Indian Diaspora: Ethnicity and Diasporic Identity

Abstract

Indians have migrated to different parts of the world over a periodoftime.AlotofIndiansmigratedtoEuropeancountriesduring the British rule for different reasons. People from different states of India also made their trips to England and other European countries for higher education and other industry related assigrmients. With the passage oftime, many European countries evolved themselves into a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious society. After the World War II, Indians travelled to many European countries for different reasons and became an integral part o f the European canvas. Those Indians who migrated and settled in European countries came together and formed an Indian group because of which their original heterogeneous identity got affected. Their heterogeneous multi- regional, linguistic, religious and cultural identities underwent a change. In spite of that, a lot of efforts have been made to maintain theirownidentityintactthroughthediasporicliterature. Effortswere also made to maintain their own identity by developing their global identity an Indian Diaspora. An attempt has been made here to anlalyse and study the theme o f ethnicity and diasporic identity in the literature.