Indian Diaspora
In the world the prevalent of the Asian diaspora
outside the Southeast Asia is the Indian diaspora. The Indian people are spread
across almost all the regions of the World. Emmanuel S. Nelson defines the
Indian diaspora as the “historical and contemporary presence of people of
Indian sub continental origin in other areas of the world.”[i] The
Indian diaspora is like the other diasporas of the universe with its own existence
and a history that goes back to the Indian civilization. The Indians have been
living in other countries from ancient times.
There is a great amount of the literature which deals with the Indian
Diaspora which depicts the adjustment of Indian diasporic citizens in the other
countries who have the diasporic feeling about their motherland, India. The
Indian diaspora writers usually refer to the men of Indian nativity living in a
foreign country from where they write there about their motherland, India. The
Indian diasporic can be broadly categorised into three main periods: (i) The
ancient and the medieval, (ii) The colonial and (iii) The post- colonial
phases.
(i)
The Ancient and the Medieval Phase:-
There has been migration of Indians to different
parts on the earth from ancient times. The Indian diaspora may be found in
earlier times as it developed religious or business connections with other
civilizations like the Greek and the Mesopotamians. Indians have a long history
of migration to many parts of globe so they are found in most of the countries
at present time. The great politicians
as well as common people had migrated to other countries from ancient times. During the mid-sixteenth century people from the
main cities of India such as: Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Allahabad and
Bombay migrated to Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. Indians had also trade
links with the East Africa, from ancient times. History depicts that the first
Indian boy, named Peter was brought to Britain in 1614. During the 18th century
Indian ayas (nannies to
look after the children), naukars (household
servants), munshis (tutors)
and laskars, (seamen) immigrated
to Britain by their choice or by force of British people. The Christians want to spread Christianity throughout
the world and they found India as a fertile ground for spreading their religion.
They not only converted some Indians to their faith Christianity but also take
them to Western countries with themselves. So it is clear that Indians have
migrated to Western countries by force for the willingness of the Christians
who want to spread Christianity more and more. Some had been migrated willingly
because they were not aware about the ill intensions of those who have taken
them and some were taken by force. All
of them have still diasporic
consciousness about their motherland which haunts them and they express about
it in one way or other way. There is a great development in Indian diaspora
during the 19th and 20th century; as people migrated to developed countries for
employment as well as for higher education.
The Colonial Phase:-
During Colonial period in India there was most of
the migration done by people to different counties. During this time there was turmoil
and uncertainty everywhere in India so, people prefer to migrate. So, there was chaos and confusion during
British rule in India and it had greatly affected the Indian peasantry, also at
that time there was the affect of the famines, and the succeeding economic backwardness
which was the result for unemployment of the common masses. These circumstances
are responsible for the mass migration by the common people of India to
different parts of the world. Some citizens join in British Army were brought
to fight during World War I and World War II either due to their poverty and
their willingness to fight or they were forced to take part in these notorious
wars.
The Post Colonial Phase:-
When India got her Independence in 1947,
Indians migrated to European countries mostly either for higher education or
for trade and employment. Some did not live their forever and had returned to
their motherland India; while as others stayed there permanently. Those who
stayed there always kept habitual links with their families in India by
different means. They are haunted with
their ancestral culture and religion of India. So, in the post colonial phase
India became part of European developed into a multi-lingual, multi cultural
and multi-religious society.
Broadly speaking there are two types of
Indian diaspora people: - one who migrated to Europe; Indians from India and
other Indians from European colonies. The latter were called the generations of
earlier emigrants whose forefathers were imported on bond system by the
European plantation colonies; they are called ‘twice migrants’. While as the other
Indians who migrated after the formation of the Republic of India (26 January
1950) to the West and Europe whatever their motive, either academic or professional
they were considered as migrants. There are some Indians who where well
accustomed there during their study and after completing their studies and
training found jobs and stayed in the respective countries; so, their status
changed from migrants to immigrants. With this change they found permanent
residence either with their own business or with satisfactory professional
work. However, they have always diasporic consciousness about their motherland
India; and they remain in touch with Indian Embassies for the social as well as
political news about their motherland India. The European countries, excluding
U.K. did not have Indian literature, books, newspapers and Indian fiction,
documentary films etc. They were not connected
with their motherland India, as there were no means of news, songs and no
cultural and traditional performances of India. Even though they have much more facilities
there than in India but still they are haunted by the diasporic consciousness
of their motherland. As most of them
were from poor cities in India, while in the European countries they stayed in
the modern facilitated cities. They were scattered in various counties but kept
informal links with India either by writing letters regularly or by using
modern means of telecommunication about their home, with a hope to get news
about family and Indian politics. The other group of emigrant Indians was those
who left India as bonded labourers between the beginning of the third decade of
the nineteenth century and the second decade of the twentieth century (1834 to
1916) for the plantation colonies of the Dutch, French and British governments.
During the 1970s, when their generations immigrated to the European countries,
they were known, as, ‘Twice Migrants’ in Britain. They also have the diasporic
consciousness about their mother land which they express by different means.
In 1947, when India got freedom and it
was divided in to two parts i.e. India and Pakistan many of Indians migrated to
the European countries, because of the chaos and confusion due to civil war and
slowly established there for the whole life. There they came across the other
Indians of the old diaspora whose generations migrated as ‘twice migrants’ to
the European countries. During the 1960s many experienced and well train Indian
migrants followed a chain of migration by leaving their motherland to settle in
European countries. So to control this
chain of migration strict rules where applied for migration but even after limitations
were forced on migration, the custom of chain migration still continued. The
government of India was not able to control the mass migration as after the 1970s;
many technical and non-technical migrated to Western countries. During the last
decade when some counties such as the Netherlands and Germany imposed harsh
limitations on migration many Indians frequently from Punjab moved to Spain and
Portugal. They changed their illegal status and became legal immigrants in the
latter countries. So, India accomplished one of world’s largest population
displacements and diaspora in 1947 at the time of partition of British India in
two countries i.e. India and Pakistan. The cause and consequences of tragedy of
part ion were neither expected by the plan makers and leaders of the time nor
could they expect it through their will. As the result of partition there
started chaos and confusion due to civil war on the basis of religion and
region. Near about ten million people faced problem of displacement and one million
were slaughtered due to the notorious partition of India. Moreover, partition
of India troubled a different feature because whole provinces were included in
one country or the other in addition to two provincial partitions. It was
characterised by a slow-moving, selective and voluntary process of migration
from different parts of India to the provinces of present day Pakistan.
However, the nature of assimilation in both the aforementioned provinces was
different to each other. Diaspora population was pleasurably incorporated in
the different provinces while it aroused differences of socio-political nature
in these provinces. There is no doubt that they leave their country willingly
to save themselves from the chaos and confusion but still they are haunted by
the diasporic consciousness of their motherland to which they were enrooted.
In spite of vast chaos and confusion on
both sides of the border line, it is one of the terrible satires of separation
that the birth of the Muslim state of Pakistan brought about a division of the
Muslim community of the sub-continent India. At the time of partition, about
thirty five million Muslims, almost one third of its pre-partition population,
remained in India either by their own choice or the circumstances compelled
them to choose to live with India. In the same vein, Hindus and Sikhs were also
reduced to insignificant minority in Pakistan, were reduced to insignificant
minority. Thus the situation for all
these communities became more defenseless in both newly established countries
by the present name of India and Pakistan. In both of these newly countries the
minority people suffer always in one way or other way. They are harassed and
treated step motherly even in the country in which they live and to which they
treat as their motherland and even sacrifice their lives for it. The statistics of Indian Diaspora has been
presented by different scholars and their views vary slightly. According to Ramesh
“The true overseas Indian (TOI) community- the Diasporais probably around
15million strong. These 15million fall into five broad categories: roughly five
million in Nepal and Sri Lanka, three million in Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa,
Trinidad, Guyana and Surinam, three million in the US, UK, Canada and the
Netherlands, 2.5 million in the middle east and 1.5 million in east Asia."[ii] In
modern age, the fertile minded, experienced, knowledgeable and gifted Indians moved
to developed countries of Europe such as USA and UK etc. for financial reasons as
well as for better life. So there is brain drain in the India as most fertile
brain leave India either for their luxurious life or for the fear of the safety
of their life in India. At present age there is not only migration of unskilled
labour class but also of skilled and the great personalities of different
specialist fields such as computer fields like IT, Medicine, Space Technology,
Engineering, and Management etc. There are great personalities such as researchers,
writers, orators, economists and economic specialists etc who recognized their
diasporic life; but they have the diasporic consciousness about their own
country. India comes at number third in diaspora after British and the Chinese.
All the Indian diaspora people always felt homesickness about their own mother
land India and expresss their diasporic consciousness by different means.
It is noteworthy to note that the
history of diasporic Indian writing is as old as the diaspora itself. The Indians
who live their life out of the India express their diasporic feelings and
consciousness through their writing about their
mother land. They expressed their diasoporic consciousness not only in their
mother tongue Hindi and other regional language but also in English which is an
international language. Dean Mahomed, of Patna, India, was considered
as the founder of the Indian Writing in English. He had worked for fifteen
years in the Bengal Army of the British East India Company, so was influenced
with their literature. As there is a well known proverb that ‘a man is known by
the company he keeps’ which is applied on him, because in the company of the
English people he was able to write in English.
He had written his book ‘The
Travels of Dean Mahomed’ which was published in 1794. Indian English
Poetry got supported with the great Indian poet Henry Loius Vivian Derozio,
when he published his collection of poems in 1827. The prose work in Indian English get its
status in 1864, with the publication of
first Indian English novel, Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s Rajmohan’s Wife”. So, it is clear that the involvement of the
Indian diaspora to Indian writing in English is not new but it has been
strengthened from very early times. It is without any doubt that English does
not only become international language at international level but was lingua
franca for Indian states at national level. So, the great scholar of that time
thought it best for them as well as for the future of India to write in English
and this is the reason that they favoured writing in English. The works of the
great writes are significant contributors in that field. There were great
writers who had written mostly novels of the older generation of diasporic
Indian like Raja Rao, G. V. Desani,
Santha Rama Rau, Balachandra Rajan, Nirad Chaudhuri, and Ved Mehta etc. All of
these writers have diasporic feelings and consciousness about their country
even in exiled life. It is as if these
great writers have exposed their Indianness when they are out of their
motherland India. It is clear that these people have the benefit of gazing at
their homeland India from the land of exile. The isolation from their
motherland gives them the sense of consciousness that is so necessary to have a
clear picture of their native land India. In that sense, through their writing,
they are able to describe and depict India even away from it, because they have
diaspric consciousness and feelings about their motherland.
The Indian diasporic writing has
developed into rationally accepted one and creating a consciousness that it
symbolizes real India by its writings. This is where the spirit of the problem
lies in their diasporic consciousness. There is no doubt that diasporic
writings represent real India which is represented by diaspora writers who have
always haunted with homesickness. Diasporic
literature is definitely a useful reserve for studying the inner feelings and
emotions of the migrants who expressed their diasporic consciousness through
their creative writing and same is the case of Indian diaspora writers. It
speaks of diasporic consciousness that the diaspora writers feel from
environmental dislocation, foreign traditions, and the problems of adjustment,
yearning for the homeland, the weight of beliefs, myths and inheritance. These
writers have dual responsibilities; as they express their feelings and emotions
with the help of their writing about their motherland India for the residents of
the country they have migrated and also speak of their diasporic consciousness
to the readers of their motherland. The
Indian-English writers, particularly, Raja Rao, G. V. Desani, Kamala Markandaya,
Nirad C. Chaudhuri and Salman Rushdie
has moved from their motherland India willingly. So it is clear that the
Indian diaspora has been formed by a spreading of people at different times for
different reasons and not, in the Jewish sense, a mass departure of population
at a fixed point in time and for single reason. This unbalanced migration
traces a firm pattern if a minute view is taken over a period of time, from the
indentured labourers of the antique times to the modern age of science and
technology. Sudesh Mishra in his essay “From Sugar to Masala” divides the
Indian diaspora into two categories –‘ the old and the new’. He writes: “This distinction
is between, on the one hand, the semi-voluntary flight of indentured peasants
to non-metropolitan plantation colonies such as Fiji, Trinidad, Mauritius,
South Africa, Malaysia, Surinam, and Guyana, roughly between the years 1830 and
1917; and the other the late capital or postmodern dispersal of new migrants of
all classes to thriving metropolitan centers such as Australia, the United
States, Canada, and Britain.”[iii]
After Indian freedom the Indian subcontinent i.e. both India and Pakistan diasporic society has achieved a new character
due to the developments of self-fashioning and growing recognition by the
Western countries.
The recent approach of ‘diaspora’
is ‘Diasporic Consciousness’ which puts most of the stress upon describing
different types of experience, a state of brain and
feelings of identity. The word ‘Consciousness’ was firstly used by John Lock in
his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” which was published in 1690. The
word ‘consciousness’ means the insight of what happens in one’s inner mind;
so it is a broad concept that includes different
types of mental phenomena. The word ‘consciousness’ has been derived
from the Latin con (with) and scire (to know). Thus,
‘consciousness’ deals with one’s ability to know and perceive his inner and
outer world; so, through ‘diasporic
consciousness’ one can have knowledge of both of the inner i.e. mind and outer
i.e. environment or surrounding world. So it is a term that refers to the
relationship between the mind of a diaspora and his homeland about which he
feels nostalgic in exile. Thus it is
clear that ‘Diasporic Consciousness’ may involve thoughts, sensations,
perceptions, moods, emotions, dreams, and self-awareness in a foreign land
about ones motherland. It is a mental
state in which one may perceive or have a relationship among self, motherland
and exile or banished land. This is awareness that an individual or the
communities have that they are away from their motherland so it is the state of
awareness and response towards one’s
surroundings.
The contemporary diasporic Indian
writers can be grouped into two different classes. One class includes those who
have spent most of their life in India and then migrated to foreign land where
they spent diasporic life having diasporic consciousness. The other class
includes those who have spent their whole life outside India even some were
born in the foreign land though having Indian parents. They have had a view of
their country only from the exterior as an alien place of their foundation. The
writers of the earlier group have a realistic displacement whereas those
belonging to the second group find themselves wandering condition. Both the
groups of writers have produced a desirable quantity of English literature
which is full with diasporic consciousness about their mother land. These writers
representing migrant characters in their writing express their own diasporic consciousness
through their mouth. These characters have universal importance as they did not
only represent the feelings of Indian people but of the whole universe. That is the reason that these works have a worldwide
readership and an eternal application. Mostly
Indian diasporic writers have usually
dealt with characters from Indian dislocated society but some of them have
represented the Western characters and they have been realistic in dealing with
them.
[i]
Emmanual Nelson S. Writers
of the Indian Diaspora, A Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Quoted in
Sasikant Reddy’s ‘Desh Pardesh Syndrome: Thematic Concerns of Contemporary
Diasporic Indian Writing in English’.
Critical Studies on Indian English Literature Vol. II M.F. Patel edi.
Jaipur; Pointer Publishers, 2010. 97.
[ii]
Ramesh, Babu. The
Indian Americans: A Minority in Making, in Babu, Ramesh (ed) Minorities and
the American Political System. New Delhi, South Asian Publishers.1989. 68.
[iii]
Sudesh, Mishra,. From
Sugar to Masala: Writing by the Indian Diaspora. An Illustrated History of
Indian Literature in English. Ed. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. New Delhi: Permanent
Black, 2003. 276-77.
