India, April 26 -- Frequent remarks and policy signals perceived as hostile toward Indians under the presidency of Donald Trump may have a distinctly Gandhian response available to the Indian community. Such a response would require neither bombs nor sanctions. Much like the pre-Independence "Quit India" call against British rule, a symbolic mobilisation-if Indianorigin residents in the United States were to rally under the tricolour and raise the slogan "Indians, return to India," while beginning travel bookings en masse-could send shockwaves through American institutions.

At first, such a gesture might be dismissed as rhetorical. But if a significant portion of the Indian diaspora were to actually depart, the consequences could be prof...