M TAFITI I MARA AND R ANJEETA B ASU
8.2. Conceptual Framework
8.2.1. Tourist and host country
According to Basu and Imara (2014, p.4), “the actions of both tourists and musicians are conditioned by broader narratives about the other.” In this chapter, we argue that the process is dialectical, in that, actions of tourists, musicians and, ultimately researchers disturb or trouble the waters of otherness as well. Otherness presupposes privilege. In the context of tourism, the tourist is de facto in a privileged socioeconomic position.
He/she has the capacity to travel within or outside of a home country for various lengths of time primarily based on his/her own volitions and caprices. This material capacity, juxtaposed with the possibility of encounters with communities of people that are culturally different, establishes a sufficient condition or stage for performing otherness.
Western tourists have historically been in a position of power vis-à-vis the host country in terms of framing the other. Scholars have discussed the power of First World discourses to construct Third World tourist destinations in order to perpetuate post-colonial representations of the other (Bandyopadhyay, 2009). In recent years, the burgeoning middle class from BRICS countries now have the class privilege that enables them to travel. Although they do not have the racial, political and/or historical weight to challenge entrenched Western hegemony, nevertheless they are troubling the waters of otherness. In the words of Aretha Franklin (1971):
Don’t trouble the water I won’t (give it up)
Why don’t you, why don’t you let it be?
Still water run deep... yes it do I know that…whoa-o-o-yeah
Yeah if you only believe Don’t trouble the water Said I wouldn’t (give it up) Why don’t you, why don’t you let it be?
Still water run deep…yes it do Yes it do whoa-oh-ho yeah
If you’re only in need
Aretha Franklin’s moving rendition of Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” invokes an ancient proverb that suggests ‘the deepest rivers flow with the least sound’ from the Latin: altissima quaeque flumina minimo son lab (Quintus, 2003). In this context, the proverb can be read as a salient process whereby a gathering of voices, heretofore silenced by the
Troubling Waters of Otherness 113
spectre of history are now generating momentum toward significant changes in global relationships.
Despite the admonitions of world travellers like Steves (2009), who suggest we should “travel to have enlightening experiences, to meet inspirational people, to be stimulated, to learn, and to grow” (p.vii), the extension of privilege into this new cultural space is inherently a political act. According to Urry and Larsen (2011, p.2), “gazing is a performance that orders, shapes, and classifies rather than reflects the world.” If the tourist is motivated or influenced by the imagined, exotic, or even themed tourist spaces, then the tourist will impose his/her own cultural precepts upon the other to a large extent. According to Steves (2009, p.5), “travel challenges truths that we were raised thinking were self-evident and God- given. Leaving home, we learn other people find different truths to be self- evident.”
However, if we fail to see and only “gaze”, then the probability of polemic, conflict, and/or hegemony is enhanced. When tourists participate in the process of othering, it can result in selective cultural appropriation.
This is particularly true when the host community/culture is perceived as staid, still, and void of dynamism. While tourism offers the possibility of challenging the dominant (Western) narrative with real lived experience of the other, the outcome critically depends upon the perspective and the intent of the tourist.
The current shift in global economic power has changed this landscape andpotentially the perspective and intent of the tourist. The tourist is now primarily from China or from other emerging economies including India.
This shift in the one who gazes and the one who is gazed upon has created a tension and a resistance to this disturbance in the waters of otherness.
We contend that the one who is gazed upon resists and is often angered by this impending transfer of power while the one who gazes has the opportunity to do things differently.
In the case of Goa, tourism has been a major economic force for several decades. Recently the government of Goa has officially adopted tourism as a state sponsored development strategy. The aforementioned global shift in economic power has created a rising middle class in India resulting in a greater share of domestic tourists relative to international tourists coming to Goa. Domestic tourists coming from the rest of India have different tastes and preferences that they now demand be satisfied by the Goan host.
The tourism industry and the Goa Department of Tourism have packaged and promoted Goa as a tourist destination where anything goes.
This notion is based on the Goan disposition of sossegado, “described as
Chapter Eight 114
quiet, calm, peaceful, or laid-back” (Basu & Imara, 2014, p.352). For Goans, sossegado, as a way of looking at the world, resides at the level of spiritual significance. It is a philosophy; a way of learning about, giving meaning to, and knowing the world. If the tourist only sees his own precept of the concept of sossegado, then we have the conditions for fetishization and cultural appropriation; disavowing subjectivity. Taken in isolation of the aesthetic community that articulated, lived, and practiced it is in effect, not giving ‘propers’ or respect to that community.
In the case of music culture, we see this fetishization of sossegado playing out with both international and domestic tourists regularly making requests of Goan musicians that are particular to their own culture/language. International tourists frequently make requests for Russian songs or German songs whereas domestic tourists frequently make demands for Bollywood songs. Basu and Imara (2014, p.352) found that “Goan musicians, more often than not, accommodate requests of international tourists instead of domestic tourists.” In other words, the hegemony of the primarily European and American tourists over the host region is clear.
The history of Goa has been marked by almost 500 years of colonization by the Portuguese and then more recently annexation by India in 1962. As a result, many Goans feel a stronger affinity to Europe and more specifically Western music. With the Indian tourist becoming the dominant force in Goa, we now have a contested cultural space. In the course of our fieldwork in Goa, we witnessed and heard testimony of the domestic Indian tourist disregarding the performance-practices and repertoires of the Goan musician and demanding the performance of music selections to his/her liking and the Goan musician resisting this request.
We also see this phenomenon of the inversion of the tourist gaze internationally, where tourists from China and India have an increasing presence in tourist destinations in Europe. For example, the number of Indian tourists in Spain in 2013 increased by almost 30% compared to the previous year. According to the Deputy Minister of Tourism in Spain,
“Spain aspires to be the preferred tourist destination for India.” While the increasing presence of Indian tourists in Spain is a much-needed economic boon, anecdotal evidence reveals that it has also troubled the waters of otherness.
For example, during a recent visit to Madrid a cab driver was resentful and reluctant to offer services to “undeserving” Indians. A visit to Barcelona was met by racial invectives by service providers at popular tourist destinations. Other Indian visitors to Spain reported similar incidents. Further research needs to be done to explore this phenomenon.
Troubling Waters of Otherness 115