A Journey in Individuation: Bhaji on The Beach

Abstract

The Punjabi culture dictates different normative for the genders even in the land of adoption. Hence
diasporic Punjabi women face containment and oppression in the domestic space which contrasts
with the culture of the adopted land and creates zones of conflict, assimilation and negotiations and
they are forced to look anew at their cultural norms, identities and values. The negotiations of the
hyphenated identities caught between the two worlds often leads to psychological and emotional
problems both in the first and second generation women. The present paper deliberates on how
women of different generations in the immigrant culture construct and deconstruct their identities
and negotiate their space within the Patriarchal Punjabi culture. It looks into the Punjabi Woman’s
(dis)location within English culture, in the movie Bhaji on the Beach directed by Gurinder Chadha
and analyzes and critically evaluates the dynamics within the Indian Community abroad.