HYDERABADIS1 people from the city of Hyderabad or the former
state of Hyderabad, have been migrating abroad in some
numbers since the late 1940s and especially since the late
1960s. They have gone to work or live in rather diverse places,
most notably Pakistan, the UK, Australia, the US, Canada, and
the Gulf states of the Middle East. Most among them have
tried to maintain some degree of Hyderabadi identity. They
retain connections to their homeland, build networks across
national boundaries, and try to teach their children about
Hyderabadi culture. They and their children have also become
participants to varying degrees in the national life of the nation-
states to which they have migrated. The specific environments
in the destination countries, particularly the legal and
political conditions governing migration, working conditions,
and citizenship, provide both constraints and opportunities for
the immigrants as they selectively shape new identities. For .the
time being, we must assume some initial identity or identities
relating them to their homeland, locating them within it but
being carried abroad and worked within the new locations.
"Hyderabadi", or "a person from Hyderabad", was an identity
that linked one closely to a state.