ARI Working Paper Series

Beginning with the conceptualisation of a framework for an underlying matrix of the large expatriate Indian migrant community abroad, which comprises a number of typologies of models and actors, this paper proposes a way of addressing each of the binaries in the sub-matrixes, while still keeping the issues together under a holistic entity called the Indian Diaspora. As a next step, in terms of contextualizing the myriad of these models and actors with international relations per se, it deconstructs the interface between the Indian diaspora and international relations – identifying each as a dependent variable under one construct and as independent variables under a different construct. The choice would depend on which perspective of policy is more dominant in time – of the origin home country of the diaspora or the destination host country. The reason a paradigm shift in the host societies and regions where Indians have settled has become important lies in the realization that, given certain assumptions, one type of diasporic actors – the suspect ‘social parasite’ can become the other, the ‘economic boon’. This has in turn led to a major paradigm shift in India too – away from ‘brain drain’ being looked at as an outright loss, and therefore painful for the country, to an opportunity, and therefore gainful. What role the diaspora would play in making these transformations reality is still an open question.