I had a long liquid lunch today with an old friend, who is of Indian extraction. Born in “East Africa” as he describes it, he grew up in Fiji and moved to Australia as a young man. I assume during the coup.
I wish I had recorded the conversation, as it was a fascinating insight from an honest Indians perspective.
According to my friend Indians congregate into what he described as occupation ghettos. He cited corner stores in the UK as a perfect example. The reason apparently is caste. Some casts do some jobs, other do other jobs. Some casts are in trade, some in the military.
He cited this reason why so many Indians have moved into IT – it has become an occupation ghetto for Indians, within which they feel safe.
This ghetto attitude is problematic, because many Indians feel honour bound by their caste to be (say) a doctor, and so will with some reluctance fake qualifications to obtain the positon. Maintaining the caste position becomes more important than the honour of the individual.
(My friend named the castes and their roles, but I didn’t want to be seen writing it all down)
The other problem he highlighted with these occupation ghettos was that they were self-fulfilling, because Indians will (naturally) always want to work with others of the same ethnic background and caste. He highlighted Recruiting and HR as the latest “Indian occupation ghetto” where once a certain critical mass has been reached, the company will only employ Indians.
This means that over time some areas of employment become virtually Indian exclusive. My friend saw this happen with the Fijian public service, after the British pulled out. Without British oversight the public offices became 100% Indian, to the fury of the ethnic Fijians. This led in a roundabout way to the coup.
The other fascinating point he made was that because of the nature of the culture, Indians are very good at, and with, authoritarian management but hopeless at participative leadership. The endless struggle to reach above the starvation line invariable leads them to arrogance and dictatorial attitudes as soon as they realise they have a voice in decisions.
Very interesting chat. Does this match other peoples impressions?