Roshni Sengupta

Making sense of ‘homemaking’ in the diaspora: the case of the indo-surinamese hindustanis in the netherlands

• Authors Details :  
• Roshni Sengupta

Journal title : Diaspora Studies

Publisher : Brill

Online ISSN : 0976-3457

Page Number : 380-406

Journal volume : 15

Journal issue : 4

527 Views Original Article

Diaspora groups across the world have been known for adopting and inventing processes and forms of ‘homemaking’ in their host lands. This article brings into focus the methods of homemaking assumed by the Indo-Surinamese Hindustani diaspora in the Netherlands, which owes its origin to colonial dispersal. Considering their status as a ‘twice-migrant’ diaspora, the process may appear to be distinctly difficult for the Hindustanis, a position this article seeks to examine. The article interrogates the notion of homemaking in the case of the Hindustanis through ethnographic conversational interviews of Indo-Surinamese interlocutors—a unique perspective based on personal histories and everyday experiences.

Article DOI & Crossmark Data

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1163/09763457-bja10023

Article Subject Details

• Education and social science

Article Keywords Details

• Diaspora
• Hindustanis
• Homemaking
• Netherlands
• Sarnami Hindi

Article File

Full Text PDF

---

---

Article References

• (1). Anthias, F. 2012. ‘Transnational Mobilities, Migration Research and Intersectionality’, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 2 (2): 102–110. DOI:10.2478/v10202-011-0032-y.
• (2). Bal, E. 2012. ‘Country Report: Indian migration to the Netherlands’, Migration Policy Centre, CARIM-India Research Report, 2012/07, Country Reports http://hdl.handle.net/1814/23485 (Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository 24.08.2022)
• (3). Baumann, M. 2000. ‘Diaspora: Genealogies of Semantics and Transcultural Comparison’, Numen, 47 (3): 313–337.
• (4). Bihari-Elahi, J. 2020. ‘Baithak Gana ke Nac: A Case of Reverse Glocalisation’, in Gowricharn, R. ed. Shifting Transnational Bonding in Indian Diaspora, London: Routledge, 163–178.
• (5). Brah, A. 1996. Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting identities, London: Routledge.
• (6). Choenni, C. 2014. ‘Ethnicity and Politics: Political Adaption of Hindostanis in Suriname’, Sociological Bulletin, 63 (3): 407–431. DOI:10.1177/0038022920140305
• (7). Choenni, C.E.S. 2013. ‘“Happy in Holland”’: The Hindostani elders in The Netherlands’, Sociological Bulletin, 62 (1): 40–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23621025
• (8). Cohen, R. 2008. Global Diasporas: An introduction, Oxford: Routledge.
• (9). Dew, E. 1978. The Difficult Flowering of Surinam: Ethnicity and politics in a plural society, The Hague: Nijhoff.
• (10). Gowricharn, R. 2004. ‘The Janus Face of Transnational Citizenship: Surinamese experiences’, Caribbean Studies, 32 (1): 99–128. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25613424
• (11). Gowricharn, R. 2013. ‘Ethnogenesis: The case of British Indians in the Caribbean’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 55 (2): 388–418. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23526386.
• (12). Gowricharn, R. 2020. Multiple Homemaking: The Ethnic Condition in Indian Diaspora Societies, London: Routledge.
• (13). Kumar, A. 2017. Coolies of the Empire: Indentured Indians in the Sugar Colonies, 1830–1920, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI:10.1017/9781316556627.
• (14). Lal, B.V. 2012. The Suriname Lecture. Intersections: History, Memory, Discipline, Canberra: ANU Press.10.22459/IHMD.11.2012
• (15). Lal, B.V. 2021. ‘Indian Indenture: History and historiography in a nutshell’, Journal of Indentureship and Its Legacies, 1 (1): 1–15.
• (16). Lynnbakke, B. 2007. ‘Contested Equality: Social relations between Indian and Surinamese Hindus in Amsterdam’, in Oonk, G. ed. Global Indian Diasporas Book: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• (17). Manuel, P. 2012. ‘The Trajectories of Transplants: Singing Alh?, ‘Birh?’ and the R?m?yan in the Indic Caribbean’, Asian Music, 43 (2): 115–154.
• (18). Mehta, B.J. 2010. ‘Indianités francophones: Kala Pani Narratives. L’Esprit Créateur’, 50 (2): 1–11. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26289643
• (19). Mishra, V. 2005. The Diasporic Imaginary and the Indian Diaspora, Wellington: Asian Studies Institute Occasional Paper.
• (20). Munz, E. 2017. ‘Ethnographic interview’, in Allen, M. ed. The Sage Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, New York: SAGE Publications, Inc, 455–457. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.n168.
• (21). Pande, A. 2013. ‘Conceptualising Indian Diaspora: Diversities within a common identity’, Economic and Political Weekly, 48 (49): 59–65.
• (22). Roopnarine, L. 2003. ‘East Indian Indentured Emigration to the Caribbean: Beyond the Push and Pull Model’, Caribbean Studies, 31 (2): 97–134. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25613409
• (23). Singh, S.A. 2011. ‘Women in the Ramayana tradition in Trinidad’, in Kanhai, R. ed. Bindi: The Multifaceted Lives of Indo-Caribbean Women. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, vi, 251.
• (24). Sinha-Kerkhoff, K. and E. Bal. 2003. ‘Eternal Call of the Ganga: Reconnecting with People of Indian Origin in Surinam’, Economic and Political Weekly, 38 (38): 4008–4021.
• (25). Sinha-Kerkhoff, K. and E. Bal. 2007. ‘Separated by the Partition: Muslims of British Indian Descent in Mauritius and Suriname’, in Oonk, G. ed. Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• (26). Soysal, Y.N. 2000. ‘Citizenship and Identity: Living in diasporas in post-war Europe?’ Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23 (1): 1–15. DOI: 10.1080/014198700329105.
• (27). Swamy, P. 2016. ‘Temple Building and the Myth of the Multicultural City among Hindus in the Bijlmer’, Etnofoor, 28 (2): 55–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44013446
• (28). Swamy, P. 2017. ‘Valuing Flexible Citizenship: Producing Surinamese Hindu Citizens at a Primary School in The Hague’, Citizenship Studies, 21 (8): 1052–1066.
• (29). Swamy, P. 2018. ‘“Of Course its Beautiful, But I Can’t Wear it!”: Constructions of Hindu Style among Young Hindustani Women in Amsterdam’, in Begum, L., Dasgupta, R.K. and Lewis, R. eds. Styling South Asian Youth Cultures. Fashion, Media & Society, 183–202.
• (30). Swamy, P. 2020. ‘Hinduism in the Netherlands’, in Jacobsen, K. and Sardella, F. eds. Handbook of Hinduism in Europe, Leiden: Brill, pp. 1204–1217. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432284_051.
• (31). Van der Avoird, T. 2001. ‘Determining Language Vitality: The language use of Hindi communities in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom’. Ph.D. dissertation: University of Tillburg.
• (32). Van der Veer, P. and S. Vertovec. 1991. ‘Brahmanism Abroad: On Caribbean Hinduism as an Ethnic Religion’, Ethnology, 30 (2): 149–166. https://doi.org/10.2307/3773407
• (33). Vertovec, S. 2004. ‘Migrant Transnationalism and Modes of Transformation’, The International Migration Review, 38 (3): 970–1001. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27645423.
• (34). Wekker, G. 2001. ‘Of Mimic Men and Unruly Women: Family, sexuality and gender in Twentieth-Century Suriname’, in Hoefte, R. and Meel, P. eds. Twentieth Century Suriname: Continuities and Discontinuities in a New World Society. Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers and Leiden, The Netherlands: KITLV Press.