External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted the role of the Indian diaspora as a "living bridge between India and the world". The minister was speaking at the launch of the website for the 19th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) convention. The annual convention, scheduled to be held in Kolkata, West Bengal, in another two months, from January 7-9, in partnership with the Government of West Bengal, is a flagship event of the Indian government and an important platform for engaging with the diaspora across the world. The BJP-led NDA government has been enthusiastic about the role of overseas Indians in India's march towards Viksit Bharat, as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is fair to expect them to reconnect, collaborate and contribute, leveraging the expanding opportunities the country offers. So far, so good.

But overseas Indians are facing a new and changing reality, beginning to feel the heat of an anti-Indian sentiment that is surging in countries like the US, the UK and Australia. Part of the problem is hitching their wagon entirely to Modi's star, a gamble that backfired. In hindsight, it proved ill-advised. This was most evident among Indian Americans, a significant section of whom abandoned the Democrats for the Republican camp under the mesmerising influence of Modi-Trump bonhomie during Trump's first term and in the run-up to the 2020 election. But as Trump's second term progressed, India-US relations in general, and the Trump-Modi equation in particular, nosedived. The US government's hardline immigration and anti-H-1B policies on the one hand, and attacks by diehard MAGA and far-right elements threatening to spill beyond social media on the other, have heightened anxiety within the diaspora. After licking their wounds, many returned to the Democratic fold in the recent midterms. Ironically, those who support and benefit from progressive and secular political forces in their host country often turn out to be the strongest votaries of the BJP and the extended Sangh Parivar's sectarian and communal politics.

In the UK and Australia, anti-Indian sentiment is driven by broader anti-migrant politics, but the increased political and religious visibility of Indians or persons of Indian origin did play a role. Public celebration of Hindu festivals, once perceived as novel and exotic, has now dented their historic image as a low-profile and highly integrated "model minority".

With the spirit of globalisation waning and the concomitant rise of far-right, populist and nationalist movements across the Global North, hell-bent on weaponising anti-foreigner and anti-immigrant sentiment, the Modi brand of soft diplomacy involving the diaspora will face challenges. It is true that the 35-million-strong Indian diaspora is a diplomatic asset, and Modi is credited with cracking the code of tapping into the massive economic, technological, diplomatic and cultural advantages they offer. There have been substantial gains in terms of record remittances and investment, mentoring home-grown entrepreneurs and driving R&D. But leveraging the diaspora for narrow, partisan domestic politics and to boost a leader's image can be counterproductive. India should therefore pivot towards a balanced, non-partisan diaspora engagement, and use soft power not only to shape global perceptions and advance its geopolitical interests but also to safeguard the diaspora's interests.