What about India for all Indians?

The Global Indian Diaspora meet, Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2009, held in Chennai earlier this month drew hundreds of Indians (NRIs and PIOs) from across the world to the city. While many came to network with other like-minded Indians and explore business opportunities, others, like me, were hoping to discuss the issues that us, expat Indians, face in our adopted countries.

The PBD is a positive step forward in India's relationship with its diaspora. The conventions in the past few years have helped the Government acknowledge the important role played by the diaspora in India's efforts to acquire its rightful place in the comity of nations.

Among the decisions taken by the Government of India as a result of wider consultations held at these Conventions, are formulation of the Overseas Citizenship of India, establishment of Overseas Indian Facilitation Center, conceptualization of PIO University, formation of Prime Minister's Global Advisory Council of People of Indian Origin, and the proposed India Development Foundation. A series of programs like Know India program and a scholarship program for diaspora children have also been designed specifically for the diaspora youth.

Among other things, the convention this year held sessions on the preservation of diaspora language and culture and the importance of the diaspora as facilitators and bridge builders. The convention was a wonderful gathering of Indians from various walks of life and countries, and offered them an invaluable opportunity for interaction. However, like any new venture, there is a room for improvement. Here I list a few.

Where are the issues? As an Indian residing outside the country, we face many issues that are often un-noticed or overlooked. Some of these issues in todays' volatile economic situations may have serious repercussions and need to be addressed – like recession, job cuts, immigration issues, etc. Many immigrant Indians in the West face the imminent fear to receiving the pink slip. Many are stuck in the mortgage crisis in the US. Some face problems procuring migrant status for their families. There are many such issues that affect Indians abroad.

On the onset, when you hear of a diaspora meet, you expect it to be a dialog between the organizer, here the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, and the attendees. However, the convention this year seemed to be a monolog by the Indian Government. The ministers and officials of various states outlined their expectations from the Indians living abroad. At other panels the speakers spoke about the achievements of Indians overseas. However, there was no talk of the problems that the pravasis face outside the country and how the Government or the country can help them out when they are in trouble.

Representation of the common NRI: It seemed that there was little or no representation of the common Indian living abroad. The panelists at the convention, who represented the NRIs, can be easily called the elite crowd. They do not face the challenges of settling down in a new country or the worries of receiving a pink slip any day their company may collapse or decide on job cuts.

There is a dire need of having representation of the NRIs and PIOs from various walks of life who face everyday problems, to highlight these issues and the expectations that the non-resident Indians have from the Indian government. As the brief on the PBD website stated: “The annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention provides a much needed platform to the Overseas Indian Community for exchange of views on ways and means to fulfill their aspirations and expectations from the land of their ancestors.” The latter needs to be thought about.

Inaccessibility to the delegates: The PBD 2009 boasted of an impressive line-up of speakers of Indian origin from various countries. From former UN Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor, to the chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission Sam Pitroda, to Harvard Professor Sugata Bose, and many more, they spoke and went. The sessions often went into an overtime, thus cutting out on Q&A sessions and leaving out the interaction with the attendees. The speakers were nowhere to be found once the panels got over. There was no opportunity for one-on-one interaction with them either.

Its all about money: Ultimately it all boils down to moolah. The underlying statement of PBD 2009 was attracting NRI money into India. Most panels focused on this aspect at the convention, some even losing focus of the topic and talking about money flow into India. Often there was a debate between ministers and officials of various states – each contending whose state was better for NRI investments and which states had made most progress and growth. The states clearly vied each other to convince the investors to chose their part of the country for ventures.

It was also pointed out that apart from business and investment opportunities, NRIs also had various prospects for philanthropy in the country. So whoever was not interested in doing trade and business in India, should consider diverting funds for charity to the country.

All said and done, a relationship can be based on the concept of give-and-take. As long as NRIs give their money to India (in form of investment or charity), they also have expectations from India to do something for them, and to look after their interests. The organizers of the PBD may want to think about this aspect for the future conventions.

Identifying our identity?

Who is an Indian? How do we identify ourselves? Is it a person who was born and raised in India? Or the one who speaks Hindi and follows his culture and heritage? Or may be the patriot who misses his country and its people everyday, no matter where in the world he is. However, many expats today may prefer to identify and introduce themselves in a totally different way.

Activities abuzz, soon the many Indian American organizations in the country would be holding their annual conventions. But who will participate? Well, it really depends on how an Indian identifies himself.

If you are a Gujarati, you might be waiting for Gujarati Association of North America's (GANA) annual event. In case you are a youngster from that community, chances are you have already registered for Matri 2008 to be held in July. If you hail from Rajasthan, the Rajasthan Association of North America's (RANA) events may draw your attention. Same would be the case with Andhrites, whose Telugu Association of North America (TANA) also has a youth wing to encourage youngsters from the community to brace their language and culture. Punjabis have Academy of the Punjab in North America and the Punjab American Heritage Society. . We can go on and on with organizations for Tamils, Maharashtrians, Oriyas, et al.

Most of these organizations in their charter state that their mission is the promotion of their culture, heritage and language in the people of that community living in North America. These conventions also do very well with huge attendance registered by its patriots.

Organizations based on professions also are very popular among Indians here. The Asian American Hotel owners Association (AAHOA), which is predominantly Indian, held is regional conferences throughout June with good attendance. Their annual convention will be held in April 2009 and promotions are underway already.

Another popular organization is Asian American Convenience Stores Association (AACSA), which will hold its conference in November this year.

The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), which held its annual convention this week. Others not to be forgotten are The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE); Silicon Valley Indian Professional Organization; South Asian Women's Leadership Forum (SAWLF),; and the list goes on.

Most of these organizations register a good number of participation as their conventions cater to specific interests of the community. They get enough funding through their patrons, thus enabling the, to invite high profile guests like a Bollywood celebrity, a TV personality or a business tycoon.

But what happens when an organization that does not identify itself demographically or by profession but as an Indian holds a convention? No surprises here, the participation to such gatherings is very scarce, mostly constituting of the families of the people who might be presenting or are involved in the organization.

I was recently at the Hindi Mahotsav in New Jersey. The meet was organized by Hindi USA, an independent non-profit organization working pro actively to propagate Hindi in the Indian American community, and in turn promoting Indian unity. To linguistically stimulate the minds of Indian Americans the convention hosted two well known Hindi poets from India. The organization, passionately run by volunteers, holds Hindi classes in over 30 schools for children.

However, looking at the number of people present at the convention, it seemed that mostly they were the parents of the kids who took part in the program. The event organizers repeatedly requested the attendees to brace Hindi as their mother tongue and to respect the language as their own. Even the brilliant poets were intrigued by the fact that Indian Americans are letting go of Hindi in such a matter-of-fact way and that nobody is concerned about the preservation of the language.

Well, this is the state of our mother tongue today. And so is the state of being an Indian.

The Government of India has declared February 10th as World Hindi day. This is celebrated at the various Indian consulates and embassies all over the world. But that is where it gets limited to. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan holds regular classes in Hindi with the goal of preservation of the language. But many of us might be unaware that BVB actually has a branch in the heart on Manhattan.

When two Gujaratis meet on the street, they immediately start talking in their own language. So is the case with Punjabis, Tamils and other communities. We prefer to introduce ourselves by the community today, saying that “I am a Tamil, Punjabi, Marwari or Gujarati.” What should be on top of our minds is: “I am an Indian”.

This sentiment of our identity is only leading to a division within the society. At the end of the day we are all Indians. If an Indian organizes a meet, a convention, or a speech; we should all be there in the capacity of being an Indian... forgetting what part of India we migrated from.

That would not only benefit us on the national level only but also globally. It is the need of the hour that we all came together as Indians and not as a divided community. We need to be united in Washington to lobby for the Indo-US Nuclear deal; We need to be together in Canberra to promote the India-Australia Uranium deal; We need to be united in London to promote UK's support to India in Biotechnology, which has been identified as one of the main areas for enhanced cooperation from the country; we need to be one in Tokyo to encourage India's trade relations with Japan. We need to be united so that along with remembering 9/11, the world remembers that India struggles with terrorism everyday.

If we Indians all across the world stand together in front of the world, it would only be a matter of time when we would see the rise of our country politically, economically and culturally. In a nut shell, we need to be united for the cause of India.