A Minority, Urban, and Cosmopolitan Group From an International Migration in Colonial Context: Spatialities and Identities of the Indians of Antananarivo, Madagascar

• Main Author: Fournet-Guérin, Catherine
• Other Authors: MÉDIATIONS - Sciences des lieux, sciences des liens, Sorbonne Université (SU), Unité de recherche Médiations, sciences des lieux, sciences des liens
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: Indians of Madagascar; Antananarivo; everyday cosmopolitanism; urban minority; colonial migrations; postcolonial identities; international circulations; social and cultural geography; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; Close Islands
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04643510; https://hal.science/hal-04643510/document; https://hal.science/hal-04643510/file/Fournet-Gu%C3%A9rin_Paper%20Migrating%20Minds_Urban%20cosmopolitanism%20Indians%20Antananarivo_2024.pdf

International audience Antananarivo's Indians, though very few in number and representing a tiny minority of the urban population of Madagascar's capital, are an original social group descending from a long-standing migration throughout the Indian Ocean in a colonial context. Although they have been living in the city for several generations, they are still considered foreigners by local society and are subject to considerable stigmatization, even though they often occupy dominant social positions in terms of standard of living. They form a heterogeneous group, but one that is constituted towards the outside world, based on an asserted Indian identity, but also on local and international links. Thinking in terms of cosmopolitanism for this group allows us to consider both their urban spatial anchorage and their international circulations in an open, globalized world. On the scale of Antananarivo, Indians are developing an original urban insertion, contributing through their presence to the city's cosmopolitanism, even if this is rarely recognized and is often devalued. This participation to urban citiness is studied throughout leisure places and cultural venues run by Indians. On an international scale, many of these people develop multiple identities, ambiguously turned towards contemporary India, and above all towards France due to the colonial past and close islands, the whole functioning in a reticular manner. The Indians of Madagascar, though numerically very marginal, synthesize in their identities, multiple and variable according to place and time, many of the situations that characterize the contemporary world: postcolonial, diasporic, minority and cosmopolitan all at once. Bien que très peu nombreux et ne constituant qu’une infime minorité de la population urbaine de la capitale de Madagascar, les Indiens d’Antananarivo forment un groupe social original issu d’une migration ancienne dans le cadre colonial de l’océan Indien. Installés depuis plusieurs générations en ville, ils sont pourtant ...