At home and abroad, Gujarat has never loomed larger
Long before the PM’s NRI-fest in America, there was the global Gujarati. From Uganda to the US, the non-resident Gujarati has been criss-crossing the globe more regularly than perhaps Superman on an urgent mission. Those of us acquainted with American Born Confused Desis, emigrated From Gujarat, House In Jersey, (ABCDEFGHIJ), also know that the Gujarati may have been globalised for two centuries yet has always clung tenaciously to his civilisational roots.
From managing grocery stores in Leicester to running motels in Los Angeles (or ‘Potels’ as they were famously known), the Gujarati — along with Punjabis — are India’s first globalised community, driven by an incorrigible spirit of ‘dhando’ or business. As they Read More