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Paper short abstract

Pakistani‑Hindu migrants view India as a cultural homeland, yet social boundaries and reproduced differences limit their belonging. Drawing on year-long ethnography, this paper shows how their hyphenated identity and intersectional positions shape negotiated practices of inclusion.

Paper long abstract

Belonging is a complex and layered phenomenon, as even a simple assertion such as “I belong here” carries multiple meanings and claims. While place belongingness—often understood as feeling “at home”—is central to belonging, being part of a community also requires the ability to express one’s identity through social habits, ways of thinking, and language. For Pakistani Hindu migrants, a sense of belonging to India emerges from perceived similarities in religious and cultural practices, alongside the idea of India as their fatherland or “true destination.” This paper examines the social boundaries they encounter and how these boundaries shape and transform their perceptions of belonging within the broader Hindu community.

Although scholarship frequently explains migrants’ belonging through identity, ethnicity, citizenship, or affective attachment, my fieldwork indicates that participants rarely felt fully accepted in India. Persistent reproduction of difference by the recipient population marked them as outsiders, complicating their incorporation. In response, migrants developed varied strategies to adapt and adopt local behaviours, yet their capacity to do so was deeply influenced by their intersectional social positions—caste, class, gender, age, life stage, and their hyphenated identity as Pakistani Hindu.

Drawing on semi structured interviews, life story narratives, and 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, this paper addresses how these intersecting identities shaped migrants’ navigation of difference and exclusion. It unpacks how the interplay of hyphenated identity and intersectional location informs their efforts to claim a negotiated, though often partial, sense of belonging.