Aging and the Indian Diaspora

Sarah Lamb is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University. She is author of White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender and Body in North India and co-editor of Everyday Life in South Asia (IUP, 2002).

"This is a book that is accessible as well as significant, fun to read and with important applications to both theory and practice in several domains. . . . Many of Lamb's informants are memorable and illustrate her point that agency remains among elders, that it is not just youth who initiate and think well about social change. The photos add to the quality of immediacy and liveliness. This is a recommended reading!February 2010"—H-Asia Reviews"Aging and the Indian Diaspora is lucidly written and solidly argued. . . . It should enjoy a wide readership among scholars of cross-cultural gerontology, as well as among those concerned with issues of family change among middle-class diasporic communities in the contemporary world. The book is also very well suited for classroom use, especially in advanced undergraduate courses on either of these topics. Vol. 112, No. 4, December 2010"—American Anthropologist"Lamb has produced a very easy to read, engaging, and good book. . . . [She] is able to capture a good deal about the culture of, and family relationships in, Bengali middle class families."—Contemporary Sociology"A timely investigation of remarkable, extraordinarily rapid, and previously unimaginable changes taking place within India's urban middle-class families. . . . Beautifully written and readable . . . ethnographically rich and theoretically astute."—Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University"Sarah Lamb's compassionate voice and reflexive insights weave around the moving narratives of Bengali elders in this beautifully written, theoretically sophisticated ethnography. A classic in the anthropology of India, comparative modernities, and aging."—Kirin Narayan, author of My Family and Other Saints

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsNote on Translation and Transliteration1. Introduction: The Remaking of Aging2. The Production of Tradition, Modernity, and a New Middle Class3. The Rise of Old Age Homes in India4. Becoming an Elder-Abode Member5. Tea and the Forest: Making a Western Institution Indian6. Living Alone as a Way of Life7. Moving Abroad8. Changing Families and the StateAfterwordNotesBibliographyIndex