I am into academic research, in ways boring. In certain ways exciting, being a researcher especially a social science researcher would mean one is researching on the current happenings of the world and this research document will one day be the history and politics of the world. Isn't that exciting, years later the world will understand why the way its markets, culture, hsitory, communications, international realtions are the way they are. The precursors were always there.

July was a month, when the London Bombings tooks place. It was also a time, I could have sipped a glass of wine and applauded Prime Minister Manmohan's Singh for his speech at Oxford. Yes for long we have cried hoarse over British rule, but here was a speech that found positive implications of the colonial rule.

Today, with the balance and perspective offered by the passage of time and the benefit of hindsight, it is possible for an Indian Prime Minister to assert that India's experience with Britain had its beneficial consequences too. Our notions of the rule of law, of a Constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil service, of modern universities and research laboratories have all been fashioned in the crucible where an age old civilisation met the dominant Empire of the day.

These are all elements which we still value and cherish. Our judiciary, our legal system, our bureaucracy and our police are all great institutions, derived from British-Indian administration and they have served the country well.

My research on the diaspora and films take place in a post-colonial India so I critically look at colonial rule and must say the culture that has emerged has held India in good stead and created intellectuals that we are.

When I read about The London Bombings and the the Pakistani connection, I can't help but remember Hanif Kureishi's novel - My Son the Fanatic.

A film I wrote for the BBC, My Son the Fanatic, about a young man who becomes a fundamentalist while his father falls in love with a prostitute, also emerged from this material.

Go read Hanif's article on Multiculturalism in the Guardian.

Yesterday in the Hindu I read an editorial where the author spoke about the multicultural identity in Britain, France and the US. I found that to reflect my thoughts as well. France and Britain expect total loyalty and giving-up of home culture from the immigrants, the Americans are comfortable with the hyphenated identity - Indian-American.