Other side of the ‘shining’ coin Status & recognition of service to

[Guest guest]

Many foreigners have rendered utmost service to India by making her their

home and settling down in India in search of the values inspired by the

eternal Dharma that they expected to find in India. These are our FRIs:

Foreigners Resident in India. They have served the Indian national interest,

promoted native Dharma and culture, and sacrificed a material life style

they would get in their own country. Having sacrificed the material wealth,

unlike the Non-Resident-Indians, they do not constitute a monetary resource.

Have we given them Indian and/or Dual citizenship? Permanent resident

status, as green card holders have in US? Have we recognised their

contributions even as we have benefited from them?

 

I hope authorities are sensitive to the needs of FRIs who have enriched

India immensely, while RNIs (Resident Non-Indians, as Arvind Lavakare refers

to them) sell India and abandon Indian culture and values.

 

Claude's experience and anguish in the article below, I hope, serves to be

an

eye opener!

 

- Pranawa C. Deshmukh

---

 

The New Indian Express

 

The other side of the ‘shining’ coin

Thursday March 17 2005 16:22 IST

 

Claude Arpi

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, I celebrated a very happy anniversary. Thirty years ago, I

left France, my native country, to permanently settle in India. Thirty years

is

a long time not only in the life of an individual, but also a nation. In

1974,

with my newcomer naivety, I had assumed that the India that I was adopting

as

my new motherland was the ‘eternal India’ of the ages. I soon discovered the

discrepancies between her outer forms and her ‘eternity’.

 

Of course India was said the largest democracy in the world (Is it still

true

today?). In 1976, the Indian Parliament had even voted the Constitution’s

42nd

Amendment which redefined India as a ‘Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic

Republic’. But frankly speaking, I never cared for this ‘socialist

secularism’

as my interest was deeper.

 

Before coming to India, I had read countless books on this ancient nation

and

had heard a great deal about the ‘sanatan dharma’ propounded by her sages.

To

me, it seemed to be the only solution for India. The voice heard by Sri

Aurobindo in 1909 after a year spent in His Gracious Majesty’s gaol was a

constant inspiration: “…it is this that I have perfected and developed

through

the Rishis, Saints and Avatars... When therefore it is said that India shall

rise, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India

shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great …It is for the

Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists...”

 

Or again: “… But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single

country,

it does not belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world.

It

is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which

embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal.”

 

The ‘human’ concept of secularism has come and it may go, but my thirty year

old question remains: Does the ‘eternal dharma’ still sustain the land of

India

today?

 

In the 70’s, materially nothing worked. I remember that during the first

months

of my stay, some young friends had enacted a small drama. The main character

was a foreign kid: Whatever he touched would break and each time he would

shout

‘Made in India!’. The spectators roared with laughter. This was a fact of

daily

life: India was synonymous with ‘bad quality’ to say the least.

 

Materially many things have changed for the better now, but it is still not

easy to catch glimpses of ‘eternal India’.

 

Long before independence, Sri Aurobindo had told a disciple: “The question

is

what is India going to do with her Independence... The above kind of affair

(communal riots)? Bolshevism? Goonda-raj? Things look ominous.” It appears

that

India has to go through it all.

 

In many ways, it is true that India is shining. To give an example a few

days

back I read on a French website that Narain Karthikeyan was offered a F1 car

to

drive because the Tatas had given their name to the project. Thirty years

ago,

who could have imagined that it would be enough for an Indian company to

lend

its name (and money) to such a venture, to have an Indian driving a F1 car?

 

Obviously, the IT boom and the role played by the NRIs have done more than

Indian diplomacy (with its boring non-alignment policy) to force the world

to

recognise that India is not a third world nation any more. That is one side

of

the coin.

 

However, many things still look ominous. I have to admit that when I read my

morning newspapers my (French) blood starts invariably to boil. To cite an

example, a newspaper mentioned a few days back: “the rate of registration of

births in Bihar fell from 23 percent in 1996 to just 0.8 percent in 2003

while

Uttar Pradesh has not sent records of birth and death registration to the

Centre for the last eight years because of lack of forms.” Everybody in

India

can easily believe it. I myself struggled for a year to get an Indian birth

certificate for my daughter. A similar certificate took only 15 minutes from

the French Consulate. Everyday, one could find hundreds of such stories. It

is

probably why Mr. Advani has now realised that the campaign ‘India Shining’

was

only one part of the truth.

 

One fact bothers me more than anything else: While becoming shining, India

has

also become mercantile. In her rage to imitate the West (there is certainly

a

good side to it, especially when you need a birth certificate), India often

forgets her own traditions.

 

One issue which shows this mercantilism is the Pravasi Bharatya Divas yearly

encounter. A few years ago, when India suddenly discovered that the NRIs

were

doing well and could be a regular ‘Indian’ source for the badly-needed

foreign

investments, a double citizenship scheme was quickly devised. Its purpose

was

to make the life of the potential investors easier. It rightly received a

tremendous response from the NRI community.

 

But what I found terribly unfair is that the universally accepted concept of

reciprocity was not even considered. A FRI (Foreigner Resident in India),

even

if he has given all his life to India (what many NRIs have not done), cannot

be

considered and offered dual citizenship. I know of many FRIs who have spent

30,

40 or 50 years in India, served India and who have loved to be offered dual

citizenship. Unfortunately they do not represent ‘investment potential’ and

they still have to struggle every year with the renewal of their Residential

Permit. An eminent FRI, recently awarded the Padma Bhushan, who was born in

India and has lived most of his life here, finds himself in a similar

position.

The least India could do is to introduce a Green Card system for those who

have

made India their home.

 

Even a China which totally unaware of the meaning of the words ‘democracy’

or

‘human rights’ has in 2004 opened a bureau for the Regulations on

Examination

and Approval of Permanent Residence of Aliens responsible for the

implementation of China’s Green Card scheme.

 

When recently a Canadian NRI applied for Canadian citizenship, she was given

a

beautiful certificate by the Premier of the Province of British Columbia

where

she lived. On this certificate was printed a welcome letter which amongst

other

things mentioned: “It is our earnest hope that British Columbia will be

enriched by your cultural heritage and that you will enjoy life to the

fullest

in our beautiful province.”

 

For those who despite all appearances have never doubted about the ‘eternal

aspect’ of Mother India, it would be only fair if they could one day be

treated

at par with NRIs who immigrated to the West.

 

Probably the Government of India thinks that FRI’s have done enough Nishkama

Yoga to not be attached to a small booklet. Some may still be!