Theorizing And Critiquing Indian Diaspora

Contains Papers That Debate And Formulate Theoretical Concepts About Indina Diaspora Like-Homeland, Acculturation, Religion, Caste, Ethnicity, Double Citizenship, Gender And Related Issues. Also Analyse The Successes And Failures Of Indian Diaspora In Various Countries-Figian Diaspra, Writings Fo Punjabi Diaspora, Asian Women. A Reference Tool For Those Interested In Theoretical Issues Related To Indian Diaspora.

Exploring the work of key writers from across the globe, this significant contribution to diaspora theory constitutes a major study of the literature and other cultural texts of the Indian diaspora.

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.

Contributory essays; some presented at a seminar held in December 1996 at the University of Rajasthan.

In a world of rapidly changing values and traditions, an Indian woman enters into an arranged marriage to a man she barely knows and moves to distant Canada Thirty-year-old Nina is an English teacher living alone in Jangpura, India. With diminishing prospects, she agrees to an arranged union. Her groom is the Indian-born Ananda, who lives in Canada. He once dreamed of becoming a doctor but settled for dentistry. He is lonely, and also in want of a spouse. Their life together is not what either expected. Unable to find work teaching in Nova Scotia, Nina takes a job at the local library. Ananda is troubled by his own response to the sexual aspects of their relationship. Assimilating into a new culture pales in comparison to the trials of marriage—its ups and downs, its inevitable compromises . . . and the temptations of illicit passion.

Bringing together the key essays that have constituted this field since its inception and that point the way toward its future, Theorizing Diaspora is a central resource for understanding diaspora as an emergent and contested theoretical space. Anthologizes the most influential and critically received essays that have shaped the trajectory of diaspora studies. Offers classic statements that have defined the field by scholars including Appadurai, Gilroy, Radhakrishnan, and Hall. Presents divergent strains of multiple diasporas, including Chinese, Black African, Jewish, South Asian, Latin American, and Caribbean. Reflects the modalities and methodologies of scholars across the humanities and social sciences. Includes a postscript on diaspora in cyberspace and an extensive bibliography.

This book critically examines new perspectives on the transformations in the Indian diaspora. It studies the changing perspectives on the historical background of the diaspora and analyses fresh and emerging views in response to new configurations in diaspora relations. The volume highlights the transformation of the old Indian diaspora into a new ensemble in which economic, ideological and cultural forces predominate and interact closely. It looks at various themes including Indian indentured emigration to sugar colonies, comparisons between labour migration from India and China, the Girmitiya diaspora, the Indian diaspora in Africa and the rise of racial nationalism, India’s soft power in the Gulf region, and the repurposing of the ‘Hindutva’ idea of India for Western societies as undertaken by diaspora communities. Lucid and topical, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of diaspora studies, migration studies, political studies, international relations, globalisation, political sociology, sociology and South Asia studies.

The Indian American community is one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the U.S. Unlike previous generations, they are marked by a high degree of training as medical doctors, engineers, scientists, and university professors. American Karma draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore how these highly skilled professionals have been inserted into the racial dynamics of American society and transformed into “people of color.” Focusing on first-generation, middle-class Indians in American suburbia, it also sheds light on how these transnational immigrants themselves come to understand and negotiate their identities. Bhatia forcefully contends that to fully understand migrant identity and cultural formation it is essential that psychologists and others think of selfhood as firmly intertwined with sociocultural factors such as colonialism, gender, language, immigration, and race-based immigration laws. American Karma offers a new framework for thinking about the construction of selfhood and identity in the context of immigration. This innovative approach advances the field of psychology by incorporating critical issues related to the concept of culture, including race, power, and conflict, and will also provide key insights to those in anthropology, sociology, human development, and migrant studies.

It is estimated that more than 30 million people of Indian Subcontinental origin presently live outside their homeland. The present geo-political status of the Indian Subcontinental diaspora calls for more research and newer theorisation on how migrants from the Indian Subcontinent relocate, acculturate and renegotiate their identities in new host environments. This volume focuses on their historical, socio-cultural and economic patterns of migration and identity negotiation and formation within transnational discourses. While some of the chapters here focus on the nature of representations of the homeland and hostland in the works of Indian Subcontinental diasporic writers and film directors, others deal with the economic and historic aspects of the Indian Subcontinental diaspora. The book also includes chapters on women’s Kalapani crossings, liminal spaces, Anglo-Indian-Australian diaspora, Chinese-Indian-Canadian diaspora, and Indian Subcontinental-British home workers’ transnational space, ushering in a new era of diasporic identities.

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.