Negotiating Home and Belonging in the South Asian Diaspora

This book addresses pertinent issues faced by South Asians in the diaspora today, such as questions of home and belonging. The chapters offer nuanced understandings of South Asian Diasporic literary writings through various theoretical and methodological approaches.

From 19th-century colonial indentured labor migration to various European plantation economies to 20th-century skilled migration to developed countries in the West, the South Asians today constitute the largest diasporas in the world. For South Asians in the diaspora, the question of home and belonging remains a subtle and contested topic. Home and belonging are critical to diasporic communities because they address core challenges of identity, displacement, and navigating dual lives. They negotiate multiple belongings, leading to a hybrid identity that is never completely fixed. The contributions explore pertinent questions of hybridity and liminality of the diasporic subject, as reflected in media and literary writings produced over the last three decades.

This volume will be of great interest to scholars working on the South Asian diaspora, English literature, cultural studies, migration, gender, and transnationalism. The chapters were originally published in various issues and volumes of South Asian Diaspora.