Centuries ago, caravans and ships braved oceans to reach what India produced. Today, the traffic flows in the opposite direction. It is not goods leaving our shores but young minds, restless to find elsewhere what they cannot build here. This reversal explains why a tweak in an American visa policy can create such tremors at home. The sudden rise in fees for work visas is not just an administrative change; it is a mirror. It shows us how much of our future still depends on the decisions of others.
A Reputation Built On Fear
For long, Indians abroad were described as model migrants: diligent, disciplined, adaptable. The truth is less flattering. That discipline arose less from inner conviction than from fear, the fear of being sent back to the poverty they had escaped. Obedience was a survival tactic, not transformation.
Now the restraint has loosened. Larger numbers and the echo chamber of social media have encouraged louder assertion. With it, some of our least admirable habits travel too: disorder in public spaces, indifference to civic norms, behaviour that unsettles neighbours. A welcome once taken for granted is now turning into irritation. Respect that rests on caution evaporates as soon as caution is abandoned.
A Giant With Small Trade
Numbers show the paradox clearly. Nearly one-fifth of humanity lives in India, but our share of world trade is barely four per cent. The contrast with the past is stark. Once, our exports determined the strategies of empires. Today, our goods are so ordinary they can be replaced overnight by Bangladesh or Vietnam. Once the world came to us; now our brightest rush to them.
We console ourselves with software services, but even that is brittle pride. Clients come because we are inexpensive, not irreplaceable. Take away the cost advantage and the illusion collapses. A country staking its self-respect on cheapness stands no firmer than a man balancing on rented crutches.
Why Illusions Comfort Us
Why do we cling to illusions? Because they are easier than courage. Families still measure success by the dollar salary of children working abroad, not by what is built here. Safe employment is prized, risk discouraged.
Even religion has been dragged into this habit. Its essence is meant to be silence and inner clarity. Instead, it is largely reduced to mindless noise and display. Loudspeakers at midnight, processions that block roads, rituals staged to impress: what was meant to turn one inward is paraded outward, and the show is mistaken for depth.
The deeper condition is not economic but psychological. For centuries we have leaned on someone else: kings, governments, foreign markets. Standing alone feels dangerous. We prefer the comfort of dependence even when it stunts us. A drowning man clutches at driftwood, though he knows it will not carry him to shore.
Social media magnifies the illusion. Viral clips assure us that every modern discovery already existed in our scriptures, that the West merely borrowed from us. Such stories are comforting because they excuse effort. If the past had everything, the present is not our responsibility. But consolation is not progress; it is only another way of postponing work.
The Performance Trap
There was a time when Indians overseas earned respect through quiet contribution: study, labour, and patience. Today, too often visibility is mistaken for value. Noise is confused with dignity.
Religion again reflects the same error. What should be a pursuit of inner clarity is converted into public spectacle: devotional music in airports, mass rituals blocking entire neighbourhoods, cultural parades demanding recognition. But clarity need not be displayed as noise. Once religion becomes mere performance, it has already been lost.
This preference for show over substance corrodes both abroad and at home. Outside, it provokes resentment. Inside, it mocks knowledge, suffocates talent, and rewards superstition. Everywhere the cost is the same: substance is sacrificed for appearance.
Respect Can't Be Demanded
Respect cannot be borrowed; it must be created. Those who have built companies, advanced research, or entered public life abroad are honoured not because they demanded it but because they delivered value. Respect always follows contribution, never the other way around.
At home, our institutions have not kept pace. Universities that should encourage inquiry are frequently underfunded. Laboratories that should push knowledge forward are too few. In their place we raise slogans. We shout to feel strong. But strength that depends on shouting has already confessed its weakness.
If our brightest are to remain, they need reasons to. That means an environment where inquiry is rewarded, risk is possible, and inner enquiry is respected instead of mocked. Without this, the cycle repeats: the best leave, we borrow their achievements, and one policy abroad unsettles us once again.
Beyond The Illusion
The visa hike is not the real issue. Nor are the protests abroad. They are only reminders. The deeper problem is our addiction to borrowed pride and our unwillingness to face our weakness.
Borrowed respect shines like light from another's lamp: it brightens for a while, but the switch is never in your hand. Borrowed pride glitters like coins briefly in your palm: attractive, but never truly yours. The nations we rely on may change their rules tomorrow, and again we will flinch. What trembles is not their policy but our own shaky foundation.
Respect will remain uncertain as long as it rests on others' approval. It will grow firm only when we stop borrowing prestige and begin building strength. The challenge is not to look tall, but to stand firm. Everything else is illusion.
(Acharya Prashant, a philosopher and teacher of global wisdom literature, is the founder of the PrashantAdvait Foundation and a bestselling author who brings timeless wisdom to urgent modern questions.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
