Ireland can be gateway to Europe for India

What are the implications for India? There is approximately 34,000 Indianorigin population in Ireland, of whom around 20,500 are people of Indian origin (PIO) and around 13,500 are non-resident Indians (NRIs). The bulk of the community is in healthcare, I

India has long links with Ireland, a shared history of colonialism by the same coloniser, deep links between the national movements of both countries and similar movements to build national pride and identity. Additionally, common myths and traditions existed, binding the two nations together even when full nationhood had not been achieved. The friendship between Ireland’s W B Yeats and India’s first Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore is well documented. There was even an attempt by the British to suggest that Geetanjali (‘An Offering of Prayers’) written by Tagore in English was ghost-written by Yeats because its English was so perfect.

A more political link between India and Ireland was established by Annie Besant who discovered Theosophy, a movement that drew on Indian and Celtic mythologies. She travelled to India and helped establish the Indian National Congress. Today, the Indo-Irish connection is vibrant with Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar being of Indian origin.

Ireland was never a colony like India, but it had semi-colonial status. The historian C.A. Bayly rightly compared 18th century Ireland to an Indian princely state: “Ultimate power remained with the British, but the trappings of native government and native legitimacy remained in place.” The 1845 potato famine in Ireland, which killed a million people and forced a million more to emigrate, has often been compared to the great Bengal Famine in 1943 which also killed more than a million Indians because granaries were deliberately depleted and diverted to feed soldiers of the British Indian Army in World War II. Both were manmade famines, driven by impulses of imperial conquest and colonial misadventures.

The issue of the ‘Backstop’ in the context of Brexit starkly demonstrates that colonial attitudes do not change that quickly. A key element of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was an open border between the British-imposed partition lines of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. Any attempt to reimpose a customs and immigration regime along Britain’s only land border with the European Union was always likely to be resisted. The European Union (EU) has been steadfast in its support to the ‘Backstop’; their chief negotiator Michel Barnier said: “Backstop is the only operational solution to the Irish border issue.”

In an opinion piece headlined ‘The malign incompetence of the British ruling class’ for The New York Times, Pankaj Mishra notes forebodingly: “With Brexit, the ‘chumocrats’ who drew borders from India to Ireland, are getting a taste of their own medicine… It is a measure of English Brexiteers’ political acumen that they were initially oblivious to the volatile Irish question.”

The irony of the Brexit issue is the economic windfall as a result of companies and business shifting out of London to either Ireland or Netherlands. Ireland offers hugely competitive business alternatives in a friendly English-speaking environment, close to the UK. Coming out of the Eurozone crisis, the Irish economy is booming, with GDP growth at 4.1%. Ireland is ranked among the top countries in the world to do business. There are several other advantages. Ireland allows companies barrier-free access to Europe’s 500 million consumers. The EU’s free-trade agreements and ability to attract multinational staff allow companies to trade across Europe from a single location. Ireland’s time zone makes it the perfect location as an interface to Europe and the US for Indian companies.

What are the implications for India? There is approximately 34,000 Indian-origin population in Ireland, of whom around 20,500 are people of Indian origin (PIO) and around 13,500 are non-resident Indians (NRIs). The bulk of the community is in healthcare, IT, engineering and senior management positions. The community is well regarded locally and has integrated well into Irish society. Many Indian companies are expected to shift to Ireland in the remaining time-frame leading up to October 31, 2019, the final deadline for Brexit to be completed. While the toxicity of the Brexit debate has far-reaching implications for peace in Northern Ireland, its immediate economic repercussion lies in the opportunities it offers to Ireland and to Indian companies to shift and do business with Europe through Ireland rather than the UK. There can be no greater historical irony for Britain as it continues to navigate the treacherous route to Brexit.