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Political integration refers to the insertion of individuals and households into a host society. This book argues that in societies containing Indian diaspora communities, political integration occurs as a group rather than as individuals. This groupism enables them to maintain linkages with India while rooting in the host societies. The groupist integration assumes two forms: one in societies where the Indian group is a small minority, as in most Western societies, and one where the Indian group is a large minority and represented by an ethnic political party. The book argues that the dual and groupist integration of Indian communities represent a vexing political issue since prevailing integration notions are governed by old conceptions of the nation-state.

This chapter argues that the persistence of the diaspora bonding cannot be explained solely by referring to shared identity since it needs to be accounted for how this identity persists and largely has remained similar across diaspora communities. Nor is it enough to argue that homeland India caters in the identity needs of the diaspora community. That argument begs the question of how the Indian overseas communities “apprehend” Indian culture. Rather, this chapter argues that for the adoption and adjustment of homeland culture, Indian communities overseas require an ethnic institutional infrastructure. This ethnic infrastructure presupposes a prevailing common taste that is exerted in a demand for Indian cultural stuff. The chapter is exploratory since the issue has not been raised before. It relies heavily on the practices of the Surinamese and Dutch Hindustani communities.

This chapter focuses on the differences in the ethnicity of Indo-Caribbean groups and the impact on their political integration. The chapter aims to comparatively demonstrate that Indo-Caribbean ethnicity is dissimilar in terms of ethnic loyalties, creole nationalism, voting behaviour and participation in government coalitions. It argues that the debate about Indo-Caribbean citizenship and national identity has been limited since it has excessively focused on ‘national integration by means of Creolisation’ while ignoring the impact of the Indian diaspora, the agency of the substantial segments of the Indo-Caribbean communities and the participation in government coalitions. Moreover, differences in environmental conditions, colonial background and political history across the three societies have also contributed to differences in Indo-ethnicity. These differences across the region most likely had a varying impact on the political integration of the communities. The arguments contradict the assumption that Indian ethnicity is the same everywhere, especially when communities seem to be closely related geographically and historically.

This introduction outlines the heterogeneous nature of the Indian diaspora and the various types of bonding that can be identified. For a long time, bonding between the homeland and overseas communities was considered a matter of nostalgia that would fade away after the first generation. However, this perspective has become obsolete. Later generations of Indians abroad remain in contact with India, while being integrated into their newly adopted homelands. Local and global forces interact and affect the bonding between India and overseas Indian communities. These Indian communities incorporate Indian culture – be it food, music, religion, language, festivals, dress, and entertainment such as Bollywood – into their lived culture and thus connect the community with India. Such shifts highlight that the old Indian diaspora, conceived as a passive ensemble of a homeland and overseas communities, is being replaced by a new transnational ordering of Indian communities that are actively involved in the transnational world.

In het Suriname van de jaren zestig is Parmeswar Gowricharn een gerespecteerde goudsmid met een tevreden klantenkring. Maar de verhuizing naar een andere wijk, die een stap hogerop had moeten betekenen, zorgt juist voor meer problemen. Afgesneden van zijn klantenkring wordt het voor de goudsmid steeds moeilijker om aan werk te komen. Hij marginaliseert en raakt verslaafd aan alcohol. Hoe reageert de Hindostaanse gemeenschap, waarin maatschappelijk aanzien en succes zwaar wegen, op deze sociale daling? Hoe reageren de gezinsleden? Ruben Gowricharn, zoon van de goudsmid, analyseert de marginalisering van zijn ouderlijk gezin en legt een aangrijpende geschiedenis bloot van werkdrift, kwetsbaarheid, incasseringsvermogen en veerkracht.

In het Suriname van de jaren zestig is Parmeswar Gowricharn een gerespecteerde goudsmid met een tevreden klantenkring. Maar de verhuizing naar een andere wijk, die een stap hogerop had moeten betekenen, zorgt juist voor meer problemen. Afgesneden van zijn klantenkring wordt het voor de goudsmid steeds moeilijker om aan werk te komen. Hij marginaliseert en raakt verslaafd aan alcohol. Hoe reageert de Hindostaanse gemeenschap, waarin maatschappelijk aanzien en succes zwaar wegen, op deze sociale daling? Hoe reageren de gezinsleden? Ruben Gowricharn, zoon van de goudsmid, analyseert de marginalisering van zijn ouderlijk gezin en legt een aangrijpende geschiedenis bloot van werkdrift, kwetsbaarheid, incasseringsvermogen en veerkracht.

This introduction sketches the major forces that have determined the shifts and given rise to new perspectives on the Indian diaspora. Shifts and perspectives are intertwined and have affected the old diaspora. The forces and perspectives have changed the way we look at the diaspora that is this topic of the book. The book is therefore divided into three parts: new perspectives on the history of the diaspora, newly emerging perspectives, and global forces. This introduction then briefly outlines the features of the old diaspora and highlights the most conspicuous new forces that typify the new Indian diaspora today.

This chapter departs from the observation that the transfer of resources by diaspora communities is driven by cultural forces, underscoring that culture and economics are highly entangled. A major implication of this observation is that competition is constrained, thus ruling out that behaviour is (entirely) market-driven. Returns on investments (and remittances) are anticipated but not always in monetary terms as rates of investments. Rather than focussing on the developmental effects of the resource transfer or its policy relevance, the chapter will probe the mechanism of cultural bonding that enables transfers. That is to say, the chapter is first and foremost conceptual. Furthermore, the chapter argues that the transferred resources enhance the bonding effects as they include social and cultural returns that are contained in the specific nature of diaspora markets, the forms of capital, ethnic businesses, tourism, ethnic services such as religion and medicine, and Bollywood.

This chapter outlines the major forces that have shaped the constitutional development of the Republic of Suriname. These forces include the transplant of population and legal institutions during the colonial era; the post-World War II shift of the international power balance in favour of decolonizing colonies as manifested in the right to self-determination; and domestic forces, including trade unions and media, that protected the constitution from being suspended or undermined in periods of political turmoil. Based on the experience of Suriname, it is argued that constitutional development in small postcolonial societies is highly constrained due to the transplant of European legal institutions and corresponding expertise.

This introduction outlines the heterogeneous nature of the Indian diaspora and the various types of bonding that can be identified. For a long time, bonding between the homeland and overseas communities was considered a matter of nostalgia that would fade away after the first generation. However, this perspective has become obsolete. Later generations of Indians abroad remain in contact with India, while being integrated into their newly adopted homelands. Local and global forces interact and affect the bonding between India and overseas Indian communities. These Indian communities incorporate Indian culture – be it food, music, religion, language, festivals, dress, and entertainment such as Bollywood – into their lived culture and thus connect the community with India. Such shifts highlight that the old Indian diaspora, conceived as a passive ensemble of a homeland and overseas communities, is being replaced by a new transnational ordering of Indian communities that are actively involved in the transnational world.