Indian Migration to USA

FIRST PHASE

- A first and relatively small number perhaps 1000 persons or so - came

mostly around the turn of the 19th Century, when India was a unified
colony of Great Britain.

- A second, much larger number of persons moved after India and Pakistan
independence in 1947.

- The third phase followed the enactment of the 1965 Immigration law.

- The Fourth, in the 1 990s with the information technology boom in

United States where they required technically skilled people. This section
of migrants is mainly computer software engineers.

- The first recorded arrival of an unnamed 'Man from Madras' in the streets
of Salem Massachusetts was in 1970.

- From then onwards the Indians entered the United States.

- A tiny communities of Indian merchants were established in the eastern
United States from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Immigration of
Indians began to be recorded towards the end of 1900.

- During the early years of the twentieth century, Indian immigrants

increased from a mere nine in 1900 to over 1000 in 1907.

- Initially, a sizable group of Indian immigrants (a few hundred) came to

the Pacific North West often landing at Vancouver in British Columbia
(Canada).

- In the U.S., the state of California became the goal of most of the early
Indian immigrants. The overwhelming majority of these Indians were
Sikhs although some Hindus and a few Muslims immigrated as well.

- Most of the people who stayed, perhaps 5,000 at the most, found niches
in two Californian localities - the Imperial Valley, near the Mexican
border and the Northern Sacramento Valley, where the more successful
of them became farmer.

- Many of these earlier immigrants worked on the Western Pacific railroads

and later moved into the rural areas of the Central Valley of California,
 reasserting their agricultural tradition. Asian immigrants to the United
States gradually declined after 1910.

- There were three distinct groups of elite migrants - swamis, students and
merchchants.

SWAMIS :

- The swamis, Hindu Missionaries to America, began to come in the late

nineteenth century.

- Historians of religion in America say that the most important of these was
the Swami Vivekananda, who spoke at the World Parliament of
Religions, part of the Chicago World Fair in 1893. Vivekananda stayed
for two years, founded the Vedanta Society, and returned in 1895.

- Vivekananda was not the first such religious leader to come to the United
States. Pratap Chander Muzoomdar had come as early

- The second most important missionary was Swami Yogananda who first
came in 1920 to attend the Pilgrim Tercentenary Anniversary
International Conference of Religious Liberals held in Boston sponsored
by the Unitarians.
- He stayed on to found a religious organization, the Togoda Satsanga
Society in Los Angeles.

- Both groups emphasized the philosophy and practice of yoga, including

posture and breath control. Both groups appealed mostly to middle and
upper-middle- class Protestants and had attracted some 35,000 adherents
by the 1930s.

- The most popular leader to visit United States was the Nobel Laureate,
Rabindernath Tagore, who came several times, beginning in 1916.

- His influence may be seen in the establishment of Tagore Societies with a

membership of both ethnic Indians and others in New York and
California.

STUDENTS :

- The early students in the United States were largely rebels with emotional
ties to the Indian freedom movement.
- Some students, for example, Kartar Singh Sarabha, one of the most active
fund raisers, mostly at Berkeley, became part of the Ghadar Movement of
1913.

- They held meetings in the rural the farmers donated generously to sustain
the movement.

- Ghadar Movement :

- Ghadar, which may be translated as "Revolution" was an attempt by

Indian exiles in the United States Raj by sending revolutionaries and arms
back to

- In the Ghadar movement had regular meetings and addressed problems

and asked them to unite for their rights.

- They had set up the 'Yugantar Ashram' in San Francisco. They used to
publish a weekly newspaper in Urdu and Gurumukhi.

- They were also financed by the German government in 1915 when

Hardayal shifted to Germany. No arms and revolutionaries reached India.
- Those who were caught in the United States (35 of 123 indicted were
tried and convicted in a San Francisco Court) were given only minor
prison terms ranging from 30 days to 22 months for violating American
Neutrality Laws.

- About half were Asian Indians, the others were Germans and Americans.

- Indian migration to the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century
was influenced by a variety of causes and developments.

- Some were at the individual level: caste discrimination and the desire for
a better livelihood were major factors.

- Others were at the national level wherein the Indian independence

movement influenced them.

- As the migration of Indians grew, several legal measures were adopted by

US and Canada to stop the migration of poor Indians.

- As many historians have pointed out immigration regulations in America

had been discriminatory from 1790, when the first naturalization law was
enacted.
- According to the Naturalization Law citizenship was given only to "free
White Persons”.

- Asians, with the exception of Indians, were denied citizenship because

they were not considered white. Only Caucasians, defined as belonging to
the same racial stock as Europeans, were considered white.

- Asian Indians were considered Caucasians whereas the Chinese and

Japanese were considered Mongoloid.