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V Gangadhar

Who says travel broadens the mind?

September was a bad month for India. Floods ravaged many states, unrest prevailed in many regions, the prime minister developed a bad knee and there was just one bronze medal for us at the Sydney Olympics. But there was silver lining. The Sahara Cup tamasha at distant Toronto was called off, evoking a sigh of relief from the authorities of that city.

Why? Normally during the week-long Sahara Cup, Indian and Pakistani settlers who had been living in perfect harmony turned into bitter enemies over the happenings on the cricket field. They waved the tricolour or the Pakistani flag, cheered their respective heroes, jeered the opponents and made a nuisance of themselves, affecting the peace of the city. Why did Toronto not take to cricket? Its people must have seen the impact of the game on the Indian and Pakistani settlers and must have been happy that they stuck to ice hockey.

An Indian will always be an Indian. Even within the country, the Keralite will be a Keralite, the Gujarati will be nothing more than a Gujju. Take the case of Ariyalur Ananthanarayana Iyer who came to Bombay some 60 years back, settled down in Matunga but remained untouched by the excitement and variety of the city. His friends were exclusively South Indian, he never learnt two words in Marathi, spurned food items from other parts of the country and sought his entertainment from Aurora cinema which screened Tamil films or the music programmes at the Sion Tamil Sangam. And he was a happy man.

So was Dhirubhai Dholakia from Shahapur, Ahmedabad, and now a resident of Chicago which has turned out to be a mini-Gujarat. Dhirubhai and family live the same kind of life they had lived at Shahpur Darwaza, perform Satyararayan katha regularly, watch Hindi films on video, celebrate Diwali and sal mubarak with gusto. They do not associate themselves even remotely with the non-Gujarati life around them.

Who says travel broadens one's mind? Millions of Indians settled abroad or who visit foreign nations remain clannish, seeking the company of their own kind of people, from their own region. Travelogues are highly popular in Tamil Nadu. The travel writer, even while visiting the North Pole, seeks the company of a fellow Tamilian settled there and can serve him idli, sambar and genuine South Indian coffee!

Despite having lived abroad for several decades, most Indians never changed their concept of India, Indians made a name for themselves in Silicon Valley, their achievements were lauded by President Clinton, both the Democrats and the Republicans wooed the Indian community. But the provincial narrow-mindedness and religious bigotry does not go away so easily. Religious, regional prejudices persist.

This attitude came to the fore during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's recent visit to the US. He was received enthusiastically by members of the Indian community. This was natural, but what was irritating was the fact that the welcome ceremonies were dominated by Indians, who despite the fact that they have living abroad for several years and have made a name for themselves in several fields, showed up as religious bigots. Since communalism was thicker than water, the BJP prime minister was thoroughly at home in the company of his saffron fans. Even the traditional red carpet was saffron.

Vajpayee was at his 'best' while addressing the programme organised by the Friends of the BJP at Washington DC. Naturally, he spoke in Hindi, his eloquence was overpowering and his barbs against Pakistan were cheered. Vajpapee was thoroughly at home, the experience was just like addressing a BJP sammelan at home in one of the cowbelt towns.

For such Indians, even the most sophisticated cities in the US were like cowbelt towns. I had always wondered why NRIs had never taken advantage of having broadened their outlook in a nation which was truly liberal and was made up of an amazing number of communities and religious. The Indians worked hard, made money, became community leaders but most of them at heart, remained Hindu Indians, Patel Indians, Iyer Indians, Rao Indians and so on.

In many cases, the NRIs tried to act more Indian than the natives. They were desperately trying to cling to their 'Indianness' which they felt was threatened by their young generation which was becoming progressively westernised. The NRIs were caught between two stools and turned to Hindutva with a vengeance.

Their daughters, whether they had the inclination or the interest, had to learn Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam. Every Hindu festival was celebrated with pomp. Every Brahmin boy had to have the 'thread' ceremony. More priests than required officiated at weddings which clung to traditions like nelangu which had been discarded in India.

It was no wonder that Indians in US and UK went overboard with a movie like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayange where a tyrannical Hindu father forcibly takes his daughter who had fallen in love with an Indian boy in London to rural Punjab so that she could be bartered off in a traditional arranged marriage! I found the movie sickening, yet the NRIs lauded its traditional message!

It is this quest for 'Indianness' which drew the NRIs to the BJP which aimed at a Hindu India. Indians abroad suddenly found that Hinduism was under 'threat' in their own country and believed that only the BJP and its crude allies like the VHP and Bajrang Dal could save it. So they rejoiced over the destruction of the Babri Masjid, not realising that the fall of the Masjid was a blow to secular India.

What is most distressing is the fact that Indians of outstanding intellectual calibre, including scientists, technocrats and businessmen, did not seem to realise the importance of a secular India. How could they support the meeting at Staten Island which was taken over by sadhus, sanyasis and the worst elements of the VHP and the BD?

Did the NRIs want their motherland to be ruled by a motley crowd of intolerant religious bigots? Would they support such forces in the country of their adoption? Would the Indians living in the American South contribute to the growth of the Ku Klux Klan?

Indians living abroad should not lose their tradition and culture. But the NRI moneybags who backed the BJP had chosen the worst aspects of our culture like discrimination of castes and other religions as issues worth fighting for. India can never be a Hindu India, even with the dollars pouring in from some bigoted NRIs. Let such people look around themselves and find out that the diversity of the US was a major factor in making it a superpower.