DesiPundit

There is no such thing as “South Asia”.
The sooner those ABCDs over at SM realize this, the better. Why does Desipundit even link to such pipedreams?

Right. I guess India, a dominant member of the SAARC never got your pipedream memo.

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No terrorist groups ! Are they not South Asians ? This bigotry against our exploding brothers across the borders is deplorable.

Americans from the Indian Subcontinent can call themselves “South Asian Americans” if they so wish…it’s entirely their call. How Americans organise themselves is for Americans to decide.

(How real is “South Asia”? Well, to the extent that you can find a restaurant selling “South Asian” cuisine, shops selling DVDs of “South Asian movies” and worrying about losing jobs to “South Asia”. Or maybe “South Asia” being the centre of the jihadi universe.

But to the extent that this “South Asian agenda” affects Indian interests, we need to be concerned.

Patrix—SAARC proves that there is South Asia to the same extent that the UN proves that the world is United.

How real is “South Asia”? Well, to the extent that you can find a restaurant selling “South Asian” cuisine,

Nitin, actually, in many places in the diaspora you find restaurants selling “Indo-Pak” cuisine. In Queens, New York, you’ll even find a fair number of places advertising themselves as “Indo-Pak-Bangla” restaurants!

They don’t use the word “South Asian,” but the idea is the same.

I wouldn’t argue with your premise “South Asian” is primarily a diasporic concept at present.

Taking the restaurant example and trying to map it to the bigger idea of here is funny in a weird way. Just that we use the same “Garam Masala” and our food tastes the same doesn’t mean that we should have one common unified agenda.

Nitin, my pointer to SAARC was only to dispel the notion that there is no such thing as South Asia. I never said it works.

I think Sepia Mutiny is indicating a sense of identity that South Asians create in the United States and I don’t think it poses any threat to being an Indian. It speaks for fostering and protecting rights in the United States. As you mention, these are Americans organizing themselves based on the identity they choose which I think is a numbers and pooling resources thing more than anything else.

Amardeep—yes, the India-Pak-Bangla signboards prove my point. In fact, I’m yet to come across restaurant that merely sells Pakistani or Bangladeshi food, without saying—usually upfront—that it sells North Indian food. Or Punjabi food, or South Indian food, or Udipi cuisine…but not Pakistani food or Bangladeshi food.

Patrix—I have no comment to make on how Americans organise themselves. But I think Americans ought to think of themselves as Americans first. That’s part of why I like America: it concerns itself, as Fareed Zakaria once said, with where you are going. It is in the Indian subcontinent on the other hand, you concern yourself with where you came from.

It does bother me that one someone becomes an American citizen through the naturalization process the rest of us are supposed to see them as “one of us” but then they form all these organizations based on their racial/ethnic group.

It is hypocritical. Should I as a white non naturalized but native born American form an organization I would be accused of being racist. Well how about groups like La Raza. Their slogan (translated from Spanish) is Everything for the Race - Nothing outside the Race.

If one is an American citizen through either birth or naturalization that person should focus only on the concerns of America as a whole. For if we don’t then we can never move beyond racism.

Identity politics must end because it is tearing ourselves apart. United we stand. Divided we fall.

(as you see from my Hispanic example) I am not attacking Americans of South Asian descent but I am attacking the concept in general whomever employs it).

Also I find the concept of diaspora when it is used related to citizens of the United States. For Expats sure, but if you are a citizen of America then you should be loyal only to America. If you can’t do that then you should politely renounce US citizenship. We will still let you remain in the country but then you can at least be honest in who you are.

I find the concept of diaspora offensive for as I understand it the concept means that you should be more loyal to people hundreds of miles away then your own fellow citizen.

But then we are supposed to see you as a fellow citizen? Talk about double standard.

Organizations like the one proposed is racist in nature and will continue to divide this country instead of Unite it.

I do want to stress that most here are honest open-minded people who understand why so many are against “Identity Groups” like La Raza.

I don’t want to lump all Americans of Indian descent into the group of trouble making ethnic groups as I find that as a group they are very good immigrants.

But, yeah there is a few trouble makers even among Americans of Indian descent. But less than of other ethnic groups.

And yeah, unless you are talking about expats, the term diaspora is quite offensive.