‘Diaspora’ as an important cultural configuration of our times has evoked a great deal of critical discussion, controversy and debate. This complex phenomenon continues to engage the attention of social scientists, theorists, writers and literary critics. JNU organised a three-day (27–30 Sep 2000) international seminar on ‘The South Asian Diaspora: Histories, Theories and Texts’. The broad theme of the seminar provided scope for addressing a large number of issues related to diasporic living and writing with specific focus on the South Asian diaspora.

If I were to mention three seminal features of this seminar, I would list: one, Vijay Mishra’s keynote address; two, the shifting of focus to South Asian diaspora outside the Western metropolitan centres to Fiji and Malaysia; and three, the excellent student participation in the proceedings of the seminar. The seminar started off on a rather unusual note with Professor Satchidanandan’s inaugural address, "Rethinking the Diaspora" in which he stressed the relevance of diasporas within the nation. The poet-critic referred to his own experiences as a Malayalam writer and speaker amidst the predominantly Hindi speaking milieu of Delhi. The session that followed proved Satchidanandan’s point: Harish Trivedi and Vijay Mishra who shared the dais exchanged camaraderie and jokes in Hindi creating instantly a South Indian diaspora among the audience.

Vijay Mishra’s address, ‘Diaporas and the Art of Impossible Mourning’, opened up new ways of looking at the diasporic experience. He argued via Derrida and Freud that "Diasporas remain unhappy; they are contradictory social formations; they are sites of ambiguity and fracture; they have no narratives of closure; they are, in semiotic parlance, floating signifiers." Such a position obviously contradicts some of the recent theoretical formulations that view disporic experience as enabling and empowering, and opens up new areas of critical awareness. In all, twenty papers were presented at the seminar and these covered a wide range of issues including the Digital diaspora, South Asian Queers, Women in/as Diaspora etc. Interestingly a number of paper readers concentrated on South Asian diasporas outside the US and the UK. For instance, there were papers on diaspora in Mauritius fiction, Indo-Malaysian experience, and Gandhi’s diasporic experience in South Africa. Discussions focussed on dasporic writing in South Asian languages as well, highlighting the enormously heterogeneous terrain of diasporic studies.

One of the highlights of the seminar is a special session on Gandhi where Giriraj Kishore read out from his much acclaimed biography of Gandhi: Pahla Girmitiya. The occasion coincided with the presentation of the first ‘Raja Rao Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Literature of the South Asian Diaspora’ to K S Maniam, and it was just in the fitness of things that a special session was devoted to a discussion of K S Maniam’s work. Maniam himself spoke at this session about writing at the fringe of a multicultural society.

While the day long sessions were filled with paper readings, lively discussions and scholarly exchanges, special evenings were hosted for the delegates by India International Centre, Sahitya Akademi, and the British Council. Participants from different parts of India and abroad enjoyed these trips to different places that afforded them a feel of the city. Interesting programmes were arranged on each of these evenings. A discussion of "The Crisis in Fiji" wherein Satendra Nandan and Vijay Mishra gave the insiders’ accounts of the situation which evoked an animated response from the audience. Readings by diasporic writers—K S Maniam, Satendra Nandan and Vijay Mishra—were arranged on the second evening, and ‘Bhaji on the Beach’, a film about diasporic life was screened on the third.