The Hindu Business Line : British Indians – role model for other immigrants

Britain’s 1.5- million strong Indian community is widely regarded as the most successful of South Asian immigrant groups in the country. And nobody is more conscious of it than the Indians themselves. Indeed, the more nationalistic among them openly say that they don’t want to be “lumped” with other Asian communities and wish to be referred to as “British Indians” rather than as “British Asians” to distinguish them from other less-privileged groups such as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

More affluent Indians have started to move out of the traditional immigrant neighbourhoods in an ironical throwback to the infamous “white flight” of the 1950s and the 1960s when native White Britons fled areas “swamped” by non-white immigrants. Generally, Indians are more educated and prosperous than their other south Asian peers. It has become a bit of a cliché to cite the Indian “success story” as the gold standard for other immigrants to emulate. But it is true that there is hardly any area of British life where Indians have not made a mark: Indian students do consistently better than other non-white immigrants (often even better than their fellow white students); Indian businessmen (Lakshmi Mittal, Swraj Paul and the Hindujas) are now the Big Boys of British industry; and Indian professionals — academics, doctors, IT whiz kids, artistes — are considered as among the best in their fields.

It might sound strange but while back in India work ethic often seems an elusive commodity, Indians in Britain are singled out for their great work ethic — their integrity, and commitment to hard work.

“It is a dynamic and confident community which has put its head down and worked very hard to attain the success it has. Today, it is considered as a role model for other immigrants,” one Indian diplomat said.

Lord Swraj Paul, one of the pioneers of British Indian enterprise, echoes this (see interview) pointing out that the strength of the British Indian community is that they are “hard working, law abiding, well-educated, good citizens and are proud to be British”.

Ghetto-isation

There is also a sense that Indian immigrants are better integrated with British society than some other Asian groups without giving up their religious or cultural practices. But this must be viewed in the context of British policy of multiculturalism, which makes it possible for racially and culturally diverse communities to co-exist with each other and the host society while preserving their own distinct identities.

It is often said that this has led to “ghetto-isation” with different groups clinging on to their own ways of life without making any attempt to integrate. There is, of course, some truth in this and, in fact, a few years ago a government report expressed concern that some communities, including Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, were leading “parallel lives”, completely cut off from British society and its way of life. But the counter-view is that any attempt to force integration would have done more harm than good to race relations — as we have seen in France, for example. And I, for one, am inclined to agree with this view.

Were it not for a conscious policy of tolerating racial and cultural differences rather than forcing them into a straitjacket in the name of integration Britain would have been a far less harmonious society than it is today. For all its downsides, it is multiculturalism that has made Britain a more inclusive and, therefore, a better place for immigrants to live in. Those, such as Lord Swaraj Paul, who came to Britain when it was not a particularly hospitable terrain for foreigners, say the country has changed beyond recognition since then with ethnic minorities benefiting hugely from opportunities that were not available to them until the 1970s.

Success story

But that’s another debate. Coming back to British Indians, no discussion about them will be complete without mentioning two things: the huge success of Indian cuisine, and Hindi cinema. With more than 8,000 Indian restaurants (and their Pakistani and Bangladeshi variants) spread across the United Kingdom, the Indian food industry is a multi-billion pound industry (at the last count it was in excess of £2 billion), and growing.

With a politician’s knack of hyperbole, a former British foreign secretary — the late Robin Cook — once famously declared that chicken tikka masala had become Britain’s “national dish”. National dish or not, there is no denying its huge popularity and there is no supermarket chain worth its name which doesn’t have shelves heaving with a range of Indian food.

Indian — or rather Hindi — cinema is another big success story, with Bollywood films accounting for some of Britain’s biggest box-office hits in recent years. Indian cinema has always been popular in Britain but until recently it was on the fringes — confined mainly to the predominantly Asian areas. Now it is part of Britain’s cultural mainstream with Bollywood films being shown even in high-brow central London cinemas. Bollywood has suddenly become “respectable” and its success has turned the spotlight on British Indian film-makers such as Gurinder Chaddha whose Bend It Like Beckham was a run-away hit.

Bilateral trade ties

Ultimately, the story of Britain’s thriving Indian diaspora is an aspect of close India-British relations, especially in trade, which has seen a dramatic increase in the post-liberalisation phase. Today, Britain is India’s fourth largest trading partner globally and the second largest in Europe. India-UK bilateral trade in goods and services is more than £8 billion a year — and expanding.

Britain remains a favourite destination for India’s foreign-bound tourists and for the past two consecutive years Indian tourists have been outspending the Japanese making them among the most sought-after foreign visitors. Besides, Indian students account for a significant share of the nearly £3 billion that foreign students contribute to the British economy every year. With so much going on, British Indians have a lot to cheer about.