are often meant to
over the world, from the op zijn janmeisjes be humorous and poking fun at queerness
(‘John girlish’) of Dutchmen in the 1730s itself. This could be related to Cixous’s
and the oxtchit (derived from an Arabic thesis regarding the importance of laughter
word meaning ‘my sister’) of Israel, to the in the face of the absurdity of
goluboy used by Russian gay men today.31 phallogocentrism. While debunking the
This practice originally was used as a secret Greek ‘monster’, Medusa, as a phallocentric
language that allowed closeted gay men to myth, she writes, “You only have to look at
talk about sex and lovers in public, without the Medusa straight on to see her. And she's
fear of persecution. At the same time, such not deadly. She's beautiful and she's
feminisation also inverted gender and laughing.”32 This analysis of female
demolished gender assumptions, making sexuality reveals how phallocentrism has
everyone potentially queer. Thus emerges a distorted the female sex as being inherently
fascinating link between rhetorical chaotic and deadly to man.33 By reclaiming
feminisation in queer cants and Cixous’s Medusa as a paragon of female sexuality
and painting her mid-laughter, Cixous
traditionally ‘gay’ sex acts like anal intercourse and illustrated how laughter is a powerful
anal sex toys among heterosexual people, etc. weapon in dismantling phallogocentric
29 Moore, op. cit. culture. Similarly, in camp acts, the comical
30 This practice, however, when viewed through an absurdity of gender performance is
intersectional lens, throws up very problematic masterfully juxtaposed with how enjoyable
implications in terms of cultural appropriation. Stan it is to perform gender on your own terms,
Twitter language sees non-black youth, particularly just for fun. Afterall, for many, a post-gender
gay white men and cishet white women, world isn’t necessarily a world that lacks
appropriating certain terms and phrases from AAVE, gender, but a world where gender is merely
like “deadass,” “snatched wig,” etc. These have been a playful performance rather than a prison.
co-opted, generalised, and popularised by nonblack
cisgender and heterosexual people to such an extent 32 Cixous, op. cit., 380.
that their roots in Black (and often, queer Black) 33 It was only Medusa’s libidinal independence and
culture are being steadily erased, exposing the resistance to patriarchal control that drove men to
racialised power relations within the cultural fear her as a monster.
exchange between LGBTQ+ and cisgender-
heterosexual communities.
31 Moore, op. cit.

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 35

VI. Conclusion: you doing you Bibliography

It is fitting to end this paper with a call for Baker, Paul. “Polari, a Vibrant Language
both hope and pride: hope that the feminist Born out of Prejudice | Paul Baker.”
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men, shall continue to overflow and evolve 19, 2017, 13:09.
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shall be in keeping with Cixous’s agenda for e/2010/may/24/polari-language-origins.
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past oppression dictate the future, she wrote Barrett, Sarah Hayley and Oscar Nn.
“about women’s writing: about what it will “Latinx: The Ungendering of the Spanish
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Here, it must be clarified that the author’s
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Nordquist, Richard. “Definition and Paris, Charles Bremner. “Gender-Neutral
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I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 37

Popular Culture in China: An Instrument of Regulation and Dissent

Aditi Majumdar
Department of Economics, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

China has rapidly advanced in various fields, from the economy and military to science, medicine, sports
and cultural areas such as cuisine, music and art. Amidst talks of the country’s potential of emerging as
the world leader, it is important to note that the country performs relatively well in all but one area - the
crucial area of popular culture. The question, however, is if this matters. This paper aims to highlight the
importance of popular culture as well as the evolution of the cultural movement in China, and of the use
of popular culture by the Chinese government as a tool to regulate its citizens. Additionally, it aims to
bring forth the use of popular culture as an instrument of dissent in a country largely governed by state
censorship.

Popular culture is the set of practices, percent of GDP.4 In South Korea, a seven-
beliefs, and objects that embody the most member boy group Bangtan Sonyeondan
broadly shared meanings of a social system. (English name Beyond The Scene) alone
It is usually associated with either mass generates an estimated amount of $4.65
culture or folk culture, and is set apart from billion as economic value to the country per
high culture1 and various institutional year, as well as 7% of all visits to the
cultures. As a mass culture, popular culture country in 2018.5 According to
is viewed through an economic lens - it is the Japan External Trade Organisation’s
treated as a commodity with exchange value (JETRO) report “Cool Japan's Economy
produced within capitalist mode production.2 Warms Up,” Japanese anime in the U.S.
As a folk culture, on the other hand, market alone is worth 4.35 billion dollars.6
traditional practices of small, homogeneous
groups are reinterpreted by audiences, both Politically, popular culture often reflects the
within and beyond the subcultural group. In people’s conception of government and
folk culture, popular culture begins as the politics. Many of the ideas marketed by the
collective characteristic of a subculture and popular culture industry reflect the realities
is then appropriated by the market.3 of life and frequently help shape those

Popular culture has a significant economic 4 Richard Florida, “The Economic Power of
impact. For instance, the arts contribute American Arts and Culture,” Bloomberg, March 28,
more than $800 billion a year to U.S. 2019, accessed December 23, 2019, 03:20,
economic output, amounting to more than 4 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-
28/arts-and-culture-is-an-800-billion-u-s-industry.
1 High culture encompasses the cultural objects of 5 Wandering Shadow, “The “BTS Effect” On South
aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem Korea’s Economy, Industry And Culture,” Medium,
as exemplary art. Dustin Kidd, “Popular Culture,” May 30, 2019, accessed December 22, 2019, 22:10,
Oxford Bibliographies, Last Modified February 28, https://medium.com/@shadow_twts/the-bts-effect-
2017, accessed December 22, 2019, 21:05, on-south-koreas-economy-industry-and-culture-
https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0193. 975e8933da56.
2 Ibid. 6 Japan External Trade Organisation, “Cool” Japan’s
3 Ibid. Economy Warms Up, March 2005,
https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/reports/market/pdf/2005_2
7_r.pdf.

I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 38

realities. Popular culture is considered population.”7 The Revolution spanned a 10-
crucial as it indicates the so-called “soft” year period that began in mid-May 1966 and
power of a nation - its ability to export its ushered in social and political chaos and
culture, and to convince other countries to unprecedented bloodshed, turmoil, hunger
emulate its lifestyle. It also reflects the and stagnation. Gangs of students and Red
ability to win over global partners with Guards targeted people wearing “bourgeois
cultural and diplomatic affinity rather than clothes” on the street. “Imperialist” signs
coercion and sheer heft. were destroyed and intellectuals and party
officials were murdered or driven to suicide.
In a dictatorial regime, like China, the role The country’s rulers conceded the violence
of popular culture has been different from had been a devastation that had brought
that in democratic countries. This paper aims nothing but “grave disorder, damage and
to study the role of popular culture and its retrogression.”8
pliable nature as an instrument of dissent
and regulation in China. The following six The death of Mao in September 1976 and
sections trace important changes that shape the downfall of the “Gang of Four” (a group
the relationship between popular culture and of radical pro-Mao CPC members) led to the
China. The Cultural Revolution offers a end of the revolution. It is believed that the
starting point for the discussion, and helps death toll was between five hundred
locate authorities’ attitude towards symbols thousand and two million.9 The economy
of dissent between 1966-76. The succeeding was destroyed. The southern province of
section outlines the ideological divide Guangxi reported mass killings and even
between the pre- and post-1980’s generation cannibalism.10 Cats were declared to be a
in China, and how it may have shaped symbol of “bourgeois decadence.”11 In the
people’s use of popular culture to express words of Frank Dikötter, author of a book on
dissent. Forthcoming sections have the period, “Walking through the streets of
attempted to outline the government’s the capital at the end of August [1966],
attitude towards popular culture under Xi
Jinping, the consequent stagnation in the 7 “A Brief Overview of China’s Cultural Revolution,”
country’s ability to develop its soft power,
and the use of popular culture by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, accessed December 21,
Chinese citizens as a way to express dissent
in recent times, as well as the authorities’ 2019, 17:17,
attempt at repressing it.
https://www.britannica.com/story/chinas-cultural-
I. The Cultural Revolution in China
revolution#:~:text=The%20Cultural%20Revolution%
17 years after his troops seized power, Mao
launched the Great Proletarian Cultural 20(in%20full,unleashed%20upon%20the%20country'
Revolution as a political campaign to
establish the supremacy of communism as s%20population.
an ideology. According to Britannica, “The
benign-sounding moniker belies the 8 “Resolution on CPC History,” Marxists.org,
destruction it unleashed upon the country’s
accessed December 21, 2019, 17:25,

https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/documents/cp

c/history/01.htm.

9 Encyclopaedia Britannica, op. cit.

10 Ibid.

11 Frank Dikötter, The Cultural Revolution: A

People's History, 1962—1976 (Great Britain:

Bloomsbury Press, 2016), Kindle. Quoted in Tom

Phillips, “The Cultural Revolution: All You Need to

Know about China's Political Convulsion,” Guardian,

May 11, 2016, accessed December 21, 2019, 17:12,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the

-cultural-revolution-50-years-on-all-you-need-to-

know-about-chinas-political-convulsion.

people saw dead cats lying by the roadside I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 39
with their front paws tied together.”12
emperors,” and are said to be spoiled and
According to experts, the government was privileged, having not lived through food
responsible for most of the violence in the rationing or other adversities like their
period, and not the Red Guard or the parents did.14 They are condemned for being
students. Andrew Walder, the author of materialistic and revolutionary, with
China Under Mao writes, “We read a lot of unparalleled access to consumer goods and
horror stories about students beating their contact with global popular culture.
teachers to death in the stairwell. [But]
based on the government’s own published The older Chinese lived through significant
histories well over half, if not two-thirds of policy and cultural shifts, which included the
the people who were killed or imprisoned Civil War (ending in 1949), the Great Leap
during the Cultural Revolution suffered that Forward (1958-1960), the Cultural
from 1968 to early 1970.”13 Although Mao Revolution (1966-1976) and other extreme
had intended for this revolution to movements. They were part of a more
strengthen communism, it, ironically, had agrarian society, with many living in
the opposite effect - leading instead to destitution. The pre-1980s generation was
China’s adoption of capitalism. part of a China that was more antagonistic to
foreign countries, including the United
II. China’s Post 1980’s Generation States. Many came of age during an era
when China closed down its borders to trade
1980 in China is well known as the initiation and travellers and criticised Western ideas.
of the country’s one-child policy. This year By contrast, the post-1980s and 1990s
also exhibited a turning point in China’s generations grew up in societies that were
generational experiences: with roughly half more liberal with international trade and
(47%) of China’s current population being were exposed to Western culture.
born under the policy (ages 0 to 34 today).
III. China today
This group, born after the series of sweeping
political, economic and cultural changes, is Today, China is in the midst of another
referred to as the “post-1980s generation,” in political agitation, with severe stifling of
Chinese media. Members of this generation dissenting views. However, it is
were born after Deng Xiaoping took power fundamentally different from the Cultural
and opened up China’s economy for reform. Revolution. Even with thousands under
They grew up during China’s economic arrest, the misery is of a different scale.
boom. This generation signifies the division There are strategic differences as well: while
of population into two separate factions with Mao called for public action to attack
identifiable cultural values – much as Baby bourgeois elements, Xi Jinping relies on
Boomers and Millennials do for the U.S. tight regulations, seeking to protect and
Those from the post-Mao, only-child strengthen his own grip on power. He has
generation, are often called “little rearranged the top leadership to put himself

12 Ibid. 14 George Gao, “In China, 1980 Marked a
13 Andrew Walder, China Under Mao - A Revolution
Derailed (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Generational Turning Point,” Pew Research,
2015). Quoted in Tom Phillips, op. cit.
November 12, 2015, accessed December 23, 2019,

15:13, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-

tank/2015/11/12/in-china-1980-marked-a-

generational-turning-point/.

at the centre, silenced liberal thinking and I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 40
the media, and, for the first time, hounded
critics of his government, even those outside just “artistically outstanding” but also
mainland China.15 “politically inspiring,” and about patriotism,
purity and other values that enshrine the
While China’s Communist Party once party’s legitimacy.19 The party’s ideals have
pushed its policies on an obedient often clashed with what young Chinese want
population, it now struggles to compete for to follow (historical dramas, martial arts
attention with the country’s thriving fantasies, high school romances or single,
entertainment industry and the celebrity independent women).20
culture it has produced. Authorities have
retorted by curbing the influential paradigm Historically, the Chinese government has
of actors, targeting gossip websites16, soap believed that by controlling symbols of
opera storylines17 and celebrity salaries.18 Xi popular sentiment, one can control the
has urged artists to create works that are not population. This explains its views towards
the use of soft power in recent times.
15 Bates Gill, “Xi Jinping’s Grip On Power Is
Absolute, But There Are New Threats To His IV. The Soft Power Problem
‘Chinese Dream’,” Print, June 30, 2019, accessed
December 23, 2019, 16:12, Unlike hard power, soft power usually
https://theprint.in/world/xi-jinpings-grip-on-power-is- comes in the form of seduction — whether
absolute-but-there-are-new-threats-to-his-chinese- it’s through culture, political values, or
dream/255725/. foreign policies that have moral authority.21
16 In 2017, Chinese websites and tech titans shuttered This power is of utmost significance if one
60 accounts focusing on celebrity gossip after is to view China’s engagement in their own
authorities told them in a meeting that they must take culture as palatable, and not as an intrusion.
steps to keep “those kinds of pages” in check.
Mariella Moon, “China Cracks Down on Celebrity China adopted a plan known as zhong ti xi
Gossip Social Media Accounts,” Engadget, June 9, yong (中体西用), which translates to,
2017, accessed December 21, 2019, 03:05, “adopting Western knowledge for its
https://www.engadget.com/2017-06-09-china-cracks- practical uses while keeping Chinese values
down-on-celebrity-gossip-social-media- as the core,” after it lost the Opium War.
accounts.html. This is evident in the Chinese government’s
17 China’s “General Rules for Television Series
Content Production” ban shows that depict 19 Cary Huang, “Xi Jinping's Call For Political Art
homosexuality, smoking, drinking, adultery, sexual
freedom or reincarnation, among many other Evokes Bad Memories Of Cultural Revolution,”
activities. Zheping Huang and Josh Horwitz, “China’s
New Television Rules Ban Homosexuality, Drinking, South China Morning Post, October 26, 2014,
And Vengeance,” Quartz, March 3, 2016, accessed
December 21, 2019, 03:23, accessed December 21, 2019, 03:05,
https://qz.com/630159/chinas-new-television-rules-
ban-homosexuality-drinking-and-vengeance/. https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-
18 In 2018, actors in Chinese films and TV
programmes had their pay capped at 40% of total opinion/article/1624554/xi-jinpings-call-political-art-
production costs. According to the government, lead
actors could not be paid more than 70% of total cast evokes-bad-memories-cultural.
pay. It came after a debate on celebrity pay, and
allegations of tax evasion in the film industry. “China 20 “15 C-Dramas That Caused A Sensation In 2019,”
Puts Limit on Film Stars’ Pay,” BBC News, June 28,
2018, accessed December 21, 2019, 03:30, Soompi, December 15, 2019, accessed December 21,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-
44641582. 2019, 15:39,

https://www.soompi.com/article/1368867wpp/15-c-

dramas-that-caused-a-sensation-in-2019.

21 “What Is Soft Power?” Soft Power 30, accessed

December 22, 2019, 14:53,

https://softpower30.com/what-is-soft-power/.

view of popular culture today.22 It can be I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 41
argued that China’s failure in developing its
soft power could be due to the fact that it is its image abroad, then for its own people at
viewed as something the state can home. China is home to the world’s largest
manufacture and direct. China’s top-down middle class, as well as the world’s largest
attempts to expand soft power gained population of billionaires. This suggests that
motion in 2007, when the Party’s then- Chinese consumers should be the world’s
General Secretary Hu Jintao stated that new tastemakers. But their current tastes in
China needed to “vigorously develop the entertainment and fashion largely have their
cultural industry” and “enhance the source outside the country.
industry’s international competitiveness.”23
Another reason could be the lack of free One trend that must be baffling to Chinese
expression. The ethos of individualism and administrators is how South Korea has
transparency that allowed the middle class to managed to reap the economic and social
identify with the popular culture in the West, benefits of hallyu.24 Like China, the Korean
was absent in the authoritarian regime of government invests heavily in its domestic
China. Therefore, this “free” culture of the entertainment industry, with the aim of
West might have found keen customers exporting its cultural products. Why it seems
among the Chinese. to work in Korea and not in China, which
has more than 20 times as many potential
There are several instances of the state’s pop artists to nurture, is a conundrum.
interventions in popular culture backfiring in
China. State-backed Chinese studios and V. Popular Culture as an Instrument
Hollywood co-produced a $150 million of Dissent
movie, “The Great Wall.” The film received
criticism for both whitewashing The Chinese government’s view that it can
and pandering to China. In another instance, manufacture and dictate popular culture is at
when the China Film Directors Guild odds with the aspirations of the citizens of
awarded the 2013 director of the year award the country. This is evident when one looks
to Feng Xiaogang, he gave an acceptance at how works of popular culture originating
speech lamenting the censorship that in the West have often been used to express
Chinese directors must overcome. dissent against the government.

It is imperative that China reconsiders some A long-standing feud between the cartoon
of its soft power tactics and political morals, bear Pooh25 and the Chinese government
and in the process rebrand itself — if not for was brought to the limelight when the
Chinese censors banned the release of
22 George Gao, “Why Is China So ... Uncool?”
Foreign Policy, March 8, 2017, accessed December 24 “Hallyu” or “The Korean Wave” is the increase in
22, 2019, 19:13, the global popularity of South Korean culture and
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/08/why-is-china- arts, like music, movies and TV dramas since the
so-uncool-soft-power-beijing-censorship-generation- 1990s.
gap/. 25 Winnie the Pooh was a fictional bear created by
23 “Hu Urges Enhancing ‘Soft Power’ of Chinese author A.A. Milne almost 100 years ago. The cartoon
Culture,” China Daily, October 15, 2007, accessed bear debuted in 1926’s Winnie-the-Pooh collection of
December 22, 2019, 19:37, stories. The popularity of Pooh eventually increased
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007- and spread around the world, and these books were
10/15/content_6226620.htm. translated in several languages. Under the control of
Disney, Pooh became even more widely known.
Several animated movies and TV shows featuring
Pooh and his friends were launched by the studios.

Christopher Robin. The Winnie the Pooh I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 42
character had actually become a casual way
for people in China to mock their president, Shanghai’s Disney resort, including the
Xi Jinping. In 2013, Jinping first began to be “Hunny Pot Spin” and “The Many
compared to Winnie the Pooh, when he was Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” are still
photographed walking with the then US accessible.
President, Barack Obama. People began to
point out the similarities between that The ban on the bear seems to mainly be an
photograph and that of Pooh and Tigger (a attack on the freedom of speech. Another
character in the Winnie the Pooh universe). reporting on the Winnie the Pooh ban was a
Jinping was again compared to the fictional Disney video game that had been released in
bear in 2014 during a meeting with Japan’s 2018.29 The Chinese version of the game
Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who took on was altered to blur Winnie the Pooh. The US
the part of the pessimistic, gloomy donkey, television station HBO’s website was
Eeyore. These light hearted comparisons blocked after comedian John Oliver made
continued for a couple of years, leading to fun of the Chinese president’s sensitivity to
China’s censors taking action in 2018. They comparisons of him and Pooh.30 PewDiePie,
have since rid Weibo, a popular social media the most popular solo YouTuber in the
site in China, of any Winnie the Pooh world, reported that he had been “banned
content.26 from China” after he posted a video
featuring jokes that drew similarities
It is not known for certain if China’s between the bear and the President.31
decision not to screen the 2018 film
Christopher Robin stemmed from the Pooh- Another example of Chinese censorship is
ban, as China offered no official the alleged ban of Peppa Pig - a British
explanation. Many defenders have claimed cartoon character - because of supposedly
that the reason for the omission has nothing being associated with “gangster” subculture.
to do with Xi Jinping. They argued that Chinese media reports that the search term
China has a limit to the number of American “#PeppaPig” was removed from a video
films it releases, at 34 films per year.27 streaming service Douyin, which made as
While China’s wish to censor many as 30,000 videos of the character
Pooh may have played a part in this, the unavailable.32 A subculture of internet users
reasoning might have some credibility,
as Christopher Robin underperformed in the 29 Mel Evans, “Winnie the Pooh Continues to face
box office. Additionally, Ban in China as He's Virtually Erased from Game,”
the previous Winnie the Pooh film was not Metro, November 23, 2018, accessed December 23,
screened in the country either, and it was 2019, 13:32, https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/23/winnie-
long before the controversy and Xi Jinping’s the-pooh-continues-to-face-ban-in-china-as-hes-
ascendency to power.28 Merchandise, toys, virtually-erased-from-kingdom-hearts-iii-8172432/.
books, and Winne the Pooh themed rides at 30 Lily Kuo, “China Blocks HBO After John Oliver
Parody Of Xi Jinping,” Guardian, June 25, 2018,
26 Brian VanHooker, “How Banned Is Winnie The accessed December 23, 2019, 13:37,
Pooh in China, Really?” MEL Magazine, December https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/25/chin
2019, accessed December 23, 2019, 13:09, a-blocks-hbo-after-john-oliver-parody-of-xi-jinping.
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/is-winnie-the- 31 Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (PewDiePie), “Pewdiepie
pooh-banned-china. Is BANNED in China LWIAY #0096,” Youtube
27 Ibid. (video), October 19, 2019, 16:18,
28 Ibid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HehfOtRbUk.
32 “Peppa Pig is Banned in China for Promoting
‘Gangster Attitudes’,” Independent, May 2, 2018,
accessed December 24, 2019, 01:42,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pepp

known as “shehuiren” or “society people,” a I j t i h a d V o l . 7 | 43
group said to hold “anti-establishment
views” and a “gangster” outlook, started population has stemmed early on in China’s
getting ironic tattoos of the pink piglet. political history. The Cultural Revolution of
These people are considered to be slackers Mao Zedong and his followers attempted to
with no stable job, who run opposite to the purge the remnants of capitalism and
values the Communist Party wishes to reassert the ideology of the Communist
cultivate. Party of China as dominant. And since
popular culture presents the opportunity to
The censoring seems to be more than just use works of art to convey a specific
protecting the image of the President - since message, it is not surprising that China
elements targeted include games, shows and had/has found in it an unlikely battleground.
social media. There is a clear attempt to
silence a certain section of the Chinese For China’s post-1980 generation that grew
population, including teenagers and young up with Western ideals of freedom and
adults who are likely to spend more time transparency, popular culture was an
online.33 This intentional targeting of opportunity to create symbols of resistance
China’s young people has made unlikely without the use of words, an innovative way
pop-culture figures, Winnie the Pooh and around restrictions of free speech.
Peppa Pig, symbols of the Chinese youth’s
resistance. Apart from encouraging others to Chinese authorities under Xi Jinping have
get a tattoo of Peppa Pig on Douyin - a pushed for a heavily controlled form of
movement largely censored by the popular culture, one which has propagated
government - crowds have been seen the ideals of the ruling party. Despite such
wearing masks of Winnie the Pooh at pro- circumstances, the Chinese youth has
democracy rallies in Hong Kong. Hong continued to use channels within popular
Kong protestors like Joshua Wong and Alex culture as an effective means to rebel against
Chow referenced a phrase from the Hunger the restrictions imposed by the government.
Games in an opinion piece they wrote for By easily associating with sentiments,
the New York Times: “If we burn, you burn popular culture has been used to both curb
with us.”34 freedom, as well as to fight for it. This
malleable nature of popular culture makes it
VI. Conclusion a powerful instrument in the hands of the
one who wields it.
Historically, the Chinese government has
very clearly followed a trend of curbing Bibliography
voices that dissent against the government.
The use of culture to restrict and regulate the BBC News. “China Puts Limit on Film Stars'
Pay.” June 28, 2018. Accessed December
a-pig-ban-china-childrens-tv-cartoon-gangster- 21, 2019, 03:30.
douyin-a8332846.html. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
33 Ibid. china-44641582.
34 Clarissa Pharr, “Hong Kong Protestors Are Using
popular culture Memes to Stay Visible To The China Daily. “Hu Urges Enhancing ‘Soft
World,” Quartz, September 2, 2019, accessed Power’ of Chinese Culture.” October 15,
December 24, 2019, 02:09, 2007. Accessed December 22, 19:37.
https://qz.com/1700030/hong-kong-protestors-cite- https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-
pop-culture-to-stay-visible-to-world/. 10/15/content_6226620.htm.