The Usual Suspects

India Today
September 21, 1998

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Not a Milch Cow

Ask what the country can do for the NRI

Swapan Dasgupta

Those in the Government who take major decisions that have profound significance are rarely, if ever, guided by television shows. Certainly, the mandarins in the Ministry of External Affairs would never admit to something as crass as being influenced by a BBC programme shown earlier this year.

The humour in Meera Syal's Goodness Gracious Me is certainly not the resident Indian's cup of tea. It's too British and too inspired by the Monty Python shows of the '70s. But there is a novelty: at the receiving end of Syal's savage caricature is the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) or, if you so prefer, the British Asian. As such, Goodness Gracious Me marks an important departure. After three decades of griping about discrimination and other perceived ills, the NRI in Britain has acquired the necessary self-confidence to laugh at himself, his ridiculous double standards and his pathological obsession with money.

If this is the situation in Britain, where the immigrants were hardy sons of the soil from Punjab and dispossessed East Africans, we can imagine the state of the NRI in the US and Canada. Those who embraced North America were the cream of India, the IIT graduates, the software professionals and some of the best scientists spawned by our universities. We treated this exodus as a brain drain and looked upon those who left as some sort of betrayers. We felt we were somehow superior because we were not similarly tempted and because we didn't want to be second-class citizens.

That was yesterday. Today, India not only thrives in the diaspora, it flourishes. Take a small indicator. If the Time Out Eating and Drinking Guide 1998 is anything to go by, there are some 66 Indian restaurants in London that can be called world-class. That's much more than the number in either Delhi or Mumbai. In fact, the best Indian restaurants can certainly be said to exist outside India.

If NRIs are ceasing to be second-class also-rans in a Britain where class and hierarchy still count, it is not difficult to imagine their position in that great haven of opportunity, the US. Indian Americans are not only one of the most prosperous communities in North America, they are also in constant search of influence in that society. That influence will be partly self-made but partly dependent on how India is faring in the world. It's a symbiotic relationship. India depends on the NRI for hard currency; the NRI depends on India for status and influence. The NRI and Indian nationalism are inseparable.

Can this nationalism be made mutually beneficial? At present, it's a one-way traffic. The NRI is expected to patronise Air-India, send remittances to ageing parents through the State Bank of India and buy Resurgent India Bonds. What has India done for the NRI in return? We still look upon the NRI as a milch cow. That is fine as far as first-generation NRIs are concerned, but their children are unlikely to stand for it. They owe India nothing; India owes them zero.

That's why it is important that the Government considers a measure of reciprocity. When Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee goes to the US, he will be asked about a little-known clause in the BJP's manifesto: the promise of dual nationality. He should redeem that pledge. It will be worth India's while to give the NRI an ego massage.

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