Volume 35, Issue 6, March 2008 - Posoowa
Volume 35, Issue 6, March 2008 - Posoowa
Volume 35, Issue 6, March 2008 - Posoowa
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Indian souls.<br />
Our Mother Country is Britain,<br />
Our Parents’ is India<br />
Ihave nothing new to say to those<br />
who heard this before, but<br />
sometimes repetition reinforces sad<br />
truths and calls for change of pace.<br />
Some may accuse me of tarring all with<br />
the same brush but in social<br />
anthropology one has to generalize.<br />
Exceptions do not break the rule.<br />
Some might have heard from their<br />
children (raised in the West) that India<br />
was nothing but a land of half-naked<br />
fakirs before the British went there and<br />
colonized it. Some children and adults<br />
might go on to list of facts to buttress<br />
their claims - like bringing in the<br />
railroad to link various parts of India<br />
and modern technology, and of course<br />
democracy. Of course, it is sad but true<br />
that railroad and the steam engine were<br />
not invented in India. They were<br />
invented in Great Britain. It is also<br />
deplorable that Indians talk only about<br />
the glorious past (which anyway many<br />
historians dispute - like Harvard’s<br />
Indology Prof. Witzel). It is also sad<br />
that while many first generation NRIs<br />
or NRAs have visions of a civilized<br />
land of their forefathers, many in the<br />
second generation contend that it was<br />
no way superior to that of the Britain<br />
or the United Kingdom - their Mother<br />
Country. America’s Mother Country!<br />
As part of Americanization, it is the<br />
duty of all citizens to uphold the<br />
concept of Mother Nation. India has<br />
no Mother Country. USA has a mother<br />
country - Great Britain.<br />
In this context, what should be<br />
expected from second or third<br />
generation Indian Americans?<br />
Should they be expected to uphold the<br />
interests of their Mother Country or<br />
that of India - the land of their<br />
forefathers?<br />
WHY MOTHER COUNTRY<br />
BRITAIN IS A BETTER DEAL<br />
It is true that Mother Country provides<br />
a more welcoming smile - better<br />
colleges (like Rhodes scholarship to<br />
Oxford University to Piyush “Bobby”<br />
Jindal, the new governor of Louisiana)<br />
which result in more acclaim when<br />
they return to the US. The stay there<br />
makes their accent even better - British<br />
accent is favored even above the New<br />
England one. What does India have to<br />
offer besides a visit to Grandma’s<br />
home? Further, Mother Country<br />
Britain helped the USA during the<br />
World Wars and current Iraq War. What<br />
did land of forefathers, India, do?<br />
Nothing! No wait - it is taking away<br />
American jobs through outsourcing.<br />
Now some second generation Indian<br />
Americans are forced to work or do<br />
internships in Bangalore. None wants<br />
to go to IITs to study or teach.<br />
SOCIO-ECONOMIC<br />
CHALLENGES FOR 2 nd<br />
GENERATION NRI CHILDREN<br />
It is true that if a child has to grow up<br />
in an immigrant family in the USA or<br />
anywhere else, it is a great challenge,<br />
since the s/he has no support network<br />
of a large family - the way these kids<br />
have who have all their grandparents<br />
and all their relatives in the USA.<br />
Those Indian American kids have it<br />
tough - who have no support network<br />
or endowment backing their trip to elite<br />
colleges or helping them get jobs in top<br />
firms where a phone call from<br />
“someone you know” lands jobs<br />
(ceteris paribus - all else remaining<br />
equal). Thus, Indian Americans turn to<br />
top quality education to open closed<br />
doors to success. And success is<br />
generally defined in a very<br />
materialistic sense for most Indian<br />
Americans. Materialistic people should<br />
not be expected to go out and save the<br />
BRAIN GAIN OR BRAIN DRAIN<br />
OR SOUL IN THE DRAIN<br />
Maybe some have indeed gone to India<br />
to save souls - in the spiritual sense.<br />
However, none seem to remain for their<br />
entire lives (like Mother Teresa) to take<br />
care of the Indian economy. The World<br />
Bank was formed for the<br />
reconstruction of Europe following<br />
World War Two. It was the USA who<br />
wanted to help the land of its Mother<br />
Country and other European nations.<br />
Which Indian American organization<br />
is there to help the cause? Which<br />
organization is there which can counter<br />
the claim by top economists (like<br />
Harvard Business School professor<br />
Mihir Desai - second generation Indian<br />
American) that India is losing ten<br />
percent of its national income because<br />
a million of their educated elite<br />
(including perhaps his parents) have<br />
seen it fit to head West (Desai, 2002).<br />
Some at ILO (International Labor<br />
Organization) said thing along the<br />
same lines - that Indians should remain<br />
in India or the brain drain would<br />
damage Indian economy<br />
(www.ilo.org/dyn/idea/<br />
ideasheet.display?p_idea_id=20).<br />
I wonder how many of the Indian<br />
Americans have thought of calculating<br />
how much did Britain lose when its<br />
citizens left its shores to head for the<br />
USA. Why such step-motherly attitude<br />
towards the Mother Country of USA?<br />
No one in the USA accuses a<br />
Frenchman of being a FOB or then why<br />
do some look down on anything Indian?<br />
Russell Peters is a shining example<br />
youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI -<br />
though some are quite interestingly<br />
done - making fun of cricket, Indian<br />
food, Yoga, Hare Krishna<br />
youtube.com/watch?v=<br />
owK5tHjL0aE 12 days of Christmas.<br />
Any comments?<br />
Umesh Sharma<br />
Washington DC<br />
Page 7 * POSOOWA, <strong>March</strong> <strong>2008</strong>