ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 relates the concept of integration to that of ethnogenesis by focusing on how the British Indian ethnic group became integrated in the Surinamese society. Unlike Western conceptions of integration, it argues three theoretical points. First, that the preservation of the Indian ethnic identity was due to group ideology and leadership, both manifested in community practices and institutions. This groupism and related institutions served as a political home for the British Indian immigrants and their offspring. Second, their increased ethnic salience was driven by ethnic groupism that persisted because of a strong feeling of Indian descent. Third, thanks to their ethnogenesis and the establishment of an ethnic political party, the British Indians became integrated into core institutions of Surinamese society, specifically the state. In so doing, the British Indians created a political home and succeeded in integrating as a group, enabled by their group cohesion, ethnic ideology and political leadership.
