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Swapan Dasgupta

DAY DREAMS
A Growing Clout

Last week, if the Indian newspapers are to be believed, President Bill
Clinton did something novel — he sent out a greeting to the million-strong Indian American community on the occasion of Diwali. Now, before all the ABCD's are flattered into turning up en-masse on November 7 and voting Al Gore into the White House, it is time for some sober reflection.

Yes, the Indian-Americans have arrived. Yes, in an election year it is no longer possible to ignore a community whose per capita income equals that of Jewish Americans. Yes, Indian-Americans are wooed, pampered and feted in the Silicon Valley. It is because nothing succeeds like success that Diwali greetings have been incorporated into the must-dos of the American President. In the years to come, an Indian-American is going to occupy a small post in the US administration. And that will only be the beginning.

In a sense it was inevitable. The Indian immigration into the US was
markedly different. In Fiji, South Africa, Surinam and Mauritius, Indians
crossed the kala pani to work as indentured labour and gradually work their way upwards. In East Africa, they formed a buffer between the whites and blacks and this ensured they got a raw deal after the Union Jack was lowered. And in Britain, they began as factory labour and, after the East African Asians moved in, joined the middle classes. However, in the US, it was the best and brightest of the middle-class Indians who settled down. They started in the middle class and progressed into the upper echelons of success.

However, it's not money alone that accounted for their success. If the Indian-Americans matter in the US, it is also because India has started to matter. The May 1998 Pokhran blasts were a turning point. As was the IT revolution where Indians have made a mark. But there was another factor. Indians have been the perfect immigrants. They have successfully adapted to the American way without losing their own distinctive identity. They are as much Americans as they are Indians. They are no hassle to anyone.

That's also because Indian-Americans are not demanding. As opportunity seekers, they never thought that Americans owed them a living. They detected the best opportunities available, worked phenomenally hard and under trying conditions, and rose to the top. They adopted America and adapted to it. They didn't demand that Hindi or Tamil or Telugu should be made state languages. They didn't clamour for affirmative action. They put their heads down, slogged and made the full use of the opportunity society.

To some extent they did that in Britain as well. But there was a
complicating factor there. Asians became a political issue and there were too many politicians waiting to exploit them. Not merely because they had electoral clout in many inner-city constituencies but because there were community brokers who wanted to make the best out of a clueless British political establishment. These brokers pretended to speak for the community and made a living out of demanding exceptional treatment. It was that which set them at odds with the host community. And Asians in Britain began to be equated automatically with Africans and West Indians.

That hasn't helped the community at all. It distorted their aspirations and politicised them. Where the community wanted a safe environment, lower taxes and equality of opportunity, the activists pressed for separate schools, vigilante squads and other absurdities. Multiculturalism was made into a fetish quite overlooking the fact that the community is capable of fighting independent battles. No wonder the results haven't been as satisfactory as, say, in the US.

The moral of the story is simple. If you concentrate on professional
advancement and making money — the reasons why you emigrated from India in the first place — over ethnic activism, you are likely to get places. You can succeed as a minority by not letting minorityism determine your existence.

(Swapan Dasgupta is Deputy Editor, INDIA TODAY. He has edited Nirad Chaudhuri, The First Hundred Years. Write to Swapan Dasgupta)

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