Desh Pardesh was an annual arts festival in Toronto that focused on queer and South Asian culture.
Its goals were to bring visibility and a voice to marginalized groups while breaking down the boundaries separating identities like race and sexual orientation.
[2] The organization’s primary goal was to facilitate a deeper understanding of South Asian culture and values within the gay and lesbian communities.
[4] Similarly, the queer community dressed in fanciful costumes and drag to celebrate and stimulate discussion surrounding its culture.
There was so much creativity and we had a lot of fun, but the vision was always about outreach - outward and inward"[2] Salaam Toronto was officially renamed Desh Pardesh in 1990.
Sharon Fernandez writes that "the complex histories of self-determination and resistance on the part of North America's feminist, civil rights, lesbian, gay, and Aboriginal movements that created a climate in which Desh could flourish.
Everyone else, all the other artists that were featured were straight and there was really bad politics in it.”[6] Conversations during the festival shifted towards discussion of South Asian culture in general, widening the purpose and scope of the Desh Pardesh.
[7] As the Premier of Ontario (1995–2002), Mike Harris enacted significant funding cuts to welfare, education, and transportation programs that impacted the Greater Toronto Area.
Fatima Amarshi, the executive director at the time, estimated that $10,000 was immediately needed operating costs for the next three months, and $50,000 in the long run.
The performance at Euclid Theatre focused on the empowerment of the South Asian community against wider social and cultural forces.
[15] Live reading of works that explored the impact the race, religion, sexual orientation, communalism, fundamentalism, discrimination, and more from South Asian writers.