A Diaspora Dreams section
Diaspora Dreams reviews and notes new books on the Indian diaspora and its history — memoirs, travelogues, scholarship and fiction that help us read the crossing of the kala pani and the lives it made. We cover Hindi and English titles alike, often in both languages.
These are honest notes: where we have read a book we say so, and where we are describing a new release from its own jacket and its authors, we say that too. Published a book we should cover? We would like to know.
A new Hindi book by historian Rashmi Chaudhari and JNU's Devendra Choubey — ‘Itihaas ki Sarhadein’ (Prakashan Sansthan, 2026) — argues that history is never bound by borders, and that the rural, pre-1857 past cannot be grasped by conventional historiography alone. A book note, in English and Hindi.
A new Hindi travelogue by the noted writer Devendra Choubey — ‘Yah, Vah Desh To Nahin: Mauritius, a social journey’ (Aadhar Prakashan, 2026) — reads the island not through its temples and festivals but through the freedom struggle of its African slaves and Indian indentured labourers. A book note, in English and Hindi.
Written or published a book on the diaspora, its history, or its return? Tell us about it on our contact page, or see how to write for us.
