History

The history of Indians in America started in the 17th century as the East India Company forced them to be slaves and indentured servants. Indians who settled in America of their own volition tended to gravitate towards the West Coast, and by 1900, there were approximately 750-2,000 Indian Sikhs living in California. Due to violent discrimination and racism, Indian Americans were forced to continue migrating to areas that would be less openly hostile, ultimately creating a collection of communities along the coasts of Northern and Southern California. A large percentage of Indian Americans found work in the burgeoning railroad industry. The first Sikh Gurudwara in America originated in Stockton, California in 1912, but unfortunately was immediately challenged by the openly racist and discriminatory California Alien Land Law of 1913, in addition to anti-miscegenation laws.

By the 1940s, a majority of Indian Americans in California worked in the agriculture industry until the advent of the Bracero program that brought Mexican workers into California, after which many Indian Americans worker in the taxi and hotel industries. The Luce-Celler Act of 1946 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the door to more Indian immigrants and eventually paved the way to allowing them citizenship (Brightwell, 2024).

In the 1980s and 1990s, California’s Silicon Valley became a hotspot for technology and innovation. The growth of the tech industry attracted a new wave of immigrants who came to work in the rapidly emerging fields of software development, engineering, and computer science (South Asian Network, 2022). Many of these immigrants were highly educated professionals who played key roles in the development of major tech companies, including Apple, Intel, Cisco, and Oracle.

Today, California is home to the largest concentration of South Asians in the United States, with more than a million people of South Asian descent living in the state. This community is incredibly diverse, including people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, and Afghan heritage, as well as a variety of religious and cultural backgrounds, including Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, and Buddhist. Notably, California's South Asian community is highly politically active, advocating for civil rights, social justice, and representation. Groups like the Indian American Political Action Committee and the Sikh Coalition work to address issues related to civil liberties and equality (Malibiran, 2024).

These videos explore the history of South Asian culture in America.