It is a striking phenomenon, but also a fairly well-engrained one. When they migrate overseas, many first-generation Southasians become more overtly nationalistic than their homebound friends and families, probably as a survival mechanism to deal with downgraded or invisible identity. Not surprisingly, however, the host societies see us all as one, more or less. Just as they will not distinguish between a Punjabi and Rajasthani, much less between a Pakistani Punjabi and an Indian Punjabi, the average German, American or Japanese tend to merge the various national identities of the Subcontinent into one indeterminate shade of brown. Whereas within the Subcontinent we distinguish between the NRI and NRP, NRB or NRN, for the rest of the world our diaspora is essentially the Non-Resident Southasian – the NRSa. We are all targeted by the dot-busters in New Jersey, disparaged as 'Pakis' in London – the redneck or neo-Nazi is not going to ask for your post-1947 country of origin before using his knuckle-duster.
Still, there is one category of Southasian diaspora communities that goes beyond language, province, state and ethnicity: the universal category of class. The most vocal among the migrants are those who have prospered the most. Rich Subcontinental migrants in the US and the UK are thrusting their self-serving agenda on their countries of origin, demanding dual citizenship and often supporting fundamentalist and obscurantist causes. Then there are those who might not be as prosperous, but are energised by the anger fomented by egregious injustice in their erstwhile homelands.
Distinctions can also be made as to when the migration began. First came those who were shipped as indentured labour to the Caribbean islands, Fiji and Mauritius; and then those who migrated long ago, like the Sikhs of the North American West Coast. But if we leave aside these groups – and others such as the Southasians from East Africa who moved to the UK in the 1960s – the overwhelming majority of migrants come from out of Bihar, Sylhet, Sindh, Punjab and other areas in the immediate post-colonial period, when immigration laws in the host countries were far more relaxed. These migrants were resilient and worked hard, and succeeded in carving out small niches for themselves. The second generation of this category has grown up knowing little of the Subcontinent, and are today focusing on moving up the economic ladder.
The term diaspora encompasses all of these groups, though the ones that dominate public discourse are the cross-Atlantic and European NRSa groups. Indeed, it is mostly the urban middle classes and rural upper classes that migrated permanently. But while much attention is paid to them and their demands, the category of greater importance is made up of those who send money home and have created the remittance economy. These are the single men and women who go to the Gulf countries, Malaysia and elsewhere, to eke out a living for themselves and their families.