56 inch chest ho, aur dil itna chota ho? Kya achha lagta hai?
Since when did we Indians become so small hearted that we won’t give a few miserable refugees a place to call home? Our land was never that small or heart so unfeeling. Through history look at the number of people who have come to India and become Indians.
All my life I have been an immigrant in someone else’s land. My father was an army officer. He was never posted in the state he belonged to. All his working life he was received with love and affection. Though he was always an outsider. As were we, his children. As children we lived in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra, Himachal, Punjab, Bihar (now Jharkhand) and J&K.
As my father retired he planned on settling in Punjab. He lovingly built a house there but was never able to live in it. He had to leave Punjab because we didn’t belong and Hindus were being targeted at the time in Punjab. Punjabis have been known to have big hearts, unfortunately a handful of Punjabis with small hearts held sway at that time and consequently the whole of Punjab suffered enormously for it. The simple lesson I drew from it was Small heart = Mean times. This was probably the only time in recent history when Punjab wasn’t bustling and thriving.
Later in life I have lived in Delhi and Mumbai. In both places arriving as an immigrant, consuming the resources both places have to offer, and hopefully contributing something and enriching the society there. I have thrived as society has thrived, I have felt the same fears and joys as everyone else. Despite being an immigrant I have ended up belonging to both cities.
So what is the difference between a refugee and me? Perhaps the fact that I have the stamp of being a legal immigrant. Sure this legal fig leaf has it’s uses. But that has not stopped me from feeling threatened, time and again- first in Punjab for being an outsider and then in Maharashtra for being a North Indian.
I have often wondered what makes the claim of people who arrived a couple of decades before me greater than mine. They are immigrants or children of immigrants too. In 20-30 years time today’s refugees will be attached to the land as I am today. What cutoffs in time make one a legal alien and another an illegal? In Mumbai, where I live currently, practically everyone is an immigrant. Some came in before the others. Even the current rulers have come from outside Mumbai. Mumbai is what it is because of its immigrants. And the same can be said of Delhi and Bangalore.
To my mind there is a clear correlation between being welcoming of immigrants and thriving financially, culturally and artistically. Therefore I find it difficult to understand an India that would turn away someone purely on the basis of their religion. We were never so small hearted. Once again- what is the use of having a 56 inch chest when the heart inside is small?
