Home and land: Diaspora dilemmas

Between two worlds

One of Mirza Ghalib's ghazals has a line that poignantly captures the dilemma of the Southasian migrant. 'Imaan mujhe roke hai to kheeche hai mujhe kufr,' Ghalib wrote. 'Faith holds me back, while temptations attract.' Those who have – for millennia, as today – left their homes for economic or other reasons encounter markedly similar experiences: trying to build a home in an alien land, even while retaining attachments with the country of origin. The migrant thus remains caught between two worlds, the attractions of the new home invariably clashing with the pull of the old. As referred to in our cover for this issue, by St Louis-based artist Somalee Banerjee, the push and pull between the vagaries of defining one 'home' and the physicality of one's 'land' is one that tears at any migrant.

Their rewards do not necessarily balance out the darker parts of the experience. In their new countries, Southasians might face racism, mistrust and even active animosity. Often from the poorer classes, these labourers are also the most vulnerable to exploitation.

Migrants usually go abroad without their families, to eke out a living as and where possible, and thus theirs can be a crushingly lonely life. Finally, after spending long years abroad, even when they do return many find it difficult to settle back into the patterns of old lives.

Those who remain behind are often ambivalent when it comes to the diaspora. In their erstwhile homelands, migrants are simultaneously the objects of envy and derision – sometimes even shouldering the suspicion of being 'antinational' for having left, though many who stay behind might do so only due to lack of choice. And yet there are many common interests and concerns, and the members of the Southasian diaspora can and do contribute hugely to their lands of origin. In the years ahead, optimising this synergy – between remittance and tradition, between new culture and old – will be a critical responsibility for our entire region.

Related cover stories and commentary in this edition

History of the desi umbilical by Vijay Prashad

Rhymes with fun-jew-free by Manjushree Thapa

Gulf return by Deepak Unnikrishnan

Nepali workforce by Ganesh Gurung

Ripples from Bengal by Afsan Chowdhury

Sri Lanka's mirror abroad by K Ananda, A Vasanthakumar & V V Ganeshananthan

Out of Goa by Selma Carvalho

Ded Moroz in Kathmandu by Roman Gautam

A Tibet of the mind by Tenzing Sonam

Fragrance of asafoetida by Rabi Thapa

Natural-isation by Venantius J Pinto

The NRSa diaspora

Microscopic opening

Too much, too little

'Farther afield'

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