Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in NYC

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. To Be Young, Brown, and Hip: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Indian American Youth Culture 3. Nostalgia: ideology and Performance 4. Chaste identities: The Eroticization of Nostalgia 5. Conclusion: Critical Nostalgia and Commodified Cool Appendix: Notes on Research Methods Notes References Index

"Desis in the House is what cultural studies ought to be. Sunaina Maira gets deep inside of the social and cultural worlds of second generation Indian Americans and illuminates the links between the local and global, history and nostalgia, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Maira's perceptive insights into the complex and fluid styles, music, dances, desires and dreams of desi youth will force us all to think about cultural identities in new ways." - Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America "Sunaina Maira guides us into the bog of nostalgia where beleaguered immigrants of color forge a memory that is at odds with their homeland, but also with the dreams of their home boys and home girls. An honest ethnography gives us ample evidence that nostalgia is a feint. Rather than leave us with this conclusion alone, Maira posits something called critical nostalgia, and you'll find out what that is when you read this important book." - Vijay Prashad, author of Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity "Finally, an entertaining study of a second generation immigrant youth group that exposes all that goes on behind U.S. black and white racial and national imagery. A brilliant behind the scenes look that shows how immigrant youth's struggles of what's cool, authentic and fun are really about the reconstitution of racial, class and gender identities." - Arlene Davila, anthropology and American studies, New York University, and author of Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People and Sponsored Identities (Temple) "In Sunaina Maira's smart, hip ethnography of the Manhattan scene, Indian American youth perform and transgress remix anxieties and traditions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and nation. Her beat is cool, hot, irresistible." - Gary Y. Okihiro, author of Common Ground: Reimagining American History "Maira offers a compelling comparative analysis of white mainstream appropriation and commodification of Indian cultural forms and practices and of the desi's cultural mixing of music, dance, and attire." - South Asian Review "In this thorough academic study, Maira explores the cultural dynamics found among Desis, second generation Sough Asian American youth...Through interviews with Indian Americans, Maira attempts to discover the deeper meaning that this remix music has for young South Asian Americans and the role it plays in helping them to define their ethnic identity and gender relationships. Well researched and perceptive." - Library Journal "This lively book is hard to set down. It is a powerful study of second-generation Indian-American youth growing up in New York City in the mid-1990s." - MultiCultural Review "Desis in the House presents a nuanced, poignant look at the contradictions that second-generation youths of color have to confront and is particularly valuable for demonstrating the inadequacy of current categories and theoretical perspectives for analyzing their dilemmas." - The American Journal of Sociology