Nationalism as meaningful life projects: identity construction among politically active Tamil families in Norway

Abstract

This article explores the motivations for how and why national Tamil identity becomes so desirable for politically active Tamil parents in Norway. What leads them to socialize their children into an embodied understanding of what it means to be Tamil – closely related to the Tamil Tiger discourse and practice? The article discusses how private practices of relatedness become technologies of nationhood, and vice versa. I argue that in their transnational lives, the children's Tamil identity offers a way for the politically active parents to ease nostalgia for their own childhoods and a way to create a meaningful life for themselves and their children in a transnational context.

Keywords:

• Generational relations
• nationalism
• migration
• Tamils
• identity
• subjectivity

Acknowledgements

The present article is a result of the project Creativity and Innovation in a World of Movement, funded by Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Joint Research Programme. I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and Øivind Fuglerud for constructive comments on the final draft. Cecilie Øien, Camilla Andres and Jørgen Jensehaugen also deserve my thanks for commenting on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

1. Mainly girls take bharathanatyam classes in Norway.

2. Marusha translated the song from Tamil to Norwegian one night that Sita was rehearsing.

3. Private conversations with representatives for TGTE during its international video-conference in Paris, 29–30 October 2010.