By Ashok Swain
India has the largest migrant population living abroad. With its increasing size, the influence of Hindu diaspora has taken a leap in the last two decades. Hindu migrants have not only become economically powerful but also politically influential in the West.
In recent years, they have been in the forefront of fighting legal battles against McDonald for using beef fat to fry its chips, against the use of Hindu icons on items being sold by Western companies and even over the contents of history text books in some states in the USA.
While this professionally successful Hindu diaspora has been extremely protective and highly combative about its own rights as a minority group in the West, at the same time it has been actively supporting majoritarian Hindu chauvinism in home country India. It is a big puzzle that Hindus abroad organize themselves to protect their ‘minority rights’ in their host countries, but also use that mobilized strength to support and promote minority-hating majoritarian politics in India.
The Hindu diaspora has been taking keen interest in electoral politics, supporting and financing the ‘Hindutva’ candidates in elections in India.
Thousands of Gujarati NRIs had come from the USA and UK to campaign for BJP in the recent Gujarat election. Why are Hindus living abroad as a minority invariably hold anti-minority views in the context of Indian politics? I have been trying to find an answer to this question for years, but has not been successful yet.
As a member of that Hindu diaspora this phenomenon is furthermore puzzling for me. Why does the Hindu diaspora with the experiences of living in multi-cultural developed democracies as a minority support rabid majoritarian ideology in its home country?
Not only in social media, but several Hindus living abroad often ask me, being a Hindu why do I despise Hindutva politics in India. It is true that I am not an atheist, rather a temple-going practicing Hindu.
Being from upper caste group, I had never experienced caste oppression in my village to hold an anti-Hindu view, rather had received benefits of caste hierarchy. Growing up in coastal Odisha several decades back, I did not have even the luxury of growing up in a multi-religious environment.
Moreover, when I have interacted with members of the RSS and its affiliates, they have been always courteous, and in many cases, quite helpful. Over and above, I am not, nor pretend to be an idealist. So, it is not that only others ask, I even sometimes wonder why do I abhor the political mobilization of Hindus by the Sangh Parivar in India? The only explanation for this fear and dislike for Hindu majoritarian mobilization is as I can see due to my almost three-decade long experience of living as a minority in Sweden.
A racial or religious diaspora group is always a minority. It does not matter in which country you live and what you do. Sweden is certainly one of the better countries for any minority. It has all the legal and institutional frameworks needed to protect and support people of any race, religion, and gender.
Still minority is a minority, even if it is in Sweden. Culture, society and market have their own preferences and biases. In 2009, when Swedish government implemented random ID checks by security forces at public places to identify people living illegally in the country, a North-African origin Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri had written a very moving open letter to Swedish Minister of Justice, telling her to borrow his ‘skin’ for a day and go out to experience racial profile by the police. It is impossible for someone from a majority community to comprehensively grasp the plethora of predicaments minorities face even in a democratic, developed and liberal country.
It does not matter if a minority is well integrated or assimilated or has achieved professional successes. Integrating to the dominant culture in society or achieving professional success helps when you are in a familiar surrounding only.
When a racist thug decides to attack a Hindu immigrant, he or she will not ask to see migrant’s passport or job contract or language proficiency. For that majoritarian bigot, the look of a minority is good enough…
This story was originally published in outlookindia.com. Read the full story here
