Ritu Jha-
The historic Hayes Mansion in San Jose, California looked like a venue straight out of a Bollywood wedding sequence. But it wasn’t any big, fat Indian matrimony event; it was the gala to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the non-profit Indiaspora – an occasion to celebrate, connect and discuss Indian American issues and concerns.
From October 14 through 16, Indiaspora founder ‘Madhavan’ MR Rangaswami — popularly called MR – was the man of the hour. MR is a software executive, investor, entrepreneur, corporate eco-strategy expert, community builder and philanthropist, and he was all smiles running from one conference to another to see if panels are running smooth.
In the middle of the organized chaos, you could hear his signature laugh – sometimes under the warm California sun or on the stage greeting keynote speakers.
Scores of Indiaspora supporters flew in from London, Canada, India and several American states to make the event a massive success.
The three-day event started with a keynote by Neera Tanden, currently senior advisor and staff secretary to US President Joe Biden. Later, MR took the state and spoke on the theme ‘Kal Aaj Aur Kal’, which were essentially reflections on Indiaspora’s journey from philanthropy to tech migration, and from climate change to Hollywood and Bollywood. One of the richest Indian Americans in the Forbes Rich List – Jay Chaudhry – spoke, as did 11-year-old Zoya Khara, who plays Mowgli in a play adaption of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’.
In an exclusive interview with indica, Rangaswami said he started Indiaspora in 2012 when he worked all alone for four years to make the community understand that he was building an institution for the entire Indian diaspora across the globe, and not just for a limited geography. Today, there are over 32 million in the Indiaspora community.
“Political engagement, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship are the pillars of Indiaspora,” he said. There was the political acumen of Indian American Congressman Ro Khanna to go with the business wisdom of Zscaler’s Chaudhry
“Ten years ago, we could not have imagined a panel like this one. There were experts and leaders, but we were not really involved in politics,” he said.
He said that the event and the participation showed that the Indian American community has come a long way in US politics. “They are a strong people with a great experience,” he said. “For the community to be strong, you have to be politically engaged. If you aren’t, you may not have influence over an important policy issue like immigration. It’s definitely on people’s minds and it was discussed.”
Rangaswami added, “The big question is, how do we engage more than 32 million people across countries. The answer is that we have two things in common – we are of Indian origin, and we have a cell phone. Perhaps an app will bring us closer together.”
To that end, he said, Indiaspora will connect with Mohanbir Sawhney, director, the Center for Research in Technology & Innovation at Northwestern University, Illinois. He was the keynote speaker on Oct 15, and “spoke about Global Diasporic product (GDiP) and how do we measure the impact made by the community.”
Rangaswami showing interest in GDiP, said Indiaspora would be talking to Sawhney and a few consulting firms as well. “It’s a serious project and it will measure the impact of the Indian diaspora. It could be about jobs we created, or the contributions of professionals such as doctors, academics, or military personnel. We know we are doing this work, but what does that really mean? We have to develop a matrix after collating the data.”
“Apart from politics and business, Indiaspora is big on philanthropy and social impact. It has partnered with Revature and PeopleShores to identify, train and employ people in tech and tech-enabled services.”
Since its inception, Indiaspora has hosted several community-focused events and political forums, including those during presidential elections.
The origins of Indiaspora are equally interesting. Rangaswami said that he had worked with NASSCOM for 10 years and would take delegates to Silicon Valley every year and would host boot camps, talks and workshops. “I thought why not do the same in the US. There was no organization, just The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) for entrepreneurs, while doctors and lawyers had their own associations. There was no one who could speak for the entire community.”
He said that Indiaspora supporters donated $15 million to Give India during Covid. “Not everything can be viewed from the Return on Investments lens.”
Rangaswami also spoke about the rising instances of hate crime against the Indian American community. “We are misunderstood as a community, but if people knew we are giving, they may not want to attack us,” Rangaswami said.
“In the way of giving, we figured out a new model for people to donate to us by hosting an invitation-only membership. It took us a while, and it was definitely a challenge to raise the money.”
He said the idea was to build an institution and not just donate money for a cause. “We had to tell people the difference between a cause and building an institution. We don’t take care of the people in charity, and that was the biggest challenge. For four to five years, we couldn’t raise any money. It was just me doing a few things, there was no team. Our team is just six years old,” he said.
“Because we are looked upon as an institution by our members, they expect us to take up causes like one. When hate-crime became a talking point, our members were concerned and wanted Indiaspora to take a stand, similar to Black Lives Matter. We do things other institutions won’t. We want to be a force for good.”
