Indian American Community Research Articles

Feminist Relational Agency and the Cultural Contestation of Heteronormative Gender Norms in the Indian American Diaspora

Through an analysis of essays published by the online magazine American Kahani, a publication that centers contemporary generations of the Indian American community, we argue that feminist relational agency allows Indian American community members to challenge dominant expressions of culturally specific heteronormative gender norms while simultaneously fulfilling their need to maintain an “authentic” sense of cultural identity. In doing so, cultural contestation emerges as a process internal to the community through which members seek to develop alternate forms of relationality while sustaining their connectedness to “Indian (American) culture.” This study contributes to scholarship about intersectional and transnational feminist agency and the Indian American diaspora by challenging the problematic application of western frameworks of agency that see non-western cultures as barriers for women of color to overcome and by specifically calling for studies that center complex and culturally specific conceptions of agency.

Negotiating the challenges of an interracial marriage: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of the perception of diaspora Indian partners

AbstractObjectiveThis interpretive phenomenological analysis study aimed to explore the marriage experience of diaspora Indians who chose to marry a non‐Indian partner and to fill in the literature gap to inform the counseling practices.BackgroundDiaspora Indians have the lowest level of interracial marriage of any immigrant group living in the United States at about 20%. The resistance to marrying someone of another culture and insufficient empirical research in the field makes it difficult for counselors to adjust counseling services when dealing with diaspora Indian interracial couples.MethodUsing interpretivism and phenomenology as the philosophical ground for the research, the researcher explored the subjective experiences of interracial marriage among diaspora Indians through in‐depth interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed using coding and thematic analysis.ResultsThe results illustrate those cultural issues, based on the differences between the collectivist nature of the Indian American community and the individualist American culture, caused considerable stress on interracial marriage and were the major driver of therapeutic intervention for the interracial couple.ConclusionThe study identified various coping mechanisms that could potentially reduce marital stress among diaspora Indians engaged in interracial marriage. Findings indicate that the cultural perspective should be at the core of counseling services rendered to interracial couples.ImplicationsMulticultural competence and cultural humility are essential for helping practitioners to understand nuances related to interracial marriage, especially those joining the collectivist diaspora Indian culture with that of more individualistic races and ethnicities in the United States. Future studies in the field may use longitudinal research for observing the evolution of interracial couples while managing their cultural differences and other marital issues.

Deafness in India and the Indian-American Community

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.

Linguistic Construction of a Winning Apology

The study analyzes the apology delivered by the then-democratic Presidential contender in 2007, Senator Barack H. Obama, to the Indian-American community. This apology succeeded in convincing American citizens of Obama’s goodwill and clean political standards, which eventually led him to surpass his chief opponent, Senator Hillary R. Clinton and become the President of the United States. The study employs Searle’s (1969) speech act theory (SAT) and Holmes’s (1990) apology strategies through pragmatics. The study, then, administrates thematic analysis through positive discourse analysis to gain insights from Obama’s leadership values. Findings educate readers on the importance of an apology construction and encourage readers to follow the example of a world-class leader’s values by having an insight into Obama’s leadership.

Indian is the New Black? The Rise of Indian-Americans on American Television

This article argues that the growing use of Indian-American characters in American television programming results from a combination of societal shifts in the United States as well as changes in the international system—specifically, the increasing ethnic diversity in America as well as the rise of non-western nations as important players in a globalized world that has led to a growing global market for American television programs. Further, the portrayal of such characters also ranges from what the British Broadcasting Corporation calls ‘color-blind casting’ (where the race and ethnicity of characters do not determine or limit the roles they portray) to more stereotypical renderings of the Indian-American community. It concludes by suggesting that changes in demography, as well as market forces within the United States and abroad, will probably lead not only to more Indian-Americans on television but also to their portraying roles that fit into the reality of the Indian-American status and experience in American society.

Breaking Bread with the Brethren: Fraternalism and Text in a Black Atlantic Church Community

This ethnographic article examines the constitution of brotherhood at Dixon Bible Chapel (DBC)—a West Indian and African American Brethren church community located in Lithonia, Georgia, a suburb of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Based on my analysis of interview, oral history, and church historical texts collected during fieldwork from 2006 to 2008, I propose that DBC members conceptualize brotherhood as an egalitarian, closely knit form of religious belonging inspired by New Testament representations of the church. Furthermore, I argue that is through DBC brothers’ textual rituals that brotherhood is substantiated as a framework for male democratic religious participation and leadership. Though hierarchies of class, ethnicity, gender, and generation segment the ranks of DBC brotherhood and the church community writ large, church members invest in brotherhood as a social formation that they believe sidesteps the exclusions of mainstream religious institutions. Extending the implications of DBC brotherhood to the present issue’s emphasis of black fraternal organizations, I pose questions about the meanings and salience of fraternalism as a social model for Afro-diasporic institution building.

Karma, reincarnation, and medicine: Hindu perspectives on biomedical research

Prior to the completion of the Human Genome Project, bioethicists and other academics debated the impact of this new genetic information on medicine, health care, group identification, and peoples' lives. A major issue is the potential for unintended and intended adverse consequences to groups and individuals. When conducting research in, for instance, American Indian and Alaskan native (AI/AN) populations, political, cultural, religious and historical issues must be considered. Among African Americans, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is a reminder of racism and discrimination in this country. The goal of the current study is to understand reasons for participating, or not, in genetic research such as the HapMap project and other genetic/medical research from the perspective of the Indian American community in Houston, Texas. In this article, we report on a topic central to this discussion among Indian Americans: karma and reincarnation. Both concepts are important beliefs when considering the body and what should happen to it. Karma and reincarnation are also important considerations in participation in medical and genetic research because, according to karma, what is done to the body can affect future existences and the health of future descendants. Such views of genetic and medical research are culturally mediated. Spiritual beliefs about the body, tissue, and fluids and what happens to them when separated from the body can influence ideas about the utility and acceptability of genetic research and thereby affect the recruitment process. Within this community it is understood that genetic and environmental factors contribute to complex diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer; and acknowledgment of the significance of environmental stressors in the production of disease. A commitment to service, i.e. "betterment of humanity," karmic beliefs, and targeting environmental stressors could be prominent avenues for public health campaigns in this population. This study suggests that minority status does not automatically indicate unwillingness to participate in genetic or medical research. Indian Americans were not skeptical about the potential benefits of biomedical research in comparison to other ethnic minority communities in the United States.

A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism

Multiculturalism in the United States is commonly lauded as a positive social ideal celebrating the diversity of our nation. But, in reality, immigrants often feel pressured to create a singular formulation of their identity that does not reflect the diversity of cultures that exist in their homeland. Hindu Americans have faced this challenge over the last fifteen years, as the number of Indians that have immigrated to this country has more than doubled. In A Place at the Multicultural Table, Prema A. Kurien shows how various Hindu American organizations - religious, cultural, and political - are attempting to answer the puzzling questions of identity outside their homeland. Drawing on the experiences of both immigrant and American-born Hindu Americans, Kurien demonstrates how religious ideas and practices are being imported, exported, and reshaped in the process. The result of this transnational movement is an American Hinduism - an organized, politicized, and standardized version of that which is found in India. This first in-depth look at Hinduism in the United States and the Hindu Indian American community helps readers to understand the private devotions, practices, and beliefs of Hindu Indian Americans as well as their political mobilization and activism. It explains the differences between immigrant and American-born Hindu Americans, how both understand their religion and their identity, and it emphasizes the importance of the social and cultural context of the United States in influencing the development of an American Hinduism.

Playing with Boundaries: Self and Dialogue in an Indian-American Fatana Performance

For many Indian-American immigrants, answering the question Who are you? requires significant negotiation. This inquiry, complicated by the di- versity found on the Indian subcontinent, raises issues relating to nationalism and transnationalism and often results in play with identity boundaries. Con- sequently, in this article I argue for studying immigrants and their experiences through a dialogic framework, expanding upon a Bakhtinian (Bakhtin 1963, 1968, 1979 and 1986) conception of the self. I apply this framework to a particu- lar Indian-American folk performance of Gujarati women's songs called fatanas. The negotiation between us and them, self and other apparent in this folk per- formance raises important issues surrounding the construction of permanent and temporary immigrant identities. Beyond this, I argue that while the voices of all people are irreducibly heterogeneous, immigrants, who belong to more than one community and participate in more than one cultural sphere, often are in a position characterized by an enhanced awareness of cultural diversity. Con- sequently, they acquire a heightened potential for self-reflection and reflexivity. This case study illustrates such potential, containing diverse representations of cultural and personal identity within a single immigrant performer, as well as a single Indian-American community.

Working for India or against Islam? Islamophobia in Indian American Lobbies

In the past few years, the Indian American community has gained an unprecedented visibility in the international arena. It is indeed often projected as a model community and now constitutes growing and influential ethnic lobbies in Washington. But, in the face of its sheer division, Islamophobia did provide a unifying force sometimes bigger than the interest of Indian Americans or of their country of origin. Other factors can also be summoned. Among them, a leniency of many post-1965 migrants towards Hindu nationalist ideology and the wish to align with Jewish pressure groups in the context of the war against terrorism and to further the India-Israel-US strategic partnership play a major role in explaining Islamophobic overtones in the Indian American lobbies.

Who Speaks for Indian Americans? Religion, Ethnicity, and Political Formation

In this age of multiculturalism and globalization, the diasporic politics of immigrant and ethnic groups has become a powerful force, affecting their countries of residence and ancestry. Several analysts have noted that the Asian Indian American community is emerging as a powerful political influence in American politics. This article provides a brief overview of the patterns of civic activism of a variety of Indian American groups in the United States and examines the role that religion and transnational interests play in the formation of Indian American ethnic constituencies. The larger issue that I am interested in understanding is how certain types of groups come to be recognized as the authentic voices of a community by American policy makers. What types of voices are included in this process and what types are excluded? How do local and national policy makers adjudicate between different types of groups, each claiming to represent the community? Specifically, I focus on the development and activities of two types of organizations: those mobilizing under a Hindu umbrella, and secular or multireligious Indian American groups which often adopt the label "South Asian." Hindu organizations represent political Hindu interests and South Asian organizations represent pluralist subcontinental groups which are explicitly against the political Hindu movement. Thus, these two types of organizations often have conflicting goals and strategies. I examine these goals and some of the activities of the two types of organizations and discuss the implications of this cleavage for Indian American political formation and action. In the final section, I focus on the United States India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), formed in 2002 to represent "the Indian American community" on Capitol Hill and raise the issue of how this national-origin based organization will arbitrate between the two types of supranational lobby groups.

Genre variation and minority ethnic identity: exploring the ‘personal profile’ in Indian American community publications

Indian Americans, along with other Asian American groups, are victims of the ‘model minority’ stereotype in American public discourse. This article explores the relationship between this stereotype and the nature of personal profiles published in the Indian American community. To explore the relationship systematically, I employed a controlled comparison between profiles in Indian American publications and a ‘control’ minority whose various identities are less directly implicated in this stereotype. A corpus study was undertaken involving the coding and analysis of 135 profiles, divided between Indian American and African American community publications. The African American publications, including Caribbean and Continental African Americans, functioned as controls because of the low or irrelevant standing of Americans of African descent on this stereotype. Results show that profiles from the Indian American publications reinforce the high standing of Indian Americans on the stereotype, in contrast to those of the African American controls, which show little sensitivity to the stereotype one way or another. I explore reasons why Indian American publications reinforce the stereotype, in spite of the negative implications that follow from its status as a stereotype, and suggest that these reasons have functional value for cross-generational communication in the Indian American community.

Globalization and the Nation Beyond: The Indian-American Diaspora and the Rethinking of Territory, Citizenship and Democracy

Using the Indian-American community as a case study, this paper articulates the different theoretical and political spaces opened up by diasporic politics. While diasporas help disrupt the forceful hold of the nation-state on the global political imagination, there is nothing inherently politically progressive, subversive or liberatory about diasporic mobilizations. Indeed, the content of such mobilizations needs to be scrutinized carefully to show how such mobilizations can both reproduce the nation-state in deeply troubling ways as well as make possible progressive political mobilizations that can challenge vested dominant interests in both home and host states. The paper argues that the diasporic challenge to the nation-state framework calls for a reconceptualization of the concept of ‘territory’, and raises serious questions about the nature of ‘citizenship and democracy’ in an increasingly interconnected world.

Unfinished passage: India, Indian Americans, and the U.S. Congress

India's economy, its strategic position, and changes in the Indian American community have recently led to an extraordinary explosion of interest in New Delhi on Capitol Hill. Will that interest lead to changes in U.S. policy during the Bush administration?

Religion, ethnicity and politics: Hindu and Muslim Indian immigrants in the United States

This article focuses on the political struggles between Hindu and Muslim Indian immigrant groups in the United States over the definition of "Indianness". Hindu Indian American organizations define India as a Hindu society and are strong supporters of the Hindu nationalist movement in India. Muslim Indian American organizations, on the other hand, view India as a multi-religious and multicultural society. They are striving to safeguard India's secularism and towards this end, have entered into coalitional relationships with lower caste groups. Both types of organizations are working to influence American and Indian politics in line with their respective interests, leading to an exacerbation of the conflict between the two immigrant groups. This article examines the reasons for this development and its implications, both for the development of an Indian American community in the United States and for religion and politics in India.

From Interculturalism to Historicism: Reflections on Classical Indian Dance

At the MTV awards show in September 1998, Madonna performed a spiritual song in a transparent white T-shirt with three Indian Odissi dancers in their classical regalia. Within two days of this event a representative of a Hindu religious sect, the Vaisnavs, condemned Madonna for debasing Hinduism and Indian women. A significant intercultural event, which had been generating pride for some sections of the Indian-American community, had once again exposed the lack of context and historicity in interculturalism. Odissi is not merely an aesthetically pleasing dance form from eastern India; its history is embedded in various ancient fertility cults tied to ritualistic Hindu temple worship by women dancers known as “mahari(s).” The dance was also performed by young male dancers known as “gotipua(s),” who performed outside the temple. Frederique Marglin traces Odissi to the powerful cult of Chaitanya (a Vaisnavite saint reformer) in the sixteenth century (1985). She explains that, like many indigenous dance forms, it was simply called nacha before its revival in the 1950s by dance scholars and male teachers. Thus, the dance is a product of a complex mix of Hindu nationalism, regional chauvinism, and national revivalism and is embedded in patriarchal views of the role and function of women in society. Madonna's commercial interculturalism failed to take note of this: By trying to glamorize an exotic tradition she, unsurprisingly, offended the self-appointed bearers of that tradition.

Identity and Admission into the Political Game: The Indian American Community Signs Up

Identity and Admission into the Political Game: The Indian American Community Signs Up