These IIT & IIM degree holders settled in the US often support aggressive Hindutva, hate Muslims, support Trump & Modi, and lord over other Indians in the US.
Most IITians, past or present, and even those aspiring to enter IITs, look at America as the final fulfilment of their career. As do IIM students. Thousands of parents are ready to send their children to study in the US by taking huge loans or breaking their fixed deposits, as are professionals, who are ready to give an arm and a leg to realise their dreams of being NRIs in the US.
The queue of visa seekers outside American consulates is a spectacle to behold. Young boys and girls with their parents start queuing up from midnight, weathering rains or cold, to get early entry when the doors open in the morning.
Becoming a permanent resident of the US (colloquially known as possessing a green card) is like holding the key to Alibaba’s cave. Among the Gujarati and Sikh communities, this craze is phenomenal. Those who are not in the club of IITs or IIMs, or don’t have business connections, also want to enter the cave, legally or illegally.
There is even an association in the US to protect the “undocumented” (read illegal) migrants. The US government converts such people into “documented” persons, at regular intervals. The craze for going to America is global, even in all Muslim countries (though their entries are getting restricted or denied).
This is why the news of the United States making it tough to get H-1B visas spread like an epidemic among the Indian middle class. They felt their dream melting away.
A reality check shows that perhaps one of every 100 or more seekers gets the H-1B visa. Most IT companies have already tightened the screws in India, and IT engineers feel betrayed by the US and India. But in any case, renewals of these visas, even of those possessing them, were getting problematic for past few years.
The super-high caste of NRI Americans
I estimate that about 70 per cent or more senior government bureaucrats, top police and intelligence officials, private sector managers, higher echelons in the academia, bankers, present or past armed forces personnel, professionals from different fields, and of course the political class have at least one, if not more, kin in the US.
Indeed, most of these people proudly flaunt their direct family connections with the US. It is also a symbolic gesture of displaying superiority. I have seen boys or girls feeling depressed and inferior when their visas get rejected. In drawing room conversations, the “successful” members of this class discuss routinely about the San Francisco-New York red-eye flights, Miami to Atlanta car journeys, the weather in Chicago or Boston, Ivy League colleges, real estate prices, new fads and crimes in the US. They will not talk with the same ease even about Bengaluru or Hyderabad, Bhopal or Lucknow, Jaipur or Vadodara.
In the Indian caste hierarchy, this NRI-American is the new super-high ‘caste’. Once they become members of this caste, they get full license to “educate natives” on how to fight corruption, how to govern, how to solve the Kashmir crisis, how to overcome caste-based reservation, how to isolate Muslims, and even how to obliterate Pakistan.
This new caste is a post-1980s creation; to be precise, born of Rajiv Gandhi’s computer initiative. Interestingly, the Sangh Parivar, the socialists and the communists were opposed to Rajiv Gandhi’s approach. They called him an immature “computer boy”.
Educated Indians’ migration to the US began long before the software generation. The first wave after independence was in the late sixties/early seventies. They were hard working, young Indians wanting to prosper on merit. They washed dishes in restaurants, did other menial jobs in odd places, moonlighted after classes or work, and got settled.
The second wave was in the late seventies. The third was the early computer generation. But the fourth, post-liberalisation wave, with its IIT/IIM degrees, gave birth to this new caste.
Today, there are nearly 3.5 million Indians in America. Of course, all of them are not in the Silicon Valley or in the tech world, but these are the people who seem to have usurped the leadership of all NRIs.
Their politics
Most of these super-high castes are neo-Hindus who advocate aggressive Hindutva and a hatred for Muslims, want the Ram Mandir to be built, believe in stridently anti-Nehru, extreme Right-wing and neo-liberal politics. Many of them support Donald Trump in the US and Narendra Modi in India; a few oppose Trump but support Modi. The post-1991 economic and political discourse has been dominated by this new caste-class.
When Louis Dumont, the renowned French scholar of Indology and sociology, specifically of caste structure, wrote his famous treatise, Homo Hierarchicus, he had not seen the rise of this new hi-tech, nouveau riche, NRI super-high caste.
If Dumont had seen this, he would have reinterpreted Indian society and its dynamics. Perhaps he could have written not only about the NRI phenomenon but also the RNI (Resident Non-Indian), who defines the current socio-political paradigm.
Idiotic article! In fact, IITians are one among the very few people who work hard to earn their respect instead of bootlicking like many others. Throwing mud at everyone makes you look like a loser more than anything else. If educated people can’t find opportunities here (Oh! isn’t India a great place to do business?) they have every right to find opportunities elsewhere. No one has time to wait for a good governance
I feel that people coming to US from second or third tier colleges are more aggressive right wing than NRIs coming from top colleges.
then i read the name of author..
No stats to back the claims. “I estimate” seriously. Please have some sense of responsibility, being a reputed journalist and coming up with shit like this, you should be ashamed. And as Kutta Ketkar pointed out IITians won’t be affected. TCS, Infosys would be most affected
one request Karthik .. stop calling him “reputed” journalist.. he is a most abusive and disreputed journalist
No IITians will be affected by this particular move, in fact the ones most affected are Infosys employees
Why not? In a country where cast and creed are the main criteria for speedy career growth irrespective of the financial background, such article doesn’t make any impact. Students with merit will go to NZ, Australia insyesd. Who csn stop? Politics will keep Indian economy in “developing” stage for next 100 yeats.
May be point of view put here by Mr Ketkar is reflected in attitude of some of the NRI’s, which I think are member of same society who supports rhetoric of Hindu Muslim,Ram mandir, Reservation or Kashmir issue back in India. Being an upper caste NRI and having opportunity to interact with lots of NRIs, I have felt, baises about the fore said issues are not because they have become NRI, rather it is something they have carried along before they became NRI. Interestingly painting NRI’s as Modi and Trump supporters is similar of calling likes of Mr Ketakar a congress supporter. You can not judge political inclinations of some one by mere fact of “if someone has attended a particular seminar or rally”. Importantly I feel NRI’s are more informed, specially H1B visa types, than an “average intellectual” back home. They certainly have a better sense of politics of India and around the world. You need not have to prove that you are a liberal, who in desperate time can support a right winger. And not all NRI’s are fan of Modi.
Very responsible statement from an NRI: All Hindu upper-caste NRIs are Modi fan.And No They don’t carry it from back-home.The NRIS who have been settled in US/Canada for 40 years are more strong Modi Supporters.
Based on your assumption, I can safely say, it is your notion talking. Those who know me personally, know how big I am a Modi fan. Hence, your statement “All Hindu upper-caste NRIs are Modi fan” fall in the same category of biases as of Mr. Ketkar. (without any empirical evidence).
” All Hindu upper-caste NRIs are Modi fan. ” … this is the exact sweeping generalization that Sansidha was talking about
The number of generalised attributions to IIT and IIM grads this article makes, without presenting even one shred of evidence, is just mind boggling!!!
Thats what the new journalism is all about.. especially the ‘Gandhi Family’ dynasty c**k suckers ** .. no need to present any sort of evidence .. just keep throwing mud and tarnish name of the people .. for them, supporting Trump or Modi is in itself a crime.. he is talking there are no muslims in IITs/IIMs .. I am pretty sure he wanted to add “anti Dalit” there.. but there are just way too many Dalit students in IITs to add “anti Dalit” which will be glaringly obvious in this “tarnish” journalism.. this guy is a Gandhi family psychopant since eons and enjoyed all the Lutyens Delhi Benefits & Comforts that comes from being in Gandhi family good looks .. and he hates people who is trying to make on their own without sucking up to Congressi First family.. and this guy is the same guy who keeps talking fake news, twisted narratives and “all media” being pro modi whereas almost all the news ( print and video) media with exception of Zee news is anti Modi .. this guy and Vinod Dua deserve special praise in twisting narratives, tarnish journalism, sweeping generalizations and “Pot calling Kettle black ” cribbing