Twice Migrants

Twice Migrants 

Studies on South Asian Diaspora 

by 

M. K Gautam and M. Seenarine

Xpyr Press, 2024. 286 pages

ISBN: 978-1-7346514-1-6 

Available on Amazon

Description

The term "twice migrants" can refer to immigrants who arrive in a country through an intermediate country, rather than directly from their country of birth. For example, in the UK, "twice migrants" are people of South Asian descent who have migrated from countries outside of South Asia, often as descendants of Indian settlers in British colonies. In Canada, "twice migrants" can refer to immigrants from South Asia, China, or the Philippines who arrive through a second country, such as the Gulf. In 1996, 15.7% of immigrants to Canada from South Asia were "twice migrants". 

This edited collection of articles explores some of the causes of twice migration, as well as twice migrants’ adaptation to their new host societies, centering on the USA and Canada. This is our second collection of articles on the South Asian Diaspora. This text is a follow-up to Kalapani: Studies on South Asian Diaspora by M. K. Gautam and M. Seenarine, Xpyr Press (2023). This volume, Twice Migrants: Studies on South Asian Diaspora, explores migration from the diaspora in the 20th century, and it contains eight articles on the Suriname, Guyana, the Netherlands, USA and Canada.

Table of Contents 

1. "Twice Migrants in Western Countries: Indians and the children of indenture contract labourers of Surinam” by M. K. Gautam 
2. "Sansari: From South Asia to South America, to North America” by M. Seenarine 
3. "Constructed Communities: The Contribution of Bangladeshi Women to Life in New York City” by Florence E. McCarthy, M. Seenarine, and Nina Asher 
4. “A brief history of East Indians in Suriname” by Hanan Orna 
5. “East Indian Surinamese women in the United States: Acculturation, group relations, and managing strategies in perspective” By Hanan Orna
6. “The cultural adaptation of Indians from Trinidad and Guyana to Canada” by Subhas Ramcharan 
7. “East Indians in Canada’s Pacific Coast 1900-1914: an encounter in race relations” by Sahadeo Basdeo 
8. A Comparative Study of African American and Asian American Diaspora in USA: Integration in Host Culture” by Nitesh Narnolia 

📣 Listen to Twice Migrants Podcasts (5 episodes) on Youtube   

Twice Migrants Podcast - Introduction

Sista Resister

Bios of 50 Radical Women of Color Activists
Resisting Sexism, Colonialism & Racism

by m seenarine

Xpyr Press 2023. 327 pages

Available on Amazon

This book presents 50 biographies of radical women of color activists from over 25 countries and territories. 

The book, Sista Resister: Bios of 50 Radical Women of Color Activists Resisting Sexism, Colonialism & Racism, introduce the biographies of women from over 25 countries and territories. This eclectic collection of biographies of female activists show that 'Third World' females are active on a wide range of issues, from women's and children's health, to housing and labor rights, the environment and climate change. The book is divided into two sections. Part I, on current sista resisters, chronicles the lives of 30 contemporary female activists, from Mexico to the Philippines. The 20 life stories in Part II, on foresisters of resistance, establish that women in the Global South were some of the earliest feminist thinkers and writers in the world. Each life story refutes the common misrepresentation of Indigenous, African, Asian, Latina, Muslim, Dalit and other females as docile creatures in need of Western rescue.

Contrary to their depiction in mainstream media as passive and docile, women in the 'Third World' were some of the first women's rightist activists. For instance, Fang Weiyi (1585 to 1668) and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648 to 1695) wrote about women's rights a century before Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 to 1797), whose essay, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (1792), is widely regarded as one of the first feminist text. And, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's (1880 to 1932) feminist science fiction novella, Sultana's Dream (1905), was written a decade before Charlotte Perkins Gilman's popular feminist utopian novel, Herland (1915). One of the main goals of this book is to amplify the voices of high-melanin female activists, and examples of their work are included in each portrait.

Table of Contents

Defining Terms and Intentions	ix
Glossary	x
Acknowledgments	xv
Preface	1
Introduction	9
PART I - CONTEMPORARY RESISTERS
1. Rebecca Lolosoli (Kenya)	47
2. Audra Simpson (Mohawk/Canada)	50
3. Marielle Franco (Rio, Brazil)	53
4. Sarah Deer (Muscogee/US)	58
5. Lydia Cacho (Mexico)	63
6. Yue Xin (Beijing, China)	68
7. Ece Temelkuran (Turkey)	72
8. Moya Bailey (Georgia, US)	77
9. Asmaa Mahfouz (Egypt)	81
10. Alma Caballero (Mexico)	86
11. Nadia Murad (Iraq)	89
12. Leymah Gbowee (Liberia)	93
13. Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe/US)	97
14. Malalai Joya (Afghanistan)	100
15. Risa Hontiveros (Philippines)	106
16. Wu Qing (Beijing, China)	109
17. Randa Jarrar (Chicago, US)	112
18. Tawakkol Karman (Yemen)	116
19. Norma Vázquez (Mexico)	120
20. LaDonna Brave Bull (Sioux/US)	124
21. Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala)	128
22. Haneen Zoabi (Nazareth, Israel)	132
23. Carmen Cruz (Puerto Rico)	136
24. Phoolan Devi (India)	140
25. Alice Walker (Georgia, US)	145
26. Wangari Maathai (Kenya)	151
27. Haunani-Kay Trask (Hawaiʻi/US)	155
28. Loujain AlHathloul (Saudia Arabia)	161
29. Berta Cáceres (Honduras)	165
30. Assata Shakur (US/Cuba)	169
PART II - FORESISTAS of RESISTANCE
31. Queen Nzinga (Angola)	178
32. Fang Weiyi (China)	182
33. Sor Juana (Mexico)	185
34. Queen Aliquippa (Seneca/US)	190
35. Sojourner Truth (NY, US)	194
36. Bamewawagezhikaquay (Ojibwe/US)	202
37. Savitribai Phule (South Asia)	207
38. Forten Women (PA, US)	212
39. Harriet Tubman (MD, US)	219
40. Dolores Jiménez (Mexico)	228
41. Rokeya Hossain (South Asia)	233
42. Raden Adjeng Kartini (Indonesia)	238
43. Ida Bell Wells (MS, US)	243
44. Bibi Khānom Astarābādi (Iran)	251
45. Hiratsuka Raichō (Japan)	255
46. Lucy Parsons (TX, US)	260
47. Mirair Ngirmang (Palau)	266
48. María Rivera (Peru)	270
49. Yuri Kochiyama (CA, US)	274
50. Lolita Lebrón (Puerto Rico)	281
ADDENDUM
Abolition & Women's Rights (US)	289
Endnotes	297

Kalapani

Studies in South Asian Diaspora

by 

M.K. Gautam and M. Seenarine

2023 Xpry Press. 303 pages.

ISBN: 979-8378740017

Available on Amazon

Over 1.75 billion people in the world are South Asian. The “South Asian Diaspora” refers to people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives who live outside their country of origin. With 20 million living beyond the region, the South Asian diaspora represents the largest group of people who have spread or been dispersed from their homeland.

These five articles on the South Asian diaspora offers historical and contemporary perspectives on immigration, with a focus on Surinam, Trinidad and Guyana. Authors include Dr. Mohan K. Gautam, Dr. Radica Mahase, Dr. Moses Seenarine, Alice Bhagwandy Sital Persaud and Mrinal Kant Pandey.

Dr. Mohan Gautam is a lifelong scholar of Indian culture and world languages. Gautam has lectured extensively across the Globe and has written 36 books and 150 articles on Indian culture, music, anthropology, literature, and museology, in Hindi, Urdu, Panjabi, Bengali, English and Norwegian.

Dr. Moses Seenarine is a graduate of Columbia University and a sociology professor in Los Angeles. Seenarine is the author of Voices from the Subaltern: Education and Empowerment Among Dalit (Untouchable) Women in India (2004); and Cyborgs Versus the Earth Goddess: Men's Domestication of Women and Animals, and Female Resistance (2017).

Table of Contents

1 - "The Construction of the Indian Image in Surinam: Deconstructing Colonial Derogatory Notions and Reconstructing Indian Identity" by Mohan K. Gautam    (pages 9 - 69)

2 - "From Plantations to Parliament: Indian Contribution to the Development of Trinidad and Tobago, 1845 Onwards" by Radica Mahase    (pages 70 - 96)

3 - "recasting indian women in colonial guyana: gender, labor and caste in the lives of indentured and free laborers" by m. seenarine    (pages 97 - 209)

4 - Autobiography of Alice Bhagwandy Sital Persaud (1892-1958)    (pages 210 - 250)

5 - "Diffusion and Dispersal of Indian Diaspora" by Mrinal Kant Pandey    (pages 251 - 285)

Index    (pages 286 - 290)

📣 Listen to Kalapani Podcasts (6 episodes) on Youtube

Kalapani Podcast - Introduction