Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INT-NAT (The Inter-Nationalist)
Período documentado: 2021-12-01 hasta 2023-11-30
The Inter-Nationalist explores political ideologies of members of the South Asian diaspora (India and Pakistan) in the UK and US, focusing on the international affiliates of the ruling political parties in India, and Pakistan: India’s Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP) and Pakistan’s Office of International Chapters- Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (OIC-PTI). It also examines intergenerational dynamics by focusing on university students belonging to Indian and Pakistani students’ societies, as well as other South Asian diaspora groups that are politically active. The project cuts across discussions on gender, religion, ethnicity, caste, class, sect and sexualities. The aim of INT-NAT is to map South Asian nationalist and populist networks internationally, in order to understand their implications for politics in South Asia and abroad.
Tania Saeed (ER) conducted qualitative interviews, content analysis and observations of community and political events of Pakistani and Indian diaspora(s) in the US and the UK. She interviewed 143 participants, including members of OFBJP, OIC-PTI, and other political parties from South Asia, human rights activists, students, and community members. In the US, the ER was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, in The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute (The Mittal Institute). She conducted interviews across Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Chicago with a mixture of in person and zoom meetings. In the UK, the ER was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College. She conducted interviews, and participant observations across London, Oxfordshire, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Leicestershire, with a mixture of in person and zoom meetings.
Saeed, T. (2024) Hindutva and the Muslim Problem: An Exploration of Gendered Islamophobia in India. In Amina Easat-Daas and Irene Zempi (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Gendered Islamophobia. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-52022-8_20
The ER was an invited expert at the “Deliberation, Participation and Democracy in Contemporary South Asia: Spaces, Practices, Voices Workshop” that was hosted by the Ireland India Institute, Dublin City University in collaboration with the European Association of South Asian Studies (EASAS), and Irish Association of South Asian Studies.
The ER is continuing to work on journal articles, and a book manuscript. She will be presenting her work in academic conferences across Pakistan, the US, Europe and UK in 2024-25.
Saeed, T. (2024) Hindutva and the Muslim Problem: An Exploration of Gendered Islamophobia in India. In Amina Easat-Daas and Irene Zempi (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Gendered Islamophobia. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-52022-8_20
The ER was an invited expert at the “Deliberation, Participation and Democracy in Contemporary South Asia: Spaces, Practices, Voices Workshop” that was hosted by the Ireland India Institute, Dublin City University in collaboration with the European Association of South Asian Studies (EASAS), and Irish Association of South Asian Studies.
The ER is continuing to work on journal articles, and a book manuscript. She will be presenting her work in academic conferences across Pakistan, the US, Europe and UK in 2024-25.
The project makes an important contribution to our understanding of populist networks that transcend nation-states, driven by forms of nationalism(s) that continue to appeal to a population that physically left, but emotionally stayed connected. These networks have material implications informing social, political, and economic changes in countries of origin especially for first generation immigrants, and to an extent for host countries. They have implications for soft power, where horizonal and vertical networks are seldom unidirectional, where diaspora(s) may influence foreign policy and international relations. By focusing on transnational political networks from Pakistan and India through a community perspective, the project centres the narratives of politically active diaspora members, who are attempting to influence and realize an ideal, whether in the form of a Hindu rashtra in India at the expense of ethnic, linguistic, and religious pluralism, or a Naya Pakistan, inspired by a “golden age” of Islam. In an time of greater connectivity and migration, these transnational networks have become important not just for the Indian sub-continent, but also for countries across the globe. This study maps such multidimensional populist networks from India and Pakistan, an exploration essential for understanding the potential for strengthening relationships across countries, and the obstacles and possibilities to social, cultural, and religious diversity and integration in the Global North and South.