Quit India

(8th August 2005. I reached office and thought "I will write something on Quit India today". The below musing ensued.)

The phrase ‘Quit India’ rings bells of patriotism, khadi-clad leaders, valiant common people standing against the tyrant lathi of the gorewala (‘the englishman’) and much more. While all this is pertinent to think of, today being 8th of August, as a little knowledge of history seems to claim that it was on 8th August 1942 that the famous ‘Quit India’ movement is held. Who knows, maybe the next Aamir Khan starrer would be titled ‘Quit India’.

Today morning, in one of those jingoistic pangs, I felt sorry that I was not born during the ‘dependent’ times of Indian history. That I was not alive when the historic ‘Quit India’ movement was going on. But having reflected a little, I am reminded that maybe I am not completely cheated by the unexplained vagaries of the space-time continuum.

Even today, there is an ongoing ‘Quit India’ movement happening. But the interesting fact is that, this time around, it is not an Indian who is shouting ‘Quit India’ but it is the gorewala. Sounds Strange? The English shouting “Quit India”, today, in 2005? “You must be out of your mind”, you may say. Not quite.

If you happen to follow the trends of global business process outsourcing (aka BPO) industry, and if you are smart enough, you must have figured the missing piece of this puzzle by now. Otherwise, let me make the effort to explain.

In the recent times, opposition to outsourcing to emerging countries like India, Brazil, Russia and China has become fierce in the major outsourcer countries (read US, UK and much of Europe). The proximate reason offered is the ‘loss of jobs domestically’. So, if a UK corporation plans to outsource call center activities to a Hyderabad backyard start-up, rest assured, it will receive a lot of flak from the trade unions and the self-proclaimed national interest groups.

The list of UK companies that have become the target of ‘Quit India’ movement recently is long. Banks, Manufacturing majors, Telecom companies all have had their share of the “Save UK Jobs” headlines. And all said and done, the list will grow in the future. What it means to India is a debate outside the scope of this article.

Looks like the English can never run away from the ‘Quit India’ slogan whether it is 1942 or 2005. But let us hope that it does not quit India as it did in 1947.

- Shyam Kurni