ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 addresses the way in which adult Dutch Hindustanis obtain and renew their ethnic culture by participating in diaspora tourism, and specifically in shopping in India and giving gifts in the Netherlands, using these experiences and artefacts as elements in their home decoration and community cohesion. Reaching out to India not only depends on the Internet and the downloading of ‘Indian stuff’ but occurs increasingly by visiting the ancestral homeland for several reasons, including shopping, searching for roots and visiting places where Bollywood movies have been set. The chapter argues that gifts purchased in India and the stories told back home in the Netherlands generate bonding effects in the Hindustani community. Thus, the culture obtained from India becomes part of the material culture of the Hindustanis and fosters the feeling of home, ethnification and transnational bonds. Through this analysis, the chapter reveals that transnational sociability, exemplified in diaspora tourism and the acquisition of Indian ‘cultural stuff’, represents a rarely addressed inflow of Indian culture in overseas communities that contributes to their homemaking and diaspora bonding.
