Paper short abstract:

Proposed paper analyses the ‘Indianness’ as an ethnic marker in Indian Diaspora, which get reflected through diverse cultural traits such as language, dress-style, ritual, tradition and cuisine etc. These trait complexes have been evolved through a synthesis of the memories of homeland passed on by the early settlers to their descendents through oral and institutional modes, and real interaction through various old and new visiting ‘agencies’ from the homeland of their imagination.

Paper long abstract:

Human behavior results from the interaction of genetically and culturally inherited information. People acquire beliefs, attitudes, and values from others by social learning, and then transmit them to others. Cultural system produces a number of ethnic markers related to a particular group membership. Barth identified the critical feature of the ethnicity: people identify themselves, and are identified by others, as members of an ethnic groups based on a set of culturally transmitted characters.

Ethnic groups are marked by its members through boundaries with cultural diacritica such as language-dialect, dress-pattern, family structure etc., are the results of the actions of individuals on both sides of the boundary and their interactions across the boundary. These ethnic markers do not grow naturally from social bonding between individuals that share culture and origin, but results from actual acts of social distancing and closure vis-à-vis members of other categories.

The concept of 'Indianness' has evolved over centuries and can be revealed in terms of languages and regions, religions and sects, castes and sub-castes. Many of its elements are derived from Indian civilization, transcending diversities manifested in religious faiths, linguistic persuasions, regional and local variations. 'Indianness' as reflected by Indian diaspora is the product of synthesis of the memories of motherland passed on by the early settlers to their descendents through oral and institutional modes, and their real encounters with visiting cultural specialists from their imagined homeland.

Present paper analyses the notion of 'Indianness' as ethnic marker in various trans-locations and diasporic communities forming a strong and thriving Indian diaspora.