Hi! You may notice I often talk about South Asian people, or how I identify as being an American of South Asian descent. Many folks outside our communities don’t always know the details there, so I wanted to share some generally useful info about that…
First, it’s different from Southeast Asia, a term which also commonly used in the U.S. South Asia encompasses countries/cultures like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. Southeast Asia typically includes Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, etc. Both are imprecise.
Second, we talk about these cultures collectively because the political boundaries are relatively recent and were greatly influenced by violent colonialism. Events like Partition (one of the largest, most brutal forced migrations in human history) happened in living memory.
More to the point, we often share culture and deeply personal aspects of identity like language, religion, cuisine, music and arts across these relatively young boundaries. This is notwithstanding the political tensions between some South Asian countries.
Sometimes I describe our people, including people in the South Asian diaspora as “desi”. This is essentially an in-group term meaning “a person of South Asian descent”. It’s not offensive if other people use it, though it may sound a bit affected.
Some people don’t like using “desi” as a demonym, as it slides the history of marginalized cultures in the subcontinent, and perhaps perpetuates casteism in the diaspora. I didn’t grow up using the word, and don’t speak Hindi, so I’m still learning about this connotation!
Many people I know in the diaspora identify first with the regional culture they’re from. For example, you may know people who are Punjabi; this can imply a connection to language, food, clothing, music, even faith in a way that crosses political boundaries.
In short, this stuff is complicated, & made even more fraught because we’re so marginalized in countries like the U.S. There are ~6 million South Asian Americans in the U.S., nearly 2% of the population — more than that of 30 states. We’re never even mentioned in political polls.
I’m by no means an expert, and really grew up around very few other Indian people, including almost none from the region (meaning language & culture) that my family is from. So I’d love for other South Asian folks to chime in & offer more context that people might find useful.
A couple of other points I omitted earlier (trying to be concise but comprehensive is hard!) — much of the desi diaspora lives outside of South Asia, and millions have never been to the subcontinent but have lived in parts of Africa, Asia or the Americas for generations.
Also, South Asia as a subcontinent has an expansive but fuzzy definition. Other countries many would include are Nepal, The Maldives, Afghanistan, and Bhutan. There are also longstanding South Asian cultures within countries like China. Many of these *don’t* identify as desi.
One confounding thing to outsiders is that nearly every region has its own unique language, both written & spoken, and some languages (like Hindustani/Urdu) are similar when spoken but have wildly different written forms. It’s more analogous to EU countries than to US states.
Nearly all South Asian countries (and thus South Asian diaspora communities) are very multireligious. You know of Hinduism & Islam, but Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism & other faiths have >100M followers in South Asia, often despite political oppression.
Here in the U.S. there have been South Asian immigrants for > 200 years. Our first significant presence began in the 1800s, when we were welcomed into Black neighborhoods in New Orleans, Harlem & Baltimore. Later, South Asian workers came to the west coast to build rails & farms.
At each new stage of South Asian immigration, we faced barriers both political & social. The Asian Exclusion Act barred our immigration & eventually led to revoking citizenship for desi immigrants. South Asians were also subject to violence, including lynchings & mass killings.
We’ve also faced deep struggles within our community. Tensions often arise between immigrant & native-born desis. Casteism & colorism plague our community, and anti-blackness often poisons our solidarity with those who welcomed us first. Domestic violence & misogyny are epidemic.
At the same time, the last few years have seen an unprecedented visibility & presence for South Asians even in the face of white supremacy. We’ve got our first TV shows, first feature films, a real presidential candidate, a number of business leaders. We finally exist in culture.
I wrapped up this whole thread into a more readable writeup on my blog. Comments, questions and feedback are warmly welcomed! anildash.com/2019/11/21/a-p…
