NRIs stick to their roots

While the US celebrates Independence Day, Indians prepare for get-togethers, but on caste and regional lines, writes Lalit K Jha.

While the entire United States is enjoying this Independence Day weekend - July 2-4 - the Indians are using this holiday for grand community get-togethers.

Interestingly, in these gala events while thousands of non-resident Indians participate and millions of dollars are spend on linguistic, religious, regional and caste lines, they certainly not represent a pan-Indian perspective.

As we are accustomed to the term "unity in diversity", common thread to all these events is the same argument given by the organizers of these events -- preserving the culture and traditions of our society far away from India.

Even the schedule of almost all the grand annual events, currently being held across the United States, is quite predictable. Inauguration by an important community politician in power from India and if possible a local political leader from the US, business seminars, talks, speeches on various issues of concern of the society and cultural evenings by artists - in majority of the cases filmi - specially invited from India. This is the common factor in all these events.

Among the prominent organisations holding their annual conferences during this time of the year coinciding with the Independence Day (July 4) weekend of the United States is the North American Bengali Conference (NABC) at New York, Telugu Association of North America (TANA) at Detroit, Marathi Convention of Brihan Maharashtra Mandal (BMM) at Atlanta, the Orissa Society of America (OSA) at Newport Beach in California, Sindhi Association of North America (SANA) at Houston, and the Tamizhar Thiruvizha, which is jointly organised by the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America and the Tamil Nadu Federation at Richardson in Texas.

Never to forget their caste affiliation, the Brahmins Samaj of North America (BSNA) is having its annual convention at McLean in Virginia, while Veerashaiva Samaj of North America (VSNA) is organising its annual meeting in Maryland.

Even the neighbouring Nepal seems to be influenced by the Indian's timing of organising their annual convention. The Association of Nepalese in America (ANA) and the recently set up Association of Nepalese Terain in America (ANTA) are having their gala event at the same place in Texas.

Now look at the VVIP politicians from India, who are either attending these conferences, scheduled to attend or have given their confirmation, according to organisers to attend the gala function.

The Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, key-note speaker at the NABC convention, his Cabinet colleagues, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Jaipal Reddy, (latest information is that he was not coming) and the Tourism Minister, Renuka Chowdhury for the mega TANA event. The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh would conclude his nearly fortnight-long trip to the US as chief guest at the BMM 2005 convention.

The BMM 2005 convention too has the cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, eminent Indian scientist RA Mashelkar, renowned social worker Anil Awachat and popular Bollywood star Urmila Matondkar as its guests.

Actress Sharmila Tagore and singers Kavita Krishnamurthy and Manna Dey are expected to attend the Bengali meet, while Bibhu Mohapatra Mendal, an eminent design director, would be the keynote speaker at the Oriya conference.

Now look at the budget of some of these events. While the Bengali Conference at New York has a budget of $3.8 million (about Rs 16 crore), the TANA's convention budget is $1.3 million (about Rs 5.7 crore) and a similar huge budget for the BMM Convention, reflecting the growing prosperity of the Indians. The budget of the Tamizhar Thiruvizha is comparatively less at about $200,000 (Rs 85 lakh).

According to the organisers, at least four conventions - Bengali, Marathi and Telugu and Tamil -  would attract thousands of people. Between 7,000 to 10,000 is considered a big number by American standards. The Oriya conference, however, is likely to have an attendance of less than 1,000.