Agree with these statements? Maybe you do. As an NRI, especially if you live in a "white-ruled" western country, you probably think there is some validity to these views. This is the opinion expressed in the widely respected Economist's "The world in 2000" special issue magazine. And "best" of all, these are the opinions of an Indian, not some rabidly racist Westerner; Swaminathan Aiyar, a regular commentator in the Indian media, has written the article.

But think again. Indians do better than India. Indians fare better in countries ruled by whites. Is this really true? You may be thinking, well, it seems true. You only have to look at the success of NRIs, and the relative "failure" of India, and you will be inclined to nod your head in agreement.

But think again. And yet again. Do Indians do better than India? Do Indians succeed abroad but not at home?

The fact is that Indians succeed at home too. India is full of success stories. But you don't get to hear of them living abroad. There's nothing odd about an Indian being a success in India. Almost every successful person in India, is well, Indian. Indians have built industrial empires, software businesses, a thriving entertainment industry…and not just that. Smaller success stories abound too.

What's the big deal about an Indian being a success in India? It may be a big deal to someone in India (Dhirubhai Ambani is a big deal to Indians, for example), but it certainly is no big deal to Mr or Ms Average abroad. Why would an American or for that matter a Gulf Sheikh, get excited about an Indian businessman being successful in India? It just doesn't concern him. Every country has its own success stories, and other countries don't make a big deal of it. But if the Indian is very successful in the US, on his (the American's) home-turf, the American will definitely take notice.

The reason that the success of NRIs stands out is that they are successful despite being foreigners. No one would make a big deal about NRIs if they weren't successful. If you're very successful in any country, you are going to stand out. If you're a foreigner, you are going to stand out even more. So successful NRIs get attention - and then everyone wonders why the Indians are successful abroad, not at home. But no one every wonders about the fact that there are very successful Indians in India too. All of us NRIs know that India has many, many successful people.

Of course, the argument will now go: if India has so many successful people, how come the country is in such a mess? There's a simple answer to that. Take a rich country, betray, plunder, rape, loot it for over two-hundred years, and batter its collective self belief, but call it something suitably euphemistic like "colonialism". Then ask them - all one billion people - to be successful (in material terms) overnight. Think it will happen?

Now consider the even more dangerous statement: "Indians are faring better in countries ruled by whites than in their own". Now, it is true that Indians do well in countries ruled by whites - the US and UK, are good examples. But Indians also do well in countries ruled by non-whites as well - Indians are significant players in the economies of many African countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They also do well in a range of countries such as the Gulf states, Singapore, Fiji and Malaysia.

The truth is, Indians do well everywhere - in India AND abroad. At the risk of sounding age-ist, I would bet that Mr Aiyer is a part of the generation that longs for the "peaceful" colonial days. But they fail to consider the fact that an Indian could never be Prime Minister under white rule. And how much of a success is that, for an Indian to never be able to aspire to the highest office in his (or her) own land?

And the real truth is this: Not all NRIs are successful. There's a myth about NRIs, especially in India, that we're all super-successful, super-rich people. We know that this is not the whole truth. There are some incredibly successful NRIs, some mediocre ones and some failures, like the people in any country. It's just that the super-successful ones stand out. And to collectively compare them to the whole of India is just not a fair comparison. If you want to make a comparison, you could also take the "failed" NRIs, and then conclude that the failures are faring worse than India, and therefore Indians do worse abroad than at home. It just depends on how you look at it.

- Chetan Dhruve in London

The views of this column are the author's own, and do not necessarily represent the views of NRI Online.