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| INDIANS IN AMERICA |
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America has forever been considered as the land of opportunities. The land where you can begin with a hole in your pocket and yet become a billionaire capitalizing on the opportunities that it offers. The land where dreams are seen with open eyes, and realized with nerves of steel and courage of lions. This promised land of enterprise has witnessed many immigrants from many countries. British, African, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Indian, Chinese, Korean, and other immigrants from all around the world have come and made America their home. They have made the American diaspora into a rich conglomeration of varied cultures and practices. It is because of such international fusion that America is today the leading country of the world. In shaping this position of world leadership, Indians residing in America, better known as Indian Americans, have played an important part.
Today Indian Americans comprise 0.9% of the U.S. population with a figure of 2,662,112 (http://factfinder.census.gov/). Regions with significant American Indian populations are New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington-Baltimore. The languages spoken are American English, Indian languages most commonly Hindi, Gujarati, and Punjabi. The religions followed are Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Atheism, Agnosticism, Christianity, and others. As per the The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness, Indians along with other Asians, have one of the highest educational qualifications of all ethnic groups in the US. Almost 67% of all Indians have a bachelor's or high degree (compared to 28% nationally and 44% average for all Asian American groups). Almost 40% of all Indians in the United States have a master's, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average.
Like sugar merges indistinguishably with milk and sweetens it, similarly Indian Americans have merged into and sweetened the American community. They have not only actively participated in all the fields but have also excelled in them. Notable Indian Americans are Bobby Jindal (former U.S. Congressman and current Governor of Louisiana; Republican), Dalip Singh Saund (the first Indian-American congressman, was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California), Kal Penn (Actor of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Superman Returns), M. Night Shyamalan (Filmmaker, actor), Kalpana Chawla (female NASA Space Shuttle astronaut, and space shuttle mission specialist), Sunita Williams (NASA astronaut and the second woman of Indian descent to head into space), Amartya Sen (Nobel laureate in economics and currently the Lamont University Professor at Harvard University), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Nobel laureate in physics and an Indian born American astrophysicist), Reverend Bernard Malik ( President FIACONA/ International Council of Evangelical Churches) Balamurali Ambati (physician and world's youngest doctor at age 17), Sabeer Bhatia (co-founder of Hotmail), Vinod Dham (former microprocessor designer for Intel and creator of the Pentium processor), Rajat Gupta (former Managing Director, McKinsey & Company), Indra Nooyi (CEO of PepsiCo), Shantanu Narayen (the current CEO of Adobe Systems), Vikram Pandit (CEO of Citigroup), Arun Sarin (CEO of Vodafone Inc.), Deepak Chopra (author and
speaker), Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer Prize-winning author), Fareed Zakaria (editor of Newsweek), K.A. Paul (founder of the Global Peace Initiative), Reverend Kiran Sankhla (the first female Hindu chaplain in the U.S.), Ravi Zacharias (Evangelical Protestant author and apologetic), Rajan Zed (Hindu chaplain to read first Hindu prayer in United States Senate), Mohini Bhardwaj (first Indian American Olympic medallist, gymnastics), and The Great Khali (WWE Pro Wrestler) to name a few.
Indian Americans continue to contribute their respective skills and try their utmost to help America retain its global leadership in all spheres of human learning and human endeavor. |
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