Transnational South Asians: The Making of a Neo-Diaspora

This volume examines the interrelationship between South Asian diaspora and globalization. It shows how the international division of labour has been redrawn by labour migrations from South Asia, how paradigms of the 'brain drain' have been supplemented by new models of the 'brain circuit', and how the construction of new transnational public spheres has altered cultural flows between the developed and the developing world. The volume highlights how South Asian diaspora is of pivotal importance because the migration it encompasses spans the rise of global modernity. The essays look at the practices of political organization, civic participation, social networking, religious activity, cultural production and consumption, commemoration, celebration, marriage, sexual relationships, family organization, and economic activity through which displaced communities reconstruct themselves in displacement. They focus on diasporic subjects who have been overlooked, forgotten, misrepresented, or marginalized in the scholarship on the South Asian diaspora, such as slaves, women migrants, queer desis.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction (Susan Koshy); I SOCIAL NETWORKS, CULTURAL PRACTICES, AND THE PROCESSES OF SETTLEMENT 2. Slaves, Servants, and Sugar Barons in Mauritius: Diversity and Transformation in a Historical South Asian Diaspora (Marina Carter); 3. Taz?a Fiji! The Place of Potentiality (Sudesh Mishra); II RELIGION, DISPLACEMENT, AND BELONGING 4. Islamophobia and Muslim Recognition in Britain (Steven Vertovec); 5. South Asian Assertiveness in Britain (Tariq Modood); 6. Nuancing the 'Migrant Experience': Perspectives from Kerala, South India (Camilla and Filippo Osella); III RACE, GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND THE POLITICS OF LOCATION 7. Dougla Logics: Miscegenation and the National Imaginary in Trinidad (Viranjini Munasinghe); 8. Roomful of Asha: Gendered Productions of Ethnicity in Britain's 'Asian Underground' (Falu Bakrania); 9. Coming Out of the Almirah: South Asian Americans Struggle with Coming out in a Gay America that Looks Nothing Like Them (Sandip Roy); IV LABOUR REGIMES AND TRANS-ETHNIC HISTORIES OF DIASPORA 10. The Skin of Pearls: Remembering and Forgetting in Diaspora Narratives (Suvendrini Perera); 11. Braceros and Techno-Bracers: Guest Workers in the United States and the Commodification of Low Wage and High Wage Labour (Sharmila Rudrappa); V LONG-DISTANCE PATRIOTISM: HOST COUNTRIES, HOMELANDS, AND DIASPORAS 12.The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora: Warmongers or Peacebuilders (Camila Orjuela and Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah); 13. Bollywood, USA: Diasporas, Nations, and the State of Cinema (Jigna Desai); Notes on Contributors; Index