Cultural Appropriation, Artistic Freedom and the Ethics of Representation

This paper takes the recent debate about cultural appropriation in Assam initiated by the national award-winning Dimasa movie Semkhor. It contextualises the controversy within the milieu of ethnic identity politics in Assam. Then, it goes beyond the ethnic dimension and highlights the ethical complexities inherent in cultural representation within artistic endeavours. It argues that the issue of artistic freedom adds a new dimension to the tendency of loosely using the term cultural appropriation, especially in a world where artistic freedom is increasingly being endangered.