The Indian Diaspora Is Starting To Face Its Toughest Test

Unprecedented attacks against India in the US, Ireland and Australia should not be dismissed as fringe behaviour. This needs serious examination.

- HINDOL SENGUPTA

Since December 2024, on these pages, I have warned that a moment of reckoning is coming for the Indian diaspora, one of the great success stories of the country. Long feted as the model minority around the world, it now faces perplexing and unprecedented attacks, including mass protests (in Australia and Ireland), with calls for curbing immigration from India.

In America, this has been fuelled, in part, by comments of President Donald Trump and some members of his team on the trade tariffs issue which have been taken as a dog whistle by large parts of the so-called MAGA base. But it would be unwise to dismiss this merely as a "far right" uproar or conspiracy theory. Since the early 19th century, when Indians first started to migrate to America, this backlash represents one of the most vicious emerging challenges for a community that, from world over, sends back more than $100 billion a year to the mothership. This must be taken seriously and addressed at the very roots before it destroys the unique and over-achieving story of Indian immigration.