For good reason. It’s much harder.

You see artistic splintering all the time when people have different visions or ways of doing things. It’s been the genesis of many a startup. It gets unhealthy when orgs claim over-similar missions or get into unproductive, head-to-head competition for people and resources.

In any case, being Indian-American is neither necessary nor sufficient in caring about India as a ‘political unit’. Being an American is, especially post 9/11.

Kumar

A big part of this is the way activist prestige points flow. There’s FAR more cred from being a “founder” of a marginal organization vs. being the ultra-super-star contributor to a more meaningful organization. Sadly, it’s sometimes the case that what the organizations actually output is in some ways secondary to this motive…

Where do I begin…

• For economic strength. The larger the country, in general the wealthier and stronger the economy and the people. Tiny states tend not to flourish.
• For cultural similarity. These cultures have more in common with each other than any with other. There’s a distinct desiness about being desi.
• For the fervor of the newly independent. That Indian independence is just 57 years old means that the pan-Indian identity and all the new totems it forged still burn.
• To have a homeland. To have a place that’s large and prosperous where everyone looks like you, and you don’t have to explain your funny traditions.
• For the purely selfish reason of having a team to root for, in all senses. Especially important as ethnic identities blur in the diaspora, and all that’s left is desiness.

And for a deep, sentimental attachment to ‘Jana Gana Mana,’ the flag, the Independence movement, all of it, the same way I have to those of the U.S. It surpasses all the bureaucratic idiocies of whichever government is in power at any given moment. Think of everything you love unreasoningly: your religion, your family, your home team, your food, whatever. It’s that.

If you were born here your culture is about language, food and religion. It’s not about the Indian national anthem nearly as much.

And why should somebody who is born here care much about India as a political unit anyway? Many of us have the US as our primary political allegiance. We have cultural ties to South Asia, but not political ones to India.

“Besides which, given that India is around 20% of the world’s population, why would you expect that people of south asian origin would be subsumed under a common flag?”

Actually all Indians do have a common flag.

I also commend this particular organization for their community service.

Besides which, given that India is around 20% of the world’s population, why would you expect that people of south asian origin would be subsumed under a common flag?