Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with the indigenous peoples of the Americas commonly referred to as American Indians.
In North America, the term Indian has an ambiguous meaning. In the western hemisphere, historically and currently, Indian has been commonly used to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Qualifying terms such as American Indian and East Indian were and are commonly used to avoid ambiguity.
While East Indian remains in use, South Asian is often chosen instead. The U.S. government coined Native American to refer to the indigenous peoples of the United States, but American Indian remains popular among the indigenous and general populations.
People of Indian origin often prefer the term Desi to refer to the diasporic subculture of South Asians. Indian Americans are categorized as Asian Indian (and more broadly, Asian American) by the United States Census Bureau.
It was after the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, that Indian Americans were restored naturalization rights in the United States.[5] A number of Indian Americans came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, in both of which 2% of the population is currently of Indian origin,[6] Mauritius, nations of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Guyana, Fiji, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Trinidad & Tobago, and Jamaica.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census,[7] the Asian Indian population in the United States grew from almost 1,678,765 in 2000 (0.6% of U.S. population) to 2,843,391 in 2010 (0.9% of U.S. population), a growth rate of 69.37%, one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States.[8][9][10][11]
The New York metropolitan area, consisting of New York City, Long Island, and adjacent areas within New York, as well as nearby areas within the states of New Jersey (extending to Trenton), Connecticut (extending to Bridgeport), and including Pike County, Pennsylvania, is home to approximately 557,000 Indian Americans as of the 2010 Census, comprising by far the largest Indian American population of any metropolitan area in the United States. New York City itself contains the highest Indian American population of any city proper, at approximately 195,000. As of June 2011, Indian airline carriers Air India and Jet Airways as well as United States airline carrier Continental Airlines were all offering flights from the New York City Metropolitan Area to and from India. At least twenty Indian American enclaves characterized as a Little India have emerged in the New York City Metropolitan Area.
Other metropolitan areas with large Indian American populations include Atlanta, Baltimore–Washington, Boston, Chicago, Dallas – Ft. Worth, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco – San Jose – Oakland.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas of the United States of America
| Rank |
Metropolitan Statistical Area |
Total Population (2010) |
Indian American Population (2010)[12] |
% Indian American |
Asian American Population (2010)[12] |
% Asian American |
Combined Statistical Area |
| !000001 |
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA |
18,897,109 |
526,133 |
2.8 |
1,878,261 |
9.9 |
New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA |
| !000002 |
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA MSA |
12,828,837 |
119,901 |
0.9 |
1,884,669 |
14.7 |
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA CSA |
| !000003 |
Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA |
9,461,105 |
171,901 |
1.8 |
532,801 |
5.6 |
Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI CSA |
| !000004 |
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA |
6,371,773 |
100,386 |
1.6 |
341,503 |
5.4 |
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX CSA |
| !000005 |
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA |
5,965,343 |
90,286 |
1.5 |
295,766 |
5.0 |
Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD CSA |
| !000006 |
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA |
5,946,800 |
91,637 |
1.5 |
389,007 |
6.5 |
Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX CSA |
| !000007 |
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA |
5,582,170 |
127,963 |
2.3 |
517,458 |
9.3 |
Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV CSA |
| !000008 |
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA |
5,564,635 |
41,334 |
0.7 |
125,564 |
2.3 |
~primary census statistical area |
| !000010 |
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH MSA |
4,552,402 |
62,598 |
1.4 |
294,503 |
6.5 |
Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-RI-NH CSA |
| !000011 |
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA |
4,335,391 |
119,854 |
2.8 |
1,005,823 |
23.2 |
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA |
| !000012 |
Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI MSA |
4,296,250 |
55,087 |
1.3 |
141,316 |
3.3 |
Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI CSA |
| !000013 |
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA |
4,224,851 |
23,587 |
0.6 |
259,071 |
6.1 |
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA CSA |
| !000014 |
Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ MSA |
4,192,887 |
31,203 |
0.7 |
138,717 |
3.3 |
~primary census statistical area |
| !000015 |
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA |
3,439,809 |
52,652 |
1.5 |
392,961 |
11.4 |
Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA CSA |
| !000016 |
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI MSA |
3,279,833 |
29,453 |
0.9 |
188,018 |
5.7 |
Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI CSA |
| !000018 |
St. Louis, MO-IL MSA |
2,812,896 |
16,874 |
0.6 |
60,072 |
2.1 |
St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL CSA |
| !000019 |
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA |
2,783,243 |
23,526 |
0.8 |
80,879 |
2.9 |
~primary census statistical area |
| !000020 |
Baltimore-Towson, MD MSA |
2,710,489 |
32,193 |
1.2 |
122,911 |
4.5 |
Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV CSA |
| !000021 |
Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO MSA |
2,543,482 |
13,649 |
0.5 |
94,005 |
3.7 |
Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO CSA |
| !000022 |
Pittsburgh, PA MSA |
2,356,285 |
14,568 |
0.6 |
41,238 |
1.8 |
Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA CSA |
| !000023 |
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA MSA |
2,226,009 |
15,117 |
0.7 |
126,965 |
5.7 |
~primary census statistical area |
| !000026 |
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL MSA |
2,134,411 |
26,105 |
1.2 |
84,852 |
5.0 |
Orlando-Deltona-Daytona Beach, FL CSA |
| !000027 |
Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN MSA |
2,130,151 |
14,696 |
0.7 |
40,422 |
1.9 |
Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN CSA |
| !000028 |
Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH MSA |
2,077,240 |
14,215 |
0.7 |
40,522 |
2.0 |
Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, OH CSA |
| !000029 |
Kansas City, MO-KS MSA |
2,035,334 |
11,646 |
0.6 |
46,221 |
2.3 |
Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS CSA |
| !000030 |
Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ MSA |
2,000,000 |
10,000 |
0.5 |
45,000 |
3.0 |
Phoenix, AZ |
| !000031 |
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA |
1,836,911 |
117,711 |
6.4 |
571,967 |
31.3 |
San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA |
| !000034 |
Indianapolis-Carmel, IN MSA |
1,756,241 |
12,669 |
0.7 |
39,576 |
2.3 |
Indianapolis-Anderson-Columbus, IN CSA |
| !000043 |
Richmond, VA MSA |
1,258,251 |
12,926 |
1.0 |
39,265 |
3.1 |
~primary census statistical area |
| !000045 |
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT MSA |
1,212,381 |
18,764 |
1.5 |
47,339 |
3.9 |
Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT CSA |
| !000048 |
Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA |
1,130,490 |
20,192 |
1.8 |
49,862 |
4.4 |
Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC CSA |
| !000055 |
Fresno, CA MSA |
930,450 |
15,469 |
1.7 |
89,357 |
9.6 |
Fresno-Madera, CA CSA |
| !000056 |
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT MSA |
916,829 |
15,439 |
1.7 |
42,284 |
4.6 |
New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA |
| !000077 |
Stockton, CA MSA |
685,306 |
12,951 |
1.9 |
98,472 |
14.4 |
~primary census statistical area |
| !000109 |
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO MSA |
422,610 |
3,534 |
0.9 |
12,948 |
3.06 |
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO MSA |
| !000138 |
Trenton-Ewing, NJ MSA |
366,513 |
15,352 |
4.2 |
32,752 |
8.9 |
New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA |
While the table above provides a picture of the population of Indian American (alone) and Asian Americans (alone) in some of the metropolitan areas of the US, it is incomplete as it does NOT include multi-racial Asian Americans. Please note that data for Multi-racial Asian Americans has not yet been released by the US Census Bureau.
| State |
Asian Indian Population (2000 Census) |
Asian Indian Population (2010 Census)[13] |
| California |
360,392 |
528,176 |
| New York |
296,056 |
313,620 |
| New Jersey |
169,180 |
292,256 |
| Texas |
129,365 |
245,981 |
| Illinois |
124,723 |
188,328 |
| Florida |
70,740 |
128,735 |
| Virginia |
48,815 |
103,916 |
| Pennsylvania |
57,241 |
103,026 |
| Georgia |
46,132 |
96,116 |
| Maryland |
49,909 |
79,051 |
| Massachusetts |
43,801 |
77,177 |
| Michigan |
54,656 |
77,132 |
| Ohio |
38,752 |
64,187 |
| Washington |
23,992 |
61,124 |
| North Carolina |
26,197 |
57,400 |
| Connecticut |
23,662 |
46,415 |
| Arizona |
14,741 |
36,047 |
| Minnesota |
16,887 |
33,031 |
| Indiana |
14,865 |
27,598 |
| Tennessee |
12,835 |
23,900 |
| Missouri |
12,169 |
23,223 |
| Wisconsin |
12,665 |
22,899 |
| Colorado |
11,720 |
20,369 |
| Oregon |
9,575 |
16,740 |
| South Carolina |
8,856 |
15,941 |
| Kansas |
8,153 |
13,848 |
| Alabama |
6,900 |
13,036 |
| Kentucky |
6,771 |
12,501 |
| Oklahoma |
8,502 |
11,906 |
| Nevada |
5,535 |
11,671 |
| Delaware |
5,280 |
11,424 |
| Louisiana |
8,280 |
11,174 |
| Iowa |
5,641 |
11,081 |
| New Hampshire |
3,873 |
8,268 |
| Arkansas |
3,104 |
7,973 |
| Utah |
3,065 |
6,212 |
| Nebraska |
3,273 |
5,903 |
| Mississippi |
3,827 |
5,494 |
| Washington, D.C |
2,845 |
5,214 |
| Rhode Island |
2,942 |
4,653 |
| New Mexico |
3,104 |
4,550 |
| Puerto Rico |
|
3,523 |
| West Virginia |
2,856 |
3,304 |
| Hawaii |
1,441 |
2,201 |
| Idaho |
1,289 |
2,152 |
| Maine |
1,021 |
1,959 |
| North Dakota |
822 |
1,543 |
| Vermont |
858 |
1,359 |
| Alaska |
723 |
1,218 |
| South Dakota |
611 |
1,152 |
| Montana |
379 |
618 |
| Wyoming |
354 |
589 |
| Total Asian Indian population in the US |
1,678,765 |
2,843,391 |
In the year 2006, of the total 1,266,264 legal immigrants to the United States, 58,072 were from India. Immigration from India is currently at its highest level in history. Between 2000 and 2006, 421,006 Indian immigrants were admitted to the U.S., up from 352,278 during the 1990–1999 period.[14] According to the 2000 U.S. census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 percent. The average growth rate for the whole of USA was only 7.6 percent.
Indians comprise 16.4 percent of the Asian-American community. They are the third largest in the Asian American population. In 2000, of all the foreign born population in U.S., Indians were 1.007 million. From 2000 onwards the growth rate and the per cent rate of Indians amongst all the immigrants has increased by over 100 percent. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the U.S. grew 130% — 10 times the national average of 13%.
Indian Americans are the third largest Asian American ethnic group today, following Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.[15][16][17]
A joint Duke University – UC Berkeley study revealed that Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan combined.[18] 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.
With the recent wave of highly educated Indian professionals, Indian Americans continuously outpace most ethnic groups socioeconomically to reach the summit of the U.S. Census charts.[19] Indian Americans, along with other Asian Americans, have one of the highest educational levels of all ethnic groups in the U.S. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor's or high degree (compared to 28% nationally and 44% average for all Asian American groups). Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average.[20][21] Thomas Friedman, in his recent book, The World is Flat, explains this trend in terms of brain drain, whereby the best and brightest elements in India emigrate to the U.S. in order to seek better financial opportunities.[22]
Educational Attainment: 2010[23]
(25 and Older)
| Ethnicity |
Bachelor's Degree
or Higher |
| Indian |
70.8% |
| Egyptian |
67.2% |
| Pakistani |
53.2% |
| Bangladeshi |
48.6% |
| Iranian |
63.9% |
| Asian |
49.9% |
| Non-Hispanic White |
29.5% |
| Total US Population |
28.2% |
Main article:
Model minorityAccording to the 2010 U.S. Census, Indian Americans had the highest household income of all ethnic groups in the United States.
According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 35,000 Indian American doctors.[24]
Among Indian Americans, 72.3% participate in the U.S. work force, of which 57.7% are employed in managerial and professional specialties.[25]As of 2010 66.3% of Indian Americans are employed in select professional and managerial specialties compared with the national average of 35.9%.[26]
In 2002, there were over 223,000 Asian Indian-owned firms in the U.S., employing more than 610,000 workers, and generating more than $88 billion in revenue.[27]
Median Household Income: 2010
| Ethnicity[28] |
Household Income |
| Indians |
$90,711 |
| Iranian |
$64,366 |
| Egyptian |
$60,098 |
| Pakistani |
$59,557 |
| Non-Hispanic White |
$52,480 |
| Total US Population |
$50,046 |
Hindi radio stations are available in areas with high Indian populations, for example, Easy96 Radio in the New York tri - state areas, KLOK 1170 AM IN San Francisco, RBC Radio; Radio Humsafar, Desi Junction in Chicago; Radio Salaam Namaste in Dallas; and FunAsia Radio, Sangeet Radio and Radio Naya Andaz in Houston. There are also some radio stations broadcasting in Tamil and Telugu within these communities.[29][30]. Houston based Kannada Kaaranji radio focuses on a multitude of programs for children and adults.[31]
South Asian magazine, SBR MAGAZINE(Style & Beauty Resource - Previously known as "Sabse Bada Rupaiya Magazine") , one of the world’s leading publications, offers readers a print and online magazine filled with various beauty, health, fashion, and entertainment news and updates targeted to the young professionals in the Indian community nationwide.
Several cable and satellite providers offer Indian channels: Sony TV, Zee TV, Star Plus, Sahara One, Colors, regional channels, and others have offered Indian content for subscription, such as the Cricket World Cup.
Many metropolitan areas with large Indian-American populations now have movie theaters which specialize in showing Indian movies, especially Bollywood. 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.[32] It has been discontinued by MTV.
Communities of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, and Jews from India have established their religions in the United States.
The first religious centre of an Indian religion to be established in the US was a Sikh Gurudwara in Stockton, California in 1912. Today there are many Sikh Gurudwaras, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Temples in all the 50 states. As of 2008, the American Hindu population was around 2.2 million,[33] and Hindus are the majority of Indian Americans.[34][35] Many sects such as ISKCON, Swaminarayan Sampraday, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Chinmaya Mission, and Swadhyay Pariwar are well-established in the U.S. The Hindu Americans have formed the Hindu American Foundation which is represents American Hindus and aims to educate people about Hinduism.
Swami Vivekananda brought Hinduism to the West at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions.[36] The Vedanta Society has been important in subsequent Parliaments. Today, many Hindu temples, most of them built by Indian Americans have emerged in different cities and towns of America.[37][38] More than 18 million Americans are now practicing some form of Yoga. 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.
Indian Muslim Americans generally congregate with other American Muslims, including those from Pakistan and Bangladesh, but there are prominent organizations such as the Indian Muslim Council - USA.[39]
Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s. The United States has since become a center of the Jain Diaspora. The Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations to preserve, practice, and promote Jainism and the Jain Way of Life.[40]
There are many Indian Christian churches across the US; Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Knanaya, Indian Orthodox Church, Mar Thoma Church (reformed orthodox), Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, Church of South India, Church of North India, The Pentecostal Mission, and the India Pentecostal Church of God; there are also a number of Indian Christians in mainstream American churches.[41] The Indian Christian Americans have formed the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) to represent a network of Indian Christian Organizations in the United States and Canada. FIACONA estimates the Indian American Christian population to be 600,000.[42]
The large Parsi community is represented by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America.[43] Indian Jews are perhaps the smallest organized religious group among Indian Americans, consisting of approximately 350 members in the United States. They form the Indian Jewish Congregation of USA with headquarters in New York City.[44]
Like the terms "Asian American" or "South Asian American", the term "Indian American" is also an umbrella label applying to a variety of views, values, lifestyles, and appearances. Although Asian-Indian Americans retain a high ethnic identity, they are known to assimilate into American culture while at the same time keeping the culture of their ancestors.[45] They may assimilate more easily than many other immigrant groups because they have fewer language barriers (English is widely spoken in India among professional classes), more educational credentials (Indian immigrants are disproportionately well-educated), and come from a democratic society. Additionally, Indian culture, like many other Asian cultures, puts emphasis upon achievement and personal responsibility of the individual as a reflection upon the family and community.
Ajay K. Ojha argues that in terms of assimilation, "One main problem that faces Asian Indians and Asian Indian Americans is the jokes that are used between the two cultural groups that divide them from their own heritage and community. That is, Asian Indians who are born in India and either reside in India or move to the United States, and Asian Indian Americans who were born in the United States...have a tendency to use humor with one another." [46] Although Indian Americans have prospered well over time in the United States and have a high ethnic value among the general population, there are problems of fully assimilating into the American culture with intracultural barriers that are faced between Asian Indians and Indian Americans.
In countries such as the United States, Canada, and until more recently, the United Kingdom, there has been a large influx of Indian immigrants, beginning in the late 1960s. As a result of assimilation, mixed Caucasian and Indian backgrounds are becoming more prevalent. The 2001 U.S. Census Bureau’s publication of the 56,497,000 married couples, shows that overall the percentage of Indian males married to White females (7.1%) was higher than Indian females marrying with White males (3.7%); whilst for those who were US born the reverse was true with more Indian females marrying with White males (39.1%) than Indian males married to White females (27.3%).[47]
The United States is also home to associations of Indians united by ethno-linguistic affiliation. The big organizations include Cultural Association of Bengal and their annually sponsored event the North American Bengali Conference, Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA), Kannada Sangha and Kannada Koota, Telugu Association of North America (TANA), Orissa Society of the Americas, Brihan Maharashtra Mandals of North America (BMM), Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, Boston Thamil Association, Tamil sangam of Greater Washington Inc,New Jersy Tamil Sangam, Tamil Sangam of Carolina, Inc, Gujarati Samaj, Pravasi Federation of Kerala, Associations of North America (FOKANA), Punjabi American Heritage Society and Punjabi-American Cultural Association. These associations generally put on cultural programs, plays, and concerts during the major Hindu festivals (Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Padva, Pongal, Sankranti, Ugadi, Baisakh, Onam, Vishu) and other religious (e.g., Christian) and cultural events such as Christmas and New Years.
- 1600s: The East India Company brought over Indian indentured servants to the British American colonies.[48]
- 1680: Due to anti-miscegenation laws, a Eurasian daughter born to an Indian father and Irish mother in Maryland was classified as a "mulatto" and sold into slavery.[48]
- 1790: Following American independence from the British, Indian immigrants began entering the independent United States as maritime workers.
- 1838: (May 5) - First two ships arrive in the Caribbean with Indian indentured workers (landing in British Guiana).
- 1899–1914: First significant wave of Indian immigrants, mostly Sikh farmers and laborers from Punjab region of British India, start arriving in California (Angel Island) on ships via Hong Kong. They find employment on farms and in lumber mills in California, Oregon and Washington states.
- 1912: The first Sikh temple opens its doors in Stockton, California.
- 1913: A.K. Mozumdar became the first Indian-born person to earn U.S. citizenship, having convinced the Spokane district judge that he was "Caucasian" and met the requirements of naturalization law that restricted citizenship to free white persons. In 1923, as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that no person of East Indian origin could become a naturalized American citizen, his citizenship was revoked.
- 1917: The Barred Zone Act passes in Congress through two-thirds majority, overriding President Woodrow Wilson's earlier veto. Asians, including Indians, are barred from immigrating to the U.S.
- 1918: Due to anti-miscegenation laws, there was significant controversy in Arizona when an Indian farmer B. K. Singh married the sixteen year-old daughter of one of his white American tenants.[49]
- 1918: Bhagat Singh Thind becomes the first person of East-Indian descent recruited by the US Army on July 22, 1918. He goes on to fight in World War I. A few months later, on November 8, 1918, Bhagat Singh was promoted to the rank of an Acting Sergeant.
- 1922: Yellapragada Subbarao arrived in Boston on 26 October 1922. He discovered the role of Phosphocreatine and Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) in muscular activity, which earned him an entry into biochemistry textbooks in the 1930s. He obtained his Ph.D. degree the same year.
- 1923: The US Supreme Court rules that people from India (at the time, British India, e.g. South Asians) are aliens ineligible for citizenship in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. Bhagat Singh Thind becomes a citizen a few years later in New York – he had earlier applied and been rejected in Oregon.[50]
- 1928: Dhan Gopal Mukerji wins the Newbery Medal, and thus becomes the first successful India-born man of letters in the United States.
- 1943: Republican Clara Booth Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler introduce a bill to open naturalization to Indian immigrants to the US. Prominent Americans Pearl Buck, Louis Fischer, Albert Einstein and Robert Millikan give their endorsement to the bill. President Franklin Roosevelt also endorses the bill, calling for an end to the "statutory discrimination against the Indians".
- 1946: President Harry Truman signs into law the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, returning to Indian Americans the right to immigrate and naturalize.
- 1956: Dalip Singh Saund elected to the US House of Representatives from California. He was re-elected to a 2nd and 3rd term, winning over 60% of the votes. He is also the first Asian immigrant to be elected to Congress.
- 1962: Zubin Mehta appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming the first person of Indian origin to become the principal conductor of a major American orchestra. Subsequently he was appointed principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic.
- 1964: Amar G. Bose founded Bose Corporation. He is the Chairman, primary stockholder, and also holds the title of Technical Director at Bose Corporation. He was former professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- 1965: President Lyndon Johnson signs the INS Act of 1965 into law, eliminating per-country immigration quotas and introducing immigration on the basis of professional experience and education. Dr. Satinder Mullick, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, is one of the first to immigrate under the new law in November 1965—sponsored by Corning Glass Works Corning Inc..
- 1981: Suhas Patil co-founded Cirrus Logic, one of the first fabless semiconductor companies.
- 1982: Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems.
- 1983: Asian Indian Women in America[51] attended the first White House Briefing for Asian American Women. (AAIWA, formed in 1980, is the 1st Indian women's organization in North America.)
- 1987: President Ronald Reagan appoints Dr. Joy Cherian, the first Indian Commissioner of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
- 1988: Sanjay Mehrotra co-founded SanDisk.
- 1989: Rohit Jagessar founded RBC Radio, the first Asian Indian radio station in the US.
- 1994: Rajat Gupta elected managing director of McKinsey & Company, the first Indian-born CEO of a multinational company.
- 1994: Guitarist Kim Thayil, of Indian origin, wins Grammy award for his Indian inspired guitarwork on the album Superunknown by his band Soundgarden.
- 1994: Raj Reddy received the ACM Turing Award (with Edward Feigenbaum) "For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology".
- 1996: Pradeep Sindhu co-founded Juniper Networks
- 1996: Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar of McKinsey & Company co-found the Indian School of Business.
- 1997: Kalpana Chawla, one of the six-member crew of STS-87 mission, becomes the first Indian American astronaut.
- 1999: NASA names the third of its four "Great Observatories" Chandra X-ray Observatory after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar the Indian-born American astrophysicist and a Nobel laureate.
- 1999: Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan enters film history with his film The Sixth Sense becoming one of the all-time highest-grossing films, worldwide.
- 1999: Rono Dutta becomes the President of United Airlines.
- 2001: Professor Dipak C. Jain (born in Tezpur - Assam, India) appointed as dean of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is the Sandy and Morton Goldman Professor in Entrepreneurial Studies and a professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1987.
- 2002: Professor Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao — 'the world renowned statistician' is awarded National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush.
- 2005: Abhijit Y. Talwalkar, President and Chief Executive Officer of LSI Corporation
- 2006: Indra Nooyi (born in Chennai, India) appointed as CEO of PepsiCo. She is a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation — sometimes, and more formally, known as The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She also serves as a member of the boards of the International Rescue Committee, Catalyst and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships, and currently serves as Chairman of the U.S.–India Business Council.
- 2007: Bobby Jindal is elected governor of Louisiana and is the first person of Indian descent to be elected governor of an American state; he is inaugurated on January 14, 2008.
- 2007: Renu Khator appointed as the chancellor of the University of Houston System and the president of the University of Houston on October 15, 2007.
- 2007: Francisco D'Souza appointed as the President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Cognizant Technology Solutions. He is one of the youngest Chief Executive Officers in the software services sector at the age 38 in the United States. He was part of the team founded, in 1994, the Nasdaq-100 Cognizant Technology Solutions.
- 2007: Vikram Pandit (born in Maharashtra, India) appointed as CEO of Citigroup. He was previously the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Institutional Securities and Investment Banking Group at Morgan Stanley. He also serves on the boards of Columbia University, Columbia Business School, the Indian School of Business and The Trinity School. He is a former board member of NASDAQ (2000–2003), the New York City Investment Fund.
- 2007: Shantanu Narayen appointed as CEO of Adobe Systems.
- 2008: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appoints Neel Kashkari as the Interim U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability.
- 2008: Raj Chetty appointed as professor of economics at Harvard University. As of today, he is the youngest person 'at the age of 29' to ever receive tenure of professorship in the Department of Economics at Harvard. He is one of the top 8 young economists in the world.
- 2008: Sanjay Jha appointed as Co-CEO of Motorola, Inc..
- 2008: Establishment of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) to document the history of the South Asian American community.[52]
- 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Preetinder S. Bharara (born in Firozpur, India; graduate of Harvard College Class of 1990 and Columbia Law School Class of 1993) as United States attorney for the Southern District of New York Manhattan.
- Farah Pandith appointed as Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the United States Department of State.
- 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Eboo Patel and Anju Bhargava on President's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Parnerships.
- 2009: President Barack Obama appoints Vinai Thummalapally as the U.S. Ambassador to Belize
- 2009: President Barack Obama nominates Rajiv Shah, M.D. as the new head of United States Agency for International Development.
- 2009: President Barack Obama nominates Islam A. Siddiqui as the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
- 2010: President of Harvard University Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust appoints Nitin Nohria as the 10th dean of Harvard Business School.
- 2010: President of University of Chicago Robert Zimmer appoints Sunil Kumar as the dean of University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
- 2010: Deven Sharma appointed President of Standard & Poor's.
- 2010: Ajaypal Banga appointed President and CEO of MasterCard.
- 2010: Year marks the most number of candidates of Indian origin, running for political offices in the United States, including candidates such as Kamala Harris and Ami Bera.
- 2010: State Senator Nikki Haley is elected governor of South Carolina, and becomes the first Indian American woman, and second Indian American in general to become Governor of an American state.
- 2011: Jamshed Bharucha (born in Mumbai) named President of Cooper Union.[53] He was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Dartmouth College and Provost at Tufts University.
- 2011: Satish K. Tripathi appointed as President of University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.
According to the current parameters defining the official U.S. racial categories employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government agencies, American citizens or resident aliens who marked "Asian-Indian" as their ancestry or wrote in a term that automatically gets classified as an "Asian-Indian" gets classified as part of the Asian race on the 2000 US Census. As with other modern official U.S. government racial categories, the term "Asian" is in itself a broad and heterogeneous classification, encompassing all peoples with origins in the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. For further discussion on the term Asian American, please see that article.
In previous decades, Indian Americans were also variously classified as White American, the "Hindu race", and Other.[54] Even today, where individual Indian Americans do not racially self-identify, and instead report Muslim (or a sect of Islam such as Shi'ite or Sunni), Jewish, and Zoroastrian as their "race" in the "Some other race" section without noting their country of origin, they are automatically tallied as white.[55] This may result in the counting of persons such as Indian Muslims, Indian Jews, and Indian Zoroastrians as white, if they solely report their religious heritage without their national origin.
Staying in America for several months in the 1940s, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, an Indian independence movement fighter, wrote of the Indian racial identity as being Black.[56] After studying and living with African-American families, she concluded Indians in America should form ties with African Americans as they shared a common struggle for independence.[57]
Punjabi author and politician Lala Lajpat Rai, who toured America in 1907 and during World War I, living in and touring Sikh communities in the country, also came to a conclusion that Indians are of the same category as Black Americans. During his visits he spent much time at the historically Black Tuskegee University in Alabama, meeting with prominent African-American intellectuals such as W.E.B Dubois and Fredrick Douglass.[58]
In the 1980s, a gang known as the Dotbusters specifically targeted Indian Americans in Jersey City, New Jersey with violence and harassment.[59] Studies of racial discrimination, as well as stereotyping and scapegoating of Indian Americans have been conducted in recent years.[60] In particular, racial discrimination of Indian Americans in the workplace has been correlated with Indophobia due to the rise in outsourcing/offshoring paranoia, whereby Indian Americans are blamed for US companies offshoring white-collar labor to India.[61][62] According to the offices of the Congressional Caucus on India, many Indian Americans are severely concerned of a backlash, though nothing serious has taken place yet.[62] Due to various socio-cultural reasons, implicit racial discrimination against Indian Americans largely go unreported by the Indian American community.[60]
Numerous cases of religious stereotyping of American Hindus (mainly of Indian origin) have also been documented.[63]
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, there have been scattered incidents of Indian Americans becoming mistaken targets for hate crimes. In one example, a Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered at a Phoenix gas station by a white supremacist. This happened after September 11, and the murderer claimed that his turban made him think that the victim was a Middle Eastern American. In another example, a pizza deliverer was mugged and beaten in Massachusetts for "being Muslim" though the victim pleaded with the assailants that he was in fact Hindu.[64]
In 2004, New York Senator Hillary Clinton joked at a fundraising event with South Asians for Nancy Farmer that Mahatma Gandhi owned a gas station in downtown St. Louis, fueling the stereotype that gas stations are owned by Indians and other South Asians. She clarified in the speech later that she was just joking, but still received some criticism for the statement later on for which she apologized again. [65]
On April 5, 2006, the Hindu Mandir of Minnesota was vandalized allegedly on the basis of religious discrimination[citation needed]. The vandals damaged temple property leading to $200,000 worth of damage.[66][67][68]
On August 11, 2006, Senator George Allen allegedly referred to an opponent's political staffer of Indian ancestry as "macaca" and commenting, "Welcome to America." Some members of the Indian American community saw Allen's comments, and the backlash that may have contributed to Allen losing his re-election bid, as demonstrative of the power of YouTube in the 21st century.[69]
Indians are among the largest ethnic groups legally immigrating to the United States. The immigration of Indian Americans has taken place in several waves since the first Indian American came to the United States in the 1700s. A major wave of immigration to California from the region of Punjab took place in the first decade of the 20th century. Another significant wave followed in the 1950s which mainly included students and professionals. The elimination of immigration quotas in 1965 spurred successively larger waves of immigrants in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With the technology boom of the 1990s, the largest influx of Indians arrived between 1995 and 2000. This latter group has also caused surge in the application for various immigration benefits including applications for green card. This has resulted in long waiting periods for people born in India from receiving these benefits.
Several groups have tried to create a unified or dominant voice for the Indian American community in political affairs, including US India PAC.[70] 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. A majority of Indian Americans tend to identify as moderates and have voted for Democrats in recent elections. Polls before the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election showed Indian Americans favoring Democratic candidate John Kerry over Republican George W. Bush by a 53% to 14% margin, with 30% undecided at the time.[71] The Republican party has tried to target this community for political support,[72] and several prominent conservative activists are of Indian origin.
In 2007, Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal became the first United States Governor of Indian descent when he was elected Governor of Louisiana and is cited as a leading GOP presidential contender in 2012 or 2016.[73] Nikki Haley is the governor of South Carolina. A list of notable Indian American politicians and commentators can be found here.
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- ^ "Race Reporting for the Asian Population by Selected Categories: 2010". U.S. Census Bureau. http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_QTP8&prodType=table. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
- ^ a b c http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf see page 4
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- ^ http://losangeles.pointslocal.com/news/2011/05/13/losangeles/320413/indian-american-population-is-fastest-growing-minority-group
- ^ a b http://issuu.com/indiawest/docs/census_table_1?viewMode=presentation&mode=embed
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- ^ Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: Fiscal Years 1820 to 2006
- ^ "US demographic census". http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:035;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:035;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:035;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:035&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-format=. Retrieved 2006-12-16.
- ^ "US demographic census". http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:038;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:038;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:038;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:038&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-format=. Retrieved 2006-11-19.
- ^ "US demographic census". http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:032;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:032;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:032;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:032&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en&-format=. Retrieved 2006-11-19.
- ^ Assisi, Francis C. (2007-01-04). "News & Analysis: Skilled Indian Immigrants Create Wealth for America". INDOlink. http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=010307105012. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
- ^ http://ibnlive.in.com/news/usas-best-indian-americans-top-community/85882-2.html
- ^ The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook - India
- ^ MIT World » : The World is Flat
- ^ 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimate
- ^ "Indian Americans in New Hampshire". US India Political Action Committee. Archived from the original on 2010-04-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20100427163917/http://www.usinpac.com/nh/indian_americans_nh.html. Retrieved 2012-03-26.
- ^ Indian-Americans: A Story of Achievement
- ^ "American Factfinder". http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_S0201&prodType=table. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ^ Asian Indian Summary of Findings
- ^ "American FactFinder". http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_10_1YR_S0201&prodType=table.
- ^ http://www.thendral.com/AboutThendral.shtml
- ^ maganti.vamsi View profile More options (2008-06-11). "A Telugu Radio Show - Every Saturday - రచ్చబండ (తెలుగు-యూనికోడ్)". Google Groups. http://groups.google.com/group/telugu-unicode/browse_thread/thread/8157d1cbc8947b14. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
- ^ http://www.houstonkannada.com
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- ^ Composite U.S. Demographics
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- ^ Origin Of Hinduism In America
- ^ The Council of Hindu Temples of North America
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- ^ "About JAINA". http://www.jaina.org/?page=AboutJAINA. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
- ^ "Indian Church, Churches and places of worship in the US. Asian Church in America, Indians, NRIs and Immigrants in America from Garamchai.Com". Garamchai.Com .... http://www.garamchai.com/church.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
- ^ A Merry Indian American Christmas
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- ^ Indian Jewish Congregation of USA Newsletter
- ^ Mogelonsky, "Asian-Indian Americans," pp. 32–38
- ^ Ojha, Ajay K. (September 2003), Humor: A distinctive way of speaking that can create cultural identity, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 170.
- ^ The Multiracial Activist - www.multiracial.com - The Reality of Interracial Marriages
- ^ a b Francis C. Assisi (2005). "Indian-American Scholar Susan Koshy Probes Interracial Sex". INDOlink. http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=111605054006. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
- ^ "Chapter 9: Home Life". Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899–1965. The Library, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/echoes/chapter9/chapter9.html. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
- ^ PBS - Roots in the Sand - Bhagat Singh Thind
- ^ Asian Indian Women in America
- ^ ""Mission Statement", South Asian American Digital Archive.". http://www.saadigitalarchive.org.
- ^ Foderaro, Lisa W. (2011-02-06). "New York Times, February 6, 2011". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/nyregion/07cooper.html.
- ^ Assisi, Frank. Desparades. 2006. Are Desis White?.
- ^ Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results. 2007. May 21, 2007. "Race and Nationality Descriptions from the 2000 US Census and Bureau of Vital Statistics"
- ^ America: The land of superlatives, Phoenix Publications, 1946.
- ^ "'I am a colored woman': Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya in the United States, 1939-1941". Slate, Nico. Routledge Publishing doi:10.1080/09584930802624638
- ^ Raghunath Rai. History. VK Publications. p. 187. ISBN 978-81-87139-69-0
- ^ In Jersey City, Indians Protest Violence
- ^ a b Discrimination at Work by Harmeet Dhillon
- ^ Indophobia: Facts versus Fiction, Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University archives of The Economic Times
- ^ a b Worries about technical-job losses, discrimination, by Amy Yee,The Financial Times Ltd, 2004
- ^ Center for the study of history and memory
- ^ "Hindu Beaten Because He's Muslim". CBS News. 2002-11-25. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/25/national/main530749.shtml.
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3890946/ns/us_news-life/t/clinton-regrets-gandhi-joke/
- ^ wcco.com - 600 Attend Forum About Hindu Temple Vandalism
- ^ New Header
- ^ indianexpress.com
- ^ Andrew Leonard (2006-11-09). "How the World Works: Hail Macaca!". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/11/09/macaca_mutiny/index.html.
- ^ USINPAC - US India Political Action Committee | Indian American Community | www.usinpac.com
- ^ Asia Times - Asia's most trusted news source
- ^ [4][dead link]
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- Asian-Americans' diverse voices share similar stories
- The Indian-American population boom - September 1, 2006, Rediff.com
- CNN.com: "India's influence soars: The 'un-China' could be world's next economic superpower", June 18, 2006 (summary of TIME Magazine cover story)
- The Indian Express, December 17, 2004: "Indians are No 1 among Asians in US, census shows"
- ModelMinority.com, March 10, 2004: "Indian-Americans Fear Outsourcing Impact: Worries about technical-job losses, discrimination" (reprint of March 3, 2004 Financial Times article by Amy Yee)
- Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965 (University of California at Berkeley's South/Southeast Asia Library's online exhibit, last updated October 3, 2001)
- Newsweek, March 6, 2006: "My Two Lives" by Jhumpa Lahiri ('The Pulitzer-winning writer felt intense pressure to be at once 'loyal to the old world and fluent in the new.')
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White Americans: European Americans (English Americans, German Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, etc.), Non-Hispanic Whites, White Hispanic and Latino Americans, Arab Americans, Jewish Americans,etc. · Black Americans: African Americans, Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, African immigrants and descendants, Afro-Caribbean/West Indian Americans, etc. · Asian Americans (Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Japanese Americans, Pakistani Americans, etc.) · Americans from other parts of the Americas: Canadian, Hispanic and Latino Americans (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans (Stateside), Cuban Americans, Colombian Americans, etc.), Belizean, Brazilian, etc. · Multiracial Americans · Native Americans and Alaska Natives · Oceanic American: Pacific Islands Americans (Chamorro Americans, Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, Tongan Americans, etc.), Euro Oceanic American (Australian American, etc)
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