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Like a rolling stone: The oral history of a non-resident Indian in Los Angeles, California

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Like a rolling stone: The oral history of a non-resident Indian in Los Angeles, California

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LIKE A ROLLING STONE:
THE ORAL HISTORY OF A NON-RESIDENT INDIAN
IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
By
Susan Elizabeth Lewak
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillm ent of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(Visual Anthropology)
August 1996
© 1996 Susan Elizabeth Lewak
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U M I Number 1381592
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U NIV ERSITY O F S O U T H E R N CALJFO RNIA
TMC CMASUATC SCMOOI.
UNivcumr p*m
LOS A M C C U C . C A U P 9 I I N U * 0 0 0 7
This thesis, written by
Susan Elizabeth Lewak.
under the direction of Thesis Committeet'
and approved by all its members, has been pre
sented to and accepted by the Dean of The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements fo r the degree of
Master of Arts, Visual Anthropology
D a te . J u ly 2 9 , 1996
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Note on Fair Use:
AH song lyrics and com puter generated black and w hite illustrations, w hich are
m arked w ith an " have been reproduced here for academ ic evaluation and
analysis only and thus com plies w ith fair use under the Copyright law of the United
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In addition, com puter generated black and w hite illustrations w ithout an " * " are
original works by the author.
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This Body of Work Is Dedicated To
The Memory Of
USC graduate
Maria Angela Serra
1963 - 1995
For Her Endless Devotion To
USC's International Student Community
As Well As
For Her Friendship
We Miss Her Everyday
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India is probably the only country in the world that has not only given official recognition to its
expatriates, but has even devised a formal acronym for them. NRI or N on-R esident Indian, is a term
that, over the last decade has found a firm place in the national vocabulary . . . A nd N R I's as a breed
have been granted an extraordinary range o f special concessions by the Government o f India .. .as the
nation's economists look for solutions to India's balance of payment difficulties, there is only one point
on which both Government and Opposition seem to be agreed-tlmt a vital element in any equation will
be the well heeled and still patriotic, NRI. (Tltaroor, 1994:338-9)
— Shashi Tharoor Ph.D.
Special A ssistant to the U nder Secretary-General
for Peace Keeping Operations, India.
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Author's Background and Acknowledgments
I
n m any ways, the seeds of this project w ere planted during my senior year at
M ount Holyoke College (1986-87), w hen I w as a resident in the international
dorm itory, Dickinson House. That year, there happened to be a num ber of Indian
graduate students living in Dickinson, from H olyoke's sister school, W om en's Christian
College, (Madras, India). A new w orld opened up for me as I spent m ore and more time
with them and consequently became involved w ith Non-Resident Indian (NRI)
com m unities in and around the five college com m unity (Smith, Am herst, Ham pshire,
UMASS and Holyoke). I am indebted to one student in particular, M eera (Hemmady)
Kymal, w ho w as kind enough to take me to her hom e in M adras, India during the
sum m er of 1987, as well as to her husband Kumar, her m other Mrs. Patsy Hem m ady,
and her cousin Poonu for their love and support. I m ust also thank the three individuals
who helped me to docum ent my experiences in India: W illiam Q uillian, Professor of
English, M ount Holyoke College, w ho taught me to see; Lynne Hanley, Professor of
Creative W riting, H am pshire College, w ho taught me to hear; and their young daughter
Jesse, whose constant need to hear a good story (she w as a tough critic) led me to create
the only existing record I have of that sum m er.
Rather than fade away, m y interest in India grew after returning to the United
States. I w as fortunate enough, through Holyoke contacts, to becom e integrated into
other Non-Resident Indian com m unities over the years. In Boston (1989-1990), there
were my house-m ates Sarinder, an M.S. student in Economics, A ditaya, a Ph.D. student
in Economics (both at Boston University) and Vijay Rajamani, an Engineering
Consultant. I also m ust acknow ledge other Boston University students: Ritu, Kum Kum,
Manjula and Jagdish. I am further indebted to Prashant Jain, Vijay's co-worker, who in
Tokyo, Japan (1990) introduced me to the Jain family, and later to their daughter,
v
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Monika, in San Francisco (1991). In 1992,1 had the fortune to w itness an elaborate
H indu w edding in Dallas w hen M onika m arried Raj.
Thus, by the tim e I arrived at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1992,
I had spent six years am ong a variety of NRI com m unities, and had in the process
picked up small details of daily life for Non-Resident Indians. It w as precisely this
knowledge which m ade me interesting to the subject of this thesis, Tutul, then a student
at USC. As our friendship developed (eventually turning to m arriage 2 1 /2 years later),
I found myself once again im m ersed in NRI com m unities in and around the greater Los
Angeles area.
A special thanks m ust go to the following people in Los Angeles: K austav M itra
for his extraordinary help d u rin g m arathon m ultim edia sessions; Areef A hm ad,
Prashant and Pram eela Bhat, A ni and H erm ine Bhattacharya, Joyjit Bhowmik, M ahua,
A nupan, Reni and Prya Biswas, Avijit and A nirban Chakravorty, Atul, Dipa, Titu and
M inu G upta, Souyma and D aw n Haider, Bindu M adhavan, Soum yajit Mukherjee,
G ayathri and Savitha N arayaran, Sourabh Ray, Som Sen, Shirish, Rupa, A untie and
Dimple Shah, and Krishna Vaidya for all of their num erous contributions to this thesis
over the last four years.
In addition, m uch of my fieldw ork w as also conducted w hile an em ployee in
USC's Office of International Services (OIS) from 1993-1996. I am particularly indebted
to Associate Director N adadur K um ar (Attorney at Law) for his guidance in the areas of
im m igration law.
I also wish to thank the follow ing m em bers of m y thesis committee: A ndrei Simic,
Professor of A nthropology, for his constant support and guidance; Craig Stanford,
Associate Professor of A nthropology, who (as usual) told m e "you can do it," w hen I
d id n 't think that I could; and Shing-Shiong Chang, USC Staff Psychologist, whose
expertise in the area of cross-cultural adjustm ent w as fundam ental to the com pletion of
vi
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this thesis. A n additional note of thanks also to Professor Shirley Thom as of USC's
Professional W riting Program for the tim e that she devoted to this project.
Finally, none of this w ould have been possible w ithout the su p p o rt of friends
and family. I am grateful to Peggy and Steve W heeler w ho w ere so encouraging; to my
parents N orm an and A udrey Lewak w ho are alw ays supportive of w hat I do; and to
m y m other - and father - in - law, Geeta and Asis Aikat, w ho gave m e so m any valuable
ideas. Above all, I ow e everything to Tutul, w ho even in the hardest tim es, never
stopped believing in me.
S. E. L.
Los Angeles, 1996
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Table of Contents
A uthor's Background and A cknow ledgm ents v
List of Figures ix
Preface xii
Part I: Imagining
1. Let's G et Together 2
2. ABC 9
3. Jazzm an 18
Part II: Experiencing
4. So far Away 26
5. America 32
6. The Times They Are A-Changin' 42
Part III: Reinventing
7. O ur House 54
8. H om ew ard Bound 59
9. Who Are You? 66
Epilogue 74
Bibliography 77
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List of Figures
1. Tickets for rock concerts Tutul attended in Los Angeles.
2. Cover of Femina, an Indian publication.
3. Advertisem ent in Stardust, an Indian publication.
4. "Winning m atches for the St. Xavier's Soccer
Team m eant a lot to me."
5. "Dadu's w ords of w isdom were often a source
of inspiration and solace."
6. "For me, Maa sym bolizes a perfect balance
of strong beliefs and tolerance for another's
point of view."
7. "Baba's fascination w ith automobiles seems
to have rubbed off on me."
8. "When I played the guitar, I was always
imitating Jimi Hendrix."
9. "During the '70's, m y uncles would often
send pictures attesting to their great
social lives in the U.S."
10. " Annenberg [School of Communications]
formed m y first impressions of USC
and the U nited States."
11. "For the first tim e in my life I had to do
practically everything on my own."
12. "I have a great w orking relationship w ith
my new boss, Dave."
13. "I feel like I am often straddling two
cultures— Indian and American."
14. "Sometimes I really feel a strong urge
to go back home."
xi
7
8
14
15
16
17
24
31
40
41
52
58
65
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15. "We had a traditional Bengali cerem ony
in the afternoon ..." 71
16. "... and a Jewish one later that evening." 72
17. "In m any ways I feel that I have given a
piece of my identity to those around me,
and that I've internalized som e of their
identities into myself." 73
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xi
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PREFACE
xii
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S
o, there I zoas at a Steve Miller Concert. I hadn' t been in the States very long. I don' t
know, maybe a year or tzvo. The music roared out o f the stage. People were milling
around— many of them had beer and the smell o f alcohol was everywhere. I sat there in
one of the cheapest seats in the Greek Theater— maybe about one rozv from the last rozo of seats. I
could barely even make out the profile o f Steve Miller. But it zvas a great moment for me. I
started to think about everyone back home. I imagined in a year or tzvo, zvhen I'd return and,
visit my friends and my cousins and watch their jazos drop zvhen I told them that I had been to a
Steve Miller concert in Los Angeles.
You gotta understand that Steve Miller zvas very popular in India at that time. In every
College Festival in Calcutta, the bands alzvays performed his songs. But I don't think Steve
Miller himself ever gave a concert in India. A nd even if he had I couldn' t have gone and neither
could most of my friends. Nobody could afford the Rs. 100 ticket. Only the richer kids could
have.
Since that time I've been to a lot of concerts in Los Angeles. I got to see all my childhood
heroes: The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, The Doobie Brothers, Dire Straits and Pink Floyd. You
can alzvays get their records in India (though it could take a fezv years) but seeing them live zvas
different. And seeing them here zvas different.
So I sat there thinking that I'd made it. I 'd finally made it! I had arrived in America.
| hese are the w ords of Tutul, a professional Bengali im m igrant from India w ho is
currently residing in the U nited States. He w as bom in 1964, in Patna, Bihar, but
grew up first in Ranchi, Bihar and later in Calcutta, W est Bengal. H is father is a
mechanical engineer and his m other is a school teacher. He has an elder brother w ho
was a journalist for over ten years in India. His m other and father com e from m iddle
xiii
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class families, the children of lawyers, doctors and professors, m any of w ho were
educated abroad. From the tim e he was a child, Tutul believed th at he w ould study in
America. H e received an English education from an early age and grew up in a
household that encouraged interest in the West.
In 1988 and trained as a m echanical engineer, T utul began his studies in the
A nnenberg School of Com m unications, U niversity of Southern California. His elder
brother follow ed him in 1992, and studied at Ohio University. Both now live and w ork
in the U nited States. T utul is a technical w riter w ith a m ajor entertainm ent com pany in
Burbank, California, and his elder brother is a professor of electronic journalism at a
large research institution in N orth Carolina. His brother's wife is an electrical engineer.
This is Tutul's story: how he decided to come to Am erica, his experiences here
and his am bivalent feelings about returning home.
W hen I first decided in 1993 to p u t years of inform al exposure to N on-Resident
Indian (NRI) com m unities in the U nited States into an academ ic fram ew ork, I
initially thought that I w ould study a sm all pocket of NRI's on the basis of
language/region.1 H ow ever, as I spent m ore and m ore tim e w ith m y inform ants, I
becam e aw are of the problem atic nature of this m ethod of classification. In fact,
lan g u ag e/ region, religion, caste, ethnicity and even country (m any Pakistanis, Sri
Lankans and Nepalese mix w ithin Indian com m unities in the U nited States m ore freely
1 The diversity of India is reinforced by the presence of official languages, each of w hich is identified
w ith a particular region of land and culture: Bengali (State of Bengal), Telegu (State of A ndhra P rad esh ),
Bihari (State of Bihar) Rajasthani (State of Rajasthan) M arathi (State of M aharastra), Tamil (State of Tamil
N adu), U rdu (prim arily spoken in N. India), G ujurati (State of G ujarat), M alayalam (State of K erala),
Kannada (State of K arnataka), O riya (State of O rissa), Punjabi (State of Punjab) Sindhi (prim arily spoken
in W estern India), Assam ese (State of Assam) and Kashmiri (State of Kashm ir). Tw o m ore languages,
H indi and English are official national languages. T hough travel and relocation are frequent throughout
the subcontinent, it is not uncom m on for an individual to classify him or herself according to the state
and language of his or her ancestors.
xiv
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than m ight have been possible "back home") do not seem as relevant in the form ation of
NRI com m unities in the United States as they m ight have been in India. After a period
of time, I grew convinced that analysis of one particular NRI com m unity w as a futile
goal.
This perspective changed however, as my field w ork w as com plem ented by time
spent as a student em ployee in USC's Office of International Services (1993-1996). In
my capacities as an O rientation G roup Leader (OGL), International Peer Advocate
(IPA), O rientation A ssistant and Publications Editor for OIS's newsletter, I gained
enough exposure to realize that com m unities did indeed form, but w ere usually based
upon reason for immigration or visa entry 2 rather than according to above categories.
Because I am m ost familiar w ith those who entered as students or scholars, I
m ade the decision to lim it this study to people who: 1) w ere bom and raised in India as
opposed to elsew here in the diaspora; 2) are m en and w om en of all religions, castes,
ethnicities and language/regions, w ho entered the United States on an F-l or f-l student
visa as graduate students after the Im m igration Act of 19653 ; 3) stu d y /stu d ie d in the
graduate fields of the natural sciences, engineering (particularly electrical), com puter
science/engineering, natural sciences, economics, business adm inistration, public
adm inistration, education, urban planning, and com m unications; 4) are unified by
urbanization, class and education. Anthropologist M anisha Roy in her classic
2 There are over 40 visa classifications adm inistered by the Im m igration and N aturalization Service
(INS). These visas fall into either the category of Im m igrant visa ( which allows an individual to live and
w ork perm anently in the U nited States) or N on-Im m igrant Visa (which allows an individual the right to
live or work tem porarily in the United States). For the purposes of this paper, I will be exam ining
individuals w ho entered the United States in the following N on-Im m igrant Categories: F-l Visa
(University Students w ho have the option to stay in the United States post graduation) and J-l Visa
(University Students or Scholars subsidized by their country, w ho m ust return after graduation). I will
also be exam ining those w ho change their status to an H -lb or a w orking perm it (Lewis and
M adlansacay, 1993: 2 /2 -2 /4 ).
3 The 1965 Im m igration Act abolished national origin quotas w hich lim ited the num ber of im m igrants
from Asia and encouraged the im m igration of educated professionals in the sciences an d engineering.
This act will be discussed in greater detail in Part II.
XV
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ethnography Bengali W omen, identified such a com m unity as: "upper and upper
m iddle class urbanized [Indians] w ho share sim ilar . . . educational and economic
backgrounds . . . w hat is clearly discernible in this class is that there is a hom ogeneous
culture shared by these families w ho value higher education and salaried professions"
(1992: xv).
This thesis, though influenced by personal experiences from 1986-1992 (see
Author's Background and Acknowledgments), is based prim arily upon field w ork
conducted in the greater Los Angeles area betw een 1992-1996. Part I exam ines a variety
of influences in India w hich inspire im m igration. Part II gives an overview of the
Indian diaspora, focusing upon Indian m igration to the United States since the
Im m igration Act of 1965, and also discusses the benefits these im m igrants bring to the
USA. Finally, Part III explores the difficult question of w hether to stay in the United
States or return to India as well as the transnational identity of the overseas Indian.
I first became intrigued w ith the analysis of a single oral history after reading
Marjorie Shostak's Nisa: The Life and W ords of a !Kung W om an. After interview ing a
num ber of wom en, Shostak realized that, "one w om an, N isa-im pressed m e m ore than
the others" (Shostak, 1981: 7). At the same time, I was concerned about the problem atic
nature of using a single oral history to tell the story of an entire com m unity. Shostak
shared m y concerns indicating that: "Nisa's narrative is just one view of IKung life. H er
history does not represent the w hole range of experience available to w om en in her
culture; the life stories of other w om en are often quite different" (1981: 43).
Thus, this oral history, has a dual purpose. The first is to exam ine Tutul's
personal and unique experiences. The second is to use Tutul's experiences as a m odel
for the journey of the NRI to America. It is im portant to state here that w hile Tutul's
experiences, m ay or m ay not reflect all the m otivations of other individuals, it can be
used in a general sense for purposes of discussion.
xvi
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The choice of the subject also created difficulties for quite som e time. There was
certainly no shortage of candidates. The problem lay in m y ability to gain a certain level
of trust, beyond that of ordinary friendship. In other w ords, to find som eone w ho could
behave norm ally under the constraints of being observed for a thesis, rather than (even
unconsciously) giving me w hat s /h e thought I w anted to hear.
I soon began to hear com m ents w hich echoed w hat the late Professor Barbara
Myerhoff, of USC's Center of Visual Anthropology, heard before choosing to study her
ow n Jewish com m unity in N um ber O ur Days: " I [Myerhoff] had m ade no conscious
decision to explore m y roots or clarify the m eaning of m y origins. I w as engaged in a
study o f ... elderly Chicanos . .. [however] people I approached kept asking me 'Why
w ork w ith us? W hy don't you study your ow n k in d '" (Myerhoff, 1979:11-12).
In the sam e fashion, m any of m y inform ants thought it strange that I d id n 't use
my husband Tutul as m y subject. Tutul is a m echanical engineer from India w ho
entered the United States as a graduate student, received an M.A. in com m unications
m anagem ent from the U niversity of Southern California an d is currently a technical
w riter for a large entertainm ent com pany in Burbank, CA. Like M yerhoff, however, I
was initially troubled by the idea of studying som eone so close to me:
Inevitably [studying your ow n com m unity] creates problem s w ith objectivity and
identification and I anticipated that I, too, w ould have m y share of this if I stu d ied [the
elderly Jewish com m unity of Venice, C A ]. . . In the beginning I spent a great deal of tim e
agonizing about how to label w hat I w as doing-w as it anthropology or a personal quest."
(Myerhoff, 1981: 12)
Myerhoff, however, finally d id m ake the decision to study her ow n com m unity. She
found that because she w as Jewish, she w as in m any w ays treated as an "insider" by her
inform ants. At the sam e tim e, because she was Am erican bo m (in contrast to her
inform ants) and not an elderly person, she could m aintain a certain am ount of
objectivity, which m ade ethnographic study possible.
xvil
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By the sam e token, in deciding to use Tutul as my subject, I am in the unique
position of being both an insider and an outsider. As the wife of the subject, I am in fact
living the life under study and have a vantage point not available to m ost
anthropologists. At the sam e time, I am not an NRI, and thus can still m aintain some
degree of objectivity necessary for accurate analysis.
An oral history such as this is particularly interesting in light of the current
debate over both legal and illegal im m igration. Encouraged by the success of
Proposition 187 in California, tw o bills w ere introduced to the H ouse and Senate in
early 1995. Subcom m ittee chair Lam ar Sm ith (R-Texas) introduced "The Im m igration in
the N ational Interest Act of 1995 (H.R. 2202) to the U.S. H ouse of Representatives, while
"The Im m igration Act of 1995 (S. 1394) w as introduced by A lan Sim pson (R-Wyo.) to
the U.S. Senate (Kumar, 1995:1-2). Often referred to jointly as "The Sim pson Bill," the
original purpose of these bills w as to reduce illegal im m igration to the U nited States.
For a num ber of reasons, however, m easures to reduce legal im m igration were
eventually introduced into the debate. According to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA),
legal im m igration leads to chain migration: "Congress needs to confront the problem of
chain m igration, in which one legal im m igrant brings m any relatives into the
country"(Lacey, 1996:17). Echoing the com plaints of m any citizens, Senator Edward
Kennedy (D-Mass.) feels that legal im m igrants are taking jobs from Am erican workers:
"[Kennedy] said that it is unconscionable for U.S. com panies to ignore qualified
Am ericans to hire foreign workers" (Staff Reporter, 1996: 31). Furtherm ore, according
to Senator Alan Simpson: "80 percent of all im m igration is legal, while only 20 percent is
illegal. A nd m uch of that illegal im m igration is due to people entering the country
legally then overstaying their visas. This is the clearest reason for not separating the
two in the debate, he said" (Arora, 1996: 29).
xviii
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In addition, other m em bers of Congress fear that legal im m igrants, "are more
likely to receive welfare than other Americans" (Lacey, 1996:17). Finally, in an election
year when, "polls show clearly that m ore than 70 percent of Am ericans favor substantial
reductions in im m igration- legal as well as illegal" (Arora, 1996: 29), it is not surprising
that so many m em bers of Congress favor reduction in legal im m igration.
M ultinational corporations as well as universities and research institutions
strongly attacked this legislation. Naomi Collins, Ph.D., Executive Director of NAFSA
(National Association of Foreign Student Advisors) argued in a published letter to
Senator Simpson:
While one third of the w orld's 1.2 million international students choose to study in the
United States, the figure represents only 3% of the United States post secondary institutions
total enrollm ent. This sm all percentage of the student body, how ever, contributes a
trem endous am ount to the U.S. economy each year; the Com m erce D epartm ent estim ates the
figure to be close to $7 billion. (Collins, 1995:7)
Thus, curtailm ent of legal im m igration w ould have been an outstanding loss to
American universities:
[This bill w ould] curtail the ability of colleges and universities to attract the best and
brightest international students, researchers and scholars. Am ong the bill's provisions is a
m andatory three year foreign residency requirem ent for any foreign student w ho has studied
in the United States. As a result, no international student w ould be allow ed to accept a job
offer in the United States after receiving his degree . . . it is likely that m any of the best
international students w ould choose to study in other countries that did not so limit a
student's post-graduation options. (Prazuch, 1995)
However, due to "intense lobbying efforts by business leaders w ho joined a
coalition of liberal, conservative, labor, religious, ethnic and pro-im m igration groups,"
(Arora, 1996: 29) legal im m igration was finally rem oved from this legislation.
In light of this virulent, though ultim ately unsuccessful, attack against legal
immigration, this thesis asks the question: who are these people that, "unusual
coalition[s] of private sector employers, ethnic groups, religious organizations and
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[Universities]" (Lacey, 1996:1) fought so hard to protect? W hat inspires them to come
here? Who stays, w ho leaves and why?
Through the m ethod of oral history, this thesis attem pts to hum anize these
questions: "[Oral history] is a rigorous yet com passionate effort on the p art of Am erican
scholars and others to portray the lives of ordinary individuals . . . w ith the kind of
perceptiveness and detail that transform a stranger we m ight m eet in o u r personal lives
into a friend" (Langness and Frank, 1981,1). A nd w hile this thesis tells only one story,
unique to the subject, it is echoed by the thousands of Asian Indians w ho com e to the
U nited States each year, seeking the sam e opportunities as those w ho cam e before.
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How does it feel?/
How does it feel?/
To be on your own/
W ith no direction home/
Like a complete unknown/
Like a rolling stone . . . *
— Bob Dylan,
"Like A Rolling Stone", 1965
I'Vhy did I leave India to come to United States? (chuckle) To
see Dylan live!
— Tutul, 1995
xxi
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PARTI
IMAGINING
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1 .
Let's Get Together
C'mon people now/
Smile on your brother/
Everybody get together/
Try 'n love one another/
Right now*
— The Youngbloods
W
ho are the professionals and students w ho are have been m igrating in
m assive num bers from India to the United States since 1965? O r rather,
who w ere they in India? Though tem pting, it is m isleading to cluster
them according to the traditional categories of caste, religion, lan guage/region or
ethnicity.
In fact, though the tendency to group according to one of the above categories
does still occur am ong im m igrants, one will also find people of all backgrounds in
m any American Non-Resident Indian (NRI) communities: "Since w e have come here, my
wife has learned to cook in a great num ber of different Indian styles. This is because
she has learned from friends here w ho come from m any different areas of India"
(Fisher, 1980: 75).
Indeed, traditional rivals in the subcontinent may become good friends abroad:
"Even though w e are Muslim, w e don't go out of our w ay to see Pakistani or Muslim
friends. W hoever we happen to like and likes us becomes our friend" (Fisher, 1980: 75).
Much of this is due to India's transition from a Pre - Industrial society4 to an
Industrial - U rban5 / Post - Industrial society: "The ideological field of caste hierarchy
■ * According to Gideon Sjoberg, a pre-industrial society is a "feudal order [that] has a well defined and
rigid class structure and a clear cut division of labor according to age, sex and occupation. A small,
privileged upper class com m ands the key positions . . . the bulk of the populace consists of low er class
and outcaste groups" (Sjoberg, 1960:11).
5 "The industrial-urban society . . . utilizes inanim ate sources of energy, a com plex set of tools, and
specialized scientific know how in the production of goods and services. As a result, the greater portion
2
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has been and is being replaced by a field w here . . . the options of ethnicity, cultural
nationalism , class and race becom e viable" (Barnett, 1977: 396). Thus, one can say that
people are now bound by class rather than caste, or that class has becom e a viable
"ethnic group."
A bner Cohen focused upo n this phenom enon in U rban Ethnicity by studying a
com m unity of elite businessm en in London, otherw ise know n as "Citymen." While
religion and nationality m ay vary, C itym en are unified as a group through education
and upbringing: "A s risks involved are form idable,. . . business is confined to a limited
circle of people w ho trust one another. Such a high degree of tru st can arise only
am ong m en who know one another, w hose values are sim ilar" (Cohen, 1974: xix).
Cohen finds that this shared value system is a result of com m on educational
backgrounds: "City m en are . . . m ostly products of the public [i.e. private] school
system . The schools in this system . . . train their pupils in specific patterns of symbolic
behavior including accent, m anner of speech, etiquette, style of joking, play" (Cohen,
1974: xix). As a result, a new type of com m unity is created w hich cannot be
com partm entalized into traditional ethnic categories:
C itym en are socio-culturally as distinct w ithin British Society as are the H ausa w ithin
Yorubu society. They are indeed as "ethnic" as any ethnic group can be. But they are not
usually described as an active group because the term is principally social and p o litic a l. . . .
it is difficult [to identify as ethnic] an elite w hose cultural distinctiveness w ithin the society is
not so visible and w hose num bers ap p ear to the casual observer to be highly independent
individualists. (Cohen, 1974: xxi)
Like the Citym en (though not alw ays from "elite" com m unities in India) Indians
w ho enter the United States as graduate students (though diverse) are unified by either
class, education or both:
In the big cities of India, there are sm all num bers o f . .. people w ho are educated and have a
highly w esternized style of life. These m ay be described as living m inim ally in the universe
of caste and maximally in that of class .... their friends and associates are d raw n from [all
of the industrial societies populace dw ell in cities . .. The class system is a highly fluid one that
em phasizes achievem ent rather than ascription" (Sjoberg, 1960:12).
3
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com m unities in India] and m ay even include foreigners. Their sons and daughters m arry not
only outside their ow n castes but... also outside region, language and religion. (Srinivas,
1989: 52)
Indeed, "reservation" (affirm ative action) policies in Indian education have opened the
doors to traditionally oppressed peoples: "Historically considered outcast and
untouchable, the scheduled castes in India have advanced both econom ically and
socially as a result of the governm ent's policy in place since . . . 1947" (Dube, 1995: 39).
These policies ensured that form er "untouchables" and "other backw ard classes" had the
sam e educational opportunities of historically privileged groups ensuring them of
"constitutionally guaranteed special reservations in education and governm ent
em ploym ent, as well as seats in Parliam ent and the state assemblies" (Dube, 1995: 39).
C handeshw ar is just one product of reservation policies. Bom in a village, in
U ttar Pradesh w ithout "schools, clinics, irrigation and roads . . . [Chandeshw ar's] family
is am ong the poorest [in the village]" (Dube, 1995: 39). H e w orked w ith his parents in
the field but "because he w as bright and because like all scheduled-caste children, he
received a governm ent scholarship of a few rupees per m onth" (Dube, 1995: 39), he also
spent a great deal of tim e in school. He is currently a m edical student:
C handeshw ar put him self through high school by w inning m odest governm ent scholarships
and tutoring younger students. He gained adm ission to m edical school by w inning one of
the places reserved for scheduled castes. (Dube, 1995: 39)
W hile reservation policies are controversial and are currently under debate in
India, they serve as evidence that in contem porary urban India education rather than
com m unity of birth defines an individual: "[It is now m oney and education] that
increasingly defines status, giving rise to a m iddle class that cuts across caste and
region" (Desm ond,1989). This New Middle Class places strong em phasis upon
achievem ent, often through an English education: "There is . . . no rew ard for being
average .. . it's the catching up syndrom e which India's urban m iddle class is strongly
prone to . . . those w ho can't catch up get no support from their fam ilies and friends.
4
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They are persecuted" (Verma, 1995: 8). This is due to a certain aw areness "that a new
prestige system had em erged, in w hich education . . . and a w esternized style of life
w ere im portant ingredients" (Srinivas, 1989:49).
One exam ple of this attitude is in the "changing face" of Indian cinema. Unlike
stars of the past, actors in today's Bollywood (i.e. Bombay) are "rich, W esternized and
very, very hip" (Khubchandani, 1996: 6). Embodim ents of the N ew M iddle Class, "they
come from m oneyed— or at least, upper middle-class— backgrounds, they have been
educated in the best schools . . . and like m ost rich teenagers today, sw ear by such brand
nam es as Levi's jeans, A rm ani jackets and Calvin Klein aftershave. They are more
comfortable speaking English rather than Hindi" (Khubchandani, 1996: 6). In fact, in
this "community" fluency in English is a symbol of status:
Pity Poor M amta K ulkam i [a contem porary movie star]. She has only to appear on the sets
for her co-stars to snigger behind her back . . . and make fun of everything from her accent to
her clothes. The w ord heard m ost often at these times is 'v e ra ' An abbreviated form of
'vernacular,' it is used to sum up Ms. Kulkami, who never w ent to convent (or public) school,
doesn't know Tom Cruise from a Tom Collins, and speaks English w ith a gliati accent...
M amta is left in no doubt about the fact that she is the odd one out in a club of insiders.
(Khubchandani, 1996: 5-6)
Thus, the individuals under study in this project (i.e. Indians who enter the
United States as graduate students) could be from a scheduled caste or could be
Brahmins; could be H indu or M uslim, Sikh, Parsi or Christian; or could be from any
language/ region in the subcontinent. W hat they share in com m on is education and a
value system geared tow ards achievement:
Present day Indian im m igrants . . . come from an urban m iddle class society, or if their
origins are rural, they have a university education and sufficient contact w ith city life to be
comfortable in a cosm opolitan atm osphere. They often come from families belonging to a
high economic bracket in India, w here their prospects are acceptable but not up to their
aspirations .... [They] have the technical, educational and social skills to im m ediately and
successfully enter m iddle class Am erican society. (Helweg and Helweg, 1990: 4)
5
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vv hen I was a young boy in Ranchi, I attended an English -medium Catholic school, St.
Xaviers. Most o f the students were from middle to upper middle class families, but
there zuere also students from the local tribes knozvn as Adivasis. Their history is very similar to
that of Native Americans in the United States in that they are the original peoples of India and
zvere subject to mass genocide by the British. They were pretty much zoiped out.
Nozv they have been identified as underprivileged so many of them have been classified by
the government as belonging to a Scheduled Tribe. This loosely means tribes that zuould enjoy
certain privileges and opportunities not offered to the general public. The government
subsidized their education so that they could go to a school like St. Xaviers.
Because the majority were Northern Indian, most of the people I grezv up with in Ranchi
spoke Hindi. Then, zohen zve moved to Calcutta, and I attended Jadavpur University, many of
the people I came across zvere Bengalis.
Interestingly enough hozuever, it zoasn't until I came to America, that I really
experienced the diversity o f my country. Suddenly in the States, I zvas meeting Indians o f all
backgrounds. I zvas also making friends zvith Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Nepalis.
I zvould have never guessed when I came to the U.S. that I zvould have roommates from
Pakistan, or zvho zvere Tamil's or Kannads or Gujuratis. During m y first few nights in the
U.S., I had a Gujurati host. I ate Gujurati food for the first time and attended a Gujurati
function. Later, I learned the art o f cooking from a Sindhi friend. Then there zvas the Dizvali
function, in King hall at USC with people from all over the India. I danced a Punjabi dance
called the Bhangra and a Gujurati dance zvith sticks called the Dandiya. It zuas really incredible.
The one thing zve had in common zvas an English education. Which was a good thing. I
knozv Hindi, but I have a lot of friends who don't. In many cases, English is the only language
zve can use to communicate. It's wonderfid because I have many friends here zvho I would have
never had the chance to know back home.
6
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MY STORY:
I W A S ABDUCTED!
BY ALIENS
GETTING THE BETTE R 1
OF A N INTERNAL f
E X A M IN A T IO N
CALCUTTA
Figure 2: Cover of Femina, an Indian publication. *
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Hi I I'm Bicyclin' Barbie.
I can move my arms and legs
and pedal like you. What's more,
I've got a real bike with a
w ater bottle and pump. I even
have a helm et and sunglasses
for safety. So, let's ride together.
We'll have great fun.
Lei's meet a few other Barbies.
FLIGHT TIME BARBIE
R s 199
Figure 3: Advertisement in Stardust, an
Indian publication. *
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2.
ABC
ABC/
It's easy as/
2-2-3*
— The Jackson 5
T
he correlation betw een education, status and success am ong the upper classes
has a long tradition in India. Indeed, these classes have a history of adopting
the language and culture of invaders to the subcontinent: "In the past, the
Indian elite seem ed to rest content w ith using the language of the conquerors. At one
time, it w as Sanskrit, then it w as Persian which w as eventually replaced by English"
(John, 1969:1). Today, those m ost likely to emigrate have at one point had an English
education.
Much of India's history is shaped by invaders and traders w ho influenced the
languages and the cultures of the subcontinent:
The Aryans, Hellenistic Greeks, H uns, Kushans, Scythians, Persians, A rabs and Turkic
peoples all had contact and in som e cases extraordinary im pact on Indian civilization
throughout the N orthw est. H ouse types, the nature of agriculture, language, art styles,
military tactics, dress and food of northern India all show the continuing interaction of India
with Central and W estern Asia. (Cohn, 1971:10)
One of the m ost significant influences w as the introduction of Sanskrit (polished
language) after the A ryan invasions (circa 1500 B.C.). Intended for religious purposes
only, it w as highly stylized in o rder to distinguish it from com m on dialects (Prakrits).
After a period of time, Prakrits then m ixed w ith indigenous languages and eventually
became the basis for the Indo-A ryan languages: Hindi, Assam ese, Bengali, G ujurati,
Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, U rdu and Sindhi (Cohn, 1971). Knowledge of
Sanskrit thus became a m ark of status for indigenous peoples.
9
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M uslim invasions (beginning circa eighth century A.D.) brought Arabic and later
Persian (Farsi) to the subcontinent: "The M uham m adan rulers of India spoke Persian
which enjoyed the prestige of being their court language" (Gibb, 1987:1024).
Furtherm ore, as Persian becam e the language of pow er, it w as em braced by the
indigenous upper classes:
Persian . . . was not only a linguistic and adm inistrative convenience . . . but a cultural
m agnet as well. It exercised that fascination which one civilization som etim es exercises over
another, leading to adm iration, im itation, em ulation, and a desire to achieve a sense of
belonging .... Persian values in literature, art, adm inistration, m anners an d deportm ent
were generally accepted by the up per classes as conferring a title to gentility an d good taste,
a sense of being 'w ith it1 . (Spear, 1970:8)
In a sense, though "Indian" in body, the elite classes becam e "Persian" in spirit:
The nobility were the m aintainers and diffusers of a new style and culture. This g ro u p . . .
may be thought of as a Persianized elite, because the culture of the M ughal court w as
basically Persian w ith adm ixtures of Turkish and Indian. A life style w as established to
which top groups of M uslim s and H indus could and did aspire. They w ere U rdu speaking,
and Persian w riting . . . They adopted M ughal dress. (Cohn, 1971: 74)
English, on the other hand, which was introduced d u rin g the late eighteenth
century, had the status of being a poor relation: "As H orace W allace observed, a mere
English scholar is not respected for his learning by the natives .. . b u t they have a high
respect for a m an w ho know s S an sk rit. . . [Persian or] Arabic" (V isw anathan, 1989: 40).
In fact for quite som e time, English w as purposely kept at bay as a m eans to keep the
British likewise: "This contem pt for English was partly created by [learned m en of
Arabic and Sanskrit] w ho view ed [English] as a threat to their pow er" (Visw anathan,
1989: 40).
According to Professor G auri Visw anathan, the British decided to become more
actively involved in indigenous education during the early nineteenth century as a
m eans of quietly overthrow ing M ughal power:
Cultural dom ination w orks by consent and can... precede conquest by force .... The
discipline of English cam e into its ow n in an age of colonialism [in o rd er to] to
strengthen the W estern cultural hegem ony in enorm ously com plex w ays. (1989:1-2)
10
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The ultim ate goal w as to m ake the upper classes as desirous of English language and
culture as they w ere of Persian:
By giving young Indians a taste for the arts and literature of England, 'w e m ight insensibly
wean their affections from the Persian muse, teach them to despise the barbarous splendor of
their ancient princes, totally supplanting the tastes w hich flourished u n d er the M ughal reign,
make them look to [Britain] w ith that veneration w hich the youthful student feels for the
classical soil of Greece'. (Visw anathan, 1989: 6)
Thus in 1835, The English Education Act w as introduced w hich "m ade English the
m edium of instruction in Indian education . . . irrevocably altering the direction of
Indian education" (V isw anathan, 1989:44).
The intent of the British w as to create "a class of persons Indian in blood and
color but English in taste, opinion in morals and intellect" (A nderson, 1992:91). Indeed,
an "Anglicized" elite, w ho preferred English to Persian did develop: "English was not
only the language of the ruling class, but its know ledge also enabled an individual to
obtain a lucrative job w ithin the adm inistration. The English language w as looked
upon as a source of superior knowledge. The W estern educated elites . . . enjoyed a
higher status in the South A sian societies" (Malik, 1982: 2).
In fact, the schools them selves reinforced the correlation betw een English and
status: "Rajesh attended St. Xaviers in D elhi. . . the textbooks used by the school were
based on the British version of history and extolled the em pire and English justice.
Rajesh w ent to St. Stephen's college of Delhi University w here m any of his instructors
had strong contacts w ith the west" (Helweg and Helweg, 1990: 35).
Thus, those m ost likely to im m igrate were and are influenced by a type of
linguistic im perialism : "Upon [the return to India of Indians educated in Britain during
the nineteenth century], they practically lived the sam e lifestyle as the [English] and
alm ost religiously follow ed the social conventions and ethical standards of the latter . . .
in mind and m anner [these m en were] as m uch an Englishm an as any Englishman"
(Anderson, 1991: 92-3).
11
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| ven though I'm a Bengali and can speak the language fluently, I never really learned to
read or zurite it. M y parents wanted me to have a good education in an English medium
school and Ranchi zvas in Bihar zvhere most o f the people speak Hindi. So, when I attended St.
Xaviers I learned English, Hindi and Sanskrit, but not Bengali.
St. Xaviers had a very strict English policy. The principal made it compulsory for
everyone to speak English during school hours. Anybody caught speaking any other language or
dialect zvould be severely punished. He even had spies among the students zvho would snitch on
people that spoke any other language besides English. Sometimes when we wanted to be
rebellious, zve spoke Hindi or Bengali but most of the time we zvere terrified of getting punished.
Anyone caught zvould be caned.
We thought that since zve zvent to St. Xaviers, zve could speak English better than kids
from any other school in tozvn. Sometimes zve zvere pretty mean and made fun of the kids from
other schools zvho zve thought zvere zveak in spoken English. This zvas reinforced by the fact that
in local elocution contests, our school always zvon the greatest number of prizes in the English
category.
An English education was really important in my family. Dadu 6 was a British educated
professor zvho zvas very progressive. He had my mother educated in an English medium
convent. Often, I remember, Maa 7 used to make English Style dinners zvith sausages and fries
and gravy. We zvould eat zvith forks and knives and during dinner we zvere only allozved to
speak English. Dadu also used to correct our English at the dinner table or correct the zvay zve
held a knife and fork at breakfast and my brother and I were very competitive over zvho spoke the
language better.
6 Bengali for "grandpa."
7 Bengali for "mom."
12
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Bab a8 also pursued advanced studies abroad. He studied in England and Germany and
thought very highly o f Western education especially since he wanted both m y brother and I to go
into engineering and the sciences. We alioays thought that the West zvas ahead in science and
technology because some o f the best books in science and math zvere zvritten by Western or
Western educated authors.
When I lived in Ranchi, m y best friends zvere people zvith zvhom I could trade comic
books. We sometimes exchanged tzvo Hindi comics for one English comic like TinTin, Richie
Rich or Casper the Friendly Ghost. M y best friend, Dippy, had a zvhole trunkload of comics
because his father zvas a merchant seaman and used to bring comics for Dippy every time he
returned from his travels. I f zve zvere on good terms that day, Dippy zvould loan me as many
comics as I zvanted. I used to love to look at the back cover zvith all the hostess tzvinkee ads and
I'd imagine that zvhen I went to America, I'd eat all the hostess tzvinkees that I zvanted to.
M y parents made sure that zve zvatched English movies and listened to the BBC so that
zve could improve our pronunciation. It alzvays seemed a greater privilege to zvatch an English
rather than Hindi film and some of the best movies like fames Bond zvere in English.
A lot of us zvho went to English medium schools ended up going abroad. We felt that
since zve knezv the language, zve could be competitive in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia.
When I zvas a college student at Jadavpur University in Calcutta, my friends and I zvould get
together over a cup of tea and cigarettes and zveigh the merits and demerits ofBarrons, Arco or
Petersons guides to study for the GRE's and TOEFL. We were ambitious and if you knew
English and zvere ambitious, you traveled to America for graduate study.
Bengali for "dad."
13
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Figure 4: "Winning matches for the St. Xavier's Soccer Team m eant a lot to me."*
14
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Figure 5: "Dadu's words of w isdom were often a source of inspiration
and solace." *
15
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Figure 6: "For me, Maa sym bolizes a perfect balance of
strong beliefs and tolerance for another's point of view."
*
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Figure 7: "Baba's fascination w ith autom obiles seem s to have rubbed
off on me." *
17
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3.
Jazzman
He can sing you/
Into paradise/
Or bring you/
To your knees*
— Carole King
D
ue to the intense am ount of exposure to W estern culture that comes w ith an
English education, im m igration to English speaking countries is com m on
am ong graduates: "[Many Indians] nurse . . . an am bition to be a N on
Resident Indian. Things seem so m uch better in the West" (Jacob, 1993:169). This idea
of things being better is perpetuated by W estern media: "Hollywood films are the
largest source of inform ation and attraction for the Indian College S tu d e n t. . . [they]
imagine that every Am erican is exceedingly wealthy, living in one of the . . . glam orous
hom es depicted in the H ollyw ood m ovies . . . only rich people in India can afford such
m odem conveniences as autom obiles, radios, refrigerators" (Balasundaran, 1960:
Section xiii, #3).
Avijit C hakravorty, a graduate student in geophysics at USC discussed this
phenom enon with me in 1993: "America is a real craze back hom e. People over there
don't really know the life over here. All they know are the movies. W hen I first came
here, I was surprised to see sm all houses. I expected everything to be big and
glam orous, and everyone to be rich. There's a lot of m ythology about the USA, images
of glam our in living here. We could live comfortably at home, but it's glam orous to live
here."
Anthropologist A rjun A ppadurai has m ade an intensive study of the correlation
betw een W estern m edia and Eastern immigration. He refers to scenes of young girls
dancing in Mira Nair's docum entary India Cabaret: "These scenes cater to Indian ideas
18
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about W estern and foreign w om en and their 'looseness'"(A ppadurai,1991:194). N ot
only the w om en dancing, but their custom ers as well, act in a m anner influenced by the
W estern influenced H indu film industry: "The m en w ho com e as custom ers clearly see
themselves as participants in som ething larger than life and they behave exactly like the
custom ers in cabaret scenes in m any H indi commercial films." (A ppadurai,1991: 206).
He cites the m edia as responsible for creating im ages based on fantasy w hich
lead to immigration: "One of the principle shifts in the global, cultural order, created by
cinema, television and VCR technology . . . has to do w ith the role of the im agination in
social life . . . more persons throughout the w orld see their lives through the prism s of
the possible lives offered by the mass media" (A ppadurai, 1991:198). This creates
possibilities which did not exist previously:" More persons in m ore parts of the w orld
consider a w ider set of possible lives than they ever did before. O ne im portant source
of this change is the mass m edia which presents a rich ever changing store of
possibilities" (A ppadurai, 1991:197).
One explanation is the greater availability of W estern television show s in India:
"Satellite television has invaded Indian hom es w ith a vengeance. H ousew ives now
discuss the latest episode of [American soap operas] w ith . .. anim ation" (Rahman, 1992:
27). International stations such as ZEE TV and STAR TV "targ e t. . . the urban educated
well off viewer" (Rahman, 1992: 30). It is not just the urban dw eller w ho is influenced,
however: "[STAR TV] is spreading into city slum s and into the countryside. Bombay's
spraw ling Dharavi colony has eight STAR networks; another netw ork in S eraipallai. . .
a rural township . . . drew 150 subscribers at Rs. 20 m onthly rent" (Rahman, 1992:27).
This "imagined idea" of the United States, perpetuated by the m edia is likewise
reinforced by the status and prestige that em igration brings to both the im m igrant and
to the family "back home." E.E. Roosens conducted a study of first generation
im m igrants to Belgium and discovered that: "Migration to industrialized Europe is
19
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looked upon favorably . . . and m igrants gain socially and econom ically in their hom e
regions . . . m igrants visit their hom es on vacation and reinforce the prestige . . . by
bringing relatively expensive m odem presents for their fam ily . . . the m igrants
dem onstrate their w ealth by [the] gifts they bring back w ith them" (Roosens, 1989:134-
5).
The sam e holds true for m any of the Indians w ho travel abroad to the W est:
"Going abroad in and of itself brings honor and prestige to . . . the family. Em igration
thus becomes a goal, for the belief develops that just going abroad is a good thing . . .
because they w ant to preserve their family honor and prestige" (Helweg and H elw eg,
1990: 36). In fact, it is often peer pressure in this regard w hich forces a decision:
[Ramesh's] w idely traveled and educated fa th e r. . . encouraged him to leave, for he felt
Ram esh's future w as bleak in India . . . 'Go to the land of opportunity and m ake som ething
of your life,' [his father said to him]. Ram esh felt in his heart that his father w as right. His
position in India, although secure, was m arginal w ith little chance for advancem ent. He also
felt frustrated as his parents, uncles and aunts continually glorified the w ealth of relatives
abroad. (Helw eg and Helweg, 1990: 26)
Life in the U nited States prom ises wealth, luxury and status: "Like m any other
Indian students before him, Ram Srinivas w as excited at the prospect of studying in the
U.S. In three years, he w ould be a m em ber of the exclusive, insulated club of foreign
educated [NRI's] w ho w ould land plum jobs and talk casually of their M ercedes Benz
and frequent travel" (M ascarenhas, 1995: 44). In fact, it is for m any the ticket out o f a
seem ingly dead end situation in India: "Sandeep Busannay's [film], Leaving Bakul
Ragnn .. . show s a Calcutta teenager leaving for the U nited States. The teenager
represents all Indians w ho have been brought up to believe that Indian culture, though
rich, is just a m onotonous part of their existence. The w ay out of the m onotonous cycle
is, of course, America. For them , the W est holds the key to pow er and status" (Bhatia,
1995: 38).
In addition, job and educational opportunities are perceived to be better if one
em igrates: "People did not cite unem ployability in India as the reason for their decision
20
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to im m igrate. O n the contrary, m any state that they had good jobs back hom e. The
reason they m ost frequently adduced . . . w as greater job opportunity . . . India offered
no opportunities for career advancem ent" (Fisher, 1980:19). In fact for m any, this is the
prim ary m otive for em igration: "Career advancem ent seem s to be an im portant
m otivation for [those] em igrating from India" (Sodowsky and Carey, 1987:130-1).
Furtherm ore, graduate study for m any means traveling overseas: "Graduate
degrees from the United States an d C anada are looked upon in India as prestigious and
as conducive to providing better opportunities for advancem ent" (H elw eg and Helweg,
1990: 31). This is due to the status attached to attending university in the U.S.:" An
advanced degree in the sciences, from a leading American university . . . is still one of
the hottest tickets in the world" (Pezzullo, 1993: 75).
vv hen I went to Jadavpur University from 1982-1986, my group of friends and I zvere
really into Western rock music— Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful
Dead, Steve Miller, fethro Tull, Pink Floyd . . . I f someone bought a record o f any of these
groups, zve zvould gather in his house, with alcohol and cigarettes, and analyze the music,
critique it and try to identify the influences. It zvas difficult to get the record albums though.
You might have to zoait three to five years because there zvere contractual negotiations between
the American company and its distributor in India. I thought if I zvas in America, I'd have the
freedom to listen to anything I wanted to.
There zvere professional rock bands in Calcutta who would frequently play gigs and they
almost alzvays included songs from British and American rock groups in their programs. Every
Saturday, I went to the concerts organized by the American University Center. But it wasn't the
21
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same. Deep in my heart, I always nursed a desire to listen to the real performers live. I wanted
to he part of the camaraderie of a live concert of the Gratefid Dead.
About a year and a half after I graduated from college and zvas working, there zvas a
lockout at my company. This meant that I had a lot of free time. I spent most o f that time in the
American Center Library, reading volumes of books on rock, blues, jazz. This is where my
impression of America zvas consolidated.
I liked being a mechanical engineer, but the nature of the jobs offered at the college fair
during my last year— zvell, I don' t know— they just didn' t have much to do with etzgineering. I
found a good job with a prestigious company and worked between 1986 and 1988. But I began
to feel stuck after azvhile.
So while I zvas at the American Center, I began to read about American universities. I
came across a book by Ev Rogers zvho at the time was a professor at the Annenberg School of
Communications at USC. I liked what he zvrote and began to correspond zvith him. He in turn
liked my ideas and invited me to join the master's program in communication management at
the Annenberg School in USC. A t that time, there zvere no programs in communication
management in India. Even zvhen there zvere graduate programs in India in your field like
engineering or physics, they couldn't compete zvith the ones in the U.S. The equipment in
American graduate schools, the breadth of coursezvork— zve just don't have it in India like you do
here.
Ev offered me the prospect o f a research assistantship, zvhich meant that I zvould be able
to fund my study because I couldn't afford to study on my parent's salary. The education is
expensive for an American, but for an Indian it's even more so because of the exchange rate.
When I came, it zvas Rs. 18 to the dollar (it's nozv Rs. 33 to the dollar). And as an international
student, I zvasn't eligible for loans or a lot of the scholarships that American students use. So
that's hozv I ended up in the United States.
22
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But in the back o f m y mind, I always had an ambition to come to America, like my uncles
who came in the late sixties. I thought all Americans were rich, that jobs were plentifid, that
people were tolerant o f everyone and welcoming and that the quality of life in America was high.
I thought in the U.S. I'd ozvn a car because in India, it was very hard to buy a car. I heard
stories from my uncles that all students in the U.S. have a car and I imagined that I zvould go
and buy a Mercedes.
All of us zvho zvent abroad did so because zve thought that going to the States would
f i r the r our careers. America looks like a place zvhere opportunities abound. M ost o f us were
frustrated by the zvork environment in India — I've heard its different nozv, but back then before
the government liberalized, it zvas an oppressive environment.
You think that if you got into an American graduate program, you zvould be able to zvork
zvith equipment that zvould take years to get to India. You'd be on the cutting edge.
You never imagine that there is poverty or homeless people. Or that there is prejudice-
all ofzvhich zve have to an extreme in India. You think that everything in America is like a
dream.
23
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Figure 8: "When I played the guitar, I w as always im itating Jimi Hendrix.
24
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PART II
EXPERIENCING
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4.
So Far Away
So far cnvay/
Doesn' t anyone stay/
In one place/
Anymore?*
— Carole King
M
y inform ants often joke about the extent of the Indian diaspora. "If you
go to Antarctica," one once told me, "you'il probably find a Deshi
[Indian] there." W hile statistics vary, "in a statem ent in Parliam ent in
May 1988, the governm ent of India estim ated that there were som e ten m illion Indians
living in 155 countries around the world" (Tharror, 338:1994). Interestingly enough
however, not all Indians m igrated out of India for the same reason, a factor w hich
invariably shapes the nature of different NRI communities: "Overseas South Asian
com m unities have different historical trajectories because they have developed in
widely divergent historical contexts in m any different parts of the world" (Van Deer
Veer, 1995:1)
Brian M. Du Toit in his 1975 essay "Migration and Population Mobility" found a
correlation betw een circum stances of im m igration and the "personality" of a particular
im m igrant group. Involuntary migration , creates com m unities of people w ho left the
hom e country quickly, w ithout preparation for the host country, and often against the
will of the immigrant:
The person who is m igrating has either no decision or hardly any say about the decision to
m igrate . . . .where persons are physically rem oved from one place to another . . . [or are
given] the choice betw een life and death (these w ould include the flight of persons du rin g
the anti Semitic legal crackdow n in N azi G erm any or the escape from an endangered area
such as followed the eruption of Mt. Lamington) (Du Toit, 1975:1-2).
26
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In contrast, voluntary migrations are com prised of people w ho im m igrate "based
on choice" (Du Toit, 1975: 2). Influenced by ideas of a better life in the host country,
they leave hom e as "a form of escape or the following of a star" (Du Toit, 1975: 3). At
the same time, this choice is "forced on them either by sociopolitical or by ecological
conditions . . . Persons w ho . . . are dissatisfied and frustrated w ith their conditions w ill
tend to m igrate . . . C ultural m arginality . . . require[s] a person to have seen or heard
that the grass is greener on the other side. It does suggest that the likely m igrant will be
a person not com pletely satisfied w ith his conditions" (Du Toit, 1975:3).
Du Toit further states that rather than choosing a country of strangers, m igrants
will follow others of his or her ow n com m unity: "People tend to m igrate to places w here
they already have kinsm en. A n A ustralian aboriginal m ay go 200 miles to a place
w here he is know n rather than 10 miles to a place w here he is not. Usually being
know n m eans having kinsfolk w ho will receive him a n d su p p o rt him" (Du Toit,1975: 6).
This serves as a m eans of psychological support: "In the city w e also find the cushion
effect of kinsm en to w hom the m igrant goes and am ong w hom he finds com forting
cultural sim ilarities to the ruralness of his origin" (Du Toit,1975: 8).
In investigating the history of the Indian diaspora, one finds both involuntary
and voluntary m igrational patterns, as well as the predisposition tow ards countries
already inhabited by Indians:
M odern m ass m igrations from South Asia have taken place w ithin tw o broad periods . . . the
first is [an involuntary] phase conditioned by im perialism in w hich large num bers of South
Asians . . . w ere transported . . . to various colonial territories around the w orld as
indentured laborers; others follow ed freely as traders . .. The second, current [voluntary]
phase has occurred since early this century in which persons of South A sian descent have
traveled freely and in increasing num bers to W estern countries. (Clark, Peach, Vertovec,
1990: 3)
Involuntary m ovem ent began in 1833 w hen slavery w as abolished in Britain. In
need of cheap laborers to take the place of slaves, the British contracted m any
im poverished Indians as indentured servants. Filling their heads w ith prom ises of free
27
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passage to the colonies and convincing them that they w ould return to India as rich
m en and wom en, Indians im m igrated to M auritius, Fiji, Natal (South Africa), the
Caribbean (Trinidad), G uyana, Malaysia, Burma and Sri Lanka (W arner, 1995).
Unfortunately, how ever, m ost w ere treated as badly as slaves, and rarely returned
hom e (Tinker, 1974).
Voluntary m ovem ents included traders in search of w ealth an d fortune. A great
majority of them (prim arily from the W estern Indian states) m igrated to Eastern Africa
(Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia) follow ing the path begun by the
indentured servants. In 1972 however, Idi Am in banished all Indians from Uganda,
m aking them "twice m igrants" as they fled to C anada, the U.K. or the United States
(W arner, 1995).
O ther voluntary m igrations included the m ovem ent of Punjabis to Canada and
the United States at the turn of the century as well as to the U.K. during the forties and
fifties to help rebuild postw ar Britain. D uring the seventies and eighties Indians from
m any different areas of the subcontinent m igrated to the M iddle East as a result of the
oil boom. In all three cases, the majority of people w orked initially as laborers,
shopkeepers, businessm en, traders and farmers, often settling perm anently in the new
country (W arner, 1995).
A nother significant group of voluntary im m igrants w ere Indian professionals:
"From the m iddle of the nineteenth century, Indian students began arriving in England
to study— law and m edicine in particular .... The first Indian students arrived in
England in 1845. By 1880, there w ere about 100 Indians studying in England. This
num ber rose to 700 by 1910 and to 1800 in 1 9 3 1 .... Instead of going back to India, som e
Indian students settled in England after they finished studying" (W arner, 1995:12-13).
Until the 1960's, m ost professional im m igrants preferred the U.K. However,
im m igration w as severely halted during this time, w hen the First Com m onw ealth
28
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Im m igrants Act (1962) w as "passed by the British P arliam en t. . . [restricting] the entry
of Indians to those w ho w ere able to obtain em ploym ent vouchers . . . The W hite Paper
of 1965 further specified an annual m axim um of 85 w ork vouchers" (Bhardw ay and
Rao,1990:198).
At the same time, increased racial tension caused students to start looking
elsewhere: "It used to be that we preferred Britain, but w ith racial tensions b u ild in g . . .
and w ord coming back about prosperity . . . in America, we decided to . . . go to the
States" (Helweg and Helweg, 1990:60). The turning point how ever w as the
Im m igration Act of 1965 in the United States which encouraged professional migration:
"Great Britain had been the preferred place for education for m ost Indian intellectuals
until the em phasis shifted to the United States" (Helweg and Helweg, 1990: 96).
J ~guess part of my inspiration to go abroad came from relatives who also traveled. Dadu ivas a
brilliant student and won a scholarship from the Bihar government to go to England. Tins
was during the twenties when a lot o f intellectuals were going abroad for university study. And
since Dadu wanted to study mechanical engineering, it was zvell known in India that British
universities were excellent in this field. Dadu zoould always rant and rave about the high
standard of English education and how there was a lot of discipline in the universities. And he
often complained about how lazy and spoiled the engineering students in India were.
Baba specialized in automobile engineering in the forties and fifties. A t that time, the
best cars were from England and Germany. So, going to these countries for study was an
obvious choice, because at that time, cars zveren't manufactured in India and there zvere no
opportunities for an aspiring automobile engineer.
29
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There was trend among students in the thirties and forties to go to Germany instead of
England for higher studies. This was during the height of the independence movement when
there zvas a lot of resistance to British nde and British education. So, it zuasn't unusual that
Baba ended up for awhile in Germany as a student. He took extensive classes in German and
became quite proficient in the language. He traveled a lot at that time, and when I zvas growing
up, he used to love to talk about his trip to Italy. He still loves to talk about the sites of Venice
and Rome.
Maa's brother and her first cousin went to America during the sixties and the seventies.
They zvere both graduate students in engineering. I remember getting letters from them that
portrayed America in a very positive light. They used to send photographs o f themselves
standing next to these great big American cars. I zvas convinced that someday I zvoidd also go to
America and buy a car like that. Then zvhen they came to visit, they would lavish us with
chocolates, clothing and toys like my viezvmaster. They zvere alzvays well dressed and their
fashions zvere alzvays ahead ofzvhat zvas popular in India. Most importantly, they emphasized to
my brother and myself hozo important it zvas to study in America, and that someday, like them,
zve should also make our zvay there.
30
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Figure 9: "During the '70's, m y uncles w ould often send pictures attesting to their
great social lives in the U.S." *
31
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5.
America
They've all come/
To look for/
America*
—Simon an d Garfunkel
T
he Im m igration Act of 1965 reopened America's doors to A sian im m igration
which had been virtually stopped by a series of racist im m igration laws
during the late nineteenth - and early tw entieth - centuries. The first major
m igration from Asia occurred during the 1849 gold rush w hen Chinese laborers w ere in
high dem and. D uring the recession of the 1880's however, they w ere blam ed for
A m erican unem ploym ent: "There w ere approxim ately 300,000 Chinese laborers in
America. Because they w ere taking jobs from U.S. citizens . . . they w ere targeted"
(Lewis and M adlansacay, 1993:1/4). The result was the Chinese Exciusion Act of i882
which not only "slamm ed the door on all Chinese imm igration" (Hing, 1993: 24), but
eventually im pacted all Asian imm igration.
A round 1900, the first w ave of Indians began to arrive in California.
Predom inantly from the Punjab, they w orked in agriculture and the railroads. Though
their num bers were small, they
m anaged to agitate the Asiatic Exclusion League, w hich had sprung up in response to
Japanese and Korean im m igration. Racial and economic nativism w as again at the core of
the agitation. Asian Indians com peted for agricultural jobs and w ere willing to w ork for
lower wages in other jobs (Hing, 1993: 31).
The antagonism peaked around 1907:" [The] H indu is the m ost undesirable
im m igrant in the state. His lack of personal cleanliness, his low m orals and his blind
adherence to theories and teachings so entirely repugnant to A m erican principles m ake
him unfit for association w ith Am erican people" (Hing, 1993: 31). In addition, the time
32
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period around 1907 w as dubbed the H indu invasion: "An hysterical article in Overland
w arned that America faced an inundation of 'H indus' since the V edas obliged them to
'cover the earth’.... popular m agazines reported that the country w as experiencing a
H indu invasion and a tide of turbans" (Chandrasekhar, 1982: 21).
Thus it is not surprising that Indians were affected by im m igration legislation in
1917,1923 and 1924. The anti-A sian sentim ent w hich began w ith the Chinese Exclusion
Act resulted in the Im m igration Act of 1917 which stated that: "No im m igration [would
be] perm itted to the U nited States from the Asiatic Barred Zone. In addition to China
and Japan, this zone included India, Siam . . . Indochina . . . A fghanistan, parts of
Siberia, Iran and Arabia, and the islands of Java, Sum atra, Ceylon, Borneo, N ew Guinea
and Celebes"(Lewis and M adlansacay, 1993:1/4).
In 1923, Indians lost the right to citizenship, granted only to "free w hite persons"
and persons of African descent. Previously, it had been argued th at Indians are the
descendants of Aryans and hence are "white". How ever, in the landm ark case, "United
States v. Bhagat Singh Thind" this decision was reversed. Finally, all Asian im m igration
was stopped in 1924:
After W orld W ar I, Am erica faced economic depression and unem ploym ent and the
im m igrant becam e the scapegoat for hard times . . . . [resulting in] the N ational O rigins Act
of 1924 . . . .to arrest a trend tow ard a change in the fundam ental com position of the
Am erican stock .. . .the object of the law w as not sim ply to lim it im m igration b ut to favor
certain kinds of im m igrants and keep out others. M ore im m igrants w ere perm itted from
W estern Europe and few er from southern and eastern Europe. The law totally excluded
Asians. The A m erican door, for so long left w ide open . . . w as all but closed against future
im m igrants for the next 40 years. (Lewis and M adlansacay, 1993:1 /4 -1 /5 )
No changes in the legislation w ere m ade until the end of W orld W ar II w hen
Indians w ere given naturalization rights: "After India w on independence in 1946 and
the two countries grew closer, the relaxation of exclusion becam e im portant to their
new alliance (Hing, 1993: 37). Ten years later, the Im m igration and N ationality Act of
1952 reversed the 1924 act, and created instead "a new restrictive zone—the Asia Pacific
33
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Triangle—that consisted of countries from India to Japan. A m axim um of two thousand
Asians from this new triangle w ere allow ed to im m igrate annually"(H ing, 1993: 38).
D uring the 1950's and early 1960's, presidents Trum an, E isenhow er and Kennedy
fought desperately to end the racist quotas: "A 319 page report issued in 1953 strongly
urged the abolition of the national origins system and recom m ended quotas w ithout
regard to national origin, race, creed or color"(Hing, 1993: 39). H ow ever, both T rum an
and Eisenhower w ere unsuccessful in this quest.
It w as only later, w ith P resident Kennedy, that the quota system w as seriously
questioned:
President Kennedy subm itted a com prehensive program that provided the im petus for
ultim ate reform . . . Kennedy called for the repeal of racial exclusion from the Asia-Pacific
triangle and he assailed the nativism that led to the Chinese exclusion law s as well as the
national-origins system of the 1924 law . (Hing, 1993: 39)
It was also Kennedy w ho instigated the m ovem ent of professionals: "President Kennedy
envisioned a system governed by the skills of the im m igrant"(H ing, 1993: 39). Sadly, he
did not live to see the fruit of his effort, w hich was the Im m igration Act of 1965.
W ith the 1965 A c t," the racially biased National O rigin Q uota w as abolished"
(Lewis and M adlansacay, 1993:1/5). The doors to Asian im m igration w ere once again
opened wide: "The 1965 Im m igration Act abolished the national origins system and
substituted hem ispheric quotas .... The m ost visible beneficiaries of the preference
provisions of the 1965 law have been Asians" (Kitano and D aniels, 1988:16).
One revolutionary aspect of the Act was the T hird Preference category of
im m igrants who were: "professionals, scientists and artists of exceptional ability"
(H elw eg and Helweg, 1990: 59). The long term consequence is th a t the N ew
Im m igrants "differ notably from their European and A sian counterparts of earlier eras;
they are generally urban in provenience, highly educated, trained and em ployed in
skilled professions, and English speaking" (Fisher, 1980:8).
34
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Educated, professional Asian Indians, form ally a nonentity in the American
population, began to flood into the United States: 27, 859 from 1966-70; 72,912 from
1971-75; 103,804 from 1976-1980; 119, 701 from 1980-1985 142,140 from 1986-1990
(Barringer, G ardner and Levin, 1993: 25-6). In fact, they are one of the fastest growing
im m igrant groups in the United States:
Reforms in U.S. im m igration law since 1965-especiaIly changes in the national quota system-
have brought a flood of am bitious, well-educated Indians to the U.S. D uring the 1980's,
Indian im m igration rose 126% faster than that of any group except the Vietnamese. (Jacob,
1993:169)
Until the early 1990's, w hen family reunification laws increased the num ber of
non-professional im m igrants, the majority of Indian im m igrants to this country had
been professionals: "An occupational profile of the Asian Indian population shows that
47 percent of foreign b o m w orkers in the group were m anagers, professionals and
executives" (Kitano and Daniels, 1988:99). A nd of that population, m any are students.
From 1972-1985,15, 753 engineers, 1,200 m ath - and com puter - scientists and
4,077 natural scientists entered the U.S. (Ong, Cheng and Evans, 1991: 28). In fact, in
1993 alone, 13,000 Indian students entered the country (Springer, 1994: 35). At the
University of Southern California itself, there w ere 231 A sian Indian graduate students
(out of the total 2,508 international graduate population and 11,925 of the total USC
graduate population) d uring the 1995-1996 academic year (Office of International
Services, 1995).
W hen I look back on the summer of 1988, it seems incredible that I came to America so
poorly prepared for what lay in store. But, at that time, there were so many problems
with my admission, that I barely had time to think about such issues as where I would live and
35
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hozv I zuould pay my rent. I received my admission to USC very late in the summer - around
July I think. I zvas also z vorking full time outside o f Calcutta at the time and thus my father and
brother zvere suddenly put in the position of handling a lot of the paperzvork that suddenly
needed to get done.
The first major obstacle zvas my 1-20. 9 The first 1-20 that USC sent to my home in
Calcutta had mistakes in it. As it zvas outrageously expensive to call the United States, Baba
had to inform USC by post of this error. And, because it takes approximately tzvo zveeks for a
letter to reach the United States from India, you can imagine how long it took to get a new 1-20.
We zvere all getting really anxious because my departure date zvas drazving closer and closer.
Even zvhen the nezv 1-20 arrived, there zvas still the problem of my visa. I've heard that
it's extraordinarily difficult for a student to get a visa these days. It zvas also pretty tough back
in 1988. I had to convince the visa officer that I intended to return zvhen I zvas finished zvith
school. Understand, at that time, I had no intentions of staying on in the U.S.A. I sincerely
believed that as soon as I graduated, I would return to India. After all, it's my home. I had no
idea that eight years later, I'd still be in the States.
I zvas really scared zvhen I met the visa officer because I had heard that one zvrong anszver
could imperil my getting a visa. He asked me why I zvas pursuing a higher education in the
United States instead of India. I explained that the program I zvas joining didn't exist in India,
zvhich is the truth. A t that time there was no such thing as communication management.
Anyzvay, he zvas convinced and I received my visa.
Next, there zvas the problem of getting U.S. dollars. I zvas only allozved to bring $500.00
zvith me. That's a lot of money in rupees but I didn't realize that it zvould be completely
inadequate in the United States. I had no idea hozv expensive everything zvas. If it zvere not for
the perseverance o f Baba and my brother, zvlio were both in the city at that time, I don't think I
zvould have ever gotten the money.
9 A legal docum ent which gives the individual perm ission to reside in the United States as a student for
a particular period of time.
36
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With all of this going on, I barely had time to think about where I would live once I got to
Los Angeles. The cost of living in a USC dormitory was vastly beyond my budget, so I knew
that I zuould have to find a flat near to the University. The thing was that I didn't know anyone
there and calling the University for help zvas out of the question as I stated before. So I figured
I'd find a place zvhen I got there.
Initially, zvhen I left Calcutta, I zvas very excited. I had flozvn on a plane only once
before, so I zvas excited to be flying a Boeing 747 across the entire Pacific Ocean. A nd I zvas
finally fidfilling my dream of going to America.
But once on the flight, there zvere a zvhole lot of other unexpected emotions. I was
haunted by the vision of my parents zveeping bitterly as they held on to the railings o f the vista
tozver in the airport. Suddenly, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was totally alone. I
had alzvays lived zvith my parents, which is normal in India. Children are not raised to be
independent there like they are here. Thus, though I felt confident about leaving zvhile still in
Calcutta, it zvas different on the airplane. It zvasn'tlike I could just hop on a train and come
home. I zvas totally on m y ozvn. As a residt, after the longest flight I have ever experienced, I
arrived in Los Angeles jet lagged, disoriented, tired and confused.
Annenberg had sent a map o f Los Angeles to me zvhile I zvas still in India. The map had
a scale, so I calculated the distance from the airport to USC to be 2 to 3 miles. I had planned to
zvalk from the airport to USC, in order to save money. When I realized that I had miscalcidated,
and that USC zvas a good 16 or 20 miles from the airport, I began to realize hozv complicated it
zvould be to settle in here.
Sometimes I think that I have a guardian angel though, for zvhat happened next zvas only
one of the many strange coincidences, which have occurred, since I've come here. On the flight
to Los Angeles, I happened to bump into an old friend. He was on his zvay to study in a
university in Nezv York, and was stopping over in Los Angeles for a few days. Since I had no
where to go, he graciously invited me to stay with his friend. Luckily the friend didn't mind.
37
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This friend lived in Alhambra, so I had to take tzvo buses to get to USC. This was my
first introduction to America. For the first three days I zuould travel this way to USC. But I
zvas so disoriented and jet lagged that I often found myself falling asleep under a tree instead of
getting settled in. Thus, after a few days, I had out stayed my welcome and had to find a new
place to live. I zvent back to OIS and talked to the foreign student advisor, Judy Hartzvich. She
zvas extremely helpful and ivithin a fezv moments, she found another place for me to stay
temporarily. She matched me up zvith an USC staff member zvho zvas an Indian and the first
Gujurati I had ever met. I zoill never forget his or his wife's kindness to me and for the first time
in a long zvhile, I felt as if I were home. This helped me to finally find a permanent apartment
and settle dozvn.
I finally found a guy from Pakistan zvho also needed a roommate. We met at the housing
fair and I guess for reasons o f compatibility, zve both zvanted a roommate from South Asia. It's
funny hozv once in the United States, Pakistanis and Indians unite so easily this zvay as opposed
to the zvay it is back home.
But the problems didn't end there. Even though zve found a great apartment, I didn't
have nearly enough money to sign the lease. Though I had received information about monthly
rents, I didn't knozv about security deposits or paying the last month's rent up front. In other
zvords, I zvas short about $1000.00. I zvrote an urgent letter to my father, but knew that it zvould
take a month for my letter to arrive to India and for myself in turn to receive a check from him.
The landlord zvas very understanding though and gave us two zveeks to pay all the money. I also
took an emergency loan from OIS, which pretty much saved me.
As a result o f these experiences I'm convinced o f tzvo things. I realize nozv hozv nice it
zvould have been if there was someone zvho could have taken me under their zving. Initially I zvas
so confused and disoriented that I really began to zvonder if I had made the zvrong decision. I
never realized that once I reached Los Angeles, I zvould have to deal zvith so many issues like
38
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opening a bank account and getting more money from home, getting registered, getting a social
security card and a California l.D. etc.
So, I ended up working at OIS for a fezo years. I wanted to help nezu international
students, give them the giddance that I wish I had gotten. I especially liked picking up nezv
students at the airport and giving them a place to stay. It's been azuhile since I've done that.
Since I started zuorking three years ago, I lost touch zvith all o f that. I should start doing it
again.
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39
Figure 10: "Annenberg [School of
Communications] formed my first
im pressions of USC and the United
States."
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■ D a n i s h «
& ^TT§R£pOKlf
Figure 11: "For the first tim e in my life I had to do practically
everything on m y own."
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6.
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Come senators, congressmen/
Please heed the call/
Don' t stand in the doorway/
Don' t block up the hall *
—Bob Dylan
T
outside of India for opportunities:
he 1965 Act occurred during a time w hen educated Indians were looking
After independence, political and social instability in India created pressures to em igrate . . .
Indian and W estern universities w ere graduating m any intellectuals w ho w ere not able to
obtain jobs in the Indian econom y com m ensurate w ith their education-they w ere attracted by
em ploym ent opportunities in the United States and their facility w ith English aided their
transition into Am erican society. (Hing, 1993: 73)
Unlike the Punjabi im m igrants w ho came to the United States at the turn of the century,
Indians who im m igrated as a result of the 1965 Act had an easier tim e acclim ating to
Am erican culture: "Drawn from the strata of the Indian population long exposed to
W estern culture . . . [they] w ere accustom ed to English as a professional m edium and
attuned to career cultures very sim ilar to those encountered in America. A m iddle class
way of life was thus accessible to the first generation" (Saran, 1985: xii).
The explanation lies in their strong background in English:
They came from a country w hose educational system has a distinct W estern European,
particularly British orientation. As a result, m ost are fluent in English and have had
exposure to the values and beliefs that both facilitate and enhance entry into m odem
Am erican society. (Saran and Eames, 1980:137)
A nother advantage lay in their exposure to the West:
This population already had considerable exposure to W estern ways. They had received
their schooling in the British education system in India . .. and so their fam iliarity w ith the
English language and their high technical and educational qualifications m ade them easy
candidates for participation in Am erican education or m ainstream professional life.
(Khandelwal, 1995:182)
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Furthermore, they w orked in positions, which eased the transition into Am erican
m iddle class society: "The very nature of the [1965 im m igration act] is such that only
members of certain professional backgrounds and educational qualifications were
granted visas. As a result, an overw helm ing m ajority of Indian im m igrants possess
high educational qualifications. The largest num ber of them are engineers and doctors.
Other professionals include college teachers, scientific researchers " (Saran, 1985:100).
Unfortunately, as in the time period, which produced the Chinese Exclusion Act
of 1882, m any citizens in today's recession-ridden America blam e im m igrants (legal as
well as illegal) for social ills:
Critics of em ploym ent based im m igration say those jobs could easily be filled by Americans.
They say that although these foreign workers make up only a sm all proportion of the U.S.
labor market, they are being adm itted at a time when U.S. corporations are laying off large
numbers of U.S. workers. Last year alone, 3.2 million w orkers w ere laid off. They have
begun questioning w hether U.S. corporations are trying hard enough to recruit from the
American workforce and w hether those adm itted here have skills that locals don't have.
(Staff Reporter, 1996: 31)
And, as in the 1880's, high unem ploym ent is at the root of this anger: "The rising
resentm ent against im m igrants is no surprise. The million or so im m igrants that will
arrive in the United States this year are coming at a time w hen unem ploym ent is high"
(1992:114).
In addition, just as Chinese laborers were originally encouraged to immigrate,
post -1965 professionals w ere likewise brought here initially to revitalize America's
position as a technological leader:
America's Asian Indians (unlike their countrym en in Britain), did not come in response to
dem and at the bottom end of the occupational structure . . . they cam e at a tim e w hen
America badly needed already trained or rapidly trained cohorts of scientists, engineers,
teachers . .. the hectic technological race in the United States had no tim e to w ait until only
hom egrown cohorts w ould be ready to fill the needed positions. (Bhardw ay and Rao, 1990:
208-209)
Indeed, during the late sixties, the American economy w as greatly in need of and
benefited from these individuals:
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The reasons for the Asian Indian im m igration of the 1965 era have m ore to do probably w ith
the Am erican pull than w ith the Indian p u s h . . . the A m erican econom y was in the process of
unprecedented expansion as well as transform ation. The race for technological suprem acy
w as in full swing, dem anding in its w ake engineers, scientists and college teachers . . . the
broad spectrum transform ation of the Am erican econom y generated a pow erful pull on the
technological cultures of the developing w orld . . . it helped [bring] . . . some of the m ost
resourceful young professionals from India. (Bhardw ay an d Rao, 1990:199-200)
C urrent evidence indicates that contem porary Am erica continues to benefit from
these im m igrants. Professor Julian L. Simon has com piled significant data in a
docum ent published by the Cato Institute and N ational Im m igration Forum titled
Im m igration: The D em ographic and Economic Facts. His evidence indicates that
professional im m igration is beneficial to the A m erican econom y:" Scientific
professionals are especially valuable for prom oting the increased productivity and
grow th of the economy" (Simon, 1995:4). Indeed, he continues, it is a m isnom er to
blam e them for unem ploym ent:
Im m igrants do not cause native unem p lo y m en t. . . A spate of respected recent studies, using
a variety of m ethods, agrees that 'there is no em pirical evidence docum enting that the
displacem ent effect [of natives from jobs] is num erically im portant' (Borjas 1990, 2). The
explanation is that new entrants not only take jobs, they m ake jobs. The jobs they create w ith
their purchasing pow er and w ith the new businesses, w hich they start, are at least as
num erous as the jobs which im m igrants fill. (Simon, 1995: 4)
Professor Bill O ng H ing of Stanford U niversity w as the principle investigator of
the concurring report, Asian Pacific Americans: Refram ing the Im m igration Debate,
recently released by the non-profit group Leadership Education for Asian Pacific in
conjunction w ith the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. In the report, H ing contends
that "im m igrants aren't a drain on Am erica's econom y; they're a w ellspring of w ealth,
incentive and new business grow th" (Sundaram , 1996: Bl). Part of this grow th is the
contribution to the high tech industry: "The report notes that 15 of the nation's m ost
successful high tech com panies w ere founded by im m igrants. These com panies
currently have a com bined revenue of $22.25 billion" (Sundaram , 1996: Bl). H ing thus
concludes that America can only benefit from w elcom ing im m igrants: "Im m igrants
44
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build ou r nation's global com petitiveness w ithout draw ing dow n an inordinate share of
public sector resources" (Sundaram , 1996: B20).
O ther researchers and w riters agree w ith Sim on and Hing:
Im m igrants don't take jobs from A m ericans . . . im m igrants fill an im portant niche at both the
high and low ends of the dom estic econom y. Im m igrants are twice as likely as native bom
Am ericans to hold Ph.D.'s . . . w hich m akes them highly desirable w orkers in m any high tech
and scientific fields . . . if the top one hundred foreign bom com puter engineers suddenly
vanished, the entire Am erican sem iconductor industry w ould fall to its knees. (Chavez, 1995:
11)
Indeed, com petition is dependent on professional im m igrants: "More and more,
Am erica's high tech industries .. . are depending on im m igrant scientists and engineers
. . . to rem ain competitive. A nd the im m igrant's links to their old countries are boosting
U.S. exports to such fast grow ing regions as Asia and Latin America"(M andel and
Farrell, 1992:114).
M any point out that the current position of the U nited States as a technological
leader is due in part to im m igration: "The current im m igration debate founders on
ignorance of one huge fact: w ithout im m igration, the U.S. w ould not exist as a w orld
pow er . . . im m igrants are v ita l. . . for the w ide range of leading edge ventures in an
inform ation age economy" (Gilder, 1995:14). Thus, if the im m igrants go, so does that
position: "W ithout a steady stream of these people, the U.S. w ould quickly lose its place
on the cutting edge of technology and kiss good-bye the productivity that generates
econom ic growth" (Lee, 1991:110).
There are others w ho argue at this point that it is w rong to hire non-citizens
w hen there are Americans o u t of work. H ow ever, as Am erica does not prom ote science
and engineering as viable careers w ith the sam e intensity as other countries such as
India, it is not surprising that corporations look abroad:1 0 "We aren't grow ing enough
1 0 It is not m y intention here to point fingers at A m erican science teachers o r education. In a society that
m ore often than not dem eans scientists and engineers (as reflected in p o p culture, i.e. television's "Saved
by the Bell," H ollyw ood's "Revenge of the Nerds") it is not surprising that m any children shy aw ay from
these fields. If America isn't "growing" scientists and engineers, it is because the society as a w hole does
45
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know ledge workers. Poor science and m ath education at the prim ary and secondary
level [creates] a bad image of scientists . . . fewer and fewer Am ericans are going into
these critical but dem anding fields" (Lee, 1991:110). W ithout this background, children
do not have the incentive to pursue science and math:
We don't have a problem w ith too m any foreigners, it's too few Am ericans . . . native bom
students, in particular engineering students, sim ply do not favor graduate sc h o o l. . . .a . . .
fundam ental [reason] may be the state of science education in high schools . . . 30% of United
States high schools do not offer a physics course . . . it is in high sc h o o l. . . that the curiosity
that produces a professional scientist or engineer first buds-and often dies. In a recent study
of students in 17 countries . . . U.S. 14-year-olds ranked 14th in their know ledge of basic
science. (TMB, 1988: 22)
Even those w ho develop interest by college age can no longer com pete because
they did not receive adequate training at lower levels:
Recognition is grow ing that m any A m erican students cannot m ake the grade in the
dem anding graduate and post graduate levels because they have not received adequate
training and m otivation, especially in the sciences, from kindergarten through
coIlege."(DePalma, 1990:24)
Indeed, because few er Am ericans explore these fields, America has had to look
overseas: "With U.S. high school students increasingly shunning m athem atics and the
hard sciences, America is the global technology and economic leader .. . because it
offers the freedom of enterprise and innovation to people from around the world"
(Gilder, 1995:14). The fault, then, is not w ith the foreigners b u t w ith Americans: "The
im put from foreign students is absolutely necessary if the U nited States w ants to stay at
the forefront of technology .. . w e sim ply don't have enough outstanding American
citizens w ho w ant to pursue careers in science and engineering" (Pezzullo, 1993: 25).
In the same respect, universities recruit foreign students because not enough
Am ericans pursue graduate studies in science and engineering: "Educators believe
Am erican students are driven aw ay by the long years and near poverty that go w ith
not encourage its youth to pursue these fields, unlike India, w here engineering, science and medicine are
the m ost prestigious options for students.
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graduate study. It is far easier, they say, to go directly into the w ork force w ith a
bachelor's degree"(DePalma, 1990:24).
The lure of industry after receiving a bachelor's degree is thus m ore enticing than
graduate study: "Because stipends for fellowships in Ph.D. program s are so low
. . . m ore and m ore hungry degree candidates are opting for private industry . . .
foreigners w ho make the effort to com e to the United States tend to stick it out for their
doctorates" (Bowen, 1988: 65).
Thus, "foreign students are not taking slots from Americans; they are filling slots
that are going empty" (Lee, 1991:110). This is due to the fact that n o t enough American
students are applying for the seats:
Foreign students are not supplanting A m ericans in graduate schools; they're filling em pty
spaces. Am ericans sim ply aren't going to graduate schools in force anym ore. A t Syracuse
University w here foreigners account for 70% of the graduate engineering enrollm ent, dean
Theodore Bickart admits," quite frankly, they are sustaining higher education." Eager to
m ake m oney, Americans tend to rush into the m arketplace arm ed w ith only a bachelor's
degree. (Williams and King, 1982: 74)
In fact, researchers continue, the quality of American universities w ould decline
w ithout foreign nationals: "Foreign applicants outnum ber dom estic ones . . . our
university research system is dependent on the supply of foreign g rad u ate students . . .
w ithout them now it w ould collapse" (DePalma, 1990:24). Furtherm ore, universities
have grow n to depend on international students: "Universities have com e to rely on
international students to keep graduate program s filled" (DePalma, 1990:1).
M any argue that international students are responsible for keeping som e
program s afloat: "Our universities w ould be in deep trouble if w e d id n 't have these
students and faculty . . . a num ber of engineering departm ents w ould not exist" (Nadis,
1970:16). A form er USC graduate student of engineering agrees:
'Engineering w ould be a very small school if foreign students were not here' says Shariff
O ssayran, an Iraqi student at the U niversity of Southern California. That is particularly true
at the graduate level, because so m any Am erican students take high paying jobs instead of
studying for a Ph.D. (Williams and King, 1982: 71).
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In the absence of A m erican students, A m erican universities benefit from
internationals: "We are entering an era of global com petition for the relative handful of
people w ho possess advanced scientific skills. The U.S. still enjoys a huge advantage in
the global fight to attract brains. O ur graduate schools draw the best students from all
over: China, India, Japan, Korea" (Lee, 1991:112). Thus the m ajority of graduates in
these fields are international:
The next generation of scientists an d engineers at U.S. high tech com panies will be
dom inated by im m igrants . . . the num ber of foreign bom students receiving science
doctorates more than doubled betw een 1981 and 1991 to 37% of the total [receiving Ph.D.'s]
in biology the hot field of the 1990's, the num ber of non-U.S. citizens getting doctorates
tripled over the last ten years, a n d about 51% of com puter science doctorates in 1991 w ent to
foreign bom students. (M andel and Farrell, 1992:117)
It is not surprising then that corporations w ant to keep these talented individuals: "How
do w e benefit from sending skilled foreigners hom e to w ork for com peting firms? . . . if
we let [graduates] stay here, these people will advance our industries and directly
create jobs" (Nadis, 1970:15). O r that they argue, that they can't find the talent at hom e:
"Not only are university facilities running out of hom egrow n talent, but recruiters for
som e of the country's leading technological firms say they are unable to find a single
qualified Am erican to hire" (Bowen, 1988: 65).
vv hen I zvas growing up in India, we were all given tzvo career options, not just by our
parents, but by society as a zvhole: engineering or medicine. O f course, there are those
zvho go into other fields. M y brother for example became a journalist. But the best jobs go to
those zvith a science background. A nd engineers as zvell as those in science are highly respected
in India.
I like engineering as a whole, but I felt as if I wanted to pursue other fields, zvhich
zve ren't available to me at that time in India. I knozv there's been a lot of changes in the last fezv
48
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years but I'm talking about the early and mid eighties when I was in college and working.
That's why I came to the United States- for the opportunity to study new and different things.
I love to write and wanted to combine my interest in writing with my background in
technology. Thus, at Annenberg, I was mostly interested in the Telecommunications industry.
I dabbled with a lot of things during that time - journalism, telecom policy and TV post
production. I zvas even lucky enough to intern for azvhile at Xerox.
M y faculty advisor, Ev Rogers, zvas great. He guided me tozvards the proper coursework
and alzvays had time to listen to me whenever I had a problem. And somehow, no matter zvhat
the problem zvas, he alzvays had a solution. I'm really gratefid to him for the jum p start he gave
me in the program.
Still, I started to lose sight of my goals after azvhile. Part of the problem zvere all o f the
nezv choices I was suddenly faced zvith here, zvhich for awhile led me off my path. Also, there zvas
the inevitable culture shock, which I guess everyone goes through. Initially, you're really excited
to be here. Then after a fezv months, you start missing home and everything that is familiar.
Loneliness can definitely lead to lack of direction.
I liked the Annenberg students, but it took me a long time to learn hozv to socialize zvith
Americans. It's very different here. First o f all, I didn't have a car for a long time, and in Los
Angeles, if you don't have a car, you can't do anything. So for azvhile, I had to miss a lot of
events. Even zvhen I zvould go to Annenberg parties, I felt very strange there. I never felt a part
of the group. First of all, I didn't understand the zvay that they socialized. They drank too much
at parties, and there zvas a lot of superficial small talk. I zvas never good at that. In the
beginning I made an effort, but after azvhile I would get bored at these parties so I stopped going.
It also took me a long time to adjust to the way students behave in class here. First of all,
everyone calls a professor by his or her first name, something that is unthinkable back home. In
fact, I've had professors themselves tell me to call them by their first name. I zvas also surprised
as to hozv frequently students would interrupt a professor's lecture to raise a point. I just didn't
49
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understand American culture for a long time, and this made it harder to make friends within the
program.
It wasn't until I discovered the field o f Technical Communications that my life regained
focus. It really happened by accident actually. When I was an intern at Xerox, I learned about
the importance of communication in the zvorkplace. So, I wanted to get into a field that
combined my dual interests of technology and communications. One afternoon, I was flipping
through the USC catalogue, when I spotted a class called Technical Writing. I noticed that it
would be taking place that evening, and so I attended the first class. That's how I met Shirley
TJwmas, one of the most important mentors I've had in the United States.
Shirley is probably the best professor I've ever had. I really liked her class and worked
very hard for the "A-" that I eventually received. Shirley is the ideal teacher, both highly
appreciative and critical of your work at the same time. She always kneiv exactly zvhen to give
me the nudge zvhen I needed it. In addition, her sincere and genuine interest in my career
inspired me so much that I zvasn't afraid to fail because I knezv that she zvould be there to help
me. Her presence gave me the courage to take some risks in my career because I knezv that she
zvas like a safety net. Perhaps the greatest thing that Shirley did zvas encouraging me to join the
Society for Technical Communicators (STC), zvhich opened up the zvhole zvorld o f technical
zvritingfor me. 1 1
Through a series of events after I joined STC, I found an internship with a large
entertainment company in Burbank. That's hozv I met my other important mentor, Peggy
Wheeler. A t that time, Peggy zvas the Senior Technical Writer and my direct supervisor. Due
1 1 Shirley Thom as com m ents on Tutul's perform ance as a student: "From the first class session, it was
clear that he had an exceptional m ind and keen intelligence. Also it was apparent that he had an
extensive education and it didn't hurt that this background w as in engineering. He was especially
helpful to others and w ould be a splendid teacher. W hat's really rem arkable about him is how he w ent
from my class in Technical Writing, into an internship and from the internship into the position of the
person w ho had hired him. We only benefit from having people like him here, w orking in o u r industry"
(1996).
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to Shirley's great recommendation, Peggy decided to hire me. 1 2 It was a real turning point for
me. Being in the world of technical writing gave me direction and focus and I felt as if I had
found a field where I excelled, which I guess everyone needs to do. I owe a lot o f it to Peggy
though. She took me under her wing in every way and taught me a lot. I remember ivaking up
in the morning and being excited to go to my internship, zuhich is something o f a rare feeling.
Even though Peggy helped me to get a permanent position there, it was still really hard when she
left — I missed her a lot — and was more than a little unsure ofhozo I ivould do without her
guidance. But nozu, so many years later. Technical Writing is really natural to me. With my
background in engineering, I have a real advantage in my zvork and really enjoy zuhat I do. I
feel very lucky really to have these opportunities, zvhich like I said would have never been
possible if I hadn't come here. I have a great working relationship with my new boss, Dave.
12 Peggy W heeler com m ents on her decision to hire T u tu I:" H e was extrem ely articulate, extrem ely
intelligent and very know ledgeable. I was really im pressed by his background because it's rare to find a
technical w riter w ho is also an engineer. Really, the other candidates couldn't com pete w ith him . His
w riting sam ples w ere the best of all of them. I knew as soon as I met him that he w as the person for the
job. That's why, w hen I left the com pany, I also knew he w ould be the right person to replace me. And,
by his accom plishm ents, I seem to be proven right” (1996).
51
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Figure 12: "I have a great w orking relationship with m y boss, Dave.
52
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PART III
REINVENTING
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7.
Our House
Our house/
Is a very very very fine house/
With two cats in the yard/*
— Crosby, Stills, N ash and Young
I
have yet to m eet a student from India, w ho u p o n arriving in the United States has
not told m e of his or her plans to return to India either upon graduation or after
w orking for a few years: "They w ould go to Am erica, m ake their fortune and
return to India w ithin five years" (Helweg and H elw eg, 1990:27). W hile their initial
intentions w ere sincere, m any never return: "Students . . . from less developed and
developing countries w ho go abroad . . . go w ith the declared intention of obtaining
education . . . and then returning home; but they change their m inds and im m igrate
[instead]" (Das, 1972: 2).
International students are granted the ability to w ork for one year after
graduation due to a provision called Practical Training w hich allows the recently
graduated stu d en t to rem ain on an F-l visa and w ork: "Attracted by the research
opportunities and the chance to use w hat they know , about half of [all international
students] stay in the U.S. after graduation"(M andel an d Farrell, 1992:117). Q uite often,
this one year leads to m any m ore as a com pany decides to then sponsor the individual
w ith an H -lb (w orking visa) or a green card: "Large num bers of these [people] had
come here as students and on the com pletion of their education changed their
im m igrant status to th at of perm anent resident [green card holder]" (Saran, 1985: 29).
Thus, m ost stay, though they continue to rem ain in close contact w ith hom e
through the mail, telephone, e-mail and short vacations:
Unlike the m igrants w ho left Europe . . . realizing that they m ight not return, the sojourners
of today are not forced to m ake the decision of perm anently staying or leaving. They can fly
54
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hom e w ithin days and give instructions over the telep h o n e. . . in essence, they can
participate in one society w hile residing in another. (H elw eg and Helweg, 1990: 5)
It is not uncom m on then to hear these individuals talk of the tim e w hen they will
return hom e, though it seldom m aterializes: "Because of the standard of living, income
and other facilities available in America, this desire [to return to India] exists only in a
vacuum " (Saran, 1985:108).
According to the im m igrant, s /h e is hom ew ard bound as soon as a fortune is
made: "Their initial dream is to return to their hom eland after m aking a fortune but as
they become affluent, that fortune is seldom sufficient to w arrant returning. The plan to
return becom es a myth" (Helweg an d Helweg, 1990: 230). Ironically, how ever, it is the
fortune, w hich prevents m ost from returning: "[Sahab Dayal] feels com ing to the U.S. is
like getting stuck in quick sand. 1 The m ore affluent and well established you get, the
stronger the desire to go back gets and the m ore difficult the circum stances becom e to
do so"1 (A nand, 1994: 64).
People grow to fear w hat others will say: "How can I face m y friends back hom e?
. . . I w ould be thought a fool for not having succeeded in w hat they perceived as the
land of opportunity . . . an im m igrant returning hom e w ithout a fortune w ould have to
suffer personal ridicule" (Helw eg a n d Helweg, 1990: 65). Indeed, going back becom es a
difficult task to complete: "When an Indian comes to the U.S., he says to him self 'I am
here only for a few years, I will go back. But after living in the U.S. it is very h ard to go
back. .. m ost of the Indians w ho com e here do not go back"1 (Gajjar, 1995: 6). Thus,
m ost stay, but are haunted w it a desire to return that is seldom fulfilled: "A lm ost all
Indians in our interviews . . . indicated that eventually they w ant to return to India. In
m any cases, they never do" (Saran an d Eames, 1980:170).
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I A J h e n you are in India, you see America as a place to gain an advanced education, a
" » degree and some practical experience so that when you went home, you'd have the
credentials to move into a senior management position. Thus, when I first came to America, I
thought I'd finish my program, work for a year or two after graduation and then retum-
definitely return. I never thought o f settling in America.
Before I left Calcutta, my relatives used to tease me about coming here. They joked that I
would become an American. I zvould vehemently deny their accusations and assure them that I
would be back in tzuo years.
"America's not for me," I would tell them. "I'm so close to all of you that I ju st couldn't
be away for that long."
But here it is eight years later and I've never even been home for a vacation, though my
parents have come here to visit me. Once I was here, going home, even for a vacation, became
very complicated. First, there was the financial issue. I attended USC on scholarship, and zvas
always on a limited budget. So I had to stay and work at USC during the summers in order to
save enough to tide me over for the next year.
Then, when I became more financially comfortable, I started to worry about other things.
First of all, my visa had expired. Therefore, if I wanted to go to India, I'd have to get a nezv one.
I had heard that visa officers in India didn't look kindly on visas for people who have completed
their degrees but are on practical training. Even after I received my H -l, I zvas still zvorried
about applying for a visa. So, I've just never been back.
People are alzvays asking me zvhether I am planning to return to India permanently. I've
toyed zvith the idea a lot. There are just so many zvorries. It's funny, but it seems like all the
same uncertainties I had about America before I came, I have about going back to India. Things
are just really complicated.
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First of all, I married an American woman, and I have to think o f how life would be for
her to live in India. The fact that she's really interested in India helps. But I want to be sure
that she has a promising career there too.
Then there's work. Technical communications is a relatively neiv field and ivhile there
are a lot of opportunities here, I ju st don't knozu what the opportunities will be like at home. I
keep thinking that it's too premature for me to give up a career that seems to be going somezohere
in this country for a fantasy o f how it would be in India.
M y brother is also married and settled in the United States now. Since he's here, I feel
unified luith part of my family. True, he lives all the way in North Carolina, but psychologically
it feels closer. It's very easy for me to pick up the phone and call him which I can' t say about
calling India. And any time I want, I can just get on a plane and go to visit him.
I guess I've just gotten used to things here. Like the faster pace of life, the work ethic, the
privacy. Maybe things in India are different now, but as compared to how it was in the eighties,
my current circle of comfort is a far cry from how it was zvhen I left. There are a lot of things
that I've just gotten used to and I think it might be hard to readjust if I zvent back. For example,
here, I have more freedom in the choices I make concerning my personal and professional life. I
also like the international aspect o f living in Los Angeles. I've met people from all over the
zvorld that I zvouldn't have met if I had stayed in Calcutta. Food is one o f my biggest passions
and Los Angeles is the Mecca o f international cuisine. If I ever moved back to India, I'd miss the
great Tlzai restaurant on 9th and Vermont.
You knozu, I do have friends zuho've gone back. Usually they're the ones who clearly
defined a niche for themselves back home. They are usually happy with the decision and all are
doing pretty zuellfor themselves. If I found such a niche, if there zvere inviting jobs for myself
and my zuife, maybe zve'd think about it.
57
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Figure 13: "I feel like I am often straddling two
cultures— Indian and American."
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8.
Homeward Bound
Homeivard Bound/
Oh, I wish I was/
Homeward Bound*
—Sim on and Garfunkel
I
f this thesis had been w ritten prior to the radical econom ic changes w hich have
taken place in India since 1991, this particular chapter w ould not exist. How ever
as a result of these changes, there is a developing trend tow ards returning home:
"Many high flying Indian b om professionals . . . in the U.S. . .. have packed their bags
to come back here" ( Jain, 1996: 64). Even those w ho thought they w ould never return,
are doing so: "Earlier they [overseas Indians] w anted to com e out of India and invest in
[the USA]... now they're going home" (Iritai, 1996:4).
It is thus not unusual to spot a job advertisem ent such as this one in India Today
or India W est: "Wanted: Top com puter engineers. Tired of bum ping your head on the
glass ceiling? Feeling hom e sick? Go East, all the way to India, w here success aw aits
you w ith a good salary and a clean environm ent to live and w ork in. India is on the
m ove-w hy not you?" (Vora, 1995: 57). A nd according to recent surveys, people are
responding to them . Dakesh Parikh, deputy business editor of India Today/B om bay
posted on a notice on the electronic m ail new sgroup soc.culture.indian called "A survey
considering w ork in India" (Feb. 20,1995) which sum m arized the willingness of NRI's
to return to India: "out of 200 responses, 194 (97%) indicated a willingness to w ork in
India . . . 187 respondents (93.5%) felt that reform w ould increase jobs in the country."
Pankaj Jalote of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in K haragpur followed
this up on soc.culture.indian (Feb. 22,1995) w ith a sim ilar survey:
59
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About a year back, IITK/CSE conducted a survey of Indian com puter professionals and
students residing abroad regarding relocating to India . . . If you are interested in returning
to India in 1995 to take up em ploym ent kindly fill out the form given below[ w hich is then
sent to com panies]. . . the m ain advantages of returning for com puter professionals are:
-Good salaries-due to heavy dem and, the salaries are am ong the best in India . . .
-Com parative work environm ent -C om puter industry is one which offer a w ork
environm ent that is not too far behind that in U.S..........
-Career opportunities-people will rise m uch faster than in U.S. . . .
-and of course living (comfortably) in the hom e country.
Both of these surveys are indicative of a trend not only am ong Indians but many
individuals from all parts of Asia:
For years the best and the brightest of Asia flocked to the United States to pu rsu e advanced
degrees and jobs on the cutting edge of business, science and technology. But w ith the
recession . . . and the developm ent of high technology, industries in Asia rivaling the best of
the West, a small but significant num ber of Asian bom professionals . . . have begun m oving
home. (Dunn, 1995:1,11)
Interestingly enough, these individuals w ho were once labeled the "brain drain"
are now referred to as the "brain gain": "India used to fret about the brain drain which
brought tens of thousands of persons from our country to the U.S we now regard
Indians abroad as a resource for the m other country providing a bridge betw een the
two countries and a source of expertise for the developm ent of India" (Arora, 1995: 29).
Indeed these individuals have become key to the revitalization of their countries: "[The]
rising hom ew ard flow of engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs follow ing an economic
boom in the . . . East [have] transform ed countries like India . . . into high tech power
houses" (Dunn, 1995:1).
India has become a land of grow ing opportunities: "Liberalization has made
[India] a hot spot for upbeat, hardw orking professionals . . . m ost of them find the
corporate com petition back hom e so hot and exciting that they plan to stay on" ( Jain,
1996: 64). Indeed, India is now capturing the attention once reserved for East Asian and
South East Asian countries: "While China and South East Asia have captured the lion's
share of attention from the business com m unity in recent years, India- w hich
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abandoned socialist econom ic policies for the free m arket in 1991-has m oved sharply
higher in the overseas priority list for U.S. [companies]" (Iritai, 1996:1).
The change in India's econom y occurred as a result of the w ork of form er Prime
M inister N arasim ah Rao: "The governm ent led by . . . Rao .... m ade enorm ous strides
[since 1991] tow ards liberating India's businessm en from decades of encum bering
oppression by politicians and the bureaucrats" (Fuhm an and Schum an, 1994:128). Prior
to 1991, India was operating under a closed economy:
W hen the British gave India back to the Indians in 1947, they left behind a culture in w hich
elected officials and civil servants . . . controlled the economy. D istrusting the m otives of the
country's large classes of able businessm en, the bureaucracy encum bered India w ith thickets
of red tape and em ulated m any of the w orst aspects of a centrally planned soviet style
econom y. G overnm ent offices issued licenses that gave com panies exclusive rights to
m anufacture certain products and protected them from high tariffs an d other im port curbs
from foreign com petitors. (Fuhm an and Schum an, 1994:128)
Both Indira G andhi and her son Rajiv attem pted to liberalize the econom y, neither with
success:
Some steps tow ard opening up the econom y w ere taken in the early 1980's d u rin g the final
years of Indira G andhi's second term in office and were given som e ad d ed im petus by her
son and successor Rajiv after her assassination in October 1984. But these institutions soon
ground to a halt as Rajiv G andhi becam e ensnared in a bribery scandal. Sensing his
w eakness, the bureaucrats frustrated G andhi's attem pts to increase com petition and choice.
(Fuhm an and Schum an, 1994:129)
In 1991, after Rajiv G andhi w as assassinated, Rao and his key econom ist M anm ohan
Singh fulfilled the G andhi pledge tow ards liberalization: "Together, Rao and Singh
[took] chain saws to India's m ost intrusive governm ent controls. T oday a com pany can
invest its money how ever and w herever [it] chooses" (Fuhm an and Schum an, 1994:
129). Closed for decades to foreign investm ent and trade, post-1991 India has
w holeheartedly adopted a free m arket: "Of all the m any econom ic policy errors m ade in
India over the last four decades none so dam aged the econom y as shutting off from
international m arkets . . . now Rao and Singh . . . [exposed] Indian firm s for the first
tim e to com petition from foreign products"(Fuhm an and Schum an, 1994:132).
61
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The recent election in India (May, 1996) rem oved Rao from pow er. He was
initially replaced by BJP candidate Atal Behari Bajpayee w ho w as him self later rem oved
by H.D. Deve Gowda. To date G ow da has show n a com m itm ent to m aintaining Rao's
reform s, though only tim e will tell if he will follow through on this pledge.
The central m otivation for G ow da to continue Rao's reform s lies in the economic
gains from foreign investors, eager to tap into India's burgeoning population of
engineers. W hether sent to A m erica as legal im m igrants or em ployed in India, these
Professional Indians are in dem and:
N one of the large W estern com panies investing in India are doing so sim ply for cheap la b o r.
. . the m ore im portant attractions are India's large and increasingly open dom estic m arket
and enorm ous pool of skilled labor. M ore engineers graduated in India than C hina and
South Korea combined. T hat is w hy M otorola is planning to m ake India w h a t it calls a "brain
center" for engineering an d design w ork. (Fuhman and Schum an, 1994:132)
One of the results has been the grow th of the Inform ation Technology (IT)
industry in India: "One of India's biggest success stories is its softw are and com puter
industries, which have benefited from a large pool of skilled m anagers and technical
personnel" (Iritai, 1996:4). Softw are Technology Parks (STP's), m uch like Silicon Valley
in California or the Research Triangle Park (RTP) in N orth Carolina have developed all
over the subcontinent, w ith Bangalore in Karnataka as the m ost w ell know n site. In
fact, in 1995, M assachusetts an d K arnataka signed an agreem ent to becom e sister states
so that, "Joint ventures [could] flourish betw een M assachusetts w hich has num erous
high technology com panies and Karnataka, know n as India's Silicon valley for its
grow ing softw are firms" (Reuters, 1995:1).
The Indian governm ent perceives professional NRI's as an im portant ingredient
in the revitalization of India: "W ith the end of the license Raj and foreign com panies
opening shop in liberalized India, NRI's were perceived to be the people to help expand
operations and execute future projects" ( Jain, 1996: 64). A nd m any NRI's w ho have
returned hom e have been pleased w ith the changes: "the returning expatriates have
62
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found their hom elands bursting w ith new enterprises and optim ism " (Dunn, 1995:1,
11). This is d ue to the new culture of m ultinationalism : "the change w as heralded by
the arrival of transnational corporations . . . the new corporate culture is different as
people are hard w orking and are focused on w hat they are doing" ( Jain, 1996: 64).
^ ometimes I feel like Tezrye in "Fiddler on The Roof' when it comes to the issue of going
back. I keep saying to myself "on the other hand." There are a lot o f times zvhen I really do
want to go back home.
I think ahead about our children and worry about them growing up here in the U.S. I
worry about them getting a decent education, about the incredible violence in American schools
and the discrimination they will probably face at some point. I know of Indians ivho have
sacrificed their careers here to go back because they felt that their children zuould be more
complete and whole if they were raised in India.
And then there's work. I'm still at too lozu a level to zuorry about the glass ceiling now.
But in about five or ten years, zvhen I hope to be a part o f senior management, I'm sure that I'll
be affected by it. I've noticed that even though Indian professionals have been coming here for
almost thirty years, I rarely see Indians in high positions in industry.
On the other hand, if I'm part of senior management in India, this shouldn't be an issue.
That's part of the reason why more people are going back than before. The other reason is the
progress that India is making tozvards high tech. Many American companies such as Hezvlett
Packard, Texas Instruments, IBM and Digital have set up permanent facilities in India. All of
this makes it very enticing for people like me to return.
The salaries look good, the work environment seems better, and I guess there's this
feeling that you zvant to give something back to the country. With the softzvare industry being
63
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zuhat it is, there's a good chance that Technical Communicators such as myself will eventually be
in demand. If my wife could fin d a job that she likes, I think we'd consider it.
64
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Figure 14: "Sometimes, I really feel a strong urge to go back home.
65
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9.
Who Are You?
Who are you ?/
Who? Who?/
Who? Who?*
—The W ho
A
final issue for m any individuals w ho rem ain in the United States is the
concept of self identity. M any often feel stuck in Umbo, neither Indian nor
A m erican:" An Indian proverb says a w asherm an's dog does not belong to
the m aster's hom e nor does he belong to the banks of the river. I came from India and I
have been living in the U.S. for m any years. N ow I feel I do not belong in either place"
(Gajjar, 1995: 6).
A nthropologist Arjun A ppadurai explores this dilem m a by asking the question,
how does one define once stationary individuals w ho are now nom adic? H ow is one an
"Indian" if s /h e lives in Kenya, Australia, C anada or the U nited States? A ppadurai
states that contem porary ethnography m ust explore the concept of identity rem oved
from place:
The landscapes of group identity . . . around the w orld are no longer fam iliar
anthropological objects in so far as groups are no longer tightly territorialized, spatially
bounded, historically unselfconscious or culturally hom ogeneous." (A ppadurai, 1991:192).
He labels this change as ethnoscape:
The changing social territorial and cultural reproduction of group identity. As groups
m igrate, regroup in new locations, reconstruct their histories and reconfigure their ethnic
projects, the ethno in ethnography takes on a slippery nonlocalized quality . . . by ethnoscape
I m ean the landscape of persons who m ake up the shifting world in which we live: tourists,
im m igrants, refugees, exiles. (A ppadurai, 1991:192)
Ironically while im agination played a role in the initial decision, it is also
im agination that creates a sense of deterritorialization, of belonging neither in the new
land nor at home, of im agining hom e as better than the adopted country:
66
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"Deterritorialization creates new m arkets for film companies . . . an d travel agencies
which thrive on the need of the relocated population for contact w ith its hom eland. But
the hom eland is partly invented, existing only in the im agination of the deterritorialized
groups" (Appadurai, 1991:193).
Indi Rana, in her young ad u lt novel The Roller Birds of R am pur explores the
complications of ethnoscape and deterritorialization through the story of a
B ritish/Indian teenager, Sheela. Feeling that she doesn't belong in England, Sheela
spends a sum m er in India, only to find herself a stranger there as well. A nd Sheela
knows that she's not the only one:
Gran, I rem embered had run her house as she had w hen G randpa w orked in the Railways
under the British as though she w ere a colonial housewife. For lunch w e'd have Indian food,
for dinner Western: cold cuts, salads, and burnt sugar pudding. M um, in contrast, living in
London, ran her house like an Indian, filled w ith as m uch of India as she could cram into it:
books, records, films, food, festivals, friends. (Rana, 1993: 63)
In m any ways, the term N on Resident Indian (NRI) is an a ttem p t to redefine
themselves as both Indian and foreign. NRI's, by law, are defined as:
Persons of Indian origin irrespective of their current nationality. 'A person shall be deem ed
to be of Indian origin . . . if (I) he held an Indian passport; or (ii) he or either o f his parents or
any of his grandparents as an Indian and a perm anent resident of undivided India at
anytim e . . . the wife of a citizen of India or of a person of Indian origin shall also be deem ed
of Indian origin though she m ay not be of Indian origin. (Tharoor, 1994: 339)
They are usually people w ho retain actual or imagined ties to India w hile living abroad:
"NRI's never got over their Indian heritage and were always finding w ays of retaining
connections, pouring their . .. w ealth from England and America back to India to
overcome their feelings of guilt at becom ing so rich outside their ow n country" (Rana,
1993: 283).
The Indian governm ent also perpetuates this feeling by creating investm ent
program s m eant to entice the NRI into giving m oney back to India: "NRI's are seen as
people on w hom the m otherland [has] a legitimate claim. It is a claim willingly
conceded by NRI's who . . . continue to dem onstrate a rem arkable degree of interest in .
67
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. . the land of their birth" (Tharoor, 1994: 339). Thus, though they stay abroad, NRI's are
perm anently a part of both places: "One w ho leaves [home] for the experience abroad
[becomes] a m ulticultural person-one w ho is not com pletely a p art nor totally apart
from his or her country" (M arks, 1987:121).
N ozvadays, zvhen I dream, it's in combinations. I often see m yself riding a bus across the
Hozvrah bridge [in Calcutta] and suddenly looking out the window and seeing the bus
speed across the 101 freeway [in Los Angeles]. Other times, I dream that I'm in the gym at
USC, and I'm talking with m y friends from St. Xaviers. I guess what I'm trying to say is that
my life experiences in India and in America are all mixed up nozu.
I like hanging out with Americans. I've gotten rid of m y earlier inhibitions, and I'm as
comfortable zuith Americans as I am with m y fellozo Indians. In fact, sometimes I'm more
comfortable in American environments than I am in Indian environments.
I realized this a few years ago zvhen I went to attend the Durga Puja festival1 3 in
Monrovia. [California] This zvas my favorite holiday and I used to ju st wait the zvhole year for
it. But zvhen I zvent to this particular Durga Puja, something zvas missing. It zvasn't that I had
become irreligious or something like that. I guess I suddenly felt distant from the people there.
Being around so many other Bengalis, hearing so much Bengali - it ju st reminded me ofhozv far
I've come azvay from my culture and hozv much I've assimilated into American culture.
In their presence I felt the guilt of moving azvay twice over. Tlzere was the first time,
zvhen I left my parents to come here. And then there zvas this time zvhen in America, I felt like
1 3 Held during the m onth of October, this is a festival of great im portance to Bengalis. Bengali children
anticipate this as m uch as C hristian children anticipate Christm as, for the D urga Puja means four days of
fun, festivities and presents (usually clothing). The Bengali Association of Southern California attem pts
to reproduce this experience for the children here w ith a two day festival held every year at the M asonic
tem ple in Monrovia.
68
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moving away from other Indians. In fact, my friend and got so bored that we left and went to
the Jack in The Box across the street for some hamburgers and fries.
A t the same time, I miss home a lot and feel attached to Indian things in a way that I
didn' t back home. For example, Maa used to make fish at least twice a week. You know how
Bengalis are crazy about fish. Anyway, I zvould eat it grudgingly then. Now I literally crave
fish.
It's funny how in America I've become interested in things that I didn't like in India.
Last Summer, the Laemmle theater in Santa Monica held a Satyajit Ray film festival. Baba used
to drag us to his films and I really hated it then. They were so boring. But last summer, after
m y wife dragged me to the first show, I became hooked. Somehozv, it zvas different watching
them this time. They reminded me so much of home, o f Maa and Baba, of myself grozving up. I
loved to zvatch zohat they ate because a lot o f them were dishes that I haven't eaten since I've
been here.
I also find myself here an Ambassador of Indian culture. I take people to restaurants all
the time and explain the foods. We talk about nezus events in India or movies like "Gandhi." In
many zvays, by coming to America, I've rediscovered m y roots as an Indian.
M y zvife and I talk a lot about how we' re going to reconcile both identities especially in
terms o f our children. We've already made a list of names that are found in both Hindi and
Hebrew, to reinforce our similarities rather than differences. I think this really began zvith the
zoay zve planned our zvedding. We were actually married tzvice, in a Bengali ceremony in the
afternoon and a Jezvish ceremony in the evening. Wizen zve zvere preparing everything, we found
that both ceremonies shared a lot o f the same rituals such as fire, the number seven and circlitig.
So zve made sure to emphasize these similarities. We had Jewish and Indian food, and our cake
zvas a globe that highlighted India and Eastern Europe, zvhere m y wife's fam ily is originally
from. Instead of bride and groom dolls, we had a male Jezvish dancer and a female Indian dancer.
69
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I'm not sure I could have ever imagined my mother dancing the hora in a sari or my
father waltzing with an 86 year old Jewish lady from New York. The wedding exceeded our
expectations and I felt as if everyone not only had one great international evening but also
learned something about the other culture.
In many ways I feel that I've given a piece of my identity to those around me and that
I've internalized some o f their identities into myself. Even though I led a comfortable life in
India, and I've faced some hardships here, I don't regret leaving home. I would have missed so
many opportunities to learn and to meet new people, if I had never left. I've changed in a lot of
zuays, positive ways and in a sense I think o f myself not as Indian or American but as an
International, someone who is made up of a lot of cultures.
Baba used to say "a rolling stone gathers no moss." In other zvords, a person zuho never
tries tiezv things simply vegetates. Thus, if I had never left India, maybe I'd be a successfid
engineer by now, but I zoould be covered by moss.
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70
Figure 15:"We had a traditional Bengali ceremony in the afternoon
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and a Jewish one later that evening.
72
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Figure 17: "In many ways I feel that I've given a piece of m y identity to those around
me, and that I've internalized som e of their identities into myself."
73
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EPILOGUE
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J
n retrospect, I shouldn't have taken Highway Five that day. M y wife and I had just spent
the fourth of July weekend [1996] with her folks in Berkeley, and I was in a rush to get
back to Los Angeles-I mean I zvas zoorking the next day, and zoanted to have some time to
relax.
We usually take 101 home as the Five can get very crowded. But on that day for some
reason, I decided to take the chance. I knezo it might get crozvded, but I didn't realize hozv hot it
zvould get. It zvas a hundred and three degrees outside!
As zve rolled along in the heat, I started to zvatch the temperature gage on the instrument
panel. A t times, the needle did go beyond the halfway point but luckily the car didn't overheat.
M y zvife and I became very nervous, though, zvhen zve hit the grapevine. To our right,
dozens upon dozens o f cars zvere pulled over to the shoulder zvith their hoods up. People were
everyzvhere, zvalkitig up the hill to get water for their radiators.
I zvas cursing myself for taking the Five, but zve zvere stuck. We couldn't turn around.
We had to keep going up that long hill.
A couple of miles up the road, zve noticed a rest area and pulled over. As I opened the
hood of the car to see if everything zvas fine, my wife brought out the cooler and prepared ice
coffee for the both of us. We found a nice shady spot and sat on the curb, sipped the ice coffee,
and zvaited for the car to cool dozvn.
Sometime, in the middle of all this, there was a commercial on the car radio [zvhich I had
left on] for a "Crosby, Stills and Nash" concert at the Greek theater. I turned to my wife and
said, " You knozv, I have to say that I don' t feel like going to these concerts anymore."
It's funny, but somehozv, rock concerts and rock musicians ju st don't appeal to me as
much as they did zvhen I zvas back in India. First of all tickets for a rock concert in the U.S. are
exorbitantly expensive. And the tickets I can afford are usually for the ''nose-bleed'' seats where
75
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the performers are barely a speck. That's where all the " Yahoos" sit, all the loud, noisy,
boisterous people. All they do is drink beer and they' re hardly into the music at all.
To tell you the truth, many rock musicians, have fallen in my esteem. When I hear
Dylan or Neil Young, I feel it's not about a passion for music, but about money. I think they
know that "a message" sells tickets. I guess I'm just sick o f the commercialization.
The only person that I still hold regard for is Eric Clapton. M y ivife and I went to a
concert of his at the Forum in 1994 [in Los Angeles] and he just sat there in a tee shirt and jeans.
He didti't pretend that it was still the 60's, and play all the old music. Instead, he played one
blues song after another, and I didn't knozv most o f the songs. I guess I appreciate the fact that
Claptofi and his music have both matured with age.
Anyway, my wife and I sat at the rest stop off the Five for about an hour, sipping ice
coffee and talking about concerts and Eric Clapton. When the car cooled down, we loaded the
cooler into the backseat, and headed back to the grapevine, waiting and wondering what the
fiiture zuould hold for us.
76
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Creator Lewak, Susan Elizabeth (author)

Core Title Like a rolling stone: The oral history of a non-resident Indian in Los Angeles, California

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Degree Program Visual Anthropology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

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