Abstract

Musical performances in the Indian diaspora reinforce local and transnational community affiliations. They do so through the overlapping processes of musical memory and creativity in diverse Indian diasporic contexts, as well as through musical transmission via mass media and digital technologies. While they are rooted historically and geographically, they also contribute to contemporary alignments towards a global Indian community. This chapter provides an overview of musical performances in the Indian diaspora, drawing attention to a wide range of creative practices from ritual performance to film music and focusing on issues around musical performances in global community re-alignments, musical continuity and change, and the dominance of Indian film music in diasporic cultural experiences. Particular concerns are Indian diasporic trajectories formed in relation to British colonialism and labour policies in the Caribbean, Fiji and Mauritius, as well as related Indian diasporic communities in Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and the UK, the last being notable in view of secondary migrations to the former imperial centre.