Table of Contents
Introduction
Character and society are integral in post-provincial studies as they swerve together in the “contact” zone as postulated by Louise Pratt either in the frontier circumstance or the post-colonial circumstance of displacement or Diaspora. The exiled individuals in the contact zone experience character issues. Their social character gets in contact with the personality traits of the host nation forcing them to change their social beliefs and characters to commensurate to those of the recent. Their culture converges with the host and becomes a piece of them inevitably. This paper seeks to look into the character issues of the Indian diaspora in America. It will also examine the difference in the culture.
The first Asian Indians in America
Foreigners to the US from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are considered Asian Indians. Indian American got their base in America during the nineteenth century with early settlers living around the west bank of the United States and mainly came looking for income. The majority of them were the Sikhs and mainly worked in development, horticulture, some became dealers and merchants, other worked in woody plants and lodging camps. They learned English and even embraced the western culture such as dressing, however, they declined to trim their hair or forfeit the wearing of the turbans as required by their religion. About 2,000 Indians in 1907 took part in the construction of the western Pacific Railway in California. When the construction of the railway ended majority of them swung to the fields and plantations for business (Scheckel, 1998). At the start of the twentieth century, about 100 Indians were examined in American colleges. Instances of brutality against Indians started with Indians being removed from groups where they worked and the positions given to other Euro-Americans specialists. Some Indians stayed putting down roots in the west while others for financial reasons went back to India after depletion of their cash in America. The American government highly controlled the migration of Indians to America. In 1946 a bill was passed by the Congress that permitted naturalisation for Indians, and in 1957 Dalip Saund was chosen as the first Asian Indian congressperson (Scheckel, 1998).
We can do it today.
American and Indian Culture
India is a multicultural community with diverse works on identifying sustenance, embracing typical structures, garments as well as customs. They have myriad consistent themes such as religion, semantic levels and social levels. Its culture is stratified along the premise of social classification and race stratification. Asian-Indian Americans were in three main fragments. The first segment is the exceptionally taught lot that moved to America in the 1960s for expert open doors. The other group was also well taught and moved to the US in the 1970s, and for this lot, both wife and spouse were instructed and made to work outside of the house. The last group of Asian-Indians was the settlers who were largely supported by a relative in the US, and they mostly comprise of the little entrepreneurs (Scheckel, 1998).
After these groups encountering with the Americans as understudies, they resorted to stay and work and most of the earning being little they sent most of it to their families and companions. They chose to remain despite the small pay since going back to India would seem a disgrace.
There are myriad contrasts between the American and the Indian society, economy and religion. Religion is a planned conviction and practices done in gatherings of people to worship and praise God, religious laws and custom. In the social point of view, the best contrast between the two cultures regards relational unions. For Americans, a person can wed as they so desire, however, in the Indian culture the family picks the mate for the tyke thus is an organized marriage. The appropriate age for a person to wed in America is 24 years for ladies and men is 26 years preferably; however, for Indians females are required to wed at 16 years and 21 years for men. American relational unions are pleasant and calm with the men putting on tuxedo suits while ladies in white dresses and the celebration can be done from any place ranging from houses to places of worship, however, for the Indians, their relational unions are a great deal and mind-boggling. The lady puts on a Lengha or sari while men wear a Karta. The only similarity regards the manner in which both countries inside the families it is for the man to work while the woman takes care of the home (Scheckel, 1998).
The religious part of the society is shocking. There are different types of religion within every country. India is unique among the countries in the world that have standout amongst the most profound religious societies in the country. America is also outstanding on its own. Some of the religions in America are Protestant, Christianity, Mormon, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim. A section of the religions in India is Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Jainism, and Hinduism which form a large section.
While comparing the financial perspectives of India and America, they are neck and neck with their differences and similarities (Siber, 2016). As much as there are monetary additions, unlimited quantities of India’s kin stay live in poverty. The population in India is so much. Defilement is a credible issue in India. America has the highest GDP in the global.
Similarities and Differences between both the cultures
Enterprise: Both the countries are dedicated to the creation of wealth and setting new organizations. The maximum capacity of India has not been attained because of the terrible communist strategies that were there between 1947 and 1992. The inte4nse development in India started after the 1992 period (Marques, 2016). The exchange between US and India has been increasing at a fast rate. The IT connection between US and India is also great.
Political frameworks: All the countries are guided by the nation-state laws. India is the planet largest vote based system while America has a most seasoned majority rule government. They were former British provinces though America turned into an autonomous country before India. Also, all the two countries had a similar unforgiving prejudice against the lower classes of the general public. In America, the Blacks were considered of low class, the slaves, and therefore were treated harshly. To make the matters worse, they were not given any rights even though they were being treated in a very bad way (Siber, 2016). They were segregated and were not allowed to mix with the whites in some places. The discrimination was so much that there were also different social amenities for all of them. In the same way, the untouchables were also dealt up with a harsh way in India. They were discriminated and also had no rights. There are places that they were limited or were restricted to enter just because of their low social status.
Geopolitical intrigues: The US transparently bolstered Pakistan while India was near the USSR amid the chilly war. After the 1990s, America and India changed their outside strategy to boost one another because their great hobbies had changed.
Contrast between US and India
Disgrace based versus blame based society- India can be compared to neighbours like China. India is a Shame-based society while America is a blame-based community.
Creating Vs Developed nation- The US is a developed country while India is a developing country
Collectivist versus individualistic- India is an extreme collectivist community while America is more of an individualistic country. The family and the group start things out.
Asian Perspective
Despite the sizable subgroup contrasts, the Asian Americans are overall and especially when contrasted with all the U.S grownups. These people are dominant in various ways. Just as shown by the Pew Research Center overview of a huge illustrative example of 3,511 Asian Americans, directed by phone from Jan. 3 to March 27, 2012, in English and seven Asian dialects, they are more fulfilled than the overall population with their lives general (82% versus 75%), their own accounts (51% versus 35%) and the general heading of the nation (43% versus 21%). The Asian American are more probable compared to the entire population to live in multi-generational family families. Approximately, 28% stay with less than two-grown up eras under the same rooftop.
Conclusion
Looking into the two countries, India and America have more differences as compared to similarities. It is the film world that connects America and India. America film is Hollywood and India film is Bollywood. Both Bollywood and Hollywood are joining together to make the silver screen for the world. There are more films in the Bollywood as compared to Hollywood. In India, people go to the shop to do their shopping, and they are served by other people unlike in America, there is the concept of self-shopping.
- Scheckel, S. (1998). The insistence of the Indian: race and nationalism in nineteenth-century American culture. Princeton University Press.
- Siber, M., & Riche, B. (2016). Bengali cultural identity and ‘multi-cultural America’in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (2003): A cultural anthropologist approach. ANGLISTICUM. Journal of the Association for Anglo-American Studies, 2(3), 264-270.
- Marques, J. M. (2016). Born in the USA, raised by Asia?: As múltiplas faces da segunda geração na literatura contemporânea aiático-americana (Doctoral dissertation).