This Diwali, the President of the United States will light up his official residence, the White House, to honour the contribution of the Indian Diaspora to America’s prosperity. In the island paradise of Ireland too, the President will hold a party to celebrate the festival of lights! And Britain, Europe’s most multi-cultural society, will light up whole streets in its cities to prove how deeply Indian culture and festivals have influenced its national life!
Diwali has truly become a global festival with countries in the West joining India, Thailand and many Southeast Asian countries in celebrating the festival of lights!

Time was when even in India, festivals were celebrated according to the traditions of each community, region or state.

A view of the Diwali celebration in Trafalgar square, London, last week.

However, Diwali, the national festival of lights, was celebrated everywhere, but certainly not with as much pomp and splendour as that of the local celebration. Today, even within India, the scenario has changed dramatically. All major festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Navaratri, Holi and Janmashtami — even festivals like Karva Chouth — have become huge nationwide celebrations for all communities, cutting across  regions, linguistic groups and even religious communities.

What’s more, in the past decade, the spirit of Indian festivals has touched the shores of faraway countries where huge Indian communities have settled and successfully brought about sweeping changes in the very structure of their societies, making them distinctly multi-cultural.
Ever since the Indian economy has gone through major liberalisation, India’s position as an ‘awakening tiger’ and a superpower of the future has mesmerised the world. Its fantastic growth rate — which rests at over 8.5 per cent at the moment — has made the whole world look at India with big curiosity. There is a huge foreign media presence at every celebration in India because the joyous nature of Indian culture is one of the biggest draws in the modern world.

Not only has the tradition of celebrating festivals on a huge and national scale spread fast in India, it has also travelled across the oceans to every country that has large Indian diaspora. As the diaspora becomes rich and influential in business, industry, science, literature, arts, education and politics (Indians are getting elected as Members of Parliament or even State Governors in countries like Britain and the USA), the impact of Indian culture becomes that much stronger.

During the last decade, Diwali gained prominence in the diplomatic circles when the President of the USA and the Prime Minister of Britain accepted that the Indian communities in their respective countries were large and powerful enough to make a difference to the nation’s cultural life.

The fact that the White House lights up for Diwali and that the streets of London and other British cities switch on lights for Diwali is symbolic of the importance of India, its culture and the increasing economic power of Indians across the world. Today, Indian embassies hold Diwali receptions and spread the message of festivities across the world.