International and Transnational Political Actors

About the Book

This volume explores a new field of Indian diasporic studies, the relations between international and transnational political actors. A number of issues have already been raised for the Indian diaspora: the question of identity in the host country, both in terms of religion or caste, as well as economic issues of integration in overseas territories and remittances to India, and impact of the brain drain on India. But the trans-State political activities involving the Indian diaspora have hardly been addressed so far. The book affords us an opportunity to analyse the construction of these new actors in international relations, in their many forms: lobbying, political parties, cultural associations. The ten papers collected in this volume look at the role of Indian diaspora in international relations, within and beyond the traditional triangular framework of diaspora, State of origin and host State. The involvement of Indian diaspora in international relations has been assessed on two criteria: its global expansion; and how it defines new areas of legitimacy. The picture depicted for other diasporas (Jewish, Kurdish, Palestinian, Sri Lankan Tamil) is complemented and enriched here by the case of India. The volume is organised into two thematic sections. The first is from the point of view of the Indian State, its involvement with the Indian diaspora overseas or with various diasporas on its territory. The second focus is on the diaspora actor through the study of few Indian communities. The contributors explore the processes of building transnational political actors in the Indian diaspora.