The South Asian diaspora, also known as the Desi diaspora, [1] is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia, but who live outside the region. [2] There are over 44 million people in this diaspora. [3]
South Asians in the diaspora are often referred to as Desis , a term embraced by many South Asians, though controversial to some. [4] [5] [6]
Some South Asians lived in other parts of the world for trade purposes. During the Roman Empire, a few South Asians came to Europe. [7]
During the colonial era, over 1 million South Asians were taken to other parts of the world as indentured servants. [9] South Asians also were brought to parts of Southeast Asia as part of the British Empire. [10]
Diaspora members played a significant role in opposing the British Raj as part of the Ghadar Movement.
Some South Asians, mainly from Punjab, migrated to the West Coast in the United States, and mixed with the local Mexican community. [11]
South Asians have emigrated in record numbers since the end of the colonial era in the middle of the 20th century. Many South Asians migrated to the United Kingdom and participated in its post-war economic recovery. [12] [13] Some South Asians went to the Middle East for labour opportunities, though some were mistreated in a racist manner and exploited. [14] [15] After the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that allowed nonwhite immigration was passed, Indian-Americans became the richest ethnic group in the United States, and comprise over 10% of the labour force in computing-related fields. [16]
Because South Asians had already dispersed across the world during the colonial era, a noted aspect of the diaspora is that it has produced several secondary diasporas - some of its members' families transited through several countries over generations to reach a final destination (e.g. a person's ancestors may have come from India to Africa, and then a few generations later from Africa to New Zealand). [17]
Some people in the diaspora watch South Asian cinema (mainly Bollywood), and some South Asian films feature diaspora characters. The Hindi-language Bollywood industry has played a significant role in uniting the diaspora around Hindi as a common language for exploring its South Asian heritage. [18] The diaspora's proficiency in English has also led to South Asian media catering to them using Hinglish, a hybrid of Hindi and English. [19]
South Asians introduced some of their traditional games, such as kabaddi and kho-kho, into countries like South Africa and Malaysia during the colonial era. [20] [21] [22] In post-colonial times, kabaddi and kho-kho have been brought by the diaspora to some of the Western countries, [23] [24] [25] with kabaddi used in some contexts to show masculinity in hostile environments. [26]
Cricket, a popular sport in South Asia, has been patronised by the diaspora in North America and the Middle East, [27] with the American Major League Cricket mainly targeting the diaspora audience. [28] [29] [30] The sport has grown in Europe since the 2015 refugee crisis. [31]
South Asian diasporas represent a wide variety of linguistic, cultural, ethnic, and religious groups from across the subcontinent. [32] There are sometimes tensions between these different groups within the diaspora. For example, the Hindu-Muslim tensions created by the 1947 Partition of India sometimes manifest themselves in divisions among Hindus and Muslims in the diaspora, particularly between those of Indian descent and those of Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent. [33] [34] These tensions have been noted more frequently among the diaspora in the United Kingdom since incidents such as the Babri Masjid demolition and the 2014 election of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. [35] [36] [37]
Discrimination based on the caste system occurs to some extent primarily within the Indian diaspora; in America, a non-scientific survey showed 67% of lower-caste Dalits had experienced caste discrimination in the workplace, [38] and in California, there was heated debate within the diaspora as to whether to pass legislation explicitly banning caste discrimination. [39]
Diaspora communities have been noted for providing crucial economic support and remittances to countries within South Asia. [40] India has issued diaspora bonds in certain crisis situations, such as the 1991 Indian economic crisis, [41] and has given increasing priority to involving its diaspora. [42] Diaspora graduates from MIT played a significant role in establishing the Indian Institutes of Technology. [43]
Tensions have occurred between South Asian countries and their diasporas over support for separatist movements, as in the case of India and its Punjabi diaspora over the Khalistan movement. [40] These tensions have sometimes boiled over to harming relations between South Asian countries and the host countries of the diaspora, as with the 2023 Canada-India diplomatic row. [44]
The Hindu diaspora has come under some scrutiny in its host countries for playing an increasingly significant role in promoting Hindu nationalism, with some diaspora members disapproving of the scrutiny and opposing Hindu nationalism. [45] [46] [47] [48]
Some Punjabis have joined gangs in recent decades in Canada. [49]
In the United States, representation of the South Asian diaspora has steadily increased; in previous decades, Apu of The Simpsons had been the most prominent South Asian representation, but now there is significantly more varied representation, with comedians like Hasan Minhaj achieving success. [50]
Venba is a video game that depicts themes of Tamil-Canadian immigration by exploring Tamil cuisine. [51]
Thirsty Suitors explores romantic relationships involving a South Asian-American protagonist. [52]
Sikhs are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term Sikh has its origin in the Sanskrit word śiṣya, meaning 'seeker', 'disciple' or 'student'.
Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the current ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Desi also Deshi, is a loose term used to describe the peoples, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and their diaspora, derived from Sanskrit देश, meaning 'land' or 'country'. Desi traces its origin to the people from the South Asian republics of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, and may also sometimes include people from Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
David Frawley is an American Hindutva activist and a teacher of Hinduism.
The Memon are a Muslim community in Gujarat India, and Sindh, Pakistan, the majority of whom follow the Hanafi fiqh of Sunni Islam. They are divided into different groups based on their origins: Kathiawari Memons, Kutchi Memons and Bantva Memons from the Kathiawar, Kutch and Bantva regions of Gujarat respectively, and Sindhi Memons from Sindh.
According to the Book of Idols by the medieval Arab scholar Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, Hinduism was present in pre-Islamic Arabia. Ibn Al-Kalbi explains the origins of idol worshipping and the practice of circumambulation as rooted in India and Hinduism.
Hinduism came to Mauritius when Indians were brought as indentured labour to colonial French and later in much larger numbers to British plantations in Mauritius and neighboring islands of the Indian Ocean. The migrants came primarily from what are now the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, with another influx of migrants from the Sindh region of Pakistan, following the Partition of India.
Kho kho is a traditional South Asian sport that dates to ancient India. It is the second-most popular traditional tag game in the Indian subcontinent after kabaddi. Kho kho is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connecting two poles which are at either end of the court. During the game, nine players from the chasing team are on the field, with eight of them sitting (crouched) in the central lane, while three runners from the defending team run around the court and try to avoid being touched. Each sitting player on the chasing team faces the opposite half of the field that their adjacent teammates are facing.
The Hindu American Foundation is an American Hindu non-profit advocacy group founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and its student wing Hindu Students Council.
Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to the Republic of India or other parts of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia.
Association football and basketball are the most popular sports in Asia. Cricket is the third most popular sport in Asia, and is most popular in South Asia. Other popular sports in Asia include baseball, badminton and table tennis among others. There are also some traditional sports that are popular in certain regions of Asia, such as the South Asian sports kabaddi and kho-kho, and sepak takraw in Southeast Asia. Top sporting nations/regions in Asia include China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethnic-cultural terms. With a population of 2.04 billion living in South Asia, it contains a quarter (25%) of the world's population. As commonly conceptualised, the modern states of South Asia include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with Afghanistan also often included, which may otherwise be classified as part of Central Asia. South Asia borders East Asia to the northeast, Central Asia to the northwest, West Asia to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. Apart from Southeast Asia, Maritime South Asia is the only subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. The British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of 26 atolls of the Maldives in South Asia lie entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian subcontinent and is bounded by the Indian Ocean in the south, and the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Pamir Mountains in the north.
Bihari Mauritians are descendants of predominantly Bhojpuri-speaking migrants from Bihar who moved to Mauritius. A majority of Indo-Mauritians are of Bihari origin, and most Mauritians are Indo-Mauritian. Caste-wise, many Bihari Mauritians are Vaishyas, with notable groups including Bhumihars, Brahmins, Rajputs, Koeri, Chamars, Yadav, Kurmis, Banias, and Kayastha. Except for one, all Mauritian Prime Ministers have been of Bihari Vaishya descent. The community includes a Hindu majority with a Muslim minority. About 65.7 % of the 1.3 million population of Mauritius is of Indian origin, most of them from Bihar state, with Bhojpuri as their ancestral tongue.
Overseas Indians, officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are Indians who reside or originate outside of India. According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who currently are not living in India, while the term People of Indian Origin refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are citizens of countries other than India. Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) is given to People of Indian Origin and to persons who are not People of Indian Origin but married to Indian citizen or People of Indian Origin. Persons with OCI status are known as Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs). The OCI status is a permanent visa for visiting India with a foreign passport.
Punjabiyat, meaning "Punjabiness", is a movement amongst Punjabis that supports closer links with their cultural traditions and lifestyle. It also supports language revitalization of Punjabi.
The culture of South Asia, also known as Desi culture, is a mixture of several cultures in and around the Indian subcontinent. Ancient South Asian culture was primarily based in Hinduism, which itself formed as a mixture of Vedic religion and indigenous traditions, and later Buddhist influences. From the medieval era onwards, influences from the Muslim world and then Europe also became prevalent.
India has several traditional games and sports, some of which have been played for thousands of years. Their popularity has greatly declined in the modern era, with Western sports having overtaken them during the British Raj, and the Indian government now making some efforts to revive them. Many of these games do not require much equipment or playing space. Some of them are only played in certain regions of India, or may be known by different names and played under different rules and regulations in different regions of the country. Many Indian games are also similar to other traditional South Asian games.
Pakistan has many traditional games played in the rural and urban areas of the country.
South Asia has many traditional games and sports. Two of them, kabaddi and kho-kho, are played at the South Asian Games, with kabaddi also featuring at the Asian Games. Many of these games are played across the entire subcontinent under different names and with some rule variations, while some of these games may be played only in certain countries or regions.
Many sports are played in South Asia, with cricket being the most popular of them; 90% of the sport's worldwide fans live in South Asia. Football is followed passionately in some parts of South Asia, such as Kerala and Bengal. Field hockey was popular for several decades, with some of South Asia's greatest sporting accomplishments having taken place in this sport. Some native South Asian games are played professionally in the region, such as kabaddi and kho-kho, and also feature in regional competitions such as the South Asian Games and Asian Games.
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