The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational networks and changing identities

ISBN-13: 9780415456913 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 240 str.

Rajesh Rai;Peter Reeves

Opis

The South Asian Diaspora numbers just under 30 million people worldwide, and it is recognized as the most widely dispersed diaspora. It is, moreover, one which of late has seen phenomenal growth, both due to natural increase and the result of a continued movement of professionals and labourers in the late 20^th and early 21^st century from the subcontinent to countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Singapore.

This book uses the concept of transnational networks as a means to understand the South Asian diaspora. Taking into account diverse aspects of formation and development, the concept breaks down the artificial boundaries that have been dominating the literature between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ era of migration. Thereby the continued connectedness of most historic South Asian settlements is shown, and the fluid nature of South Asian identities is explored.

Offering a unique and original insight into the South Asian diaspora, this book will be of interest to academics working in the field of South Asian Studies, Diaspora and Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Transnationalism and Globalisation.

Spis treści

Introduction  Part 1: Transnational Networks  1. Ethnicity, locality and circulation in two diasporic merchant networks from South Asia  2. The social world of Gujarati merchants and their Indian Ocean networks in the seventeenth century  3. Subaltern networks in a colonial diaspora: a study of Indian migrants and Mauritius  4. An entrepreneurial diaspora? Transnational space and India’s international economic expansion  Part 2: Socio-economic Identities & Change  5. Indians in Southeast Asia: migrant labour, knowledge workers and the new India  6. Indo-Fijians: roots and routes  7. From Bharat to Sri Ram Desh: the emigration of Indian indentured labourers to Suriname  8. Sociological reflections on the diasporic Bangladeshis in Singapore and USA  Part 3: Culture & Changing Diasporic Identities  9. The attrition and survival of minor South Asian languages in Singapore  10. Forging kinship with food: the experience of South Indians in Malaysia  11. Bhai Maharaj Singh and the making of a ‘model minority’: Sikhs in Singapore  12. ‘The familiar temporariness’: Naipaul, diaspora and the literary imagination: a personal narrative