Book Review | A Close Look at Indian Diaspora
If during the colonial period, it was “wealth drain” as pointed out by Dadabhai Naoroji and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, it became the “brain drain” noticed in the 1950s and 1960s
The title of the book is provocative, but the argument that unfolds is a thoughtful historical and sociological narrative. If during the colonial period, it was “wealth drain” as pointed out by Dadabhai Naoroji and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, it became the “brain drain” noticed in the 1950s and 1960s. Economists like Jagdish Bhagwati and V.M. Dandekar in the 1970s suggested cesses and taxes on those educated middle class individuals migrating to the United States because of better financial prospects. While Dandekar, director of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, prescribed the extreme position: “…inevitably the country’s borders will have to be closed and physical contact with developed countries regulated” while “the windows will remain open through which all knowledge may enter freely and selected young men may go abroad for specific job training and return home.” Meanwhile, Bhagwati, the latter-day free trade evangelist mooted the “brain drain tax” to be collected by the host country for 10 years and handed over to the home country.
Sanjaya Baru avoids prescribing any remedies even as he outlines the phenomenon of not only the educated and talented emigration patterns from states like Tamil Nadu (Brahmins), Andhra Pradesh (Kammas), Gujarat and Punjab (entrepreneurs), but of the very wealthy Indians investing abroad and choosing to stay in “First World” cities like Dubai and Singapore. He makes the trenchant observation: “Tired of living within First World ghettos in Third World India, best exemplified by the farmhouses and the DLF enclaves of Gurgaon, wealthy Indians are acquiring property and assured access to the First World. Especially the First World Cities that offer Third World comforts like Singapore and Dubai, where South Asian and East Asian household helps are available and affordable. With a cook from India, a driver from Pakistan and a maid from the Philippines, the Indian HNI is well-settled in Dubai.”
There is of course the political aspect to the success and prosperity of the Indian diaspora under the hyper-nationalism of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The BJP/RSS have weaponised the NRIs in more ways than one. Apart from influencing the host country’s policies towards the home country. And the toxic aspect of the Hindutva sentiment among the NRIs. The irony of the Hindutva of the globalized India/Hindu is inescapable. Baru writes: “What is truly ironic about global Hindutva is that its adherents rarely, if ever, seek to return home to Mother India. In fact, the increasing assertion of their religious identity overseas enable them to feel Indian without having to be in India.”
The Indian diaspora has been the toast of political India this century, but not much attention has been paid so far to the warts as it were. For example, there is glaring fact of old parents of the NRIs living alone, financially secure but not socially and emotionally. Baru’s book is a timely examination of the NRIs, their success and the price they pay for it.
Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India
By Sanjaya Baru
Penguin/Viking
pp. 289; Rs 799