Indian Immigrants Are a Success Story
By Dr Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
On August 18, 2020, American women celebrated the centennial of winning the right to vote on a par with men. Of course, they have since made giant strides in many fields, serving at the top of many professional bodies, in addition to holding elective offices. The most recent symbol of progress was the nomination by the Democratic Party of the first black and Asian woman to the position of vice-president. Joe Biden, the presidential nominee, has selected Senator Kamala Harris, 55years old, as his running partner.
Daughter of a Jamaican father and a South Indian Brahmin mother, she is only the third woman nominee for the second highest office in the US and will be the first woman to hold that office should Biden get elected. Significantly, Joe Biden will be 81-years old at the completion of his first term and would be unlikely to seek a second term. Kamala Harris will be in a strong position to seek the nomination of the Democratic Party and to become the first woman president of the US.
Before becoming a Senator, she was the Attorney General of California state, and in that position, she earned the reputation of a strict law and order enforcer.
Harris’s appointment has aroused unusual attention, because of her uncommon heritage. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a prominent cancer research scientist, came from South India to the US in 1960 for higher studies and enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she met her husband, Donald Harris, a fellow graduate student from Jamaica. Both were involved in the civil rights movement, became friends, and ultimately were married. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last, and they were divorced when Kamala was only seven years old and her younger sister, Maya, just four. From then on, the mother took full responsibility for the care and upbringing of her daughters with, it seems, little participation on her ex-husband’s part.
Kamala Harris noted in her memoir that her mother "was the one most responsible for shaping us into the women we would become." Both sisters are enormously proud of their mother and the role she played in their lives. In contrast, their relationship with their father, now a retired professor of economics, is cool. Kamala and Maya are extremely close, and the younger sister is Kamala’s closest and most trusted advisor and directed all her previous political campaigns.
Kamala’s mother correctly perceived that her daughters, with one black parent, would always be perceived and treated as blacks in the US. Therefore, she brought them up to regard themselves as black Americans. Yet, she did not sever family and cultural ties with India. Dr Gopalan during summer vacations, frequently took her daughters there to meet their relatives and to expose them to the other half of their heritage. Harris noted, "When I was a young girl visiting my grandparents in India, I'd join my grandfather and his buddies on their morning walk along the beach as they would talk about the importance of fighting for democracy and civil rights."
Harris’s nomination to vice-presidential candidacy has generated some curiosity about her religious affiliations. She comes from a family of eclectic faiths. Her Indian grandparents were Hindu, but her mother gave her exposure to a wide variety of spiritual experiences, taking her to both Christian and Hindu services in the US. She now identifies herself as a Baptist Christian and took oath of office as a Senator on a Bible. To add further diversity to her life, she is now married to Douglas Emhoff, a Jewish lawyer
When, last year, some reporter asked Harris how she would describe herself in the context of her mixed black and Asian heritage, she responded that she considered herself as a proud American, skirting the direct, awkward question. While Harris does not emphasize her Indian heritage, the reaction in India, especially her mother’s native State of Tamil Nadu, on her nomination has been phenomenal. Her nomination has been celebrated with congratulatory posters and billboard, expressing pride in her achievement. The rejoicing was especially enthusiastic in her ancestral village of Painganadu in Tamil Nadu.
The elevation of Senator Kamala Harris is the latest addition to the growing list of Americans of Asian-Indian descent who have become prominent and have established themselves as important political figures. There are currently five Americans of Indian decent, all Democrats, that have been elected to the Congress. Besides the US Congress, many hold other elective offices. Both Nikki Healy, former UN ambassador, and Bobby Jindal, a former Governor of Louisiana, have Indian immigrant parents. In addition, there are numerous others who occupy important leadership positions in academia, government, and private industry.
Their family links to India notwithstanding, it would be a mistake to assume that all Indian-American officials support the policies of current Indian Government. Congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal, for example, has been especially critical of India’s brutal policies and suppression of human rights in Kashmir. Last year, the Indian foreign minister cancelled a meeting with Congressional leaders when they discovered that Jayapal was one of the participants. Vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris has also been a strong exponent of human rights and pluralistic policies.
In addition to the US, some Indian immigrants to Canada, Britain and Europe have been remarkably successful. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s cabinet includes three Sikhs, and one Hindu female minister. The former prime minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, is half Indian, while Britain’s chancellor of exchequer and potential prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is a Hindu, born of Punjabi parents. British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, is the daughter of Gujrati Hindu parents. She has close links with the current Modi Government and his Bhartiya Junta Party and is known for her hardline immigrations policies. The socialist Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, is also of Indian descent, as his parents were born in Goa, a former Portuguese colony.
The question is often asked how well the Pakistani immigrants have done compared with the Indians. Undoubtedly, Pakistanis in America have not been as visible or ubiquitous as Indians. Currently, three members of the US Congress are Muslims, but none of them is of Pakistani origin-- Andre Carlson, Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omer. However, Pakistanis now are catching up, breaking out of their favorite professions, such as medicine or computer technology that promised security and financial stability. There may be other reasons for why Pakistanis lag behind. Pakistanis usually bring strong attachment to their cultural, ideological, and religious traditions and most of their attention and money has been focused on building mosques, Islamic schools, and cultural centers in their adopted homeland. However, the causes of this disparity offers an interesting project for a Pakistani-American social scientist.
(Dr Syed Amir is a former Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, and a health science administrator, US National Institutes of Health)
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