The Politics Desk
Power, policy, and the global Indian voter
Her grandparents were shipped from India to Natal's sugar plantations as indentured labourers in the 1890s. On 9 October 2026, Navi Pillay — the bus driver's daughter from Clairwood — won the Nobel Peace Prize. The girmitiya who rose from apartheid Durban to the summit of international law.
In 2026 India is courting its diaspora as never before — financially and politically. The week a minister told US Indians 'we're watching your back,' the diaspora had just handed home a record $127 billion. Inside New Delhi's strategic embrace of its 35 million global Indians — and what the diaspora should ask in return.
If India has spent 2026 asking its diaspora for money and loyalty, the diaspora has a list of its own. GOPIO handed External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar a memorandum of grievances — consular services, philanthropy rules, banking headaches — during his US visit this month.
A Green Party accountant of Maharashtrian descent, Nila Vikhe Patil has been elected to Sweden's Riksdag from Stockholm at the 13 September 2026 election — among the first of Indian descent to reach the Swedish parliament.
Born in Muzaffarpur and raised in Cardiff from the age of 12, Kanishka Narayan was sworn into the British Cabinet on 20 July 2026 as the country's first Minister for Artificial Intelligence — a role created for him by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The Ministry of External Affairs and the Rajasthan government held a 'Videsh Sampark' outreach in Jaipur on 17 July 2026 to steer would-be migrants away from fraudulent agents and toward safe, legal overseas jobs.
Uday Nagaraju, Geeta Nargund, Neena Gill and Shama Tatler have been appointed to Britain's House of Lords, deepening the Indian diaspora's footprint in the upper chamber.
A bilateral framework is set to raise the number of Indian workers in Israel toward 50,000 by 2030, filling construction and caregiving jobs left by barred Palestinian labour. The numbers, and the controversy.
The families of Indian men lured into the Russian armed forces have taken their case to the Supreme Court. Here is what the government has confirmed about how many were recruited, released, and killed.
Part 6 of Power Abroad. The son of a Mumbai-born doctor, Leo Varadkar became Ireland's youngest leader, its first openly gay one, and the first of half-Indian descent - governing a country that in one generation went from banning divorce to electing him.
Part 5 of Power Abroad. The son of a Goan writer, António Costa governed Portugal for nearly a decade and now presides over the European Council - the first person of colour to hold one of the EU's top jobs, and an overseas citizen of India who has never hidden where his name comes from.
Thirty thousand people filled Marvel Stadium for 'Melbourne Meets Modi'. The rally was not a sideshow to the India-Australia summit that produced it - the uranium deal, the trade pact, the defence pledge. It was the same instrument, seen from the other side. A decade on from Madison Square Garden, the Indian diaspora has become both the audience and the argument of India's foreign policy - and in Australia, for the first time, the numbers to back it.
PM Narendra Modi credited the Indian diaspora for the India-Australia relationship before a 30,000-strong Marvel Stadium crowd on 9 July, after a summit with Anthony Albanese produced 18 outcomes across defence, energy and trade.
In November 2024, Navin Ramgoolam swept back to power in a Mauritian landslide, ousting Pravind Jugnauth. It was the latest round in a contest that has run since independence — between two families, both descended from indentured labourers, who have monopolised the leadership of the diaspora's most successful nation.
At a Capitol Hill event on 23 June, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi urged Indian-Americans to contest elections at every level, citing a rise in what he called anti-Hindu and anti-Indian hate.
Long before Rishi Sunak or Kamala Harris, the descendants of indenture were already winning the top jobs — presidents and prime ministers of Indian descent across Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname, governing the very lands their ancestors were shipped to in bondage.
The first person of Indian descent to reach the US vice-presidency owed her path, by her own account, to a 19-year-old from Madras who crossed the world alone to become a scientist.
Part 1 of Power Abroad. The grandson of Punjabi migrants became the United Kingdom's first British Indian prime minister — and lit Diwali lamps on the steps of Downing Street.
For the first time in Australia's history, a non-British-origin migrant community is the country's largest. The shift coincides with a rise in anti-immigration demonstrations, including the 'March for Australia'.
If he wins, Vivek Ramaswamy would become the first Indian-American governor of Ohio — and the first Hindu governor in United States history.
The United Kingdom's House of Commons now includes 26 members of Parliament of Indian descent — a 73% increase since 2015, reflecting the community's steady political ascent in Westminster.
It was January 21, 1974 , At that time, Jharkhand was still a part of Bihar, and the Chief Minister of Bihar was Abdul Ghafoor. There was a leader in those days named Vishwanath Modi. He gave a speech in Jhumri Telaiya and then led a large rally through the town. When the rally reached […]
