In Diaspora: Theories, Histories, Texts

Over the last twenty years or so, it seems as if the Indian diaspora has suddenly come of age.  Shedding its minority status, it has demonstrated its inclination for becoming a majority, not in the sense of numerical superiority, but of growing up, maturing, attaining self-apprehension and self-expression.  It can now look at itself, the host country, and the homeland, with a critical humor that has not necessarily dulled its passion or lessened the intensity of its engagement.  Moreover, the Indian diaspora has become an important economic force, whose reputed net worth exceeds hundreds of billions of dollars.  It is, at once, more mobile and cohesive that ever before, what with faster means of travel and communication.  Not only has the old diaspora made inroads into the new, but the access of all the scattered peoples of Indian origin to India, the motherland, has also increased dramatically.  Now, it actually seems as if this diaspora has an unprecedented ascendancy and leverage both in the host country and the homeland.  Perhaps its days of ‘impossible mourning,’ to use Vijay Mishra’s phrase, might at last be at an end…