Political colonization of multi-ethnic Britain: a study of Indian Diaspora

Abstract

The process of globalization has created multiple channels of inter-country migrations, making all the societies of the world pluricultural. This phenomenon, which is rather recent for the countries of the North, has necessitated the development of multi-cultural ethos. The countries of the North, such as the UK and France, are now becoming homes for the Diaspora communities. They are now attempting to cope with this trend of ever-rising Diasporic presence, particularly represented by the people of their former colonies, particularly from Asian, African and Caribbean subcontinents. Already studies are being undertaken to investigate this new phenomenon of migration as it affects the economy – both locally and globally. But very little has been done to see how these ‘Outsiders-turned-Insiders’ are participating in the democratic functioning of the polity. Britain offers a good research site to investigate this relatively unexplored phenomenon in view of having significant numbers of settlers from her colonies. The growing electoral participation of ethnic groups appears to have affected the nature and scope of British polity over the years. In view of their growing participation and increasing representation, multi-ethnic Britain is in the phase of transforming ‘ethnic colonization’ (Ballard 1994) to ‘political colonization’. This paper is a modest attempt to study the role of Indian Diaspora in the political transformation of contemporary Britain.