About the Word "Desi"
I think I came across the word “desi” for the first time amidst the Slumdog Millionaire buzz. I feel like it had something to do with the Pussycat Dolls remix of “Jai Ho”. You guys remember that! That was the first time I saw some true Coachella-esque outfits! Now, I love the Pussycat Dolls’ songs and some were a true ‘bop’ of their time. But the use of a girl group that has burlesque and dance origins for a movie that was fairly conservative was quite confusing for me. Something didn’t add up. And the music video certainly didn’t help either. So I looked up the remix on the internet to see if I can find anyone talking about the rationale behind the use of PCD. Which is why if memory serves right, this was where and how I found the word “desi”.
As someone with no Hindi knowledge, this word meant nothing to me. It doesn’t exist in the Tamil language, and it wasn’t something like “pyaar” which I could understand from context and emotions to mean love. So, that was the next thing I looked up. “Desi” was defined as a word derived from the Sanskrit ‘desa’, meaning “native to” or “pure/ unadulterated”. With the Sanskrit root word and the Tamil word “desam” meaning country, things clicked in place for what “desi” meant. And with the explanation that it’s a Hindi/ Urdu word and the understanding that Slumdog Millionaire was set in Mumbai, I figured that was the context “desi” was being used in when talking about the remix, decided it all made sense and set that knowledge aside.
Since then, this word has hung in the back of my head. If I saw it somewhere, I knew what it meant. It was just a quiet “ah!” here and there but when I joined Instagram, I felt like I had entered a world of all things “desi”. And that’s when everything started to get confusing, and a little disappointing for me. Before I talk about this any further, I just want to make it clear that if the use of this word gives someone the opportunity to feel seen and the power of representation, they should absolutely embrace it. There is nothing more empowering than finding a way to connect with your roots and those of a similar culture and I would never say otherwise. I do not, for one second, believe there is anything inherently wrong with the word or its definition.
My own dissonance stems from how the concept of “desi” has evolved, and over the years, how it has even been marketed. And because of its popularity on Instagram, I’m going to keep my discussion in this feature specific to my experiences on Instagram. A quick Instagram search shows the hashtag “desi” to have over 7 million posts under it. The only other regional hashtag to surpass this is “Punjabi” with over 9 million posts. Another search under accounts shows plenty of private and public accounts with the word “desi” in them, especially with the latter promising representation. A list of countries or country flags from the South Asian region adorns their bio to demonstrate the level of inclusion. As an Indian transplant in Singapore, I thought “Finally! Here’s my chance to see some representation and connect with people like me!” and started looking through the pictures and captions. I was so ready to learn about South Asian history from accounts titled “brown history” and laugh at the relatability of memes titled “brown girl problems”. Only to quickly realise that half, if not all of these things are written in a language that I don’t know how to read or understand. And that’s the root of my concern and confusion.
My understanding was that the term “desi” was for people who speak Hindi/ Urdu or other Sanskrit-derived languages to identify themselves. But here it was, being used synonymously with India and South Asia. The phrase “desi history” was used interchangeably for South Asian history and “desi culture” was used in place of – well, I don’t even know what because anyone from South Asia would be able to tell you that there is no one South Asian culture to encompass us all. South Asian history, for example, is undeniably intertwined, as connected as our geography. But anyone would be able to tell you that no South Asian culture is the same. Even a specific cultural group wouldn’t have the same way of doing things in their denominations – for example, there are Tamils who are Muslims. But I’m sure you would find differences in customs among Tamil Muslims from Tamilnadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia.
The more I look at these accounts, pictures, and captions, the more I notice that an overwhelming majority of these accounts depict a uniform South Asia. While mentions of naan, chai, Bollywood memes and the colours of Holi hold the reign, the festively decorated elephants of Kerala, the flavours of idli and sambar, and the textures and scents of Mysore silks and sandalwood are … barely there. Even as I’m writing this, I realise that these cultures I randomly chose to ask for representation are just a few from India. In my own attempt to ask for a more diverse representation of “desi”, I did not use anything to represent any of the other cultures outside of India. Because it seems Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan are accepted as the primary three “desi” countries. Others include Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka (The inclusion of Sri Lanka is so confusing for me because amidst their political climate, I genuinely want to know if anyone from there identifies with the word “desi”).
And that's what is glaringly clear in Instagram accounts and the use of the word “desi”: the multicultural South Asian region is heavily under-represented. The word “desi” is the happy meal equivalent of a quick and easy understanding of the South Asian region; it looks enticing but it’s not a stand-alone source for what you need. And as much as I feel uncomfortable saying it, it’s the closest to brown washing that I’ve seen. In fact, the concept of "desi" is so far removed from me that I would very much rather be classified as "South Asian", "South Indian", or simply, "Tamil". And while we are on this, can I please ask that we either be referred to as Tamils (if you're following the English route) or Thamizhan/Thamizhar (if you're following the Tamil route)? The word "Tamilian" makes no sense because there's no "ili" sound in our language in the middle of that word. It feels so odd and a more "desi" take of us, ironically.
The more this knowledge of “desi” looms around me, the more I see it in places outside of Instagram. The more I see what feels like unnecessary uses of the term. Take the phrase “desi ghee”. If ghee is widely understood as a South Asian fat/ condiment, why add “desi” to it? I double-checked if it was meant to describe the ghee as “pure” since that’s another meaning of “desi”. It wasn’t. Which makes me wonder what’s the point? We have been raised in this culture and I’m fairly confident that most of us can tell from the packaging whether something was made in India or by Trader Joe’s. And then someone mentioned “marketing”. That the use of “desi” there is not for us. But it’s a form of branding and packaging for cultures that are not South Asian. And that’s why after putting this post off for almost two years, I find it necessary to speak about this. While Instagram has already given us a homogenised presentation of “desi”, the transference of that word from South Asian cultures to non-South Asian cultures runs the risk of a one fits all mould. A convenient simplification of an entire subcontinent, if you will. Sure, in some ways, presenting our culture in a fun way with our own words sounds great and like we are owning our culture. But in a world where “Never Have I Ever” is being debated for its representation “issues”, I feel torn between accepting the term “desi” based on the rationale that any representation is good and the fact that Canada declared January as Tamil Heritage Month. If we can all unify and we can all be represented by one word, that would be truly incredible. But this convenient reduction, which often feels like tapping into the Westerner’s fascination with “Bollywood” and the assumption that it represents South Asia feels like such a let-down. Why shouldn’t I and my culture be represented when talking about “brown things”?
I suppose the only observation and request I have is that the usage of the term “desi” needs to be paired with the awareness and understanding of all the other cultures in South Asia; cultures that do not have the word “desi” in their vocabulary and do not follow the customs, cultures, and even cinemas that are often purported by the word “desi”. I ask for the willingness to hear people out when they say they do not identify with the term “desi” and I ask for people to stop saying comments like “Shut up and accept it” and that “desi” means someone from India anyway. Because some of these comments feel perilously close to those of the “one nation, one language” comments by a certain political figure. It feels especially shocking when it comes from people who are transplants themselves. Because if you ask me, as people who have migrated out of our home countries, we should be the first to understand and empathise with the need for representation and one’s identity confusion more than anyone else. So, no, sir, I will not “shut up and accept” your own fits-all representation of South Asia under the guise of “desi things”. And I’m not starting a fight. I’m just genuinely confused as to how no one on the page admins thought “Hey. Where’s the rest of South Asia?!” when presenting these narratives. As confused as I was when the Pussycat Dolls’ rendition of Jai Ho came on.
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