1st Edition
Indian Transnationalism Online New Perspectives on Diaspora
Present-day migration takes place in a world characterized by the compression of time and space, with cheaper air travel and the existence of new communication technologies - the internet in particular - making it easier to stay in contact with the places, people and cultures that one has left. This book investigates the online organization of, and exchanges within, the global Indian diaspora. Bringing together research from around the world and presenting studies drawn from the US, Europe and India, it engages with theoretical and methodological debates concerning the shaping and transformation of migrant culture in emerging sites of sociality, and explores issues such as religion, citizenship, nationalism, region and caste as they relate to Indian identity in global, transnational contexts. With detailed empirical case studies showing both how members of the Indian diaspora connect with one other and ’life at home’ and how institutions in India maintain such links, Indian Transnationalism Online sheds light on the ways in which information and communication technology functions as both a catalyst and indicator of contemporary socio-cultural change. As such it will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and studies of cultural studies working in the areas of migration, transnationalism and ethnic studies.
Biography
Ajaya Kumar Sahoo is the Director of the Centre for Study of Indian Diaspora at the University of Hyderabad, India. He is the co-editor of Indian Diaspora and Transnationalism, Transnational Migrations: The Indian Diaspora, Sociology of Ageing: A Reader, Tracing an Indian Diaspora: Contexts, Memories, Representations, and Sociology of Diaspora: A Reader. Johannes G. de Kruijf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands and author of Guyana Junction: Globalisation, Localisation, and the Production of East Indianness.
'The argument that mobility in the digital era is no longer synonymous with unrootedness and that CMC not only facilitates, but also intensifies the connectivity between migrants and their homeland, makes this volume a significant contribution to the fields of cultural studies, sociology, and political science.' Transfers 'This volume offers a useful collection of studies which examine the important role of online media in re-shaping Indian diasporic experiences and new connections forged across national boundaries and localities. ... the variety of themes explored and the very useful introduction and conclusion offered by de Kruijf make this volume an important contribution to scholarship on migration and diaspora studies as well as for the anthropology of globalisation.' South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies '... a timely contribution, providing both empirical material and broader reflections on how the Indian diaspora has been reshaped by entering the age of Internet.' Asian and Pacific Migration Journal
