Locations for South Asian Diasporas

Abstract

▪ Abstract  This review explores the cultural consequences of migrations from the Indian subcontinent for interdisciplinary inquiries into difference and belonging. It poses the question of whether the constructed term South Asian can adequately bridge the divide between more internationalist conceptions of diaspora and nationalist accounts of racial and ethnic formation, and if so, whether it creates new epistemologies for the consideration of migration in highly globalized political and economic arrangements. In arguing that multiple formations of nationality take place in diasporic culture, this review also intervenes in debates in anthropology about the geographical and conceptual boundaries of community. Finally, in suggesting that gender, sexuality, and generation might profoundly fissure South Asian and other diasporas, the article raises the question of the implicit limits of any category of location or identity.