4 Identities, gender construction and sexuality

1. INTRODUCTION

In the introductory module to the ‘Sociology of the Indian diaspora’, you have been presented with salient definitions, concepts and theories of the diaspora as well as an overview of Indian Diasporas. In this module we will revisit certain fundamental characteristics of the diasporic experience. We will also stress upon the importance of keeping in mind the diversities in composition of the migrants in terms of region, caste, class, and especially gender, in order to understand better how the process of migration can impact upon the construction of a ‘diasporic identity’. This will help us to conceptualize the notion of a ‘diasporic subjectivity’, and to analyze the role of gendered interactions in identity formation. We will also discuss certain theoretical paradigms that will allow us to engage with processes of identity formation and negotiation which occur on migration. We will familiarize ourselves with analytical concepts such as ‘third space’, ‘ hyphenation’, ‘hybridity’ and ‘ ambivalence’ as articulated by cultural theorists like Stuart Hall ( 1990),HomiBhabhi ( 2004) and Vijay Mishra ( 2007). With this information on hand, we will go on to discuss the range of experiences that women migrants face on crossing boundaries. We will also attempt to understand how women in the Indian diasporas have negotiated race, class, ethnicity and sexuality. Finally we will examine the ways in which sexuality is implicated in the larger framework of gendered constructions

2. DIASPORIC SUBJECTIVITY

In a diaspora relationship, the migrant moves between two locations. He or she leaves the sending society (or ‘point of departure’) and arrives at the receiving society (or the ‘location of arrival’). We must keep in mind that this migratory process encompasses not just the journey of the individual, but that of a collective movement of a people from the homeland to the host country. One of the fundamental characteristics of the diasporic experience is therefore movement of communities across ethno-cultural and cartographic borders. Over time, this results in the formation of a diasporicor ‘third space’, a space which goes beyond mere geo-territorial terms of referencing. In other words, we can state that most migration narratives are centered on complex relationship between ‘rooting’ (origin or starting place) and ‘routing’ ( direction finding) In other words, the rites of passage (route) of the individual involves movement from location A ( original roots or home culture ) to location B (host society). One of the defining characteristic of the diasporic community is that while its members may havemoved away from the homeland, the community still maintains a strong connection with the ‘mother culture’ and retains bonds through spatial connectors such as kinship networks, food habits, clothes, language, music, and films. The community strives to retain a collective memory or myth about  their original home land. The extent of bonding with the actual homeland is largely predicated upon the reception to the diaspora by the host land. The nostalgia for the homeland tends to be sharper in those societies wherein attitudes of hostility and racism towards minority communities are visible and expressed vocally. On the other hand, in host societies where integration has been facilitated, the bonds with the homeland may tend to be diluted.

The process of uprooting or separation from the ‘mother culture’ is inevitably governed by tropes of trauma, memory and loss. Hence in theoretical discussions of the diasporic experience, we come across descriptive terms such as ‘dis-placement’, ‘dis-location’, and ‘dis-ease’. In the course of this migration process, the subject experiences complex cross cultural negotiations. This in turn impacts on the notion of the self. The notion of a ‘diasporic subjectivity’ derives from the assumption that when the subject is dislocated from one specific geo- cultural milieu (the Indian subcontinent for instance) and relocated to another (Canada or the United Kingdom perhaps), this can result in shifts in identity construction and transitions of psychological state of being. This leads to a sense of ‘ambivalence ‘and ‘un-belonging.’ The concomitant sense of ambiguity is an inherent aspect of diasporic subjectivity. The “ dual paradoxical nature of diasporic consciousness is one that is caught between ‘here’ and ‘there’ or between those who share roots and is shaped through multi-locality” (Agnew2008, 14).

2.1 Processes Of Acculturation

An important corollary to the act of migration is the process of acculturation, which can be described in terms of a modification of the culture of a group or an individual as a result of contact with a different culture. Van Hieu Ngo (2008) helps us to understand seminal working concepts associated with the process of acculturation and diaspora identity formation. Firstly Ngo describes ‘Acculturation’ as “ the process of systematic cultural change which occurs due to direct contact between two cultures as a result of forced relocation, military invasion or migration”. The experience of acculturation therefore challenges the “ cultural structure of both, the host society and the immigrants”. Ngo goes on to explain the term ‘assimilation’ as the process of “ rejecting one’s own cultural identity and adopting the host or dominant culture. Here, the individual “ acquires the social, political and economic standards of the host culture, thus, becoming a part of the host society. The customs, behaviour and collective identity of one’s country of origin are replaced with that of the host culture in order to assimilate” . ‘ Separation’ may occur when the individual decides to uphold her own culture and avoid any involvement with individuals of the larger society, and ‘marginalization’ is where “ the individual neither seek to uphold her own culture nor does she engage in any interaction with other”. Finally ‘integration’ takes place when the individual is able to maintain her own culture, while simultaneously interacting with the new culture.

2.2 Evolving identities

    Varied processes of acculturation thus result in a complex of evolving identities . As Avatar Brah suggests, the circumstances of leaving, are as important as those of arrival and it is therefore crucial to understand the “ socio-economic political and cultural conditions which mark the trajectories of these journeys”. As she rightly points out, “We must understand who travels, when, how and under what circumstances, and how and in what way do these journeys conclude and intersect in specific places, specific spaces and specific historical conjectures ?” ( Brah 2003, 617).The degree of displacement or sense of loss will of course vary from individual to individual, and depend upon specific contexts On arrival, Indian migrants have learnt to adapt, and negotiate their way through their new life styles. In doing so, they experience a range of new emotional experiences. We can therefore state that the act of migration not only entails a shifting from one geo-cultural location to another but also a  shift in the consciousness or mind view. As Vijay Agnew explains “… the individual living in the diaspora experiences a dynamic tension every day between living ‘here’ and remembering ‘there’, between memories of place or origin, and entanglements with places of residence, and between the metaphorical and the physical home” (2008, 4). An understanding of the formulation of this double consciousness is crucial to any investigation of the diasporic subjectivity.

2.3Hybridity and Hyphenation The diaspora continues to relate to that homeland in one way or another, and yet on contact with the receiving society, there is bound to be an inevitable cross pollination of multi- cultural practices. Children of the first generation migrants gradually come to identify with their new homeland as they experience multiple processes of assimilation. The ethno-communal consciousness of second generation migrants increasingly becomes defined by the idea of the ‘ hyphen’ with terms of reference emerging such as ‘British –Asian’/‘American-Indian’/ ‘East African Asian’ etc.The issue of generational change in identities, and relationships with the homeland is however a complicated one. In her study on the Hyderbadi diaspora which focuses on the second generation emigrants Karen Isaken Leonard points out to limitations in theories about diaspora when applied to the descendants of first-generation immigrants ( 2008, 54). She contends that there will be a basic difference in consciousness between first-generation migrants and their children . She explains that while “parents might think of children as South Asian heirs to an identity that was an extension in space”, their children having been raised abroad do not necessarily share the nostalgia associated with the ancestral world. Leonard asks a vital question of whether or not they can then be considered diasporic in the first place, especially if they do not self-identify as Hyderabadis in significant ways in their new homes (2008, 54).

In an important essay called ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora’ Stuart Hall discusses issues of diaspora hybridity and difference with reference to Afro-Caribbean cultural identities. According to Hall, “diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew through transformation and difference” .Hall’s insightful analysis of cultural identities and ‘ underlying complexities and practices’ can be applied to contexts of the Indian diaspora as well. Hall points out that “ cultural identities are never fixed or complete in any sense. They are not accomplished, alreadythere entities which are represented or projected through the new cultural practices. Rather, they are productions which cannot exist outside the work of representation. They are problematic, highly contested sites and processes”. He adds, “ Identities are social and cultural formations and constructions essentially subject to the differences of time and place. Then, when we speak of anything, as subjects, we are essentially positioned in time and space and more importantly in a certain culture” ( 1990, 222).

Another analytical term used by cultural theorists is that of ‘hybridity’ which, in the context of diaspora, refers to a culturally mixed identityThe individual is caught between multiple forces of assimilation on the one hand, and the pull of roots, on the other. It is this process of hybridization that creates a ‘ liminal place’ of ‘in-betweenness’ – a space where identity is constantly negotiated and almost always in the process of becoming. This is also a space wherein migrants express their dilemma in being caught between loyalty to the ‘home culture’ and that of the ‘new culture’ through different modes of creativity.

Cultural production by diasporics offers an interesting insight into formation of identity processes. There are several films, novels and other forms of creative output available by persons of Indian origin. Let us take up two novels here – JhumpaLahiri’s The Namesake and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane – to examine how the authors explore the complex range of experiences involved when their protagonists cross boundaries of ethnicity, race, language and culture, and how this experience is often accompanied by resultant clashes, both personal and familial. Both these novels ( which also have  film adaptations) explore the impact of dislocation on perceptions of self and other, as well as how the protagonist negotiates contradictory sites of being and becoming. This in term leads to a sense of deep ambivalence. The second generation characters find themselves in a position of ‘in-betweenness’ belonging neither here, nor there, and have to negotiate their sense of being. As Vijay Agnew points out ,migrants are constantly using “ their intellectual, social and political resources to construct identities that transcend physical and social boundaries, and they are rarely, particularly today, mere victims who are acted upon by the larger society ( 2008, 5 ).

3. GENDER CONSTRUCTIONS
In this section, we will explore the gendered impact of migration on communities of Indian women. We will examine how issues of gender, race, sexuality and ethnicity can be used as analytical categories in the study of diaspora identity. The section will offer a few examples wherein these issues are reflected in cultural productions such as diasporic women’s writing and films. Before we proceed, you may want to visit these two links for a better understanding of gender and sexuality in the context of the diaspora –
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0132448300.pdf
https://www.genderspectrum.org/understanding-gender

3.1A brief historical overview

As viewed earlier in the modules on the history of the Indian diaspora, emigration from the Indian subcontinent is generally categorized according to geographical scope, as well as historical periodization. Under the broad based category of the ‘old’ Indian diasporawhich was formed during the expansion of colonial capitalism, we have the mass mobility of Indian men and women to far flung colonies of Fiji, Mauritius, Caribbean Islands and South Africa, mainly as indentured labor, as well as large number of passenger Indians to East and South Africa. Here initially the migration was predominantly male with only a few women. Under the category of the ‘new Indian diaspora’, there is the wave of migration after the second World War to the United Kingdom for the purpose of supplying labor to industries, and then the brain drain of students and white collar professionals, among others, to the United States post 1960s. These tend to be migrations with families. The third wave of movement has been the more  recent, large scale mobility of ‘contract’ labor to the Gulf countries in West Asia. This migration is generally not with families. In most cases it is male only migration, and in a few occupations like nursing and domestic labor, it is female only migration.

While examining gender , we must take into account the above demography as well as economic and political factors linked to the migration of women. Given the tempo-historical framework of Indian diasporas and complexity of circumstances of mobility, we cannot generalize about the nature of the migratory experiences. Rather, each movement should be examined in its specific context . The heterogeneous nature of migration has resulted in the production of complex diasporic gendered identities among diverse groups originating from the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, there is neither a ‘singular diaspora experience’ nor a ‘singular diasporic gendered identity’. Importantly, we must keep in mind that men and women do not necessarily share the same experience of migration. Especially as far as women migrants are concerned, crucial areas of negotiation include personal choice vs community compulsions and repressed sexuality.

The experiences of women migrants from the Indian subcontinent have not been adequately discussed under the larger rubric of diaspora studies. It is only in the past two/three decades that important works have emerged wherein space is being accorded to their experiences. While it is not possible to cover the entire gamut of studies here, we will examine a few examples wherein diaspora scholars who have approached issues of gender at the intersection of caste class and race in the context of a specific reading of migration history. Their research is based on official records and archives, as well as and non-official sources such as memoirs, oral accounts, photographs and family histories. These scholars raise questions about the impact of diverse experiences on gendered identity formations. Importantly, they also examine the productive and reproductive roles of women, in order to locate larger questions of women’s agency. They raise important questions on representation of women in studies of the diaspora, through their gendered reading of the diaspora experience,

3.2‘Pull and push’

Within the traditional, fundamentally patriarchal Indian diaspora, gendered identities are regulated by a binary system of man and woman (Herzig, 65).The manner in which Indian women negotiate patriarchal expectations, along with modernity and contemporary realities of their adopted land is central to our understanding of the way in which gendered identities are formed. As we have observed in section one, the act of separation or uprooting is inevitably governed by tropes of trauma, memory and loss.Women who migrate experience loss in multiple forms.For instance, there is the loss of the natal family, and the sense of security that comes from the presence of familiar social linkages. According to Gitanjali Singh Chanda, first generation women migrants are thrice alienated. Firstly, from the country left behind, then from the new host country and finally from their  children (2008: 256). And yet, in course of time, as women start to take control of their lives, their identity undergoes a series of change resulting in a re-figuration of the self. It is important to understandthat women have had to negotiate new cultural experiences which call for ‘accommodation’ with the receiving culture, the degree of which may vary. Varied processes of acculturation in turn result in a complex of evolving identities Hence the experience of migration can lead to a complex sense of alienation and ambivalence. When identities are disrupted, this can lead to an identity crisis ( Pascale 2006: 66).

We have also studied that one of the core features of the diaspora is the idea of the myth of return and a sense of nostalgia for the past. As Chanda reminds us, “the home address or the notion of Indianness is crucial in shaping identities and the construct of the Indian woman” (2008, 15).In this regard, women have played an important role as ‘custodians of culture’. For example, the onus of retaining ‘core values’ is most often placed on the woman as wife or mother responsible for raising children in an alien  society. She has to tackle the difficult job of instilling cultural norms of the ‘home culture’ within the domestic space thereby ensuring that the family maintains emotional ties with the homeland. And yet she herself is caught within the problematic processes of negotiation with spaces beyond the confines of the home. This includes the way she dresses, the language she speaks and the food she cooks. Clothes also play an important role in how women ‘stand out’ from the mainstream. Women experience racism when they are perceived as different from the mainstream culture. This could be on the basis of their clothing, their ethnicity and even the inability to speak English ( Agnew 2008, r 29).Let us take the example of dress which can serve as a class and religious marker. Women are often compelled to retain their ethnic wear, due to compulsions from patriarchal hierarchy set in place in the receiving society. The example of the banning of the burqa in France is an example of how women migrants are caught in the conflict of religious belief of the community on one hand, and demands of the host nation state on the other hand. While many women may see the manner in which they dress as central to their cultural identity, others work out subversive strategies to evolve a liberatory space for themselves. The main protagonist of Ravindra Randhawa’s Hari-jan is a young British Asian girlwho delights in wearing her salwar-kameez with a pair of Reeboks. This is an interesting fusion of the tradition with the modern, as also assertion of multiple identities.

Narratives of popular culture (novels/short stories/films etc.)are important, and interesting sources to understand how a first generation migrant woman has to negotiate constantly with the new culture of the receiving society. A close examination of modes of cultural production can offer a rich insight into how resistance, negotiation and agency take place. A large number of migration narratives are based on biographical and autobiographical accounts, and offer invaluable insights into the range of cross cultural experiences, and ensuing conflicts and dilemmas. We also gain an insight into instances of resistance. These narratives engage us with crucial question such as:

· Why do women migrate? How do they make decisions to migrate? Do they follow their husbands or have they migrated in their own capacity?

· What kind of anxieties does the woman face when she has to deal with new cross cultural

experiences?
· How much does racial discrimination impact on herself-esteem?

· What are the repercussions of changes in social and economic status on the gender based relationships?

· What kind of coping strategies are required ?

· How are gender identities challenged by women who resist traditional expectations ?

3.3 ‘In-betweeness’
The second generation of women in the diaspora grows up, caught between two worlds. They have to deal with the ‘push and pull’ between nurturing traditional values on the one hand, and cope with values of the dominant culture such as individualism and sexual freedom on the other. This generational conflict is often expressed through discussions on the mother-daughter relationship which is a common theme in migrant narratives. Preeti Nair’s novelA Hundred Shades of White(2004)throws light on the conflicting values between a daughter whose sense of belonging is more towards the United Kingdom where she has grown up. She attempts to negotiate between two worlds . Her mother on the other hand has largely remained alienated from the white mainstream culture and this leads to a struggle between the two. The film Bend it like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha, 2002) deals with the struggles of Jess, a young girl British-Asian of Punjabi origin, who dreams of becoming a football player, and has to come to come to terms with her conflicting identities, as well as issues of interracial romance.

4. SEXUALITY
A recurrent trope during the nationalist period has been the equation of the mother-figure with mother India. This symbolic use of the mother figure was one of the means of projecting the role of the Indian woman in the family in promulgating the notion of a ‘pure’ wife as the backbone of a heterosexual family’. Therefore figures from mythology such as Sita became central to the representative of values of chastity and obedience. Any challenge to this norm, was interpreted as a betrayal of ‘Indian’ cultural values and any expressions on sexuality were thus silenced. Vijay Mishra inThe Literature of the Indian diaspora: Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary (2007) describes how the epic tales of the Ramayana appealed to first generation migrants because the exile of Rama is characterized by loss and trauma, in a way mirroring their own diasporic experience. On the other hand, feminists have challenged the depiction of Sita, and her obedience of staying within the limits of the lakshmanrekha. They point out how the control of a woman’s body has been closely related to the community’s desire to safeguard its ‘honor’or ‘izzat’. This leads to questions of repressed sexuality within the community, also impacting upon race relations and ethnicity with the host society.

Women have largely been treated as ‘migrant wives’ . Yet studies on the profile of indentured women point out that a large number of women who set out for the Caribbean islands included beggars, widows and even prostitutes ( Pirabhai, 2009). It has been interpreted that indenture provided these women with the possibility of escaping severe social strictures such as the ideology of widowhood and its restrictions. The fact that they were employed meant that they had some level of economic independence. Therefore in a sense, these women exerted agency by making a conscious decision to risk a journey across the ‘kalapani’ in order to escape an oppressive patriarchal system in India. Female migrants who had to survive in a predominantly male set-up faced grossly exploitative conditions.

You may want to read Coolie Woman, wherein authorGaiutraBahadur presents the fascinating lifenarrativeof  her great grandmother who, unlike most of the indentured laborers, was a high-caste Hindu. She set sail as a single, pregnant woman for Guyana in 1903 as a coolie. Through meticulous research, drawing upon archives and family recollections, Bahadur ‘s reconstruction allows us an insight into the hitherto unheard saga of over a quarter a million other women, many of whom were widows and social outcasts. We learn of the traumatic conditions of their journey across the middle passage, and of the hardships they had to endure on arrival. Due to the female-male ratio and the shortage of women, as compared to the male indentured laborers, these women were sexually exploited both by fellow indentured male laborers as well as colonial overseers. For example, in Guyana, the sex ratio in 1857 was 35:100, which rose only to 50: 100 by 1860 (Rayaprol, 1997). The lower wages for women rendered them “ as a doubly marginalized entity within an oppressive system”.Pirabhai explains that how, when circumscribed by patriarchal attitudes, these women were put in “a vulnerable position,which left them open to sexual assault, concubinage,, prostitution , and even uxoricide” ( 2009, 8).The women were therefore placed in a paradoxical position as victims on the one hand, and yet asserted a degree of agency, on the other. For example, since they were fewer in number , they would take their pick of partners. Their sexual relationship with white colonial overseers also gave them certain powers for negotiating favors. And yet, they also suffered sexual attacks and domestic abuse when spurned. Women came to be represented by colonial narratives as ‘loose’ and ‘depraved characters ‘ and over time, expressions of female sexuality were frowned upon and even banned. In due course, the conventional patriarchal family set up was restored, and exogamous marriages were banned. In Mobilizing India; Women, Music, and Migration between India and Trinidad, Tejaswini Niranjana presents a fascinating inter-disciplinary study of 19th century travel narratives, film music, lyrics such as chutney-soca and calypo songs in order to build up an argument that that the “perceptions of Indian female sexuality in Trinidad have been long been central to the formation and disruption of dominant narratives of nationhood, modernity , and normative sexuality in India” (2006, 278) . She presents music as a “dynamic site of cultural negotiation’ wherein women evolved their own subversive strategies of self-expression to challenge the myth of ‘Indian womanness” (2006, 278).

Dana Seidenberg’s chapter on ‘Women in the East African Asian community ‘ is perhaps one of the few studies on the position of women of Indian origin within tightly knit communities which promoted endogamy as a strict norm. She points out that in the case of the diaspora in East Africa, as elsewhere, the notion of women’s purity went hand in hand with sex segregation and “the cult of marriage and domesticity” (1996: 95). Women were brought up to think that marriage was the only acceptable option open to them and therefore, the home became the “focal point of female reproduction” (Ibid). However, there are many instances wherein women have challenged these norms. Meera Nair’s film Mississippi Masalaoffers an interesting take on how a second generation young Ugandan Asian woman takes her family’s racial prejudices head on by falling in love with a black man.

4.1 Contemporary context:Coming to a more contemporary context, SanjenaSathian makesan important observation of how Bollywood repeatedly presents an essentialist interpretation of diasporic femininity that imagines “the ideal woman adorned in a sari, her forehead dotted with a red bindi and hair pulled back in a plait—beautiful but sexually constrained”( 2010, 20). Any violation of the woman’s chastity becomes a “violation of her honorwhich implicates the male in control of her, her husband or father, rather than the woman herself” ( 21). Sathian analyses the depiction of females in films such as Pardes, DilwaleDulhania Le Jayenge and Love Aaj Kal. She argues that such repressions of sexuality mirror real-life suppressions of aspects of many women’s experiences in the diaspora. However she also points out that it is important to compare the reality of actual lives of woman in the diaspora to those depicted in the narratives and films. There are several young women who are defining their own spaces, and in doing so, reject the nation-state’s definition of femininity. For instance, Prema Kurien notes in the  results of a sociology study of migrated Indian graduate students, that the modern diasporic woman (if she has chosen to migrate on her own, without a male counterpart) in reality is often quite transgressive and hails from a more progressive family (cited in Santhian, 2) .

In an incisive article, Ananya Bhattacharjee discusses the roots of domestic violence among the middle class Indian Americans families which compels its members to confirm to the norms of the heterosexual and patriarchal family. Activists in locations such as United States and Canada have expressed concern about incidents of sexual violence widely prevalent in the community. You may wish to look at the websites of non-profit organizations that provide women caught in the vortex of domestic violence/ emotional abuse/ sexual assault and family conflict such the Asian Family Support Services (AFSSA) (formerlySaheli) (http://www.saheli-austin.org/d6) Maitri ( http://maitri.org/) and Sakhi (http://www.sakhi.org/about-sakhi/mission-and-history/). The websites of these organizations offer an insight into the range of problems that women face, and critical need to address these issues by means of community engagement projects, policy initiatives.

4.2Queer diaspora identities:

Conventionally, diasporic identities have positioned heterosexuality as the norm and central to the cultural identity of the community. We however have an interesting timeline on–non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry’ on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_South_Asian_and_diasporic_LGBT_history From the mid-1980s onwards, support groups are increasingly giving voice to the hitherto silenced voices of gay, lesbian and transgendered community who are coming to terms with themselves and are beginning to challenge the mainstream/conventional patriarchal hierarchy. They are also discussing racism encountered from white queer communities.In an article titled ‘ Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Themes in the Diaspora Literature”, Emmanuel Nelson (2002) (http://www.glbtq.com/literature/south_asian_lit.html) shares how writers of the diaspora, born in the Indian subcontinent but who have emigrated to the West, have started to express their sexuality with candor.He argues this could be because their location in North America or Britain offers greater artistic freedom from ‘ culturally imposed constraints.He explains how their “ the personal conflicts and political contradictions (are) generated by their interacting ethno-cultural, post-colonial, and homosexual subjectivities”. One of the works he refers to isFeminist Fables (1981) by SunitiNamjoshi which is described as “ a subversive perspective on patriarchal assumptions” .

References/Further Reading

• Agnew, Vijay (ed). Rpt. 2008, Diaspora, memory and Identity. A Search for Home (ed). Canada. University of Toronto Press.
• Bahadur, Gaiutra. 2013. Coolie Woman. Gurgaon. Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt. Ltd.
• Bhabha, Homi.2004. The Location of Culture. UK. Routledge.
• Brah, Avtar. 2003. “ Diaspora, Border and Transnational Identities” in Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader (ed.). Lewis Reina and Sara Mills. Edinburgh. Edinburgh University Press:
• Bhattacharjee, Ananya. 1992. “The Habit of Ex-Nomination: Nation, Woman and the Indian Immigrant Bourgeoisie” .Public Culture Fall 5 (1): 19-44.
• Chanda,Geetanjali Singh. 2008. Indian women in the House of Fiction. New Delhi, Zuban.
• Hall, Stuart. 1990. ‘Cultural identity and diaspora’ in Jonathan Rutherford (ed.) Identity: community, culture, difference, London: Lawrence &Wishart.
• Kurien, Prema 1999. Gendered Ethnicity. Creating a Hindu Indian Identity in the United States. The American Behavioural Scientist. 42:468-473.
• Lahiri, Jhumpa. 2003. The Namesake . New York.Mariner Books.
• Leonard, KarenIsaken. 2008. Hyderabadis abroad: Memories of Home. In P. Raghuram, A. Sahoo, B.
• Maharaj and D Sangha (eds). Tracing an Indian diaspora: Contexts, memories, representations: 257-271. New Delhi. Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
• Mishra, Vijay. 2007. The Literature of the Indian diaspora:Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary. UK. Routledge.
• Nair, Preethi. 2004. Hundred Shades of White. UK.Harper Collins.
• Niranjana,Tejaswani, 2006. Mobilizing India; Women, Music, and Migration between India and Trinidad. Duke University Press.
• Pascale, Herzig. 2006. South Asians in Kenya: Gender, Generation and Changing Identity in Diaspora. Munster. Lit Verlag.
• Pirabhai Mariam. 2009. Mythologies of Migration, Vocabularies of Indenture. Canada. University of Toronto Press.
• Rayapol, Aparna.1997. Negotiating Identities Women in the Indian Diaspora. New Delhi, Oxford University Press.
• Seidenberg,Dana. 1996. Mercantile Adventurers. The World of East African Asians. 1750-1985. New Delhi. New Age International (P) limited, New Delhi.