Reverse migrations and women’s role in shaping religious identities in Hyderabad

Abstract

The paper is based on ethnographic observations of religious practices among Muslim return migrants from the Gulf, and among Hindu return migrants from the United States. The goal of these observations was to understand the ways that diasporic cultures have transformed these migrants’ religious practices after they return to India. We focus on the city of Hyderabad, in South India, with its long history of diverse Muslim communities, and recent histories of migration and reverse migration to the Gulf region in Western Asia, as well as recent transformations through the growth of gated communities that have attracted Hindu reverse migrants from the United States. We focus on women’s engagement with religious cultural practices and the ways in which religion and gender are restructured through the process of migration and reverse migration.