|
THE INDIAN
DIASPORA
The Indian diaspora today constitutes an important,
and in some respects unique, force in world culture. The origins of the
modern Indian diaspora lie mainly in the subjugation of India by the
British and its incorporation into the British empire. Indians were taken
over as indentured labor to far-flung parts of the empire in the
nineteenth-century, a circumstance to which the modern Indian populations
of Fiji, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Surinam, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri
Lanka, and other places attest in their own peculiar ways. Over two
million Indian men fought on behalf of the empire in numerous wars,
including the Boer War and the two World Wars, and some remained behind to
claim the land on which they had fought as their own. As if in emulation
of their ancestors, many Gujarati traders once again left for East Africa
in large numbers in the early part of the twentieth century. Finally, in
the post-World War II period, the dispersal of Indian labor and
professionals has been a nearly world-wide phenomenon. Indians, and other
South Asians, provided the labor that helped in the reconstruction of
war-torn Europe, particularly the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and
in more recent years unskilled labor from South Asia has been the main
force in the transformation of the physical landscape of much of the
Middle East. Meanwhile, in countries such as the United States, Canada,
and Australia, Indians have made their presence visibly felt in the
professions.
Who and what is an Indian? How
we are to characterize the Indian diasporic community as 'Indian' given
that it is constituted of such diverse elements as South Asian Hong Kong
Muslims, Canadian Sikhs (or shall we say Sikh Canadians?), Punjabi Mexican
Californians, Gujarati East Africans now settled in the U.S. by way of
England, South African Hindus, and so forth? In the United States, at
least, the Indian community has occupied a place of considerable
privilege, and many Indians could deflect the moment of recognition that 'Indianness' and being 'American' do not always happily coincide. In
recent years, with a declining economy on the one hand, and the
congregation of Indians in clusters that visibly put them apart on the
other hand, Indians have for the first time become the targets of racial
attacks. The Indian woman in her 'native dress', with the vermillion dot
on her forehead, is easily seen as an embodiment of sheer otherness, and
so she has been perceived by the so-called "dot-busters", a gang of white
teenagers operating in New Jersey who have already been responsible for
several violent crimes against Indians. In North America and the U.K., the
native Indian costume has come up for public scrutiny and discussion in an
altogether different respect: Sikhs have insisted that they be exempt from
the law that compels bicyclists and motorcyclists to wear helmets, for
such helmets cannot be worn over turbans, and their religious faith
requires Sikhs to wear turbans. The kirpan has been an issue of contention
in California schools. The 'corner shop', a hallowed symbol (if we could
recall our Dickens) of English life, is now mainly in the hands of
Indians. The obvious question is not only, 'What do the English think of
that', but also: 'If the English landscape has been so altered, what is
English about England'? The diaspora, in short, affects the center as
well.
However unlike Indian
communities across the world might be, they all maintain some sort of
tenuous link with the motherland. The most likely candidate for a force of
bonding would be, of all things, the Hindi feature film, a phenomenon
unique to the Indian diaspora: what Hollywood is to Western Europe, the
Bombay Hollywood ("Bollywood") is to the Middle East and East Africa. The
modesty, not to mention puritanism, of the the Hindi film is said to
explain its appeal to the Islamic world; and though we may well contest
that interpretation, it is worthy of note that Hindi films found in
grocery and video stores across the U.S. often carry subtitles in Arabic,
one language which is indubitably not spoken by any Indian community in
the U.S.! The Indian 'arranged marriage' might furnish another such facet
of a 'common culture'. Newspapers published by Indian communities flourish
everywhere, and they invariably carry a section with matrimonial ads.
Though these very ads help Indians to 'locate' one another, they pose
difficult questions about 'otherness', both the otherness' of Indians in
relation to 'Americans', and the internal 'otherness' of certain Indians
in relation to other Indians.
The
religious practices of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims in the U.S. and other
overseas communities might be assisting in transforming the nature of
religious faiths in India itself. Hindus all over the world are showing
alarming signs of susceptibility to a resurgent and militant Hinduism;
indeed, it is even arguable that they seem to know the meaning of Hinduism
better than do Hindus in the 'motherland'. Why do overseas Hindus,
particularly in the North American diaspora, appear always to out-Hindu
the Hindu? In thinking of the Indian diaspora, other questions that come
to the fore include: relations between parents and children; race
relations between Indians, blacks, and whites; the place of Indian food
and music in the preservation of Indian communities; the responsibility,
if any, of the Indian Government to overseas Indians; and the future
prospects of the Indian community in the U.S.
Article (The HINDU)
Reflections on the Indian Diaspora.
Freedom in Chains.
At Home in Trinidad.
The Future of the Indians in the
Diaspora.
Source:
sscnet.ucla.edu
Back
to heritage index...
|
