Indian Diaspora in the Persian Gulf States

This book is the first-ever definitive and comprehensive work on the Indian diaspora in the nine countries of the Gulf region, and purports to be the author's final statement on his three-odd decades of research and writing on the subject. It Focuses on the historical as well as the contemporary aspects of the Indian diaspora of the region.

Indian Diaspora in the Persian Gulf States focuses on the historical as well as the contemporary aspects of the Indian diaspora of the region where small Indian merchant communities called Banians already existed for centuries.

Persian Gulf countries emerged as rentier states since the 1970s, mainly due to the development of the oil industry, which transformed the region from subsistence to globalized capitalist economies. In these economies, the role of sponsored Indian expatriate immigrants numbering at least 20 million during the past half century was vitally important. Taking the rentier state as the theoretical perspective, the author argues that the sponsorship (kafala) system tended to have a different impact on the Indian expatriates: incorporation and promotion of the entrepreneurs and professionals as business elites and the perpetual exploitation of the working classes.

The book is not only the first-ever definitive and comprehensive work on the Indian diaspora in the nine countries of the Gulf region, it also stands as the author's final statement on his three-odd decades of research and writing on the subject. Besides highlighting the role of Indian diaspora, the book also profiles all the Gulf-based recipients of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards. Bilateral trade, investment and political relations between India and individual Persian Gulf states constitute another focus area of the volume. The volume will be an interesting read for teachers, researchers and policy-makers connected with migration and diaspora studies, labour studies, political economy, international relations and geopolitics.

Autorentext

Prakash C. Jain is former Professor of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Inhalt

Introduction Part I: Emigration Dynamics **1. Persian Gulf States: Imperatives of Human Resource Development 2. Indian Emigration to the GCC and other Persian Gulf States Part II: Indian Diaspora in the Gulf ****3. Kingdom of Bahrain 4. State of Kuwait 5. Sultanate of Oman 6. State of Qatar 7. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 8. The United Arab Emirates 9. Islamic Republic of Iran 10. Republic of Iraq 11. Republic of Yemen Part III: Summing Up ****12.** Indian Diaspora in the Persian Gulf States: An Overview