Casey A’Hearn accomplished their MA in Faith in Tradition from the division in Could 2024 and will likely be beginning their PhD at Princeton in August 2024.
In 2008, a bunch of Ravidassia practitioners held a parade in Bedford, England to rejoice the birthday of Guru Ravidas. It was this picture taken by Mr. Simon Velocity that caught my consideration. I’m not a scholar of Ravidassia, nor am I significantly conversant in their traditions. However I’ve discovered that they observe a guru from India named Ravidas, determine principally with the area of Punjab and have an advanced relationship with Sikhism. Moreover, I believe I can conceptualize what a ‘birthday’ is and why it will be necessary to rejoice it for Guru Ravidas. However is Guru Ravidas English?
One strategy to make sense of my posited query is to show to the social theorist Jean-François Bayart. In The Phantasm of Cultural Identification, Bayart writes, “In learning a concrete society, we discern a plurality of cultural repertoires.” After I regarded on the preliminary image, all I may see was the conglomeration of those cultural repertoires. The sky is muddled to suggest a dark English day, within the background – an English constructing within the model of a 1930’s Semi. The individuals strolling within the parade are carrying Ravidassia flags carrying thicker fall jackets. Parade-onlookers are taking images and chatting on the aspect, additionally dressed for cold English climate. The parade-walker within the entrance wears her pink dupatta and a gown of fantastically vibrant inexperienced. Most obvious are the wheels of the parade float, seen and industrial, juxtaposed to the rigorously organized petals on the ft of the Guru. It’s inside this picture that we really perceive how a “concrete society” is split right into a “plurality of cultural repertoires.”
However why do I see society as a homogenized factor slightly than a bunch of cultural repertoires? After I regarded on the photograph initially, I wasn’t certain Bayart was proper. Was I seeing one concrete society or the plurality? I needed to ask myself: Did the picture match with my very own cultural caricature of England? Why or why not? Admittedly, there are a number of solutions to this query – however I need to deal with one: Identification Development.
After I considered England, I had a number of of photos come to thoughts. I first considered the English flag, however that picture shortly shifted to numerous members of the royal household. Unconsciously, although not very, that thought led me to conjure up photos involving a map of their colonial Empire. Then I believed, “What about tea?” I questioned to myself if anybody else thinks of England like this previous, light commercial that reads, “Shopper’s Teas At all times Please”? What I got here to look at inside my very own introspection was this: Relying on my solutions to questions like these, I can start for instance that the picture of England I create is totally influenced by the incorporation of my very own values, beliefs, histories, and experiences projected onto England.
That is the core idea of societal homogeneity that I need to interrupt: My illustrations of different international locations and peoples have as a lot to do with my very own notion because it does with the nation’s personal id. These assumptions I undertake can operate as instruments to create boundaries between my very own nation/tradition/self and a constructed ‘different’. It really works vice versa. Earlier than trying via Mr. Velocity’s images, I might not have anticipated to see this picture of a Gurdwara. It sits on the finish of Ford Finish Street in Bedford, Bedfordshire. Its presence disrupts my very own preconceived notions of the social homogeneity of England.
Mr. Simon Velocity takes numerous images of Bedford, England. After I regarded via these images, I observed that there are a plethora of issues pictured: museum artifacts, homes, parades, individuals, even preserved bug specimens! Analyzing photos like these helps me higher perceive all of the competing issues that go into establishing id and much more in order that go into establishing an id as homogenous. If these photos in Mr. Velocity’s assortment might be thought-about an archive of Bedford, England, they’d work collectively to each disrupt and reinforce stereotypes of English id. On the similar time, the images themselves are all moments wherein the repertories of tradition are made obvious to us as students. These concepts don’t cease at Bedford, England both. Our personal assumptions about locations and peoples permeate all through our collective societies. Is Guru Ravidas English? Are any of those photos I’ve curated inherently English? As students, we are able to start to know how our personal caricatures of the societies we examine are constructed and maintained via our personal interactions with them.
Photograph credit: All by Simon Velocity, accessed via Wikimedia Commons, Public Area
Featured photograph: A procession in Bedford
