An island with strong ties to Europe counts its dead after Air India crash
The only survivor of Air India Flight 171 was born on a tropical island dotted with palm trees and fishing boats. So were 14 passengers who died in the crash.
DIU ISLAND, India—The only survivor of Air India Flight 171 was born on this tropical island dotted with palm trees and fishing boats. So were 14 passengers who died in the crash, most of them Portuguese or British nationals of Indian origin.
They straddled two continents, their lives consisting of long-haul flights between work and family. Like many of the 241 people who perished on the London-bound Boeing 787, they were part of the large Indian diaspora that has spread all across the world.
Yet Diu is unique. Unlike much of India, the island off the country’s west coast was a Portuguese colony until 1961, a history that gives its residents a leg up if they want to go abroad. Those born under Portuguese rule and their descendants for two generations are entitled to citizenship of the country.
Thousands of people have taken that path, local officials said. Most have left the island of around 50,000 people, with some making their way to London or Leicester in the U.K., where a large Indian community lends a helping hand. Viswashkumar Ramesh, the lone survivor of the crash, moved to the U.K. as a child.
“So many have left but come back to visit," said Dipak Deugi, the head of Ramesh’s home village. Flights to and from London are a normal part of life, he said.
Residents say that the ones who have left still feel the pull of the island. They return every year to attend weddings and bring their children back during school vacations. Many keep a foothold on the island through property or business.
The shock of Thursday’s crash is ricocheting across its coastal communities.
Girish Lalgi, 30, left Diu a decade ago for the U.K. in search of a better job. A Portuguese national, he worked his way up to the position of a supervisor at a snack foods factory in London and married a co-worker who was also from Diu.
Over the past decade, at least one-third of Lalgi’s village on Diu has moved abroad, a local official said. For the roughly 1,200 people who remain, there are only two careers open: fishing or tourism.
A month ago, Girish returned to the island with his wife, Hemakshi, and their two young children, both British citizens. He was there to visit his ailing mother, Vimlaben, so she could meet her one-year-old granddaughter for the first time.
Girish called moments after boarding the plane on Thursday. “Don’t worry, I will call again once we land," he told his mother. But she never heard from her son again. All four perished in the crash.
Diu was for centuries a colony under the rule of Portugal, which conquered it in the 16th century during its heyday as a maritime superpower. Despite India gaining independence from Britain in 1947, Portugal held on to the island until 1961.
A Portuguese flair still pervades. Restaurants serve Portuguese fish stew, colonial-era churches and forts are popular tourist attractions, and brightly-colored Portuguese-style houses are sprinkled throughout the island.
Ramesh’s father emigrated to the U.K. as a Portuguese citizen two decades ago, finding work as a machine operator at a tissue paper company, family members said. But he held on to his fishing-boat business, toggling back and forth between Leicester and Dui over the years.
Ramesh and one of his brothers, Ajay, eventually took over and spent the last seven months in Dui overseeing the business. They ran an auction selling the catch from two fishing boats to seafood exporters.
They were on their way back to the U.K. to see their families, said their aunt Shantaben Bawa. Ramesh survived, becoming the miracle from seat 11A. He managed to escape out of an emergency exit before the plane exploded into a massive fireball.
His brother Ajay didn’t make it.
“No one can understand how we feel," their aunt said. “They were in and out of here as boys. We saw them growing up."
Many like Shantubhai Bhikhabhai Bhaliya have built big houses in Diu that sit empty for most of the year. The 62-year-old, who held Portuguese citizenship, followed in the footsteps of his younger brother by moving to the U.K. eight years ago. He got work loading and unloading transport trucks.
It was physically taxing work for a man in his 50s, but it trumped his previous job as a fisherman in Diu, where he sometimes spent weeks at sea, said Maniben Bhaliya, his sister-in-law.
Bhaliya planned to retire in Diu, and two years ago he built a two-story house with flowered tiles. They bought a sofa set that is still covered in plastic wrap. He and his 59-year-old wife died in the crash.
Despite the tragedy that has sent the island into mourning, many on Diu still dream of going abroad.
Neha Lalgi, the sister of Girish, is in the midst of applying for a British work visa. The 35-year-old hopes to settle in London in the same neighborhood where her brother and his family lived.
With her brother gone, Neha said the family will struggle to survive. He typically wired about $500 a month back to Dui, enough to support his mother, sister and older brother.
“I have to leave to have work," she said.
Write to Shan Li at shan.li@wsj.com
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