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ABSTRACT
Caste among South Asian migrants remains under-researched. Some past studies of caste among indentured Indians in the former British colonies show that it, by and large, failed to revive abroad. Researchers of post-World War II free migrants in the West have remarked, albeit tangentially, that caste has remained salient. There is a need to further explore the problem of caste for a better understanding of migrant living. An unprecedented movement of overseas Indian Dalits in Britain, demanding caste legislation, also proves the significance of the issue. In this ethnographic research into Nepalese migration and settlement in Australia, I seek to understand how Nepal’s caste hierarchy has shaped the process of migration, as well as the family and communal life of migrants on the continent. I outline some of the specific areas – domestic, ritual, religious, marriage, transnational politics – where caste has retained its saliency abroad. My analysis shows that a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of caste overseas is essential to minimise the controversies and promote research into this potentially sensitive but crucial topic. I demonstrate that caste has found a new lease of life overseas due to, inter alia, the growing use of the Internet and smartphones.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Mitra Pariyar is an Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University. In 2016, he completed a PhD in Sociology from the same institution, researching into the recent migration and settlement of Nepalese Gurkhas in Britain. He has an MPhil in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. Pariyar has long researched and published works (including journalism) on the issues of caste and casteism in Nepal and abroad.
Notes
1 For example, in July 2016, a Dalit man in Kavre, central Nepal, was allegedly murdered by angry upper castes after he eloped with their woman. The local police are allegedly implicated in the crime. See a report: http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2016-08-25/probe-dalit-youths-murder-pm.html [Accessed 25 June 2018].
2 See, for example, a BBC online report of 18 January 2018: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-38663143. [Accessed 23 May 2018].
3 Kirantism is an indigenous faith of the eastern parts of Nepal.
4 https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/student-temp-grad-programme-report-dec-2016.pdf [Accessed 9 November 2017].