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Toronto: Women's Press, 2003. 211 pp. $24.95 sc.
There has been a great deal of feminist research in Canada over the past twenty years on the myriad ways in which South Asian women cope with alienation, systemic racism, and the patriarchal demands of family / community. Until recently, the bulk of this research focused mainly on the immigrant experience (i.e. hostile immigration officials, unrecognised credentials, etc.): In the last few years, however, there has been a growing interest in second generation struggles with racism, identity, and belonging.
Handa's book is an articulate and richly textured account of South Asian girls' attempts to "fit in" without abandoning their diasporic roots. She argues that both mainstream and academic understandings of the second generation have been shaped by the "culture clash" model, which positions girls as torn between the "traditional" demands of a backward community and the "modern" expectations of a liberal society. This overly simplistic approach does not recognise the value that girls themselves place on being South Asian. Furthermore the model is predicated on a Eurocentric notion of western superiority. Drawing upon the work of Tony Bennett and Edward Said, Handa reconceptualises culture as both an ideology of western civilisation, progress, and development, and a body of discourses...