Nation, race and politics amongst the South Asian diaspora: From colonial Kenya to multicultural Britain

This dissertation traces the political history of Indians in colonial Kenya. It explores the diasporic subjectivity of these migrants who mediated between constructions of racial and national identity in the public political realm that they shared with Europeans and Africans in Kenya from c.1920 to 1968. The political orientation of the Indian diaspora created a triangular realm between Kenya, India and Britain which are brought into one analytical paradigm. I study various constructions of the ambivalent and changing political imaginary of the Indian diaspora that straddled and negotiated between these three milieus. This dissertation looks at the diasporic nationalism of Indians to interrogate the nature of the sub-imperialist impulse of the first generation of Indian political agitators in Kenya who protested against the privileges bestowed upon the European settlers. It explores the contours of the economic colonial structure that rendered a "middle-man" status to the Indians, and uncovers the implications of this stereotype in the political realm---especially as colonial structural limitations circumscribed the possibilities of political collaboration between Indians and Africans. It analyses the relationship between Indian nationalism emanating from the Indian subcontinent and the diaspora in Kenya to show how the universalizing aspirations of anti-colonial nationalism crossed the Indian Ocean and opened up the space for the integration of diasporic Indian nationalism into the political sphere in Kenya. It unravels the articulations of Kenyan nationalism by the Indian diaspora whose relationship with the Africans was defined by cooperation against the European settlers, ambivalence with regard to anti-colonial territorial nationalism and racialized competition within the economic realm. Finally it traces the rise of African majoritarianism and the institutionalization of British multiculturalism resulting from the Indian exodus out of Kenya and into Britain in 1967--68. Throughout this dissertation I argue that between 1920--1968 the Indian diaspora in Kenya transcended the boundaries of race and nation without effacing them, challenging along its way the political limitations of territorially-bounded and racially-defined nationalism. In doing so, I underscore the importance of examining the implications of diasporic subjectivity, historicizing the interplay between diaspora and nationalism and exploring the relationship between diaspora and its homeland.