ABSTRACT

Chapter 6 addresses the argument that the connections linking overseas communities and India are considered to be an outcome of nostalgia, the longing of the first generation. This chapter focuses on the ways in which the second-generation Hindustani immigrants have accomplished homemaking in the Indian diaspora. Dutch research shows that the diaspora ties of this generation increased in strength due to the ethnicisation of their community as brought about by Indian culture rather than assimilating, but also that these ties are changing. Second- and later-generation Hindustanis consider India to be their source culture and develop new ties with the country of their grandparents, while loosening relations with their parents’ country. Thanks to the Internet, this generation is ethnicising and connecting with the Indian diaspora. Their home increasingly consists of a blend of traditional Surinamese Hindustani, Indian and Dutch institutions.