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Indian Americans

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TIME magazine cover for June 26 2006

An Indian American (also called Asian Indian to contrast with the "American Indians" so named by historical accident) is commonly a resident or citizen of the United States who has ancestry originating in India. Indian Americans were primarily either born in India and immigrated to the United States or were born in the United States and have Indian ancestry. A number of Indian Americans came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Fiji, UK, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, Guyana, Mauritius, etc. Most Indian Americans are Hindus by religion, but there are also Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Jews among them. They often refer to themselves as "Desi" (of the Desh, or motherland aka India) or sometimes as "brown".

The U.S. Census of 2000 counted 1.679 million people in the category "Asian Indian", accounting for 0.60% of the total U.S. population. This was an increase of 105.87% from the U.S. Census of 1990 with annual growth averaging 7.6%, the largest growth in the Asian American community. In 2000, Indian Americans comprised 16.4% of the Asian American community, making them the third largest subgroup of Asian Americans, after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans. [1]

Asian Indians have outperformed all other minority groups in most measures of socioeconomic achievement[2]. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution on April 26, 2005, (House Resolution 227) to honor the Indian American community and Indian Institutes of Technology graduates [3]. Many individuals, particularly those in the fields of medicine and technology, consider Indian Americans the epitome of the model minority. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Indian Americans have the highest median income of any national origin group in the U.S. ($60,093), and Merrill Lynch recently revealed that there are nearly 200,000 Indian American millionaires. One in every nine Indians in the US is a millionaire, comprising 10% of US millionaires. (Source: 2003 Merrill Lynch SA Market Study). This affluence has been matched by a high degree of educational attainment. Indians have the highest educational qualifications of all national origin groups in the US. According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 41,000 Indian American doctors. According to the 2000 census, about 64% of Asian Indians in the U.S. have attained a Bachelor's degree or more.[4](compared to 28% nationally). Almost 40% of all Indians have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. (Source: The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.) These high levels of education have enabled Indian Americans to become a productive segment of the American population, with 72.3% participating in the U.S. work force, of which 57.7% are employed in managerial and professional specialties[5]. Indians own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the US, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. (Source: Little India Magazine). A University of California, Berkeley, study reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley hi-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs. (Source: Silicon India Readership Survey)

Demographic and cultural profile

Like the terms "Asian American" or "South Asian American", the term "Indian American" is also an umbrella label applying to a huge mosaic of cultures and people of widely varying socioeconomic status, education, places of residence, generations, views, values, lifestyles, and appearances. Generally speaking, however, they are known to assimilate into American culture more easily than many other immigrant groups because they have fewer language barriers (English is widely spoken in India, especially among professional classes), more educational credentials (immigrants are disproportionately well-educated among Indians), and come from a similarly diverse, tolerant, and democratic society.

Indian Americans are well-represented in the fields of medicine, engineering, finance and information technology. They are overrepresented as small business owners (e.g., proprietors of hotel and motel), and cab drivers. [6]

Settlement

U.S. states with the largest Indian American populations are California, New York, New Jersey. There are also large Indian American populations in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, and Texas as well. The metropolitan areas with the largest Indian American populations are New York City, San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland (including Silicon Valley), Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington/Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, and Dallas/Fort Worth. [7].

In contrast to immigrants from East Asia, who tend to be concentrated in California and other areas near the Pacific coast, Indian Americans are more evenly distributed throughout the country.[citation needed]

Languages

Indian Americans often keep hold of their native Indian tongues, whether it be Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Sindhi, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Malayalam, Rajasthani, Kashmiri, or any of the other plethora of Indian languages.

Cultural establishments

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View of a Hindu temple in Bartlett, Illinois (USA).

While India is home to virtually every major world religion [citation needed], most Indian Americans are Hindu. There are many Hindu temples across the United States. The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, ISKCON, Chinmaya Mission, and Swadhyay Pariwar are well established in the U.S. Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Jains, Muslims, and Christians from India have also established their religions in the country.

Swami Vivekananda brought Hinduism to the West at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions. The Vedanta Society has been important in subsequent Parliaments. Today, Hinduism is among fastest growing religions in America [citation needed] and many Hindu temples, most of them built by Indian Americans have emerged in different cities and towns of America. [8] [9] Hindu philosophy and Spirituality has greatly influenced American life. [citation needed] More than 18 million Americans are now practising some form of Yoga. [10] In particular, Kriya Yoga was introduced to America by Paramahansa Yogananda. In addition, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiated a popular ISKCON also known as Hare Krishna movement while preaching Bhakti yoga.[citation needed]

Indian Americans have also brought Indian cuisine to the United States, and Indian cuisine has been established as one of the most popular cuisines in the country,[citation needed] with hundreds of Indian restaurants in each major city and several similar eateries in smaller cities and towns.[citation needed] There are many Indian markets and stores in United States. Some of biggest Indian markets are in Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York City, the Philadelphia Metro, Edison, New Jersey, and Houston.

Entertainment

There are Hindi radio stations in areas with high Indian populations, including Radio Humsafar. There are also Tamil radio stations in the USA [11], Singapore [12] and Malaysia [13].

Several cable and satellite providers offer Indian channels: Sun TV, Star TV, Zee TV, Sony TV, NDTV and Gemini. Others have offered Indian content for subscription, such as when India played Australia for the Cricket World Cup in 2003.

Many metropolitan areas which have a high density of Indian Americans, now have movie theatres specialized for showing Indian movies (primarily Hindi/Bollywood and South Indian). Silicon Valley, for example has two such multiplexes: one in Fremont and one in San Jose.

In July 2005, MTV premiered a spin-off network called MTV Desi which targets Indian Americans in the U.S. [14]

History and immigration

Timeline

Classification

Main article: Racial classification of Indian Americans

Indian Americans are currently classified as Asian Americans by the United States Census Bureau. In the past, however, they have been variously classified as Hindu (Hindu being an archaic term for an inhabitant of the Indian sub-continent), preventing them from owning land in some areas, vote, or marry citizens or classified as Caucasian American until it was established that White American and Caucasian were interchangeable terms by convention for a single people which did not include Indians.

Current social issues

Discrimination

Incidents of deliberate overt discrimination against Indian Americans are few and far in-between. Any discrimination that exists is primarily in the form of being not so welcoming in social interactions, compared to the treatment received, say, by northern European immigrants who are more readily embraced. One source of resentment among some Americans is the outsourcing of labor by American multinationals to India, particularly to Indian call centers[16]. In America, the Indian call center has developed into a veritable social meme, and Indian Americans are occasionally targeted as objects of harassment or ridicule for the decisions of American corporate managers regarding their country of origin.

Explicit discrimination is not unknown in the Indian American community. In the 1980's, a group known as the Dot Busters tried to intimidate Indian Americans in New Jersey, but the range and impact of the group's activities were limited. Since September 11, there have been scattered incidents of Indian Americans having been mistaken targets for hate crimes. In one example, a Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered at a Phoenix gas station by a white supremacist who mistook him for a person of Middle Eastern ethnicity because he wore a turban. In another example, a pizza delivery person was robbed and beaten in Massachusetts for "being Muslim" though he pleaded that he was in fact Hindu [17].

Immigration

Indians are among the largest ethnic groups migrating to the USA legally. Immigration of Indian Americans has taken place in many waves since the first Indian-American came to the United States in the 1700s. A major wave of immigration to California from the soon-to-be Indian state of Punjab and the surrounding region took place in the first decade of the 20th century. Another significant wave followed in the 1950s.

Currently there is a huge backlog of Employment based Permanent resident applications. The wait in obtaining a Employment based Permanent Residency for Indians and now stands at more than 8 or 9 years. During this time they cannot change employers, cannot get promotions nor utilize newly obtained skills as that would jeopardize their position in this seemingly endless queue. Thereis exploitation by employers and people's lives are on hold. Due to this delay some even are not able to visit their parents and loved once on deathbed in the home country. In spite of possessing the most desired skills, most highly skilled foreign workers are currently stagnating in their current jobs and not realizing their true potential. Even factors beyond the control of employees like their employing firm being bought over by another firm or the firm relocating to another state voids their Permanent Residence application and puts them at the end of the queue. Also, if this happens after six years of H1 visa, these workers are literally forced to uproot themselves from this country and leave this country. A lot of high skilled immigrants have ideas to innovate and start own companies, but they cannot do that. Many scientific researchers conducting research in key areas of disease control have ideas for research, but they cannot apply for grants since one has to be a citizen or green card holder to do that. All this is not only taking a toll on the legal immigrants, it is affecting America's competitiveness and has economic impact. In today's rapidly changing world, it is unreasonable to expect a skilled employee to stagnate with the same skills and in fact be penalized for trying to add to his skills. Not only is it not in the interest of these workers, even US competitiveness suffers. With other countries like Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and even China and India rolling the red carpet for highly skilled immigrants, it is imperative and in the interests of USA brings some kind of relief for highly skilled immigrants.Immigration Voice was formed by such Indians who are highly educated Indian professionals waiting for their green cards for several years.

Media portrayal

Fictional and non-fictional Indian Americans have appeared in the media.

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Marriage

Indian Americans are, in general, more socially conservative than many other ethnic groups. They often marry an individual from within their regional community (i.e. Gujarati with Gujarati, Telugu with Telugu, Punjabi with Punjabi, etc). While it is not absolutely necessary to marry within one's own caste, many Indian-Americans typically hold on tightly to this custom. However, second generation and third generation Indian Americans are increasingly breaking out of this cycle. [citation needed]

American Born Confused Desi

American Born Confused Desi (ABCD) is a term that refers to people of Desi origin (of South Asian, especially Indian, descent), living in the United States. "Confused" refers to their confusion regarding their identity, having been born in America or lived there since childhood and been closer to American culture than to their native culture. It is sometimes regarded as an ethnic slur, the flip side of the use of FOB (Fresh off the boat) for recent immigrants. It is a close relative of the term Jook-sing for American-born Chinese.

The growing Indian community in North America may be rendering the first term obsolete. While living in insulated communities on the continent, Indian nationals are arguably less exposed to Westernizing influences than they would in the rapidly changing socioeconomic environment of India itself. In many cases, it often seems that Indian Americans who have lived all their lives in the United States are more traditional and conservative than their counterparts in India.

This idea of the confused identity is not unique to Indian Americans alone - British Asians (the term used for Indians and other South Asians raised and living in Britain) also have similar experiences and struggles.

Sunaina Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis has done extensive research with South Asian youth subcultures. Her book "Desis in the House" highlights the underlying factors that have attributed to the notion of the A.B.C.D.

Politics

Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)

Several groups have tried to create a unified or dominant voice for the Indian-American community in political affairs, including US India PAC and Immigration Voice. Immigration Voice is a non-profit organization working to alleviate the problems faced by legal high-skilled foreign workers in the United States. It acts as an interface between this set of immigrants and the legislative and executive branches of the government. Additionally, there are also industry-wide Indian American groupings including the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin. Indian American voters have tended to vote overwhelmingly Democratic Asian “Natural Republicans” Vote 75% Democratic—Any More Bright Ideas?, according to the few exit polls that have targeted this community, but the Republican party has tried to target this community Vote Getters and several prominent conservative activists are of Indian origin.

The Indian-Americans voters have shown support for both the Democratic and Republican parties and have had political candidates of both parties. The following is a non-comprehensive list of notable Indian American politicians and commentators:

Media

The following is a list of media with Indian American subject matter.

Books

Magazines

Films

See also

Footnotes


Associations

News

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