THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN - Vol 14. 1 Diaspora Indians: Ghetto guardians or Indo-global citizens?
We have reached a time when Indians are finally being taken seriously.The world is looking beyond the old myths and hype, and discovering, maybe for the first time, what stuff we are really made of. As diasporic Indians we are in the midst of a global evolution with an opportunity to really engage in it for reasons beyond material success and our identity phobia! For meaningful long term impact, we need to first look back and re-examine our heritage; re-learn what is good and worth holding on to, shake off the rubbish, and then bring the innate strengths of our Indianness into the diaspora and the global arena.Then, as the world becomes more multicoloured and mixed up, the Indian hue will be evident in the fabric of diversity, blending well, without being diluted. Can we make the transition, from being ghetto guardians to Indo- global citizens? by Mona Parikh McNicholas Who are we? NRI, PIO, Expat, Alien, Immigrant, Green-card holder, F-I student, Minority, Black, Brown, Coloured, Paki, Turbanhead, Asian, South Asian, Desi, Ethnic, Refugee, Indo-Brit, Indian-American, Gulfie, etc., however you've heard yourself clescribed by the society you live in, we are all Indians who live outside India, be it for a season, a lifetime or for generations... still we are Indian. Be it in denial or full embrace... no matter how many times you mix it up, there is an Indian in you somewhere. Ihe Indian Diaspora is as complex as India itself. But it is an integral part of the larger global society, and shaking the identity monkey off our backs is a considerable challenge. Where did your own personal exodus begin? Whether your ancestors left India during the British Raj or you sought greener pastures, it is time to take stock of the journey and look beyond. I left India in my mid-twenties for further study and work in the US and UK, fell in love with a Brit and became an expat in UAE! However, though my identity, as a deeply rooted Indian is very strong, new shoots and roots have emerged over the years that has radically changed me, my perceptions and thereby my sphere of influence. 1 am now a follower of Jesus Christ, a writer who genuinely desires to connect with people from everywhere, I am a rebel against traditions and an Indophile! None of it was easy. Real change is a serious struggle, but it is vital and liberating, and we diasporic Indians have endless opportunities to allow the seed of transformation to germinate within us, opening up a whole new way of thinking and living. But there is something about the Indian within us that resists this so desperately. I wonder why? No matter how many generations ago, no matter how far away from the motherland we go, the umbilical cord of relentless tradition and culture (however you define it) seems to have a stronghold on most of us. It strangles our ability to be free and truly grow up. Or we oscillate to the other extreme and discard everything Indian, trying desperately to shed the betraying dark skin or the much parodied Indian accent. Of course there are some exceptions, but for the most part, the diaspora Indian is still immature and unable to question and discern between the good, the bad and the ugly. Therefore unable to take part in the transformation of any society. Unless there is a paradigm shift in the way we think, we will plod on in the footsteps of our ancestors without much thought to where we're going. "When we are threatened we can become fragile and dilution takes place," says tennis ace Vijay Amritraj. "There can be a globalization of culture and it is then we have to hold onto what is dear to our hearts, to what our parents believed in and pass it on to future generations." But what are we threatened by? Why should the globalisation process, that we in the diaspora are very much a part of, threaten our culture? Maybe because we choose to stay uninvolved in its evolution, and instead of being an organic part of the transformation of societies worldwide, we have ghettoed our minds and hearts in the communities we think we belong to exclusively. Author and Assistant UN Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor, agrees, "Indians abroad have proved themselves unhesitatingly able to put self interest before principle. When it comes to ppersonal material advancement, we are individualists par excellence." From England Zerbanoo Gifford, author, community politician, founder of the ASHA Foundation and NESTA fellow (Britain's prestigious National Endowment of Science Technology and Arts) complains that, "Indians are not seen in public life, and this must change for the right reasons. I know, it isn't easy, because there is subtle control in the UK and they want manageable candidates. They (as in the white Brits), are threatened by forceful people and suspicious of strong people of colour. However, unless more Indians take part in societal transformation, immigrants will always be treated as second-class citizens which makes things even worse. On the whole Asians tend to only, worry about themselves and don't like to take part in public life that doesn't have a direct benefit for them. This must chance." UK industrialist Swaraj Paul disagrees, "The Indian diaspora does take part in the social and political reformation of whichever country thev are in. 'The handicap is that one always has to work harder if you are a member of an ethnic community. The strength is that if you are a good citizen the host countries will always want to help you." I'm sorry, but isn't this a bit flippant and obsequious? If the country where we are citizens (we pay taxes like everybody else) continues to identify us as "members of an ethnic community" instead of "locals", we automatically become second-class citizens. Yet, Paul insists, "I don't feel I have been treated any differently to the indigenous population. I think the Indian community has integrated well - I certainly, have." For him it has been rewarding and satisfying to work in the UK. "Britain has a lot to offer the immigrant communities who will work hard. It has made great strides in making immigrant groups and the Indian community feel at home. As a matter of fact 1 have a daughter-in-law who is English and we are all delighted about that," he points out. Maybe Lord Paul is an exception. Yet his views reveal something that makes me uneasy - there is that specific nomenclature again: 'immigrant group' v/s 'indigenous population' - even though the immigrant may have come into the country four generations ago, yet his descendants continue to be seen as immigrants! Kusoom Vadgama, historian and optometrist, has never lived in India and her views on the Indian diaspora are based on her experience of living in London for over 53 years. Her opinion is that the integration of Indians into UK hasn't been an easy process, from both sides. "And the ghetto mentality of many immigrants adds to the problems, as does the overt racist attitudes of the host community." Zerbanoo relates another experience, "Recently 1 was approached by a well known journalist who thought that Asians in Britain were really only small time traders who had received recognition because they had either sold their own communities up the stream or bought their titles. They only understood buying and selling. I felt ashamed that that was the image some people gave." Basically there are three types of Indians in the diaspora. One who lives in ghettos of his own making and only has meaningful relationships with like- minded individuals. Another is the 'Not Really Indian' NRI who has abdicated his uniqueness because of a need to blend with the locals. And the third, the much rarer one, is someone who with a lot of introspection, courage and resistance has been able to find the middle road. Alokeranjan Dasgupta, a professor in Germany, is one who has found this path. "I have always felt a certain diffidence regarding the term Aprbasi. Indeed in Indian culture, from an early age, this word has carried something of a stigma. In the Mahabharata it says that for man to attain happiness, he must remain an Aprabasi - a resident within his own homeland. Again, in his lyrical narrative Medhadutta, Kalidasa, the epic Indian writer, indicates that one who is loved but remains abroad must undergo a prolonged sense of loss, arising from the state of separation from his native land. "So," declares Dasgupta, "I have to ask myself: am I a Prabasi in this classical sense? To be sure, the pattern of my life is one that carries me constantly oscillating between India and Europe. Yet I have been and remain directly involved in both literary landscapes. I cherish the role of remaining and intensifying my speech-identity through and by virtue of all my sojourns and journeying, in the course of which I strive to preserve ethnicity as well as concurrently to nurture a global vision. That has obliged me to avoid cultural complacency, and driven me in the direction of becoming a world citizen. Paradoxically, this process has brought my sense of global belonging into an even profounder Indian orientation than before." That is the ultimate payoff for a mind that accepts no boundaries; I see it as a unique homecoming of sorts. Shashi Iharoor observes, "NRIs are the prodigal sons of a motherland they have left but not forgotten, clinging to a sense of nationhood they cannot define but will not surrender. Many would argue that especially given the Indian government's open doors in the liberalisation era, NRIs have the best of both worlds. As the US based physicist ECG Sudarshan put it, describing the unique situation of the NRI in relation to his home country and his country of adoption: "If you look at the world with two eyes, you see more. It is possible to live in two worlds." Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor of Social & Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, explains the tension in the United States: "At the junction of East- West and South-North, modern and post-modern citizenship, past and future collide in the diaspora. In the United States, for those of and from India, those newly arrived, and those who have made this new and strange land theirs, dreams carry the promise and poison of history. In this nation become Empire, built on theft of Native American lands, genocide, slavery and immigration, discourses of freedom link capital with alienated labour, and memory with assimilation. Our experiences of race and racism allow a scripting of injustice but not necessarily reflection on our interactions with privilege and power mediated by class, gender, nation, sexuality, state and statelessness. We are perhaps more invested in claiming affinity with the margins of history than challenging the landscape of inequities that affect and implicate its differently." Amina Cachalia who has spent a lifetime being involved in the social transformation process of South Africa, ponders, "These lines encapsulate the essence of who I am and from whence I came. I am Muslim, Hindu, Indian, South African and even part Dutch by ancestry. I have lived a life of response to the challenges of history, the iniquities of marginalization and the scourge of racism and communalism. While the roots of origin, religion, the accidents of geography and history all define my being to a certain extent none of these dictate my persona to a degree that is pre-determined or mired in the narrow causes and comforts of a particular community." She goes on to assert, "Both families, my husband's and mine, have faced and fought the oppression of the British in India and colonial settlers in South Africa. It is a proud tradition that draws on history, religion, universalism and the unyielding qualities of the human spirit. I am filled with pride by the achievements of Indians and South Africans as we continue to struggle to build a future that seeks the upliftment of all." "My children and grandchildren have inherited this world with all its complexities. They will need to draw on their history and culture, on the experiences of their forebears and on the examples of Gandhiji and Nelson Mandela. They will need to examine what this means and how it equips them to continue to champion the development of democracy and human rights in a time of great uncertainty. They are privileged in the richness of their inheritance. Will they build on an honourable past that spans two continents in at least as many centuries? 1 hope so." _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
