Why Delhi? Exploiting the Indian diaspora

On January 9, 2003 the Government of India organised the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which can be loosely translated to mean “Indian Arrival Day.” The event was organized in conjunction with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The venue selected for that historic was New Delhi, India. Once again on January 9, 2004 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will be held, and again in the city of New Delhi.

Why New Delhi was again selected to be the host city has been asked in some discerning quarters of the Indian Diaspora. Many see this New Delhi fixation of the event as a strategy to achieve the FICCI’s goal of exploiting the rich resources of the Indian Diaspora to the sole benefit of India. Given Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s speech at the inaugural session one has to wonder if the Government of India is party to this veiled economic agenda. PM Vajpayee in 2003 told the Diaspora “We do not want your riches, just the richness of your experience” yet the agenda of the FICCI clearly indicates they want the “riches” of the Diaspora. The sentimentality, concerns and expectations of the Indian Diaspora appears to be pandered too so that the real agenda of the FICCI is achieved.

The announcement to celebrate Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was made by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India. It was stated that the constructive role played by the Indian Diaspora, its achievements and goodwill towards India should be recognised and celebrated. Yet it was the FICCI that implemented the idea of the event and perhaps even conceptualised it. FICCI boasts that it “initiated an action plan to bring about a tenfold increase in FDI inflow from the Indian diaspora to US$5 billion by 2008.  To achieve this objective FICCI “has launched a new division to service and leverage the global network of NRIs/PIOs. The division would work in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs in particular and the Government of India in general to forge a constructive and productive relationship with the Indian Diaspora.

FICCI’s Diaspora Division aims at playing a key role in strengthening the processes unleashed by the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to create a sustained multi-dimensional and constantly growing relationship between India and its 20 million strong Diaspora spread across 110 countries.” Clearly the FICCI has an economic agenda at its heart and not any real concern for the welfare and well being of the Indian Diaspora. The racist agendas against Indians in places such as Fiji, Guyana, and Trinidad will not attract the attention of the FICCI. To achieve its objective the FICCI has appealed to the heart strings of the Indian Diaspora by bringing the most well known persons of Indians descent into New Delhi.

Some of the leading personalities of the Diaspora who have confirmed their participation are Noble Laureate Sir VS Naipaul, President of Guyana, Bharat Jagdeo, Trinidad’s Leader of the Opposition Basdeo Panday, Management Guru Mr C K Prahalad, Eminent Economist Prof Jagdish Bhagwati , Dato Seri Sami Vellu, the Minister from Malaysia, Lord Bagri of UK, Mr LN Mittal the business tycoon of UK and the veteran West Indies cricketer Rohan Kanhai. Some leaders of Indian Industry to address the gathering include Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of India’s largest conglomerate Reliance Industries and Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Telecom.

The policy of abandonment of the Indian Diaspora adopted by Prime Minister Nehru and all subsequent Indian National Congress government created a void within the Indian Diaspora. The new BJP-led government acknowledged this emotive link to India by the Diaspora and tapped into this need for the ancestral homeland recognition. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to be viewed as a genuine venue for the event will have to moved to Diaspora nations and may be anchored in New Delhi. Why the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas cannot be held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Georgetown, Guyana, or Durban, South Africa. The Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in contrast regularly holds conferences throughout the Diaspora in places such as New York, Suriname, Beligum as well as New Delhi.

The Indian government must re-evaluate the role and agenda of the FICCI in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas cannot and should not be seen as purely an economic opportunity for India. The Indian Diaspora was a result of the indentureship scheme of the British, French, and Dutch colonial empires. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas must not be allowed to develop into the new indentureship of the Indian Diaspora by the Indian Government that is unable to be freed of the greed of the FICCI. It also bears repeating that the selection of January 9 for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has been viewed as an affront to People of Indian origins within the Indian Diaspora.

January 9 was selected, as it was on January 9, 1915, that Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa. For years Indians across the Indian Diaspora have been celebrating ‘Indian Arrival’ thus the very concept behind Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was born in the Indian diaspora. It is ironic now that Pravasi Bharatiya Divas bears no historical relations to the Indian Diaspora. Indian High Commissioner Shri Virendra Gupta the solely emotive statement “Gandhi remains the most important person in the Indian Diaspora,” to justify the date selected bears no empirical or other evidence to support this clearly paternalistic attitude of India.

The day selected for Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas should be the day when Indians first began to be transported to various places in the Dutch, British and French Empires under an organised scheme of labour. For Example Indians Arrived in Mauritius on November 2 1835, Guyana on May 5 1838, in Trinidad on May 30 1845, in South Africa November 22 1860, in Surinam 1873, and in Fiji in 1879. The 20 million strong Indian Diaspora populations are comprised mainly by descendants of these indentured Indians.