January 9 was the day in 1915 when Gandhiji returned from Africa. Almost a century later, in 2003, the day was declared as the Diaspora Day, the 'Prawasi Bhartiya Diwas'. The non-resident Indians and their complex relationship with the motherland are actually the underlying themes beneath this specification.
Come to think of it, etymologically, diaspora, given its quasi-religious origin, literally means scattering, spreading. In a way, that is what the diaspora have done, from the days of the Jewish tribes' tale in the New Testament. Away from the motherland, they have literally spread across the world.
As for 'prawasi Indians', may be, Rome, or possibly Iceland, could be the only places that would not have any Indian. Otherwise, the typical jokes about a chaiwala or a wada-paw-wala atop Mount Everest hold good.
In the sixties and seventies, when the cream of the Indian intelligence, the iit toppers, for instance, sought foreign shores for a better future, there was a hue and cry that there would be brain drain. Now the leit-motif has changed. It is no longer brain-drain. Rather it is foreign currency gain. Why, more than half the Kerala lives off the Middle East monies!
Well, beyond such dirty finances (remember the pathetic stories of Indians lured to Malaysia and other such tax heavens so as to dupe Indians through online frauds?), very interesting is the Janus face of the diaspora.
They are out of India, but India is never out of them. They may not create havoc like the 'grooming gang' types. But they sure do re-create a mini-India out there. Guzzling Coke-n-pizzas, people hereabouts may be getting the fattest fastest, but there the diaspora must eat the Indian dishes, the more traditional, the best!
Honestly, out there, they are more Indian than the mere mortals here in India. Every ancient practice, each miniscule ritual, often considered superstition here, gets followed there to the 't'. They eat desi, they wear desi, they listen to desi music, they watch desi fillums, they speak Hinglish.
Want an example? Even in a three-tier city here in India, practically every alternate lane would have dance classes teaching every possible 'phoren' dance. Out there, every girl learns bharatnatyam, every boy taalvadyam, and so on! Proper 'chota', small, little India they re-create there.
Such ghettoisation, this inability to jell with the country of residence, I suppose, distinguishes the Indian diaspora. May be, that is because they are not exactly immigrants, they are emigrants who chose greener pastures. In return, anything is okay, lesser payment than the 'natives', racial slurs, xenophobia, blotted identity, the works, in brief. Included in this 'package' is the empty nostalgia!
Our very own 'prawasi' Indians, except, may be, the indentured labour or the first generation Gujarati-Punjabi's, never really had to rebuild a new heav(e)n as did the Founding Fathers of America, or, for that matter, the convicts creating Australia. Nor are they refugees, neither migrants with extremely tragic stories.
Comparatively, they have a cosy life which most probably was their ambition anyways, however complex, or ABCD, their identity has become in the process. No wonder, despite a Sundar Picchai, et al, they hardly had huge respect granted to them, which is currently accorded to them due to the Modi-S.Jayashankar duo!
Pratima@They continue to be the "trishanku" types, dreading every Trump(et), each Musk quote, neither here nor there! Such are the diaspora ditties!!
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