A `foreigner’ comes `home’

Mahendra Pal Chaudhry and Sonia Gandhi are caught up in the same situation because of their nation of origin. It is undemocratic to prevent ethnic minorities from holding political office on the grounds of nationality. Every nation needs a leader who will represent its population and will work for its emancipation, both internally and globally. Democratic governance ensures that people feel secure about their representatives. To assume that the electorate is incapable of representing itself is a grave error. It is not a handful of educated people who elect their leaders. It is the entire electorate: rural and urban, educated and illiterate, rich and poor.

In nations such as Fiji and India, where issues such as better standards of living and economic development are of prime importance, nationality is perhaps a luxury that cannot be afforded. Nationality becomes an important issue for those who propose an agenda of ethnic and religious cleansing. It would be of prime importance for religious fanatics; for political parties such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, and the Bharatiya Janata Party in India, and the ultra-right under Jorg Haider in Austria; white supremacists such as the Klu Klux Klan; and the neo-Nazis of Europe to emphasise genetic nationality. But the term has a wider application.

Genetic nationality provides a sense of belonging and crystallises an otherwise malleable identity for diaspora all over the world. Even though Mahendra Pal Chaudhry had not been to India since 1979, the feeling that he was `home’ was real. Home has a connection deeper than religion, language, caste, territory or political affiliation. It is the first connection with who one really is. Whether one is an Indian, Fijian, or Italian, is of no other person’s concern but that of oneself. It provides one with the first sense of identity. The place that one considers to be home cannot merely be a reflection of one’s political affiliations.

India is only an alien nation for Mahendra Chaudhry because he is not a citizen of India. Yet it is his home, more than Fiji will ever be. His “foreigner” status in India exists only in the technical sense of the term, as a person who does not live in and does not have the right to vote in India. He probably has a greater sense of belonging to India than most Indians do. No matter which way it is looked at, Mahendra Pal Chaudhry is a Fijiian by nationality, but sentimentally an Indian.