Sana Javeri Kadri, a United States-based entrepreneur, declined an invitation to a White House party with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 22, citing rights abuses and injustices in India that have been acknowledged by Modi’s ruling regime.
Her note explaining the decision quickly went viral on social media.
Sana is the founder of Diaspora Co. and has previously worked as a food and culture photographer, as mentioned on her website. Splitting her time between Mumbai, India, and Oakland, CA, Sana embodies a multicultural background.
While acknowledging the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the White House invitation represented, Sana ultimately chose to decline it due to her fundamental belief in a secular and progressive India that values equity for all.
In her note, she expressed disappointment in fellow Indian business owners who attended the event, dismissing her concerns as letting politics interfere with the occasion.
Sana firmly believes that defending people’s right to exist is an essential part of being on the right side of history, questioning the priorities of those who prioritize a photo op with samosas and chai at the White House over standing up against the lynching of Muslims.
She criticized the notion that this moment should be seen as a celebration of India’s progress, calling it “bullshit.” Instead, she called on the Indian diaspora to utilize their financial and social capital to support marginalized communities in India who lack the same privileges, highlighting the oppressive climate where individuals can be imprisoned for a mere tweet or for merely existing.
Sana rejected the passive approach to the harmful and violent rhetoric spreading worldwide and expressed her desire to be part of a proactive diaspora that actively works towards positive change.
Ending her note on a confident note, Sana expressed her belief that she would be invited back to the White House in the future, ideally when figures like AOC are leading the way.
Read her note:
I was invited to be at the White House today, and despite it feeling like a truly once in a lifetime opportunity, I declined.
The occasion they were celebrating was fundamentally at odds with everything I believe in and stand for – a secular, progressive India that prioritises equity for all. In light of my decision, I got told by fellow Indian business owners (that did choose to attend) that I was being silly for “letting politics get in the way”. But frankly, the politics of peoples right to exist feels pretty fundamental to which side of history I’d like to be remembered on.
They’re effectively saying that a selfie opp with samosas and chai at the White House is more important than standing up for Muslims being lynched which is… pretty. fucking. sad.
There’s another take that says that “this moment is about India, and how far our country and people have come”, and to that I’d like to call bullshit. Our desire for the dregs of representation, to win at this rat race to accumulate social and financial capital that’ll inch us closer to whiteness, it is such rubbish. As Indians in the diaspora, we have the power to use that financial and social capital to build something better, to stand up for our communities back home who do not have the same privileges as us, who can get locked up for as little as a tweet, never mind simply existing.
But instead we waste it on dull tropes of nostalgia baked in with vague platitudes about a romantic pan South Asian identity. Being passive to what’s happening in India, and how that harmful, violent rhetoric and ideology is spreading across the world is not the diaspora I want to be a part of, and I hope you don’t either.
As for the white house, I know I’m hot shit. I’II be invited back sooner > later. Ideally when AOC’s running the place.
