Although people of Indian origin have been present in South Africa since 1860, they are still objects of suspicion in 'new' South Africa. In many quarters they are accused of exploiting Africans and having collaborated with apartheid. In a climate of increasing hostility, some Indians are asserting their links to India and claiming membership of an Indian diasporic community. The legitimacy of this 'diasporic identity' has been questioned by scholars since they do not conform to any authentic criteria of diaspora. Against this, it could be argued that searching for diasporic authenticity in narratives of the past is a red herring that blinds us to the politics of the present.
In the last twenty years, as patterns of migration continue to disperse growing numbers of people across the world, the idea of the disapora has become increasingly common in the social sciences. Utilised initially as a predominantly 'neutral' term to describe the dispersal of people from a homeland, it was largely drawn from the historical precedent of Jewish communities, a varied and complex phenomenon, which changed in character through time and space. Although they were not always explicit, certain assumptions were embedded in the idea of diaspora, which related back to "the Jewish experience". These assumptions were that a diaspora was born of suffering and loss, contained a desire a return to a "homeland", and that this dispersed population was, potentially, radical in character, a subaltern in the midst of dominant political structures. These assumptions were powerfully reiterated when the notion was applied to the forced migration of enslaved Africans, who, in the process of enslavement, were not only denied their history but also faced alienation, brutalisation and racism in their new 'home'. African American scholars helped write Africans back into history, and in the process, inscribed a sense of belonging to an African diaspora, through the shared experience of enslavement, and dislocation from a place of origin with common cultural codes, helping create an ethos of an authentic, pan-African identity. WEB Dubois and Booker T Washington are amongst those associated with the creation of "Black Studies" in the United States, and, via the Harlem Negro Renaissance Movement, helped spawn the idea of "negritude" amongst writers such as Aime Cesaire and Leopold Sengor in the Francophone world , where all those of "negro descent" shared certain distinct characteristics.