Author: Bal Ram Singh
Publication: IndUS Business Journal
Date: August 15, 2006
URL: http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&AudID=2A49137C8BBB4CAB9F23C2A2692E1395&tier=4&id=8C5021428D5743D4B48260382E592F08
Indians are every where, not counting the
misconception created by Christopher Columbus since 1492 when he landed in
what is currently Ecuador and believed he was in India. The indigenous people
there are still called Indians.
There are over 22 million Hindu diaspora living
outside India, according to a 2004 report by the Hindu American Foundation.
If this diaspora was a country, it will be the 49th largest country based
on population. With an estimated gross domestic product of $1 trillion, this
diaspora's economic strength is larger than that of India with a GDP of only
$720 billion.
In recent years, there has been a great deal
of interest in India, and also in the Indian diaspora. As Indian technological
prowess crashed the party with the advent of Y2K, much of the world has turned
to Indians in general and Indian Americans in particular, to watch their culture,
behavior, food and lifestyles, to take a peek at what India is really made
of.
Controversies over business process outsourcing
and Indian call centers aside, interest in India has genuinely come of age.
Forbes in its June 21, 2004 issue stated that
"all societies flourish mightily when tolerance is the norm, and our
age furnishes many examples of this." Paul Johnson, author of the article,
explains this point using examples of Indians in India, as well as in the
diaspora.
"It is the nature of the Hindu religion
to be tolerant and, in its own curious way, permissive. … Take the case
of Uganda's Indian population, which was expelled by the horrific dictator
Idi Amin and received into the tolerant society of Britain. There are now
more millionaires in this group than in any other recent immigrant community
in Britain."
"The importation of labor from the Indian
subcontinent was part of a continuing search by Guyanese planters for a labor
force that was docile, reliable and amenable to discipline under harsh, tropical
conditions." Such is the description of Indians who were brought to Guyana
in 1838 by Britishers according to a 1986 issue of History Today.
Johnson offers a philosophical basis of this
success by stating "they are a striking example of how far hard work,
strong family bonds and a devotion to education can carry a people who have
been stripped of all their worldly assets."
In a recent article England's Guardian newspaper
reported that Hindus and Sikhs in Britain are the best at money managing.
The newspaper interviewed members of Indian diaspora to fathom the reason
for their unusual success. Geeta Nanda, a housing association director said,
"I've inherited a different ethos to my contemporaries. … It's all
part of our ethos. We save before we buy - you can have a big car or flashy
jewelry but you get them with cash and not through debt. You have what you
can afford."
Dental nurse Alka Malkan says she "does
not mix religion" with her daily life. "But generally, you are brought
up to work hard and not splash out," she says.
Explaining part of the reason for such a record
as spiritual the newspaper said, "Hinduism stresses that increasing the
family's wealth is a duty and a blessing from the goddess Lakshmi, the consort
or wife of Lord Vishnu. She is the goddess whose four hands represent prosperity,
purity, chastity and generosity."
And even if it is true, the money management
and economic growth explains only one of the four hands of goddess Lakshmi.
What about the other three hands?
I always wonder why do we need a goddess,
or for that matter a god, to represent such characteristics.
Why name such a goddess Lakshmi? Why is she
the wife of Lord Vishnu, why not the wife of Shiva or Brahma?
The root word for Lakshmi is the same as that
of the lakshya, meaning aim or target. It basically symbolizes pursuing the
aim of life, and the four characteristics represented by Lakshmi may be the
keys to success in life.
She is the wife of Lord Vishnu, who is considered
as the preserver of the universe. Many of the sustainability concerns throughout
the world today are looking back to Indian traditions, if not goddesses, for
some guidance.
Speaking of Indian tradition, grihalakshmi
is the traditional reference given to a housewife, a word that has stopped
evoking much respect in today's world. Patni, the word used for wife in Hindi,
is derived from the word pathni, the one who shows the way of righteous deeds,
and that might provide some explanation for goddess Lakshmi's other three
virtues - purity, chastity, and generosity - that are needed to sustain the
planet.
Perhaps, it is these qualities that bestow
goddessness rather than the other way around.
This was in wide spectacle on June 1, 2006,
during INDIA New England's Woman of the Year ceremony.
The 20 finalists included in the recognition
have all shown the way by taking upon themselves to work hard, excel and make
a difference in the lives of their own as well those of others.
The Woman of the Year, Bishnu Maya Pariyar,
whose name also refers to Lakshmi, has already proven the power of the true
meaning of the word Pathni, when husbands now routinely defer to their wives
for important issues as a result of her work with families in Nepal.
A side note on the gala dinner for the women
honorees; while the official invitation had mentioned dress code as formal
business/Indian attire, it was the women (and not the men), including virtually
all of the honorees, who wore Indian attire.
This was as if just to make a point that only
the female gender is capable of keeping its tradition, all the while it marches
to incremental heights of prosperity. That may actually provide the clue to
why the hands representing the four virtues of success are those of a goddess,
not a god.
Bal Ram Singh is the director of the Center
for Indic Studies at UMass Dartmouth. He can be reached at bsingh@umassd.edu.
