The Role of Diu in the Hindu-Gujarati Diaspora in Portugal

This article introduces the Diu transnational population with ties to Mozambique, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, with the aim of portraying these ties historically, socially, and culturally. Both authors have engaged in long-term ethnographic fieldwork, mostly working together to generate advantages for the study of transnationality and diaspora. Therefore, this article details our view after more than a decade of fieldwork while also conveying the voices of our interlocutors, who better illustrate Diu and its plural dimensions. The article describes the Diu Hindu representations of late Portuguese colonialism in India (until 1961) and explains the plural dimensions of transnationality. On the one hand, we focus on the cultural practices associated with transnationality, paying special attention both to the return to India and to marriages. On the other hand, the article explores the types of migration from Diu to other countries.


Introduction
We talk to M about our future trip to Diu. He tells us about the visits he usually makes when going to India. He visits several temples not only in Diu but also in other parts of Gujarat and tells us about his visit to the temple of Ambe ma in Ambaji, how they bought a murti 1 (statue) of the goddess Ambe, weighing about 45 kilos. His son carried it to the airport and nobody suspected its weight. They thought it was only 8 kilos and so it arrived in Portugal. On the next journey, M. intends to buy a statue of Shiva's wife, Parvati to place in the future Shiva Temple of Santo António dos Cavaleiros. 2 The above citation illustrates the transnational relationship between Diu and Portugal among Portuguese Hindu-Gujarati families. We may also note how this references data that is already several years old. In fact, the ethnographic records underpinning this article stem from research carried out between 2000 and 2003, which was subsequently continued through to 2009, and later updated as a result of continuous contacts with the Hindu communities of Greater Lisbon.
According to the High Level Committee Report on the Indian Diaspora, 3 approximately 33,000 Hindus live in Portugal, distributed between Oporto, Coimbra, and Greater Lisbon. 4 Most Portuguese Hindus originated in the North-western Indian State of Gujarat and participated in the key Hindu-Gujarati migration, from India to East Africa. Therefore, they mirror other European Hindu-Gujarati settlers, especially in the United Kingdom (UK), where the Gujarati community is larger and already studied from different perspectives. 5 However, the Hindu population in Portugal also divides into two major groups: the divesha and the non-divesha. Divesha means 'originating from Diu', a distinction that indicates the differenceshistorical, religious, cultural, and socialthat differentiate these two groups. In fact, the two groups actually come from different areas of the same state. Although Diu is geographically located in the state of Gujarat, that not true in historical and administrative terms; Diu, along with Daman, has an independent administration. Furthermore, the fact that it remained a Portuguese colony until 1961 makes the island of Diu a territory with unique characteristics that distinguish it from other regions of Gujarat.
The Portuguese Hindus who originate from Diu are individuals belonging to artisan and trader castes 6 (Vanja, Suthar, Khania), as well as masons and fishermen from villages bordering Diu Town (Fudamia from Fudam, and Kharva from Ghogla), usually from service castes. On the other hand, the non-divesha group consists of a majority of Lohana and Vania castes, alongside a few families of Brahmins, hailing from various regions in the central and western part of Gujarat (Porbandar, Rajkot, Jamnagar, or Junagadh) with a distant historical connection to Portugal, but marked instead by British colonial occupation. Traders par excellence, the Lohana developed a mercantile tradition that enabled them to establish contact with foreign lands, especially on the East coast of Africa, a region they later emigrated to, joining their divesha compatriots (especially in Mozambique, another Portuguese colony up to 1975). 7 The regional distinction between divesha and nondivesha also contains religious variations, expressed in the relevance attributed to specific kinds of worship.
Non-divesha Hindus have a predominantly vaishnava 8 religious tradition. Devoted to the worship of Vishnu and his avatar (divine descent)in particular Krishna and Ramathese Hindus focus their religiousness on a devotional trait of Hinduism, bhakti. On the other hand, divesha Hindus profess an intense devotion to Shiva and to the Goddess. By choosing Shiva as their main deity as well as the Goddess, who is his feminine manifestation, these Hindus adopt the centrality of the divine pair associated with both destructive and renewing powers, the balance between good and evil, the Hindu nature of eternal creation.
The present study focuses on the divesha group. After this introduction, we set out a methodological note in which we explain the advantages of long-term fieldwork, a task that we have often undertaken together. Subsequently, we present our view on transnationality, which constitutes an undeniable characteristic of the population under analysis here.
The core of the article focuses on three dimensions of the Diu Hindu transnational population. In order to convey a historical perspective, we first address the representations of Diu Hindus concerning the late Portuguese colonialism in India (until 1961). Elders still recall Portuguese rule and, decades later, the Portuguese empire continues to have consequences for this population. Afterwards, we provide an account of cultural practices associated with transnationality in the case of the Diu Hindu population and their transnational ties, including: items carried as luggage; the general rituals performed when transnational families return to Diu; the specific ritual of transnational marriage; and the meaning of particular ritual places in Diu, recognized by all the families with transnational ties in this context.
We then analyze the types of migration engaged in by Hindu-Gujarati families with branches in Diu. On the one hand, there are those families who lived in Mozambique for a number of generations and then, when the Indian Union annexed Diu in 1961, returned to India. On the other hand, there are those families who also lived in Mozambique but migrated to Portugal following Mozambique's independence in 1975. Finally, there are those who never left Diu but watched the transnational movements of many family members. With multiple movements and multiple family choices, the Hindus of Diu, as we shall see, represent a very diverse population.

Methodological notes
The data we present here stems from our long-term ethnographic engagement with the Portuguese Hindu-Gujarati population across the various poles of the diaspora, namely Portugal, the UK, Mozambique, and India.
We both began working with Hindu families in Lisbon in 2000 but on different anthropologic projects. In 2002, we visited India twice for a total of three-and-a-half months. Later, one of us went back to Din (in 2006), while the other went to Mozambique in 2011. Both of us went together and separately to undertake short ethnographic incursions in the UK, between 2007 and 2011. Such a long-term ethnographic approach revealed new insights arising over the years, and, additionally, the fact of very often working together in the field contributed to advancing and deepening our arguments.
We had the opportunity to reflect about the advantages of doing joint ethnographic fieldwork in another article, 9 but we would like to stress here how a collaborative ethnography 10 implies the existence of two perspectives. This adds to the data that is collected independently and also generates the advantage of data endorsement, through the permanent dialogue that takes place after each ethnographic encounter. In addition, long-term fieldwork helps to maintain reflexivity about a group of topics, bringing in new hypotheses and rectifying former approaches. In this sense, while writing this article, we noticed that, despite its relative age (with some information from 2002, when we both travelled to Diu), our data remains alive and valid, when revised in the light of later conversations had, over the years, with our Diuese interlocutors and their family members.
The descriptions made after this section come from our ethnographies and strive to illustrate a specific issue through the plural topic of the Hindu-Gujarati Diaspora. More than taped interviews, we collected our data through fieldnotes, which we analyzed in keeping with the Johnson and Johnson suggestions for using fieldnotes as 'representative samples' of our interlocutors' lives. 11 We also approach our archive data as a form of restudy 12 in longitudinal ethnographic research, 13 considering data from different research projects gathered by both of us.
Transnationality has become a valuable concept in the literature on migration in recent decades. Inaugurated by Basch, Schiller, and Blanc in 1994, 14 and developed by Nancy Foner in 1997, 15 it has since contributed to describing and analyzing a great proportion of the migrant populations around the world, and has also proven a very useful approach to the South Asian Diaspora. The most common perspective corresponds to analysis of the adaptive advantages of transnational populations in the host countries, considering their needs to improve living conditions as a central factor in the decision to migrate. However, the main aspect of transnationality lies in the groups which, beyond settlement in the host countries, also maintain strong networks in their countries of origin and sometimes a third country, which is the case of the population under study in this article. Some family members do actually liveand this is not a symbolic representation of their tiesin two or more countries. In the last two decades, the concept of transnationality gained prominence in migration studies; meanwhile, the ways of being a transnational subject, as well as the profiles of what we might call a transnational population, have diversified.
One of the richest debates on transnationality approaches the types of belonging and variations in the currently established networks. The urban scale gains particular relevance in this debate, as transnational subjects, beyond moving between countries, also live and move between cities. These urban environments offer increasingly specific supplies and services, 16 from types of trade to urban policies, while also including the provision of local education, housing, culture, and religion, as is the case of those cities where our transnational interlocutors live and circulate. In addition, it is important to note that South Asians in the diaspora have not only maintained the homeland culture and identities but also created, recreated, and renegotiated such identitites, taking into account their variety and complexity within the diasporas, which do not constitute homogeneous communities at all. 17 As Karen Olwig rightly points out, migrations say more about the role that places, destinations, and routes occupy in the lives of people than about processes of integration. 18 Among South Asians, Hindu-Gujaratis play a central role in diaspora and transnational studies, 19 both in terms of the longevity of their migrations, and of their plural routes running between South Asia, East Africa, and Europe. Therefore, the case of the Diu Hindu-Gujaratis correspondingly contains much that contributes to the literature.
One of the more effective ways to clarify the histories around this specific diaspora involves collecting single or family life stories, taking into account that transnational families have ties across the various poles of the diaspora. As becomes clear in the descriptions below, successive family migrations happen because of the specific situations arising in the countries and cities where they live prior to the decision to migrate. Authors such as Gijbert Oonk 20 and Karen Olwig 21 have dedicated their attention to diaspora studies, and do so through family histories. Olwig underlines how the host places, whether temporary or permanent, play less abstract roles than countries. 22 In this sense, Olwig leans close to Schiller and Çaglar 23 and McLoughlin, 24 when they include the urban referent in the transnationality (and diaspora) equation. Therefore, narratives about the routes taken by families enable an analysis of the specific context of Diu, without losing sight of the national backgrounds.
In this article, we take advantage of sections of the life stories collected among our interlocutors over the years, even while mostly revisiting the material collected in Diu.

Representations of Portugal in Diu
The historical situation stemming from the previous colonial rule of Diu had consequences that continue into the present time. As is well known, and the object of attention in this volume, along with Goa and Daman, Diu was under Portuguese colonial rule until 1961. At that time, Portuguese power was residual but proud, interlinked with the dictatorship that held power in Portugal (1933-74). After a two-day war, Diu was annexed by the Indian Union, in December 1961. In Diu, the elderly still remember the facts, before, during, and after the annexation, and the ways they remember these Portuguese 'times' partially represent and explain the current relationship between both countries.
When we were in Diu, back in 2002, one of us was precisely carrying out an anthropological project on the final period of Portuguese colonialism in Diu, and the fact that we are Portuguese is important to understand the representations we obtained from our interlocutors. They told us almost only good things about the 'Portuguese times', as was the case of O., an interlocutor who said 'outside Diu, people don't have any education; here in Diu they do have because they are from here and because they went to Mozambique and Portugal'. 25 However, reaching further in conversation, we also obtained the other side of the coin: that residual Portuguese power in India meant that Diu experienced shortages in supplies for its population, as well as the prevailing lack of proper jobs. The words of our interlocutors illustrate this context: On the border, they used to interview our bodies, about what we carried with us. We couldn't bring in supplies from outside Diu. So, people took to hiding things in their skirts [. . .] Rice, badlo flour, fabrics [. . .] In Diu, we did get these supplies but they were very expensive. 26 [. . .] B. was studying when the annexation took place. He said that during the Portuguese administration, there were no jobs; people had to migrate to earn a living. 27 Decades after the annexation, the main discourses from our interlocutors point to a positive view about Diu. They describe it as a unique space, in terms of religious pluralism, which is linked to the former Portuguese administration (which, in turn, was also Catholic): [. . .] in the meeting with the Mayor, everybody agreed that, in Diu, there is religious tolerance, 'without any problems'. To give an example, the Chief Officer said that he has his children in a Catholic School, although he himself is Hindu. 28 Nun F. [. . .] referred to how, lately, in Gujarat, religious relations are undergoing a bad time but, in Diu, everybody gets along. 29 As we can see, the good aspects mentioned in relation with the Portuguese also interconnect with the present time: Diu is represented as a unique place to live in because of its historical specificity. Beyond the fact that our interlocutors were talking with two anthropologists potentially perceived as representatives of Portugal, it is also important to note how the ways they explained things about Diu also link with what their family members in the Diaspora were telling them. Europe in general, and Portugal and the UK in particular, were emulated 30 by our interviewees.
In the store, there was a Hindu lady who chatted with us in Portuguese. She is living in Lisbon and was in Diu on vacation: 'one gets emotional when one hears Portuguese so far away from home'. 31 [. . .] K.'s son wants to go to Portugal, and he also wants to travel and see the country. He has a Portuguese passport (because he was born before 1961). 32 [. . .] T. showed us his life story in documents [. . .] he has everything in order to travel to Portugal, a dream that then endedhe doesn't want to travel anymore, but maybe his documents will be useful to his son. 33 While this type of phrasing sometimes represented a way of telling us that Portugal was still thought of as a big country (as they had been taught in the local Portuguese school), on other occasions this signified the deep transnational ties and the desire that (mostly) youngsters nourish over migrating to Portugal or London. However, by the beginning of 2000s, the people we met informed us how, when seeking to migrate, they would make several journeys to the consulates, both in Delhi and in Goa, to try to get their visa. They also expected European visitors (as was our case) to help them in their goal. Almost every day during our stay in Diu, there were requests for assistance in these visa application processes. And, as we return to below, marriage constituted a lasting strategy that still remains the most viable form to migrate from India to Europe.
In the next section, we delve deeper into the transnational ties, building up a portrait of the cultural practices that give consistency to how this population, paraphrasing Basch, Schiller, and Blanc, live in two or more countries.

Transnational ties from Diu to Portugal
Maintaining networks of contacts between countries of establishment and societies of origin characterizes transnational processes 34 based on multiple family, political, religious and social dimensionsmultistranded social relations. 35 As such, there are these networks of permanent exchanges, ongoing among several countries, ensuring the consolidation of ties with the land of origin and enabling the perpetuation of an intense network of diverse exchanges between Portugal, India, Mozambique, and also the UK, and producing the identitary consequences that result from this system of transnational contacts.
Basch, Schiller, and Blanc have noted how 'the constant and various flow of such goods and activities have embedded within them relationships between people'. 36 In fact, these systems of transnational exchanges intervene in the structures of communities, in the ways of life of individuals, and in family and social relations, contributing to consolidating their respective internal identities. It is common among Hindu communities outside India to establish such networks. In the Portuguese case, this system is operating not only between Portugal and India but also with communities established in other countries: in Mozambique, where there is a long tradition of Indian immigration from Diu and the place of residence of a considerable number of Hindus, and in the UK, where many Hindus moved after having previously travelled from Mozambique to Portugal.
In 2002, the system included various forms of exchanges: postal correspondence, telephone calls, or electronic contact, as well as permanent flows of people. Postal mail declined, along with phone calls, and social networks becoming the most ubiquitous form of contact. The exchange of packages and correspondence between India and Mozambique has been maintained by people travelling to these locations. For the UK, the same system has been deployed, along with postal services. In the opposite direction, the same kind of transferences take place: packages and correspondence from India or Mozambique arrive in Portugal through the flow of people. From London, they arrived either via travellers or via the post office. Products shipped to India or Mozambique are generally goods that do not exist there, including medicines or traditional Portuguese foodstuffs. Before the intensification of social networks, correspondence among the different countries was common, often including photographs of prominent events, such as weddings and visits to India. Nowadays, social networks send this kind of information instantly. In the opposite direction, traditional foodstuffs (dried fish, mango) and Indian clothing are sent both from Mozambique and from India. However, it is the travellers to India who carry along gifts (sapetra) to distribute among all their relatives at their destination.
The flow of people among the various countries is permanent, the main motivations being the participation in important rites of passage, visits to the homeland(which usually include religious pilgrimages to various central places of worship), and the obtention of documentation for relatives or spouses. Regarding the trips to India and Mozambique to fulfil ritual duties (for example, travelling regularly to India to complete the cycle of rituals associated with the passing of an ancestor, to appease his or her soul), they often take place throughout the year. Weddings in India, Mozambique, the UK, and Portugal imply spatial dynamics that connect people from the respective countries and contribute to the frequent movement of people, objects, and information between Portugal and these three locations.
In fact, marriage often serves as a migratory strategy, which guarantees the opportunity to reside in Portugal, for example. Many Indian grooms seek to establish matrimonial ties with brides who are Portuguese nationals, in order to guarantee their legal status in Portugal. In the opposite direction, the demand for brides from India can be observed among the more conservative families, who believe that they will ensure the maintenance of Hindu traditions and revitalize the identity of the family and, by extension, that of the group. 37 The issue of marriage among Portuguese Hindu-Gujaratis deserves a more detailed discussion, especially the increase in out-of-caste marriages that contradict the logic of caste endogamy practiced more intensely in the past, and which also points to a growing agency of youth as regards their individual choices. Whether or not associated with ritual ceremonies, Portuguese Hindus travel to India, conceived of as a space of sacred origin from which the ritual purity and essence of deified India itself emanates. Immediately on arrival to their homeland, they prioritize visiting the temples of their lineage's goddessesthe kul devi. The place of genealogical origin is admired for its purity and sacredness, which is why, in addition to visiting and making offerings to the kul devi, these individuals also visit major religious sites and make large offerings, in order to compensate for their long years of absence from worship in these sacred places. During our first fieldwork period in India, we both stayed in Fudam village, on Diu island, the place of origin of many of the Hindus settled in Portugal.
During that period of research, we had the opportunity to witness the arrival of a family residing in Portugal, who had returned to their home village to perform the marriage of their younger daughter. Right after their arrival, this family visited their kul devi's temple, Kankeshwarimata, and then moved on to a place described by them as 'the holiest of India': Gangeshwar, located three kilometers from Fudam. Asked about the relevance of the religious service and the offerings made in that place shortly after their arrival in the village, they told us that: praying in this place is very good. It's better than in Portugal, it gives you luck. Here, when we ask for anything, it soon happens. This is a very sacred and well-known place, even throughout India.
The sacredness of the places of origin and of the ritual actions performed there are admittedly distinct and superior to the practices of religious worship in Portugal, as manifested in the efficacy of religious rituals practiced in the original genealogical space.
The relationship of affinity with the sacred place of origin comes under threat by prolonged absences, hence the need to satisfy the kul devi through offerings (chundri, small cloths which cover the deities) and puja (worshipping the deities through offerings), performed in the lineage temple. In addition to restoring strength to the relationship with kul devi, other deities from other local temples also need appeasing. Usually, a puja is performed, normally one that involves paying the pujari (ritualist) excessively, 'to bring good luck'.
In the case of the aforementioned visits to Gangeshwar, repeated frequently during our stay with this family, several offerings were also made. This place, considered sacred and revered not only by Fudam Hindus but also by Hindus from other areas of Diu, is located on a rocky concavity within which there are five linga (Shiva's phallic symbol). Seawater, from the confluence of the Gulf of Cambay and the Arabian Sea, enters the cave containing the linga, which is considered a manifestation of the sacred water, Ganga (Figure 1). On entering the cave, devotees continue downwards until they reach Nandi, the image of the sacred bull, Shiva's mount, that identifies a Shaivite temple. In front of the five linga, devotees place offerings of flowers, incense, coconut and bilipatra, 38 the leaf of the sacred plant dedicated to Shiva. The exit route is ascending, using a different flight of steps. This abbreviated description allows us to perceive the purification symbolism behind this ritualization: the descending movement towards the deity represents subjection to the divinity, as a result of possible iniquities, intensified by the prolonged absence and appeased by the offerings; the outward, ascending movement symbolizes the regenerating powers of the relationship with the divinity.
These visits to sacred sites are repeated in prominent places of worship, usually in Gujarat (for instance, Somnath, Dwarka, Ambaji, Virpool) but also outside of the state (for instance, Mount Abu in Rajasthan, the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in Maharasthra). These jatra (journeys, pilgrimages) to religious sites, the acquisition of religious materials associated with them, the performance of offerings inside them, and the ingestion of prasad (food consumed by devotees following its consecration by the deities) ensure the restoration of the religious qualities associated with these places after long periods of leave from the homeland. Indeed, this serves to ensure the stability of the relationship with the deities and, consequently, their protection during long periods of remoteness.
Diu is, as we have seen, the place that must be visited from time to time. Apart from the performance of these rituals and visits intended to revive emotional ties, Diu is not perceived of as a place to return to, with rare exceptions. Let us consider what one interlocutor had to say about the possibility of a definitive return to Diu, as recorded in the following fieldnotes: Visiting M. in Santo António dos Cavaleiros, we talk about our trip to India. She gets excited: 'India is very good. There are lots of temples! Many, many temples. Small ones, big ones, that's crazy, all those temples. I like it so much!' This African-born interlocutor values local religious centers and pilgrimages (when returning to India, they usually take a religious tour of the main temples of Gujarat). She adds that those are places that all Portuguese Hindus have to visit whenever they go to India. She says that, two years ago, the last time she went there, she attended a ceremony performed by her deceased father-in-law, and they paid a large sum of money, but the ritual still remained worth doing. Such enthusiasm is very common among many other interlocutors whenever they refer to their journeys to Diu. This sometimes creates overly high expectations in young persons who travel with an idealized image of India and who quickly discover that it does not meet their expectations, as happened to the grandson of I. 39

Diu's main emigration centers
The village of Fudam and the center of Diu (formerly called Cidade de Diu, Diu Town) are the areas with the highest rates of emigration to Portugal, many ongoing for generations. Both places provided privileged contexts for observing transnational networks between India and Portugal. In the specific case of Fudam, we recorded three recurrent migratory paths. First, the return of individuals who had left for Mozambique back to the country of origin. Life stories collected in Fudam from the people who lived there told us of a migratory past towards Mozambique. Following their families, young men used to leave for the East Coast of Africa by ship. They settled there, working for other Indians at first, before starting to work on their own. They returned to India to marry, where they usually left their wives and children, and only later, when they achieved economic stability, did their families join them. Many of their predecessors made this journey to work as masons in the construction industry, in the service of the Portuguese colonial administration. Some descendants remained in this profession, but the majority opted to invest in commercial activities, enabling them to accumulate some capital and provide the opportunity for their families to join them: 'Life in Mozambique was very good. A lot of work, we but lived well' (man, aged 78) is a common memory. However, the instability triggered by the decolonization of Mozambique took many of these families by surprise. While some went to Portugal, others returned to their village, losing much of their investments in the process. 40 During our second stay in Diu, inhabitants of Fudam used to practice their Portuguese language with us, while recalling their adventurous stories of crossing the Indian Ocean. The women, however, are more reserved. Their role in this process was fairly inactive. Many did not even learn Portuguese, and were confined to the domestic space. Men practiced their Portuguese by narrating the commercial activities in which they had been engaged: shops in the middle of jungles, contacts with Mozambicans and Portuguese, how they had prospered in life. Contact with the Portuguese administration in Diu facilitated their departure for Mozambique, making this destination a little less unknown.
The abrupt interruption in their lives brought about by the decolonization of Mozambique continues to reverberate through to the current day. The image of Mozambique they retain is that of the past, nostalgically preserved. The same is true of the Portuguese references, and the attachment of the colonial past relative to Portugal. In the postcolonial period, the feasible destinations were Portugal and the UK, where several of their relatives had settled. Moreover, in Fudam, few people hold extensive family networks with Mozambique, even while material legacies were, in some cases, zealously preserved: the arches that came on the final boat journey, sewing machines, alongside many other working utensils whose usage was abruptly cut short, as well as an abundance of photos (Figure 2). Testimonies of an unforgotten past that was reactivated through these life stories. Their narrators, usually over 60, shared a sense of comfort by returning to their homeland and, simultaneously, of nostalgia for a past that is now only part of memory.
However, although some chose to return to India, others followed the migratory route onwards to Portugal. In Fudam, many houses have been renovated, and others rebuilt, but remain empty. Their owners are mostly in Portugal or in the UK, investing in the improvement of their housing, which they occupy only during their visiting moments. Unlike those who returned to India, these individuals reacted to the situation of political and economic rupture in Mozambique, aggravated by the decolonization process, by embarking on a new migratory experience in Portugal, where they established new commercial strategies and reconstructed community ties previously prevailing in Mozambique. Their decisions on where to live in Portugal were influenced by 'strategies of spatial congregation' aimed at building up 'recommunitisation' processes. 41 However, they also maintained their links with the homeland, on occasion traveling to Fudam, particularly to celebrate the relevant ritual moments that contribute to maintaining those relationships. These include the weddings that activate the ties of kinship making up the intricate network of transnational relations between Fudam and Portugal.
Finally, there are those who have never left Fudam. Without the necessary means to invest in a trip to Mozambique, this is an aging population that does not speak Portuguese, but who see their descendants depart for Lisbon and London. It is important to note that, although they did not maintain direct contact with Portugal, the inhabitants of Fudam hold connections with Portuguese references, either through the Portuguese administration of Diu, through contact with the Portuguese of Mozambique, or through the adoption of this space as a location where their descendants settled. The choice of the UK as a new country of destinationgenerally after passing through Portugalintensifies the network of transnational contacts from Fudam. Thus, Fudam becomes a village where differentiated references intersect, resulting from a rooted Portuguese colonial past and from a background of emigration to Mozambique and, subsequently, to Portugal or the UK.
As regards the transnational network of contacts with Portugal observed in the context of Diu Town, the migration strategies do not differ greatly from 2. Sharing memories from Mozambique, Fudam, Diu, 2002 (photo by Inês Lourenço). those observed in Fudam. Our privileged fieldwork location was in Diu, particularly in the Darji/Vanja area, facilitated both by the greater fluency in Portuguese found there, and by the contacts previously established in Portugal among this group. Of the service castes present in Portugal, the Vanja/Darji constitute the majority, and they are very numerous within the the Hindu community in Portugal. The traditional occupation of the Vanja was weaving but, with the industrial production of fabrics, they adopted sewing as their professional activity. The Vanja in Portugal originate from Diu and have a long history of immigration to Mozambique, and then on to Portugal. This migratory tradition transformed the professional and cultural options of the Vanja. This group displays the greatest traits of influence of western values and Portuguese habits, having developed, throughout its migratory path, a process of statutory transformation, both through investment in the education of their young, and through their closeness to Portuguese culture. As we observed in Fudam, a large number of Hindus have also maintained a prolonged presence in Mozambique. For the same reasons, and also due to uncontrollable situations (death of relatives, persecution) during the intensification of the Mozambican socio-political upheavals, some returned to India. 42 The connections they had built with the Portuguese of Mozambique until the independence in 1975 helped their establishment in Portuguese society. Holding professional qualifications that facilitated their integration into the Portuguese employment market, most of these individuals adapted without great difficulty to this new situation and, in most cases, maintained a deeper connection with Mozambique than with India. From the opposite point of view, that of those who returned to Diu, a multiplicity of transnational relations stand out. The maintenance of international ties is a sign of prestige to them, and they insist on frequently reaffirming them. Everyone has relatives in Portugal, in the UK, and even in Spain, with European countries a destination desired by the young generations. Marriages are once again the drivers underpinning migratory movements from Diu. Other castes from Diu, including the Kharva, the Khania, and the Suthar, have developed the same mobility patterns, thereby contributing to the heterogeneous reality of the Hindu community in Portugal.
Finally, in Diu, there are specific castes that did not engage in this process of population movement. On the one hand, the economically disadvantaged castes who did not have the financial means to invest in their departure for Mozambique, and, on the other hand, the Brahmins, who experienced no need to emigrate: We Brahmins never needed to go outside our country because we have always studied. We know a lot so we never left our country. We studied Sanskrit. This Portuguese that I know, I learned at school here in Diu. We studied a lot, learned a lot, why leave India? We never needed to go to Mozambique and to Portugal like the others. 43 Impossible for some, seen as an inferior activity for others, the migratory journey has scarcely been experienced by these two groups. Nevertheless, this was an option for many castes from Diu that integrated the population displacement towards Mozambique. It is difficult to find a Vanja or Darji over the age of 60 who does not speak Portuguese, who does not relate his or her life stories in Mozambique, who does not unroll the list of relatives established in Portugal or in the UK, redounding upon the transnational networks that crisscross several countries on three different continents.

Final remarks
By the check-in at Heathrow, the security guy who was verifying the luggage in the x-ray machine holds his head sideways when he sees the murti statue going by, and says to his partner 'different cultures' in his British accent. This was the way he could summarize his incomprehension. He then told us that the murtis should be carried by hand on the plane. In this way, the family escaped paying a large baggage surcharge, and the murti statue got given a fragile sticker. 44 In this article, we have provided a plural characterization of the Diu transnational population. Eventually, every family in Diu represents a transnational family. Although many did not migrate from Diu to one of the Diaspora's poles, every family has an experience of migration either to Mozambique, Portugal or to the UK. The Diu transnational population also closely interlinks with other Gujarati populations in the state of Gujarat, since their neighbours also maintain long transnational ties. Nevertheless, Diu itself deserves to be observed in detail, with respect to migration ties.
The article puts forward two arguments: one that looks at this population as a plural groupdiasporic, transnational, and culturally diversified; and another that links this population to an old administrative and political tie, the Portuguese dimension. If the population under study represents this past and relates it with their present need to migrate, they also apply it as a belonging argument, discussed earlier by other authors, 45 which in sum reflects a local (and transnational) positive opinion of Portuguese colonialism. It is not our goal here to deconstruct these representations of Portugal, but we do hope that our interlocutors' voices help to read between the lines of this discourse.