Whatever Anand Mulloo undertakes to write, he does it after thorough research and in a style that makes interesting reading. In his latest publication, The Global Indian Family ? Voices of the Diaspora, (set to be launched on 5th December at 5 p.m. by Hon. Madhun Dulloo, minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Cooperation at Town Hall of Quatre-Bornes), Anand takes us to a round-the-world trip to listen to those voices reverberating from the four corners of the six continents and beyond. He was inspired to write the book while attending the celebration of the first Aapravasi Bharatya Diwas (Overseas India Day) in New Delhi from 7th to 9th January 2003.

Mulloo says in his introduction: ?For too long, the voices of the Diaspora have gone unheard and their stories have remained unsung.? It goes to the credit that it succeeded in making the diasporic voices heard in an eloquent manner by quoting the story of their struggle from the accredited representatives of the Caribbean islands, Surinam, Fuji, Mauritius, South Africa whose ancestors were hired to replace the emancipated slaves in the sugar plantations of those countries.

In Voices of the Diaspora, we are concerned not only with the descendants of the indentured labourers but also with the new class of migrants consisting mainly of businessmen, professionals and scientists who went to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in search of more lucrative opportunities. They are known as Non-Residents Indians (NRI), and enjoy a special status in India because of their wealth and their capacity to contribute to new ventures.

The saga of the struggle of the indentured labourers and their descendants in a hostile environment and the humiliating conditions under which they toiled have been described by the author with deep emotion. Even now, they raise a sense of outrage when one reads how: ?the white racist planters imposed starvation wages which remained fixed for a century, harsh laws which restricted the liberty of the Indians who were subjected to fines, arrests, imprisonment against which they had no appeal so that Indians were maintained in a state of poverty, illiteracy, humiliation and terrorism.? (page 107).

The Non-Resident Indians who settled in the developed countries of the west were welcomed guests because they represented an asset that provided the springboard for spectacular advances in technology and science far ahead of the rest of the world. In the words of President Bush, quoted at page 28, ?India has a fantastic ability to grow because her greatest export is intelligence and brain power. We are grateful that the world?s most skilled workers want to come to the United States. Our technology edge rests on the contribution of immigrants from places like India, China, Russia, France and hundred of other countries.?

There was a time when India, taken up by her own post-independence problems, could give no attention to those of overseas Indians. That advice of Pandit Nehru and other leaders, urging them to join the mainstream in the countries of their adoption and to forget about India, led to the adoption of New Delhi of a policy of strict neutrality even when the Indians of the Diaspora were, as in Uganda under Idi Amin, threatened in their very existence. The silence of the Indian government when the Guyanese Indians were having a rough time under Burhman and when Mr Chowdary, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Fiji were brutally ousted from power at gun point by Fijian rebels, left a sour taste because the Indians of those countries felt left down and abandoned in their hour of need. But their love of Mother India did not for that reason falter in the least. They remained attached to her as ever before.

Fortunately, the situation has much improved in many countries and in a few places, Indians are occupying positions of high responsibility and are also very active in politics where they have scored good success. There is not a single sphere where they have not marked their presence with creditable results.

Bt giving recognition to the 24 million Indians in the Diaspora, India must have realised their potential for trade and business and a large space for economic expansion. Anyone interested in the history of Indian overseas should read Voices of the Diaspora. It will enlarge his horizon and enrich his knowledge of a people still striving, in some places for acceptance as an integral part of the social environment in which they live.

Anand Mulloo must be congratulated for undertaking such an arduous task that must have taxed considerably his time and patience. But he must derive satisfaction that his efforts have not been in vain.

Sir Satcam BOOLELL