India's diaspora diplomacy

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy

Volumn 4, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 361-372

  Rana, Kishan S ^a  

^a B 33 IFS Apartments ^*  (India)

Author keywords

Consular diplomacy; Diaspora; Diaspora diplomacy; Diplomacy; Diplomatic outreach; India; Migration; Mobilizing support; Networking; Overseas communities

Indexed keywords

EID: 72449209277     PISSN: 18711901     EISSN: 1871191X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/187119109X455955     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. See Report of the L.M. Singhvi High-Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora, January 2002, availableonline at http://indiandiaspora.nic.in/ (accessed on 11 February 2009).
2. Figures given by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Mail Today, 22 May 2009. The current globalrecession will probably affect such remittances; anecdotal evidence indicates that some constructionlabour has returned from the Gulf, but hard numbers are as yet unavailable.
3. After escaping from British custody in 1940, Bose pursued the armed rebellion as the way to independence. He allied himself first with Hitler's Germany, and then with the Japanese, raising the Azad Hindarmy from 1942-1944. In the pantheon of nationalist leaders, he is perhaps the one most admired by theIndian people.
4. Article written by Nehru in Montana, Switzerland, 13 September 1927, in Uma Iyengar (ed.), The Oxford India Nehru (New Delhi: Oxford Press, 2007), pp. 474-475.
5. Iyengar (ed.), The Oxford India Nehru, p. 556.
6. Apa Saheb Pant was the scion of a minor prince and left behind a reputation that resonated for over 30 years. I saw this first hand when Pant visited Nairobi in 1985.
7. In hindsight, many of the Ugandan Indians have come to see their expulsion as an unwitting favour, since it forced them to move to countries that offered far greater opportunities for entre preneurship; theUnited Kingdom took over 30,000. After 1985, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has welcomed backthe Indian community, and some 12,000 have returned.
8. Many Fijian Indians have also migrated to Western countries since the political crisis, reducing theIndian component in the total population.
9. IThis common practice for Gulf employers to hold on to the passports of such workers; local laws givethese workers few rights, although this situation has improved a little in recent years.
10. The Indian community in Iraq helped the embassy in processing the distressed workers, in a model case of crisis management. As it happens, this envoy received no recognition for exceptional leadership. Approximately 5,000 Indians stayed back voluntarily in Iraq.
11. These cards, which were launched in 1999, provide visa exemption and other benefits covering finan-cial exemptions, residence and admission to educational institutions. Despite long debate, India has notaccepted a demand frequently made by the new migrants who live mainly in Western countries for dualcitizenship; the Indian Constitution and its laws do not permit this.
12. In early 1982, as a member of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's staff, I recommended the creation of a separate department in the MEA for this work. On the suggestion of her Principal Secretary P.C. Alexander, she opted for the creation of this unit in the MEA.
13. The India-Mauritius tax treaty was signed in the early 1980s, long before anyone had visualized economic reform and the role that FDI might play. India has been unable to persuade Mauritius to revise thetreaty, despite an annual tax loss estimated at about US$1 billion per year - this, too, speaks volumes of the bilateral equation, in which the diaspora connection is a key element.
14. Innovatively, business and industry associations carry out much of this cultivation of parliamentariansfrom the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, as a form of public-private partnerships.
15. This was a major shortcoming of the network of India Investment Centres that India had established in a number of key financial centres, including Frankfurt, London and New York. They limited themselves mainly to cultivating the diaspora, and soon after the launch of economic reforms in 1991 thesecentres were closed and the organization was wound up. Today, investment promotion is handled byIndian missions abroad. Indian bank branches located overseas also do not do enough to woo mainstreambusiness, for the same reason.
16. Report of the L.M. Singhvi High-Level Committee on the Indian Diaspora, Executive Summary, p. xxi.
17. Typically, developing states find it hard to negotiate such agreements, because the numbers involvedare not large and there is no reciprocal compulsion for the Western country involved, either becausematching provisions do not exist, or affect very few nationals of that country.
18. See Kishan S. Rana, 'Island Diplomacy', Indian Express, New Delhi, 7 June 2003. This article is about the care required in handling relations with Mauritius and mentions an Indian envoy who became anobject of local controversy.
19. Special institutes and even universities that mainly cater to the diaspora, and residential schools, existand are growing. The latter are a draw for parents that want their children to be rooted in Indian values.
20. Foreign investors have toyed with this idea too, to bring in Western retirees in purpose-designed centres, taking advantage of India's warm climate. Unlike in Sri Lanka, this concept has not gained traction, although 'medical tourism' is now a growing Indian service industry that attracts increasing numbers offoreign nationals besides the diaspora.
21. I had some problems in Mauritius with right-wing Indian political figures that tried to interfere withlocal politics. Prime Minster Jugnauth of Mauritius threatened to expel one of them in 1985, but I wasable to persuade him that public action would produce needless trouble, and that I might convey afriendly warning on his behalf to the individual - which worked.
22. In San Francisco (1986-1989) and Germany (1992-1995) my missions made same-day delivery ofvisas a standard practice, but these were seen as maverick actions by the system. Now contemporarymethods, including outsourcing the handling of visa applications and initial processing, are being introduced in the heavy-demand consular centres.
23. 'Brain drain' or the drawing away of talent overseas has not been a major concern in India over theyears, except in some pockets of scarcity. Most Indians have held to the notion of a 'talent bank', onewhich has become available as opportunities have grown in the home country.
24. See online at http://www.indicorps.org/volunteer-opportunities.php.