Uncle Swami: South Asians in America Today

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A powerful new indictment of cultural and racial politics in America at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Uncle Swami restores the South Asian diaspora to its full-fledged complexity Within hours of the attacks on the World Trade Centre, misdirected assaults on Sikhs and other South Asians flared in communities across the US, serving as harbingers of a more suspicious, less discerning and increasingly fearful worldview that would drastically change the ideas of belonging and acceptance in America. Weaving together distinct strands of recent South Asian immigration to the United States, Uncle Swami creates a richly textured discussion of a diverse and dynamic people whose identities are all too often lumped together, glossed over, or simply misunderstood. Continuing the conversation sparked by his celebrated work The Karma of Brown Folk, Prashad confronts the experience of migration across an expanse of generations and class divisions, from the birth of political activism among second-generation immigrants and the meteoric rise of South Asian American politicians in Republican circles, to migrant workers who are at the mercy of the vicissitudes of the American free market.A powerful new indictment of cultural and racial politics in America at the dawn of the twentyfirst century, Uncle Swami restores a diasporic community to its full-fledged complexity, beyond both model minorities and the spectres of terrorism. About the Author Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College, where he holds the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History. Prashad is the author of fourteen books. His book, The PoorerNations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2012), was commended by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali as a contribution to the intellectual-cumpolitical emancipation of developing countries. He has been published in wellknown newspapers and journals. He edits a series called Dispatches.