Why Every Desi Origin Is Not A India Supporter…
Every time an Indian sounding name from outside of India gets popularity traction, we seem to go into a state of frenzy about the apna-ladka or apna-dikhri, achieving whatever she/he has done - in the land of their choice or birth.
Why is this much amusement or frenzied public calls, every time a 2nd or 3rd generation Indian-settled-as-other-nation-citizen gets into a leadership role ?
Will that particular individual even relate to India ? Even if they make all the appropriate sound bites for those wanting to listen ? Or if they want to appeal to their Indian or Indian-background stakeholders ?
Do they know India as it is, especially if they had been born and bred abroad ? Even if some of our folks had migrated decades ago, don’t they see India as that poor country which they left behind, for better life and livelihood ?
Whether it is an Indian who migrated to the US or UK and runs a MNC (but has shifted citizenship to the local country)… or the 3rd generation Briton whose grandparents migrated to the UK from the interiors of Maharashtra decades ago. Many of them have risen to success in their chosen sphere and are as local as they could be. Their next generations struggle to relate to what was their Motherland once, for the narratives they hear are twofold : one from their parents / grandparents whose view of India is almost frozen when they left it’s shores, and two from the media in their country which could range from almost no coverage on India to its polarised view.
The India they remember is that of being poverty-struck and low literacy and lack of citizenry benefits. Not the better India that it has shaped to, currently.
Many of such individuals are actually remotely Indian. But for their ethnicity, the colour of the skin and a name and at times a surname that sounds Indian. The Indian interests and the Indian growth story, and not a person of Indian origin per se whose priority till now has been to play down his Indian roots. Many benefited from education, their struggles in their circumstances in a foreign land. They made success out of their struggles. Yet most of them have looked at India so far, as a poorer-cousin.
Pride for NRI - OCI
Yet it is kudos to the Indian government for creating a pride for the NRIs: Non Resident Indians, and OCI - Overseas Citizen of India . That their country of origin or native roots is a global power, and a universal brother to every other nation. A nation whose economic resurgence is on its way, while working to eliminate the divides and access issues. A market who is looked at by the developed nations for wanting to participate in its consumption and growth - both of which translate to sustainability of their own enterprises or politics, domestically in their country. A nation whose politics might have sounded inane and murky. Yet many other nations of so-called evolved political philosophy have seen how the Indian democratic view is still much simpler and relatable by the common citizen.
This is the reason why the Indian desis who don’t relate to India have to study India as a science : it can teach them the universal Values this land stands for, philosophy of ethics and integrity of truth as a way of life, ability of living with distractions and contradictions every day - yet without compromising on its ideologies, ability to find solutions despite obstacles and failures along the way.
A civilisation that transcends time, and has withstood wars, vagaries of nature, wedges of various philosophies. And yet has persevered to prosper. A nation where demographics, democracy and digital converge well for a better society. India. It’s growth trajec-Tory is on the rise (all pun intended about the “Tory”). Jai Hind.
