THE INDIAN DIASPORA: Global Contributions, Challenges, & Government Initiatives

Indian Diaspora: Bridging Cultures, Building Networks and Shaping Global Dynamics

The term ‘Diaspora’ has a specific historical context. In recent times, it has emerged as a generic term to describe communities beyond the boundaries of their culture and nation-states (CARIM-India Research Report 2012/25). Just as the history of migration and the settlement of populations have changed, so has the concept of Diaspora. 

• With the impact of globalization there have been profound changes in the composition of local, regional and national cultural practices.
• Diaspora groups, capable of maintaining and investing in social, economic and political networks that span the globe, are of increasing relevance and interest to policy makers in home countries as well as host countries.
• In the last few decades, with increased networking, Diaspora has become an important determinant of foreign policy making. 
• This paradigm shift has led to new research dealing with the Diaspora.

Global Impact of the Indian Diaspora: Shaping Leadership, Economy, and Cultural Bonds Worldwide

• Global Presence: The Indian diaspora is not confined to a particular country but has extended to all around the globe. 
  • They have made the destination countries their homes; however their links to India still remain strong. 
  • Currently, the Indian diaspora is around 31.3 million composed of People of Indian Origin or Overseas Citizen of India (PIOs/OCIs) and expatriate Indians (NRIs) living outside India (MEA estimates).
  • The top ten destination countries which account for the bulk of the diaspora population are USA, UAE, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, UK, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Canada and Kuwait.
• Leadership on the Global Stage: From Sundar Pichai to Parag Agarwal, from Rajeev Suri to Leena Nair, several luminaries are proof of Indian youth leadership on the global stage.
  • Non-Resident Unicorns (NRUs) leveraging India’s strengths in IT and outsourcing,
    
• 10 Trillion Dollar Economy: Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan has stated that the Indian diaspora could assist in making India a 10 trillion dollar economy by 2030.
  • Speaking at the ‘Indiaspora G20 Forum in New Delhi,’ T.V. Somanathan outlined a three-channel approach—flow of funds, trade, and knowledge transfer—to tap into the resources of India’s extensive diaspora.
    
  • In a broader sense, the diaspora forms a connection between producers and consumers in the mother country and their country of residence.
  • The Indian population abroad generates demand for Indian goods, leading to enhanced trade relations between countries.
  • The diaspora possesses valuable skills, experiences, and contacts that can facilitate knowledge transfer to India. For example, Chile as a significant beneficiary of such diaspora contributions.
• Diverse Roles by Diaspora: They occupy esteemed positions and lead in various fields, including political, economic, cultural, services, and technology sectors.
• Living Root Bridges: Their role is not confined to historical and cultural ties only, and extends itself to the economic domain as well. 
  • They also try to  retain and nurture an abiding bond and interest in staying connected with their roots and upholding their traditions, rites and rituals, culture, cuisine and language.
  • This has enabled them to build connections with their homeland that thrive and serve as ‘living root bridges’ (According to India Centre For Migration)

Prof. P C Jain’s Insights: Five Key Patterns of Indian Emigration

• Prof. P C Jain explained five broad patterns of Indian emigration.
  • The First Phase Was Indentured Labor Migration: Under which a contract was to be signed. This started around the first half of the nineteenth century and people mostly migrated from eastern UP, Bihar, Chhota Nagpur region and Tamilnadu.
  • The Second Was The Kangani Or Mistry System: In this migration took place as a full family migration
  • The Third Was Migration Of Trading Caste: It occurred from Gujrat to Africa and Fiji with some professionals such as teachers, doctors and lawyers, which can be called as free or passage migration.
  • The Fourth Was Brain Drain: After independence a new form of migration came into existence which can be said as brain drain to England, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world. After 1990s it became brain gain.
  • The Fifth: Phase can be said to be migration to Gulf Countries.

Global Impact of Indian Diaspora: Catalysts for Change in Leadership, Economy and Culture

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recognised the role of the Indian diaspora as a ‘strategic asset’ in the all round development of our country. 
  • He regarded the Indian diaspora as a valuable asset, akin to the Jewish and Chinese diasporas. 
• Religious Contribution: Swami Vivekananda made a memorable impact at the World’s Parliament  of Religion in the US in 1893 when he delivered a lecture on Hindu philosophy. 
  • Even before this, during the 17th century, missionaries and members of the British government working in India translated many sacred texts from Sanskrit into English, making their way to major parts of the world. 
  • Thus, Bhagavad Gita has become a favorite text worldwide especially in western countries.
  • The past thirty years has seen the rise of temple-based Hinduism in the world, especially in the USA.
  • As the number of followers of Hinduism increased they built temples dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and the numerous other gods who are held in high regard.
  • Swaminarayan Akshardham is a Hindu mandir (temple) complex in Robbinsville, New Jersey, It is second biggest temple in the world outside the Asia
• Economic Contribution: Forex Reserves, and Technological Innovation
  • Highest Remittance: The Indian economy has been a beneficiary of this dynamic and industrious diaspora. 
    • India currently receives the highest flow of remittances in the world at $ 108 billion in 2022, up by 24.6 per cent from a year ago.
    • These remittances have played a role in poverty reduction while changing consumption behaviour in rural areas (National Sample Survey Organisation data),
  • Piled Up Forex Reserve: The Indian diaspora contributed substantially to the country’s forex reserves.
    • As of April 28, 2023, the country’s foreign exchange reserves stand at $588 billion.
    • Indians residing abroad hold deposits in Indian banks culminating to $ 136 billion at the end of February 2023
  • Exports of Services: India’s exports of services which have demonstrated pandemic-proofing, rises by above 25 per cent per annum since 2020, and provided valuable support to the viability of the external sector.
  • Global Capacity Centres (GCC) : India is home to about 40 percent of world’s Global Capacity Centres, and they are estimated to comprise 25 percent of overall IT services exports.
    • GCCs are also fostering diversification, with companies from various sectors like electronics, retail, automotive, banking and financial services, and hospitality, among others, establishing GCCs in India.
      
  • Accelerated technological sector and Increased socio-economic development: Bengaluru, Gurugram, Pune and  Hyderabad as thriving Information Technology hubs that  house multinational companies (MNCs) like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Uber,
    • These centers are also multiple Indian start-ups like Flipkart, Ola, and Swiggy. 
• Political Contribution: Indian policy with respect to the Indian diaspora has changed from non-interference to active engagement in their action. As a result, the Indian diaspora has become a significant political constituency of support and influence in recent years. 
  • A Paradigm shift in the journey of Indian diaspora engagement came in 2014, when the current incumbent, Narendra Modi, assumed office.
  • Large Public  Gatherings: It has been observed that PM Modi’s visit to foreign countries is marked by High-level, direct and personalised engagement in the form of large public gatherings with the diaspora.
    • PM Modi has undertaken more than 100 foreign trips to more than 60 countries since 2014 and addressed the gatherings from London to New York with huge response from the Diaspora.
    • The rallies and events are live-telecast to people of Indian origin across the globe including India to show them the growing stature of India on the world stage.
  • Domestic-International Political Continuum: Such mobilisation of the diaspora constitutes a domestic-international political continuum and helps the diaspora feel engaged and empowered, which the populist leader uses for grandstanding, legitimation and political capital.
    • Example: The Sikh diaspora held protest marches in various countries in support of the farmers’ movement, while those aligned with the BJP and its sister organizations backed the bills.
  • UNSC Membership: India’s permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) can become a reality with support from the diaspora.
    • India showcased its diplomatic influence in November 2017 by securing two-thirds of the votes at the UN for the reappointment of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice.
    • Once India secures a permanent seat in the UNSC, it can better safeguard its diaspora, especially when it has the power to veto decisions. 
  • High Political Offices: Apart from Rishi Sunak ( Prime Minister of UK), Several other Indian-origin world leaders hold high political status.
    • Kamala Devi Harris is the first woman and the first person of color to become Vice President of the USA.
    • Mohamed Irfaan Ali, born into a Muslim Indo-Guyanese family in Leonora, has been the ninth President of Guyana since 2020
    • Antonio Luis Santos da Costa has been the Prime Minister of Portugal since 2015 and is the 119th PM of the country. He has one parent who is Indian and another who is Portuguese.
    • Former police officer Chandrikapersad ‘Chan’ Santokhi became the ninth President of Suriname in 2020. Santokhi was born to a Hindu family in Lelydorp, Suriname.
      
    • Mauritian politician Pravind Kumar Jugnauth has been Prime Minister since 2017. He was born into a Hindu family, with ancestors from Uttar Pradesh.
    • Leo Eric Varadkar has been serving as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in Ireland since June 2020.
    • Pradeep Singh Roopun has serving as the seventh President of Mauritius since 2019.
  • Science Diplomacy: Initiatives like The Indus  Entrepreneurs (TIE) based in Silicon Valley have played a major role in the transfer of technology to the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sector in India and besides it assisted young technologists in managing the hi-tech business.
    • As more years go by and India’s population grows, its people will keep going to other countries to find good-paying jobs.
    • In 2022, 73% of America’s h-1b visas, which are given to skilled workers in “speciality occupations” such as computer scientists, were won by people born in India (The Economist Magazine).
  • RBI’s Deputy governor Michael Patra noted that over the years, India’s perceptions about the diaspora have also transformed from ‘brain drain’ to ‘brain gain’.
    • It is spurred by the contributions that Indians have made in various fields in the global arena, including information technology, entrepreneurship, international politics, medicine, arts and culture, with some of them becoming Nobel laureates.

Diaspora Dilemmas: Indian Diaspora Challenges and the Quest for Solutions

With the government giving people new hopes and expectations, there are also new worries and concerns among the overseas communities

• Strategic Issues: The volatility in West Asia, along with the ups and downs in oil prices, and the war between Russia and Ukraine have led to worries about many Indians coming back home, which could reduce money sent back home and increase competition for jobs.
• Go beyond Employer-Employee Mode: The Gulf countries will require foreign workers for some more time, but India’s relations with many of them remain in the employer-employee mode.
• No Precise Data: India doesn’t have exact numbers on how many Indians are living in different places around the world.
  • The amount of risks that Indians are capable of taking to get medical education is phenomenal. 
  • In places like Ukraine, Yemen, or Syria, Indians are found struggling to survive in tough situations. 
• Adventurism Among the Youth: Even more serious is the suspicion that some Indians are traveling to the Islamic State areas either to join the jihad or to settle there in what is considered a Promised Land. 
  • This kind of risky behavior needs to be stopped.
    
  • We were proud that Indians never joined terrorist groups, but recent trends are worrying.
• Lagging Judicial Reforms: Members of the diaspora, however, are worried about how democracy is working in the country, especially one person who mentioned that judicial reforms are moving too slowly.
  • It was one of the reasons for deciding not to invest in the country.
  • Other members raised issues of unequal labor representation and pay gap. 
• Lack Balanced growth: The diaspora members also requested the government of India to work towards a balanced growth of income among the population in India, ensuring each section of the society benefited from the growth.
• Renouncing of Indian Citizenship: According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), India has 3.12 million highly educated migrants. The number of Indians who have renounced their Indian citizenship has been going up.
  • On average, around 138,620 Indians have been giving up their citizenship each year over the last 12 years, from 2011 to 2022. This number falls within the range of 120,000 to 140,000 each year.

Indian Diaspora Empowerment: Government Initiatives for Overseas Welfare and Collaboration

• The government has two main approaches to the diaspora.
  
  • First, they help Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) by giving them services like consular help and protection, and they also do outreach to connect with them.
    
  • Second, they make rules to encourage the diaspora to help India grow by giving to charity, sharing knowledge, investing in new ideas, and helping with other projects to develop the country.
• Grievances Redressal By India: Grievances are responded through various channels like calls, walk-ins, e-mails, social media, 24×7 Helplines and Open Houses.
• Madad Portal: The Indian government launched MADAD (MEA in Aid of Diaspora in Distress), an online portal for consular grievances monitoring.
  
  • Issues are addressed with employers and host governments, or with state governments in India, as needed.
    
• Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendras (PBSKs) established in Dubai, Sharjah, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Kuala Lumpur to assist Indian workers abroad.
  • Shelter homes for distressed Indian nationals are set up at certain Missions/Posts.
    
• The eMigrate Portal: The eMigrate Portal streamlines emigration processes, connecting all key stakeholders electronically.
  
• Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF):  Financial aid for distressed Indians is provided through the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF).
  
  • Legal and financial assistance is offered to Indian women deserted or harassed by their spouses.
    
• Missions/Posts by India: Indian Missions/Posts assist distressed or stranded Indian nationals abroad during emergencies or crises, providing essentials and facilitating their return to India.
  
  • Operations like the Vande Bharat Mission, Operation Devi Shakti, Operation Ganga, and Operation Kaveri bring back Indians from various countries.
    
• Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas (PBD): Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas (PBD) celebrates the contributions of the overseas Indian community to India’s growth and development.
  • January 9 was chosen for PBD as it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the ‘greatest Pravasi’, returned to India from South Africa and led its freedom struggle.
• Liberal and Transparent FDI Policy: allowing for liberal investment, particularly through schemes under the Start-up India and Make in India programs.
• The Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX): To carry out R&D for Indian defence and aerospace needs; 
• Special membership categories like the Overseas Citizens of India and Person of Indian Origin.
• Special cultural and educational programs designed for young members of the diaspora and offer unique services.
• Institutional Support:  Further, leading Indian Industry Chambers like FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM are economically engaging with the Indian diaspora and have sought to establish strategies to increase investment opportunities in India.

Conclusion

India is in a tricky situation about whether it should restrict Indians going abroad for education or jobs. Doing so might go against freedom, but it’s important to know how many Indians are in other countries and what might happen in the future.

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