South Asian Diasporas

This survey focuses on the South Asian diaspora, that is, the migration of people originating from the Indian subcontinent into a global horizon, and the multi-dimensional array of economic, political and cultural relationships produced between diasporic communities, their places of origin, and their places of arrival. The course will be structured around key themes and questions in the history of the diaspora, using these as entry points into deeper contexts while making connections between historical and contemporary phenomena. We will explore flows of labor (indentured and otherwise), transnational mercantile and financial connections, overseas political movements, and South Asian communities in North America ain the wake of the War on Terror. Topics will include: questions of bondage and contract, circulation of revolutionary praxis and radical cross-fertilization, racial and cultural identity formation, legal and extralegal economies, gender, class and caste.  Our readings will draw upon literary texts, oral and public histories, as well as archival sources; not to mention observations from your own forays into the city.