Total population | |
---|---|
6,517,231 [1] 1.95% of the total US population (2023) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
California · New Jersey · New York · Michigan · Texas · Massachusetts · Illinois · Florida · Georgia · Maryland · Virginia · Washington · Pennsylvania · Nevada | |
Languages | |
Lingua franca English ACS Most common South Asian languages (in descending order) Hindi–Urdu · Telugu · Gujarati · Bengali · Tamil · Punjabi · Nepali · Marathi · Malayalam · Kannada [2] Other languages with official or provincial status in South Asia (in alphabetical order) Assamese · Balochi · Boro · Dogri · Dzongkha · Kashmiri · Kokborok · Konkani · Lepcha · Maithili · Maldivian · Meitei · Mizo · Odia · Pashto · Santali · Sikkimese · Sindhi · Sinhala | |
Religion | |
Mainly Hinduism · Islam · Sikhism · Christianity Minority Jainism · Buddhism · Zoroastrianism · Baháʼí · Judaism · Irreligion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
South Asian Americans are Americans of South Asian ancestry. The term refers to those who can trace back their heritage to South Asia, which includes the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives. [6] [7] The South Asian American diaspora also includes generations of South Asians from other areas in the world who then moved to the United States, areas such as Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Suriname, other parts of the Caribbean, etc. [8] In the United States census, they are a subcategory of Asian Americans, although individual racial classification is based on self-identification and the categorization is "not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically". [9]
In the United States, South Asian Americans have had a presence since the 1700s, emigrating from British India. Classically, they were known as East Indians or Hindoos (regardless of whether they were followers of Hinduism or not) in North America to differentiate them from the Native Americans, who were also known as Indians, as well as from Black West Indians. With the arrival of immigrants from Bengal and Punjab, their population increased significantly in the 1800s. Since interracial marriage with white persons was illegal and South Asian immigrant men were unable to bring over wives from their home countries, Hindu and Muslim South Asian immigrant men married Catholic Mexican women. [10]
Most Indian Americans do not identify as South Asian American or Asian American, raising concerns for the viability of it as a classification. The term "South Asia" is considered synonymous to the Indian subcontinent. According to a 2021 survey, just 10% of Indian Americans identified as "South Asian American", with "Indian" and "Indian American" making up the majority at 68%. This further breaks down by differing religious identities, just 5% of Hindus of Indian descent in America identify as "South Asian", whereas 27% of Muslims of Indian descent in America identify as "South Asian". Indian Americans who were Christians are more than twice as likely to identify as "American" than Hindus of Indian descent. [11]
South Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, increasing in population from 2.2 million to 4.9 million from 2000 to 2015. [12] Around one third of the group lives in the Southern United States, with the population nearly tripling in the South between 2000 and 2017. [13] According to the US census, between 2000 and 2018 the Indian American population grew by nearly 150 percent and had a median income of $100,000 in 2015. [14]
Following is the list of South Asian diasporas living in the U.S. arranged according to their 2017 population estimated by the US Census Bureau. [1]
South Asians are in the highest concentration in the New York City metropolitan area, with other significant concentrations in California, Texas, and Illinois. As of 2012 the metropolitan areas with the largest South Asian populations are New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston. The states containing the fastest growing metro areas with 5,000 or more South Asians are Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. [16]
Culturally, many South Asians identify themselves using a demonym called Desi. [17]
Comedian and actor Hari Kondabolu is a successful performer in the US, famously known for his documentary "The Problem with Apu" which examined the implications of the cartoon character Apu on The Simpsons and its effect on young South Asian Americans growing up in US. [12] Other notable actors and entertainers include Mindy Kaling, Padma Lakshmi, Hannah Simone, Aziz Ansari, Kumail Nanjiani, Kunal Nayyar, and Hasan Minhaj. Famous musicians include Curtis Waters, Arthur Gunn, Sameer Gadia—lead singer of Young the Giant, and Norah Jones, daughter of Indian musician Ravi Shankar. Shilpa Ray is an indie and punk rock musician from Brooklyn. [18] Settled in Santa Cruz, California is the family of legendary singer, composer and songwriter Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish who taught Indian music at the University of California and founded the Batish Institute of Indian Music and Fine Arts in the early 1970s. After he died in 2006, the music institute is now run by his son Ashwin Batish and his grandson Keshav Batish both following musically in the footsteps of the elder Batish. The Institute was the third of its kind after ones set up by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan in San Rafael and Pandit Ravi Shankar in Southern California. [19]
Prabal Gurung, a Nepalese American fashion designer based in New York is an established name in American fashion industry. [20]
Never Have I Ever, a South Asian American comedy drama featured on Netflix in 2020 created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher. It's a show that has been noted for its representation of South Asians in America and a young woman's coming of age story and her connection to her culture and ethnicity. [21]
Nina Davuluri was the first woman of South Asian descent to become Miss America in 2014.
Prabal Gurung, a Nepalese American fashion designer based in New York is an established name in the fashion industry. [22] Anita Dongre has been a mainstay in India's fashion scene with her clothing and jewelry designs, but when Kate Middleton wore one of her dresses in 2016, she became a global name. [23] She has a flagship store in New York City, and other celebs who have worn her creations are Beyoncé, Sophie Turner, and Priyanka Chopra. Naeem Khan is an Indian-American fashion designer based in New York City known for dressing First Lady Michelle Obama, Queen Noor of Jordan, and the Princess of Wales in his ornate gowns. [24]
Rina Banerjee is a well known artist whose paintings are inspired by Indian miniature paintings, Chinese silk paintings, and Aztec drawings. Salman Toor is a Pakistani American artist in New York city focusing on queer brown men and South Asian identity and xenophobia. Huma Bhabha is a Pakistani American multimedia artist and her work is inspired by science fiction and she creates monumental sculptures that lack clear backgrounds. [25]
Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, best known for her book, The Namesake, and a professor of creative writing at Princeton University. Kiran Desai, winner of the Man Booker Prize, and is known for the well acclaimed novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an author and poet and known for her novels on fantasy and magical realism.
Samrat Upadhyay, a Nepalese American writer is the first writer of Nepali descent to be published in the West. His collection of short stories, Arresting God in Kathmandu was published in 2001. Upadhyay is a professor of creative writing at Indiana University. [26]
After July 2, 1946, under the Luce–Celler Act, Indians were permitted to hold citizenship in the United States. [27] The Act allowed a quota of 100 immigrants per year from India and allowed Indian nationals who were already residing in the US to become naturalized.
In 1957, Dalip Singh Saund of California became the first Asian American in the United States House of Representatives. In 2017, Ravi Bhalla became the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, making him the first Sikh to be elected to the position. In the same year, Kamala Harris became a US Senator from California.
In 2010, Nikki Haley ran for governor of South Carolina. When she took office in 2011, she made history as the first woman and the first person of an ethnic minority to hold the governorship. During her first term South Carolina's economy grew steadily as the jobless rate fell, prompting her reelection in 2014. In November 2016, then President-elect Trump selected her to serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. She left this office in December 2018. In 2023, she announced that she was running for president in 2024, saying it was "time for a new generation". [28]
In 2019, South Asian Americans were typically enrolled as Democrats. [29] In September 2019, 50,000 Indian Americans gathered in Houston, Texas to listen to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event, entitled "Howdy, Modi!" was also attended by then President Trump. This was the largest-ever gathering with a foreign political leader in the United States. [30]
In a study in 2020, Indian Americans strongly identified with the Democratic Party and did not show a strong shift to the Republican Party. For the 2020 election, a study showed that 72% of registered Indian American voters planned on voting for Biden and the Democratic Party. [31]
In 2020, Kamala Harris became the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 2020 presidential election, when Joe Biden chose her as his running mate, making her the first African American and South Asian American vice presidential running mate on a major party ticket. The election was won by Joe Biden making Harris the first female and first African American and South Asian American to be held at such a high office.
Amna Nawaz is a correspondent and substitute anchor for the PBS NewsHour and Hari Sreenivasan is a correspondent for the NewsHour and the weekend anchor for the NewsHour. Kiran Chetry, a former CNN newsreader is South Asian (Nepalese) through her father's side. Another notable personality is Fareed Zakaria who is a journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly paid column for The Washington Post. He has been a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and an editor at large of Time. [32] Sree Sreenivasan is a journalist and co-founder of SAJA. He is also a visiting professor at Stony Brook University School of Journalism in New York.
Mohini Bharadwaj Barry and Raj Bhavsar are two notable and famous Indian American gymnasts. Mohini became the second oldest gymnast to perform in the Olympics in 2004. That same year, Raj Bhavsar was an alternate on the US men's gymnastics team. In 2008, Raj competed with the men's team and won a bronze medal. [33] In 2003, Gibran Hamdan was drafted by the Washington Redskins and the first player of Pakistani descent in the NFL. [34] Another South Asian player in the NFL was Brandon Chillar. Brandon was a linebacker and drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the 2004 NFL Draft. He played for the Green Bay Packers. [35] Arjun Nimmala made history by becoming the first ever first-generation Indian American player drafted into the MLB IN 2023. He ranked 11th overall on MLB Pipeline prospect rankings. Arjun was selected 20th overall in the first round by the Toronto Blue Jays and officially signed with the team July 2023. [36]
Cricket, a very popular sport in South Asia, is still growing in popularity with South Asian American youth, and especially among Millennial and Gen Z youth as they can watch the sport online and more easily identify as global citizens. Major League Cricket, an American league, has been buoyed by South Asian American support. [37]
South Asian Americans are often over-represented as university graduates in US census data. [38] Indians ages 25 and older have the highest levels of education among Asian Americans in the US. As of 2019, over 75% of Indians ages 25 and older held bachelors and higher level degrees. In contrast, only 15% of Burmese Americans are likely to hold college degrees. [39] In 2021, in Fairfax County, Virginia, a legal case has been filed by a group of Asian American parents against the school board in federal court for overhauling admission procedures which they claim now discriminates against Asian American students. The new policies have decreased Asian American representation at the prestigious Thomas Jefferson high school and a case is now pending if the new admission criteria are legal and indeed race-neutral as claimed by the school board. [40]
There are a number of organizations formed by and for the representation of South Asian Americans in a number of fields and industries, including in alphabetical order:
The Juggernaut focuses on telling stories of the South Asian diaspora and global South Asians at large.
Shankar Vendantam founded and hosts the famous NPR podcast and radio show, Hidden Brain, which discusses various influences that can manipulate our brains with or without our awareness. [50] American Born Cultured Desi Podcast converses over the struggles and effects of living as an ABCD (an American Born Confused Desi) and how to balance these two identities and cultures more easily. South Asian Trailblazers is podcast by Simi Shah that examines the careers and journeys of South Asian American leaders and entrepreneurs in various sectors. The Woke Desi podcast discusses various topics familiar to South Asians growing up in the United States and providers a forum where listeners can relate to stories and also become empowered to showcase their identity proudly. The Brown People We Know podcast sharing inspiring interviews with South Asians who have nontraditional life journeys and experiences. [51] South Asian Stories is a podcast that interviews South Asians from around the world, from various walks of life, to discuss their identities, life journeys, failures and successes. [52] Chaat Room, a podcast started by Brown Girl Magazine, recognizes South Asians in Hollywood.
Brown Girl Magazine is an online publication, founded by Trisha Sakhuja-Walia, to give representation to South Asian American writers and particularly South Asian American women, to write their stories and to build a community of empowerment through storytelling and dialogues. [53]
A broader list of South Asian American publications is located here: List of South Asian American–related publications
Arranged marriage is still observed in some South Asian American families and communities throughout the United States. [54] Marriage data specifically on Asian Americans and Indian Americans shows that interracial marriages are not as common. In 2014, the Pew Research Center found that only 14% of Indian Americans married outside of their ethnic group. Studies show that while many South Asian Americans may date outside of their ethnic group, they end up marrying someone who is considered more compatible and appropriate by society standards. [55] Being raised in the United States, South Asian Americans are part of a culture that encourages dating prior to marriage. But culturally, South Asian American families have different expectations for them than that promoted by Western culture. [56]
Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is one of the most important festivals in Hinduism. The holiday also has significance for Sikhs and Jains, and is celebrated not just in India, but in Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries with South Asian diasporas. [57] There are an estimated 3.45 million Muslims in America. [58] While American Muslims are from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds—including African-American, South Asian, Arab, African, Persian, European, Southeast Asian, and Turkish—Eid-al-Adha is a major holiday celebrated for all Muslims. [59]
It has been reported in American media that the group has certain stigmas in relation to the LGBT communities. [60]
In 2019, a group of South Asian Americans petitioned the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to cancel a planned award for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. [61]
Among South Asians in the US, Bhutanese Americans have the highest poverty rates by a significant margin (33.3 percent) with Nepali Americans (24.2 percent) the next highest. [62]
South Asian Americans face high incidence and prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), averaging 28% prevalence compared to 6% in White Americans (Gujral, 2020). T2DM, in the United States, is linked to obesity and a sedentary physical lifestyle. However, studies show SAAs face increased risk of diabetes at a lower body mass index and at younger ages (Shah, 2014). Visceral fat deposit, lower muscle mass, insulin resistance, and improper B-cell function are biological factors that cause higher rates of T2DM in SAAs, by increasing glucose levels in bloodstream. The biological factors above are also influenced by epigenetic, where transgenerational stress from repeated famine affects insulin resistance, although the specific mechanism remains to be revealed (Gujral, 2020). Diet and exercise also play a huge role in T2DM as South Asian diet consists largely of saturated fat, trans fat, and refined carbohydrates, and do not follow CDC recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate exercise (Ali, 2021). New studies show culturally appropriate interventions aimed at weight loss and physical exercise can lower HbA1C levels (Patel, 2017). [63] [64] [65]
Desi is a loose term used to describe the peoples, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and their diaspora, derived from Sanskrit देश, meaning 'land' or 'country'. Desi traces its origin to the people from the South Asian republics of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, and may also sometimes include people from Myanmar, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the current prime minister of India since 26 May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the member of parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.
Hinduism is the third-largest religion in Canada, with approximately 2.3% of the nation's total population identifying as Hindu in the 2021 census. As of 2021, there are over 828,000 Canadians of the Hindu faith.
The racial classification of Indian Americans has varied over the years and across institutions. Originally, neither the courts nor the census bureau classified Indian Americans as a race because there were only negligible numbers of Indian immigrants in the United States. Early Indian Americans were often denied their civil rights, leading to close affiliations with African Americans. For most of America's early history, the government only recognized two racial classifications, white or colored. Due to immigration laws of the time, those deemed colored were often denied the ability to become citizens. For these reasons, various South Asians in America took the government to court to try to be considered white instead of colored. After advocacy from the Indian American community, the racial category of Asian Indian was finally introduced in the 1980 U.S. census.
Relations between India and the United States date back to India's independence movement and have continued well after independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. Currently, India and the United States enjoy close relations and have deepened collaboration on issues such as counterterrorism and countering Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.
The Punjabi Mexican American community, the majority of which is localized to Yuba City, California, is a distinctive ethnicity holding its roots in a migration pattern that occurred almost a century ago. The first meeting of these cultures occurred in the Imperial and Central Valleys in 1907, near the largest irrigation system in the Western Hemisphere.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) rights in Nepal have expanded in the 21st century, though much of Nepal's advancements on LGBT rights have come from the judiciary and not the legislature. Same-sex sexual acts have been legal in Nepal since 2007 after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Nepal.
Asian people are the people of the continent of Asia. The term may also refer to their descendants.
Indian Americans are people with ancestry from India who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "American Indians". With a population of more than 5.1 million, Indian Americans make up approximately 1.35% of the U.S. population and are the largest group of South Asian Americans, the largest Asian-alone group, and the largest group of Asian Americans after Chinese Americans. Indian Americans are the highest-earning ethnic group in the United States.
The Indian American Muslim Council is an advocacy organization of Indian American Muslims, with multiple chapters across the United States. The group focuses on advocacy to promote pluralism and religious freedom in India. It also focuses on interfaith understanding and advocating on behalf of the Indian Muslim diaspora in the United States.
Overseas Indians, officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are Indians who reside or originate outside of India. According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who currently are not living in India, while the term People of Indian Origin refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are citizens of countries other than India. Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) is given to People of Indian Origin and to persons who are not People of Indian Origin but married to Indian citizen or People of Indian Origin. Persons with OCI status are known as Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs). The OCI status is a permanent visa for visiting India with a foreign passport.
SAADA (South Asian American Digital Archive) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that preserves and shares stories and materials associated with the history of South Asian Americans.
The South Asian diaspora, also known as the Desi diaspora, is the group of people whose ancestral origins lie in South Asia, but who live outside the region. There are over 44 million people in this diaspora.
The foreign policy of the Modi government, also referred to as the Modi doctrine is associated with the policy initiatives made towards other states by the current government of India after Narendra Modi assumed the office of prime minister on May 26, 2014.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan is an Indian American Dalit rights activist based in the United States of America. She is also a transmedia storyteller, songwriter, hip hop musician and technologist. She has been actively campaigning for the rights of the marginalized in the midst of structural casteism. She is the founder of Equality Labs, the largest Dalit civil rights organization in the United States. Soundararajan is known for her advocacy work against caste discrimination in the United States and India, and for her contributions to the field of media and technology justice. She has co-authored reports on hate speech and disinformation on social media, and has spoken out against caste-based harassment in the tech industry. Soundararajan's book "The Trauma of Caste" explores the intersection of caste, gender, and mental health, and advocates for the recognition and healing of caste soul wounds as a prerequisite for caste abolition. She has also been involved in art and storytelling projects, including the creation of the #DalitWomenFight movement and the curation of Dalit History Month.
Jenny Bhatt is an Indian American writer, literary translator, and literary critic. She is the author of an award-winning story collection, Each of Us Killers, an award-shortlisted literary translation, Ratno Dholi: The Best Stories of Dhumketu, and the literary translation, The Shehnai Virtuoso and Other Stories by Dhumketu. She is the founder of Desi Books, a global multimedia platform for South Asian literature, and a creative writing instructor at Writing Workshops Dallas.
Intercaste marriage (ICM), also known as marrying out of caste, is a form of exogamous nuptial union that involve two individuals belonging to different castes. Intercaste marriages are particularly perceived as socially unacceptable and taboo in most parts of South Asia.
Kala Bagai was a South Asian American immigrant and community activist. The Smithsonian described her as "a life-long advocate for immigrants and a mother figure among South Asian communities in California."
Arun Venugopal is an American journalist. He covers news regarding race, immigration, gender, and identity in the United States. He is currently Senior Reporter in the Race & Justice Unit at WNYC, New York Public Radio, where he has worked since 2015 and where he created and the hosted the program called "Micropolis", which features aspects of New York City's ethnically diverse communities. Among the topics he has addressed is the idea of Asian-Americans as the "model minority" and how its discourses can perpetuate diverse patterns of racism towards nonwhite groups, as well as xenophobia towards immigrants. Venugopal also writes for Gothamist.
Lakshmi Sridaran, who heads South Asian Americans Leading Together, said that about a third of South Asians in the United States now live in the South. The South Asian population in the South nearly tripled from 2000 to 2017, to 1.4 million.
While groups like Chinese Americans are more likely to be unaffiliated, Vattamala mentioned that certain ethnic groups, much like Vietnamese Americans, have stayed staunchly loyal to specific parties. For example, South Asian Americans are typically enrolled as Democrats.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Within the South Asian American population, university students are often comparatively overrepresented in the census
"The Marriage Clock" is one of several recent books by South Asian Americans that examine modern day arranged marriages. These books also serve as a reminder that arranged and semi-arranged marriages like Raheem's still take place in South Asian and other ethnic communities across the United States.