Kris Rampersad
Lecturer
Department of Liberal Arts
UWI, St Augustine
Trinidad

Attitudes Towards Chutney, Soca and other Popular Indigenous Cultural Forms

Janjhat is a bhojpuri word. It is used by descendants of Indian immigrants in the New World to refer to situations of chaos, disharmony, discord, usually with a tone of disapproval.

The proposed paper anticipates presentation and exploration of attitudes towards the increasing popularity of chutney song, music and dance, in particular, and in the broader context of other “new” music, like soca. In doing so it will engage in a discourse on the conflict between generations and among ethnic streams in terms of acceptance, verification and authentication of such modes of popular culture.