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Blood money of H-1B workers built huge corporations: Tanul Thakur
The author discusses what inspired him to unpack the Indian IT boom in his book that exposes the realities of the American guest worker programme.
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Ishani Duttagupta - Wed, 27, May 2026
- 12:31 EDT
- 34
Tanul Thakur author of Wild Wild East: Exiled Americans, Enslaved Indians and the Systemic Abuse of the H-1B Visa Programme, / Courtesy Photo
Tanul Thakur is a journalist, film critic, and author whose debut book, Wild Wild East: Exiled Americans, Enslaved Indians and the Systemic Abuse of the H-1B Visa Programme, draws from his own experience of moving to the United States as an engineering student in pursuit of an H-1B visa. Through the intertwined journeys of three protagonists, Thakur crafts a gripping and often unsettling account of the darker realities behind the US tech industry, examining desi consultancies, student visa scams, labor exploitation, and the human cost of the American guest worker system.
In a wide-ranging interview with Ishani Duttagupta, Thakur reflects on what inspired him to explore the Indian IT boom and the H-1B ecosystem. He also addresses concerns that critiques of the system could be perceived as xenophobic toward Indian workers, arguing instead that the stories of two Indian IT professionals and one American worker became, at their core, an exploration of power, survival, and human freedom.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
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