TRADE OF THE TIMES: RECONCEIVING ‘DIASPORA’ WITH THE SINDHI MERCHANTS IN JAPAN MAMTA SACHAN KUMAR NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2010 TRADE OF THE TIMES: RECONCEIVING ‘DIASPORA’ WITH THE SINDHI MERCHANTS IN JAPAN MAMTA SACHAN KUMAR (B. Soc. Sci. (Hons.), NUS A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2010 i TRIBUTE To young souls who met with untimely death To sage souls to whose wisdom we are indebted A humble narrative in your honour My ancestors empowered My successors now knowing Of pasts richly bestowing To mercantile minds For Papa and Mama, And in loving memory of all affected by the 11 March 2011 earthquake-tsunami-nuclear devastation in Japan ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is a culmination of efforts of multiple individuals whom I have had the privilege of meeting in the course of my fieldwork. I thank them all for helping me in some way to assemble this project. My informants and mediators, I remain indebted to you for your time and warm hospitality, and for sharing with me your stories, for translation help, your generous exchange of resources and access to various data. Thank you in this regard especially to Uncle Siru and Aunty Anisha, Uncle Nari and Aunty Sharmila, Chachu and Aunty Kavita; Amit, Piku, Kio san and Namba san, hontōni arigatō gozaimashita. Thank you also to Beena Gulrajani for her thoughtful help and for extending her resourcefulness to contribute both materials and contact information. I am equally indebted to the Japanese civil servants at the numerous city halls and ward offices for obliging my requests. To my darling papa, thank you for being there with me to facilitate these cross-language exchanges, and for unconditionally supporting me with so much faith in my ability, from start to finish. I convey my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors, Prof. Vineeta Sinha and Dr. Rajesh Rai, for their patience, composure and faith in my “poetics”. Also to Professor Chua Beng Huat, Professor Tong Chee Kiong, Associate Professor Medha Kudaisya, Professor Sawa Munenori, Kurosawa sensei and Prof. A Mani, thank you for all your help, guidance and afforded opportunities for me to share my work with you and to learn so much more from you in return. iii To my passionate co-zealots in the Department of Sociology graduate cohort, Ms Raja and her mighty admin team, and loving friends beyond this academic circle, and to my family most certainly: your support, comfort and valuable feedback kept me motivated to see this thesis through, and your company has made this journey even more memorable. To Moley, Sharad, Mel, Jack, Moonie, Awe, Nuh and Jamilah, thank you for reading and critiquing parts of my dissertation. I promise to bug you all again and solemnly swear to include White Rose and Hema in the next round, with future dramatizations of greater projects. I would like to give special mention to Uncle G. A. Chandru most proudly from Yokohama. His painstaking collection of data on Japan‟s Indian community over several decades has made a critical contribution to my research and enriched it with priceless material. His unconditional generosity in sharing his treasures and unfailing commitment to document the history of his community makes him a scholar in true spirit of the word. Lastly, thank you mama for sharing with me your experiences as a new Indian bride in „foreign‟ Japan. Your simple scribble list of routine activities of a lone housewife in 1970s Osaka has added greatly to the modest data bank of literature on Sindhi women. My parents have inspired this work. They are rightfully the true storytellers of this narrative. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Tribute i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iv Summary vi List of Figures viii Prelude x CHAPTER ONE: ROOTS 1 The Sindhi Merchant Diaspora in Japan as a Case Study 1.1 Introduction 3 1.2 Methodology 15 1.3 Literature of the Sindhi Diaspora 29 1.4 Diaspora Theory 32 1.5 Thesis Overview 41 CHAPTER TWO: ROUTES 42 The Sindhi Inheritance: Migration Histories and Transhistorical Identities 2.1 Historicizing the Contemporary Diaspora 43 2.2 The Silk Route: Contextualizing Sindhi Migration to Japan 59 2.3 The Contemporary Sindhi Merchant Diaspora in Japan 76 CHAPTER THREE: TRADE OF THE TIMES 84 Inter-Generational Transitions and Inter-Personal Relations in Business 3.1 Ethnic Capitalism and the Sindhi „Middleman‟ Enterprise in Perspective 86 3.2 The Role of „Family‟ in Sindhi Firms 100 3.3 Examining Sindhi-Japanese Relations in the Workplace 115 3.4 From Inter-Generational „Divides‟ to a Gendered Diaspora 124 v CHAPTER FOUR: TRANSITING THE EVERYDAY 126 The Politics of (Re)Presentations: Overlooked Sites of ‘Trade’ in the Diaspora 4.1 Ethnicity, Identity and the Diaspora 128 4.2 The Different Diasporic „Worlds‟ of the Men and Women 134 4.3 Social Organizations and Domestic Space as Sites of „Trade‟ 145 4.4 The Politics of (Re)Presentations: A Semiotic Appraisal 153 CHAPTER FIVE: RETURNS 157 Social Memory: Modes of Circulation in the Diasporic Imaginary 5.1 Memory and the Diaspora Twice Removed 159 5.2 Myth and Meaning of „Returns‟: Reconstructions of the „Homeland‟ 164 5.3 „Dream‟ as an Alluring Myth of the Hostland 181 CHAPTER SIX: EN ROUTE TO TRANSLOCALITY 186 Positioning Sindhis in Japan within a Global Setting 6.1 The Global Sindhi Network: A “Transnational Social Field” 188 6.2 Re-Positioning the „Sindhi Merchant‟ within the Contemporary „South 193 Asian‟ Climate 6.3 Reconceiving „Diaspora‟: Concluding Thoughts 201 Bibliography 203 Appendices Appendix 1: Questionnaire Guide Appendix 2: “Public Record Office” Document Appendix 3: “Chakra” Newsletter Cover Page Appendix 4: Letter to the Bharat Ratna Appendix 5: Asahi Shimbun Article on Subhas Chandra Bose Appendix 6: Article by Shakun Narain Kimatrai Appendix 7: Article by Jennifer Lee vi SUMMARY This thesis undertakes a study of „diaspora‟ in its evolved form(s) and contemporary usage. As a case study, it focuses on the Sindhi merchant diaspora in Japan. The Sindhis are an „Indian‟ ethnic group whose earliest traces of migration to Japan were for commercial purposes in the revolutionary Meiji period of local empire rule, this being sometime in the early 1870s. At the time, most were young male merchants known as Sindhworkies – members of an expanding international trade network headquartered in their native town of Hyderabad, once the capital of Sindh province, and presently a part of Pakistan. The Hindu Sindhi merchants who form the target group of this study were forced to flee Sindh en masse in the 1947 Partition that divided British India along religious lines, into Islamic Pakistan and the largely Hindu India. The merchants‟ pre-Partition international trade links greatly facilitated their diasporic resettlements worldwide and today, along with their families, the merchants have an established presence in Japan. They embody particular status in local society – one that is partly the outcome of their historical ties with Japan from the colonial heyday. Their ascribed identities and represented positionality make this study a „classed‟ analysis. In turn, this social position lends insight into both their (lack of) interactions with as well as treatment by the Japanese. Their diasporic experiences then are necessarily differentiated from those of any other diasporic community‟s. vii The Sindhi merchant diaspora is itself a composite of multi-generational points of view and gendered social realities. This thesis attempts to capture the diversities in experience via both these intersectionalities with an aim to provide a more comprehensive outlook of the merchant community‟s diasporic condition. For example, inter-generational differences in perception towards „Sindh‟ as the „homeland‟ to „return‟ to, leads to a re-evaluation of the present-day relevance of a singular notion of „homeland‟. Instead, this thesis postulates a reconstituted notion of multi-sited „homelands‟ that are transient and mobile. „Diasporas‟ are not sedentary settlements within bounded territories. They are free-forming paradigms just like the term „diaspora‟ is etymologically derived from the act of collective displacement. And just as over time, its conceptual significance has evolved to encompass variegated phenomena that extend beyond the forced dispersion of the Jews. So the Sindhis hold the world as their „stage‟. Their global networks bear testimony to the likelihood of their potential relocation at any point in time, be it a „return‟ to where they perceive to be „home‟, or to pursue novel lines of trade for their unending desire to capitalize on profitable opportunities. With this in mind, this study concludes by positioning the Sindhi merchants in Japan within a global frame of reference. In tandem, it also discusses a re-positioning of the merchants within the diverse „South Asian diaspora‟ currently residing in Japan. The „diaspora‟ is presented as a multiplex that provides numerous bases for comparison, which could serve as orientations for future research. viii LIST OF FIGURESi Figure 1A: Map of Sindh 2 Figure 1B: Map of global dispersion of the Sindhi diaspora 9 Figure 1C: Map of Japan featuring Kobe, Osaka and Yokohama 12 Figure 1D: ICCJii graph showing membership fluctuations between 14 1958 and 1998 Figure 2A: Photograph of Ras Behari Bose 56 Figure 2B: Map of global Sindhwork branches between 1890 and 1940 61 Figure 2C: Photograph of tree under which Treaty of Kanagawa was 69 signed Figure 2D: Photograph of V. Leelaram shop-house 72 Figure 2E: Photograph