Rungh. Colour. South Asian. Quarterly. National. Multi-disciplinary. Dialogues. Definitions. Change.

So, what is Rungh all about? I think that the best answer to that question is the double issue you are holding in your hands.

Rungh is about documenting. In Issue No.1, excerpts from the proceedings of Desh Pradesh have been transcribed and published for the first time. This conference, of South Asian culture in the Diaspora, which took place in Toronto in November 1991, represented a benchmark for the South Asian cultural community in Canada.

Rungh is also about creating ‘documents.' In Issue No. 2 one of the most engaging and thought provoking panels at Desh Pradesh—Home as Mythical Space—is used as a starting point for Amirali Alibhai's art project as well as an interview with three South Asian women poets who discuss the relationship between shrimp curry and the constitution!

Rungh is about dialogues. Whether they are between academics and theorists such as Chris Creighton Kelly and Aruna Srivastava or between artists and their audiences.

Rungh is about defining and challenging definitions. And noting the necessity for both in the times in which we live. Thus, artists such as Pratibha Parmar and Srinivas Krishna speak about the challenges of creating and engaging in their art practices.

Rungh is about activism and the frontlines. Whether that activism addresses racism in cultural institutions, the war against women, or the complex convergence of race, homophobia and aids.

Rungh is about communities and voices. Be they the voices of Indo-Caribbean women who create ‘community' through sharing oral histories and writing a play or the voices of poet Ian Iqbal Rashid and queer activist Nayan Shah.

Rungh is about creating audiences and providing a forum for the discussion of cultural production arising from communities of colour. Rungh wants to create a dialogue between the margins and the dominant streams of cultural production in the diaspora.

And for those of you who do not already know, Rungh means ‘colour.' Get it!!