Throughout history, India has never been a country that supports any particular religion, or a particular existence, or a particular social class and order, and never means to be. And, more obviously, India was built on ‘immigration’. Crores of people were welcomed by those who had lived here for thousands of years and built this society with their sweat and blood.
These ‘immigrants’ were people who always wanted the same things you or I need to be able to live in peace, to raise their families, and create a better future for their kids as well as their society. Some of these things they couldn’t have managed back in the place they came from. And that’s what, year after year, has been done in India. As a result India has created an extraordinarily diverse society.
Whether it’s Jews, Parsis, Africans, British, French, Germans, Burmese, Anglo-Indians (the best example of which are in “Bow Barracks” in Kolkata), or even the Chinese, everyone is here. Interestingly, in my hometown in Kolkata there is a small place called China Town, with some 2000 Chinese people. They celebrate our new year, we celebrate theirs. They are just like us. There is one thing common to all these groups: they’re all welcome in India, with lots of high regard and love.
Really, it’s not easy to pick up everything they have and cross from their native place to another place. Instead of contributing to their native societies, they are contributing to India’s, because they believe in a better future for their kids here, and they believe in the society they are going to be or are now a part of.
Many such ‘immigrants’ eagerly seek an opportunity to contribute to a country where they don’t have to fear for their future generations. We are a developing country, and the ‘youngest‘ in the world, with half of our population under the age of 25.
We need people to arrive with dreams, with passion, with hopes, and with their understanding to work hard. Whether they come from Germany, Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, or Latin America, the increase in immigration has a good effect on India’s economic power. People bring with them lots of new ideas and innovations, better and versatile work culture, creating a good industrial environment, and growing our country’s business culture.
Don’t look at just the lines, look between the lines, because, in my mind, ‘immigration’ is one of the best things that has happened to India, making it the greatest, brightest country in the whole world.