Mapping Indian Diaspora : Contestations and Representations

Contents: Introduction. 1. Marriage patterns and practices among young south Asian Americans/Karen Leonard. 2. Citizenship and nationality: the dynamic ‘home’ of Goan Catholics in Swindon, England/Joanna P. Coelho. 3. Being in Kalapani: the Jahaji Bhai aboard the Indian emigrant ship/Subhadeep Kumar. 4. Religion and politics in the Diaspora: the case of Indians in Malaysia/Kishore Kumar Aleti. 5. Transnationality: enabling individual capabilities, amplifying diasporic linkages and redefining policy/Sridhar Bhagavatula. 6. Tracing transnational networks in Amitav Ghosh’s in an antique land/Anindita Shome. 7. Mapping Diaspora engagement through entrepreneurial perspective: issues and challenges/Rakesh Ranjan. 8. State strategies of differentiated citizenship: India’s diaspora engagement policy/Diksha Jha. 9. Diaspora on the Margin: contextualizing partition Diaspora and Abdul Ghani Sheikh’s two nations one story/Angshuman Kar. 10. Religious fundamentalism and Indian Diaspora: M.G. Vassanji’s The assassin’s song/Arnab Kumar Sinha. 11. A search for identity in Meena Alexander’s raw silk/Sanjoy Malik. 12. Identity formation or corrosion: a tale of Diasporic conversion: reading Shani Mootoo’s cereus blooms at Night (1996) and Ramabai Espinet’s the swinging bridge (2003)/Neetu Devi. Index.

This book deals with an important issue in the contemporary world, i.e. the Indian Diaspora, at a time when India is emerging as a global economic and geo-political power. The Indian Diaspora today numbers around 28 million, has a presence in nearly every part of the world, and most importantly, has a distinct identity, one that can be contrasted to other major diasporas such as the Chinese and the Armenians. The relationship of diasporic Indians with the homeland is getting stronger as a result of the revolution in faster information and communication technologies, and at the same time the Indian Government has been encouraging linkages of diasporic Indians with India in a variety of ways. This book will be useful not only to sociologists but also to scholars working in the fields of anthropology, political science, geography, history, literacy, ethnic and migration studies. (jacket)