For the more than one billion people who celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali all over the world, the pandemic has been a bit of a damper. While the festival has strong roots in Hindu mythology, it is also widely celebrated by Sikhs and Jains, making it one of the biggest holidays of the South Asian subcontinent.
Depending on location and particular theist beliefs, the festival honors many different deities, most prominently Goddess Lakshmi, associated with wealth and prosperity, as well as Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, the seventh and eighth respective avatars of the God Vishnu. The Festival of Lights is usually celebrated with lighting clay lamps called diyas, fireworks, decorative rangolis and marigolds, and sweets. Part of the beauty of the holiday lies in its diverse interpretations all over the world.
The South Asian diaspora has often created their own traditions for Diwali, making most of their connections to the “motherland” and freestyling the rest. Their presence in nearly every corner of the world has ensured for centuries that Diwali is celebrated with enthusiasm and pomp. It is important , then, to reflect on why South Asians make up the largest diaspora in the world (India leading at 17.5 million people) and in so many different places.
Massive emigration from South Asia first began in the early nineteenth century with the system of indentured labour which replaced the Transatlantic slave trade in the Caribbean sugarcane plantations. Countries like Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have large populations of Indian descent, close to 44 percent sometimes. In Africa too, the 3 million people of Indian origin, mostly in South Africa, have also primarily descended from indentured laborers “contracted” into decade-long work agreements by the East India Company. In Southeast Asia, the same story follows.
Migrant labour is still prevalent today, with marginally better conditions, and hundreds of millions of participants. Three percent of the global population comprises migrant workers, who reside internationally for employment, most being, again, South Asian. Many work in the Middle East in terrible conditions and with few chances for holidays. However, Diwali is a respite. This year, almost as a ‘Diwali gift’ to migrant workers, Saudi Arabia reformed the cruel kafala system which left migrants vulnerable to the whims of their employers. In Singapore the dormitories where the workers reside shall play pre-recorded prayers, and in an initiative organised by an organ of the Singapore government, workers received gift packages full of traditional sweets and foods.
The South Asian working class has overwhelmingly found its historical trajectories maneuvered and manipulated by political and economic factors, diasporic or not. Diwali, awaited the whole year, often simultaneously brings joy and sheds light on how starkly different South Asian narratives can be, based on class, caste, and location.