IF EVER THERE WAS A TIME FOR INDIAN-AMERICAN technocrats to espouse a new politics, that time is now—not a politics of disassociation and apathy (living in our cocoons, making money, and buying new cars) but a politics of scrutiny, of active engagement and linkage.
Of the many reasons for this, three stand out.
• We live in and contribute a great deal to a country bent on empire building and colonial domination.
• We live largely in our hermetic boxes, barely and rarely associating with other ethnic groups and minorities in the U.S.
• A huge backlash against “Indians” and “India” has started, precipitated by the movement of U.S. jobs to India and of “jobs for Americans” to Indian-Americans.

While these might appear to be independent, they are connected and have to be seen as such. However let’s look at each one separately first.

Contributing to Empire
With regard to per capita income, Indian-Americans constitute the most affluent ethnic group in the U.S. What this translates directly into is that we contribute to the U.S. machine at unmatched levels.

If it wasn’t already clear, the recent colonization of Iraq makes it plain: The U.S. machine—the one we contribute to—is bent on empire; an integral part of empire is the subjugation of the colonized. We have to ask ourselves whether we want to be part of this or if we want to fight to make not only our home country but also the entire world more just.

Living in a Box
Even if our collective predilection were not to bother about our home country’s doing abroad, it would certainly behoove us to at least think about the social, economic, and political dispensation at home.

Inequality in the U.S. is rising at an alarming rate. 40 million people, disproportionately minorities, are without healthcare. Incarceration rates, especially of African Americans, are the highest in the world. Real wages have stagnated at best and gone backward in many cases over the past three decades. How involved are we in the politics of equality at home? How often do we make common cause with others? Who will stand up for us, if we don’t stand up for anyone?

Backlash
There are three elements to discuss here. First, bad economies always make racists more vocal. One only needs to remember the ferocity of the anti-Japan and anti-Japanese diatribes that were so often the reaction Japanese auto companies’ success in the U.S. (and the associated negative effect on the Big Three in Detroit).

However, back to point number two above, if Indian-Americans had organic connections built on the theme of solidarity with other ethnic groups in the U.S., the ability of the backlash to reach a tipping point would be limited since other groups in the U.S. would identify with us.

Second, companies don’t move jobs to India for ANY reason other than to save money. They don’t do it because we Indians are so smart. They don’t do it because they believe in global diversity. They don’t do it to be politically correct. That’s the world we live in. In a world, however, in which income levels were more equal, this opportunity for intense cost savings would not be possible. The fact is that India is a “cheaper country” simply because Indians are paid less than people in the developed world. It’s really that simple. That some people do the same work for less money is a symptom of a world system that needs changing. That’s the real message to the people who are up in arms over jobs going to India: Give us an equitable global economic order and no jobs will be moved away from the U.S.!

Third, backlashes are the product of hypocrisy. Indian immigrants, highly educated and enterprising, contribute a great deal to the U.S. economy and in fact immigrants in general are a fundamental factor in giving the U.S. comparative advantage in areas like technology. So the naysayers need to make a decision—do they want the benefits that immigrants bring or do they not? (Question—what would happen to the U.S. healthcare system if all Indian doctors returned to India? Another question—how much would India’s healthcare system improve? The first question is for the racists in the U.S., the second is for Indian doctors living large in the U.S.)

And how are all these connected and what do any of these have to do with you? Each of these factors points towards the existence of a global elite, in whose august ranks most of us (high-income Indians working in technology companies in the U.S.) are included, that rides roughshod over the vast majority of the world’s people. This global elite identifies not with the spectrum of people in its various countries of origin, not with dispossessed and alienated groups in its home country, not with people on whom wars are waged, not with those ravaged by curable diseases. Instead, we—the global elite—identify only with each other.

Being a global citizen means far more than being cosmopolitan, jet-setting, comfortable in many languages, and able to make a good living in a country to which one immigrated. It means having a responsibility to the people of the country that nurtured you (and likely educated you at their expense), having solidarity for people less fortunate, and understanding one’s organic connection to all parts of the society in which one lives.

The time is now for politics. It’s important. We owe it to ourselves and to the world.