The NRI Mirage: Are They Building India or Buying It Out?

We often hear it in speeches, see it in headlines:

"India is rising — our NRIs are coming back to build the nation!"

But let’s pause the celebration.

Did NRIs develop the United States?

No.

They benefited from a developed system — roads they didn’t build, universities they didn’t fund, governance they didn’t vote for, rights they didn’t struggle to earn.

They worked hard, no doubt. But in a machine already running.

They didn’t fix broken pipes, face jobless Sundays, or run schools on diesel generators.

So the question is:

Will they now develop India?

Or will they do what they’re already doing — stash wealth in urban real estate, inflate housing prices, and create gated bubbles of privilege that push the common man further to the outskirts, both economically and geographically?

Just look around.

Go to any Indian metro today.

Who’s buying the ₹5 crore flats? Who’s turning farmland into "weekend villas"?

Who’s pricing teachers, nurses, junior engineers out of their own cities?

Not the farmer. Not the teacher.

It’s the returning investor. The NRI with foreign capital and desi nostalgia.

Look at Hyderabad — particularly the outskirts of Telangana.

Land once tilled by farmers is now being flipped into speculative plots by people who haven’t lived a single monsoon here in decades.

They speak of "development," but all they’re developing is demand for more gated communities, more luxury towers, more private schools with dollar-fee structures.

It’s the same story in Bangalore, in Gurgaon, and now in Telangana’s growing districts.

A new economy of exclusivity is forming — not for India’s growth, but for NRI investment portfolios.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Most NRIs are not coming back to serve India.

They’re coming back to leverage it —

For retirement, for rent, for return on investment.

And yet we clap when they buy three flats in Financial District.

We call it patriotism when they open a tech hub in Hitech City while outsourcing their taxes to Dubai.

We put them on panels, give them awards, and ask them how to fix the India they left behind.

But who stayed back?

Who waited in ration lines?

Who worked through power cuts?

Who voted through chaos, paid taxes on time, raised children in smog and taught in underfunded schools?

Those are the people developing India.

Not with dollars.

With patience, pressure, and presence.

This is not NRI hate. This is accountability.

We welcome every hand that builds.

But let’s stop confusing purchase with participation, and ownership with contribution.

If you're coming back to buy, fine. But don’t call it service.

And if you’re coming back to serve — then don't start with a luxury flat, start with a local school.

India doesn’t need NRIs who buy more.

India needs citizens — resident or not — who give more than they take.

Until then, don’t tell us you’re developing India.

You’re just decorating it.