Questioning Identity:
Examining the Historiography of South Asian Immigrants
The historiography on South Asian immigration to the United States needs to be further developed because it is extremely under-developed. While the story of their immigration to America does not follow the popular narrative of other American-bound immigrants, in which most came to straight to the United States and settled, there is no excuse for their historiography and all its unique facets remaining unexplored. The literature that does exist needs to be both elaborated on and branched out from other immigration groups. An examination of the available literature makes it very obvious that the story of South Asian immigrants is vital to the current American identity …show more content…
Their diaspora, if you were looking at a map, would look more like a doodle of wind, in which they left South Asia, travelled to America and other countries, and eventually end up returning back to their home countries. That is not to say that a large amount do not stay, especially given the political climate of newer South Asian immigrants’ home countries, but Vivek Bald argues that this cyclical migration cycle was the norm during the nineteenth century. Bald also argues that cultural migration is the truly defining facet of their migration, crediting South Asian peddlers as the founders of what Americans call ‘orientalism’ today but generally credit to China and Japanese cultures. The South Asian identity was commodified and Bald addresses several aspects of this such as tea culture and fashion while only briefly mentioning the sex culture that found a home in the South. However, the information was readily available as Priya Srinivasan wrote an article entirely focused on Nautch dancing culture in 2009. Both authors challenged how the average American defined orientalism, where the Asian identity was the property of China, North and South Korea, or Japan rather than countries by the Arabian Sea or Bay of Bengal. In Locations for South Asian Diasporas, Sandhya Shukla discusses transnationalism amongst the South Asian immigrants and how they were very connected with their …show more content…
This is significant and important for two reasons. First, scholars agree that their faith was a sort of glue to the family, both important and kept through their adaptation to the States. Second, most scholars seem to focus mainly on Muslims and Hindus with a slight inclusion of Sikhs, leaving Parsis out entirely and just a few references to the Buddhists. If their faith is such an important part of their adaptation, then exploration beyond the immigrants of Muslim and Hindu faith needs to be developed to get a complete historiography. However, their adaptation still seemed to be factored more by what they could offer, the communities that were symbols of their homelands led to their acceptance rather than an erasure of their culture or
Examining the Historiography of South Asian Immigrants
The historiography on South Asian immigration to the United States needs to be further developed because it is extremely under-developed. While the story of their immigration to America does not follow the popular narrative of other American-bound immigrants, in which most came to straight to the United States and settled, there is no excuse for their historiography and all its unique facets remaining unexplored. The literature that does exist needs to be both elaborated on and branched out from other immigration groups. An examination of the available literature makes it very obvious that the story of South Asian immigrants is vital to the current American identity …show more content…
Their diaspora, if you were looking at a map, would look more like a doodle of wind, in which they left South Asia, travelled to America and other countries, and eventually end up returning back to their home countries. That is not to say that a large amount do not stay, especially given the political climate of newer South Asian immigrants’ home countries, but Vivek Bald argues that this cyclical migration cycle was the norm during the nineteenth century. Bald also argues that cultural migration is the truly defining facet of their migration, crediting South Asian peddlers as the founders of what Americans call ‘orientalism’ today but generally credit to China and Japanese cultures. The South Asian identity was commodified and Bald addresses several aspects of this such as tea culture and fashion while only briefly mentioning the sex culture that found a home in the South. However, the information was readily available as Priya Srinivasan wrote an article entirely focused on Nautch dancing culture in 2009. Both authors challenged how the average American defined orientalism, where the Asian identity was the property of China, North and South Korea, or Japan rather than countries by the Arabian Sea or Bay of Bengal. In Locations for South Asian Diasporas, Sandhya Shukla discusses transnationalism amongst the South Asian immigrants and how they were very connected with their …show more content…
This is significant and important for two reasons. First, scholars agree that their faith was a sort of glue to the family, both important and kept through their adaptation to the States. Second, most scholars seem to focus mainly on Muslims and Hindus with a slight inclusion of Sikhs, leaving Parsis out entirely and just a few references to the Buddhists. If their faith is such an important part of their adaptation, then exploration beyond the immigrants of Muslim and Hindu faith needs to be developed to get a complete historiography. However, their adaptation still seemed to be factored more by what they could offer, the communities that were symbols of their homelands led to their acceptance rather than an erasure of their culture or