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Scholarship on the erstwhile South Asian enclaves or chhitmohols, has been limited to discussions on the isolation of these spaces and its people, who remained stateless for nearly 70 years before their integration in 2015. However, recent ethnographic work has revealed that the same conditions of isolation were circumvented by a substantial proportion of its residents who procured identification as citizens through reliance on associations of familiarity, kinship and matrimony to extend and legitimize ties to their country of residence or nationalistic association. The welfares of such identification as citizens of a country which never recognized them as constituents were negligible. In fact, voting was used as a means of asserting their unacknowledged identity as citizens within their immediate socialities. Citizenship, understood as a legal-political institution, based on status, rights and duties, involving practices that distinguish between formal and substantive citizenship and subjectivities of citizen and non-citizen falls short of explaining the motivations behind such acts of citizenship. Investigating it through acts will shift the contours of analyzing citizenship by asking 'what makes the citizen?' rather than 'who is the citizen?' The question that this paper seeks to answer is: How are identities of citizenship and claims of belonging to a space (re)defined by 'acts of citizenship' performed by communities lying outside the state's authoritative awning?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research demonstrates that transnational systems of stratification have an impact on the lives of first generation immigrants, while the influence dwindles by the second generation (Smith 2006; Dowling 2014). However, this study reveals the enduring impact of such systems in the racial formation even for the second generation. Through 120 in-depth interviews and supplemental ethnographic observations on skin color, I find that second generation South Asian racial formation continues to be impacted by transnational colorism based on class and caste stratification from South Asia. Through indirect transnational processes such as socialization by first generation family members, interaction with relatives from abroad, and local consumption of global transnational colorism, the second generation comes to learn about South Asian racial logics steeped in color and caste. Ultimately, these processes indirectly preserve the links between color and caste and underscore the ways transnational stratification systems are reproduced in immigrant communities beyond the first generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caste-based discrimination is an important issue that severely affects hundreds of millions of Dalits (Untouchables) and Advasis (Tribals) in South Asia and the diaspora. There is a vast body of sociological literature on caste and untouchability in South Asia, however, only a handful of studies are available on the persistence of caste in the diaspora (Judge 2012; Manohar 2013). Similarily, the sociological work of Dalit leader, BR Ambedkar, is well-known in India, but there are few studies on his relevance outside of the sub-continent (Zene 2013). And, research linking Ambedkar to other scholars and leaders of descent-based discrimination is lacking. This exploratory qualitative study utilizes historical and content analysis to interpret aspects of caste and class issues within the South Asian diaspora, and how Ambedkar's ideas may be used to help this community to face its many challenges. The study also looks into similarities between casteism and racism by briefly comparing Ambedkar's struggle against the caste-based subjection of Dalits in India, and Du Bois's and Garvey's resistance to racial oppression of African Americans in the USA. Applying Gramsci's notion of the 'organic intellectual' to the work of these leaders, the study finds important commonalities between Ambedkar, Du Bois and Garvey in their framing of the subaltern, and approaches to liberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precariousness refers to the notion that most of the world's population is engaged in unstable, informal, and temporary employment, thus inducing in them feelings of vulnerability, displacement, and hopelessness. South Asian Americans hardly comprise a group that many would describe as precarious. Rather, this mostly foreign-born population has long been lauded as a racial minority that has "made it" in America because of their high levels of education and economic attainments. However, ethnographic observations on Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Indian Muslim immigrants and their offspring reveals a collective precariousness of this so-called "successful" immigrant group. Despite their measures of success that one would expect to provide them with a sense of security, their positionality as a racialized "outsider" group combined with the stigma attached to their religious identity in post- 9/11 America induce in them a sense of insecurity. They fear that despite their achievements, they will never be viewed to belong in the U.S. society, and can be discriminated against in their workplace because of their race and religion. This anxiety in turn influences various aspects of their life's decision-making, including education, career choices, and political engagements. Moreover, this article shows that South Asian Muslim Americans' precariousness is influenced by that of Muslims of other nationalities and ethnic groups abroad. Thus, it underscores the transnational dimension of precariousness, and how its reach can extend beyond one's immediate social networks, and even physical borders and societal boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]