Vortragsankündigung von Dr. Sinah Kloß

Sartorial Contestations of Indianness: Guyanese ‘Indian Wear’ and the Creation of the Indian Other

People who define themselves as ‘Indian’ in Guyana consider themselves as descendants of South Asian indentured laborers, who were shipped to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations during British colonial rule and after the emancipation of enslaved Africans between 1838 and the 1920s. From this period, the Guyanese notion of ‘Indianness’ developed, largely as a result of Othering processes and in opposition to Guyanese ‘Africanness’. In this talk, I demonstrate how Indian clothing served as a means to unify and consolidate the diverse group of Indians in the colonial but also in contemporary Guyanese society, which was and continues to be severely impacted by processes of ethno-politicization and inter-ethnic conflicts.