Why Indians are influential

by Dr Shabir Choudhry

(January 04, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) In response to my article ‘Why Jews are powerful and Muslims are powerless’ I got a lot of response. Many appreciated it but some, once again, called me a ‘Yahoodi agent’ – agent of Jews, just because I have highlighted some of the contribution made by Jews to science and learning. Some said Jews are killing innocent Palestinians and you are praising them.

First of all I wrote that piece before the present crises started in Gaza. What Israel is doing in Palestine is condemned by people through out world and I also condemn it. But does it mean no one should talk of achievements of Jews just because Zionist government is killing innocent people? In any case a lot of contribution of Jews was made before the establishment of the Jewish State, and without its patronage.

As for blame game is concerned it is part of political culture of Pakistan and Kashmir to call those people ‘agent’ with whom there is political or ideological difference or personal goal to settle. Agencies of both India and Pakistan have been successful in creating this social and political environment where they no longer have to point fingers at anyone, as people are too eager to do it themselves. I got this ‘title’ of being ‘agent of Jews’ in 1999 when I wrote ‘Pakistan should recognise Israel’.

Since that I have been ‘awarded’ with such more ‘titles’ for my political and literary work, but I have not given - in to this harassment, intimidation and blackmailing; and continued with my jihad of speaking truth and providing knowledge which I think is based on facts, and by promoting culture of tolerance, moderation and accountability.

Pakistan is one day older than India and is gifted with enormous natural resources and strategically very important geography. Apart from that Pakistan was the biggest Muslim country with close relationship with the Muslim world, which added to Pakistan’s potential to enhance its influence and power.

Today what we witness is (which is acknowledged by some Pakistani writers and politicians) that Pakistan stands alone in comity of nations; and majority of the countries, including Muslim countries stand with India; and take pride in having relations with India. Economically, politically, democratically, militarily and financially both countries are miles apart, emotionalism aside there is no comparison between them; both countries had to travel a long journey to reach this stage.

Victory always has more than one claimant, and no one likes to share blame in failure; and as Pakistan’s failures is too obvious in many fields I would not like to point them out as it could upset my Pakistani brothers, hence more allegations against me. Fact however remains that Pakistan cannot even provide sufficient food for its people, even though its economy is agrarian. Apart from that there is severe shortage of power, clean water and many other vital things. However there is no shortage of suicide bombers, bomb blasts, internal fighting, extremism, undemocratic decisions and American attacks. All these are recipe for disaster for any country and any society.

India’s success is mainly due to its democratic system. Despite corruption and other contradictions and problems in the society, the democracy and investment in education, science and technology has helped India to advance; and play an important role in world politics. Let us look at some achievements made by Indians.

Richest man in the world is an Indian, Mukesh Ambani who was born in April 1957. He completed his graduation in Chemical engineering, and studied for MBA at Stanford University, and joined Relinace Industries in 1981. He is a Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries and resides in Mumbai. He is the richest man in the world with total value of $63.2 billion not because he is Hindu or an Indian, but because he is an entrepreneur who has worked hard for his position.

The fifth richest man is also an Indian, Lakshmi Mittal with total value of $50.9 billion. He was born on 15th of June 1950 in Rajasthan. He heads the multi national steel company Mittal Steel, which is one of the largest steel companies in the world, with steel making facilities in fourteen countries with 150,000 employees.

General Manager of Hewlett Packard is an Indian, Rajiv Gupta; creator of Pentium chip (90% of the today's computers run on it) is also an Indian, Vinod Dahm. Creator of world's No1 web based email program – hotmail is also an Indian - Sabeer Bhatia. The president of AT & T-Bell Labs - creator of programmes like C, C++, Unix etc is an India, Arun Netravalli. Microsoft Testing Director of Windows 2000 and responsible for all initial problems is an Indian, Sanjay Tejwrika.

There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA - 1.5% of population, yet:

38% of doctors in USA are Indians;
12% scientists in USA are Indians;
36% of NASA scientists are Indians;
34% of Microsoft employees are Indians;
28% of IBM employees are Indians;
17% of INTEL scientists are Indians;
13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
Indians constitute ten percent of all medical students in America.
Indians own nearly 40% of all the small and mid-size hotels in the country.
Four out of 10 Silicon Valley startups are run by Indians.

Indians are the richest immigrant class in the US, with nearly 200,000 millionaires.
Between 1990 and 2000, the population of Indian scientists and engineers (S&E) in Silicon Valley grew by 646%.

Apart from that India consumes a fifth of the world's gold output. India is the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, accounting for more than 30% of global production and 25% of consumption. India is the world's premier centre for diamond cutting and polishing. Nine out of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India. India's Hero Honda is the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer, with 2002 production of 1.7m units. India has the second-largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world. India has the third-largest investor base in the world.

India has the third-largest army in the world, nearly 1.5 million strong. Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, with a staff of 1.6 million people under single management. India is the second-largest cement-producing country in the world, producing more than 110m tonnes. India is the largest democracy in the world, with nearly 400m voting in the last national elections.

India is among the few countries who have built a supercomputer indigenously. India is ranked the sixth country in the world in terms of satellite launches.
There are over 70,000 bank branches in India - among the highest in the world.

Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies in the US in the past decade (1995-2005) than immigrants from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan combined. Almost 26% of all immigrant-founded companies in the last ten years were founded by Indian immigrants. Immigrants from the UK, China, and Taiwan contributed to 7.1%, 6.9% and 5.8% of all immigrant-founded businesses, respectively.

Based on analysis of the World Intellectual Property Organization, patent databases, the largest group of immigrant non-citizen inventors were Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan-born). Indians were second, followed by the Canadians and British.

This list is not complete, as all the data cannot be included in one article. Most of the above data deals with the Indians in the USA, but Indians also live in the Arab world, Britain and other European countries where they are making substantial contribution to the economies of those countries. The main reason for that is Indians are educated, and they have made a reputation of being honest and hard working people. Many countries prefer to have labour from India rather than Pakistan or Azad Kashmir; and one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know reasons for this.

There are more Indians in Britain than Pakistanis and Kashmiris put together. Whereas we have more people in prisons and in low level jobs; Indians have more people in ‘white collar’ jobs and places of power. We spend more time and money in arranging functions, welcome parties and receptions for police inspectors, ‘patwaris’ and local politicians from AJK and Pakistan than on education of our children and making political space for ourselves in Britain.

I have written this knowing that it will open a flood gate of criticism against me because in our society we are taught to dislike and hate Hindus and Jews; and I have dared to highlight contributions of both communities. I hope my message is understood in its true perspective that we need to channel our energies in making ourselves more competitive rather than cursing others for our mistakes and miseries.

Writer is a Spokesman of Kashmir National Party, political analyst and author of many books and booklets. Also he is Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs. Email: drshabirchoudhry@gmail.com - Sri Lanka Guardian