LONDON MELA

London Mela - Gunnersbury Park - Sunday 15 August 2004
The summer season of festivals continues with the London Mela, one of the most significant South Asian festivals in Britain. Join thousands in a celebratory mood in Gunnersbury Park as it is turned into a rich field of music, colour and dance with everything from classical South Asian music to mainstream pop and stand-up comedy

Although a mere infant - it first took place in 2003- the London Mela delivers a comprehensive, rich programme of South Asian culture. Sunday, 14th of August will see Gunnersbury Park packed with live performers from both Asian pop and classical traditions.

A Global Market will offer many delights from all around the world and those who want to learn more about the South Asian heritage in Britain will be able to take part in workshops or peruse displays from museums and galleries. With special events for children, culinary delights and even an Active Mela offering water sports, canoeing, traditional Asian sports and martial arts, there really should be something for everyone.

Full details of the programme are located here...

Local Heritage

West London has a rich heritage of South Asian culture. For example, the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, UK Centre is located in Barons Court, just a stone's throw away from a house where Mahatma Gandhi lived in the 1920s.

The Bhavan is internationally recognized as a centre of excellence in the promotion, presentation and development of South Asian culture. It is particularly well known for its presentations of cultural forms - such as dance, music and theatre- based in classical South Asian traditions. However, equally importantly, it is known for projects that create a dialogue between the classical South Asian arts and the contemporary. More...

If all this South Asian culture has sparked an interest, here are a few other places in west London you could explore:

PRSSV A charitable trust based in Ealing devoted to tabla and vocal forms, the PRSSV offer classes leading to national music qualifications and careers advice and development to performers.

Asian Music & Arts Academy - Based in Ealing, the academy offers music-recording services, vocal and instrumental tuition in all types of Asian music. One to one and group training.

The Asian Music Circuit - Based in Acton, the Asian Music Circuit is one of the leading promoters of Asian music in Britain, programming events with some of the world's top names. Contributing at the highest level to British music culture, it collaborates with a range of key institutions such as the BBC's Proms, The Royal Festival Hall and the Royal College of Music. In addition to these activities, it runs a number of education projects and schemes to train young musicians to a high level.

On a more contemporary note, let's not forget that Waterman's Art Centre in Brentford has been something of a hothouse for young talent in British South Asian arts scene. Many of the familiar faces that you may know very well from acclaimed television comedy shows had the opportunity to hone their craft at Watermans. It is always worth keeping an eye on the "Asian Arts" section of their site.

More Melas

The tradition of the mela -or festival- has its roots in ancient Indian culture. Perhaps the most famous mela is the Maha Kumbh Mela, a religious festival that takes place in northern India once every 12 years. It is probably the biggest gathering of human beings in any one place as literally millions of devotees converge on the Ganges to undertake ritual cleansing. The sheer number of people is so great, that it can even be seen from space. More...

Of course, in Britain, as with many cultural traditions that were brought with them by immigrants, melas have grown up in many locations with notable South Asian populations. One of the biggest and best-known in is the Edinburgh Mela. Why not have a look at what their one will offer this year. More...

And, if you feel like a little comparison or perhaps you're even a bit of a mela aficionado, this excellent guide on the BBC's Asian Network site enables you to track summer mela action by location. More...

Just to give an example of how South Asian culture has brought its traditions to all of the regions in which people from South Asia have settled, here is the site of another famous mela, the Oslo Mela in Norway.

Eastern Thought

If all this South Asian culture has you thinking that you might like to learn a few more of the ideas and skills arising from these regional cultures, why not consider some of the following courses available in west London.

Both Yoga and Samskara traditions are strongly represented in a range of courses available at all levels in Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent and Harrow.

Hammersmith & Fulham courses...
Brent courses...
Harrow courses...

Brent is offering a number of courses in Asian clothes making techniques while in Harrow, there are a number of courses specifically in Asian make-up techniques.

Harrow is obviously a good place to start exploring the tastes of South Asia with a number of Indian cookery classes on offer while Brent might be a good place to start learning the skills of traditional Indian massage techniques

Clickable South Asia

If you're a bit more of an online learner, here are a few places that could prove interesting and useful.

Clickwalla
claims to be the leading Asian portal in the UK. Certainly it is packed full of news items, articles, job vacancies, competitions and listings aimed at Britain's Asian communities.

BBC's Asian Life
is a BBC portal linking the BBC's mainstream services with content of specific Asian interest.

SALIDAA
The South Asian Literature & Arts Archive is based in south London. However, their site contains numerous useful online resources on South Asian writing and arts in the UK.

Tara Arts
is the longest running UK Asian theatre company. It first went into producing theatre in the late 1970s and has been going strong ever since. Even if you never manage to make it to a performance by the company, the website contains a number of very interesting articles on Asian theatre arts in a contemporary context.

Straight From the Source

India is the world's largest voting nation. With a long tradition of journalism, this country of vast population has many newspapers, many of which offer online versions in English. If you're interested in seeing how South Asia sees the world, why not take a look at some of these...

The Telegraph Calcutta
The Voice of Millions New Delhi
Daily Excelsior Kashmir
The Hindu National
The Tribune
Islamic Voice Bangalore

Or you might want to look at these newspapers online from Pakistan...
Daily Times Lahore
South Asia Tribune international version
Times

Or from Nepal...
The Himalayan Times
Nepal News

The strong tradition of English language journalism in South Asia, like many other things, is linked to the British presence in India during the days of Empire. The historically complex relationship between Britain and India is an important factor in how both South Asian British people and white British people understand themselves and their collective pasts. The BBC's History website in its section on "Empire", has some excellent materials and online resources that can help us learn more about this complex history. More...

One of the other things that the South Asian heritage has given us in the UK is our most popular cuisine. It's now official: curry is the UK's most popular food.If you're a fan of curry and other South Asian cooking, the following are a few good places to start planning some fun in the kitchen...

http://www.curryhouse.co.uk
The online magazine for lovers of curry house-style cooking and dishes. This site shows you just what one man's obsession can create. A great site with recipes, glossaries, tips on cooking curries and links to other great sites. Be sure to check out the spats "letters" section. One too many chilies and the bickering starts.

The Big Boy's Curry Book
Another nice little labour of love, author Ashley Kitson collected his favourite recipes travelling around India and put them together on a nice little site. Very much a "lads" site, a perfect way to lure men into the kitchen.

With the biggest film industry outside of the USA, India has a rich wealth of cinema ranging from the "serious" filmmakers who address social issues through to the popular entertainment of Bollywood cinema...

Punjabilok site
has a section devoted to Bollywood links that has to be one of the most extensive around.

Internet Movie Database
is one of the most extensive databases on the Net for finding out information about films and their directors. This is the Indian version of the database where you can either search for a specific title or browse by category.

A Chronology of Indian Cinema 1896 to 2000
This great resource shows the history of cinema in India on an easy to use timeline; from its very start to the very recent past.