The Milch Cow of India

In opening sections of his address to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Lord Bhikhu Parekh, on January 9, 2004, echoed some sentiments from the Indian Diaspora that the event was merely an attempt to tap into the wealth of the Diaspora. Lord Bhikhu Parekh however advised the Diaspora to make use of the opportunity to their own advantage. Lord Parekh, 68, is a member of the British House of Lords and a professor at the London School of Economics.

Lord Parekh stated that “The Indian Diaspora is the half-forgotten side of Indian history. If foreigners have reached out to us, then we too have reached out to them. If the globe is a part of India, India too is a part of the globe. And therefore, should we not, can we not, use the occasion of January 9 to rethink our image of ourselves?’’ Lord Bhikhu Parekh’s opening remarks in part read, “I share some thoughts and sentiments on the eve of the major three-day conference that is about to take place in New Delhi. This conference is concerned with something called the Indian Diaspora. Indians have been going abroad for the last 2,300 years or more, starting with the post-Buddha era when missionaries went to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

“In the seventh and eighth centuries, our people went to East Africa and elsewhere, as part of our involvement in the slave trade. During this period, Gujarati businessmen financed Arabs in the buying and selling of slaves. Then came the 19th century, when our people were taken on as indentured labour in roughly 24 countries, including Fiji, the West Indies, South Africa and East Africa. After the Second World War, our people started going to Western countries and, in the 1970s, to the Gulf countries. So there are five different phases of Indian migration, of which three are recent ones. “In 1947, when we achieved Indepen-dence, I thought the Government of India would think of those Bharatiyas who are settled abroad.

Pandit Nehru did in fact think of them, and he panicked. He was afraid that if India started taking an interest in the overseas Indians, then these would be accused of divided loyalty, of loving India more than the country in which they had settled. India finally discovered the overseas Indian in 1991 — when our economy went bankrupt and when we discovered we had only sufficient foreign reserves to fund one month’s worth of imports. It was then that out of the blue, this new species of animal called the NRI was discovered — and elevated to the position of saviour of bankrupt India. “My own feeling is that nothing has changed. This conference is taking place against that same background. The overseas Indian matters to the mother country only as a cow that can be milked matters to its owner. The NRI is merely someone who will invest in his home country, and that saddens me. Dear countrymen, I want to put forward a different vision for the interaction between the overseas Indian and the mother country. I think the overseas Indian signifies something different, something more than just a milch cow.”

The issue of Dual Citizenship has also become an issue as it relates to the Indian Diaspora, in particular India discriminating against poor members of the Indian Diaspora. The Indian Parliament on December 22, 2003 passed a Bill to grant dual citizenship to the people of Indian origin. Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani stated that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003, would “enable both Bharatvasis and Bharatvanshis to contribute together to the cause of India’s development,” The Bill provides for grant of overseas citizenship of India to persons of Indian origin belonging to 16 specified countries and Indian citizens who choose to acquire citizenship of any of these countries at a later date. Ironically these specified nations (USA, Canada, Britain, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, France, Sweden, Finland) are all first world nations. Dual Citizenship gives the holder the right to hold Indian companies, take up a job without separate permission and acquire property in India. Experts say that with voting rights denied, they will at best be an enhanced version of the old PIO card — which incidentally had few takers. PIO cards introduced in 1999, entitled holders to visit India without visas for 20 years and stay in India for 180 days without reporting to the police. But because of the prohibitive fee — $1,000 USD per person — only 5,000 cards were issued in five years.

The excuse by Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee that these selected 16 nations had compatible laws with India rang hollow at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. An Indo-African delegate told External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha that his government had been unfair in excluding African countries from the benefit of dual citizenship. He said the Indian Diaspora in Africa is more nationalistic than any place else in the world and that he and several like him in Africa would not hesitate in laying down their lives for the country. The issue of the Delhi venue for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas raised previously also appears to have caught the attention of the Indian government. “We must explore other cities. Delegates too would be interested in visiting cities other than Delhi. Personally, I am quite keen on the idea,” JC Sharma, who coordinated the event, said. He, however, added that any decision on this would involve the respective states. “It depends on how enthusiastic the states are. The organising of the convention also requires resources,” he pointed out. Again India has limited the event to India and not considered any Diaspora nation as a host.