Overview of GRID Activities:
1. Research Project:
Indian Diasporas in the Era of Globalisation: Multiple
Locations, Plural Identities and Privileged Exchange
The research project is a holistic one with a focus on two
critical dimensions common to Diaspora studies namely
'Identity' and 'Exchange'. Each of the 6 researchers
addresses these dimensions from the vantage point of
different approaches and methodologies. The project is a
multi-faculty, collaborative, interdisciplinary and
comparative one, in which the segments feed into each
other.
The GRID researchers focus on the following geopolitical and
thematic areas of the Indian Diaspora from sociological,
political, philosophical, economic and cultural angles:
1.
Study of the Indian Diaspora in South Africa
2.
Study of the Indian Diaspora in Mauritius
3.
Study of Diasporic Indian Literature in English.
1. The Indian Diaspora in
South Africa is studied from the socio-economic and
socio-political and religio-cultural angles by Renu Modi,
Kamala Ganesh and Dolly Sunny.
They will look at the renegotiation of identities in the
local and global context by the Indian Diaspora in South
Africa. They will also consider the adaptations and
reinventions in Diasporic Hinduism in that country. The
economic angle on the Diaspora will be analysed in the form
of the impact of Diasporic Indians on the South African
economy and the impact of the economic activities of this
Diaspora on India too. Renu Modi's segment aims to
study the several facets of Indians in South Africa (ISA),
i.e., the 'Birds of Passage' who migrated initially as
indentured labourers, and then as traders. This research
attempts to analyze: The interrelationship between: The ISA
and Apartheid government's response and Issues of political
and economic identity among the ISA's in post-apartheid
South Africa; India's evolving foreign policy towards its diaspora and The responses of the ISA's to the pro-diaspora
policy adopted by the Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs (MOIA),
post 2000. Kamala Ganesh's study in this segment is
on the contemporary relationship between the practice of
Hinduism in the South African diaspora and in India. While
the earlier approach within diaspora studies emphasized on
the impact of home country and culture on identity making in
the diasporic community, more recent theorizing focuses on
the two way exchange processes between 'home' and diaspora.
These have been further accentuated under the impact of
globalization, technological developments and the formation
of virtual and transnational communities. Contours and
expressions of diasporic Hinduism vary with geographic and
social location of the diasporic community. Their
ramifications in terms of temple building, sects and
charismatic gurus, regional, linguistic and caste
associations, and political mobilization will be studied
through a combination of ethnographic research, monitoring
public discourse and artefacts of popular culture. The study
aims to make a conceptual and theoretical contribution,
while generating and drawing upon empirical material from
Mauritius and South Africa. Dolly Sunny proposes to
develop an econometric model for the Study of Indian
Diaspora in South Africa. It applies the multiple regression
technique to assess and verify the impact of various
influential factors on diasporic remittances from South
Africa. Some of the factors considered are Foreign Direct
Investments, Diaspora Direct Investment, Diaspora Capital
Market instruments, Diaspora Tourism and Nostalgic Trade, IT
off shores, real estate deals, employment potential and the
volume of migration. The model has been developed by taking
these as independent variables, with Diasporic remittances
as the dependent variable. Such a model finds various useful
applications, the main one being the identification of areas
where the Indian Diaspora would excel with investment in
South Africa, thereby enhancing its competitiveness. This in
turn, would boost the flow of remittances to India.
Additionally, effective policy recommendations could be
given to assist the Indian Diaspora to globalize their
operations.
2. The Indian Diaspora in Mauritius is the oldest one
and began in the 1830s. Mauritius was colonised in turns by
both the British as well as the French so it has produced
literature in both languages, but mainly in French. The
study of Francophone writers of Indian origins is being done
by Mangala Sirdeshpande. She will be focusing on the
works of women writers and doing a comparative study of
their texts and those of women writers in Marathi from
Maharashtra. This will help establish a dialogue of cultures
between India and Mauritius, promote women's studies and
define third world feminism in contrast with its European
counterpart. She will also be including interviews with
writers in her research findings. While the Indian Diasporic
Literature in Mauritius is in the main Francophone, there
are some writers who translate their French works into
English. One such writer is Ananda Devi and Nilufer
Bharucha would be looking at English translations of her
works and other Anglophone Diasporic novels from Mauritius.
In the same geo-political location, the sociological study
of Hindus in Mauritius is handled by Kamala Ganesh
along the same parameters as laid out in the context of the
Indian Diaspora in South Africa.
3. The Study of Diasporic Indian Literature
in English is the cultural aspect of the Indian Diaspora
and it is studied independently of geopolitical space and
embraces more Indian Diasporic locations than South Africa
and Mauritius. The study of Indian Diasporic literature in
English is done by Nilufer Bharucha. She will be
looking at the literature written by the old as well as
the new Indian Diaspora. The old Diaspora was of colonial
origins and was taken to places like Mauritius, West Indies,
South and East Africa as indentured labourers. This colonial
diaspora also includes professionals like lawyers, doctors
and engineers. The new Diaspora is of postcolonial origins
and embraces the post-war labour diaspora as well as the
professional and student diasporas of the post-1970s. These
Diasporas have different ways of looking at issues of
identity and exchange. This section of the project will
therefore consider Diasporic Indian writers in English from
both the old and new diasporas. She will also be
interviewing the target writers to make her findings more
complete. The theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of
this literature are studied by Kanchana Mahadevan.
She will be investigating diasporic identity through its
articulation in cultural politics given the hegemonic status
of the diasporic representation of 'home' within the canvas
of globalization and modernity. Thus, a key theme will
centre on whether the diaspora is responsible to its home or
host or both. She aims at analyzing the complexities that
underlie the formation of diasporic culture and identity.
Pluralism, hybridity, hierarchy are key terms in diasporic
discourse on identity. Again, Indian diasporic communities
are not homogeneous and have to further strive to negotiate
their relation to other diasporic communities. Moreover,
since diasporic cultures are not outside the matrices of
class and gender, their relation to both have to be taken
into account. Her work also endeavours to examine the
distinction between the colonial and postcolonial diasporic
approaches to culture and identity. By philosophically
dwelling on culture and identity, her project will explore
the relation between culture and what lies outside it:
namely, politics, society and economics.
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