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Accepted Paper:
Life and Death in India and in the Indian Diaspora
Igor Kotin
(Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
Paper short abstract:
Many British, Canadian, North American cities have witnessed the emergence of ‘Little Indias’ in them. Indians reproduce their life style and many rites of life cycle. Death is more complicated matter. Most of Indians remaining in the diaspora dream of dying in their native place. If this is not possible, their last will is that their body should be buried or cremated in India. If this is also not possible, ‘little Indias for the dead’, i.e. cemeteries, cremation grounds, samadhis, sacred ponds or rivers for ashes to be thrown into are made or imagined.
Paper long abstract:
Many British, Canadian, North American cities have witnessed the emergence of 'Little Indias' in them. Indians reproduce their life style and many rites of life cycle. Death is more complicated matter. Most of Indians remaining in the diaspora dream of dying in their native place. If this is not possible, their last will is that their body should be buried or cremated in India. If this is also not possible, 'little Indias for the dead', i.e. cemeteries, cremation grounds, samadhis, sacred ponds or rivers for ashes to be thrown into are made or imagined. The pattern of the latter are the Thames and some other rivers reinterpreted as the Ganges. The paper deals with patterns of life and death of Indians in India and the diaspora based on Indian fiction literature and on the author's own field material.