Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has responded subtly to US President Donald Trump’s “hellhole” comment directed at India, urging Indians living in America to “come home” and use their “technological leadership” to lead the youth to prosperity.
To open his argument, Vembu said that an Indian who has achieved outstanding success in America must remain grateful “in our Bharatiya way”.
In another reference to Trump’s remarks, he mentioned the “belief” that Indians are “taking” American jobs and “we have unfairly earned our success in America.”
The Zoho founder went on to link the “respect that Indians have around the world” to the “wealth of India itself”, adding that “respect in today’s world, along with prosperity and security, comes from one source: a nation’s technological prowess”.
Vembu’s Open Letter to Indians in America
Greeting “brothers and sisters of Bharat,” Vembu recalled, “Like me 37 years ago, you came to America with no money but with a good education and cultural heritage from Bharat.”
“You have achieved an outstanding achievement. America has been kind to us. We must remain grateful for that – gratitude is our Bharatiya way,” he said.
“Yet today, a significant number of Americans, maybe not a majority but not too far from it, believe that Indians are ‘taking’ American jobs and that our success in America has been unfairly earned,” Vembu said, referring to Trump’s focus on an “America First” policy that heightens rhetoric about foreign workers and outsourcing.
In his analysis of the future of Indians in America, the Zoho founder wrote: “You may think the next election will fix it, but your choice would be between people who hate our Bharatiya civilization and people who hate civilization itself. This is a battle of the ‘hard right’ versus the ‘woke left’. You are mere bystanders in this conflict.”
But he emphasized that there is one thing that is true now and will be true in the future: “the respect that Indians have around the world will depend to a large extent on the wealth of India itself. If India remains poor, the awakened left will give us moral lectures with pity and the hard right, other moral lectures with contempt (“hellhole”), and we must not confuse them with respect.”
“Respect in today’s world, along with prosperity and security, comes from one source: the technological prowess of a nation. India produces enough brainpower to achieve this prowess, but unfortunately we have exported so much of that talent, especially to America. As we develop this prowess in India, our civilizational strength will emerge,” he added.
Urging them to return, Vembu appealed to them: “As difficult as it is for many of you to contemplate, please return home. Bharat Mata needs your talent. Our vast young population needs the technological guidance you have acquired over the years to lead them to prosperity. Let us do this with missionary zeal.”
