Global Indian Diaspora

Global Indian Diasporas discusses the relationship between South Asian emigrants and their homeland, the reproduction of Indian culture abroad, and the role of the Indian state in reconnecting emigrants to India. Focusing on the limits of the diaspora concept, rather than its possibilities, this volume presents new historical and anthropological research on South Asian emigrants worldwide. From a comparative perspective, examples of South Asian emigrants in Suriname, Mauritius, East Africa, Canada, and the United Kingdom are deployed in order to show that in each of these regions there are South Asian emigrants who do not fit into the Indian diaspora concept—raising questions about the effectiveness of the diaspora as an academic and sociological index, and presenting new and controversial insights in diaspora issues.

The Indian diaspora today is one of the largest diasporas in the world. The participants form a strategic resource in intellectual, economic, and cultural spheres, besides being goodwill ambassadors of India in the land of their adoption. Recent developments in the fields of communication and transportation technology have facilitated the linkages between India and the Indian diaspora. The essays in this volume examine the historical context of Indian emigration, the diaspora formation, the rise of Indian nationalism, and issues of identity in specific diasporic locations.

Indian Diaspora World Convention was held in Trinidad in 2017 to commemorate the 1917 decision of the Indian Legislature to end further recruitment of Indians for overseas indentured service. This part is volume I of the two volume work Global Indian Diaspora. It is a significant addition to current research on India’s cultural expansion into the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. In this volume, the former indentured Empire speaks back, giving its side of the narrative, not in an apologetic accounting but rather on the positive side in diverse ways. The Girmitiyas (lit. agreement signers) maintained their core values using these to gain anchorage in the new places. At the same time, they prudently took advantage of agencies, such as the Canadian Mission to gain admission to the wider westernized community. They maintained ties with India through frequent visits of Indian scholars and missionaries. They equally preserved their cultural observances derived from Indian antiquity adding diversity to the colonial society. All of these elements combine to give a refreshing perspective on the globalization of the world, which started long before all the time. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Indian Diaspora World Convention was held in Trinidad in 2017 to commemorate the 1917 decision of the Indian legislature to end further recruitment of Indians for overseas indentured service. The eleven essays in this second volume cover a wide range under the heading ‘Charting New Frontiers’. It is a diverse collection, indicating broad scope among the researchers on this theme. The contributors to this volume think through the conundrum of national citizenship, in relation to their routes and roots from a variety of perspectives. The essays compiled in this monograph, thus, reveal that the subject areas comprising the study of the Indian diaspora are interdisciplinary in nature and constantly evolving. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

In recent years, the term ‘diaspora’ has been more frequently used to characterise peoples existing away from their homelands. Khachig To¨- lo¨lyan, editor of the journal Diaspora, asserts that ‘the term that once described Jewish, Greek, and Armenian dispersion now shares meanings with a larger semantic domain that includes words like immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guest-worker, exile community, overseas community, [and] ethnic community’. Generally speaking, then, this mosaic of Indian identities abroad is presented as the mirror of India itself. India is diverse, and so too are its migrants. It is acknowledged that Indian migrants abroad tend to reproduce their own religions, family patterns, and cultures as much as possible. One is the prefix ‘Indian’. And the other is the term ‘dia-spora’. The implication of the first is that there is a single India with its people, who are somehow united under one flag. This is far from obvious. India has been described as a ‘nation and its fragments’ or an ‘invented nation.