Indians Immigrating To AmericaTheir homeland has the second largest population in the world, yet in Americathey form one of our smallest minorities. Americans were influenced by theirbeliefs long before the first immigrants arrived, and an important interchangeof ideas has continued to the present day. Although many came to America asearly as the turn of the century, they were denied citizenship until acongressional act granted it in 1946.
Now they are students and teachers in ouruniversities; they are artists and writers, musicians and scientists. Theircontributions to industry, commerce, and agriculture have been valuable toAmerica and to the world. Who are these people? They are the East Indians inAmerica. Asian Indians have supplied innumerable contributions to the cultureand well being of the United States; the majority of these contributions aregeared notably to engineering and the sciences.
The reason for immigration inthe period from 1830-1890 is quite clear. India was in a great shape. Howeverwhen the British took over India, they depleted the country of all her wealthand gave her poor citizens no choice but to leave. The main reason why everybodywants to go to the United States is because if they would go somewhere else,like France or Japan although they would get higher wages, there is much greaterchance of getting harassed, arrested or deported in those countries as opposedto the United States (Takai 32).
Here in the United States land remainedplentiful and cheap. Jobs were abundant and labor was scarce. The United States,in the nineteenth century, remained a strong magnet to immigrants, with offersof jobs and land for farms (Hess 12). The Jews came for religious freedom,Italians and Asians came for work, and the Russians came to escape persecution. America had jobs and religious freedom.
Consequently, America was referred to inmany countries as the “Land of Opportunity”. This is land is alsooften called the “melting Pot of the World”. This is because it isbelieved that people from all over the world come to the United States and loosetheir cultural identity and ‘melt’ into or assimilate into the American culture. However, nowadays, the above is an unfair statement to make. Nowadays with thegrowing Chinese restaurants, Indian grocery stores, and European languages isschool, etc. , one can say that individual cultures are trying hard to voicetheir distinction amongst the overall “American culture”.
One cantherefore refer to the United States as the “Salad Bowl of the World”where every culture has its own flavor, just like in a salad, where everyvegetable has its own taste even though it has a common dressing, the Americanculture. Amongst the Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, etc. and other immigrants,the East Indians represented a big group of those people who wanted to be partof the “American culture”. The East Indians, who came to America, weremostly spread out in little groups up and down the West Coast (Pavri 56). Theirstory is an especially important part of the history of Asian Americans, forthey were a new kind of immigrant.
The large majorities of the first immigrantsfrom India were Punjabis, from a region called the Punjab. Most of theseimmigrants were young men, between 16 and 35 years old (Daniels 33). Many ofthem were married; however, they did not bring their wives across the sea withthem. Their family and community ties remained strong after they left home; theycame to America in small groups of cousins and village neighbors, and theserelationships formed a network of interconnections among them in the new countryas they lived and worked together.
They had many reasons for leaving theirhomeland. They were being repressed by the British rule and had no land to farmon. To make matters worse, famine devastated India from 1899 to 1902. Thus,large-scale immigration began in 1906, when six hundred Asians applied to enterthe United States (Millis 32). These families became the basis for the new EastIndian communities.
They had come to the United States with high hopes,expecting to make their fortunes, but they discovered that life in America wasunexpectedly challenging. Some found it hard to get work. Moreover, those whohad jobs lived a life very different from the life they have known in India (Karitala2). Instead of belonging to a settled community of families, they traveled fromplace to place with their work gangs. And although most of them had been farmersof farm laborers in the Punjab region of India, in America they often had toturn to other kinds of work (Dayes 22). Many of them encountered prejudice, bornof ignorance and fear.
White sometimes associated the Asian Indian immigrantswith blacks, Chinese, or Japanese (22). Often the Asian Indians were lumpedtogether with other Asian peoples as “Asiatics,” whom prejudiceswhites considered unfit to be part of American society (22). Samuel L. Gompers,a leader of the American Labor Movement, said, “Sixty years’ contact withthe Chinese, and twenty-five years’ experience with the Japanese and two orthree years’ acquaintance with Hindus should be sufficient to convince anyordinarily intelligent person that they have no standards. .
. (Brass 45)” TheAsians were often blamed for the violence directed against them by whites, whoknew nothing of Asian peoples and often misinterpreted their behavior. “Inall cases, we may say the Oriental is at fault,” declared the AsiaticExclusion League, an organization whose goal was to keep Asian immigrants out ofwestern states (Pavri 24). The Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore, a winner of theNobel Prize in literature, traveled to North America.
When he applied for entryto the United States, Tagore encountered difficulties and when he finally madeit to the country, he experienced racial prejudice in Los Angeles. Tagorecanceled his tour and promptly returned to India, saying in disgust, “Jesuscould not get into America because, first of all, He would not have thenecessary money, and secondly, He would be an Asiatic. (Hundley 45)”Despite the difficulties they encountered, they felt that life in America hadmore to offer than they could expect in their homeland. The definition of”American” is becoming broader and more multicultural. At the sametime, however, a few people feeling threatened by the growing diversity thatthey see around them in streets, stores, and schools, have lashed out in hatecrimes against people whose ethnic backgrounds are different from theirs. Inrecent years, Asian Indians have been among the victims of violence fueled byprejudice.
(Hess 42) While many of these people have become self-employedentrepreneurs by choice, others have found themselves pushed intoself-employment by discrimination. Similarly, an Asian Indian engineer who hadworked for a company for some twenty years told his friend, “They[management] never give you [Asian Indians] an executive position in thecompany. You can only go up so high and no more. (Brass 69)” Frustrated bylimited opportunities to advance in their careers, many Asian Indianprofessionals have turned to opening their own businesses.
Furthermore, theirturbans and their dark skin brought the Sikhs taunts and verbal abuse fromwhites. They were called by insulting names such as “rag-heads” andtreated as inferior beings (Hundley 38). One California Sikh recounted, “Iused to go to Maryville every Saturday. One day a drunken white man came out ofa bar and motioned to me saying, ‘Come here, slave!’ I said I was no slave man. He told me that his race ruled India and America, too.
(39)” Assimilationhas been a powerful source in American life, particularly in policies andattitudes toward immigrants in the twentieth century (Dayes 23) Furthermore,members of American minorities had learned that assimilation is not anall-or-nothing process. To complete the process, the enterprising minorityindividual must jump through several hoops (23). Similarly, all immigrant groupshave faced the question of whether they should cling to their cultural roots ortry to become “American” as quickly as possible. Assimilation-blendinginto the larger society-has been more difficult for Asian immigrants than forEuropean ones, for Asians can be identified by their physical appearance evenwhen their clothing, speech, and actions have been completely Americanized (Pavri74). Those Asians who choose to follow traditional customs stand out even morereadily. The earliest Asian Indian immigrants to North America were singled outas “strangers” because of their turbans.
Today, the customs of AsianIndian Americans continue to make them vulnerable to racism. Since they weredenied the right to own land until 1947, property ownership is a matter of prideto East Indians (Daniels 47). In San Francisco East Indians own or lease morethan 50 hotels, forming the second largest Indian community group in America. Most of the hotel owners from Gujarat, a state on the west coast of India (48). East Indians have been assimilated into their country and city surroundings.
Their children are marrying Americans. Their enthusiasms have transferred fromcricket to baseball. In addition, East Indians are owners of machine shops,photo studios, restaurants, and many other successful businesses, includingimport-export firms and gift shops (Handlin 52). Some of the new comers wereless prosperous and less educated than their fellow immigrants who were theprofessionals. Instead of entering law, medicine, or teaching, many of themturned to business.
Beginning around 1980, North America saw the arrival of manyAsian Indians who became self-employed and opened their own small business; someof these businesses, such as Indian restaurants and clothing shops, serve theneeds of the growing ethnic community (54). Although the immigrants were oftencalled “Hindus” or “Hindoos” in America, many of them werenot followers of Hinduism, one of the major religions of India. Some of themwere Hindus and some were Muslims, followers of the Islamic faith, but most wereSikhs. Their religion was Sikhism, a blend of elements from Hinduism and Islam.
Sikhs from the Punjab were highly regarded as soldiers by the British rulers ofIndia. Sikh men had several distinctive characteristics. To demonstrate theirreligious commitment, they never shaved their religious commitment; they nevershaved their beards or cut their hair. They wore turbans, for their faithrequired them to cover their heads in their temples.
Many of them share the nameSingh (lion), a sacred to Sikhs (Koritala 3). In addition to appearance, manyimmigrants tried to retain their religious habits. The workers generallyprepared their own food, and their diet depended upon their religion. Those whowere Muslims did not eat pork. As a rule, they would not buy meat that had beenprepared by other hands.
The Hindus were vegetarians and usually had their owncooks in the camps. The Sikhs ate mostly vegetables, fruit, and milk. In one ofthe camps, an Asian Indian told a woman visitor, “We eat no meat, this is,no beef-the cow is sacred. ” The women snapped, “But you drink milk?And you cow gives you milk!” To which the man replied, “Yes, we drinkour mother’s milk also, but we do not eat her! (Dayes 49)” India andAmerica, though half a world apart, have for a long time exchanged concepts of amore perfect society for humankind. Immigrants from India feel quite at home inAmerica’s climate of freedom and opportunity (Millis 33). Much of the conflictbetween old and new revolves around family life, the roles of women andchildren, and marriage-areas that in Indian culture are closely governed bytradition.
Many young people aggravate at the rules imposed by their parents,who seem much stricter than other American parents do (38). Perhaps the singlemost troublesome issue between parents and children in Asian Indian Americanfamilies has been dating. In traditional Indian culture, dating is unheard of;boys and girls have very little contact with one another before marriage, whichis arranged by their parents. Dating is completely foreign to traditional Indianideas about the proper relationship between the sexes (40). The East Indianculture is one of the most diverse and traditional of the world. Old and newcustoms conflict with one another in the realm of marriage.
Among traditionalIndians, marriages are arranged by families and are based upon such ideas as thesocial status and the wealth of the bride’s or groom’s family. In North America,on the other hand, marriage is regarded as a personal choice based on love. (Hess 103) In addition, the children of immigrants, who have grown up in twodifferent worlds, face the special challenge of searching for their identity. Asian Indian children are no exception. At times, they feel confused, notknowing whether to think of themselves as Indians or as Americans. At home,Indian values and customs remain strong-especially the tradition ofunquestioning obedience to one’s father.
Yet, at school and in the larger world,young people feel the pull of American culture and its values, which includequestioning authority and making one’s own decisions. The result is frequentdisagreement over how much freedom young Asian Indians should have. Asian Indianparents often try to raise their children in the traditional Indian manner, butyoung people increasingly feel the pull of Western styles. However, thisattraction to the Western culture has made is easier for many Indians tounderstand and adapt to the Western world thus making significant contributionsfor its well being. For more than hundred years, America had enjoyed India’swritten philosophies. In 1893, Swami Vivekananda came to the United States fromthe Parliament of Religions (Dayes 76).
His eloquence and enthusiasm made himone of the most popular speakers in the assembly of religious leaders from allaround the world (76). Vivekananda was offered full professorship at bothHarvard and Columbia Universities (76). His ideas and thoughts have influencedmany American philosophers and historians such as Aldous Huxley, Will Durant,and Christopher Isherwood. Swami Vivekananda’s brilliant service to unitycreated a lasting link between India and America. Furthermore, GobindramJhamandas was born in 1891 in Sind, an area that is now part of Pakistan(Hundley 45). He established the Watumull Foundation, which has builteducational links between India and America.
Today, This foundation bringshighly qualified men and women to American universities for doctoral degrees orpostgraduate work. India has bestowed several contributions to the United Statesin the field of science and medicine. Some of these significant people are Dr. Harbans L. Arora; a biologist from Rockefeller Institute, his work will tell usmore about man’s brain, his memory systems, and his behavior (Handlin 73). Dr.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar; the astrophysicist, his contributions enable us tostudy the internal constitution of the stars (74). Dr. Har Gobind Khorana; hisscientific research work has contributed much to solving the mysteries of thegenetic code, cancer, infectious diseases, and the aging process (75). Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany; a graduate of the Watumall Foundation, was recentlyawarded honors for his invention of a laser instrument that performs an eyeoperation (75). These men have facilitated the study of science and haveprovided the society with valuable information.
The East Indians havecontributed in several other fields such as arts and education. One of them isZubin Mehta; the great music conductor and music director (Pavri 101). Hisromantic approach to conducting and his outstanding technical ability have beenpraised by critics and enjoyed by audiences in many nations. In addition, RaviShankar, one of India’s outstanding musicians has influenced American Jazz aswell as popular music.
He has popularized music of the sitar, a Hindu instrumentresembling a guitar. Mr. Shankar teaches sitar at the University of California’sLos Angeles Department of Ethno-Musicology (Pavri 102). Other Americans of EastIndian descent have made important contributions in the field of education.
Suchas Santha Rama Rau; in the field of American literature and Dr. Chakravakti;professor of oriental religions and literature at Smith College in Massachusetts(Pavri 106). Today Indians are contributing in everything from the basic geneticcode of the human body to the constitution of the stars. Now, India is givingAmerican scientists who are improving and prolonging our lives, and extendingour environment from earth to space. Whether the Indians came initially thinkingthey would stay only temporarily, or whether they came as settlers seeking a newhome, all of them found themselves changed by America as they built Sikh templesin the valleys of California, farmed the new land, practiced medicine, operatedsmall businesses, and raised their children. The Asian Indian Americans havebeen changed by their experiences in the West, in the process they have alsobeen changing America, making its society richer and more multicultural.
AsianIndians have supplied innumerable contributions to the culture and well being ofthe US; the majority of these contributions are geared notably to engineeringand the sciences. In addition, growing up in two cultures is a great challenge,yes, but not a problem. It is a difficult experience, but not one without itsbenefits. BibliographyBrass, Paul.
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