Understanding India’s Internal Diasporas

Syllabus: GS1/Population

Context

• The concept of being a ‘foreigner or videshi’ typically reserved for international migrants, is increasingly used by internal migrants in India to describe their experience of cultural displacement.

Defining Diaspora

• The term ‘diaspora’ has become central in policy and academic discussions after the High-Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora published its report in 2001–02.
• It has been defined through national borders, and evokes images of overseas communities — Punjabis in Canada, Tamils in Malaysia, Gujaratis in East Africa etc.
  • It was then estimated at over 20 million and is now pegged at over 30 million.
• In India, words like pravasi and videshi apply not only to international migrants but also to those moving across states. For example:
  • Migrants from Odisha working in Surat often refer to their workplace as videsh, because they’ve crossed into a vastly different cultural zone.
  • In Madurai, Tamil Nadu, over 60,000 people speak Gujarati, despite the Census recording virtually no Gujarati migrants, suggesting long-standing settlement and cultural retention.

Scale of Internal Diasporas

• According to a recent study, the number of Indians living in culturally distinct zones within India exceeds 100 million — more than triple the size of India’s international diaspora (based on language Census data, excluding border districts).
• Key Findings:
  • Most Dispersed Groups: Punjabi, Malayalam, and Tamil speakers (over 10% dispersed), followed by Telugu and Gujarati.
  • Largest Group: Hindi speakers (including Bhojpuri and Marwari) dominate numerically but are less dispersed relative to size.
  • Least Dispersed: Marathi, Kannada, and Bengali speakers.
  • Urban Spread: A third of the internal diaspora resides in India’s ten largest cities.

Why Recognise Internal Diasporas?

• Cultural Preservation and Identity: Internal diasporas maintain distinct languages, customs, and festivals even after generations of settlement in new regions.
• Community Building and Social Capital: Diasporic groups often form associations (e.g., Bengali Associations, Marathi Mandals, Gujarati Samaj) that foster solidarity, mutual aid, and cultural continuity.
  • These networks can support education, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement.
• Policy Relevance: Recognizing internal diasporas helps tailor welfare schemes, urban planning, and language education policies.
• Economic Contributions: Many internal diasporas are rooted in trade and business migration, contributing to regional economies (e.g., Odia workers in Surat’s textile industry).
• Social Integration with Diversity: Diasporas enrich host regions with culinary, artistic, and linguistic diversity, fostering multicultural urban spaces.

Challenges of Internal Diasporas

• Cultural Alienation: Migrants often feel excluded due to linguistic and cultural barriers.
• Discrimination & Stereotypes: Host communities may marginalise diasporic groups.
• Political Ambiguity: Unlike international diaspora, internal diasporas lack formal recognition in policy.
• Data Gaps: Census/PLFS capture recent migration but miss long-settled diasporic communities.
• Identity Struggles: Younger generations face assimilation pressures and risk losing linguistic/cultural roots.
• Urban Strain: Large diasporic clusters in cities may add to housing, infrastructure, and service pressures.

Conclusion & Way Forward

• India’s diasporic reality is not confined to 30 million abroad, but extends to 100+ million within its borders.
• Limiting diaspora to national boundaries overlooks the cultural and economic role of internal diasporas.
• They shape India’s food, language, art, and commerce, enriching both host communities and national identity.
• Policy must embrace a borderless understanding of diaspora, recognising that being videshi can mean crossing state boundaries as much as international ones.

Source: IE