Daily Newsings: 7th May

Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news.

For today’s Newsing, we look at a story in today’s edition of The Hindustan Times, titled ‘For Indian students in the West, a souring of dreams.’

Rajkamal Rao writes about the number of Indian students who are trying to emigrate to the Western countries, and especially the USA. The process is long and arduous. Moreover, the proportion of students who are getting through the process as opposed to the number of students who are applying and trying is really low, and getting lower year by year. At the same time, the number of students trying to emigrate is increasing year by year. While the USA grants 9800 green cards to Indians annually, the number of those who apply each year is around 60,000.

Why do so many Indians want to go abroad?

Perhaps my own example can help us see some reasons. For many years, I did dream of going abroad.

Why did I want to go abroad?

I felt like I would feel like I belonged to the community in a Western country more than I did in my own. I had written about some of these longings in a blog post some years ago. I felt like I did not belong in India due to a number of reasons — growing up in a culture different from that of my parents, having a faith foreign to that of my classmates, having a language foreign to that of my classmates, and consuming media that was so different from that of my classmates (English books and the odd Hollywood movie as opposed to Bollywood movies). Of course, now I understand that growing up in a sin-torn world, all of us feel like we don’t belong at various stages of life due to various reasons. Going to a Western country would not have fixed that.

The standard of living is better in many of the Western countries. I wanted to live in those better environments. I wanted to study in an educational system which was superior to that which is in India. I wanted to be able to communicate with most people I met in English.

My sense of belonging.
My comfort.

I was not acting in line with my identity as an envoy of King Jesus.

Rao ends his report with the line, “when the Western dream fails to materialise, Indian students should reconsider whether they are better off at home in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.”

While Rajkamal Rao gives staying at home as an option with the reason of India being one of the world’s fastest growing economies, I believe as Christians we have a greater reason for staying in our own country.

We are envoys of King Jesus. We have been sent on mission to seek the kingdom of Jesus here on earth.

Christ came down to the earth forsaking his comfort and his sense of belonging, so we could eventually enjoy comfort and belonging. Jesus left his dwelling in heaven, and came down to the earth. He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. He did not seek to feel like he belonged here. While on earth, he had no place to lay his head. He did not seek his own comfort.

His purpose was to bring peace on earth and goodwill to men.

In calling us to imitate him, he calls us to not seek our own comfort and belonging, but rather seek the good of the place into which he has called us (Jer 29:7). As his body here on earth, we are now called to bring his shalom and flourishing in the places where he has placed us.

In building roads in Bangalore, we may not earn as much as we may earn in a Western country, but we bring flourishing to Bangalore as envoys of King Jesus. In building software for small businesses or institutions in India, we may not earn as much as we may earn building software for businesses in a Western countries. But we make the lives of Indians better and bring flourishing to the country. In conducting research or teaching in India, we may not earn as much as we may earn if we conducted research or taught at a Western University, but we help bring flourishing to India. Providing healthcare to the sick in India may not pay as much as providing healthcare to the sick in a Western country, but we help bring healing and flourishing to India as envoys of King Jesus.

We don’t consider staying in India as an option because it is “one of the world’s fastest growing economies” — because the country can bless us. We do so because we can bless the country. We do so because we have been sent to India as envoys of King Jesus to seek his kingdom here in India and to pray for its peace (Jer 29:7).