South Asian Diaspora Narratives : Roots and Routes

Contents: 1. South Asian Diaspora in Australia: History, Research, and Literature. 2. An Element of Romanticization: Sensory and Spatial Locations. 3. A Journey through Places: Politics of Spatial Location. 4. Real, Imagined, and Mythologized: (Re)Presentation of Lost Home. 5. Acts of Remembering and Forgetting: Reflections through Nostalgia. 6. An Australian Learning Experience: Prejudice, Racism, and Indifference. 7. Another World, Another Future. 8. Conclusion: Thoda Indian, Thoda Aussie.

South Asian Diaspora Narratives: Roots and Routes, analyses the metaphysical and poetical notions and the processes of ‘rooting into a culture’ and ‘routing out of a culture’. These diasporic narratives are often characterised by bifurcated and dislocated identities that exist in a liminal space, in-between two identities, two cultures, and two histories. Yet, ‘home’ remains, through acts of imagination, remembering and re-creation, an important reference point. It argues that a clearer notion of politics of location will be required to distinguish the different kinds of ‘dislocation’ the immigrants suffer, both psychologically and sociologically. This book fills a lacuna in the South Asian Diaspora studies by analysing and calling upon a wide range of works in this field from historical, anthropological, sociological, cultural, and literary studies. (jacket)