Paragraph for HSC Examination:Diaspora

Diaspora

The term Diaspora is used to refer to the movement of people who have left their ancestral homelands and settled in other parts of the world, either because they were forced to do so or because they wanted to leave on their own. The word is increasingly used for such people as a collective group and/or a community. Its origin is traced in thousands years back. In the Bible there is reference of diaspora. In the history of human civilization, we find a number of events of it. The world has seen many diasporas but scholars have been studying the phenomenon with great interest only in recent decades. They have distinguished between different kinds of exoduses based on its causes such as imperialism, trade or labour migrations or by the kind of social coherence. Among the great diasporas of history is that of the Jewish people, who were forced to leave their lands in ancient times. Their ancestor Abraham was forced to leave Iraq and took shelter in Egypt. Then his offspring Jews were forced to leave Egypt and settled themselves in Palestine. In twentieth century history, the Palestinian diaspora has attracted a lot of attention and been a cause of concern for world leaders because of the plight of Palestinians. The movement of Aryans from Central Europe to the Indian sub-continent thousands of years ago is also a noteworthy diaspora, although the causes of this diaspora are unclear. There have been massive diasporas in Africa, too, over the centuries, either because of war or because of the ravages of nature. But the chief reason why the phenomenon of diaspora is attracting so much attention now is globalization.