The name of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, today identifies the richest Southasian (male) to the world. Lakshmi Mittal, of Mittal Steel, is an Indian based in the United Kingdom. He made his money in the Soviet Union, and is suddenly in the limelight because he has dared to invade the bastion of Western Europe, attempting a hostile takeover of the French steel-maker Arcelor.
And so the name of the goddess – depicted in calendar art with a mouse for a consort, and assorted swans and white elephants hanging about in a paradisiacal grotto – is one that generates concern throughout Western industry for the acumen of can-do Indians. Truth be told, the ten richest men of Southasia, according to this year's Forbes list of the world's most wealthy, may be Southasians, but they are all Indians – from Azim Premji of Wipro and Kushal Pal Singh of DLF, to the Birlas, Godrej's and the Ambani brothers. And there is a pleasantly disproportionate representation of Calcutta, rather than of Bombay or Delhi, in terms of the schools and colleges these heavyweights have attended.
As Mittal and the others make the financial headlines, the infiltration of the Occident by Southasians continues apace. In the United States, for example, the robust dimensions of this presence can now be seen in the undergraduate college graduation rolls. For example, the list of the graduates of Columbia College class of '06 in New York shows a significant proportion of what some like to call 'desi' surnames.
But analysis of this list again shows the great preponderance of graduates of Indian origin, whether they are children of US citizens or foreign students. While Muslim names may be from other parts of the world as well, it is fair to say that Muslim Southasia is little represented in this list, and there are more individuals of Bangladeshi than Pakistani origin. There is not one Sinhala name there, while Nepali and Sri Lankan Tamil, or Fijian or West Indian names, would be hidden in their one's or two's, if at all.