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.
1. Introduction: New Forces, New Perspectives in the Indian diaspora Part 1: Historical Perspectives 2. Indian and Chinese Global Networks 3. The Ending of Indian Indentured Emigration. The Road to 2017 4. Towards theorising the Girmitiya Diaspora: Beyond ‘Persistence’ and ‘Change’ Part 2: Emerging perspectives 5. Hindu Nationalism and Indian American Diasporic Mobilizations 6. Interrogating a ‘Diasporic’ Lens: Narrating Singapore’s Indian Communities 7. Indians in Africa: Roots, Recognition and Racial Nationalism 8. Changing Dynamics of Indian Diaspora in the Gulf Region Part 3: Global Forces 9. Indian Diaspora Economics: The Entanglement of Economics with Culture 10. Hindutva in Western Societies: Entanglements and Paradoxes
Biography
Ruben Gowricharn is Professor of Indian Diaspora Studies at the VU University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has published extensively on diasporas, democracy and the integration of ethnic minorities. He has edited several books including Shifting Transnational Bonding in Indian Diaspora (2020) and Political Integration in Indian Diaspora Societies (2020) and is the author of Multiple Homemaking: The Ethnic Condition in Indian Diaspora Societies (2020). He is also the managing director of a doctoral programme for adult migrant students in the Netherlands and Suriname.
