3 Review(s)

In recent years class analysis of ethnic and race relations has gained considerable sophistication, and therefore does not necessarily have to be mechanistic and reductionist. This book on the race relations situations of overseas Indian communities by Dr. Prakash C. Jain amply demonstrates this point. Critically reviewing the major established theories of ethnic and race relations, viz., theories of pluralism, middleman minority theories, and the work of Johan Rex, the author attempts to construct a political economy and class based conceptual framework, which, in his view, more systematically explains the race relations situations of overseas Indians in various colonial/post-colonial societies. Three cases of Guyana, Malaysia and Kenya are examined here which represent different conjunctures of class, race and colonialism with respect to Indian emigration and settlement abroad. He finds that the race relations situations of the Indians in these countries were contingent upon their economic position and class dynamics specific to each social formation.