Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are Americans with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans.
Contents
1 Terminology
2 History
2.1 Pre 1800
2.2 19th century
2.3 20th century
2.4 21st century
3 Demographics
3.1 U.S. metropolitan areas with large Asian Indian populations
3.2 List of U.S. states by the population of Asian Indians
4 Statistics
5 Socioeconomic status
5.1 Education
5.2 Household income
6 Culture
6.1 Media
7 Religion
7.1 Hindus
7.2 Sikhs
7.3 Jains
7.4 Muslims
7.5 Christians
7.6 Others
7.7 Ethnicity
7.8 Linguistic affiliation
8 Progress
8.1 Timeline
8.2 Classification
8.3 Citizenship
9 Current issues
9.1 Discrimination
9.2 Illegal immigration
9.3 Immigration
9.4 Media
10 Politics
11 Notable people
12 See also
13 References
14 Further reading
15 External links
Terminology
In the Americas, the term "Indian" has historically been used for indigenous people since European colonization in the 15th century. Qualifying terms such as "American Indian" and "East Indian" were and still are commonly used in order to avoid ambiguity. The U.S. government has since coined the term "Native American" in reference to the indigenous peoples of the United States, but terms such as "American Indian" remain popular among indigenous as well as non-indigenous populations. Since the 1980s, Indian Americans have been categorized as "Asian Indian" (within the broader subgroup of Asian American) by the United States Census Bureau.[7]
While "East Indian" remains in use, the term "South Asian" is often chosen instead for academic and governmental purposes.[8] Indian Americans are included in the census grouping of "South Asian Americans", which includes Afghan Americans, Bangladeshi Americans, Bhutanese Americans, Burmese Americans, Nepalese Americans, Pakistani Americans, and Sri Lankan Americans.
History
See also: Asian immigration to the United States
Pre 1800
Beginning in the 17th century, the East India Company began bringing indentured Indian servants to the American colonies.[9] In 1680, due to anti-miscegenation laws, a mixed-race girl born to an Indian father and an Irish mother was classified as mulatto and sold into slavery.[9]
The Naturalization Act of 1790 made Asians ineligible for citizenship.[10]
19th century
The first significant wave of Indian immigrants entered the United States in the 19th century. By 1900, there were more than two thousand Indian Sikhs living in the United States, primarily in California.[11] (At least one scholar has set the level lower, finding a total of 716 Indian immigrants to the U.S. between 1820 and 1900.[12]) Emigration from India was driven by difficulties facing Indian farmers, including the challenges posed by the British land tenure system for small landowners, and by drought and food shortages, which worsened in the 1890s. At the same time, Canadian steamship companies, acting on behalf of Pacific coast employers, recruited Sikh farmers with economic opportunities in British Columbia. Racist attacks in British Columbia, however, prompted Sikhs and new Sikh immigrants to move down the Pacific Coast to Washington and Oregon, where they worked in lumber mills and in the railroad industry.[12] Many Punjabi Sikhs who settled in California, around the Yuba City area, formed close ties with Mexican Americans.[9] The presence of Indian Americans also helped develop interest in Eastern religions in the US and would result in its influence on American philosophies such as Transcendentalism. Swami Vivekananda arriving in Chicago at the World's Fair led to the establishment of the Vedanta Society.
20th century
Between 1907 and 1908, Sikhs moved further south to warmer climates in California, where they were employed by various railroad companies. Some white Americans, resentful of economic competition and the arrival of people from different cultures, responded to Sikh immigration with racism and violent attacks.[12] The Bellingham riots in Bellingham, Washington on September 5, 1907 epitomized the low tolerance in the U.S. for Indians and Sikhs, who were called "hindoos" by locals. While anti-Asian racism was embedded in U.S. politics and culture in the early 20th century, Indians were also racialized for their anticolonialism, with U.S. officials pushing for Western imperial expansion abroad casting them as a "Hindu" menace. Although labeled Hindu, the majority of Indians were Sikh.[13] In the early 20th century, a range of state and federal laws restricted Indian immigration and the rights of Indian immigrants in the U.S. In the 1910s, American nativist organizations campaigned to end immigration from India, culminating in the passage of the Barred Zone Act in 1917. In 1913, the Alien Land Act of California prevented Sikhs (in addition to Japanese and Chinese immigrants) from owning land. However, Asian immigrants got around the system by having Anglo friends or their own U.S. born children legally own the land that they worked on. In some states, anti-miscegenation laws made it illegal for Indian men to marry white women. However, it was legal for "brown" races to mix. Many Indian men, especially Punjabi men, married Hispanic women and Punjabi-Mexican marriages became a norm in the West.[12][14]
Mohini Bhardwaj, 2004 Summer Olympics medalist in gymnastics
Bhicaji Balsara became the first known Indian to gain naturalized U.S. citizenship. As a Parsi, he was considered a "pure member of the Persian sect" and therefore a "free white person". The judge Emile Henry Lacombe, of the Southern District of New York, only gave Balsara citizenship on the hope that the United States attorney would indeed challenge his decision and appeal it to create "an authoritative interpretation" of the law. The U.S. attorney adhered to Lacombe's wishes and took the matter to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1910. The Circuit Court of Appeal agreed that Parsis are classified as white.[15]
A. K. Mozumdar was also considered "Caucasian" and therefore eligible for citizenship. Between 1913 and 1923, about 100 Indians were naturalized.
In 1923, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind that Indians were ineligible for citizenship because they were not "free white persons".[12] The Court argued that the "great body of our people" would reject Indians.[16] Over fifty Indians had their citizenship revoked after this decision, but Sakharam Ganesh Pandit fought against denaturalization. He was a lawyer and married to a white American, and he regained his citizenship in 1927. However, no other naturalization was permitted after the ruling, which led to about 3,000 Indians leaving the United States. Many other Indians had no means of returning to India. One such immigrant, Vaisho Das Bagai, committed suicide in despair: "The return migration was large enough to render questionable the idea of immigration as a one-way system."[12]
After the Immigration Act of 1917, Indian immigration into the U.S. decreased. Illegal entry through the Mexican border became the way of entering the country for Punjabi immigrants. California’s Imperial Valley had a large population of Punjabis who assisted these immigrants and provided support. Immigrants were able to blend in with this relatively homogenous population. The Ghadar Party, a group in California that opposed British rule of India, facilitated illegal crossing of the Mexican border, using funds from this migration "as a means to bolster the party’s finances".[14] The Ghadar Party charged different prices for entering the US depending on whether Punjabi immigrants were willing to shave off their beard and cut their hair. It is estimated that between 1920 and 1935, about 1,800 to 2,000 Indian immigrants entered the U.S. illegally.[14]
Indians started moving up the social ladder by getting higher education. In 1910, Dhan Gopal Mukerji came to UC Berkeley when he was 20 years old. He was an author of many children’s books and won the Newbery Medal in 1928 for his book Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon. However, he committed suicide at the age of 46 while he was suffering from depression. Another student, Yellapragada Subbarow, came to the U.S. in 1922. He became a biochemist at Harvard University, and he "discovered the function of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as an energy source in cells, and developed methotrexate for the treatment of cancer." However, being a foreigner, he was refused tenure at Harvard. Gobind Behari Lal, who came to UC Berkeley in 1912, became the science editor of the San Francisco Examiner and was the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.[14]
After WWII, U.S. policy re-opened the door to Indian immigration, although slowly at first. The Luce–Celler Act of 1946 Luce–Celler Act of 1946 permitted a quota of 100 Indians per year to immigrate to the U.S. It also allowed Indian immigrants to naturalize and become citizens of the U.S., effectively reversing the Supreme Court’s 1923 ruling in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind.[17] The Naturalization Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, repealed the Barred Zone Act of 1917, but limited immigration from the former Barred Zone to a total of 2,000 per year. In 1910, 95% of all Indian Americans lived on the western coast of the United States. In 1920, that proportion decreased to 75%; by 1940, it was 65%, as more Indian Americans moved to the east coast. In that year, Indian Americans were registered residents in 43 states. The majority of Indian Americans on the west coast were in rural areas, but on the east coast they became residents of urban areas. In the 1940s, the prices of the land increased, and the Bracero program brought thousands of Mexican guest workers to work on farms, which helped shift second-generation Indian American farmers into "commercial, nonagricultural occupations, from running small shops and grocery stores, to operating taxi services and becoming engineers." In Stockton and Sacramento, a new group of Indian immigrants from the state of Gujarat opened several small hotels.[14] In 1955, 14 of 21 hotels enterprises in San Francisco were operated by Gujarati Hindus. By the 1980s, Gujaratis had come to "dominate the industry." An article published by National Geographic mentions several stories of Gujarati immigrants in the hospitality industry.[18] The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional Northern European groups, which would significantly alter the demographic mix in the U.S.[19] Not all Indian Americans came directly from India; some came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, (South Africa, the former British colonies of East Africa,[20] (namely Kenya, Tanzania), and Uganda, Mauritius), the Asia-Pacific region (Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Fiji),[20] and the Caribbean (Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Jamaica).[20] From 1965 until the mid-1990s, long-term immigration from Indian averaged about 40,000 people per year. From 1995 onward, the flow of Indian immigration increased significantly, reaching a high of about 90,000 immigrants in the year 2000.[14]
21st century
The beginning of the 21st century marked a huge significance in the migration trend from India to the United States. The implementation of Privatization and liberalization had changed the entire outflow of migrants. The emergence of Information Technology industry in Indian cities as Bangalore and Hyderabad had led to the large number of migrations to the USA primarily from the erstwhile states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in South India. There are sizable population of people from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala who have settled in different parts of the United States. Indians comprise over 80% of all H-1B visas.
In the last twenty years, a large number of students have started migrating to the United States to pursue higher education. A variety of estimates state that over 500,000 Indian American students attend higher-education institutions in any given year.[21][22] As per Institute of International Education (IIE) 'Opendoors' report, 202,014 new students from India enrolled in US education institutions.[23] Organizations like the North American Association of Indian Students help organize for the large demographic.
Demographics
See also: Indians in the New York City metropolitan region
India Square, in the heart of Bombay, Jersey City, New Jersey, US, home to the highest concentration of Asian Indians in the Western Hemisphere,[24] is one of at least 24 Indian American enclaves characterized as a Little India which have emerged within the New York City Metropolitan Area, with the largest metropolitan Indian population outside Asia, as large-scale immigration from India continues into New York.[25][26][27]
According to the 2010 United States Census,[28] the Asian Indian population in the United States grew from almost 1,678,765 in 2000 (0.6% of U.S. population) to 2,843,391 in 2010 (0.9% of U.S. population), a growth rate of 69.37%, one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States.[29][30]
The New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area, consisting of New York City, Long Island, and adjacent areas within New York, as well as nearby areas within the states of New Jersey (extending to Trenton), Connecticut (extending to Bridgeport), and including Pike County, Pennsylvania, was home to an estimated 711,174 uniracial Indian Americans as of the 2017 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, comprising by far the largest Indian American population of any metropolitan area in the United States;[31] New York City itself also contains by far the highest Indian American population of any individual city in North America, estimated at 246,454 as of 2017.[32] Monroe Township, Middlesex County, in central New Jersey, the geographic heart of the Northeast megalopolis, has displayed one of the fastest growth rates of its Indian population in the Western Hemisphere, increasing from 256 (0.9%) as of the 2000 Census[33] to an estimated 5,943 (13.6%) as of 2017,[34] representing a 2,221.5% (a multiple of 23) numerical increase over that period, including many affluent professionals and senior citizens. In 2014, 12,350 Indians legally immigrated to the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA core based statistical area;[35] As of December 2019, Indian airline carrier Air India as well as United States airline carrier United Airlines were offering direct flights from the New York City Metropolitan Area to and from Delhi and Mumbai. In May 2019, Delta Air Lines announced non-stop flight service between New York JFK and Mumbai, to begin on December 22, 2019.[36] At least twenty Indian American enclaves characterized as a Little India have emerged in the New York City Metropolitan Area.
Other metropolitan areas with large Indian American populations include Atlanta, Baltimore–Washington, Boston, Chicago, Dallas–Ft. Worth, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco–San Jose–Oakland.
The three oldest Indian American communities going back to around 1910 are in lesser populated agricultural areas like Stockton, California south of Sacramento; the Central Valley of California like Yuba City; and Imperial County, California aka Imperial Valley. These were all primarily Sikh settlements.
Census Bureau 2000, Asian Indians in the United States.png
U.S. metropolitan areas with large Asian Indian populations
Asian Indian population in Metropolitan Statistical Areas of the United States of America
Metropolitan Statistical Area Indian American
population (2010)[37] Total population (2010) % of Total
population Combined Statistical Area
New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY–NJ–PA 526,133 18,897,109 2.8% New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI 171,901 9,461,105 1.8% Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI
Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV 127,963 5,582,170 2.3% Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 119,901 12,828,837 0.9% Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA 119,854 4,335,391 2.8% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 117,711 1,836,911 6.4% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX 100,386 6,371,773 1.6% Dallas-Fort Worth, TX-OK
Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, TX 91,637 5,946,800 1.5% Houston-The Woodlands, TX
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 90,286 5,965,343 1.5% Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA 78,980 5,268,860 1.5% Atlanta–Athens-Clarke County–Sandy Springs, GA
Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH 62,598 4,552,402 1.4% Boston–Worcester–Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT
Detroit–Warren–Livonia, MI 55,087 4,296,250 1.3% Detroit-Warren-Ann Arbor, MI
Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA 52,652 3,439,809 1.5% Seattle-Tacoma, WA
Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach, FL 41,334 5,564,635 0.7% Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Port St. Lucie, FL
Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD 32,193 2,710,489 1.2% Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA
Phoenix–Mesa–Glendale, AZ 31,203 4,192,887 0.7%
Minneapolis-St. Paul–Bloomington, MN-WI 29,453 3,279,833 0.9% Minneapolis-St. Paul MN-WI
Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, FL 26,105 2,134,411 1.2% Orlando–Deltona–Daytona Beach, FL
San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 24,306 3,095,313 0.8% [38]
Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, CA 23,587 4,224,851 0.6% Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater, FL 23,526 2,783,243 0.8%
Austin-Round Rock, TX 23,503 1,716,289 1.4%
Raleigh, NC 20,192 1,130,490 1.8% Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Columbus, OH 19,529 1,836,536 1.1% Columbus–Marion–Zanesville, OH
Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT 18,764 1,212,381 1.5% Hartford-East Hartford, CT
St. Louis, MO–IL 16,874 2,812,896 0.6% St. Louis–St. Charles–Farmington, MO–IL
Fresno, CA 15,469 930,450 1.7% Fresno–Madera, CA
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT 15,439 916,829 1.7% New York–Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA
Trenton, NJ 15,352 366,513 4.2% New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA
Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR-WA 15,117 2,226,009 0.7% Portland–Vancouver–Salem, OR-WA
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 14,696 2,130,151 0.7% Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN
Pittsburgh, PA 14,568 2,356,285 0.6% Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV
Cleveland–Elyria, OH 14,215 2,077,240 0.7% Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH
Stockton, CA 12,951 685,306 1.9% San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA
Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO 13,649 2,543,482 0.5% Denver–Aurora, CO
Richmond, VA 12,926 1,258,251 1.0%
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN 12,669 1,756,241 0.7% Indianapolis-Carmel-Muncie, IN
Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI[39] 11,945 1,555,908 0.8% Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, CI
Kansas City, MO-KS 11,646 2,035,334 0.6% Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 3,534 422,610 0.9% Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Area
While the table above provides a picture of the population of Indian American (alone) and Asian Americans (alone) in some of the metropolitan areas of the US, it is incomplete as it does not include multi-racial Asian Americans. Please note that data for multi-racial Asian Americans has not yet been released by the US Census Bureau.
List of U.S. states by the population of Asian Indians
Asian-Indian population by states
State Asian Indian population
(2010 Census)[40] % of state's population
(2010 Census) Asian Indian population
(2000 Census) % change
(2000–2010)
California 528,120 1.42% 314,819 46.6%
New York 313,620 1.62% 251,724 5.9%
New Jersey 292,256 3.32% 169,180 72.7%
Texas 245,981 0.98% 129,365 90.1%
Illinois 188,328 1.47% 124,723 51.0%
Florida 128,735 0.68% 70,740 82.0%
Virginia 103,916 1.30% 48,815 112.9%
Pennsylvania 103,026 0.81% 57,241 80.0%
Georgia 96,116 0.99% 46,132 108.3%
Maryland 79,051 1.37% 49,909 58.4%
Massachusetts 77,177 1.18% 43,801 76.2%
Michigan 77,132 0.78% 54,656 41.1%
Ohio 64,187 0.56% 38,752 65.6%
Washington 61,124 0.91% 23,992 154.8%
North Carolina 57,400 0.60% 26,197 119.1%
Connecticut 46,415 1.30% 23,662 96.2%
Arizona 36,047 0.56% 14,741 144.5%
Minnesota 33,031 0.52% 16,887 95.6%
Indiana 27,598 0.43% 14,865 85.7%
Tennessee 23,900 0.38% 12,835 86.2%
Missouri 23,223 0.39% 12,169 90.8%
Wisconsin 22,899 0.40% 12,665 80.85
Colorado 20,369 0.41% 11,720 73.8%
Oregon 16,740 0.44% 9,575 74.8%
South Carolina 15,941 0.34% 8,856 80.0%
Kansas 13,852 0.49% 8,153 69.9%
Alabama 13,036 0.27% 6,900 88.9%
Kentucky 12,501 0.29% 6,771 84.6%
Oklahoma 11,906 0.32% 8,502 40.0%
Nevada 11,671 0.43% 5,535 110.9%
Delaware 11,424 1.27% 5,280 116.4%
Louisiana 11,174 0.25% 8,280 35.0%
Iowa 11,081 0.36% 5,641 96.4%
New Hampshire 8,268 0.63% 3,873 113.5%
Arkansas 7,973 0.27% 3,104 156.9%
Utah 6,212 0.22% 3,065 102.7%
Nebraska 5,903 0.32% 3,273 80.4%
Mississippi 5,494 0.19% 3,827 43.6%
Washington, D.C. 5,214 0.87% 2,845 83.3%
Rhode Island 4,653 0.44% 2,942 58.2%
New Mexico 4,550 0.22% 3,104 46.6%
Puerto Rico 3,523 0.09% 4,789 −26.4%
West Virginia 3,304 0.18% 2,856 15.7%
Hawaii 2,201 0.16% 1,441 52.7%
Idaho 2,152 0.14% 1,289 67.0%
Maine 1,959 0.15% 1,021 91.9%
North Dakota 1,543 0.23% 822 87.7%
Vermont 1,359 0.22% 858 58.4%
Alaska 1,218 0.17% 723 68.5%
South Dakota 1,152 0.14% 611 88.5%
Montana 618 0.06% 379 63.1%
Wyoming 589 0.10% 354 66.4%
Total Asian-Indian population in US 2,843,391 0.92% 1,678,765 69.4%
Historical population
Year Pop. ±%
1910 2,545 —
1920 2,507 −1.5%
1930 3,130 +24.9%
1940 2,405 −23.2%
1980 361,531 +14932.5%
1990 815,447 +125.6%
2000 1,678,765 +105.9%
2010 2,843,391 +69.4%
2017 4,402,362 +54.8%
2020 5400000+ —
Statistics
The United States is host to the second largest Indian diaspora on the planet
In 2006, of the 1,266,264 legal immigrants to the United States, 58,072 were from India. Between 2000 and 2006, 421,006 Indian immigrants were admitted to the U.S., up from 352,278 during the 1990–1999 period.[43] According to the 2000 U.S. census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 percent. The average growth rate for the U.S. was 7.6 percent. Indians comprise 16.4 percent of the Asian-American community. In 2000, the Indian-born population in the U.S. was 1.007 million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the U.S. grew 130% – 10 times the national average of 13%. Indian Americans are the third largest Asian American ethnic group, following Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.[44][45][46]
A joint Duke University – UC Berkeley study revealed that Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan combined.[47] The percentage of Silicon Valley startups founded by Indian immigrants has increased from 7% in 1999 to 15.5% in 2006, as reported in the 1999 study by AnnaLee Saxenian [48] and her updated work in 2006 in collaboration with Vivek Wadhawa.[49] Indian Americans are making their way to the top positions of almost every big technology company (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe, Softbank, Cognizant, Sun microsystems, etc.) Many of them came from very humble origins, for example the current google CEO "Sundar Pichai did not have the privilege of watching television or travelling by car during his childhood. Born and raised in a middle class household, Mr. Pichai used to sleep with his brother in the living room of their two-room apartment that barely had any technology. Despite facing these hardships of everyday life in India, Pichai had a gleam in his eyes of sheer ambition and relentless pursuit."[50]
A recent study shows that 23% of Indian business school graduates take a job in United States.[51]
In 2014, the Pew Research Center published an article listing some more interesting facts about Indian Americans.[52]
Year Asian Indians (per ACS)
2005 2,319,222
2006 2,482,141
2007 2,570,166
2008 2,495,998
2009 2,602,676
2010 2,765,155
2011 2,908,204
2012 3,049,201
2013 3,189,485
2014 3,491,052
2015 3,699,957
2016 3,813,407
2017 4,094,539
Socioeconomic status
See also: Contribution of Indian diaspora and Indianisation
Manjul Bhargava, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and Fields Medal winner.
Indian Americans continuously outpace every other ethnic group socioeconomically per U.S. Census statistics.[53] Thomas Friedman, in his 2005 book The World Is Flat, explains this trend in terms of brain drain, whereby the best and brightest elements in India emigrate to the US in order to seek better financial opportunities.[54] Indians form the second largest group of physicians after non-Hispanic whites (3.9%) as of the 1990 survey, and the percentage of Indian physicians rose to around 6% in 2005.[55]
Education
According to Pew Research in 2015, of Indian Americans aged 25 and older, 72% had obtained a bachelor's degree and 40% had obtained a postgraduate degree, whereas of all Americans, 19% had obtained a bachelor's degree and 11% had obtained a postgraduate degree.[56]
Household income
The median household income for Indian immigrants in 2015 was much higher than that of the overall foreign- and native-born populations. Households headed by Indian immigrants had a median income of $101,591, compared to $51,000 and $56,000 for overall immigrant and native-born households, respectively. By far they are the richest and most successful ethnic group in the USA due to many factors including relatively low wages for highly skilled workers in India which creates an incentive for highly skilled Indians to immigrate.
Approximately 7 percent of Indian immigrants lived in poverty in 2015, a much lower rate than the foreign-born population overall and the U.S. born (17 percent and 14 percent, respectively).[57]
Culture
Media
Media
Sheetal Sheth Publicity Still 5.jpg
Sheetal Sheth
NorahJones Parque Independencia 2010.jpg
Norah Jones is an American singer, songwriter, and actress.
Punjabi and Hindi radio stations are available in areas with high Indian populations, for example, Punjabi Radio USA in California and Easy96.com in the New York City metropolitan area, KLOK 1170 AM in San Francisco, RBC Radio; Radio Humsafar, Desi Junction in Chicago; Radio Salaam Namaste and FunAsia Radio in Dallas; and Masala Radio, FunAsia Radio, Sangeet Radio, Radio Naya Andaz in Houston and Washington Bangla Radio on Internet from the Washington DC Metro Area. There are also some radio stations broadcasting in Tamil and Telugu within these communities.[58][59] Houston-based Kannada Kaaranji radio focuses on a multitude of programs for children and adults.[60]
AVS (Asian Variety Show) and Namaste America are nationally available South Asian programming available free to air and can be watched with a television antenna.
Several cable and satellite television providers offer Indian channels: Sony TV, Zee TV, TV Asia, Star Plus, Sahara One, Colors, Big Magic, regional channels, and others have offered Indian content for subscription, such as the Cricket World Cup. There is also an American cricket channel called Willow.
Many metropolitan areas with large Indian American populations now have movie theaters which specialize in showing Indian movies, especially from Bollywood and Telugu cinema.
In July 2005, MTV premiered a spin-off network called MTV Desi which targets Indian Americans.[61] It has been discontinued by MTV.
In 2012, the film Not a Feather, but a Dot directed by Teju Prasad, was released which investigates the history, perceptions and changes in the Indian American community over the last century.
In popular media, several Indian American personalities have made their mark in recent years, including Kovid Gupta, Kal Penn, Hari Kondabolu, Karan Brar, Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, and Mindy Kaling.
Religion
Religious Makeup of Indian-Americans (2012)[62]
Hinduism (51%)
Protestantism (11%)
Islam (10%)
Unaffiliated (10%)
Catholicism (5%)
Sikhism (5%)
Jainism (2%)
Other Christian (2%)
Other (Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Bahá’ís, and Indian Jews) (4%)
Indian religions in US
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Akshardham, New Jersey, one of the largest Hindu temples.[63]
Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose
Jain Center of Greater Phoenix (JCGP)
Communities of Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Indian Jews have established their religions in the United States. According to 2012 Pew Research Center research, 51% consider themselves Hindu, 18% as Christian (Protestant 11%, Catholic 5%, other Christian 3%), 10% as unaffiliated, 10% as Muslims, 5% as Sikh, 2% as Jain.[6] The first religious center of an Indian religion to be established in the US was a Sikh Gurudwara in Stockton, California in 1912. Today there are many Sikh Gurudwaras, Hindu temples, Christian churches, and Buddhist and Jain temples in all 50 states.
Hindus
Further information: Hinduism in the United States
Nikki Haley and other Indian Americans participated in the Diwali celebrations at the White House, 2017
Some have claimed that as of 2008, the American Hindu population was around 2.2 million,[64] but this estimation is based on the flawed assumption that percentage of Hindus among Indian Americans is the same as in India. Regardless, Hindus are the majority of Indian Americans.[65][66] Many organizations such as ISKCON, Swaminarayan Sampraday, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Chinmaya Mission, and Swadhyay Pariwar are well-established in the U.S. Hindu Americans have formed the Hindu American Foundation which represents American Hindus and aim to educate people about Hinduism. Swami Vivekananda brought Hinduism to the West at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions.[67] The Vedanta Society has been important in subsequent Parliaments. Today, many Hindu temples, most of them built by Indian Americans, have emerged in different cities and towns in the United States.[68][69] More than 18 million Americans are now practicing some form of Yoga. Kriya Yoga was introduced to America by Paramahansa Yogananda. A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiated the popular ISKCON, also known as the Hare Krishna movement, while preaching Bhakti yoga.
Sikhs
Further information: Sikhism in the United States
There are nearly 30 million Sikhs around the world today, and a vast majority of them live in the Indian state of Punjab. There is also a robust and flourishing diaspora, with communities large and small all over the globe. Much of the diaspora is concentrated in the commonwealth due to migration within the British empire, yet Sikhs continue to establish themselves in various countries throughout the world.
From the time of their arrival in the late 1800s, Sikh men and women have been making notable contributions to American society. In 2007, there were estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the United States, with largest populations living on the East and West Coasts, together with additional populations in Detroit, Chicago, and Austin. The United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism. Sikh men are typically identifiable by their unshorn beards and turbans (head coverings), articles of their faith. Many organisations like World Sikh Organisation (WSO), Sikh Riders of America, SikhNet, Sikh Coalition, SALDEF, United Sikhs, National Sikh Campaign continue to educate people about Sikhism. There are many "Gurudwaras" Sikh temples present in all states of USA.
Jains
Further information: Jainism in the United States
Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s. The US has since become a center of the Jain diaspora. The Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations.[70] Unlike India and United Kingdom, the Jain community in United States doesn't find sectarian differences, Both Digambara and Śvētāmbara a share common roof.
Muslims
South Asian Muslims (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) population is about 33% of all Muslims in USA, which makes approximately 400,000 Muslims of India (After 1947) origin living in United States of America.[71] American Muslims of Indian origin is a vibrant community actively engaged in various social, political and economic activities taking place all over the country.[72] The community has major presence either connecting themselves to Hyderabad regions of India or from North India, Delhi, UP and particularly the alumni circle of premier institutions like Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. There are American Indian Muslims from other part of India as well like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal etc.
India, being a secular country based upon ideals of Gandhi, has always represented the causes of community of Indian Origin including both Hindus and Muslims and others. Indian Muslims have represented and served for India’s cause at all top positions when it comes to Indian American partnership. Indian Muslims are actively engaged with cultural/social activities organized by Indian consulates and embassies all across the United Stated of America.
American Indian Muslims are actively engaged in all the events formally organized such as Indian Independence Day August 15th programs, Republic Day January 26th celebrations and Gandhi Jayanti. American Indian Muslims contribute significantly in various India Fests organized in various parts of the country like New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago by adding events like Urdu Mushaira, Hindu Kavi-sammelan, Kawwali programs etc. Bollywood movie songs are always part of all kinds of every celebration and events organized by American Indian Mu