Negotiating identity in the diaspora: the role of South Asian youth organizations

ABSTRACT

One of the significant ways through which the youth manifest their solidarities and identities in the diaspora is the creation of youth organisations. These organisations although occupy a physical space, transcend borders and forge connections and networks with the homeland and other co-diasporics living across the world. With the example of four South Asian youth organisations and their activities in the United States, this article tries to examine how these organisations reinforce the youth identities by forming virtual networks based on single or multiple affiliations. Use of the social media by these youth organisations – whether sharing information about various socio-cultural and educational events in the Facebook or using the online hashtag in Twitter to raise awareness and mobilisation on subtle issues or creating blogs on various innovative projects and connecting them with their official webpages – is one of the important hallmarks that distinguish them from the traditional diasporic youth organisations.

KEYWORDS:

• South Asian youth
• diaspora
• organisation
• identity
• gender
• social media

Acknowledgments

We thank Clelia Clini and Deimantas Valančiūnas for their useful comments on the earlier version of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funindg

Funding for this study was supported by the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR), New Delhi under the IMPRESS project (Ref. No. IMPRESS/P267/2018-19/ICSSR).

Notes on contributors

Dr. Ajaya K. Sahoo teaches at the Centre for Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad, India. His areas of research interests include immigration, diaspora, transnationalism, and religion.

Ms. Anindita Shome is a Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad, India. Her Ph.D. thesis focuses on South Asian youth identities in the diaspora.