Indian Instincts

came from the streets. The journey of every migrant I met has been unique, often linked to their specific situation in India. Yet, among the thousands of stories I heard, the most fascinating ones, and indeed the most heartbreaking, were the ones that emerged out of the subcontinent’s history of war and strife. I came across entire families that were forced to move every few years across unexpected routes—one of them through Uganda and Rwanda, before ending up in Dubai! I found that until 1948, the majority of Indians migrated to other countries neither because of curiosity, nor even by consent. For a better explanation, let us look at three major migration waves of Indians moving to live overseas. In doing so, my objective is to point out how much of it was out of free will and how much was not.

The first wave of forced migration occurred in the colonial era. From the 1830s onwards, international migration from British-colonized India comprised largely unskilled workers from the poorer socio-economic groups who went to other colonized countries. Even in faraway Australia, a small number of Indians arrived as convicts and later as labourers, transported by the British colonial government in India. Between 1834 and 1937, nearly thirty million people were forced to leave India for other British colonies, of which nearly four-fifths managed to return.¹¹ Those who stayed back in other colonies often became ‘twice-migrants’ when they again moved to the UK or other colonies. Many would embrace the new culture and never return to India.

My second example is the migration that occurred from the early twentieth century onwards, during the independence struggle. As compared to the first wave, this was a smaller but still significant migration. While the Indian subcontinent fought for freedom, there were several Indians who voluntarily left to study at universities, often in the UK and other parts of Europe. While in Europe, many members of this overseas Indian intelligentsia were actively involved in covert activities that they felt contributed to the fight for independence in their motherland. Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Zurich, at various times, became offshore hubs of India’s freedom movement. Freedom fighters such as Subhash Chandra Bose mobilized hundreds of Indians in Berlin to help in the struggle. Bhikaji Cama founded the magazine Vande Mataram, publishing it out of a basement in Paris, for the readership of these Indian revolutionaries in Europe. Covert meetings were organized in the attics of Indians residing in Europe each time an Indian freedom fighter visited their city from the homeland.

It is fairly well known that many Indians, including India’s first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and business leaders such as Jehangir Ratanji Tata, studied in Europe and then returned to India. But we often forget that there were many others who could never return. They stayed back because of the crackdowns that took place across Europe, instigated by British authorities. Homes were searched and any Indian suspected of carrying out activities related to the freedom struggle in the Indian subcontinent was taken into custody. Thousands of Indians were forcibly detained and many more went undercover, fleeing from the authorities. Much against their will, they could never board a ship back to India.

The third wave came in 1947 with the greatest migration of humans ever recorded in the history of the world. Millions of Muslims were forced to move from India to West and East Pakistan while an equal number of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction. Hundreds of thousands never made it and died on the way.¹² The memories of this catastrophic episode still weigh on the Indian psyche.

Meanwhile, after Independence, the nation’s leaders went about establishing educational institutions and developing industries. Prime Minister Nehru was a passionate believer in industrialization as much as he was in the socialist model of developing it. The country, under Nehru’s leadership, took the unusual path of becoming a democracy without capitalism, and building industries without a free market. One of the consequences of this was the lack of a level playing field for Indians. Restrictive state controls and red tape hindered entrepreneurship. The elites, who were favoured by the state, benefited from the system, whereas the much larger majority who were poor and anonymous became even poorer. The need to earn a living, combined with the poor environment for entrepreneurship, drove people towards education and jobs that were available only in specific cities. Opportunities for prosperity were few and not uniformly distributed across the country. And so a few cities became more crowded than others as Indians flocked to them for education and jobs. This trend of moving to the cities for jobs continues even today.

Yet, interestingly, Indians have migrated within India mostly for the purpose of marriage. It is difficult to find exact data on this, but several sources indicate that close to 90 per cent of marriages in India are arranged by families of the groom and the bride, who usually do not know each other prior to the match.¹³ It is common for the two to be living in different cities or villages, oblivious to each another’s existence till they are brought together. These marriages are often arranged across cities between those belonging to the same caste and regional origin or linguistic group. According to the census, a total of 454 million Indians living in India were domestic migrants in 2011, and 49 per cent of these Indians, or 224 million people, migrated for marriage. Just as a comparison, only about 10 per cent moved because of work or employment in the same year.¹⁴

After a wedding, it is customary for the bride to move to the husband’s house, wherever that might be. The most recent census data reveals that 97 per cent of the 224 million Indians who migrated after marriage are women.¹⁵ Moreover, 78 per cent of rural women who migrated in 2011 did so for marriage as compared to 46 per cent of urban women who moved for the same reason.¹⁶

The reasons for Indians