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A second-generation Indian and his discontents

In SiliconIndia, A second generation Indian American writes about his species.

AS A SECOND-GENERATION Indian freshly graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect briefly on some of the more unusual aspects of the second-generation experience. I should observe, at the outset, that I am not your “typical” second-generation Indian (if such a category can even be said to exist). To the great puzzlement and thinly veiled chagrin of my parents, I decided to study literature and philosophy in college, marking a radical departure from the traditional—and eminently more practical—career paths which many second-generation Indians tend to pursue, such as medicine, law, science, or engineering. But my iconoclasm, as it turns out, runs still deeper. During my time at Berkeley, I noticed two curious phenomena among second-generation Indian students which I have never been able to understand, let alone participate in.

Phenomenon 1: Being “cultural” Within days of setting foot on the Berkeley campus as an impressionable first-year student, I was repeatedly accosted by eager members of Indus, the Indian cultural organization at Berkeley, enthusiastically urging me to join their club. “What does Indus have to offer?” I asked, with an air of skeptical bemusement. Their answer: it’s a way of getting back to your Indian “roots,” appreciating your rich Indian culture. A noble aim, indeed, but does Indus live up to its mission statement? Before long, I discovered what Indus really was: a glorified dating club. As it turned out, getting back to one’s Indian roots was a euphemism for the hopelessly parochial and implicitly (though, for that reason, all the more insidiously) racist agenda of associating only with other Indians. Needless to say, I promptly declined the invitation to join. So long as being “cultural” means nothing more than complacently fraternizing with members of one’s own ethnic background, I remain content appreciating Indian culture in my own way: by, for example, mining the inexhaustible riches of the Bhagavad-Gita and visiting my relatives in India.

Phenomenon 2: The Indian “thug” A second, related—and, perhaps, even more startling—phenomenon among second-generation Indians at Berkeley is the increasingly large number of Indian males who seem to be convinced that they were raised in the “ghetto” (or “’da hood” as they might call it). Strolling through campus on any given day, it is not difficult to spot a group of Indian males sporting backward baseball caps, ostentatious gold chains and earrings, extra-extra-large basketball jerseys, and jeans so baggy that they hang below their underwear. An innocent fashion statement? Perhaps. But it is surely a little strange—if not downright inexplicable—that the children of generally middle-class Indian parents raised in suburbia behave and dress as if they belong in a rap video. If one happened to be eavesdropping, a typical snatch of conversation between these self-proclaimed Indian “thugs” (let’s call them “Rajiv” and “Sanjeet”) might go something like this:

Rajiv: Yo, wuddup dawg!

Sanjeet: Wussup, fool!

Rajiv: Chillin’, chillin’. Yo, I just picked up the new
Dr. Dre album. That sh—’s off the hook!

Sanjeet: Fo’ real, though. Dre is hella tight.

And so on, ad nauseam. But whence this desire to behave like a “thug”? Is it just another case of teenage rebellion against cultural norms? Or is it, perhaps, the result of a deeper phenomenon unique to members of the second-generation: namely, a collective identity crisis? Indeed, the pressing question, Who are we?, looms large among second-generation Indians, and the answer is not a straightforward one.

When someone asks me where I’m from, I invariably hesitate, then proceed to explain that I was born and raised in Boston, but my family is from India. So where does that place me? Apparently, in a hybrid category that resists any neat label, and the term “Indian American” does little justice to this irreducibly complex hybridity.

Faced with this difficult fact, many second-generation Indians have assumed the relatively stable, though disingenuous, identity of a “thug,” while others have retreated into the false solace of “being cultural.” Whatever the causes of these phenomena among second-generation Indians, they are quickly becoming facts to be reckoned with.

What you say?