African Clusters in India examines the discrimination and stereotypes faced by African migrants in India. It outlines the narratives of the migrants and demonstrates how their ‘African identity’ gets associated with drugs, prostitution, and cannibalism. The book brings to the fore how African migrants experience racial profiling based on a conflated African identity and how this identity gets generalized irrespective of the different nationalities and leads to social exclusion.
This monograph argues that the antagonistic urban environment gives rise to the formation of a pan-African identity as a response to cultural biases and stereotypes. Thus, it explores the role of language, culture, and politics of representation to show the process of ‘othering’ and exclusion in India.
Drawing on lived experiences of the migrants, the volume engages with the larger discourse of globalization, liberalization, and migration within the global south. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of critical race theory, ethnography, urban sociology, African studies, and South Asian studies.
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Acronyms
PART I
Introduction
1 ‘African Clusters,’ Spatial Exclusion, and ‘African’ Identity in India
PART II
The Emergence of African Clusters in India
2 India-Africa Relations: Delineating Post-colonial and Neoliberal Ties in Global South
3 Historical and Contemporary Patterns of Migration from Africa to India
4 The Forced Migration of Somali Refugees: Mapping the Impacts of Civil War and Internal Political Crisis
5 Re-reading ‘African’ Clusters: Locating Housing Segregation, Gated Communities, and Discriminatory Practices
PART III
Race, Representation, and Othering: Lived Experiences from the African Cluster
6 African Migrants and Discrimination: Locating the Intersectionality of Race, Class, Gender, and Religion
7 African Migrants, the State, and Contesting Narratives on Racial Discrimination: Locating Critical Race Theory
8 Discursive Representation and Othering of the African Identity: Race as a Signifier
9 The Pan-African Identity in India: The Emergence of Collective Identity through Solidarity Networks and African Kitchens
PART IV
The Way Forward
10 De-colonizing Colour Consciousness: Theorzing Race and Racism in India
Index
Biography
Koyal Verma is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Bennett University. She has taught at Delhi University in colleges like Miranda House, Hindu College, and Maitreyi College, as well as Ambedkar University Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has done research for projects funded by Yale University, UNESCO, Ford Foundation, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Her areas of specialization are urban sociology, migration studies, diaspora studies, and race and ethnic studies.
