Paper short abstract:

The paper reports on firsthand results from a multi-sited ethnographic research and it aims to uncover and discuss how gender and caste inequalities are connected and challenged by women and youth within the sizeable and translocal Punjabi migrant community in Italy.

Paper long abstract:

The riddle of inequality and subalternity in contemporary India cannot overlook the threads of global social changes occurring in Indian diasporas.

Considering the thriving communities which have emigrated from Punjab and resettled in northern-Italy over the past two decades (yet maintaining vibrant transnational ties), we will illustrate how multiple cultural encounters and media representations have yielded to novel social configurations. Indian immigrant communities in Italy are facing major shifts in power relations on different scales: within the ethnic group, in the "host" society milieu, towards their former country and under the pressure of global economic drives, identity politics and equity uprisings.

Discussing my recent multi-sited ethnography, I'll explore whether patterns of livelihood and wealth circulation (ever more precarious in contexts afflicted by unemployment and stagnation, though still capitalist oriented) may account for the transformation of culturally scripted hierarchies. Delving into the "marriage market" in Italian families of Punjabi descent, we'll see how dowry practices are undergoing significant re-structuring: confronted with pathways of integration into a south-European society and the quivering of power stakes among migrant community members.

The thorny relations across different faiths and castes (Hindu/Sikh/Ravidassia and Jat/Chamar), displayed in public places of worship, reverberate in private homes, where gender and generation conflicts put a burden on women and youngsters in challenging the status-quo.

Within the largest Indian minority in continental Europe, "traditional" gender roles and caste divides are increasingly contested and re-negotiated, to such an extent that the complex intersection between these claims for equality cannot longer remain unheard.