Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu urged Indians living in the U.S. to return to India and contribute to the country’s technological growth.
“Open letter to Indians in America. Dear brothers and sisters from Bharat: Like I did 37 years ago, you arrived in America with no money but with a good education and cultural heritage from Bharat. You achieved outstanding success. America was good to us. For that we must remain grateful, gratitude is our Bharatiya way,” Vembu wrote in an X post.
He mentioned that despite their success, many Americans now believed that Indians “take away” American jobs and that their success was “unfairly earned.”
In the social media post, Vembu added, “You may think the next election will fix this, but your choice would be between people who hate our Bharatiya civilisation and people who hate civilisation itself. That is the ‘hard right’ vs ‘woke left’ battle. You are mere bystanders to that conflict.”
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Vembu’s post comes at a charged time when immigration scrutiny around H-1Bs and other non-resident visas is heightened and there is growing anti-India rhetoric in the country.
Vembu said that the global respect Indians command would depend largely on India’s own fortunes. “Respect in today’s world, along with prosperity and security, comes from one source: a nation’s technological prowess,” he wrote. He also said that India had produced enough talent to achieve such technological strength but had exported much of it, especially to America.
“As difficult as it is for many of you to contemplate this, please come back home. Bharat Mata needs your talent. Our vast youthful population needs the technology leadership you gained over the years to guide them towards prosperity. Let’s do it with a missionary zeal.
Respectfully, Sridhar Vembu,” he wrote.
This post sparked mixed reactions. One user wrote, “Patriotism is important, but asking people to return without addressing basic issues is not practical.” Another said, “India needs talent, but talent also needs infrastructure, clean cities and better work culture.”
READ: Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu rejects $1.7 billion bond order; Ex-wife pushes back (January 9, 2026)
Another user, who was more supportive of Vembu, said “Sridhar Vembu has a point. Nation building cannot happen if everyone leaves.”
This comes amid Vembu’s conflict with his ex-wife in the U.S. In January 2025, a California court had ordered Vembu to post a $1.7 billion bond in connection with his ongoing divorce proceedings with his former wife, Pramila Srinivasan. The order, only revealed to public a year later via a media report, issued on an ex-parte application filed by Srinivasan, was aimed at safeguarding her interests in the case.
The court also halted an internal restructuring of Zoho’s U.S. subsidiary, Zoho Corp, that was already in progress. In addition, a receiver was appointed to oversee several U.S.-based entities involved in the restructuring, along with the personal assets of Vembu and fellow Zoho co-founder Tony Thomas.