Home and Homesickness

The Indian diaspora is dealing with a tricky situation-how to be homesick when various sicknesses are afflicting the homeland

- Subir Sinha

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi recently visited the US, and as it happens with all his visits to foreign shores, the ‘Indian diaspora’ is in focus again. A carefully curated set of its members donned traditional finery, performed dances and kirtans, and lined up at various venues where they chanted slogans eulogising Modi and India, the homeland.

Indian media has gushingly covered these events to claim that the diaspora adores Modi, and that ‘Indian culture’ is alive and well in the far-flung corners of the world. Isn’t it charming that the coverage is encouraging us to think how much love the diaspora has for the motherland, and how they express it in song and dance and spirited slogan-shouting?

Cynics may well insinuate that some of this crowd was ‘flown from India’ or was rustled by overseas front organisations of the ruling party, but that raises a very interesting question— why does the diaspora matter to the homeland, as much as the homeland to the diaspora? The same question is raised by the other subset of the diaspora which, as in the visits of many previous prime ministers abroad, will protest against the visit, raising issues concerning the human rights abuses, restrictions on press and civil society, and democratic deficits back in India.

In media coverage and the perception of a sizeable population back home, these will be called traitors who have ‘sold out’ to ‘breaking India forces’. The diaspora as uncritically affirming the goodness of the motherland, and as implacably critical of political figures and conditions back home, represents two broad streams of people who left India years, decades, even centuries ago, who long for ‘home’ even as they make other homes elsewhere.

Becoming Diaspora