Diasporic Indian

re: #6 by jang
You seem to have a point.
M-W dictionary defines diaspora as `` the breaking up and scattering of a people`` and seems to imply the word exclusively for the jews (historically jews as a people lost their roots and got dispersed). Indian emigrant is probably a better terminology but what the heck, Indians seem to have added a new meaning to the word diaspora.
sridhar

Ref veeresh #3

[a) NRis don`t stand out in the crowd in India anymore. So they are not really known as amything special anymore. Please go to any village in Punjab or mall in small-town Andhra/Maharashtra, and try to differentiate between the locals and the NRIs?]

Just yesterday, a household worker came along our street wearing a Donna Karen T-shirt. A hand-me-down certainly, but nevertheless an indication of how far NY fashion has spread in Chennai!

I guess I will have to dig out my ``Beach of Passionate Love`` (from Kota Bahru in Malaysia, Pantai Chinta Berahi in Malay) T-shirt to stand out in Chennai by scandalizing the locals!

Jawahara:

You just whetted the apetite. I guess the main course is to follow.

I think that it is a bit early to talk of a Diaspora in a North American context. Most of us are first generation immigrants many of whom are still nostalgic about the old lands and may even harbour dreams of retiring/dying ``back home``.

I am not sure how the second generation is going to shape up. My own case is atypical as my children did not have a ``proper`` South Asian upbringing - no Bollywood, no temples/gurudwaras and no South Asian buddies. In fact, none of my children have any Indian friends, yet they do have an Indian identity. They don`t normally cook Indian meals but still enjoy Indian food, especially Indian junk (samosas, chaat, etc.). They do have an Indo-Canadian identity but the Canadian part is much stronger. While they may not be typical of second generation, I think that in general the second generation does not have the same attraction towards India as we do. So, it will take another decade or so to find out if they also feel to be part of a Diaspora, or merely brown-skin Canadians.

This is a nice article, but I have few observations:

1. No body talks about Diaspora so much as the people of Indian origin even though the word is associated with Jews. Imho, people should be talking about internalization rather than diaspora. Therefore, in Mississauga e.g., I am more at ease with Turks, Indians, Arabs, Jamaicans, Nigerians, Eastern Europeans than I am with people of Swabi, NWFP. When I was in Orlando, my widfe and I discovered a small Pakistani family run restaurant. We did not make a whole issue out of it simply because I was a Pakistani.

2. It is obvious that India has launched a serious campaign to project its identity in the world for a decade now. Indians should understand that projection of identity does not mean to discriminate or belittle other nationalities, something that comes out quite often in articles written on similar topics by Indians. For example, the person that writer refers to as having first moved to Pakistan and then to Germany, was not talking to her in Hindi, but in Urdu. Simply because the speakers of two languages can still communicate with each other (although I believe that this may no longer be true after 10 years or so), it does not mean that the person was considering himself to be an Indian. I do find people from Afghanistan, who can speak Pashto with me, but I do not assume that they are Pakistanis. Similarly, when an Egyptian converses with a Lebanese, he does not take the latter’s nationality as his for granted.

#9 do must have stopped nodding your head sideways for yes as well as no ;-)

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Veeresh, # 3: You raised some interesting points. Let me say this:

Since I am a member of the Diaspora who does travel to India quite frequently these days I think I have some qualification regarding my observations. Just the fact that there are diasporic Indians in India everywhere does not mean that the mutual relationship between us is still not complex. Since I am not from a small town in Punjab but I do spend a lot of time in small-town UP and Delhi and Bombay I think I have some handle on this. On the question of standing out. I look Indian, I speak Hindi and English (like most upper middle class folks in India), I buy and wear Indian clothes in India and still, with amazing regularity, at least 2-3 strangers a day ask me whether I live in the US or Canada. Maybe they have ESP or maybe I stick out with some unconscious vibes I give out. Anyway these are superficial issues so lets go on. Just talking to people, eavesdropping on conversations and reading newspapers and magazines while there tells me of this uneasy truce between us. This unease goes both ways. This is not to say we hate each other or look down on each other. It`s just what it is. An uneasy truce.

As far as foreign exchage goes (and I was a bit tongue in cheek there) I am not just talking about someone going for a vacation and spending a thousand dollars. In a global economy with global trade Diasporic Indians are helping the now-robust exchange situation in India. And good for us! For Indians and for Diasporic Desis.

Besides this article was not a slam on Indians living in India. It was an attempt to examine a unique, still-emerging identity. This just is what it is. Just as I can no longer definitively tell someone living in India how it is to live there, I don`t think a non-Diasporic person can tell me what it`s like to be diasporic. It is a state to be lived in and experienced. No brief visit can accomplish it.

I never said I had to go to Bonn via the US to figure it out, considering I`ve been researching, writing and publishing on this topic since the late 90`s. What I was talking about was how *emotionally* central being a diasporic person was to my identity, not as a world citizen (which seems to a kind of shiny-happy, too-simple hippie term to me that I loved saying about myself in the 4th grade) but as a complex identity which is distinctly its own. Not Indian. Not American. But something distinct in-between. Something more. For a while now Diaspora has been used as a disparaging term. And I realized that it was not so.

Romair # 7: I like being Diasporic. I embrace that identity because I find it freeing. So...thanks for your offer but I must decline :-). Also, I have a brother active in community anti-racism efforts in the Ontario area and other family members who have lived there for 2 generations, so I do know that problems exist there as well.

Kulharee # 8: your request is noted :-). Stay tuned.

Romair Ji, you are thinking too far ahead. What if we have a few more earthquakes and a couple of Tsunamis in South Asia? That’ll teach em a lesson. I think there will be more multi-cultural and cross breeding in the future. I think cousin marriages and keeping the gene-pool from expanding will slow down in the future and Desi identity will be not as Desi as it is today. Big Mack will replace Shami Kabab as out national dish and people will be able to offer prayers on the computer (anonymously) . Microsoft will develop a package for Cyber-Haj. Even Allah will have difficulty telling who apart from who.

It’s a very interesting essay and concept. I request the writer to talk a bit on mixed identities; or half-breeds as they are called in some places. I am wondering how my kids who have lot of mixture will be able to identify themselves – other than New Yorkers.

Move to Brampton, Ontario. You will no longer feel like part of a diaspora.........

The world will reach its peak population in 2070(?). After which, the population will stabliize or even start declining. Other than in one major area - South Asia. In a 100 years, most of the world will be South Asian or Chinese. Major countries in Europe, Canada etc. already have negative growth rates for non-diaspora populations. Germans, Americans, and goras of various varities, are on their way to slow extinction...........

So, much like, someday all IT people will be working for IBM or Microsoft, similarly, someday everyone will have a desi DNA.............

indians as a tribe need to come to grips with statistics. if one in six persons on the earth is indian. so i submit that indians are no longer a diaspora in the same vein as the jews or the lebanese. they are like mold-spore, they are everywhere, and become evident whenever there is some dampness.

And you have a name to go with it.

Nice read.

Jawahara,

The fondness for our roots increases as we move further from the place of birth. When we move to an area where no one speaks for our language, we crave for someone with whom we can talk in the mother tongue. I recall seeing the story of two Punjabis who are sworn enemies due to some family feud. One of them settles in Mumbai and the other one pursues him there to avenge the death of his kin. The second guy faces major problems in the mega-city and after two days of exhaustion when he finally finds the enemy, he drops his dagger, folds his hands and pleads, ``Tu mere naal Punjabi wich gal kar`` :-). The irony of it all is that kids are scolded for speaking dialects instead of Khari Boli and those whose command over English language would make the luminaries of that language turn in their graves, insist on talking to their toddlers only in English. People are looked down upon for not being able to use cuttlery in Kanpur. And then some people eat with their hands in San francisco to soothe their nostalgic itches. There are teenagers in Delhi who listen to only hard rock, and there are professionals in NY who are busy stacking Ghazal, classical and Bhajan CDs. I guess it is the homesickness of the diaspora which makes them such loyal fans of Hindi movies.

The longing for roots is not limited to NRIs, one can feel it if one moves to a state with a different language, too. Last week, I went to a furniture exhibition. I needed a good spread so I stopped at the carpet counter. A guy rolled a small carpet, tied it and tossed it towards another one, ``eeko baakiyan ke saath pack kar deyo. Aur jo baaki piece tumhe laaye ko kaha raha, laayo ki nain?``. I asked the guy who was standig opposite me if they were from U.P. On talking more, I realized that they are from the carpet belt near Bhadoi. On telling him where I was from he said with a big smile ``Aap ko jo lena hai le lijiye, keemat ki chinta mat kijiye``. I got a cool 25% discount without asking and his visiting card with the godown address, if I ever need anything in future. This when they don`t sell retail :-)

Author says:- ````We may be called Not Really Indians in India (though our foreign exchange is welcome) and some of us might not be fully part of the countries in which we live.````

I don`t know where you`ve been over the last few years my fine friend, but:-

a) NRis don`t stand out in the crowd in India anymore. So they are not really known as amything special anymore. Please go to any village in Punjab or mall in small-town Andhra/Maharashtra, and try to differentiate between the locals and the NRIs?

b) India is excessively surplus in foreign exchange. Loans from foreign governments and banks are being extinguished or retired regularly. For example, there are NO GOVERNMENT LOANS outstanding to India from USA, Canada, EU, Japan and Saudia, and that is a simple truth.

Come to India as an Indian, as an ethnic minority from some other country, as an immigrant who emigrated from India, or just come as you are. And if you spend, well good for you, get your money`s worth.

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I agree with the rest of your revelation.

Welcome to the world of being a world citizen. Increasingly being discussed at a village school near most people in much of India.

Something like that was what I heard/saw on a television programme about junior school textbooks a few days ago, a very earnest ``babu`` was holding forth on how they had to rapidly revise syllabi and textbooks (in multiple languages) from nursery onwards because youngsters with a few thousand hours of television watching below their belt needed to be prepared for the world, and not just India.

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And you had to go to Bonn via America to figure it out? Come on!!!

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With sincere good wishes.

okay.....