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This book is a comparative study of Hyderabadi emigrants
settling in Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United
States, Canada, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates at the end of the
twentieth century. Based on ten years of fieldwork and extensive
interviews, it traces Hyderabadi culture and institutions in these
places of settlement, looking at the different versions of Hyderabadi
history transmitted and the personal networks and collective bodies
formed abroad. Hyderabad, Islamic, and Urdu associations, in addition
to other groups are surveyed, as are the marriages of the migrants and
the subsequent generations.
The author shows how memories of old Hyderabad are retained,
redefined, or discarded depending on generation, gender, class, and
connections to the Nizam's former state of Hyderabad and the national
narratives of the new sites of settlement. Throughout the book, she
emphasizes the role of the state in identity formation, the importance
of language and religion for retention and reformulation of
identities, and the instability of diasporic communities both within
and across national boundaries. |
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