Diaspora, music, and identity: Indians in the Caribbean and the Indo-Caribbean diaspora

Abstract

ABSTRACT To maintain a unified identity within a local community, people express their association with specific rituals and practices. As a testament to the evolution of cultural ideas and journeys, these rituals and practices serve as an important platform for validating their ethnic identity as well as providing a sense of authenticity to the community. Migration and dislocation are associated with a sense of ruptured identity and an unfulfilled desire to reconnect with lost culture, with a focus on traditional practices as a way of reconnecting with their roots. While the old indentured migrants glorified ‘Indianism’ through music, their successors used music to strengthen ethnic ties and to preserve their diasporic identities. Examining the contemporary development in music practices and genres, this article focuses on the creation and recreation of Indian identities in the diaspora through music with the example of Indo-Caribbeans.