South Asian Immigrants before 1950: The Formation of Ethnic, Symbolic, and Group Identity

Abstract

This essay explores South Asian American ethnic and group identity and community formation in the U.S. among pre-1950 immigrants and their descendants, who are considered the first wave immigrants. What were some of the hardships faced by the first wave immigrants? How did religious, education, gender, and class differences among South Asian groups affect the development of their cultural and national identities? How did the children and grandchildren of these interracial parents construct their identity as South Asians, or Hindus as they were mistakenly called? How did the various subgroups from South Asia relate to each other despite religious and national differences? How should we think about what South Asian American communities meant at the beginning of the twentieth century when they were subjected to the same discriminatory Alien Land Laws of 1913 and 1920, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the Asian Exclusion Acts of 1917-1924, which affected other Asians in America?