Post-Independence
Indian Diaspora and Foreign Policy in International Relations: A Representation
of Opportunities and Challenges
Sahabuddin Ahamed
Ph. D. Research Scholar
Department of English and Foreign Languages
Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur
Abstract
With the advancement of science
and technology in the late 20th and the early 21st
century, international migration has been a global phenomenon. It has retained
an increasing pace of opportunities and challenges for those who are constantly
crossing borders in search of a better life out of their past and present
traumatic experiences. Post-independence
Indian diasporas have been a bridge between homeland and host land with its
nature of unity in diversity. With the
aid of globalization and international relations, the influence of
Indian diasporas has been more advanced in creating a mutual bond and a
symbolic space between their homeland and host land. They work as a catalyst force in the global
economy that actively influencing and assisting homeland’s foreign policies and
economics. With the aid of Indian Overseas communities, India exercises her own
soft power policy to influence the world. Since the end of the Second World War
Indian diasporic engagement in the developed countries helps India gain
visibility of her representation. The present paper is an attempt to explore
how Indian diasporas play a key role in retaining all kind of relationships
with the homeland and creating a space of cultural identity in the host society
and how they create a transnational space in relation to the Indian diplomacy.
It will also explore the role of Indian government to take necessary measures
by creating diverse policies in order to deal with diaspora affairs and keep on
her expansive goals with the possible related consequences of economic
globalization.
Keywords:
Indian Diasporas, Cultural Translation, Indianness,
Foreign Policy, Governance
“In an era of globalization, we are becoming
diasporic.” - Stuart Hall
“Everywhere
was now a part of everywhere else.” - Salman Rushdie
“Indian
diasporas across the world are ‘permanent ambassadors’ of the country.” - PM
Narendra Modi
“Nations, like narratives, loose their origins in
the myths of time and only fully realize their horizon in the mind’s eye.” -
Homi K. Bhabha
Introduction
Beyond the earlier traces
(pre-colonial and colonial) of Indian diaspora found especially in the fifth
century BC and the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the
post-independence Indian diaspora has been a global phenomenon. After the
independence of India in 1947, Indian diasporic process has affected each and
every aspect of established disciplines of both homelands and host lands.
Peoples from different backgrounds and different states are directed towards
the developed countries including the US, the UK, Australia, Canada,
Netherlands, France, Germany, New Zealand, and also towards the Gulf states. To
come to these countries what needs for the diaspora people are talents, skilled
labors, experienced professionals, tolerance, trust, and respect. Unlike the
previous history of Indian diaspora, the contemporary diaspora forms a new
scenario which is more firmed, advanced, and this act helps the migrants create
their own space of plural identity and an invaluable diasporic community, while
having a strong impact on every aspect of homeland and host land. With the
rapid emergence of Indian diasporic artefacts, a new identity politics is found
between these two communities-the host and the guest in order to mobilize their
own ideological and discursive formations. It goes on through their utmost attempts,
though through paradoxical representation and contextualization, sometimes
solidary and sometimes peripheral. But the more attempts are to represent
themselves and to gain an opportunity to influence the world and to be
represented by others which has long gone repressed by the dominant hegemonic
culture of the host countries.
Merriam Webster.com Dictionary defines the word diaspora that
is principally derived from the Greek word “diaspeirein,” which means “to scatter, spread about.” Diaspora
primarily used to refer to Jewish diaspora, came to be used to contemporary
situations that involve the experiences of migration, refugees, exiles,
immigrants, expatriate workers, border-crossing, travel, creolization,
hybridity, and ethnic communities. It also connects “multiple communities of a
dispersed population” (Clifford 304).
Since the late twentieth century, the term
Indian diaspora is being used as a substitute for de terriotorialised or transnational which
refers to population whose origins or roots in a land other than in which it
currently resides and whose complex web of relations cross borders and which
plays the significant roles in the lives and societies of its adoption as well
as the country of its origin. Such kind of diaspora is mainly developing
through a dream of economic and cultural development or the reverse of the past
in contact with a new culture, language and society. Diasporic people’s shared
collective consciousness is certainly marked by an inescapable link with their
past history and a sense of co-ethnicity. But in an ever-changing and
ever-transmuting age, the earlier generational links with the past diasporic
history has changed a lot, and there is an immense possibility of uncanny
hybrid forms of diasporic experiences and livings in the First World nations.
Indian diaspora has retained its
socio-political, economic, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic heritage of unity
in diversity. But the process is both hopeful and fearful for the growth and
development of the homeland and host land. Despite many obstacles, the Indian
diaspora has become an integral part of mutual relationship with their host
societies and also become successful agendas in international affairs through
diverse policies of national and international relations and still retains a
bridge between homeland and host land from the negligible margin. In Some Reflections
on the Indian Diaspora, Bhikhu Parekh mentions that “the diasporic Indian is like the banyan tree, the traditional
symbol of the Indian way of life, he spreads out his roots in several soils,
drawing nourishments from one when the rest dry up. Far from being homeless, he
has several homes, and that is the only way he has increasingly come to feed at
home in the world “(106). Thus, in
this way Indian diasporas have been a larger part of all kinds of regional,
national, and international policies and relations.
Nature of Post-independence Indian Diaspora
Since the end of the Second World War,
Indians have been migrating across the globe for many decades. There are over
31 million Indian diasporas living in more than 134 countries (Rahman). India
has been the second largest diaspora in the world that is only next to Chinese
diaspora. Post-independence Indian migration communities were found to arrive
to the UK during the early 1950s. Major trends of diasporic dissemination to
the USA, Canada and Australia started after Indian independence. Most Indians
were from north-western parts of India who migrated so far in search of better
financial opportunities. The magnitude, solidarity, and diversity of Indian
diasporas took place in those countries successively. The confirmation and
solidarity of Indian communities have come through the aids of the Ministry of
External Affairs. In 1961, the South African Government declared that Indians
in South Africa were citizens and the Department of Indian Affairs were also
set up. In 1965, in the USA, the amendments in the immigration and Nationality
Act removed discrimination based on the migrants or outsiders. It established
three criteria for prospective migrants to stay in the USA: highly qualified
individuals, family re-unification, and political and religious freedom. In
1971 Canada officially pronounced multiculturalism as policy and promulgated
the Multiculturalism Act. In 1973, Australia abandoned its white policy when in
1972 the Whitlam Labor Government changed the immigration policy that would
completely be free from any discrimination on grounds of race, color, skin,
ethnicity, or nationality. Most of Indians diaspora communities living abroad
include the Punjabis, Gujaratis, Bengalis, Telegus, Tamils, Kannadigas, and
Anglo-Indians. Within a post-independence context, Indian immigrants have
influenced development in India and abroad through their negotiations and
competence with other communities and they have their strong cultural bonds as
Indians. From 1970s onwards the migrants were skilled and highly qualified
professionals. They have retained their Indianness in foreign countries,
concerning their ongoing skillful and difficult cultural translation and
negotiation of the contested policies and practices that aim to improve their
well-being in the socio-economic and political realms. Through the process of
assimilation and acculturation in multicultural society, Indian diasporas have
been successful in retaining cultural preservation and economic integration.
Globalization and International Relations
Indian diaspora is both extensive and
varied dispersing in about 134 counties of the world. The relationship of
diasporic Indians with the homeland is getting stronger as a result of the
revolution in further information and communication technologies and at the
same time the Indian government has been encouraging linkages of diasporic
Indians with India in a variety of ways. Return diasporas not only denote
physical presence, but it can be through knowledge processing or
entrepreneurial networks between home and host countries. Diaspora
entrepreneurs with global experience and innovative ideas helps generate better
livelihood and creation of the state development. As a country of origin, India
is always trying hard to attract her diasporas’ talents and resources, while
the host countries hope to increase the effectiveness of their developmental assistance
and immigration and integration policies.
From 1980s and 1990s onwards, diaspora
relations come into existence through different technological innovations.
Indian ethnic products like Hindi cinema, music, mango, snacks, cuisine, saree,
created huge markets in different countries. Diaspora as a coherent and
powerful discipline helps visualize the impact of international relations on
world politics. Diasporas have a critical role in acknowledging the rights of
the diasporas and the duties of state toward them. It is a kind of task to
institutionalize the relationship between the nation-state and the diaspora
(Raghavan 150). India constitutes her diasporas as governable subject. Her
diasporas act as a community of knowledge bearing subjects dedicated to
globalizing and marketizing national development. There have been many global
efforts to make states think of themselves as members of an international
community responsible for people beyond their own national borders. According
to Kofi Annan “it is now time to turn to the evidence, and use it to build a
common understanding of how international migration can bring benefits to it”
(965). Along the many international organizations and bodies, Indian diasporas
build their own networks of relations including South Asian American
Organizations, Telegu Organizations in North America, Canada Indian foundation,
British Indian Psychiatric Association, Global Organizations for People of
Indian Origin, Global Indian Foundation, Indian Development Foundation of
Overseas Indians, Thai-Bharat Cultural Lodge, Organization for Diasporic
Initiatives, and National Federation of
Indian-American Association.
Spatial Representation: Cultural and Symbolic
The subjective and discursive acts of
identity formation have been integral to the shaping of Indian diasporic
experience. Diasporic people across national boundaries and exchange the
currency of their cultural codes for a new setting, and yet they till inhabit
their “imaginary homelands.” They create “alternative”’ worlds by exchanging
one tradition for another, one culture for another, and one home for another.
One’s identity is not a fixed but a matter of “‘becoming’ and as well as of
‘being.’ It belongs to the future as much as to the past” (Hall 225). One’s anxiety
is about loss and longing, about belonging and not belonging, about having and
not having. They attempt to live in a world what they create and share with
other communities-a kind of spatial representation in their existence caught
between two places, two beliefs, two histories, two cultures, between old and
new, and real and ideal.
The Indian diasporas have contributed to
the Indianization, Sanskritization and creation of an Indianized kingdom in
several parts of the world beyond India proper as part of the Indo-sphere of
greater India in changing Indian culture, cuisine, Hindi cinema and music, and
the spread of Hinduism, Buddhism in the South Asia as well as in the West. In
the UK, the main Indian ethnic groups are Tamils, Telegus, Bengalis, Gujaratis,
Punjabis, Marwaris, and Anglo-Indians. Most diasporic Indians in the UK have settled
in London, Leeds, Brimingham, Leicester, the Yorkshire, and the Southeast. As Vertovec
found that “Hindu temples in Britain, like Muslim mosques and Sikh
gurdwaras, have rapidly grown in number over the past two decades. Their role
within the British Hindu population has been generally recognized as being of
great social and cultural, as well as religious, value” (124). The diasporic
communities in the western countries celebrate almost all national, regional,
local and religious festivals. The major festivals of Indians which are
celebrated with much fanfare in the UK are Holi, Diwali, Id, Rakhee, Navaratri.
Makar Sankranti, Dasahra, Baisakhi, Janmasthami, Buddha Jayanti, and Ganesh
Visarjana. Many religious groups like Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians,
Buddhists, etc. have been successful in transplanting their religious
traditions and social customs in those foreign countries.
Indians connect new developments in the
global governance of migration with new patterns of national and transnational
sovereignty and citizenships and new ways of constructing individual identity
in relation to new collectives. They have a very key role in creating a
coherent but decentralized system of global governance in the era of
international migration. A kind of newness is found between domestic politics
and international affairs as a major dynamic and global flows of ideas, money,
goods, and knowledge. Even Indian diasporic writers like Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman
Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Meena Alexander, Vikram Seth,
Arvind Adiga, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Rohinton Mistry, Shashi Deshpande and
so on have played significant roles in shaping a bridge between the East and
the West in a multilingual, multicultural and multinational fashion. They are
assimilated by the host societies and also have worked and lived in a
fundamentally dialogic relation to it.
Economic Influence
With the changing nature of state policy
and liberalization of state regulation, during 1990s it has helped migrant
entrepreneur to invest and generate better development aspects. Indian return
diasporas came to India post-1980s and set up new ventures in IT and
healthcare. They are having considerable work experience and improved knowledge
and skills, social contacts at the global scale and investment potentials with
the help of social networks. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and information
technology industry widely facilitated in India through overseas networks and
trade expansions from developed countries after Indian economic liberation.
According to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database, among
countries India has retained its position as the world’s largest recipient of
financial remittances with its diaspora sending a whipping USD 79 billion back
home in 2018. With regard to the Gulf region, India receives remittances from
Saudi Arabia USD 11.2 billion, Kuwait USD 4.6 billion, Qatar USD 4.1 Billion,
Oman USD 3.3 billion, and UAE USD 13.8 billion in 2018 (Rahman). Indian doctors
and health professionals are the backbone of the national health service in the
UK and playing influential roles in many other countries such as USA, Canada,
Australia. Not only in developing countries, but Indian healthcare
professionals, particularly nurses, are also working in almost all parts of the
world. Indian healthcare professionals as well as other Non-Resident Indians
(NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origins (PIOs) have already made a valuable
contribution to their homeland by establishing different health institutions.
Indian diasporic communities send remittances back home and build different
institutions while engaging in formalized knowledge and skill transfer and
campaigning for the reform of legal institution that carry out transnational
justice processes in the field of international development. For India, it has been a successful transition from an
inward-oriented economy to a more globally integrated economy. Therefore, they
act as both individual and collective agents that are mobilizing socially,
politically, or economically toward their homelands in which they do not
permanently reside.
Indian Diasporic Soft-Power Policy
From 1970s onwards the Indian diasporas
have been an important source of foreign exchange for India. Besides economic
remittance, there is the source of transmission of ideas, technology,
knowledge, and skills through overseas diasporic groups that has an enormous
impact on Indian subcontinent and that also marks their impact on Indian
democracy. Indian diasporas work as a transnational community and their
interaction with other communities becomes multidirectional. Indian diasporic
community is considered as a “catalyst for economic development” in India and
abroad (Rahman). India’s soft power policy is a tool to influence the tendency
of other countries. In his article Rahman stresses that India’s foreign policy
is primarily based on “its cultural legacy, historical linkages, geopolitical
and economic considerations.” It comprises of economic dynamism, foreign direct
investment, geographical and affirmative relations with neighboring countries
that can lead to an increase in growth at national and international level,
technological transfer, social and economic networks and all kinds of
integration and cooperation. It has been highly very successful in
Indian-American community, Indian-Canadian community, Indian-British community,
and so on. It has been a powerful medium through which India exercises her
power politics, foreign policy, cultural practices, diplomatic relations, its
influence, and bilateral and multilateral treaties with other host countries.
Indian diasporic engagement in those countries helps India represent herself
and promote all kinds of social, political and economic relations. In developed
countries Indian diasporas work more as a soft power agent in order to promote
India’s image, culture, tourism, peace, solidarity, unity, brotherhood, power
and prosperity. It is worth noticing that the Indian diasporas have transformed
economies and occupied many prestigious places in the US, Canada, Australia,
the UK, Netherlands, and New Zealand. Their only diversities are to actively
engage in obtaining long-term economic gains and enhancing India’s image
abroad. However, such a policy will be more invaluable for India to keep up the
pace of balance and dynamism of development with other countries in regard to
international relations with the aid of her diasporic children.
Role of Indian Government
Since the independence of India, Indian
government’s relations with her diaspora were not so strong at official level.
First prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru addressed overseas
Indians in Singapore on 18 march, 1946: “India cannot forget her sons and
daughters overseas. Although India cannot defend her children overseas today,
the time is soon coming when her arms will be long enough to protect them.” His
initial advice was toward them not to look back India to resolve their problems
and to integrate into their host societies.
It was only from during the mid-1980s, the
Indian government and the diaspora have altered their prospective perspectives
toward one another. In the US, for instance, there has been an expansion in the
number of organizations that Indian diasporas had launched to foster linkages
with their country of origin. Indian government initiated new policies and
institutions to strengthen its bonds with the diaspora. Since 1990s, India
started to become a state of brain gain out of brain drain. In the late 1980s,
it created new bank accounts that allowed non-resident Indians to invest in
their homelands. In 1999, it launched two new visa status cards for persons of
Indian origins (PIO)and overseas citizens of India (OCI) which facilitated
emigrants’ ability to travel in and out of India, invest in property and hold
rupee bank accounts. The policy of overseas Indian citizenships provides a
value addition in the citizenship status of the diaspora. Through OCI the diaspora
practices the idea of dual nationality. Indian government believes that it has
been doing what is required and cannot go beyond a point in the negotiation
process.
Indian state seeks to create a
transnational network between diasporic populations that is nationalist in
origin, character, and aspiration. There have been many other symbolic
initiatives such as Know India Program, Study India Program, Tracing the Roots
Program in order to familiarize the Indian diasporic youth the culture, tradition
and customs of their country of origin. Indian government’s efforts have been
so proactive to see things related to the skills and knowledge of the Indian
diaspora so as to meet India’s development goals and facilitate investments of
the diaspora. The Emigration Act, 1983, regulates the recruitment for overseas
employment and departure of the intending immigrants from India. Realizing
economic potential of diasporic communities for the first time Indian
government turned to its diasporas in the year 1991. By offering India
development bonds during the balance of payment crisis in 1991, the diaspora
helped in raising USD two billion in 1992 and 1993. Again in 1998, during
economic crisis following the international sanctions imposed on India due to
its Pokhran nuclear tests. It once again turned toward its diaspora.
In 2000, the Indian government appointed a
high-profile committee to write report on the diasporas. In January, 2003, the
Government of India inaugurated its first annual conference of Overseas Indian
community, known as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) or Overseas Indian Day or
Non-Resident Indian Day. Since 2003, Pravasi Bharatiya Divas acts as an
occasion to mark the contribution of the Overseas Indian community in the
development of India (Ministry). The Prime Minister Narenrda Modi in his
address at the Fifth Pravasi Divas said “we are one family. The whole world is
our home.”
In 2004, Indian government launched a
cabinet-level Ministry for Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA). Its sole purpose was
to strengthen transnational linkages with Indian diaspora. Apart from a member
of G8, G20 and BRIC, India’s permanent membership to the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) helps Indian leaders gain influence abroad. Chief
minister of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, Chandrababu Naidu who earned praise
in the West especially in the USA hosted by Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, and Bill
Gates and also earned a Naidu Day by the government of Illions.
From 2014 onwards
the Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew enormous support and praise from the
overseas communities for his attention to the diaspora. He inaugurated the
Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra or Overseas Indian Centre in New Delhi and dedicated
to the Indian diaspora. It aims to communicate the trial and tribulations as
well as the subsequent evolution and achievement of the diverse Indian
diasporas. In 2017, in Bengaluru, Modi’s declaration at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
was that India will move from “brain drain to brain gain” and will have her
only one dream of Bharatiyata. In 2015, the Ministry of External Affairs
launched the e-migrate system that requires all foreign employers to register
in the online database. During prime minister Modi’s visit to Australia in
November, 2014, the Indian community in Australia launched an online campaign,
appealing to him grant dual citizenship to overseas Indians. The petition has
also sought granting Indian passports to overseas citizens of Indian heritage
with full political and economic rights, granting of convenient rights to such
dual passport-holding overseas Indians with Indian passports, which can be
exercised either at consulate, high commission or embassy premises in their
country of residence and through postal or online facilities. Moreover, it is
obviously clear that through such government attempts India will achieve its
potential economic benefits and play the role of global power in the world
politics in the present scenario with the help of her diasporas.
Opportunities and Challenges for Indian Diasporas
Indian diaspora has largely metaphysical
and poetical notions and the processes of rooting into different cultures and
routing out of a particular culture. It has mostly progressed through its
continuously positive values and aims that have elevated its status in host
societies. The diasporic population have become an increasingly an important
factor in transmitting different foreign policies and the values of pluralism
and democracy as well as their skills and knowledge that both homelands and
host lands need. The duality of migrants’ perspectives is mainly found in their
longing for the past, the homeland of their origin, though distant in time and
space, and their real presence in the new lands, belonging to displacement,
fragmentation and discontinuity. Indian diasporic writers have appeared as
ambassadors of a new cultural resistance to the dominant culture and power
relations in every literary expressions and styles and a contact zone while
simultaneously facing problems challenge, discrimination. The writers like
Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Bharati Banerjee, Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni, Meena Alexander and so on articulate more newer literary
expressions and styles, especially in Britain they are popularly known as
British Indian, South Asia, British Asian,
and Black British. They constitute and enter the very contemporary
mainstream British literature and those who in the case of America in the
mainstream American literature.
There are many assumptions about
advantages for the Indian diasporas in the host countries that include
acceptance and realization of migrant presence, possibility of better life
style, internationalization of literature, hybrid cultural expression, positive
foreign policies abut citizenships and investments, negotiations among
nation-states, human rights, and international relations about migrant
artefacts. The opposite factors behind these advantages are break down of
national identity, shift from dialogic to monologic policy, discrimination
based on class, race, gender, color, and society, canonical status of dominant
literature, hegemonic ideological power relation in every disciplines,
violence, rape, murder, present and past trauma and pain, threat, indifference,
imbalance, terrorism, and many other kinds of violence and disorder.
The Nationality Act of 1948, passed by the
British government, gave Indian diaspora the opportunities of being the
citizens of Britain. Since then Britain has been the most natural destination
for the migrants from developing countries. Apart from Britain, US Indians are
still influential and directly intervene in social, political, cultural and
economic affairs as well as in India. From the diasporic perspectives, many
Indians still feel that while they enjoy full freedom and citizenships, they
are excluded from the white-dominated sense of nationality and superiority. As
Clifford argued that “diaspora consciousness is constituted both negatively and
positively,” (311) and “diasporic experiences are always gendered” (313). It is
often seen that many Indians are possibly prevented from exercising their own
indigenous culture into the mainstream British or American values. In
“Necessary Journeys” Caryl Phillips stated that though Britain has been a home
to millions of migrants still it [Britain] is “a deeply class bound society,
with a codified and hierarchical structure which locates the monarchy at the
top, while a roster of increasingly marginal people as one filters down to the
bottom.”
Since 1990s, Indian diasporas has precisely
been a powerful mechanism to reduce poverty and change consumption behavior in
the rural areas in terms of financial remittances and investments. As a
strategic opportunity for India, India was the top recipient of remittances in
2016, receiving USD 62.7 billion and in 2018 USD 79 billion. The rise of Indian
diaspora economy has been a dynamic feature of the Indian economy as well as
the global economy and its contributions to trade, investments, sustainable
development goals, human resources, and human rights and labor mobility and
entrepreneurships. Indian diasporas precisely achieve positive economic and
political power that directly affect the foreign policy. Remittances, sent by
the overseas community aid in the socio-economic development, in many fields of
the Indian societies. It is often seen that for instance, in the field of
science and technology: the establishment of Apollo Hospitals in different part
of India, the NRI Academy of Sciences, Narayana Hrudayanalaya Hospitals in
South India, Transnational Health Sciences and Technology Institute, Fortis
Healthcare ltd., Doctor 2 Indian Healthcare (Pvt) ltd., Panacea Biotech and
many others. In the wake of America’s IT led economic boom in the 1990s to
which Indian professionals has made a visible, high profile and widely
recognized contributions. Recently, transnational diasporic organizations help
Indian diasporas boost their significance in the US through ties to the
homeland, thus helping to preserve their identities. There have been many organizations
such as Telegu associations of North America, Global Organizations for the
People of Indian Origins, National Federation of Indian American
Associations and so on. These help them
fight discriminations by securing representations in community in and political
affairs.
Recently, Indian government has created
Indian cultural centres in many parts of the world as part of the Indian
Council of cultural relations. Diaspora diplomacy helps India share good
relations with the countries of adoption. It is Modi who received successive
welcomes to New York (2014), Sydney (2014), South Africa (2016), London (2015),
Kaula Lumpur (2015) and he called Indian diasporas the cultural ambassadors of
India, reminding them they are a part of global Indian family and that Indian
will not forget her children.
The rising power of India and its role in
especially in South East Asia has affected other countries and retained her
strong position in that regions through her peaceful and mutual relationships.
The large populations of Indian diaspora/migrants in Asian countries like Hong
Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and in South Africa and East Africa present
an opportunity in nurturing diaspora policy through mutual bonds. The people of
Indian origins are also found in Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, Trinidad, Tobago, and
Surinam. According to the report of the High-Level Committee on the Indian
diaspora (2004), there are large number of Indian migrants in the least
developed countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain Oman, and Kuwait.
Yet there has been an increasing challenge
that the diasporic peoples often confront. Peoples of the developed
countries often feel a threat to their dominant culture and society by such diasporic
affairs. Sometimes anti-asylum policies of European Union are seen against the
perceptions of an asylum influx. Even recently, the US President Donald Trump
put ban on outside refugees and Muslims from the Third World countries. The
Indian communities in the US are not audible enough to criticize the Trump
administration’s impositions on the H-1B visa program that benefits Indians.
The remittances, sent by the diasporic peoples may always not be used for
economic purposes. For instance, Indian Sikh community causes problems for
India due to its foreign funding for extremist movement like Khalistan that
ultimately resulted in violent protests in the US, Canada, Britain and
Australia. Sometimes the drama is found in the Indian government’s
unwillingness to protect them. Besides European union, Indian diasporas of the
US have been warned against their narrow policies or that threatens the
coherence of US foreign policy or image in international relations and that
promote the interactions and development of people outside US. Therefore, it is unfair for them whether
India will stand by them or not at all times of need. Indians in Britain
perceive racial/ethnic alienations shaped by the socio-political and economic
inequality, violence, policing, mob lynching, anti-immigration sentiments and British
immigration and foreign policies. British society never treat them as an equal,
but as second-class citizens of color and ethnicity. Despite the failure of
being a single homogeneous community, Indians manage to retain their
Indianness. They often venture into self-business when unable to find
satisfying jobs, and find low-wage, discrimination, exclusion, racism,
prejudice and inequality in employment. It is often prejudiced and imaginary
about the presence of immigrants in Britain in the sense that they are
responsible for all kinds of problems in Britain. But they challenge the UK to
honor its international humanitarian obligations to grant their rights and
opportunities. Their identities are constantly negotiated and integrated in the
socio-economic, political and cultural sphere in Britain. As Brah pointed out
the presence of the diasporic communities in UK:
the usage of ‘black’, ‘Indian’,
‘Asian’ is determined not so much by the nature of its referent as by its
semantic function within different discourses. These various meanings signal
different political strategies and outcomes. They mobilize different sets of
cultural and political identities, and set limits to where the boundaries of a
community are established. (130-131 )
Associated Press in Houston stated that on
September 22, 2019, Houston, Texas, Trump had praised the contributions of the
Indian diasporic community in the US, saying he was truly proud to have them as
Americans. He also said that “India has never invested in the United States
like it is doing today” and also adding that “We’re doing the same thing in
India”. Over 50,000 overseas Indians gathered at the NRG stadium to welcome PM
Modi in Houston that is also known as “Howdy Modi” event. But the Brexit
referendum on 23 June, 2016, has been seen as detrimental to the overall global
economy as well as Indian economy. It would have highly impact on Indian trade,
investments, and policies.
More than 8 million Indian diasporic
community live and work in the Gulf region, the vast majority of them are
highly skilled and skilled workers and semi-skilled and unskilled workers
(Rahman). Recently, the Indian diasporas face challenges in the Gulf when in
July 2016, due to drop in oil prices and warfare, Some Saudi Arabian companies had stopped
providing food for ten days to its employees, who without their wages, were
unable to obtain security and food elsewhere, leaving them in a dire situation.
It was reported that more than 2,500 India workers had gone without food for
ten days. Indian government rescued at least 4,500 Indians from the middle
east. These workers are the source of remittances and contributing to the
success and well-being of gulf economies. Despite this, the gulf’s Indian
diasporas face serious other challenges to its labor rights. Even for the
decades, it is often found that the Indian government’s response to them was
insufficient and poor implementation. During the Gulf war crisis in the middle
east, India had to spend millions of rupees in rescuing Indians from that
totalitarian regimes in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Libya. Unlike Indian diasporas in
the West, the migrants in the middle east often occupy the lowest
socio-economic rung within host societies, have no access to citizenship or
permanent residence.
There are other problems such as the
minimum referral wages policy attracts cheap labor from countries like
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. There has been constant claim to
have dual citizenship and voting rights from the diasporas from the Western
countries. Recently, the Kashmir conflicts supported by Muslims in the West
cause problems for India in international relations. Indian Gulf diasporas who
contribute more in terms of remittances to India want more support and security
from Indian government. In the last ten years different kinds of threat have
been marked by the 2003 European Security Strategy that also have negative
effects on the lives of Indian community in the west. The marked threats are
terrorism, cyber-crime, organized crime, illegal border-crossing, internal
conflicts within the communities, state failures, proliferation of mass weapons
of mass destruction. Moreover, the harmony and stability of Indian diaspora
mostly depend on the positive values and behaviors of the diasporas and the
responsibility of the Indian government to them, and the mutual cooperation and
humanitarian acts and the developments undertaken by the different
international bodies.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned discussions show that
the post-independence Indian diaspora are highly affluent and visible in their
significant presence in almost all parts of the world and their contributions
to countries of origin and the countries of destination. Despite diversities
among Indian diasporas, the overseas communities retain their cultural heritage
and common Indian sensibility. They have had the growing connectivity with
India and the idea of unity in diversity. With the aid of Indian government and
many other international organizations/associations, they have been an
increasingly important factor in international relations and paved the ways or
India to come into contact with other countries. Having extended their multiple
cultural identities, they have become distinct, visible and beneficial. It has
been proved many times that historically India gets benefits from her diasporic
peoples. With the aid of this ethnicity, India exercises her foreign policies
of showing influence and gaining economic influx.
Though in the past, Indian government’s
response toward them was inconsistent and often poor implementation, but since
1990s, India has had taken positive measures in order to make her visible
everywhere else and retain her status of “Vishwa Guru” in the present scenario.
In some cases, India confronts different problems like separate movements like
Khalistan movement supported by negative campaigning and foreign funding for
it, mass protests for Kashmir issues against Indian government’ acts abroad, the
hierarchical cast systems and customs among the Indian associations, regional
diversities, and the faction within the Indians etc. These factors likely help
annihilate the image/status of Indianness and the influence of Indian foreign
policy. For instance, in February, 2018, Canadian PM Justin Trudeaus’ visit to
India was partly based on the strong support for the mostly Khalistan movement
backing by the Sikh community in Canada and UK. Another problem arises when
youths are born and brought up within European countries, they cannot imagine
India as their cultural heritage and national identity. Since European Union’s
economic crisis over the decades, India has been alternative to European
countries only through her bilateral and multilateral treaties and exchange of
experts between India and the European Union. As Cohen rightly suggested that
“they[diasporas] want not only the security and opportunities available in
their country of origin and co-ethnic members in other countries” (518).
The increasing Indian diasporic artefacts
are no longer regarded as unfortunate in the way that were once in the past,
but simply as circumstances which can benefit nations. It will help
nation-states change their negative understanding about the diaspora and embrace
the notion of diaspora and its multiple roles in cultural translations and
global economic benefits rather than see them as a sort of problems or threat.
In the last few years, advisory panels with eminent NRIs and PIOs members set
up by the department of biotechnology and the Ministry of information
technology have catalyzed technologies and investments in India and led to
several IT and BT joint investments ventures, besides keeping up Indian
research initiatives up-to-date with global trends and policies in the
biotechnology of information and computer sciences.
Finally, the diaspora integration toward
the home country is not a new concept but it is being enhanced after
globalization and the increase in cross-border entrepreneurial activities. It
has contributed to economic as well as cultural bonds with their host
countries. India with the aim of high level of diaspora entrepreneurship tends
to have promising prospects for economic growth, as well as proactive diasporic
engagement policies, good governance, and positive socio-cultural perceptions.
Therefore, India will be committed enough to her diaspora and there should have
immense possibility of exchange of ideas, money, labors, knowledge, technology
and goods between India and her diasporas for their own sake.
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