Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 10 – Diaspora assistance

Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024.

This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 10 – Diaspora assistance – contributed by Anjana Narayan and Lise-Hélène Smith.

From the introduction
The role of diasporas as key humanitarian actors in their countries of origin is a burgeoning area of research among scholars and policy makers. This chapter builds on the existing body of literature to provide critical insights into the complex relationships between diaspora assistance, immigrant experiences, and notions of belonging to native homelands. We begin with a critical review of the ways diaspora humanitarianism and philanthropy has been theorised and examine key debates and discussions in the literature. A distinctive part of the diasporic humanitarianism literature focuses on Christian, Jewish, and Islamic humanitarianism.
Because the existing template is based on Semitic religions, the other religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism are rarely recognised within the realm of humanitarian efforts. A critical account that moves away from this Westernised emphasis is essential so that the prospects and significant problems of transnational diasporic humanitarianism can be recorded. Accordingly, we draw on research on the Hindu diaspora in the United States to understand the complexities and politics of Hindu nationalism, philanthropy, and the development of a diasporic Hindu identity. Our scholarly positionality as researchers who have extensively studied the dynamics of Hindu diaspora in the United States and France has significantly informed the reflections and arguments presented in this chapter. We specifically examine the deployment of Hindu traditions of selfless service and humanitarianism by Hindu organisations in the US as a tool to assert affirming collective identities and challenge the racialised characterisation of their religion by the mainstream. Finally, we conclude with the implications of this case study to re-examine the centrality of homeland in theorising diasporic philanthropic activities and to highlight how diasporic interventions are deeply embedded in dynamics and structural constraints experienced in host societies.

Note on contributors
Anjana Narayan is a Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
She is the co-author of Living our Religions: Hindu and Muslim Asian American Women Narrate their Experiences (Kumarian, 2009) and the co-editor of Research Beyond Borders: Interdisciplinary Reflections (Lexington Books, 2012).
She is currently associated with an international and interdisciplinary collaborative research network to advance the study of lived religion and gender in relation to Hinduism and Islam.

Lise-Hélène Smith is a professor of world literature at California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona.
She is the co-editor of Research Beyond Borders: Interdisciplinary Reflections (Lexington Books, 2012).
Her research interests include exile, migration, and decoloniality as linked to race and gender in the Southeast and South Asian diasporas as well as in Francophone literatures.

Overviews are already available for the following chapters:
Introduction: humanitarianism and inequality – a re-orientation

Humanitarianism and colonialism

Humanitarianism and the global Cold War, 1945–1991

Humanitarianism and the new wars: humanitarianism, security, and securitisation

Humanitarianism, development and peace: a southern perspective

Localisation and the humanitarian sector

Human rights and humanitarianism

Humanitarian organisations: behemoths and butterflies

Faith actors in humanitarianism: dynamics and inequalities