Translating cultures of service in the diaspora: devotion as social action in the BrAsian city

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• Dr John Zavos, University of Manchester
• Wednesday 22 April 2015, 17:00-18:00
• Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 5.00 pm.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Barbara Roe.

This paper explores the transformation of ideas of devotional service and charity in the context of diasporic identity formation amongst South Asian communities in Britain. Focusing on organisations and institutions associated in one way or another with religion, the paper notes how ideas such as seva and sadaqah have developed new inflections in recent years, moving from an emphasis on community consolidation and the reiteration of ‘homeland’ ties, to a political engagement with British society, and a re-negotiation of the location of specific religious communities within that society. The paper draws on postcolonial theory to explore the implications of these moves, asking to what extent they represent an attempt to resist the predicament of a hyphenated British-Asian identity, which implicitly represents these communities by reference to a still-lauded, racially-informed colonial past.

This talk is part of the Centre of South Asian Studies Seminars series.

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• Centre of South Asian Studies Seminars
• Seminar Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, 5.00 pm

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