Tracing the New Indian Diaspora

Book excerpt: The growing importance of the Indian diaspora is felt today across the globe due to its emergence as the second-largest dias¬poric community. By examining historical, socio-cultural, economic, political, and lite¬rary aspects of the Indian diaspora, this volume sets out to trace the latest devel¬opments in the field of Indian diaspora studies. It brings together essays by Indian and foreign scholars, thus providing an authoritative platform for discussions in which identities and affiliations are con¬tested and constituted through the hier¬archies of cross-cultural migration in this increasingly globalized world. This volume traces the transnational network of the Indian diaspora, and will prove of interest to scholars working in the fields of the Indian diaspora, diaspora theory, and cultural studies. Countries covered include Mauritius, Fiji, Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Malaya, South Africa, and New Zealand. Creative writers dis¬cussed include Ramabai Espinet, Vikram Chandra, Rohinton Mistry, Chitra Banerjee Diva¬karuni, Nisha Ganatra, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kavery Nambisan, and Sarita Mandanna, along with the work of filmmakers (Mira Nair, Yash Chopra, Kabir Khan, Shuchi Kothari, Mandrika Rupa, Karan Johar, Sugu Pillay, Mallika Krishnamurthy, and Nisha Ganatra). Wideranging and scholarly. Dwivedi’s edited collection on routes and representations of the Indian diaspora is a vital contribution to the growing critical discourse on this subject. — Professor Janet Wilson, Northampton University, UK Tracing the New Indian Diaspora is a significant contribution to the understanding of the positions and representations of the Indian diaspora, forcing us to re-examine our notions of location and dislocation, of home and the world, of belonging and alienation: in short, of the politics of the diaspora today. — Professor GJV Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Om Prakash Dwivedi is Assistant Professor in English at Taiz University, Yemen. His recent publications include The Other India: Narratives of Terror, Communalism and Violence (2012), Postcolonial Theory in the Global Age (co-ed. with Martin Kich, 2013), and a collection of short stories, The World to Come (2014).