I remember a film where the NRIs are jokingly termed as ABCD (America Born Confused Desi). Are really the NRI worldwide facing an identity crisis? When the Indians born in foreign countries come back to India, it’s obvious that they will feel many cultural differences. At the same time in the foreign country where they are brought up, they also feel some problems due to racial differences. So, where they stand? Are they standing in the middle of nowhere? An person who is born and brought up in a foreign country may adapt to foreign culture. But the color of skin will remain the same. Most probably even after staying in a foreign country for generations, they will be termed as Indians by the native people. I have met some friends of Indian origin who are born and brought up in Europe and America. And I am surprised to see that they are more Indians than us. The Indian cultural values are more distinct on them. Even in staying in India, we may not be aware of such heritage that they inspired with. How are they retaining their rich Indian cultural values? Of course their families have the major role to play. The books on Indian culture and heritage are also playing a significant role. They are more interested on books on such topics. Whereas in India, most of us don’t care about such books. What we see that Non Resident Indians are more concerned about Indian cultural values than the Indians living in India. what do you think ?
NRIs coming back home I personally know a lot of NRIs returning to India just after the recession. They are no more interested to stay abroad. It has becomes impossible to cope with the lifestyle when they are jobless. They are returning India with the hope to get some kind of job to overcome the financial crisis. The business men are also returning as recession has hit them like anything.
Showoff I think it’s all about showing off how true you are to your roots. When you don’t care about the people how can you ever hope of being Indian? When someone is born on foreign soil, the birthplace will definitely have an impact on his lifestyle. On the other hand if you are really aware of the Indian values, you should not have any problem when you visit India.
It’s good to know that the Indian that have been born and brought up in different cultural countries are still filled with rich Indian culture. Thanks to their families who have kept Indian values and tradition alive not only in themselves but also in their coming generation. Though this is a good feeling, but what possibly could be the reason behind this fact is that, even though one moves out to other land, but the feeling of home sweet home is always there. For anybody citizen their home is their own land. Immigrating to different lands, makes us realize the value of what we had, and hence the feeling of nostalgia, helps us in pampering and keeping those values alive in some way or the other.
The NRIs are better conservators of the rich Indian Culture, values and traditions than the people residing in India. But unfortunately it has been witnessed that the children born and brought up in western countries are facing huge identity crisis as they are forced to adapt the western culture in order to mix up with the local people and the Indian values that are incorporated within them by their parents do not allow them to totally adapt the western culture and they are stuck up mid-way. This is the sole reason that NRIs as well as their children are facing huge identity crisis.
Not really the NRIs but their children do face identity crisis and the reason behind it is that they do not actually understand the rich Indian culture and cannot even fully adopt the western culture. This is because they hardly get a chance to witness and be a part of the rich and diverse Indian culture as they are brought up amid the people of different culture. Although most NRIs teach their children about their culture but a lot of other factors put an impact.
