Gen Next of NRIs in danger of getting adrift

There is a crisis of culture among Gujaratis in the US. The identity crisis among the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) is nothing but a manifestation of the feelings of being cut off from the comforting shelter of their native society.

 Not so in the case of the second and third generations of these very people. The youngsters find themselves adrift, not fully integrated with the society in their land of birth, the US. These children of lesser culture are not accepted by American society.

They face a double whammy of identity crisis. There is no better illustration of this then in marrying. Boys have in mind a role model impossible to find in America. They want their brides to be modern like the American girls and they want their brides to be as obedient as their India-born mothers.

The first generation NRIs come to India out of love for their motherland; and for finding spouses for their second generation sons, a pure desi girl who will be modern as well as obedient girl, a difficult proposition.

As for their America-born daughters, they hope to find a smart groom who will be ready to be a virtual ghar jamai, a proposition even more difficult. And, yet most teenagers are ten times more obedient than other peer group Americans.

The Gujarati diaspora is in danger of becoming adrift, going away from the homeland mentally too.

History is replete with such happenings in the past.  Many West Indies islands residents bear Indian sounding names but they are lost NRIs. The same is the case in Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa, Zimbabwe and other countries.

In an essay in way back 1946, George Orwell who wrote prophetic novels like 1984 and Animal Farm, said that the first outpost of a culture is language. When alien influences strike, even before the final surrender of a culture comes the debasement of its language.

Note the fact that Gujarati, as a child of one of the most developed languages of all times, Sanskrit is rich but we find use of English words admixed with Gujarati to create some gibberish called Gujlish. Second and third generations of Gujaratis in the US are not bothered about learning their ancestor's language because Gujarati has no wider commercial use in America.  

But there is a small silver lining to the dark clouds, according to some observers. The children of Gujarati are uncomfortable that Americans don't accept them as fully Americans and they themselves don't want to be regarded like their parents, as children of a lesser civilisation, nick named Motelian culture. This is claimed to be a healthy sign but actually it is a flavourless Gujarati Undhiyoo without chilies and other spices.

NRIs are desperately trying to keep best of both the worlds. They have a chicken party for birthday on a Saturday and Satya Narayan Katha on Sunday to double celebrate a birthday.

Dispassionately viewed, it is a groping in a cultural dark, generating snakes out of ropes and ghost from shadows. These are the pangs of amalgamation of cultures and there is no way to avoid them. The Gujarati language has a saying, “Bawa Banata Hai, to bhajan gana padta hai.”