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Writer's pictureNishant Mittal

India - Canada relationship, and how it stands

India and Canada have an interesting relationship, which is quickly going south.


About 1.5 Million Indian people are now Canadian citizens. In fact, last year alone, 120,000 Indians took Canadian citizenship. Yet, India doesn't get a lot of remittance money from Canada. In the list of all the countries that send remittance to India, Nepal is ahead of Canada. Australia is last on the list.


How much money does India get in remittance from Canada? About $860 Million in a year. But interestingly, around 89,500 tourists from India spent $3.4 Billion on Canadian tourism in 2021 alone. Conversely, Canadians visiting India only spent $93 Million.


When it comes to trade, the partnership is small. Exports to Canada make up for less than 1% of India's total export economy. But it's one of the few countries with whom India has a trade surplus situation. Canadian investments in India make up for less than .5% of Indian FDI.


Very importantly (and strangely), Canadian remittances to India were much higher in 2017 (about $2.8 Billion) than they are now. This basically means that Indians who go to Canada, take their families with them after a while and send little to no money to the homeland eventually. It'd be nice to see this change, however, things are actually changing in the opposite direction.


The financial standing (or the lack of it) aside, Canada is now the de facto base of operations of the Khalistani radicals who are vehemently anti India. The country's current administration has done nothing to thwart the growing radicalisation of its tiny populace, in fact, if anything, it's been a subtle protector of all things problematic. 2.3% of Canadian population is Hindu, while 2.1% is Sikh. And a very small fraction of the Sikh population identifies itself as "pro Khalistan". However, that small fringe is now quickly becoming mainstream, perhaps because the law enforcement has apparently not been very tight.


Now the times are getting twisted by the day. In quite an unprecedented fashion, the radical Khalistani movement's incendiary rhetoric has turned into actions against India, and more specifically - against the Hindu community. This is deeply worrying because, just ten years ago, none of these problems even existed in any meaningful sense. This entire spiel is quite a recent concoction.


We, the everyday Indians, Hindus and Sikhs, can only hope that these synthetic concoctions propped up by yesteryears' political non-entities, don't end up actually hurting the communal harmony that has always existed between us. Cause to think of it, who wants another fight? Except for some parasites who benefit from it.


We'll all need a lot of luck while trying to extinguish these recent flames of divide. Hope it all goes well. Godspeed.


P.S. You just read an honest (and hopefully valuable) article for free. If you like my writing, please consider making donations. Amounts don't matter, gestures do. Here's a big cheers to all my Patrons!


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