Author: Vinay Lal
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 159
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788172237158
Description
The Indian Diaspora today, more so than ever before, is an incontestable fact of world culture. Diverse Indian communities scattered across the globe now complement the nineteenth century Diaspora of indentured laborers and traders, and nowhere has the growth of the Indian Diaspora registered such a phenomenal increase as in the United States.
This book offers a crisp and politically engaged narrative of the social and cultural history of Indian Americans: commencing with the circulation of Ideas about India in America, it considers such phenomena as the Ghadr Movement, the struggles over rights of citizenship, the reification of Indian culture, the emergence of temple Hinduism and the attempts by NRIs to influence the course of events in India.
Contents
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION:
The Politics of Identity and a Note on Usage
Indians in the Global Setting
Passage to India: The Circulation of the Orient in America
Voyage from India: Slaves and Seamen, Workers and Peasants
The Diaspora within the Diaspora: Students and Rebels
"Tawnies" Amidst Whites (after Benjamin Franklin)
Exile in the New Canaan
Emergence of a Diasporic Community
The Religious Life of Indian Communities
Indian "Culture"" in the Diaspora
The Politics of Affluence and the Anxiety of Influence
The Landscapes of Representation in Internet Modernity
Politics and the Future of Indians in the US
The Diaspora at Home: Returnees, Retirees, & Resident Non-Indians
Sources and Select Further Reading
Index
About the Author