The African diaspora in India: assimilation, change and cultural survivals

ilation as well as in the influence generated by the community. I would like to point out that the discussions on the dynamics of Diaspora relations with host countries have been effectively brought out in each of these essays, supplemented richly with personal interviews and population data. The editors have also been shy of discussing the prevalent Islamophobia in the West and the observation that wherever interaction and education is better the intensity of Islamophobia has tended to ‘decrease’. The editors have also pointed out the effects of the recent migrations into Europe of Muslims from Iraq and Syria and its effect on local communities. I also am happy to see that an attempt has been made not to treat a community as a monolithic block but there has been an attempt to understand the different dynamics of subgroups such as women in Muslim communities or non-Muslim minorities from Islamic countries. This is especially important for Western Europe where Muslims now constitute a significant part of the population such 7–8% in France, nearly 10% in Holland and Belgium and 5–7% in Germany. There are now significant Middle Eastern and North African Communities even in Northern European countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Norway and they may create important social dynamics. In fact, it can be claimed that it was because of the close interactions of the Algerian and Tunisian communities with France and Germany that could have provided the first impetus towards the launch of the ‘Arab Spring’. The few lacunae I felt in this book were on the inter-migrant community politics which are many times carried over from their home countries such as between Indian and Pakistani Expats, between settled Palestinians and migrant Jews or even between Arabs and Iranians. Then there is the recent upsurge in right-wing European politics which could have been covered more than just in the preface, especially the burkini and the hijab controversies in France and Australia. Finally, I would commend the editors for their effort and for the commendable collection of essays presented lucidly in seamless continuum.