{"id":3051,"date":"2016-07-16T10:55:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T05:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3051"},"modified":"2016-07-16T10:55:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T05:25:04","slug":"indians-abroad-hate-countrymen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=3051","title":{"rendered":"\u201cOh, Those Desis!\u201d Why Do Indians Abroad Despise Their Countrymen?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span><\/p><\/div>

wo months ago, a 36-year-old tailor was arrested for a <\/span>hoax bomb scare<\/span><\/a> at the Delhi passport office after his application for a new passport was declined thrice. As it turned out, he already possessed a valid passport but it was confiscated by his father when he was deported from Australia for having overstayed on a visitor\u2019s visa a few years ago. I couldn\u2019t help but feel a slight sympathy for the man \u2013 after all, all he wanted was to get away from India. Just like half the country\u2019s population. <\/span>\n\nIf it were up to us, we would rate living among Indians, the most frustrating and overwhelming man-made disaster to ever befall us. None of us like the <\/span>corruption<\/span><\/a>, pollution, <\/span>overpopulation<\/span><\/a>, dirty politics, and the near anarchy that this country is hurtling toward. We\u2019ve grown up marvelling at the Western model of cleanliness and greatness, but never think about recreating it in our backyards. Indians keep all the knowledge that can help improve their country in a place so safe that even they can\u2019t find it. As a result, neither are our roads any cleaner, nor are our politicians. We choose to revel instead in the glorious feeling of \u201cyahaan sab chalta hai,\u201d convincing ourselves that the only way out is to leave. <\/span>\n\nMost Indians consider leaving India as their biggest achievement. The aspiration to migrate is in the default settings of every <\/span>middle-class Indian<\/span><\/a>. We are willing to settle in countries with three hours of daylight and months of snow in winter; we\u2019d even pick countries affected by conflict. We\u2019d leave behind a promising job and our family and uproot our lives, to go settle in an unknown country. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nBut the problem starts once we start blindly believing that migrating to an alien country, is an honour that should be afforded only to us. The last thing we want is our fellow Indians being granted the same opportunity. We don\u2019t want to be an inspiration, but the only exception. It\u2019s like what one Punjabi woman sincerely told me in England, \u201cI didn\u2019t escape to a foreign country only to be surrounded by more Indians.\u201d<\/span>\n\n

It\u2019s as if we activate a mysterious Indian-hating gene the moment we set foot on firang soil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nI\u2019ve noticed that once Indians move abroad, all of them subconsciously turn into this Punjabi woman. Take for instance, the fact that most Indians prefer buying a house in a \u201cwhite\u201d neighbourhood, rather than a mixed-race neighbourhood. Once, when I was searching for a house in Handsworth, an elderly Indian gentlemen from Birmingham lamented how the area was much more peaceful before hordes of Indians started buying houses there. I\u2019m not sure if it was the old age, but the irony of the situation seemed to have completely escaped him.<\/span>\n\nWe hear similar stories at family gatherings in India. Remember your aunt\u2019s jibe-filled dispatch of that far-off cousin who believes he is better than everyone else in the family \u2013 he who constantly ignores his relatives, especially her son, since he has moved abroad? Both of them live in the same neighbourhood in the US and were inseparable while they were growing up together in India. But since he got that <\/span>green card<\/span><\/a>, he prefers not to mingle with the desis. Every family has such a cousin and he isn\u2019t alone in despising Indians. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s as if we activate a mysterious Indian-hating gene the moment we set foot on firang soil. It\u2019s a strange, endless cycle, one that only our peculiar set of ideals is capable of manufacturing.<\/span>\n\nI suspect it has got to do with the aspirational value that we attach to migrating abroad. We don\u2019t see it as a move, but as an escape \u2013 from our country, its citizens, and most importantly, from our Indianness. And why should anyone else better us? The middle class, as we know, is hyper competitive. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nBut for all our obsession with moving abroad and our desperate desire to sever ties with our Indianness, Indians abroad are surprisingly hyper-nationalistic, especially when dealing with foreigners. If they are with a group of white people, they will waste no opportunity to reiterate that they are \u201cproud Indians\u201d. Channeling their inner <\/span>Akshay Kumars<\/span><\/a>, they will deliver sermons on the unique India spirit, the joyous camaraderie between the countrymen, and sing paeans to their desh ki mitti and chole bhature. And yet refuse to acknowledge Mrs Singh while grocery shopping at the same supermarket. <\/span>\n\nAt this point, the only thing we should be proud of is our hypocrisy. <\/span>\n\nIt reminds me of a visit to Wagah Border long ago. About 10 minutes before the gates opened, there was a near-stampede, resulting in wailing children, a few fights, and ample hair-pulling. But, as soon as the ceremony started, the same people who were willing to trample on each other to get a better view of it, suddenly started shouting \u201cBharat Mata ki Jai\u201d and \u201cVande Mataram\u201d. If anything, this is what describes us best: ABCD \u2013 Always Brooding Confused Desi. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have noticed a curious trait about Indians living abroad \u2013 the sight of a fellow countrymen annoys them. It\u2019s like what one Punjabi woman sincerely told me in England, \u201cI didn\u2019t escape to a foreign country only to be surrounded by more Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":269,"featured_media":3052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[5991,4325,5992,3430,5993,5994],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-abroad","tag-desi","tag-firang","tag-indian","tag-indian-people","tag-indians-abroad"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cOh, Those Desis!\u201d Why Do Indians Abroad Despise Their Countrymen?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have noticed a curious trait about Indians living abroad \u2013 the sight of a fellow countrymen annoys them. 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