Sridhar Vembu urges Indian professionals in US to return amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment

Amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu on Monday (April 27) urged Indian-origin professionals there to return to India.

Vembu, in a post on X, argued that unlike the time when he arrived and achieved commercial success in the US when the country was “good to” Indians, the situation has changed since then, with a large number of Americans, if not the majority, think that Indians were “taking away” their jobs.

Vembu even warned that the number of Americans with such a mindset may soon become the majority in the US.

Gratitude, but a stark warning

"Like I did 37 years ago, you arrived in America with no money but with a good education and cultural heritage from Bharat. You achieved outstanding success. America was good to us. For that, we must remain grateful - gratitude is our Bharatiya way," stated Vembu.

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“You may think the next election will fix this, but your choice would be between people who hate our Bharatiya civilisation and people who hate civilisation itself. That is the "hard right" vs "woke left" battle. You are mere bystanders to that conflict,” he added.

Respect tied to India’s fortunes

The Zoho founder argued that the respect Indians get across the globe was directly proportional to the economic prosperity of India itself. He further stated that if India remains poor, then the respect commanded by Indians in the world will also be adversely affected.

“Meanwhile there is one thing that is true now and will be true in the future: the respect Indians command world-wide will substantially depend on the fortunes of India herself,” said Vembu.

Technology as the real source of global standing

“If India remains poor, the woke left will give us moral lectures with pity and the hard right, different moral lectures with scorn ("hellhole") and we must not confuse either with respect. Respect in today's world, along with prosperity and security, comes from one source: a nation's technological prowess,” he added.

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Elaborating further, Vembu said that a country gains respect in today’s world not just from prosperity and security, but also from its technological prowess.

A call to return and rebuild

"India produces sufficient brain power to achieve that prowess but alas we exported so much of that talent, particularly to America. As we develop that prowess in India, our civilisational strength will assert itself. As difficult as it is for many of you to contemplate this, please come back home. Bharat Mata needs your talent,” he added.