A day after they voted to leave the European Union, the supporters of #Brexit comprising lower middle class, under educated, under employed and mostly white Conservative people from England and Wales were signing online petitions calling for a fresh revision of referendum so they could change their vote to remain in the EU. They had presumed that the hashtag Brexit was just a present-day way of protesting about immigrants from Poland, Muslim refugees from Syria and a few Asians who would take up more of their jobs. But alas, the results of the referendum are rather permanent, the prime minister has resigned, the hierarchy in the European headquarters is adamant that the divorce is swift and clean, even if it has repercussions for them in others also wanting out.
But though Brexit may stop the immigrants from coming in – what with the extremely harsh and expensive British visa system – the repercussions are largely for the United Kingdom itself, and first of all to its historic but still tenuous ethnic unity. Scotland is expected to demand another referendum to separate into a free nation. It already competes in international sports as a national team, sometimes pitted against the English team! North Ireland, half protestant, is still sharply demanded and the Catholic majority which waged a long civil war for independence may want to merge with the Republic of Island and remain part of the European Union.
A Barrister friend in London, of Indian origin but a Malaysian citizen, told me the repercussions could even be for whatever form the Commonwealth is at present. He said, “Australia has said what the point of our relationship with the U.K. is now. Relationships are kept because of certain advantageous now that’s gone! So, Australia has a point. They now have to negotiate trade deals separately! But I’m afraid that this whole exit discourse has been based on ill-advice and total failure of the leave camp to justifying leaving! Really sickening to see how stupid people can be!”
Another friend, a scholar of English origin who once worked in other European capitals, said, “NATO needs questioning too. Britain should also give up its permanent seat on the Security Council. And if we’re serious about reconfiguring our place in the world and our governance structure, it is time we talked about Royalty too.”
It has been a long time since I was a resident in the UK, but I think there will be no great impact on the Indian community, citizens or NRI, who are in the British Isles or North Ireland. Perhaps Goans who can claim Portuguese citizenship for historic reasons and used an entry into Lisbon as citizens and then travelled to England for better paid jobs, will of course not be able to. But in terms of bilateral political and economic relations, I don’t see much impact on India. NRI-owned companies in the UK and in Europe have mechanism to take care of their production and marketing dynamics. In foreign affairs, India has always claimed the Commonwealth links to claim proximity to the UK, and this can only increase.
Within India, though there are some on Internet who have spoken of the right to secede from any union, it is not to be considered in any realistic debate.
What will gather strength is the rampaging Islamophobia, fed by the work of the Islamic State and the terror groups operating from Pakistan. With India’s ruling right wing fanatics and their supporters feeding on this, there can only be an escalation of this trend in our country.
[The writer, a political and social commentator and activist, was Secretary-General All India Christian Council, Vice President, All India Catholic Union and President, All India Catholic Union]