On Oct. 11, Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy, was stabbed to death by Joseph Czuba, his family’s landlord, in a horrific tragedy. His mother was also attacked but survived. Their attacker was reportedly obsessed with coverage of Hamas’ attack on Israel and had begun to associate the actions of Hamas with every Palestinian.
The opening ceremony, through both its obsession with its new Western guests and its mimicry of Hollywood galas, reflects how Western validation still forms an integral part of South Asia’s identity formation and reach for global recognition. In this preoccupation with catering to global, or more specifically Western validation, indigenous art suffers the harm of reductive promotion that does no justice to the “rich cultural history” that Ambani boasts of promoting.
As an Indian Hindu living overseas, I started Diwali with lighting a diya in front of the Lord Ganesha idol on my desk. Within seconds of putting in a silent prayer for the god of new beginnings, I received news of new beginnings being celebrated elsewhere — the United Kingdom had elected Rishi Sunak to be their new prime minister. At the age of 42, Sunak is the first person of color and the first person of South Asian descent to become prime minister of the U.K, according to Reuters.
