ABSTRACT
The Indian diaspora has been the subject of a great deal of empirical research in recent years because of its diversity and complexity. This needs to be placed in the context of India’s foreign policies and attempts by the Indian government to overtly engage with the Indian diaspora. In this chapter, it becomes evident that the idea of the diaspora being a ‘hidden asset’ in terms of its economic potential was not taken seriously by the Indian government until the late 1990s. In particular, this chapter analyses and evaluates India’s recent tourism policies aimed at the Indian diaspora. Based upon documentary sources, the central argument is that India’s relationship both with its diaspora and its tourism industry is at best ambivalent. This is in direct contrast to other states, not least those presented in this volume (see Chs 12 and 15), where there has been much more positive, enthusiastic and proactive engagement with their respective diasporas for reasons including income generation, place promotion and nation-building. There are several probable reasons for this. First of all, India has failed to engage with its diaspora historically, a feature compounded by the devolved structure of tourism development and governance, which largely prevents any strategic international engagement. Furthermore, evidence suggests that second and third generations of the Indian diaspora are ambivalent about returning to India; they would rather utilize family networks than engage directly with the state and its attempts to reach out to them through marketing and promotions. Finally, the complexity of the regional, ethnic and religious divisions within and among the Indian diaspora largely frustrate a unified approach towards diaspora tourism.
