>We expatriates are, perhaps, just fossils. What more could you ask of us? Santanu: Your observation is so correct. One can write volumes on this subject. In contunuation of the same line of thinking one will find that these fossils probably find in RSS something to revive their lost identity howver distorted that identity is. These fossil expatriats live in Amreaica rather as critics, they actually do not live their lives in the country of their adoptation. I hope this is a problem only of the first generation Indians. Barua
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy, Santanu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ankur Barua" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 2:46 PM Subject: RE: [Assam] A Question about Invasion and Foreign Support : > Dear Ankur: > > I think you are absolutely right - particularly, when you point out: > > > I have a suspicion > > (how founded or unfounded is for you to say) that they see in > > the false > > sense of anxiety created by the RSS a reflection of their own > > anxiety of > > living in a Latin-Hispanic-Black-White multicultural society. > > That is, now > > as the next generation grows up in such an environment they > > are afraid that > > their own children shall lose their distinctive > > 'Assamese-ness', and hence > > the parallel RSS claim that Indians shall lose their > > 'Indian-ness' has a > > strong appealing force to them. Consequently, the fear that their own > > children shall mess up the 'Assamese' gene-pool through > > inter-racial-inter-religious relationships brings them into > > an unholy nexus > > with the RSS with its hyperbole of a similar mix-up back at home. > > > Regarding your very important question: > > > > Now of course I wish to emphasise that much of this is > > largely conjecture : > > what I would really like to know is what exactly turns UK/USA > > ex-patriates, > > who of all people should have had sufficient experience by > > now of living in > > a multi-cultural White-Hispanic-Black society, into > > supporters of a group > > that challenges this very notion of multi-culturalism. > > > I think there is no simple answer yet. But two forces are worth recognizing: > > 1. Most of the Indian expatriates in the US that are such ardent supporters of the so called "Hindutva" political cult do not actually have what you call "sufficient experience of living in a multi-cultural white-hispanic-black society". They live extremely segregated lives with two spheres of interaction - one professional where they interact with whites and a sprinkling of Asians, the other social-domestic in which they mostly interact with other Indian expatriates. They ignore the underlying social dynamics and tensions of the society in which they live in & remain connected, for example, to a universe of Indian television channels & Bollywood movies - that hardly provides any window into the society they live in. Most of them see their place in society as just below the whites - and they are happy to think of society in this race-hierarchical fashion for that gives them the comfort of being better than somebody. > > Their progenies are of course exposed much more to the world they live in and face the dilemma between the extremely distorted world view provided by their parents which they are supposed to adopt as their real "identity" and the real world outside as seen through their schooling and friends which is different and alas, sometimes not too comfortable either. If they go for the former, they often end up adopting caricatures of the views their parents hold - manipulated much more easily by written propaganda material which they take at face value, their zeal is more genuine and their understanding, even further removed from the reality of a country they have little to do with. > > 2. Partly because of (1), a very large number of expatriates stop "growing" after they leave their home country. I have met countless Indian men and women abroad who often gave me the feeling of acting and saying in a manner not befitting the wisdom that their age should have brought them - and then I started playing this game - I asked them their year of arrival in the US, closed my eyes and thought of the people as they would have been at that point - and wonder of wonders, the words & thoughts blended perfectly with the persona. We expatriates are, perhaps, just fossils. What more could you ask of us? > > Good luck - > > Santanu Roy. > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Assam mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam > > Mailing list FAQ: > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html > To unsubscribe or change options: > http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam > _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
