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Sanjaya Baru interview: We've turned emigration of talented Indians into an aspiration
A record number of wealthy Indians are leaving the country. According to a recent report by Kotak Bank, one in five UHNIs is either in the process of migrating abroad or has plans to do so. Over 23,000 millionaires have left the country in the last decade, says Sanjaya Baru. In his latest book, Secession of the Successful: The Flight out of New India, the veteran journalist and policy commentator records the various phases of organised migration out of the country and examines the reasons behind the current exodus. Also read | Review: Sanjaya Baru's book does a favour to history, Congress Sanjaya Baru, an economist and political analyst, has written extensively on India's economic transformation and development. His recent book is Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India.
For the elite, the pull of the first-world life, especially in Dubai or Singapore, is too strong, says Baru. 'Why wait for 2047 to live in a developed economy if you can do so today?' he says.
In this interview, Baru talks about how the exodus has been normalised, the political and economic factors driving it, and what it means for a country that hopes to be a developed economy by 2047.
You argue in your book that India's elite aren't just leaving physically, they are slowly pulling away from the idea of India itself. So, would you call this book a warning, a lament, or a diagnosis?
It's certainly not a lament. It is a warning. It's a diagnosis to begin with. The brain drain, or the export of human capital, drew attention 40 to 50 years ago when economists like Jagdish Bhagwati wrote about it. But in the last quarter century, no one is paying attention. We have normalised the emigration of talented Indians, to the point where the government actually takes pride in promoting it. So yes, it's a warning: that you're allowing more and more of your talented people to leave, and doing nothing to retain them. And it's a diagnosis, because I look at the different manifestations of emigration.
You've described the secession as a flight from responsibility. The rich are also leaving Brazil, South Africa and Turkey. So, why should we be expecting something different from the elite in India?
I don't expect anything different. This is not peculiarly Indian, nor is it new. If other countries don't pay attention, that's their headache. But as an Indian concerned about the economy, I worry that more and more talented Indians are leaving.
You've written about the government facilitating emigration. Other countries try to curb it. Is this official encouragement a policy mistake?
It is a mistake, but a recent one. Labour migration involves talent too, but given our large pool of unemployed workers, I don't worry about it as much. Highly qualified Indians leaving is something a poor, low-income, developing country like ours should worry about. Countries like China, Taiwan, or Korea had large-scale emigration 30 to 40 years ago, but now have return migration because they've become developed economies. We are not at that stage. We cannot prevent emigration. Proposals like Bhagwati's 'brain drain' tax in the 1980s were dismissed as impractical, but why should we encourage it? For example, the foreign minister recently launched the 'Global Access for Talented Indians' initiative. Why should the government get involved in sending people out? We are a capital-deficit economy — and by capital I mean not just finance, but also human capital. Our record in research, science, and advanced fields is poor for a country of our size.
What role have political changes played, especially since 2014?
The numbers show an increase in the emigration of wealthy and elite Indians over the last decade. There's an economic reason and a political reason. Economically, more Indians can now afford to buy citizenship overseas, property overseas, educate their children abroad, and live abroad. Politically, there is fear — of the taxman, the Enforcement Directorate, and harassment by the bureaucracy. Last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised an 'ease of living mission', but nothing was heard after that. Day-to-day life has become more of a headache: constant KYC forms, compliance demands. That's driving some people out.
At diaspora events, overseas Indians cheer the Prime Minister and shout 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' and yet they don't return. Is this performative?
It is performative, but more than that, it's the politicisation of the diaspora to serve domestic political needs. Every prime minister since 1947 has met overseas Indians; what's new is using these audiences to influence the domestic political process. This risks diplomatic consequences. A Singaporean diplomat once asked me if politicisation of overseas Indians could hurt bilateral relations. Tensions among Sikhs, Khalistanis, and Hindu groups in Canada, the UK, and the US show that the diaspora can become a source of political and law-and-order problems. And yes, there is hypocrisy. If you're so proud of Bharat Mata and this leadership, why don't you come back and help build the country?
Post-independence, some of India's best minds went abroad but returned. That isn't happening now. Why?
In Jawaharlal Nehru's time, many high-profile Indians returned — Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, others — sometimes at his personal request. Conditions in India were modest, but they still came back. In recent decades, very few have returned. Even those who did, like Raghuram Rajan, stayed only briefly. The trend of permanent high-profile return ended in the 1980s.
Can India still turn its diaspora into a national asset, as other countries have?
Yes, the opportunity hasn't passed. But it depends on leadership that can inspire people the way Nehru did. Today, 22,000 Indians are professors in the US. If even 2% came to teach here, it would make a difference. Some universities like ISB, Ashoka, and Jindal have attracted talent, but not in large numbers.
Have we made emigration too aspirational, then?
Exactly. We're not ringing alarm bells; we've internalised it. As (economist) Devesh Kapur once noted, most of our elite — across business, politics, diplomacy, bureaucracy, the armed forces, academia — have children who want to emigrate. It's a loss of both human and financial capital. Last year, for the first time, outward FDI exceeded inward FDI. In a labour-surplus, capital-deficit economy, we should be retaining both finance and human capital. But we're not even trying.
