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 Stories
about Indian doctors, engineers, professors and scientists excelling
in the US and earning respect among the average American citizens
are part of Indian folklore. However, it's difficult to make a
realistic assessment of these Des-Pardes stories as most of the
inputs filter through the media and family gossip.
In order to understand how desis are moving
America, the EWC (East West Center) Chennai Chapter organised a
public lecture by Prof Sreenath Srinivasan, Dean of Students and
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia
University, on June 27 in Chennai.
The well-attended function saw Prof Srinivasan
giving an erudite talk on the Indian American dream and telling the
distinguished audience how desis are breaking boundaries in various
fields of activity and moving America.
"Immigration from India in the 1960s and '70s was
very limited. There weren't many people of Indian origin in the US.
There were no Indian restaurants, grocery stores, video rental
stores or movie theatres. For Indians, the American Dream was just
to get a foothold in America and be economically comfortable. There
was apprehension and hesitation in their minds. America seemed so
far away and so alien to them. They were people with the wrong
colour, wrong accent and the wrong looks," Srinivasan said.
However, this is no more the case. The children
of Indian immigrants are now coming of age. They are shaping
American politics, public policy, art and culture in a big way.
There are thriving immigrant Indian communities across America. This
extends to college campuses where second generation Indian Americans
have forged powerful cultural and political organisations. "Most
interesting for me is the flowering of talent in non-technical
fields, such as media, entertainment and the arts," Srinivasan said.
Media
 "Not
long ago there were hardly any Indian sounding names on the magazine
and publication mastheads. Now, names like Fareed Zakaria adorn the
editorial column of the prestigious 'Newsweek'. Rajiv Chandrasekaran
is assistant managing editor of 'The Washington Post'. Ramesh
Ponnuru is senior editor for 'National Review magazine'," Srinivasan,
who is co-founder of South Asian Journalists Association (www.saja.org),
said.
Zain Verjee, Sumi Das, Aneesh Raman, Ali Velshi,
Mish Michaels, meteorologist for the Weather Channel, Uma Pemmaraju
on Fox News, and Sukanya Krishnan on CW11 Morning News, are a few
names that have become a fixture on US mainstream television, Prof
Srinivasan said, adding that Dr Sanjay Gupta is a medical star on
the CNN and Rena Golden is senior vice-president at CNN
International.
"There seems to be a strong drive to express the
unique experience among the second generation Indian Americans. The
number of actors, playwrights, movie directors, novelists,
journalists and musicians is really striking, especially when
contrasted with the doctors, engineers and college professors that
characterised the early immigrant generation," Srinivasan said.
Entertainment
"With Bollywood blood flowing in their veins, it
is not surprising that young Indians are enamoured of the
entertainment industry. M. Night Shyamalan churns out multi-million
dollar blockbusters in Hollywood. Naveen Andrews, Sarita Chowdhury,
Ajay Naidu, Kal Penn, Aasif Mandvi, Sheetal Sheth and Purva Bedi are
all celebrities in the US movie and television industry.
"The arts and entertainment world has many well-recognised
Indian names. You have Manu Narayan taking the Broadway stage for
Bombay Dreams, Suphala playing Indian tablas for mainstream
audiences. Sameer Samuel Bhattacharya is one of two guitarists in
the Texas alternative band Flyleaf and, of course, Norah Jones the
pop star and her half-sister Anoushka Shankar an international sitar
player."
Politics
 To
the immigrant generation of the '60s and '70s, politics extended as
far as photo-ops and political fund-raisers. Actually standing for
office was entirely out of the question; a vast majority was not
even citizens. Now so many Indian Americans are moving into
political office or moving up the ranks of public policy that it's
hard to keep track. Indian Americans are exerting political clout on
the local, state and national level as never before, Prof Srinivasan
said.
"The most striking example is Bobby Jindal, who,
at 33, became the first Indian American to be elected to the House
of Representatives from Louisiana in a landslide with 78 per cent
votes. Another example is Neera Tanden, policy advisor for Hillary
Clinton's presidential campaign. Neera works closely with Hillary on
her policies and proposals as a presidential candidate, dealing with
issues from immigration to education."
"No discussion about Indian Americans would be
complete if the names like
Indra Nooyi,
Sunita Williams and Jhumpa Lahiri are not mentioned. Indra Nooyi is
the chairwoman of PepsiCo and Sunita Williams has just returned from
six months' space odyssey with a NASA team. Pulitzer Prize winner
Jhumpa Lahiri is vice-president of PEN," the US professor said.
P M Belliappa (retd IAS), president of the EWC
Chennai Chapter, briefed the audience about the East West Center and
its activities in Chennai. Ragani Gupta, cultural counsel at the US
Consulate, Chennai, opened up the discussion citing her example how
Indian Americans are branching out to different professions in the
US. Kamalendra Kanwar, former resident editor, The New Indian
Express, spoke about the changing profile of international media
coverage about India from negative to positive news stories.
There was a lively Q&A session after the main
speaker's speech. Fatima Muzaffar, alumni of EWC, Hawaii, proposed a
vote of thanks to the dignitaries and the distinguished audience for
making this EWC event a grand success.
Syed Ali Mujtaba
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