Postcolonial states, nation-building and the (un)making of diasporas

In attempting to understand the migration and settlement of people around the globe,the concept of diaspora has proven crucial, proliferating not only in scholarlydiscourse but also in public and policy domains. And, as many people move, theybring along their religious beliefs, ideas, practices, and objects, prompting renewedefforts to conceptualise ‘religion in motion’ (Vásquez 2008). Although diaspora firstemerged as a religious concept – the Jews, exiled after the Babylonian capture ofJerusalem in the 6th century BCE, constituted the ‘prototypical’ diaspora (Cohen2008) – this initial understanding of their entwinement gave way in the 1960s and 70sto more secular conceptualisations of diaspora. Taking the disentangling of diasporaand religion as its departure point, this essay considers how the relationship betweenthem has been approached before turning its attention to current conceptualisationsboth of diaspora and of religion, which offer ways to think anew about theirrelationship