The problem of South Asian popular culture: a view from the UK

This paper explores some of the challenges facing researchers and writers working in the field of South Asian cultural studies in the diaspora in the contemporary moment. Taking as its starting point the burgeoning interest in all aspects of South Asian cultures, lives and expressions since the late 1990s', the paper explores some of the dilemmas that accompany this emergence – around the politics of knowledge, the problem of cultural identity and the potentialities of popular culture – and argues for the necessity of a critical and politically re‐engaged cultural analysis.