Studiekretsar  

Krets 3 2009-2011

Sommarsession: Call For Papers

Inlagd i mars 2009

South Asian Migration and Diaspora

The second workshop in South Asia in the 21st Century at the summer session of the Nordic Summer University

Various patterns of migration have created different South Asian diaspora communities in the Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Europe. However, in Europe, especially, the research environment has mainly focused on migrant’s economic integration into the host community’s labour market and several comprehensive theories on minority and diaspora communities have been formulated .

It is the aim of this workshop to investigate how culture and the organisation of culture construct various aspects of migration, integration and diaspora formation.

Under the overall general themes the workshop specially invites papers covering

* the historical dept and geographical dissemination of South Asian migration
* the reflections on migration and migratory societies in literature and other arts
* descriptions of migratory societies in the Nordic Countries and elsewhere in order to unite scholars and practitioners

Call for papers for

The second workshop in South Asia in the 21st Century:

South Asian Migration and Diaspora

At the summer session of the Nordic Summer University, in Tyrifjord, Norge,
19 – 26 July 2009


Coordinators: Peter B. Andersen, Knut A. Jacobsen, Igor Kotin, Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger


- History of the South Asian diasporas
- Migration patterns
- The interaction between diasporas and “home” communities
- Identities in the diaspora
- The question of scale
- Community organizations
- Generational transfer in the diaspora

The migration of Indians overseas is an old phenomenon, but the last fifty years it has become a widespread global event of great importance. The huge demographic potential of South Asia with its around 1.6 billon inhabitants alone makes their diasporas one of the most important in the world. Migration has many causes, pull and push factors, but the opportunity for employment, better salaries, education, professional careers, security and equality are some pull factors.
South Asian migration has changed significantly through history. The Indian diaspora in the ‘Age of merchants’ (i.e. from 11th to 18th century) was concerned mostly with the movement of traders and merchants, religious and other specialists, seafarers and slaves. Migration in the age of Colonial Capital (19-early 20th century) involved the forced movement of people and the movement of indentured laborers from India to many parts of the British Empire, particularly those with plantation economies. It also saw the beginning of free migration and the continuation of merchant activity in both traditional areas and in territories newly opened by the expansion of the Empire. The mid-20th century post-colonial movement of people from South Asia to Western countries and the related migration (and re-migration)involved business people and professionals to new (and in some cases, formerly prohibited) areas such as Australia.
Within the regions of Gujarat, the Malabar and Coromandel coast, Orissa and Bengal were clusters of maritime regions in the Indian Ocean. For nearly 1000 years, these Gujarati, Coromandel (the Chetty and the Chuliya) and other Indian communities were almost exclusively comprised of a rotating population of men. The expansion of British imperial control in India from the 16th centuries brought new imperatives for the movement of Indians. Indian workers were highly sought after in the Indian Ocean island colonies. These were judged to be less expensive to employers to discipline. More important in the long term for India was the creation from the 1830-d of a system of indentured labor to provide a cheap work force in the colonial plantation economies of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, South and Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific. This system was meant to replace slave labor in the local plantations, and it was these indentured workers who provided the foundation of the ‘old’ diaspora. The 19th century also saw the beginning of free migration, mainly to British colonial territories to work for trade.
The diversity of the South Asian diasporas is great: ‘twice migrants’ from East Africa, refugees from the civil war in Sri Lanka, IT workers from Tamil Nadu, nurses from Kerala, descendants of plantation workers from Bangladesh, Bihar and Bengal, business people from Pakistan and so on. A number of regional, linguistics and religious identities exist in interchange with each other.
An analysis of the ‘homeland’ and the diaspora during the colonial and post-colonial periods, will show different ways in which perceptions of diaspora and involvement with the diaspora have undergone change and reassessment. Research deals thematically with the cultural and social life of the diaspora, looking at ways in which language and religious values and practices have been adopted and transformed, which languages became languages of communication and the sacred languages of religion, how popular culture, theater, cinema, music, dance, fashion and cuisine have evolved and the important role of a wide range of sports, including cricket.
Within each country with a substantial South Asian population, there are a number of local and national organizations that centers around religious affiliation, cultural background, regional languages, regional origin in India or particular interests, such as music, art, dance or sport. The transnational connections, the communication technologies that facilitate them, and the increased purchasing power of South Asians overseas has made it easier for them to establish contacts with Indian communities elsewhere. Transnationalism has boasted travel to India and to other diasporic communities. The South Asian diasporas are now a complex confluence of many discrete cultures, languages and histories. Of significant is the phenomenal growth in the population of the diaspora in Western countries and its position in strategic sectors of the economy and public life: information technology, business, finance, the professions and academia, and in the upper reaches of national and international politics. Indians writers such as V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Rohinton Mistry, Amitav Ghosh, Jumpa Lahiri, and Vikram Seth, as well as Bollywood and Tamil movies have made diaspora life known to a general Western audience and generated global interest in the South Asian diasporas.

Under the overall general themes the workshop specially invites papers covering
- the historical dept and geographical dissemination of South Asian migration
- the reflections on migration and migratory societies in literature and other arts
- descriptions of migratory societies in the Nordic Countries and elsewhere in order to unite scholars and practitioners

Language: The presentation at the NSU summer session may be in the Nordic languages or English, but this workshop will work in English due to the non-Nordic participants.

Fee: The fee covers board and lodging, and there the travel to the conference site will be supported for participants from the Nordic Countries according to the rates indicated at the NSU homepage: http://www.nsuweb.net/wb/ [sommer – sommer 2009]

Participant in 4 bed room 2.500 SEK.
Participant in 3 bed room 3.000 SEK.
Participant in 2 bed room 3.500 SEK.
Participant in single room 5.000 SEK.

Student in 4 bed room: 1.500 SEK


Registration
The official registration will be announced by the NSU in the beginning of April 2009, but please contact us in advance and send us a preliminary title and abstract (200-250 characters) of your paper at March 30, 2009. (Include your title, affiliation, phone, mail, and full address)

Peter B. Andersen coordinates registration in collaboration with Katrine.Herold@nias.ku.dk, Project Coordinator, NIAS, Leifsgade 33, 3., 2300 Copenhagen S, +45-35 32 95 04 so please send your registration to both of us simultaneously.

Peter B. Andersen, Ass.Prof., University of Copenhagen, peterba@hum.ku.dk , +45-35 32 91 90/+45-35 42 81 53

Knut A. Jacobsen, Prof., University of Bergen, Knut.Jacobsen@krr.uib.no , +47- 91 13 30 20

Igor Kotin, Dr., Kunstkamera, St. Petersburg, igorkotin@mail.ru

Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger, Ass.Prof., University of Aarhus, mf@teo.au.dk , +45-89 42 22 51