The Global Indian — Part III

BY Subarno Chattarji| IN Books | 02/03/2004

Subarno Chattarji

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

The return of the prodigy has, over the last couple of years, been carefully orchestrated by the BJP led NDA government and its founding of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. The first Divas with V S Naipaul as chief guest was held in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots an event that reverberated during the deliberations. The unwelcome intrusion highlights the cusp within which the jamboree functions: that of economic desire and political conservatism. Sir Vidia is perhaps the best representative of NRI conservatism particularly in his attitude toward Islamic cultures. The Divas held in January 2004 was attended by 2,000 NRIs and PIOs from 60 countries. Arun Kumar Das¿s ¿Delhi¿s a stage for pravasis worldwide¿ (Delhi Times, 08.01.2004) celebrated the economic fallout of the event in terms of hotel occupancy. Five star hotel managers were smiling because occupancies increased during the period of the summit.  

This however, is not the only high point of the three-day event. ¿A highlight of the event is the cultural evenings, during which 5,000 years of Indian shringar parampara will be showcased through a unique blend of the spiritual and the sensual. Officially speaking, the focus of the conference is on the Gen Next of pravasis. "We want this generation to know about the country of their origin, its culture and people," says Vivek Bharti (advisor to FICCI and co-ordinator of the summit). "This will go a long way in strengthening bonds between NRIs, PIOs and India." After all, irrespective of wherever an Indian might be on the globe, phir bhi dil hai Hindustani.¿ The blend of the spiritual and the sensual along with the emphasis on an unshakeable Hindustani dil relate to earlier media representations of NRI/Indian identity as ineluctably fixed no matter what the actual political, cultural location might be.  

In this Indian media representations are unwittingly similar to dominant western media discourses about the mysterious and unruly ¿other¿ even if that ¿other¿ has IT specialists and call centres. That this is a myth is evident in the ways in which the Divas constructs Indian parampara and reconstitutes identity in a majoritarian discourse. In fact the Divas provides a meeting ground for conservative immigrant ideations of Indianness and a political dispensation that is happy to cater to nostalgic and mythic fantasies. 

Rashmee Z Ahmed ¿The great diasporic Diwali is not a highlight for India¿ (Sunday Times, 11.01.2004) points out that the economic hoopla surrounding the summit was unjustified. In a rare critical article Ahmed writes, ¿The great diasporic Diwali is on and India we are told "is shining". There is no connection. These are two, almost-but-not-quite mutually exclusive phenomena. Where, for instance, on that list of privilege yellow-carded foreign delegates to the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, were the following: Lakshmi Mittal; Arun Sarin; Gulu Lalvani?¿ The three corporate giants of Indian origin are based in the UK and have no wish to do business in India. As Lalvani puts it, ¿"I¿m already there [India], doing charity work and so on, it¿s just in business that I don¿t have the patience to wait for licenses etc." 

Ahmed concludes, ¿The dil-hai Hindustani routine may stay go down well in Mumbai¿s multiplexes but it has the glossy factory finish of the ultimate theatrical flight of fancy. Ask the big boys of business. They know.¿ That NRIs and PIOs are still wary of putting money where their nostalgia is, is an uncomfortable fact that the article highlights. Many immigrants in the Gulf region who are not as upwardly mobile and represent the basic economic impulse behind immigration (the nurses, foremen, cooks) do not figure in the pravasi discourse at all. Ahmed¿s cautionary tale of three NRIs who wish to have no stake in the Indian pie is a stunning counterpoint to the hype surrounding the Divas and indicates the ways in which the very wealthy and the down-at-heel NRIs share a common scepticism of their home country. 

The story of the pravasi does not end in gloom as one of the trio decides to finally invest in India (Rashmee Z. Ahmed, ¿LN Mittal heads home, wants footprint in India¿ [Times, 14.02.2004]). ¿Nearly 30 years after he left Kolkata to build a 13-nation steel empire, Lakshmi N Mittal plans to come home. "India is at the take-off stage, and we want to have our footprint there."¿ Mittal is clear that it is ¿profit, not patriotism, that drives him towards India. He argues for globalisation of mindset, commerce without passports¿, but his return is touted in terms of the return of a native son. ¿The significance of Mittal¿s interest in the land of his birth can hardly be overstated. Until last year, he firmly kept India out of his business plans, saying "conditions were not right because India did not have the right infrastructure, such as good ports or railway facilities, and the necessary electricity supply."

The turnaround specialist preferred to invest in former communist states such as Romania, the Czech Republic, and Poland which was ¿an insult¿ to free, democratic, and desperately globalizing India. The insult can now be forgotten since ¿"this particular government opened up the whole country for investment"¿. The implications of that opening up are entirely positive since the steel czar will now look at India anew and not invest only in China. Quite obviously Mittal believes that the infrastructural bottlenecks have now been sorted although there is no empirical evidence to prove that and the article does not consider this aspect. It is enough that Mittal has spoken and added sheen and substance to the Pravasi Divas from which he was absent.

Seamier aspects of the diaspora: crime and terrorism

While the dominant media representations of the global Indian are positive, feel- good stories there are occasional lapses which indicate that the NRI/PIO may be involved in crime and terrorism abroad. I could not find any such article in The Times of India but The Hindustan Times had a front page piece by S. Rajagopalan and Vijay Dutt, ¿Indians abroad in big time fraud¿ (11.09.2003). ¿From Los Angeles to London Indian white collar criminals have been leaving a trail of fraud - and setting some dubious records in the process.¿ The article provides a rogues gallery ranging from 55-year-old Surinder Singh Panshi, an Indian American doctor sentenced to 16 years in jail for Medicare fraud amounting to $20 million, to 26-year-old Sunil Mahtani sentenced to 9 years in the UK as Britain¿s biggest credit card fraudster. Mahtani also pleaded guilty to child pornography charges. ¿According to Mahtani¿s defence counsel, he embarked on the crime course in order to keep up with his high-flying financier girlfriend Elizabeth Ryan, who as a merchant banker took home much more than him.¿ This is a rare article on the flip side of immigrant success stories although it was a stand-alone piece with no follow-up. Mahtani¿s defence touches upon some of the pressures, economic and social, which immigrants (among others) might face and which are never mentioned in mainstream media. 

India Today carried a cover story, ¿Hemant Lakhani: Trading in Terror¿ (September 1, 2003) by Anil Padmanabhan (the feel good specialist) and Sandeep Unnithan. The piece details a FBI and international sting operation whereby Hemant Lakhani, a former rice and garments trader, was caught trying to sell shoulder-fired missiles for possible use by terrorists. Originally from Ghatkopar he is probably a small fry in the illegal arms trade, but the article links him to Dawood Ibrahim and Al Qaida. It quotes one sceptical response, that of Lee Wolosky, former director of transnational threats at the National Security Council under Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, and directly involved with tracking down some big arms dealers. ¿"Lakhani is a very insignificant fish in the overall market. Also, it is a sting operation and entirely staged. Contrast this with [Victor] Bout who lives openly in Moscow. There seems to be a clear disconnect."¿ These disconnects are firmly refuted in the rest of the article. Lakhani is linked with Kargil era deals that never came through because of ¿Tehelka and warming Indo-US ties¿. Lakhani¿s anti-US views are cited in detail: ¿"The Americans are bastards… One explosion will shake the economy." 

In conclusion the article blames Lakhani¿s greed rather than terrorist outlook or ideology. This is a curious article that shares the paranoia about terror networks and terrorism prevalent in post 9/11 US and UK, links India to that paranoia, and takes pride in exposing a small component of much larger networks. There can be little doubt about Lakhani¿s dubious business ethics and functioning, but his role in terrorist networks seems hyped. Once again this is a story that was not followed up. At an obvious level this is not a positive story for Lakhani is not the role model available in mass media or popular culture representations (see Kal Ho Na Ho, for instance). However, in exposing this bad egg and tying up with global concerns regards terrorism the article reinforces India¿s position as a staunch ally in the war against terror, as a country that is a victim of terrorism and desires restitution. The exposé of Lakhani¿s deals serves to reintegrate India within the global fraternity. It also contributes to the sense of ¿truth¿, ¿objectivity¿, and ¿balance¿ in reportage whereby India Today is not afraid to deal with traitors within and without its borders.  

My analysis is by no means exhaustive but it indicates that there is a clear bias toward feel good stories regarding the diasporic community. As stated earlier they tell us as much about India as they do about the immigrants themselves. India Today in a more recent issue (January 19, 2004) attempted to reposition Indians abroad by defining them as Overseas Born Indians (OBIs) and through that redefinition to characterize second generation Indians. Inevitably, however, that characterization can only take place by reference to the mother country. Kaveree Bamzai in her essay ¿AB But No Longer CD¿ writes ¿Their growing numbers have given them confidence, as has the global emergence of the nation their parents still call home and the warmth with which it envelops them. With men and women running around in tights, no longer is yoga a cruel ethnic joke. As Indian movies acquire iconic status, what was an embarrassment has become a proud anthem¿ (India Today, January 19, 2004).  

We have here familiar tropes of the welcoming bharat mata which is now a global player and the reference to yoga indicates the ways in which ethnic chic has been successfully marketed. One is not sure for whom Indian movies have ¿acquire[d] iconic status¿ apart from the diasporic community since Bollywood¿s offerings to the Oscar altar are embarrassing in content and in their regular rejection in the foreign film category. The articles in the issue go over familiar ground enumerating the achievements and role of well-known OBIs such as Bobby Jindal, Manoj N. Shyamalan, Parminder Nagra, Rhona Mitra, and Bobby Friction. ¿Immigrants,¿ write Anil Padmanabhan and Ishara Bhasi (¿At Home in the World¿, India Today, January 19, 2004) ¿value success, and that has brought acceptance for their children. Success has happened when the second generation has assimilated the best, when it has broken through the glasshouse of ethnicity.¿  

One wonders what that breakthrough means and whether it is predicated solely on ¿success¿. Undoubtedly second generation migrants are better adjusted to their diasporic status, but whether they can live in a post ethnic community or imagination is open to question. In any case dominant media discourses in India are more interested in how these American/Brit desis relate to India and in that focus we see a nation straddling two worlds. On the one hand are the mantras of globalization (India as IT giant and BPO powerhouse), economic growth (8% GDP, booming stock markets, and the India Shining campaign), and political leverage (India as deserving of a permanent seat at the UNSC, staunch ally in the war on terror). On the other hand are the problems that are seldom mentioned but ones that won¿t go away: poverty, illiteracy, communal violence and identity politics (Gujarat), the defanging of trade unions, and the increasing inequities within the nation. By focusing on the achievements of the NRI/PIO/OBI and their interaction with the land of their birth, dominant media representations bolster the sense of a nation on the move. At the same time it is a nation that remains rooted in its ethos and culture, whatever that might mean and however conservative it may be. As Saira Mohan, an OBI model for Chanel and Calvin Klein puts it, ¿India is the most virtuous country in the world.¿ Amen.

(concluded)

Contact: subarno@mantraonline.com