The return of the native

As our youth continue to head West, disillusioned with India, a thought for those who chose to come back in bleaker times, to free it and build it

When news broke that Parag Agrawal became CEO of Twitter, following in the footsteps of Sundar Pichai of Google and Satya Nadella of Microsoft and others, there was effusive praise about the rise of Indians in the US. But the joy of their achievements is overshadowed by the loss for India. Is it the state of affairs of our country, our own failings, or is it simply their apathy or just the lure of lucre that draws them to foreign shores? It has been a steady loss of Indian talent over the last five decades. When they left, these were among our most gifted young men and women from our premier institutions who migrated after securing subsidised education, which leaves a twinge of pain.

A thought crossed my mind about the many Indians who had gone abroad for higher studies to the West, around a century ago, who gave up successful and lucrative careers, who did not yield to the temptation to stay back, but returned to India. And they did so during India’s bleakest times and became a source of inspiration and beacons of light to countless people who joined them to win independence and to struggle to remove poverty, ignorance, social evils and injustice. They saw the same India as the others and sought to make it better, rather than to dismiss it as hopeless and make their lives elsewhere when they had the chance to do so.

These men and women are part of our recent history and lore, whose triumphs over trials and tribulations, indomitable courage and dedication and sacrifices to uplift our people are awe-inspiring.

Gandhi, who had a fairly prosperous legal practice in South Africa after becoming a barrister in England, returned to India and is universally known and his life is deified; the saga of Ambedkar is even more stirring and inspiring. A Dalit who grew up in extreme poverty, whose family suffered untouchability, went on to study in two of the most iconic institutions — Columbia University in the US and the London School of Economics -- earning from these institutions not one but two doctorate degrees in economics. He was also a barrister at law from Gray’s Inn, a scholar in economics, law and political science and the architect of our Constitution. He dedicated his entire life to the uplift of Dalits.

The sacrifices of Jawaharlal Nehru, born to a wealthy father, Motilal Nehru, and educated at Harrow and Cambridge and who too became a barrister after training in the law at the Inner Temple, gave up everything and sailed to India to join the freedom movement, ignites your mind and heart. The tale of Bose, who returned from Cambridge, and his daring leadership in Congress and later of Azad Hind Fauj is electrifying. Sardar Patel saved up money to go to London and trained in law at the Middle Temple Inn, become a barrister topping his class but took a ship back to India to later join Gandhi’s freedom struggle.

The lives of Aurobindo Ghosh, the revolutionary who returned from Cambridge and became a mystic, and Sarojini Naidu, the poet known as the Nightingale of India, an alumni of King’s College London and Cambridge, who came back and plunged into the freedom struggle, animate and swell your heart.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee became a barrister after graduating from Lincoln’s Inn, but came back to initially join Congress, later led the Hindu Mahasabha, distanced himself from it over the assassination of Gandhi, became a minister in Nehru’s cabinet, quit and went on to found the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the forerunner to the BJP.

Their stories and their struggles, the adventures of their minds, their reformist zeal and inextinguishable optimism, and their love for the country invigorate and fascinate you. They returned to a country in its darkest period of oppression by the British, riven by factions and internal strife, a caste and communal cauldron, and to a people mired in poverty. They faced beatings and bullets and long prison sentences. And it is troubling that while those extraordinary individuals chose to return to repair our society‘s ills, those who are beating a beeline to America and leaving the country are doing it because of our overwhelming problems -- of lack of opportunity, casteism and flawed reservations, social and communal strife, corruption, and an ecosystem that does not reward merit.

Why have our young become anaesthetised to the ills of our society and are turning their back on India and heading to the West? Why is a similar zeal and fervour missing today? Have globalisation and technology desensitised and deadened our nobler feelings and sentiments? Is it a blind worship of the West and its opulence that has dulled our senses? Why are those who have settled abroad, despite their good jobs, more insecure today and increasingly jingoistic in advising their kin here to “preserve our culture” and “Hindu supremacy”. That is worrying and unworthy of our glorious civilisation and heritage.

In the years before Independence and post-Independence, right uptil 1974, when US and Western sanctions kicked in, the likes of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, and Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai would recruit and send hundreds of freedom fighters, scientists and engineers, artists and academics, leaders and managers abroad and provide them opportunities to come back and serve India.

Thus, Jayaprakash Narayan, initially fired up by the son-of-the-soil patriotism of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, returned from the University of Wisconsin and joined the Indian National Congress on Jawaharlal Nehru’s invitation and became a hero of the Quit India Movement, later going on to oppose Indira Gandhi and Emergency, galvanising the youth of the country and the opposition parties; then there’s Verghese Kurien, whom the Nehru government sent off to study nuclear engineering but who came back to be sent to Anand to build the Amul dairy movement. Hundreds, if not thousands, of nuclear and space scientists and engineers went abroad thus and came back to serve India’s strategic programmes; others built the civilian science institutions and workforce; still others came back to teach at IITs and IIMs and AIIMS, etc.

Those who cross the oceans to discover and ‘conquer’ new lands should be celebrated with generosity, whatever our reservations. But all those, from all religious denominations, who are keen to come back to their motherland must be embraced with open heart and arms, invoking in them the spirit of our ancient verse from the Ramayana - Janani Janmabhumischa Swargadapi Gariyasi (Mother and motherland are superior to even heaven).

(The writer is a soldier, farmer and entrepreneur)