Wedding Women to Tradition: The Politics of Marriage in the Indian Diaspora, 1947--2002
As a social history, this study contends that marriage is crucial for understanding migration in the post-war era when family reunification became the cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy. In particular, the migration experience of Indian women was profoundly mediated by marriage and the family, as the majority migrated to the U.S. as wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters. I also explore the greater socio-economic diversity and novel social networks among Indian immigrants created by family reunification laws. Chapters of the dissertation consider the significance of marriage in caste and family networks, popular culture, law, and the life histories of Indian immigrant women. I offer a new approach to the study of cultural change in diaspora as well as a new understanding of the complex relationship between gender, class, caste, regional, national, and transnational social ties.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign