Diaspora are defined as the movement of the population from its original homeland. While diasporas refers particularly to historical mass dispersions of an involuntary nature, such as the expulsion of Jews from Europe, the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the southern Chinese during the coolie slave trade, or the century-long exile of the Messenians under Spartan rule, the definitions have been widening to include different kinds of diaspora. Diasporas based on its causes such as imperialism, trade or labor migrations, or by the kind of social coherence within the diaspora community and its ties to the ancestral lands. Some diaspora communities maintain strong political ties with their homeland. Other qualities that may be typical of many diasporas are thoughts of return, relationships with other communities in the diaspora, and lack of full assimilation into the host country.
It is the lack of full assimilation in the host country that I find fascinating.
The creation of sub communities that have a distinct and separate identity. Thereby, giving us “Little Italy”, “Chinatown”, “Little India” etc.
On my last trip to London, I decided that it would be interesting to take a trip down to Southall, a South Asian residential district, sometimes known as "Little India” in UK.
A little bit of googling and I discovered that the first group of South Asians arrived in Southall in 1950, reputedly recruited to work in a local factory owned by a former British Indian Army officer. This South Asian population grew, due to the closeness of expanding employment opportunities such as London Heathrow Airport. The most significant cultural group to settle in Southall are Asians with over 50% estimated to be Indians and Pakistanis. There are ten Sikh Gurdwaras in Southall, two large Hindu 'Mandir' temples, ten Christian churches and three Mosques 'Masjids' in Southall.
Of course, I made the mistake of going on a Sunday and it turned out be a very cold and rainy day so there really wasn’t much going on. Still I did have a good time wandering about for a bit and was really intrigued by the fact that once there I kept forgetting that I was in the UK.
The first thing I noticed were the bilingual signs, in English and Gurumuki (a Punjabi language). Then there were the Kabab Shops, the street food stalls selling samosas and Indian sweets, the bright fabrics hanging in shop front and women dressed in colorful saris and shalwar kameezes. I even found a pan shop! Go figure..
