People of South-Asian origin living in the United States have emigrated mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. Some scholars of South Asia also include Burma and Tibet in this group, while others see them as being part of East and Southeast Asia. Immigration to the United States from South Asia can be divided into two main phases. The early phase, from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1920s, was marked by the arrival in California of immigrant farmers and laborers from the state of Punjab in India. Initially absorbed into the economy as cheap labor, these Punjabi farmers made significant contributions to the development of large-scale agribusiness in California. This was the period during which the immigration laws in the US discriminated against Asian immigration. Many of the Punjabi men, who had arrived single in America, married Mexican women leading to the creation of that awkward category of people called “Mexican Hindus.” Members of the PunjabiMexican second generation imbibed both cultures, but defined themselves consciously as Americans.

The second phase of South-Asian immigration to the US was ushered in by changes in the Immigration and Naturalization Act in 1965. Large numbers of Indians started entering the country as, for the first time, a person’s right to enter the United States did not depend on race. The new Act allowed people with skills to immigrate and, subsequently professionals from various countries took advantage of the legal welcome.

By 1995 there were approximately 1 million Asian Indians, constituting the largest group among South Asians in the United States. The post-1965 immigrants came from different parts of South Asia, but still predominantly from India and, particularly from the states of Gujarat, Punjab and the four Southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Those with professional educational training took advantage of opportunities in medicine, engineering, business management and computer science, and established themselves as the group with the highest annual income in the US; many others set up successful businesses in New York City, NY, Chicago, IL and California. Besides nostalgia and memory strong socio-economic and cultural investments link the new immigrants with their countries of origin. In the new economic regime of liberalization in South Asia, national governments, eager for investments from South Asians abroad, are seeking to create a favorable atmosphere by speaking of transnational communities and unified diasporic entities. Satellite television, video and the Internet have accelerated the pace of cultural exchanges between the parent country and the diaspora.

South-Asian Americans, as one of the more economically successful groups in the United States, have turned their attention and resources to establishing several religious and cultural centers of distinctively South Asian origin. Hindu temples, Islamic community centers, Sikh gurudwaras, ethnic churches and electronic communication links have enabled the establishment and maintenance of thriving diasporic communities.

While participation in the political life of the US has been limited to fundraising and small-town politics, many South-Asian organizations in the US are known to sponsor actively a range of political activities in South Asia. Right-wing Hindu political formations in India as well as Islamic fundamentalist organizations in Pakistan enjoy considerable support from their respective diasporic communities.

Presently the South-Asian community in America is engaged in a fascinating intergenerational negotiation about identity and other cultural values. While an unambiguous “Indian” or “Sri Lankan” identity was crucial for their parents’ selfdefinitions, the second generation of South Asians seems comfortably to embrace hyphenated identities, calling themselves American with an “In-dian” or “Sri Lankan” background or origin. Among children of Indian origin, for example, “Indianness” is not foregrounded in their self-perceptions, and there seem to be divergent understandings of what it means. Many respect their heritage and even don’t hesitate to flaunt it in the new multicultural marketplace of ethnic America. Racial identity is as much a reality to them as it has been for their parents, although, unlike their parents’ hesitant approach to matters of race, the second generation South-Asian Americans engage with race much more explicitly and confidently. Race, ethnicity class, religion, language, gender and sexuality are some of the components of their identities that shape their perceptions of who they are and how they like to be perceived by others.