Diasporic returns to the city: Anglo-Indian and Jewish visits to Calcutta

Whilst the city is a central focus of research on diasporic resettlement, little research has explored the city as a site of diasporic return. This paper explores return visits to Calcutta by members of the Anglo-Indian and Jewish communities who have migrated to London, Toronto and Israel since 1947. In doing so, the paper contributes to broader debates about return visits and migrations as well as the connections between cities, communities and diasporas. Unlike research that focuses on the nation and/or ‘homeland’, the paper explores the city as a destination for diasporic return. In contrast to work that concentrates on particular ethnic groups that become minorities after migration and expect to feel an ethnic ‘affiliation’ on their return, the paper studies two communities that were minorities before migration. Drawing on interviews with Anglo-Indian and Jewish Calcuttans, the paper argues that decisions to return – and not to return – are shaped by ideas about the city as home more than the nation as homeland. Moreover, returns to the city are also, in different and sometimes contested ways, returns to the community and are experienced and understood in terms of wider narratives of urban and community continuity and change.