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Indian Americans
Video overview for Chapter Title.
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How does religion impact our understanding of our race?
Chapter objectives
- Learn about the history of Indian Americans from the late nineteenth century to the present.
- Understand how racial identity and religion have come to shape Indian American communities.
- Explore how, in the face of cultural prejudice and other forms of adversity, an immigrant community puts down roots in the US.
Indian Americans are among the fastest growing ethnic community in the US. In 1890, they first came as farmers, students, lumbermen, and political dissenters, facing acute cultural prejudice and racism. Their numbers remained very small until the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act initiated a significant wave of new immigrants that drastically shifted the community’s demographics. Today, Indian Americans have distinguished themselves in various professions, especially medicine, higher education, engineering, and computer sciences, and the tech industry, where they are disproportionately represented. Recently, they have also gained prominent visibility in political and public life. A majority of Indian Americans identify as Hindus. Indian American diversity is expressed through a variety of festivals, places of worship, dance, art, and literature. This chapter explores the experiences and conditions that shape the religious and cultural lives of Indian Americans.
Modules in this chapter
History
Demographic Profile and Economic Life
Religious Life
Indian Culture
Politics, Public Life, and the Motherland
Module Title Example with 55 Characters Title Label Hug
History
Demographic Profile and Economic Life
Religious Life
Indian Culture
Politics, Public Life, and the Motherland
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Chapter Sources
Anon., “Hindus Too Brunette to Vote Here.” The Literary Digest (10 March 1923), online at South Asian American Digital Archive: https://www.saada.org/item/20101210-148.
Anon. “Here’s Letter to the World from Suicide.” San Francisco Examiner (17 March 1928).
Anon. “An Indian Merchant’s Suicide in U.S.; Patriotic Protest Against Racial Discrimination; US Citizenship Refused after Naturalisation; Suicide—A ‘moral gesture’ says dying Hindu.” The Hindustan Times (22 May 1928).
Anon. “9 Outstanding South Asian Students Win Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.” India West Journal (26 April 2023), online: https://indiawest.com/9-outstanding-south-asian-students-win-paul-daisy-soros-fellowship/.
Anon. “Jain Immigration.” Harvard Pluralism Project, n.d., online: https://pluralism.org/jain-immigration.
Astor, Maggie and Jill Cowan. “Indian Americans Rapidly Climbing Political Ranks.” New York Times (23 February 2023), online: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/us/politics/indian-american-politicians.html.
Bagai, Rani. “Bridges Burnt Behind: The Story of Vaishno Das Bagai and Kala Bagai.” Immigrant Voices, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, n.d., online: https://www.immigrant-voices.aiisf.org/stories-by-author/876-bridges-burnt-behind-the-story-of-vaishno-das-bagai/.
Bald, Vivek. Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Bryant, Edwin and Maria Ekstrand, eds. The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
California Legislative Assembly. State Bill 403. (2023). Online:https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB403/2023#:~:text=This%20bill%20would%20revise%20these,for%20purposes%20of%20the%20FEHA.
