A Non – Resident Indian (NRI) is a citizen of India who has migrated to another country. Non – Resident Indian also refers to a person of Indian origin who resides out of India.
A person of Indian origin who is born outside India is also called a non – resident Indian. Since time immemorial India has been a part of the world, with its people interacting with the rest of the world.
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History tells us how India was once the Mecca for trade, tourism and philosophy. People from all over the world flocked to India. In time Indians have travelled to other parts of the world in search of better education and better job opportunities.
Today, non resident Indians that inhabit almost all the different countries of the world amount to a staggering figure of 24 million; a drop in the ocean for a country that boasts of a population of 1.136 billion people.
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Most Indians immigrate to foreign countries because they are disappointed with the way things are back home. The corruption, the lack of opportunities, the limited resources, and the lack of facilities are some of the reasons that Indians leave Indian shores to go abroad. Many NRI entrepreneurs settled abroad have had legendary success.
Be it the Silicon Valley or the food business, the Forbes list of wealthiest people or NASA, almost in every field there will be an Indian who has survived and overcome the odds to ascertain himself through expertise, commitment, and hard work.
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Non- resident Indians do not have it easy in the lands they travel to. Coming from the worlds biggest democracy which embraces people from all castes and creeds with equal fervour makes it very difficult for NRIs to adjust to the racial prejudices that are prevalent abroad. They have to deal with people calling them “brownie” because of their skin colour and they even get paid lesser for their services simply because they are expatriates.
Non resident Indians face a lot of challenges abroad. Being brought up on eastern morals, there is always a fear that their children will be affected by the racy Western culture. This results in children growing up confused. The children of NRIs who are NRIs themselves constantly battle with the disparity they see in their homes and in their environment.
Despite adopting a foreign country NRIs are hesitant to adopt its foreign culture. When it comes to values most Indians would opt for Indian values. In fact the distance makes them more attached to the motherland. They still practice the same rituals they practice back home, probably with more fervour. They might not visit on account of varied reasons but their heart continues to beat for the motherland.
When they come home on vacations they may curse the traffic, the infrastructure, the maddening crowds, the lack of sanitation but they will still revel in eating in the same unhygienic eateries on the roadside. It is comical to see them down the food made on the roadside with bottled water.
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At the end of the day it boils down to the fact that in India a non resident Indian can still walk with his head held high. He may be a non – resident Indian but he is an Indian nevertheless and will be treated as such. They may adopt foreign countries as their own but neither the passage of time nor the distances between their ancestral land and their new homes is capable of severing the umbilical cord shared by mother India and her prodigal children.
