http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/bloody-mary/are-you-ashamed-of-being-indian/
Are you ashamed of being Indian? May 27, 2015, 12:04 AM IST Sagarika Ghose in Bloody Mary | Edit Page, India | TOI Modi is Hero No. 1 for NRIs, but their 'long distance nationalism' is dangerous for India Prime Minister Modi recently told an audience of mostly expat Indians in Seoul: "Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born Indian. Now you feel proud to represent the country." NRI crowds loudly cheered the first Indian leader who seemed to understand why they had left India, who even assuaged their perpetual guilt at abandoning the motherland. Once unfairly lampooned as shallow wealth seekers, the NRI feels understood by Modi. Benedict Anderson coined the term 'long distance nationalism' and of the 'imagined communities' that migrants create. Today, the internet creates a sense of immediacy to an idealised 'homeland' without the benefit of real lived experience. This means that passions of expatriate communities can be easily inflamed as NRIs wrestle with their own alienation from mainstream societies in their adoptive countries. Precisely because the NRI constantly needs to define his identity in terms of religion and ethnicity, that identity politics and self-assertion on the global stage goes down so well with them. >From Shanghai to Toronto, from New York to Sydney one of the dominant images of Modi in the last year have been his 'performances' for NRI audiences. Modi bonds with overseas Indians like no other Indian PM. Such has been the euphoric reception that Modi gets from overseas Indians that he has himself almost created an After Modi (AM) and a Before Modi (BM) era, a rotten past of degradation and misery, all of it magically transformed on 26 May 2014 into a potential boomtown Great Nation. By doing so Modi has become the symbol of the long distance nationalism of the NRI. Yet NRIs do not vote in India, and nor should they, because all politics is ultimately local. Democratic politics is rooted in the ground realities of municipality and town and not in imaginary ideas and hankering for an idyllic Bharat from millions of miles away. Modi's fortunes are not going to be decided in Texas or Tampa Bay but in Barabanki and Kozhikode, and the distressed farmer in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh may be unwilling to buy into Modi's imaginary vision of a sudden leap forward. 1,400 projects are still stalled, growth in manufacturing is still sluggish, one in two girls are still married off by the age of 18, India still ranks 186th out of 189 countries in enforcing business contracts. Modi's election promise of five crore jobs in five years is sounding like an election 'jumla' and slogans like Swachh Bharat are still not producing any visible results. Conversely, maternal and child mortality have been showing a downward slide through the last five years, literacy levels are climbing rapidly, the middle class born after Manmohanomics now numbers almost a billion adults with wealth anywhere between $10,000-$1,00,000 range. The new aspirational middle class in India is hardly ashamed to be Indian. So why is Modi the NRI Hero No. 1? Expatriate communities often tend to be far more conservative than domestic ones, precisely because the assaults on self-esteem are so great in adoptive countries. The Zionist cause was and is championed by American Jews. The Khalistan demand was run by expatriate Sikhs in Canada. Many Irish Americans supported those in Ireland waging war for the Irish identity. LTTE received direction and leadership from Tamils in Europe. A Z Phizo led the Naga National Council from London. In the 80s and 90s BJP reached out to NRIs by emphasising religious nationalism, projecting India as the 'land of Ram'. VHP's international front was used to raise money for various Ram mandir agitations. Recall Vajpayee's famous speech in Staten Island where he spoke about his pride in being a swayamsevak. While the front row at many of Modi's speeches have been overseas friends of BJP and VHP, the PM's pitch has also revolved around a strong and assertive India. So Modi taps not only into the religious minded expat Hindu but also into those affluent NRIs who do not want to be reminded of India's darker side or harsh realities. Modi has so far visited rich NRIs of the developed world, not the remittance-sending daily wagers in the Gulf. High achieving NRIs are increasingly achieving material success. But in white-dominated Christian societies, they are the perpetual outsiders, even though the tide is turning. Recent British elections show Indian-origin Britons moving out of the ghetto, into mainstream political life. For them Modi with his unabashedly bombastic and upwardly mobile style is the natural mascot. Yet there is a dichotomy in unleashing nationalist and jingoist messages to audiences which thrive on the open and developed environments of their host country. Forever fighting their own demons, NRIs applaud a tough leader vowing to teach Pakistan, journalists, pesky NGOs and other 'anti-nationals' a lesson. Tagore warned constantly of the dangers of nationalism and Gandhi made sure that his nationalism included all, even English people. Nationalism when defined as war on anyone critical of Modi government can become an exercise in polarising society rather than uniting it. In fact, NRI nationalism is dangerous for India. As a suggestion, why don't NRIs who've voted with their feet and left India contribute to the PM's religio-cultural Save Ganga project? Or is the NRI frenzy limited to a selfie-clicking rush and forever putting an 'I' before India? -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
