Becoming American, Being Indian: An Immigrant Community in New York City 9781501722028

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Introduction
[I]. The Landscape of South Asian New York
[2]. Transplanting Indian Culture
[3]. Worship and Community
[4]. Building Careers, Encountering Class
[5]. Famlly and Gender
[6]. Elders and Youth
[7]. The Evolution of South Asian Organizations
Notes
References
Index
The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues

Citation preview

Becoming American, Being Indian

The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues A Series Edited by Roger Sanjek A full list of titles in the series appears at the end of this

book.

Becoming American, Being Indian An Immigrant Community in New York City MADHULIKA

S.

KHANDELWAL

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

Ithaca & London

Copyright© 2002 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2002 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2002 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Khandelwal, Madhulika S. (Madhulika Shankar), 1957Becoming American, being Indian: an immigrant community in New York City I Madhulika S. Khandelwal. p. em.- (The anthropology of contemporary issues) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8014-4043-2 (acid-free paper)- ISBN 0-8014-8807-9 (pbk. : acid-free paper) l. East Indian Americans-New York (State)-New York-Ethnic identity. 2. East Indian Americans-New York (State)-New York-Cultural assimilation. 3. East Indian Americans-New York (State)-New York-Social conditions. 4. Asian Americans-New York (State)-New York-Ethnic identity. 5. Asian Americans-New York (State)-New York-Social conditions. 6. Immigrants-New York (State)-New York-Social conditions. 7. Queens (New York, N.Y.)-Ethnic relations. 8. Queens (New York, N.Y.)-Social conditions. 9. New York (N.Y.)Ethnic relations. 10. New York (N.Y.)-Social conditions. I. Title. II. Series. F128.9.E2 K47 2002 305.891'4ll0747-dc21 2002005849 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, lowVOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing lO 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my parents, the Shankar Saxenas, and my parents-in-law, the Khandelwals, for their integrity, courage, and caring

Contents

Preface Introduction Chapter 1. The Landscape of South Asian New York Chapter 2. Transplanting Indian Culture Chapter 3. Worship and Community Photo insert following page 90 Chapter 4. Building Careers, Encountering Class Chapter 5. Family and Gender Chapter 6. Elders and Youth Chapter 7. The Evolution of South Asian Organizations Notes References Index

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1 12 35 67

91 117

139 160 181 183 193

[vii]

Preface

In 1986 I came to New York City to conduct doctoral research on Indian immigrants. Quite new to both the United States and the city, I navigated through various neighborhoods, boroughs, subway routes, and libraries to piece together a research methodology for studying this largest concentration of Indians in the country. I noticed scores of activities occurring every month. I also observed rapid demographic change. I was eager to record the growth and change in this population over time, and to analyze issues simmering among its multiple subgroups. Having taught American history at an Indian university, I knew this new country's general contours, but now had an opportunity to observe Americans on a daily basis. I had moved from India-whose longstanding diversity of cultures, religions, social groups, and philosophies is proverbial-to the multiethnic and multicultural United States, whose relatively short history has been shaped by waves of immigrants. I now became increasingly conscious of Indian versus American ways of approaching "difference." I observed Indian immigrants trying to re-create Indian settings in New York, but in the American ethnic context, and thus fashioning an "ethnic" Indian American life. I was also convinced that immigration studies should focus on the voices and perspectives of immigrants themselves. With this objective in mind, I conducted oral history interviews over the next decade with about one hundred and fifty Indian immigrants in New York City. These data, together with my ongoing participant observation of their activities, form the basis of this research. In 1987 I serendipitously visited the Asian/American Center at Queens College, City University of New York, and met its director, Roger Sanjek, an [ix]

Preface

anthropologist, and a team of scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds and disciplines studying grassroots politics, intergroup relations, and demographic change in Queens. Joining this "New Immigrants and Old Americans" project soon thereafter profoundly shaped my own research. I added a comparative perspective, looked more closely at multicultural settings, and shared findings with researchers studying Taiwanese, Korean, and Latin American immigrants, as well as established African American and white populations. My training as a historian benefited greatly from exchange with these anthropologists and sociologists. As a team, we visited local schools, businesses, houses of worship, and cultural events. These academic and personal experiences also provided the foundation for my commitment to pan-Asian American studies in the following years. I continued as a research historian at the Asian/American Center unti\1997 and, following completion of my doctoral thesis in 1991, extended my ethnographic research in Queens and shared my findings with communitybased and progressive organizations, municipal and social-service agencies, and journalists. My teaching at Queens College and other colleges and universities also brought me into contact with scores of South Asian students and organizations, experiences that further enriched my work. This book reflects a decade of community-oriented research. Queens contains the largest concentration of immigrants from India in the United States, but also substantial immigrant populations from China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other countries. In that borough I focused on four multiethnic, multiracial areas: Flushing, the first neighborhood to which Indians moved; Jackson Heights, with its prominent South Asian business concentration; Richmond Hill, a setting for intergroup relations between Indian immigrants from India and Guyana; and eastern Queens, a site of emerging South Asian participation in local politics. As both a researcher and a Queens resident from 1987 to 1997, my social visits and participation in religious and cultural events yielded additional insights about the immigrant community I was studying. My shopping trips to Indian businesses produced enlightening conversations with storeowners and workers. I used my frequent taxi rides to and from airports to converse with South Asian cabdrivers. I learned about the complexity and human face of immigration from middle-class homemakers who generously allowed me to attend religious activities in their homes, and from working-class women who invited me to join their part-time work assembling belts, a "better job" in their view than that of a professor. Most of my conversations were in English, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi or some combination thereof. In translating some of them into English for this book, I tried to preserve their South Asian flavor. The statements originally [x]

Preface

in English are presented almost verbatim, and the distinctive South Asian conversational English is still discernible. Some names of people interviewed have been replaced by assigned names to protect their anonymity. I remain deeply grateful to all the respondents and informants for being so open with their views. However, this book is not a comprehensive account of all Indian experiences in New York City; it illustrates the main patterns and trajectories with selected examples from diverse Indian lives. My observations reflect the conditions existing at the time of recording them; the use of past tense in the text has no bearing on whether those facts continue to be true or not. Early in my work I met Parmatma Saran and Maxine Fisher, who in the 1980s had published studies that captured well the formative cohort of post-1965 professional immigrants, the beginnings of associations and religious institutions, and the conditions for immigrants up to the mid-1970s. In my oral history interviews I retraced this earlier period through 1987, and I covered the next dozen years through interviews and participant observation, and by following the ethnic and mainstream media. Early on Professor Anand Mohan at Queens College offered useful advice. Johanna Lessinger, who was also researching New York's Indian community, and I shared ideas, and I benefited from her work on newsstand workers and transnational activities. By the mid-1990s I was part of an "invisible college" of South Asian academics and activists in New York and elsewhere, including the historian Sucheta Mazumdar, the sociologist Margaret Abraham, the poet Meena Alexander, and the journalist So mini Sengupta. Their work is amply represented in this volume's references. I also thank Anuradha Advani, Sarita Ahuja, Morshed Alam, Geeta Bhatt, Sayu Bhojwani, Nilanjana Chatterjee, Sachi Dastidar, Shefali Dastidar, Akhtar Khan, Sarita Khurana, Rekha Malhotra, Basdeo Mangru, Arthur Pais, Tito Sinha, and others in my "intimate circle of South Asian New Yorkers," for generously sharing their friendships and views with me. Meanwhile, the cordial relationships established at the Asian/American Center continued. From time to time Roger and Lani Sanjek would reconvene our original team to celebrate a visit to New York, a wedding, or completion of a book; for their friendship over the years, I also thank Hsiangshui Chen, Kyeyoung Park, Ruby Danta, Milagros Ricourt, Steven Gregory, Elena Acosta, Priti Prakash, Lamgen Leon, Lori Kitazono, and Wu Hong. In my later years at the center I worked with Jack Tchen, Joe Doyle, Margo Machida, and Joanne Balek, and an extended Queens College circle of various departments and centers. I also cherish the friendship and insights of far-flung Asian American studies colleagues Marilyn Alquizola, Yen Espiritu, Lane Hirabayashi, Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Peter Kiang, Robert Lee, Yvonne Lau, Gail Nomura, Gary Okihiro, and Steve Sumida. In New York, [xi]

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Margaret Fung and Stan Mark at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Cao 0 at the Asian American Federation, Steve Zeitlin at Citylore, Amanda Dargan at the Queens Council on the Arts, and Kamala Motihar at Asian Indian Women in America were also sources of inspiration. Among those whose faith and support sustained the writing of this book, my foremost thanks go to Roger Sanjek for his vision, commitment, and untiring work. Writing the main draft was made possible by my "Boulder community" of Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Lane Hirabayashi, Steve Medina, Karen Moreira, and Ana Scheffield of the Department of Ethnic studies at the · University of Colorado at Boulder, who provided a nurturing academic environment; and fellow devotees at the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center of Boulder, a source of affection and spiritual support. The book was completed at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where colleagues in the Asian American Studies program and the College of Public and Community Service were supportive and inspiring. I am indebted to Peter Kiang for his commitment and generosity. My thanks go to Dean Ismael Ramirez-Soto for his vision and insights, and to Zong Guo Xia for helping with the maps in the book. In Boston, as in Boulder, I enjoyed the support of many spiritual seekers at the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center. Deep appreciation goes to my husband, Sanjiv Khandelwal, for his friendship. And, for continuous guidance and boundless grace, I offer my gratitude to my Guru, Swamis M uktananda and Chidvilasananda.

[xii]

Becoming American, Being Indian

Introduction In Bombay, our neighbors were Gujaratis, Punjabis, and South Indians. Here, they are Chinese, Koreans, and Hispanics. We continued our family traditions amidst diversity there, and we will do the same here. I do not see much change in our life in the United States. Maintaining our traditions was the most important goal for us there [in India], and it continues to be the most important here. Here we just have to try harder. Indian resident of Queens

Indians in the United States, like other immigrants, are often assumed to be a single ethnic group and to behave in a standardized "ethnic" fashion. 1 Yet the words above offer a window into the mindset of an immigrant population that, even before arriving in multicultural urban America, lived in a culturally diverse homeland. This book documents the changing circumstances of Indian immigrants in New York City from the 1960s through the 1990s and highlights internal and external forces in the formation of an American ethnic group. The following pages examine closely the interplay between ethnic consciousness and such factors as class, gender, generation, American politics, and Indian cultural traditions. The well-educated Indian immigrants arriving in the 1960s and early 1970s were imbued with an Indian national identity and sophisticated panIndian culture that translated readily into a unitary ethnic consciousness. Coming from the middle and upper classes of urban India, their exposure to Western ways of life was already substantial. Many held professional occupations and made a rapid and successful entry into American society. In New York in those decades their numbers and socioeconomic diversity were too limited to sustain a separate and more internally diverse existence. Since the mid-1970s, however, the demographic profile of New York City's Indian population has altered dramatically. The rapid growth in numbersfrom a few thousand in 1970 to over 170,000 by 2000-has been matched by greater socioeconomic diversity. 2 As more Indian immigrants arrived [1]

Becoming American, Being Indian

every year, they occupied a wider spectrum in the city's economy. And with growing numbers, they re-created their varied homeland traditions of family, religion, and regional culture, increasing both activities and organizational resources for Indian life in the New York area. Those processes of change are seen most readily in Queens, the major site of Indian residential concentration. While living dispersed among non-Indians in Queens and elsewhere in the New York metropolitan area, Indian immigrants have created spatial microcosms of urban Indian commerce and cultural activity amidst American settings. From these "Indian" spaces in a Western country, they have established intricate networks not only with their home country but also with overseas Indian communities. The local and the global, the national and the transnational, the American and the Indian-all are intermeshed for Indian immigrants in New York. Moreover, the process of becoming an American ethnic group has operated at the same time that being Indian, with heightened consciousness of Indian identities and the re-creation of diverse Indian traditions, has become both more possible and strikingly more evident.

Diversity India's cultural diversity is proverbial. The country contains practitioners of all the major world religions, an amazing array of regional languages and cultures, and subcultural identities based on dialect, religious sect, and caste (see map 1). Paradoxically, pursuing one's own particular culture has been so integral to Indian life that many regard this as a common signifier of "Indianness" (Ramanujan 1990). The recognition of cultural diversity has also been an important ideological aspect of nation-building in independent India, as in the Nehruvian elaboration of "Unity in Diversity," an early nationalist slogan. The first wave of post-1965 Indian immigrants brought this high valuing of diversity to the United States. Coming mainly from urban areas all over their homeland, they themselves embodied a wide range of India's diversity. Even in the mid-1970s, when their numbers were still relatively limited, they demonstrated a commitment to maintaining their diverse identities. As Maxine Fisher noted of that time, "New York Indians [are] an ethnic group composed of ethnic groups; and the latter [are] in tum, in many cases, still in some sense ethnically heterogeneous .... This situation, though dizzying to contemplate, and the bane of government agencies concerned with ethnic groups, derives quite naturally from the possibility of multiple identities" (1980:4). [2]

Introduction

Afghanistan

Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal Q

India - Countries Bihar- States Madras- Cities

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