Resident Indians split on Scottish referendum

Edinburgh, Sep 16 (IANS/RAY) Non-resident Indians (NRIs) or persons of Indian origin (PIOs) living in Scotland are reportedly divided on which way to vote in Thursday's referendum, which will decide whether Scotland remains a part of Britain or becomes independent.

The Indian government's assessment, according to a diplomatic source, is "the community is split on their voting intentions". He could not definitively say whether it was the older or younger generation that was favouring Scottish independence.

There are an estimated 23,000 overseas Indians resident in Scotland. They are considerably concentrated in the western city of Glasgow, but are also to be found in the capital Edinburgh and along the east coast in Dundee and Aberdeen.

They engage in a variety of occupations from being doctors to professors, professionals in multi-national corporations to running restaurants and shops. Sixty percent of the NRIs/PIOs are believed to be Sikhs.

The Indians' active involvement in Scottish politics is limited. There are only four local councillors in the whole of the region, with no one elected to the Scottish Parliament or to the British Parliament from Scotland yet.

Such a situation is in sharp contrast to the Pakistani community's inroads into public life in Scotland. The present Scottish Nationalist Party's external affairs minister is 29-year-old Humza Yousaf, whose father migrated from Pakistan in the 1960s.

Yousaf is a strident figure in the "Yes" campaign and had proved to be particularly influential with younger Pakistani voters. To counter his impact, the Labour Party has wheeled in the current governor of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Mohammad Sarwar, who previously as a Labour candidate in Glasgow, became in 1997 the first person of Pakistani origin to be elected as an MP to the British Parliament. He retained his seat until 2010.

The SNP told media: "As has been acknowledged by leaders across the world, the referendum is a decision for the people of Scotland and we do not expect any overseas government to intervene and try to influence the result one way or the other."

But a Labour activist said: "I don't regard the issue of foreign governments as relevant. People think of Mohammad as Glaswegian."

--IANS/RAY

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