In recent years, a significant number of developing nations have made moves to institutionalize their relationships with their transnational communities. This has occurred in a variety of ways: through new ministries for "diaspora affairs," through the granting of dual citizenship, the extension of voting rights to immigrants, and even through the creation of reserved seats in national legislatures. Such gestures re-conceive diasporas as being part of a larger "global nation," with all of the concomitant claims on institutional structures of the state. This marks a break from the past, when immigrants were ignored or denounced as traitors by their home state. It also marks the rise of what the author terms the "domestic abroad," or the reassertion of nationalist imaginary and state authority amid neo-liberal restructuring of states. Latha Varadarajan argues that studies in transnationalism have heretofore failed to grasp the importance of such phenomena, due to the field's tendency to avoid the question of capitalism and focus on the undermining of state sovereignty and the building of global civil society. In Producing the Domestic Abroad, she proposes a re-consideration of both the meaning of transnationalism and the nature of national and state identity in global politics. In order to do this, Varadarajan draws from two literatures that are rarely brought into conversation with IR scholarship: postcolonial theory and historical-materialism. She develops her argument through an analysis of the post-1947 Indian state and its dynamic relationship to the groups constituted as the "Indian diaspora" especially in the context of the neoliberal restructuring of the Indian economy.

About the Author
Latha Varadarajan is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University.

Reviews
In recent years, numerous scholars have undertaken analyses of diasporas in international affairs. However, few bring the theoretical innovation or conceptual sophistication that Varadarajan displays here...Varadarajan offers a rich meticulously detailed illustration of the theory...In so doing, she provides the road map for future comparative empirical applications of the theory. An absolutely essential contribution. Summing Up: Essential. * CHOICE *
Latha Varadarajan has written a superb book on the impact of diaspora politics and economics on the shaping of national identities and loyalties. Her writing is theoretically innovative and her treatment of the Indian case is definitive. * Yossi Shain, Romulo Betancourt Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University and Professor of Comparative Government and Diaspora Politics, Georgetown University *
Beautifully written, The Domestic Abroad skillfully focuses on the case of India and its changing relationship with 'Overseas Indians' to explore the global phenomenon of the growing involvement of states with their diasporas. Varadarajan convincingly argues that these relationships should be understood as the product of the interaction of two broad forces: the economic demands of neo-liberal restructuring and the discursive and political reconstruction of the boundaries of the nation. Impressive in its theoretical sophistication and range and convincing in its marshaling of evidence, this work sets a new standard for studies of diaspora-state relations. * Laurie A. Brand, Robert Grandford Wright Professor and Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199733910
Author Latha Varadarajan
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 513g
Dimensions(mm) 163mm * 239mm * 25mm