IndiaPost.com - Indian Americans speak up on I-Day

India Post News Service

NEW YORK: Sixty years ago, when India declared itself independent from British rule, the world applauded. Over five decades since, the young democracy had little to show to the world apart from its ancient culture, heritage and perhaps yoga.

The last decade, however, has seen resurgence and today the world is once again applauding the overwhelming boom in India’s economy. That applause, needless to say, is echoing among all those Indians who left their motherland in search of opportunities and a better life in the United States.

This August 15, as India completes 60 years of Independence, Indian Americans are undoubtedly proud of the country’s dramatic turnaround, but many are as yet not keen on going back. Vivek Wadhwa, a technology entrepreneur and Executive in Residence for the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University thinks 60 years was a significant milestone for India. "India has rapidly transformed from being a beggar nation that was subservient to its British masters to being a potential economic super-power.

It did all this as a free, democratic and secular nation," he says. New Delhi born Wadhwa lived in Australia before he moved to the United States in 1980. However, his interest in his country of origin has not waned in all these years. He recently led two research projects— one to determine whether Indian and Chinese output of engineering graduates was more than that of the US and the other to establish the immense contribution of Indian entrepreneurs to the US economy.

Wadhwa says he finds present day India fascinating to visit, to see the dramatic changes that are occurring every day. "Entrepreneurship and opportunity abound (in India today).

The country is optimistic and forward-looking. India has done an amazing job of preserving its culture and heritage while it advances." Wadhwa thinks it is also perhaps a good time to live in present day India, "because of the opportunities there...plus you can get the comforts of western living with the advantages of Indian culture and tradition." Poverty, Inequity However, poverty, inequity, corruption, pollution, social injustice such as caste and religious barriers, he feels are the major ills facing India even today.

"For everything good one says about India, there is a lot you can say about the problems," he says. And to deal with these problems, Wadhwa suggests that India needs to start by cleaning up the political system. The next focus, he says, needs to be on opening up of the economy and distributing the economic gains more evenly. Ohio State Representative Jay Goyal, who created ripples in the American politics by becoming a state representative at the age of 26, thinks India completing 60 years of independence shows that the people of that country are committed to democratic values and ideals that make strong countries.

Born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio, Goyal not only would love to visit present day India, but says, he would enjoy living there. "India is a country that is rich in culture and history. It is also a country that has been undergoing some significant economic development recently," he says. "I would enjoy living in present day India. I also have much family that currently lives there." Goyal thinks India has some significant work to do in terms of rooting out corruption in its political system and investing in public education, health care, and infrastructure. "I don’t know if I have any concrete suggestions on how India can address these problems. Ultimately, it is up to the political and business leaders to take charge and get something done," he says. G

iving an emphatic ‘No’ to the question of possibly living in India is Uday Tambar, a Princeton University scholar who was at the forefront of the New York Indian community’s movement to get Diwali recognized as an official holiday by the NY City Council. Tambar says investment in public infrastructure does not keep pace with the growing economy.

"For example, people are buying more electronic appliances, which the energy grid cannot support. Another example is poor sewage systems. Private housing developments may be able to buy their way out of the problem, but a broader solution remains elusive," he says of the ills that are facing India. Tambar was born in Scotland and lived in Great Britain till he was about four years of age. Then his family moved to Delhi for three years after which, he came to Queens, NY in the middle of second grade and has been here ever since.

He may not want to live in India, but Tambar likes to visit the country of his roots as he still has family there. Besides, India is going through rapid social, cultural and economic changes, which he thinks he would enjoy experiencing. India, he says, remains a democracy even 60 years after its Independence "and being a democratic society is not easy and can be messy at times". "Is India a perfect democracy?" he asks in rhetoric. "No, but it struggles continuously to improve its public institutions and the channels for its citizens to voice themselves.

A willingness to acknowledge its errors and learn from its mistakes are the marks of a maturing nation." By way of suggestion, Tambar says India can do with investment of more capital, potentially raised through issuing debt or public-private partnerships. Vibrant democracy Sudha Acharya, a social and community activist who has been working for the rights of the South Asian American community, is extremely proud of what India has come to be in the 60 years since its Independence. "Today it’s definitely a super power in the region and a major power in the world," she says. "More importantly, what makes its 60th year of Independence significant is that it has kept its vibrant democracy alive." "Also, the way we have shown the world that despite the many ups and downs, we still live together through our diversity.

That Indianness is undeniably evident even among the Indians settled abroad." Acharya visits India every year and loves it every time she goes there. But she admits there’s a lot that needs to be done to bring a balance between the urban and rural communities. "The urban areas are what we see as the modern India, but the rural areas need a lot more to be done to bring about all round development," she says. Having lived in New York for the past 38 years, Acharya says she would not consider going back to India. However, she says a lot of her friends have made India a second home now. "With the kind of amenities available, a lot of my friends go to India to live there for 4-5 months a year and live in the US the rest of the time.

I have a lot of young nieces and nephews in India who do not necessarily want to go abroad either for education or for job opportunities. They are happy with the opportunities available in India. And while they visit other countries, they have no desire to leave India." Social injustice, Acharya says, is perhaps the biggest ill that’s still plaguing India. "India now has a woman President and has had a woman Prime Minister earlier; but women in general are still discriminated against," she points out. "Also, for a balanced and all round development, India has to ensure that the urban wealth percolates down to the rural areas too."

"I don’t think there’s anything significant about India celebrating its 60th Independence Day," says Anika Sharma, who runs a marketing consulting company in New Jersey. "We have become a country of such vast divides. There’s part of the world that thinks India is steeped in poverty and there’s this other part that thinks India is going to grow into a giant power that will take away everyone’s jobs."

Sharma says that while she takes great pride in the vast strides that India has made in recent years, it is "not close to what we could’ve achieved in 60 years." Despite her reservations, Sharma, who has been living in New Jersey for the past seven years, says she is "as Indian as Indian can be." As the mother of a two-year old, she says, "I have made a conscious decision to visit India every year because I want my son to know where I come from, learn the languages and understand the culture of India." But as for going back to India, she says, "I don’t know if I want to live there.

A lot of my friends in the US have gone back to India and are earning dollar amounts. But there is no desire in me to push myself to go back because after getting used to the structured life here, it would be difficult to go back to living in a country which still does not have basic systems in place." "Two years back when I visited India, everyone including the rickshaw-wallas were euphoric that India has become a super power," continues Sharma.

"They need to get real. There is no political will or political accountability; there’s no infrastructure, and there’s corruption everywhere." Things can be improved if people at large felt the problems of the country as their own, she suggests. Television journalist and political activist, Renu Lobo was born in New Delhi, grew up in Italy before coming to the US at the age of 17. A Kashmiri Hindu by birth, she says she has strong roots to her country of origin, but going back to live there is not a choice she would make. "Because of the strong values instilled in me by my parents, it does not matter whether I live in Italy or India or New York, my roots are strong and I take it as my birthright to go to India and feel Indian. And by virtue of my profession, I can contribute to India in some way of the other irrespective of where I live, which is what I do.

" Her personal choice of wanting to live in the US apart, Lobo thinks today’s India is brimming with opportunities for everyone. "I prefer living in the US, but I feel the livability of present day India is excellent. Whether it is in IT, engineering, medicine, media or entrepreneurship, there are opportunities galore." Stiff bureaucracy, Lobo says, is what ails India even today. "Bureaucratic wrangling happens from the top to the bottom there.

The basic mindsets of the people need to be changed and I cannot underscore enough the significance of inculcating a strong work ethic in the common people." Lobo says that with half the population in India under the age of 25, this was the best opportunity for the country to inculcate and cultivate a strong work ethic among them. Ties with US Washington DC-based Bhavna Pandit was born in London, and moved to New Orleans, when she was three. As a political consultant to Members of US Congress, she brings a different perspective to the way India has shaped up in the 60 years since it gained Independence.

"India is the biggest democracy in the world and has the ability of continuing to grow and has the potential for phenomenal growth in coming years. "It took it a little while to get there, but I do believe that the more they partner with the US in terms of politics, the more they will prosper from the relations," says Pandit. Although her parents are regular visitors to India, Pandit herself hasn’t visited India in more than 10 years. "I’d love to visit India," she says, "but I don’t know if I’d live there." She would benefit more from the opportunities she has here and feels through that work, she can contribute more positively to India than by living there.

Apart from poverty being the No.1 problem facing India, Pandit says the vast class divide is becoming a major issue. "There are the very rich and the very poor. The middle class is neglected. Any nation needs its middle class to sustain its growth and prosperity. And that is the determining factor for the prosperity of many Western countries. Hence, India needs to focus more on its growing middle class." Also, the religious differences among communities, the deep rooted divide between the Hindus and the Muslims is something one cannot get past, she says. But, as someone who has never lived in India, what does Pandit think of her identity as a person of Indian origin. "Absolutely proud," she says emphatically.