NRIs in general and NROs in particular have made their share of vital contributions by giving back to their motherland
Sambeet Dash
The 3-day ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ (Non-Resident Indians Day) at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, is an annual jamboree with much fanfare. Mark Twain, the great American writer famously said – “It is easy to quit smoking as I have quit it 100 times.” The same can be attributed to the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who have been promising to go back to India for several decades and are still doing it. It is easier for me to go back to India as I have gone back 100 times.
But NRIs, much maligned, often the butt of jokes and criticisms, referred to as Non-Returning Indians, Non Required Indians, Non-Responsive Indians, etc have prospered as a community abroad while staying away from their motherland. NRIs in general and NROs (Non-Resident Odias) in particular have made their share of vital contributions by giving back to their motherland. Technically many, including me who live overseas aren’t NRIs, having relinquished their Indian Passports for a long time by taking citizenship in other countries and permanently settling down in their new homelands.
In the United States where I have settled down for good, the Indian Americans are only next to the Chinese immigrants in number and prosperity. It includes a sizable Odia diaspora present in ubiquitous larger numbers in numerous cities and Metros, excelling in multiple fields like Science and Technology, Medicine, R&D, and various businesses. Nicknamed DESI by its own, the NRI community has carved its niche. (Mostly persons of Indian origin use the term Desi among themselves, often in a derogatory way. Mainstream Americans are mostly unaware of the term. Though I have this uncanny ability to laugh at myself, during my initial days I was uncomfortable being called a Desi, a term generally used to denote a pariah dog back home in Odisha).
Though NRIs based in the US, Canada, and Europe get a lot of attention, the largest number of them are present in Africa and Gulf countries. NRI bashing is quite common, they are outrightly branded as unpatriotic, selfish deserters of their motherland. Their kids are called ABCD (America Born Confused Desi).
Not that all NRIs are great, but generalizations can go wrong. Most of them carry India’s brand name in America, Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia, Singapore, the Gulf, and so on. They remit valuable foreign exchange to their motherland, invest money in business and entrepreneurship contributing to the growth of the Indian economy, and generating employment in hundreds of thousands. They are not only a major driving force behind the state economies, they handsomely contribute towards charity. Kerala’s economy will be in dire straits if remittance from the Gulf will stop. My own state back home Odisha may not be in the same state as Kerala, but there has been a spurt in NRI investment in the recent past and it is on an upswing.
In the aftermath of the Kargil war many NRIs, sarcastically described as Non-Responsive Indians, responded spectacularly by wholeheartedly making handsome donations towards the Kargil funds set up for martyrs who died fighting while securing our border. I was one among them and was able to contribute more since I was earning much more in America than I was in India. Did not my ability to contribute a higher amount being an NRI benefit the families of our heroes? It dispels the myth that NRIs don’t contribute to their country of birth.
The Chinese government has succeeded in utilizing the potential of their diaspora living abroad by ably supporting and encouraging them to make major investments in their economy. Our Indian government is slowly realizing this and catching up, though still years behind their Chinese and South Korean counterparts. Yet it is never too late to harness the potential of our powerful NRI community.
Based on my tete-a-tate with commoners in India I have observed that many have this notion of NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) sleeping on stashes made from wards of money and dollars growing as fruits on plants in the backyard. That is not necessarily true in every case. I am just a regular middle-class guy who makes just enough to pay his bills. I wish TANKA MO GACHHA RE FALANTA (Money would sprout on the tree in my yard). Regardless, always happy in my heart to make my share of contributions to India and Odisha.
Here is something on a lighter vein. A NRI visiting India once went shopping for toilet paper. The store was out of it. Said the furious NRI – What kind of store do you have, you don’t carry a necessary item like Toilet Paper? “Sorry Sir”, the storekeeper replied politely. We don’t have toilet paper but we have plenty of Sand paper. TIKE ADJUST KARANTU or THODA ADJUST KIJIYE (‘Please adjust a little bit’).
I am now reminded of this song from Raj Kapoor’s movie ‘Awaara’ –
MERA JOOTA HAI JAPANI,
PATLOON ENGLISTHANI,
SAR PE LAL TOPI RUSSI,
PHIR BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI,
Roughly transliterated :
“My shoes are from Japan,
My trousers are from England,
The cap on my head is Russian,
Still, my heart is Indian”.
So, for us all NRIs, ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ – Yet our heart is Indian.
(The author is an Odia technocrat living in the USA. Views expressed are personal.)
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