By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS
New Delhi : On the sunny afternoon of Aug 23, 2006, when Anand Satyanand took over as governor-general of New Zealand, he made it a point to refer to his Indian heritage in his oath-taking address.
“I acknowledge also my Indian origin, with four grandparents who migrated from that country to Fiji,” he said.
And he concluded his speech with this line: “To end, may I paraphrase the words of Mahatma Gandhi by expressing the hope that New Zealand will be ‘a place where all winds can blow without us being blown over by any of them’.”
In such words, Satyanand, the first person of Asian ethnicity to be appointed the Queen’s representative in New Zealand, reflected the pride with which every successful overseas Indian wears his or her Indian heritage on the sleeve.
And why not? Sixty years after independence, the Indian diaspora – comprising people who are known as persons of Indian origin (PIOs) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) – look up to a nation where they trace their roots and which is seen as a global power of the 21st century.
And India too looks with pride at the achievements and contributions of her sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters in almost every part of the globe. The Pravasi Bharatiyas today make India proud in every respect.
So what makes India’s diaspora today different from those of other countries? For certain, their tenacious battles against colonial and racial persecution in places as far apart as Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius and the Caribbean and their emergence as leaders of government and society.
Hence, we have a PIO, Bharrat Jagdeo, serving a third term in office as president of Guyana, carrying forward the legacy of his mentor Cheddi Jagan, the first person to be elected president in the first free polls in that South American nation in 1992, 28 years after the country attained independence.
Suriname, Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore… all have had persons of Indian origin as heads of state or of government at some point or other.
It is not just individuals but also political parties with a predominantly Indian base that have made their presence felt in countries with large Indian origin populations.
In Malaysia today, the Malaysian Indian Congress is a partner of the ruling coalition. In Trinidad and Tobago, the United National Congress is the main opposition and its leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the opposition leader. In Fiji, the Fiji Labour Party, headed by former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, was partner of the ruling coalition after last year’s elections before the government was overthrown in a bloodless coup.
Even in developed countries where Indians have migrated in large numbers after independence, the community has been active politically. The United States is today on the verge of closing a historic civil nuclear deal with India. And who played a significant role in getting this through? Indian American lobbyists.
Across the US, one finds Indian Americans in important political posts. It’s the same case in Canada and Britain, where Indian origin politicians figure among those counted as very important in mainstream politics.
Indians across the world have also been recognised for entrepreneurship and their contributions to the economies of the countries they call home. In the US, the Patel surname is so synonymous with the motel industry that their highway hotels have come to be known as “Potels”. The IT boom and Indian brains played a big role in making Silicon Valley a brand name. A Vinod Dham behind the Pentium chip, a Sabeer Bhatia behind Hotmail…the list is endless.
In fact, the 2.3-million strong Indian Americans are today regarded as the most affluent and educated immigrant community in the US. Among its long list of Nobel laureates are the likes of Hargobind Khurana and S. Chandrasekhar. And today, astronauts Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams are household names in the US.
What’s more, the popular all American comic series Archies now has an Indian American character called Raj Patel!
In the corporate world too, overseas Indians have carved a niche. Few could have imagined that India-born Indra Nooyi would become the CEO of food and beverage giant PepsiCo and then be termed by Forbes as the world’s fourth most powerful woman. Or that Arun Sarin would head British telecom major Vodafone.
These protagonists have constantly harked back to India and have been investing heavily in the country of their roots. Even as London-based L.N. Mittal sets up steel plants in India or Karan Bilimoria introduces his Cobra beer brand in India, Indian workers toiling in the Middle East remit money to their near and dear ones back home in India every month.
India today receives 10 percent – the largest share – of the total remittances sent by foreign workers across the world to their respective countries.
In arts, culture and literature too, overseas Indians have shone. Take, for instance, cinema. On one hand, we have Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair and Gurinder Chadha popularising Indian culture among Western audiences and, on the other, we have Manoj Night Shyamalan, the son of Indian parents who emigrated to the US, setting the box office afire through mainline Hollywood cinema.
In literature, overseas Indians count among themselves two Booker Prize winners – Kiran Desai and Salman Rushdie and a Nobel laureate, V.S. Naipaul.
And where there is cricket, can Indians be far away? This side of 1947, Indians have been the backbone of several national cricket teams. Starting with Sonny Ramadhin, Rohan Kanhai and Alvin Kallicharan in the 60s, 70s and 80s, the West Indies has thrown up several stars and the legacy continues through the likes of Shivnaraine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. A phenomenon repeated in New Zealand, Kenya and South Africa, not to speak of England, where a Sikh spinner called Monty Panesar is today an icon.
Indo-Fijian Vijay Singh is a golf superstar today.
But such success has had a downside too. Overseas Indians have been persecuted in several countries. In Uganda, dictator Idi Amin compelled thousands of Indians in the 1970s to flee the country. And in the 1980s and at the turn of the 20th century, two governments in Fiji were overthrown in coups because these were perceived to be of Indian majority.
In Malaysia, Indians are the third largest ethnic group and yet face second-class citizen status. And in the Gulf, many Indian workers are exploited by employers or duped by recruiting agents.
It was in view of this and also to attract successful Indians that the Indian government has set up a separate ministry to deal with the problems and issues of overseas Indians.
The ministry, apart from honouring the work of successful overseas Indians through awards called the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, works with governments of countries with a significant Indian presence to ensure that the interests of Indians are safeguarded.
This is how India is reconnecting with its diaspora 60 years after attaining independence. While the nation celebrates the achievements of pravasi Bharatiyas, it also lends a shoulder to those overseas Indians who fall upon bad times.