A rich man in Britain, a politician in South Africa and a cultural guardian in Malaysia lead disparate lives, but all share one thing in common -- New Delhi wants to tug at their heartstrings, and pick their pockets.
They are among the estimated 25 million Indians in a worldwide diaspora who are now being wooed by the motherland as India emerges as a new economic powerhouse.
Many of their ancestors left as impoverished pawns in Britain's imperial game, shipped to South Africa to work on sugar farms or to Malaysia to labor on rubber plantations.
Some remain poor but others have found fortune in their adopted countries, and India's government decided earlier this year to grant them all Indian citizenship in the hope they will invest in its booming economy.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who announced the plan to extend dual citizenship rights to people of Indian origin in January, said the country would need huge investment to wipe out poverty and appealed to India's diaspora to help provide the funds.
Indians interviewed in Britain, South Africa and Malaysia expressed mixed feelings about their relationships with India and the countries in which they now live.
The 1.8 million Indians in Malaysia represent the third largest ethnic group in the population of 23 million, after the Malays and Chinese.
They have strong bonds with India and observe traditional festivals such Diwali, Thaipusam and Tamil New Year.
But N. Nadarajah, 80, an advisor to the Temple of Fine Arts, a cultural institute promoting Indian dance and music, said there was no doubt Indians here were loyal to Malaysia despite the strong cultural influence.
"Though we are Hindus and practising the religion and culture, we take great pride in being citizens of Malaysia.
"When I go to India, I view myself merely as a tourist. My patriotism is for Malaysia," the former senior police officer said.
The ancestors of some 80 percent of the Indians in Malaysia were originally from Tamil Nadu and many came to the then British colony of Malaya in the late 1830s as indentured laborers on rubber plantations and to build roads and railway lines.
Many of their descendents remain among the poorer members of society.
"They are fighting hard for a decent living. The majority of them are at the bottom of the social ladder," S. Arutchelvan, spokesman of the rights group Voice of the Malaysian People said.
"Minority Indians are alienated from Malaysia's development agenda as they lack political power. There is a strong feeling of marginalization and frustration in the community," he said.
But many have become successful professionals, lawyers and academics, and treasure their Indian roots.
"I visit India almost twice a year. It is always refreshing each time I make a visit for research and religious inspiration," said M. Rajendran, a 41-year-old University Malaya professor.
"Our roots are there. We are Malaysians, but culturally we are bonded with India. But if there is a war, I will fight for Malaysia," he said.
The Indian community of about 1.2 million in South Africa -- roughly 3 percent of the population -- is made up largely of descendants of laborers who worked in sugarcane plantations.
The history of South African Indians dates to 1860 when some 700 migrant workers and traders arrived in Durban from Chennai, formerly known as Madras, and Kolkata (Calcutta), mainly to work on newly established sugarcane farms in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.
South African Indians maintain their religious traditions, often observing rituals more zealously than their counterparts in the sub-continent, but many of the festivals have been tailored to their adopted homeland.
The biggest festival for Hindus is Diwali, or the festival of lights, where celebrations include African dances and music along with Indian songs and "Bollywood" hits and Indian chartbusters belted out in Zulu.
Veteran politician and leader of the Indian-dominated Minority Front party, Amichand Rajbansi, said: "Make no doubt about it, we are part and parcel of the African population. India is merely our motherland to whom we look for cultural and religious inspiration."
Sociologist Ashwin Desai said South African Indians "have a great romantic notion of India gleaned from stories they heard from their grandparents and great-grandparents as 75 to 80 percent have never been there.
"It's a grand notion of identifying with a nuclear power, a country that is rapidly joining the ranks of the developed world, a nation that can play good cricket sometimes and of course the maker of Bollywood films."
But he said a plan by New Delhi to grant nationality to people of Indian origin to attract foreign investment would not cut ice here.
"Today it's very challenging to be a South African. There are several opportunities that have opened up after the end of apartheid. Why would we put our money overseas?"
Vivian Reddy, one of South Africa's most prominent tycoons, agreed although he is in talks to set up a casino in the western Indian state of Goa.
"I don't think the Indian plan to get money will draw a great response here," he said.
Vishen Ramprasad, a young executive, summed up the feelings of the overwhelming majority of South African Indians on where they belong.
"I always felt more Indian than South African until I went there for the first time and I realized how South African I was," he said.
The 1.1 million Indians in Britain represent nearly 2 percent of a population of 64 million, according to statistics released recently.
While they claim Asian ethnic heritage, they also see themselves as British: 75 percent claim British national identity.
British citizens of Indian origin and "non-resident Indians" (NRIs) also rank among the country's top business leaders, including the world's third-richest man Lakshmi Mittal, a steel tycoon whose fortune was estimated recently at US$25.3 billion.
Ram Gidoomal, chair of the South Asian Development Partnership, told reporters there was no conflict between Indian and British identities, with many elder NRIs keeping "keeping their feet on both continents."
"I tell people: I'm 100 percent British, I'm 100 percent Indian. And if they can't add up, then that's their problem," he said.
Many younger British Indians, however, do complain about "the heat, or the dirt, or the fact that things don't get done in a Western way" in their parents' homeland, said Uday Bajekal, a London-based correspondent for the Indian newspapers The Sentinel and Vijay Times.
Angad Paul, chief executive of the Caparo Group, a British-based steel products enterprise with US$675 million in sales worldwide, says he believes India is "the best place for the next 20 years for doing business. It just happens to be fortuitous that we are Indians."
Caparo has invested heavily in India for the past 10 years.
Paul, who went to university in the US and spent his early years between Britain and India, said he feels at home in any of those countries.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
RSS