e-Patriots

E-mail, Internet, and worldwide websites are showing up the sad confusions of the great Indian middle class nationalist who goes ballistic about the power and glory of his motherland while silting in front of his computer screen in California´s Silicon Valley or in a gloomy apartment in New Jersey. Having satisfied his consumerist cravings and being overcome with syrupy nostalgia about a country which is at least 10,000 miles away the Indian professional or businessman living in the United States can afford to wax eloquent about Sanskritic civilisation and nuclear achievement. The problem is that very few of his while American neighbours or colleagues are impressed by either Sanskrit or the Pokharan explosions and the nearest Indian friend is not readily available for a morale-boosting chat.

Solace is at hand and the patriotic US-Indian can now broadcast to the world his paranoia and his yearning for India´s greatness with a click of his computer-mouse.. A typical example is an e-mail letter sent by an Indian living in Texas to India Today soon after the May 1998 nuclear tests: "India made the right move by proving its nuclear capabilities. A weak India surrounded by powerful nuclear weapons Males is a sure recipe for subjugation and the demise of the worlds largest democracy. Now that India has shown the world the ´stick´, it will have to work on the ´carrot´ to maintain peace.´´