The Global Indian Diaspora And Its Histories

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Contact between Asians, Africans, and Europeans in East Africa has a long history and was largely influenced by the economics and politics of colonisation and the emergence of nation-states.2 This long-standing relationship resulted in a particular 'East African Asian culture' in which Gujarati (Indian), Swahili (East African) and European cultures were adapted, transformed, and re invented. The migration of Asians from one continent to another, where they became a minority, resulted in the development of various strategies of adaptation, with the group adopting new socio-cultural values while maintaining some of their original values. Any diasporic community is uniquely situated owing to its multi-polarity, defined by the continuity/discontinuity of the cultural baggage from the place of origin, the dynamics of the host society and the influence of the motherland or ancestral land. This uniqueness is carried further by temporal and spatial dimensions besides the location of the emigrants in the society of their origin. Some sections of a society are more prone to emigration than others and the causes and consequence of such emigration have their implication for the diaspora formed. In recent years, the term 'diaspora' has been more frequently used to characterise peoples existing away from their homelands. Khachig Tölölyan, editor of the journal Diaspora, asserts that 'the term that once described Jewish, Greek, and Armenian dispersion now shares meanings with a larger semantic domain that includes words like immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guest-worker, exile community, overseas community, ethnic community'.

Chandni Ahuja is a journalist and book critic who writes frequently about the culture and politics of global migration. Her reporting, criticism and essays have appeared in the newspaper Book Review. She has published many articles in journals and chapters in books.

Contact between Asians, Africans, and Europeans in East Africa has a long history and was largely influenced by the economics and politics of colonisation and the emergence of nation-states.2 This long-standing relationship resulted in a particular 'East African Asian culture' in which Gujarati (Indian), Swahili (East African) and European cultures were adapted, transformed, and re-invented. The migration of Asians from one continent to another, where they became a minority, resulted in the development of various strategies of adaptation, with the group adopting new socio-cultural values while maintaining some of their original values. Any diasporic community is uniquely situated owing to its multi-polarity, defined by the continuity/discontinuity of the cultural baggage from the place of origin, the dynamics of the host society and the influence of the motherland or ancestral land. This uniqueness is carried further by temporal and spatial dimensions besides the location of the emigrants in the society of their origin. Some sections of a society are more prone to emigration than others and the causes and consequence of such emigration have their implication for the diaspora formed.

In recent years, the term 'diaspora' has been more frequently used to characterise peoples existing away from their homelands. Khachig Tololyan, editor of the journal Diaspora, asserts that 'the term that once described Jewish, Greek, and Armenian dispersion now shares meanings with a larger semantic domain that includes words like immigrant, expatriate, refugee, guest-worker, exile community, overseas community, [and] ethnic community' .Others have even more broadly defined diaspora as 'that segment of a people living outside the homeland'. The term diaspora seems to have migrated in a manner similar to those it intended to describe and beyond. It began as a way of describing the dispersal of Jews from their homeland and has subsequently flourished as a way of describing the relationship that individuals have with the so called 'homeland'. In searching the Internet one can find references to English, Australian, Indian, and African diaspora amongst others. The one factor that seems to be highlighted as a feature of all 'diasporas' is the relationship with a "homeland' The relation of South Asian migrants to their homeland, the reproduction of Indian culture abroad and the role of the Indian state in reconnecting migrants of India, focusing on the limits of the diaspora concept, rather than on its possibilities. From a comparative perspective, using examples from South Asian communities in Suriname, Mauritius, East Africa, the UK, Canada and the Netherlands, this collection presents new and controversial insights into the concept of diaspora, raising the question about the limits of its effectiveness as an intellectual concept.

**Contents and Sample Pages**