The Indian American

Suddenly the world is being made aware of a new arrival. The ‘arrival’ of an entity that has existed since the 1700s. An entity that has at times been deprived of many civil rights , been racially looked down upon, discriminated against and even more often than not been denied simple justice because of the color of its skin and the nature of its civilization. All in free and fair America.

It has now apparently evolved into a major force to be reckoned with. Why? Because the Americans specifically during the Clinton era had decided to award it some recognition and the Indians in India, specifically the press is going berserk over this recognition. Again why? Because our mindset hasn’t changed. In the US or in India. After all, a nod from the lord is still breakfast for the fool!

The United States Census Bureau terms this entity ‘Asian Indians’ and so it has remained all this while, part of America and yet not quite. On the periphery. On the fringes. Brave souls who had dared to dream the great American dream of finding that pot of gold that eluded them at home. And rightly so!

Wasn’t America the land of opportunity that beckoned only the brightest and the fairest? Where even a beggar could become a millionaire through sheer dint of hard work? Where an Indian could dream of becoming an ‘American’? Ah well, alas, not quite. Even the green card more precious than the Kohinoor could not quite ensure that. His very ethnicity kept him apart. Till his children and their children despite their backgrounds somehow merged with the swirling multicultural, multiracial masses to become a seemingly integral part of American society. To become noticed and now accepted as an Indian American!

A mixed up amalgam of diluted Indian traditions and strong western ideas, the Indian American appears to be a rootless, yet confident, brown entity aspiring to be something it is naturally not. It is a generation of youngsters and not so young caught in a web that is not of its own making. Neither truly Indian nor truly American. Yet believing in the American dream of an America equally for all.

A glimmer of recognition from the establishment, a nod of appreciation from the locals and he, along with the country of his origin, believes he has arrived. And why not? Hasn’t he also been working his bones off and paying taxes to achieve that modicum of respect that is his due as an American citizen?

Recently the editor of a magazine in the US told me that they only published articles which had a ‘strong Indian American angle rather than talk about India only or heritage only.’ While I appreciate the point she was trying to make, it is very evident from a quick glance at its contents that the magazine itself was unaware of how to make quite that distinction. For how else would you explain columns on Bollywood bloopers and Indian melodies? In what way do they reflect or project an’ Indian American angle’? To use an Americanism despite being first and second generations they are still not quite sure where ‘they are coming from’. To take nothing away from them, it only reflects the confusion and contradiction that faces all Americans who are of non British descent. Even while wanting to blend and merge, the strong and powerful pull of their very origin is at odds with what they would like to be.

Swetha Iyengar’s ‘Stepping Out Of Our Comfort Zone’ in the spring issue of ‘Indian Life and Style’ (a US based magazine) highlights this in more ways than one.
She wants her ‘adults to back off’ and not burden her and her generation with the baggage of the past. To let her generation Indians and Pakistanis, Jews and Arabs etc be allowed to live in friendship and harmony. Very laudable indeed. Yes it is the very comfort and neutrality of the place that she is living in that has enabled her and her generation to want and do this but it is perhaps the immaturity and naivety of her youth and ilk that causes her to believe that one can live entirely in the present without the intrusion of the past. But be that as it may. If, as she says ‘more and more countries (!!) today are causing their citizens to feel hate and fear’, in what way do they interfere with the life of her generation if they do not wish it to? These citizens, are they Americans? Likewise happenings in and between India and Pakistan now should really not elicit even the resigned ‘sigh’ she speaks of .Should they? This alone perhaps tells us who or what an Indian American is (or for that matter any other hyphenated American) .Neither truly this nor that but longing to be both without denying either!

It is amazing how Italian Americans, Greek Americans, Oriental Americans,Asian Americans etc are all part of the much touted American people that make the US the worlds’ most celebrated democracy- till something untoward happens. And when that happens they cease to be, in a flash, hyphenated Americans any more .And their almost elapsed ethnicity is put on trial by the same American people. Time and time again.(eg.Virginia Tech shooting)

Today the Indian American community has come into its own. Yes only because it has become a hard working, well educated, well heeled cohesive vote bank. The United States Census Bureau tells us there are something million Indian Americans who are eligible to vote. A strong vote bank that has politicians and parties suddenly very eager to recognize the contributions of the Indian American to American society. Is it any wonder that they have become the flavor of the millennium? And yet isn’t it about time!

Even in India you have the Indian press going into euphoric ecstasies over anything remotely Indian being appreciated in the US. This craving for western approbation is built into the Indian psyche and is without doubt a fall-out of its subjugated past. All the same when push comes to shove,young NRIs, PIOs, ABCDs or BBCDs wherever or whoever they might be, it will perhaps be worthwhile remembering that if ever there should arise a Uganda like situation ,the Indian in them will ensure them a home and a sense of belonging if ever they are in need.