Description
In recent decades, the Indian diaspora has emerged as one of the largest and most influential migrant populations in the world. Yet behind the narrative of global success lies a more troubling story of racism, xenophobia, and exclusion. This paper examines how Indians across continents ranging from students and professionals in Western countries to labour migrants in the Gulf and Southeast Asia encounter discrimination that is both structural and everyday in nature. These experiences reveal how global hierarchies of race, class, and nationality continue to shape the lives of migrants in an ostensibly interconnected world.
Drawing on contemporary research, policy reports, and documented incidents, the study highlights the persistence of racial violence and hate crimes targeting Indians abroad, particularly after events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. It explores how Indians are alternately portrayed as “model minorities” and racialised outsiders celebrated for economic contributions yet marginalised in social and political life. Such contradictions reflect the enduring colonial logics that equate Western modernity with whiteness and render non-white migrants perpetually foreign.
By situating these experiences within the global politics of migration and race, the paper calls for a critical rethinking of the “global Indian” narrative. It argues that understanding the Indian diaspora requires recognising not only its economic achievements but also its vulnerability to racism, cultural prejudice, and rising nationalist hostilities in an increasingly polarised world.
