Deafness in India and the Indian-American Community

Abstract

This paper seeks to detail the experiences of the Deaf Indian community and the Deaf Indian-American community through different lenses such as cultural identity, public policy, and access to opportunities. It argues that social stigma in India is what directly results in the suppression of the Deaf community by the Indian government via policies that circumvent overarching anti-discrimination legislation. In the United States, Deaf Indians face racism from within the Deaf community as they are alienized and misrepresented. They are also ostracized from hearing Indian populations as they are not included in cultural traditions due to language barriers. As a result, the paper argues that the experience of the Deaf Indian needs to be analyzed from multiple axes of oppression such as race minority status, hearing status, socioeconomic status, etc. It operates under a framework of intersectionality while including critical literature from Critical Race Theory and disability studies.