Diaspora, Development and the Indian State

Abstract

This article attempts to study the engagement of the state of India with the Indian diaspora by situating it within larger debates on diaspora and development and from the perspective of state–society relations. How has the Indian diaspora responded to the initiatives of the Indian state? How have state–diaspora relations affected socio-economic order in India? In order to understand and underline certain complexities in this rubric of diaspora and development, this article takes a long-term analytic perspective in reading the paradigmatic shifts in the theoretical domain of this literature and traces how the approach of the Indian state has led to certain transformations in society. By looking into the composition of the Indian diaspora(s), this article makes a case against the projection of a singular Indian diaspora by the Indian state. It explores whether state–diaspora relations have been influenced by class diversity within the Indian diaspora. The essential rationale of this article is to highlight certain missing links in this discourse of diaspora economic development in the Indian context, without undermining the potentialities of diaspora for development. This study also indicates how these missing links in the initiatives of the state may adversely affect society.