u/Beaveric

I am the son of a Malaysian citizen, who is also an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), and has the card to prove so. Recently, I have seen the OCI card being mentioned increasingly in r/Bolehland, and always by the same few people. It was always posted without context, with the intention of proving that Malaysian Indians are double agents, disloyal to the nation, with our hearts and minds always in India. As a proud Malaysian who deeply loves this country, and will not tolerate any questioning of my loyalty, I will explain the OCI card, to prevent any further out of context politicisation

The OCI was created by the Indian government to cater to their large diaspora population, especially those in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. An OCI card holder, as stated by the Indian government, is a foreign national, without Indian citizenship, and with a foreign passport. Eligibility is for

Ex-citizens of India
Citizens of pre-independence India
The children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of both

What the OCI card allows you to do is

✅️ Travel in and out of India, Visa and e-Visa free, without stay limits

✅️ Equality with Indian citizens for fares and fees (eg, pay Indian prices for museums, etc instead of foreigner prices)

✅️ Ability to purchase and sell land in India, excluding agricultural land

What the OCI card DOES NOT allow you to do is

❌️ Vote in Indian elections

❌️ Run for political office

❌️ Work in the Indian public sector

❌️ Use it as a passport to anywhere other than India (it can only work when paired with the passport of your actual country, eg with a Malaysian passport)

The OCI card's main purpose is to encourage wealthy Indians who have left the country, to invest back in the country, with land acquisition being the main way. The Visa and stay exemptions allow them to forfeit their Indian citizenship without making it harder to visit family back in India. We Malaysians are by no means the target of the OCI, we are simply collateral

My father is a devout follower of the Hindu deity Ayyappan, who has a pilgrimage site in India which my dad visits yearly. To visit India, Malaysian citizens will have to apply for an e-Visa, which is a purely online Visa application. Their stay in India will also be limited to how much they are willing to pay for their e-Visa. A minimum of USD10 (RM41) is required to stay 30 days. With the OCI card, he doesnt have to tediously apply for e-Visas. He doesn't have to pay RM41, and he doesn't have to limit his stay. He has no interest in buying or selling land in India. He just doesn't want to apply for e-Visa, and pay the unnecessary RM41

I should also mention that, it is incredibly difficult for Malaysians and Singaporeans to get their OCI. While recent immigrants from India can easily prove their lineage, we Malaysian Indians are descended from those that left India on boats, to work on a faraway land. Whatever documentation they have is old, minimal, and often times destroyed or missing. My father was lucky that his grandfather, who was born in India but moved to Malaya as a young adult, still had documents proving that he was born and raised in British Malabar, part of modern day India

In addition, I have no love for India. I do feel proud to be a Malayalee, but that is attributed to my ancestral state of Kerala, and not the political entity of India. I am not nearly as religious as my dad, I prefer to go to the temple near my house than spend thousands going to India for it. If I had it my way, I would love to see South India separate and form their own country. I do not plan on getting an OCI card, and neither do the vast majority of Malaysian Indians

So the next time some racist or pedophile tries to use the OCI card as a gotcha moment to prove we are disloyal, remember that for us Malaysians, it is a glorified travel document that helps us cut corners and save time and money. And at the end of the day, that is as Malaysian as one can get

Tanah Tumpahnya Darahku. Now, forever, and always 🇲🇾❤️

u/Beaveric — 13 days ago

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