NEW DELHI, February 12, 2005: The Indian diaspora cares more for Indian culture than the Indians “migrating” to higher income groups, Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Culture S. Jaipal Reddy said here. The 20-million strong Indian diaspora, scattered over 110 countries, is one of the most diverse and successful in the world, said Reddy. He was speaking Friday evening after the release of “Overseas Indians – The Global Family” — the book on the Indian diaspora written by senior journalist Shubha Singh. Lauding the Indian diaspora for its versatile achievements and its contribution to the Indian economy by way of investments and remittances, Reddy said: “We often tend to confuse modernity and Westernization. The Indian diaspora can be modern without necessarily being Western.” He also spoke about some sections of the Indian diaspora getting more attention than the others. “We mostly focus on NRIs settled in the Western countries. There is a very successful diaspora in Latin American countries like Suriname,” he said, while acknowledging the presence of Surinamese ambassador to India in the audience. Singh’s book, as the author states in preface, analyzes “various processes which Indian communities went through in different regions of the world as they settled in new lands and adjusted to their new circumstances.” She was inspired by her rich family history of emigration dating back to her great grandparents’ migration to Fiji to attempt a book that will explore the diapora’s need for a closer connectivity to their ancestral land.
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