In response to economic needs after the 1991 reforms, India instituted a diaspora policy that ext... more In response to economic needs after the 1991 reforms, India instituted a diaspora policy that extracted emigrants’ material wealth in exchange for cultural capital. Increasingly caught between mounting diasporic demands for the extension of dual citizenship and domestic apprehensions hostile to such a provision, the Indian government was forced to compromise by creating the Overseas Citizenship of India. This article argues that, beyond mere contingency and dependence on the existing repertoire of national membership, this novel form of limited citizenship is also the result of a deliberate governmental strategy to assuage more activist segments of the diaspora.
In response to economic needs after the 1991 reforms, India instituted a diaspora policy that ext... more In response to economic needs after the 1991 reforms, India instituted a diaspora policy that extracted emigrants’ material wealth in exchange for cultural capital. Increasingly caught between mounting diasporic demands for the extension of dual citizenship and domestic apprehensions hostile to such a provision, the Indian government was forced to compromise by creating the Overseas Citizenship of India. This article argues that, beyond mere contingency and dependence on the existing repertoire of national membership, this novel form of limited citizenship is also the result of a deliberate governmental strategy to assuage more activist segments of the diaspora.
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