Abstract
Provincial Globalization in India, edited by Carol Upadhya, Mario Rutten and Leah Koskimaki, presents a refreshing perspective on the issues concerning transnational migration, remittance economies and the resultant development politics in the provincial global south, and India in particular. The book is a product of the research programme entitled Provincial Globalization: The Impact of Reverse Transnational Flows in India’s Regional Towns (the ‘ProGlo’ programme), a five-year collaboration between the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, India. The book contains chapters based on the doctoral and postdoctoral research of the members of the ‘ProGlo’ programme, with the addition of another two invited contributions (p. xv).
The book maps regional variability of patterns of transnational mobility and migrant remittances, along with rich illustration of the range of diasporic activities and non-resident Indian (NRI) engagements across four regions of India—central Gujarat, coastal Andhra Pradesh, coastal Karnataka and Doaba in Punjab (p. 1). Breaking away from existing urbanization and globalization development paradigms, the book provides anthropological descriptions of direct linkages between transnational migrants and their provincial spaces and imaginations. The continued embeddedness and engagements of transnational migrants in their native provincial spaces has been critically analysed to show how such engagements result in reinforcement and/or reconfiguration of economic, political and cultural contestations among various provincial caste and community groups. The role of castes as interest groups and the adaptive nature of caste in the changing political arena has been pointed out by Divya Vaid (2014). Various studies in the book also suggest how castes continue to function as interest groups in terms of preferred loyalty and engagements of transnational migrants in India. Thus, the book opens up further theoretical and anthropological possibilities to study caste from provincial sites to its transnational linkages across the globe.
Apart from the introduction, the book contains eight chapters in which two chapters each are dedicated to studies on four different regions of India. In their chapter on diaspora philanthropy in central Gujarat (Chapter 2), Natascha Dekkers and Mario Rutten illustrate the historical, social and political contexts in which monetary transactions and relationships are embedded in the Patel caste-dominated Motugam village. The authors trace the historical trajectory of migration by Patel caste from Motugam and Gujarat in general, to East Africa, the United Kingdom and North America, and the ways in which philanthropic transfers of these members of the diaspora are perceived as ‘emotional attachment’ and rootedness to their home village. However, this diaspora philanthropy is critically examined as a process of negotiation over power within the ‘giver’–‘receiver’ relationship, in relation to charitable trusts and between members of the local community and those who have settled abroad (p. 39). An interesting example which illustrates the varied motives of diasporic philanthropy is when an English-medium school was added to the existing Gujarati-medium school in Motugam to cater to the demand from overseas migrants for English-speaking marriage partners and to enable further migration (p. 25). The donors, trustees and most beneficiaries of similar charitable undertakings in Motugam all belong to the local Patel community, albeit with internal negotiations and contestations. The philanthropic donations of the Patels can be viewed as a strategy for the maintenance and perpetuation of their local dominant caste, social, economic and political aspirations and status, although a perception of inclusive ‘philanthropy’ might be associated with such donations.
However, there are different meanings attached to transnational flows when it is associated with different castes and communities. In Chapter 4, which is on the politics of migrant funding for Muslim education in central Gujarat, Sanderien Verstappen shows how the two contesting narratives of ‘Overseas Indians contributing to national development’ and ‘foreign influences disrupting the nation’ may be playing a role in the differential treatment by the state of donations associated with Muslims and other marginalized communities, compared to the flows from dominant groups (p. 80). After the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) was amended in 2010 to prohibit acceptance and utilization of foreign contributions for ‘any activities detrimental to the national interest’, there has been intense scrutiny of foreign funding of NGOs in India. The FCRA has particularly affected associations of religious and cultural minorities as well as oppositional voices such as human rights groups (p. 70). This shows how laws and regulations pertaining to transnational remittances provide ample political scope to target and curb developmental activities undertaken by diasporic groups from marginalized castes and communities.
The chapter on diaspora philanthropy and the globalization of education in Punjab by Kaveri Qureshi (Chapter 3) depicts how education in rural Punjab is being globalized in terms of the expansion of private schooling, English-medium instructions and internationalized curricula, while at the same time neo-traditionalist schools are being promoted by diaspora philanthropy (p. 61). With liberalization, privatization and modernization in the education sector, neo-liberal experiences in rural Punjab are being shaped into complex, interlinked ways by Punjab’s specific history of out-migration and the ongoing connections that ‘chaordic’ (cite) diaspora maintains with their ancestral homeland. Skills like proficiency in English, information technology (IT) and science, that are increasingly valued in the labour market and which provide young people with the cultural capital to migrate for overseas studies, have an increased demand and attract major investments. While neo-liberalism and global labour markets provide a stimulus for private investments in the education sector, diaspora philanthropy plays a significant role in the propagation of neo-traditionalism on one hand and in addressing caste inequalities, on the other. In Chapter 7, which is on Punjabi Dalit transnational mobility, Steve Taylor describes how the significant increase in Dalit migration and the ensuing formation of Dalit transnational ties are multi-dimensional and marked by tension and inequality as well as hope and opportunity. The dominance of Jat Sikhs in the diaspora, perpetuating caste inequalities, has led to an increased assertion of Ravidassia/Chamar identity via the Deras movement. The author illustrates this point with examples of transnational Punjabi Dalits who have converted to neo-Buddhism and embraced the Ambedkarite movement. The Punjabi Dalit diaspora’s support for local Dalit empowerment and development projects within the region, through ‘autonomous anti-caste’ activities, are inextricably linked to the pursuit of izzat (honour) via diasporic consumer display within Punjab and ‘caste reform’ practices (p. 137).
In Chapter 5, which is on transnational citizens as ‘development partners’ in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Sanam Roohi illustrates how reciprocal transactional alliances between the diaspora and state actors are built upon pre-existing relations of trust, based on regional, political and caste-based affiliations. With the formation of an NRI Cell in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, NRIs who largely are from the regionally dominant Kamma caste, are bestowed with the status of ‘preeminent citizens’. However, the prevailing political dynamics of the region shapes such transnational alliances and interactions, leading to contestations around diaspora involvement in rural development (p. 99). In the chapter on NRI property investments in Andhra Pradesh (Chapter 9), Carol Upadhya explains the formation of transregional channels of capital circulation and their functioning through diaspora investments into the region. The rural and urban landscapes of Andhra Pradesh have been transformed by migrant property investments and house-building activities, especially by transnational migrants from the agrarian landed classes. While economists often regard property and house-building as ‘unproductive’ investments, ethnographic studies illustrate how such investments can be viewed as strategies for converting new wealth into social status through visible consumption (p. 163). It has also been suggested that the increasing role of international and transregional financial networks in post-globalization India has performed an important role in enabling such transnational circuits of accumulation (pp. 179–180).
The two chapters on transnational investments and diasporic philanthropy from the Gulf countries in coastal Karnataka show a contrasting picture. Owing to historical contestations around skewed land ownership patterns and ensuing caste/community conflicts, the aspirations and experiences of dominant and marginalized castes/communities are qualitatively different. In Chapter 6, which is on transnational giving in Dakshina Kannada, Sulagna Mustafi and Leah Koskimaki have depicted how the historically disadvantaged Beary Muslim community seek upward mobility and assert equality and a respectable community identity—partly through Gulf migration and remittances (p. 118). These remittances by Beary transnational migrants are often projected as zakat, as part of their Muslim religious duty. Responding to the sense of insecurity cultivated by the spread of Hindu nationalism, transnational welfare organizations also become nodes or vehicles through which the Bearys nurture diasporic patronage for local politics. While a sense of insecurity plays a significant role in developmental activities based on diasporic remittances and engagements of the Beary community, a sense of lost power and prestige becomes an underlying narrative for the transnational engagements of the dominant Bunt caste in coastal Karnataka. The chapter by Leah Koskimaki (Chapter 8) traces the historical journey of the Bunts from agrarian landlords to contemporary transnational entrepreneurs. In the 1960s and 1970s, after their large holdings of agricultural land were reduced by land reforms, the Bunts began to migrate out of their home region in search of new opportunities (p. 149). The Bunt transnational entrepreneurs present themselves as ‘development agents’, exerting considerable political influence in the region. Thus, the nature of transnational investment and engagement of the Bunt community can be seen to be directed towards rejuvenation of their historical dominant caste status.
The book provides various and divergent accounts of transnational investments, philanthropy and engagements by both dominant and marginalized castes and communities across four different regions of India, with their specific histories of agrarian caste relations, political economic transformations and patterns of outward migration. Most studies of the Indian village and its development have long revolved around debates on modes of production in agriculture (Thorner, 1982), or have focused on the emerging trend of villagers across castes and classes moving away from agriculture and entering into non-agriculture or non-farm employment (Kumar, 2016). However, one of the important contributions of the book is to describe and situate the continued embeddedness and engagements of migrants with their native caste and community groups in provincial India. Provincial Globalization in India thus transcends the boundaries of several existing debates and disciplines, and provides ample opportunities for fresh scholarly engagements concerning rural transformation and development politics in provincial India, and in the global south in general.