OVERSEAS INDIANS
Kishan
S Rana*
Strong emotional
attachment is the attitude with which people of Indian origin
have been viewed and treated. Many in India and abroad hope that
the relations will further improve with the Conference on the
‘Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas’ held in New Delhi from January 9 to
11, 2003. As the first such event sponsored by the Government
of India, jointly with the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI), it has marked a logical progression in a
series of developments that have taken place in the past couple
of years, demarcating more clearly than before the reshaped official
policy towards Indians overseas. Prominent among these has been
the L.M. Singhvi Committee appointed in September 2000 that had
submitted its report to the Government just about a year back,
recommending a series of prescriptions and measures. One of these
is the declaration of January 9 each year as the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya
Diwas’. Optimists believe that the new high strategy announcements
expected in the Conferencehave marked the start of a new era in
relation to Indians overseas with their motherland.
Their migrations
from India began several centuries back, propelled by trade, an
urge for economic betterment and an extraordinary spirit of adventure.
Colonialism, with its need for disciplined labour to work on sugar
plantations and build railway lines in inhospitable terrains took
the migrants to far-flung corners, stretching from Fiji to the
West Indies. The 1973 oil boom in the Gulf region, plus the unrelenting
globalization process, has added new dimensions to this human
wave. India proudly proclaims that its diaspora numbers over 20
million. Overseas Indians are to be found all over the globe,
be it Albuquerque, Burkina Faso, Yokohama or Zurich. Even more
striking than the numbers is the fact that in each country the
Indians have moved up the ladder of personal achievement and wealth-creation,
gaining respect as significant contributors to their adopted lands.
From its inception,
the national Independence movement showed concern for Indians
living abroad – it could not have been otherwise, given Mahatma
Gandhi’s long years in South Africa before he returned home in
1907 to lead the nation. On several occasions delegates and representatives
were dispatched abroad by the then national leaders to probe difficulties
facing Indian migrants in Africa and to consult with them. In
a message to the Indian National Congress in 1939, Jawaharlal
Nehru summed up the feelings of natural affinity: ‘India is
weak today and cannot do much for her children abroad. But we
do not forget them and every insult to them is humiliation and
sorrow for her. A day will come when her long arm will protect
them, and her strength will compel justice for them’.
Despite this
a few of these communities have felt neglected at times. There
is an impression that during the 1972 crisis in Uganda, when Idi
Amin’s regime threw out tens of thousands of expatriate Indians
from that country, India should have done more to help them, not
merely through discreet diplomacy that was indeed deployed at
the time, but also through overt gestures of solidarity and support.
At the time of the crisis in Fiji in 1987, when an elected government
sympathetic to the settlers of Indian origin was ousted in a military
coup, it was clear that the lessons of Uganda had been learnt
when India spearheaded diplomatic initiatives at the Commonwealth
and elsewhere to isolate the illegal regime of Col. Rabuka and
played a role in the eventual restoration of the democratic process
in that country. These and other events affecting overseas Indians
in different regions have also shown that in today’s environment,
it is the international system and its established institutions,
plus astute diplomacy, that are the real guarantee for the safety
and well-being of such ethnic communities. The French model of
direct military intervention (e.g. in Africa) is not what India
can emulate.
We need to distinguish
between several segments of overseas Indians and apply policy
prescriptions – many of which are found in the Singhvi Report
– that are attuned to the ground circumstances that affect each
of them.
Expectations
The diaspora
in Nepal or Sri Lanka is the result of historical movements of
Indians. Few of the practical formulas of ‘NRI facilities’ apply
to them but they represent visible symbols of our linkages with
these states.
The old migrants
are the legacy of movements of indentured labour of the 19th century
to Africa, the West Indies and Fiji. Their attachment to India
is one of culture and emotion. Very few among them seek any privileges
in India.
Contract Workers
Found principally
in the Gulf region, they are the skilled workers and technicians
who have little prospect of local citizenship. They are the principal
contributors to the flow or remittances that total over $ 12 billion
today, a major contributor to our economy. They deserve much improved
treatment on return home on visits and at the end of their sojourn
overseas.
New Migrants
These are the
NRI locomotives – 1.7 million in the US, some 1.2 million in UK,
800,000 in Canada and the smaller but no less influential communities
in other western countries. For the most part they are professionals,
earning high incomes and with many among them in the second and
third generations of migration. They are both our eco-political
resource in their adopted homelands and the prime articulators
of NRI demands.
We should add
to this list two other categories of overseas Indians that dominate
the scene and will surely be even more prominent in the future
in completely different ways. First, there are the tens of thousands
of illegal migrants, those who are lured abroad each year in search
of economic opportunity. Behind the harsh exploitation and suffering
that they undergo at the hands of agents and intermediaries who
smuggle them to their favoured destinations in the West, lies
the reality of demographic shortages in the target countries.
With their ageing populations and birth rates below the replacement
level, the rich countries need labour for their burgeoning service
sectors. India has an obligation to become much more articulate
at WTO and elsewhere, in support of international movement of
people that is both better regulated and more free at the same
time. Let us not forget that many of the precursors of today’s
high achievers among the overseas Indians were also illegal migrants
in their time. Second, there is the ‘global Indian’, the highly
trained professional who is increasingly the target of recruitment
by transnational corporations for jobs all over the world, who
also demonstrate their excellence by rising to the top of their
professions, be it Jagdish Bhagwati on international trade doctrine
or Vinod Khosla as a venture capitalist. India needs to devise
ways to harness such talent to serve its own needs, especially
through creative bridge-building with home-based talent.
We need to celebrate
the achievements of overseas Indians. This has been done in part
through the newly instituted awards. We also need to devise stronger
interconnections between the diaspora and ourselves, be it in
business, academia or other fields. Economic reforms and our plans
to take the economy on a high 8 per cent annual GDP growth path
mandates and will hinge on much stronger involvement of the NRIs.
No less vital is their contribution in the social and voluntary
sectors.The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Conference has marked the
start of a new chapter in the India-diaspora linkages. (PIB Features)
*Former
Diplomat
