Diaspora Studies - India - Kenya

I have been looking spasmodically at the Indian diaspora area a bit (it is slightly connected to my current research, how food and condiment and spices and herb usage spread and fused with local cultures) and I am still getting the impression that we dont have that much of diaspora studies compared to say Chinese or Black or Irish diaspora studies. Curious that. A friend told me that its in English studies that its more prevalent, so have to check it out.

Anyway, came across this book, looked quite interesting.

Indians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora by Sana Aiyar

Indians have contributed to Kenya’s multiracial tapestry for centuries. At Independence, Indians constituted two percent of the population and formed its petty bourgeoisie. By 1968 Kenya hosted over 170,000 Indian residents. Occupying key roles in the economy and civil service, Indians played no small part in the twentieth-century history of Kenya. Yet, as Sana Aiyar argues inIndians in Kenya: The Politics of Diaspora, an overwhelming emphasis placed on singular territoriality, coupled with the racially bounded nature of scholarship on Kenyan nationhood, has resulted in the historiographical marginalization of Indians, who are assumed to be historically insignificant.