Who Are The Defiant Indian Diasporas?

Diasporas can be classified into two broader categories: regular diasporas and defiant diasporas. Regular diasporas strive to create their own comfortable niche in their host countries and stand for all that is good and presentable about their country of origin. Defiant diasporas, while treading a similar path vis-à-vis material aspirations, also act as agents of social-political change in their home countries. Both diasporas are part and parcel of the same broader outbound ethnic groups—in one way or the other, both facilitate economic, social and political exchanges through their transnational networks. But, in a nutshell, while regular diasporas conform to the social-political status quo in their home country, the defiant diasporas assert and agitate against the persecutions from home countries and insist on creating just and egalitarian society in their native countries.

The main characteristics of defiant disaporas are as follows: they refuse to be part of the ruling government’s propaganda that whitewashes the harsh social-political realities of...