Cultural Retention among the Indian Migratory Communities

Exploring the Influence of Bollywood and Cultural Diplomacy on Indian Diaspora

Abstract

The Indian music and dance in Bollywood is not only practiced by Indians only now, it has travelled abroad. The countries like Turkey, Russia, Gulf nations, have separate channels to telecast the Indian movies and Dramas, though in the dubbed format. Bollywood, the soft power of India hasn’t only helped the Indian Diaspora stay connected to its culture, but the people of the host country have also developed their interest in the Indian culture. Some countries even celebrate the festivals of India like Diwali, and Holi. This paper tries to study the phenomenon of cultural retention among the Indian Diasporas, made possible by lot of factors that will be outlined in this paper. This research paper comprises of seven parts. The first part discusses the history of Indian migration patterns. It includes how the migration began in India, how Indian migrants lived abroad and how they worked to retain their culture. The second part talks about the Indian Diaspora before and after colonialism. Since the patterns of Indian Diaspora before and after colonialism is different, their migration patterns and cultural adaptation varies too. The third part elucidates the role of Bollywood in taking the Indian Culture abroad, not only for its Diaspora, but attempting to globalise it. The forth part of the paper focuses on the Indian communities abroad and their collective work. The fifth part talks about Yoga culture of India becoming Global. The last part discusses the cultural diplomacy of Indian government, especially under the government of Narendra Modi, who has travelled 92 nations in past 55 months to spread the Indian culture.