The sheer crudity of the NRI “bulldozer” rally in the armpit town of Edison NJ reminded me of something I wrote in 2010. Its about how they think and behave in the USA. They are increasingly shrill, noisy and have little interest in their chosen country. All of us have many in our families who are now NRIs in America. Without exception they think that being better off economically than most of us who choose to be here or chose to come back, they know more. My favorite one is a liquor shop owner who spends hours haranguing me on how to set right India? It featured this very same town of Edison, a perennial hotspot of Indian-American racism and parochialism.
On July 2, 2010 Joel Stein wrote a witty and perfectly appropriate column in TIME Magazine “My Own Private India” about a town called Edison in New Jersey. Stein was thoroughly excoriated as racist and anti-Indian by people purporting to represent the Indian community in the USA. Stein wilted under the onslaught and responded: “I truly feel stomach sick that I have hurt so many people.” Except for a few self-proclaimed leaders who found their five minutes of fame, there is little evidence to suggest that “so many people” were hurt. TIME chipped in with an apology of its own but apparently not convinced about the extent of anger said: “we sincerely regret that any of our readers were upset by this humor column of Joel Stein’s” Very clever indeed, which is why TIME is what it is. But why did Stein and TIME have to cave in to a small number of caviling and self-proclaimed representatives of the Indian American community? Stein’s piece was inoffensive, whimsical and cleverly humorous. A better response for him would have been to ask the protestors to stuff it or be cleverly conditional in expressing regret, like his magazine.
Now about Edison, that neighbor of Newark and a transportation hub with an extensive network of highways such as the US Route 1 and which also sits astride a five mile length of the New Jersey Turnpike. Edison’s only other claim to fame seems to be that it has so far resisted attempts by Wal-Mart to open a store near the junction of New Jersey Route 27 and Interstate 287. Edison was incorporated as Raritan Township and became Edison in 1954 ostensibly hoping to ride piggyback on the name of the great inventor who had made it his home in 1876. For many decades Edison has been a magnet for Indian immigrants, particularly those from the Indian state of Gujarat. Today over 17% of its estimated population of about 102,000 is identified as Indian American, most of them Gujarati. I have driven through Edison NJ on a few occasions and it is not the kind of town I would even want to stop by for a coffee. Its at once grungy and noisy, seems to teem with Indians noisily looking for bargains or cheap desi food.
Desi means homegrown and is used in a self-pejorative manner by almost all NRI’s when referring to a fellow Indian. At last count there were over 2.5 million desi’s in the US. The US Census2000 map shows that Indian Americans (officially called Asian Indians) tend to concentrate themselves in certain areas. Whenever I visit the USA it never ceases to amaze me that my Indian American friends and relatives seem to only socialize with other desi’s. They do tend to flock together. The USA has a fair number of Indian American clusters. But it is Edison that has the highest concentration. Indian Americans have the highest median incomes in the USA and are generally white-collar professionals in most parts of the USA. Edison’s Indian American community however has a fair sprinkling of less well off people doing jobs which probably fetch them much less than the median Indian American income. It shows easily.
One out of five desi’s is of Gujarati origin, and like Indian’s from other regions tend to live and socialize within themselves. Gujarati’s, referred to within the desi community as gujju’s, are more entrepreneurial by nature and tend to be in business. The 400,000 strong Gujarati Diaspora in the USA consequently has a smaller proportion of professionals. They now own more than half the economy lodging properties in the USA. Since a large proportion of the Gujarati’s in the USA have the Patel surname, these hotels are popularly referred to among the Indian American community as “potels” and quite often are places that rent out rooms by the hour.
Indians, in general, are very racist and color conscious and our standards of political correctness are not very high. Our discourse is laced with racist and derogatory references to others. The desi community in the USA is not very different. Mira Nair’s 1991 movie “Mississippi Masala” set among the Indian American community living in steaming Biloxi, Miss., captures in full all the prejudices and inward looking mores prevalent in Hindu society back home carrying on as before among an expatriate Indian American community. The story is about the romance a girl of Ugandan Indian Gujarati origin and a handsome African American, played by Denzel Washington. But expectedly the family and friends, mostly in the potel business, vigorously oppose the romance with a kalu, as persons of African origin are derogatively referred to by desi’s.
Indians also generally derogatively refer to White people as goras when not referring to them as white monkeys. Most Indian matrimonial advertisements seek fair skinned brides and within India people from the lighter skinned north tend to look down upon the darker skinned south Indian. Hindi language movies often have a bit of comedy in them featuring a south Indian speaking Hindi in a typically south Indian way. More often than not the Hindi actor playing the south Indian wears a boot black tan like Blackface minstrels did in the Hollywood movies of yester year. The point is Indians, by and large, are very racist and very color conscious. Few desi’s will contest that. And they shouldn’t be complaining.
For a people who tend to look down on some many of our own for reasons of color, caste and race, Indians seem to becoming notoriously thin skinned. As America’s wealthiest median income community they are now bigger players in US politics with PAC’s active in serving the many Indian causes, be it the Civil Nuclear deal with the USA or increase in the number of work visas. Many Congressmen, like Frank Pallone, who represents New Jersey’s 6th district which includes Edison, have a great many Indian American constituents and increasingly pander to them. The economic clout of the Indian American is also felt in many ways. Its good that they have begun to flex their muscles a bit. But it is not good that they are becoming more parochial, sectarian, racist and thin-skinned.
Mohan Guruswamy
Email: mohanguru@gmail.com
Source of original Article: https://www.facebook.com/1500196238/posts/10222789545036115/?flite=scwspnss&mibextid=92GBGQbpgFhJtxLr
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