On June 9, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released a report titled “Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey.” Given that Indian Americans now form the second-largest immigrant group in the United States (US), boasting a population of four million, the report investigates the experiences, attitudes, and lifestyles of Indian Americans on things such as education, marriage, religion, caste, identity, civic and political engagement, social networks, and discrimination. The researchers conducted an online survey of 1,200 Indian Americans between September 1 and September 20, 2020.
Here are some of the major findings from the report:
Education
40% of respondents have a postgraduate degree, while 33% have completed a 4-year college degree, showing that the Indian American population is more educated than the average American.
Marital Status
Indian Americans have high rates of marriage and low rates of divorce. In fact, 66% of respondents were either married or in a domestic partnership, which is 50% higher than the national average. Among Asian American communities, Indian Americans exhibit the highest rate of endogamy, which is marriage within one’s own community, in the first and second generations. There is, however, a decrease in endogamy among second- and third-generation Indian Americans. Roughly 80% of respondents said they have a spouse or partner of Indian origin, with this number only dropping to 71% when looking only at US-born respondents.
Region of Origin
64% of respondents named a single state as their home state, while 12% say they identify with multiple states. Simultaneously, almost 25% reported having no state of origin. Gujarat was recorded as the most common home state and accounts for 14% of respondents, and is followed by Maharashtra (12%), Andhra Pradesh (10%), Tamil Nadu (9%), Delhi (9%), Punjab (8%), and Kerala (7%).
Language
Hindi emerged as respondents’ most common “mother tongue”, accounting for 19% of responses, followed by Gujarati (14%), English only (10%), Telegu (10%), Tamil (9%), Punjabi (7%), and Malayalam (6%).
Religion
54% of respondents said they are Hindu, 13% said they are Muslim, 11% are Christian, and 7% practice a host of other faiths, including Buddhism and Sikhism. At the same time, 9% said they belong to no religion in particular, 3% said they are atheist, and 4% said they are agnostic. The survey also reveals that religion holds much more importance in the lives of Muslims and Christians when compared to Hindus.
Furthermore, 40% say they attend religious services once or twice a month or a few times a year, while 31% said they participate in little or no religious services at any time. That being said, 58% of Christian Indian Americans and 48% of Muslim Indian Americans say the attend church at least once or multiple times per week. Only 21% of Hindus, on the other hand, say they “regularly attend religious services,” with 25% saying they “seldom or never” attend religious services. Hindus also report praying less frequently than their Christian and Muslim counterparts. In fact, the proportion of Indian Americans as a whole who pray “several times a day or once a day” is lower than the national average.
Caste
As far as caste is concerned, researchers only asked Hindu respondents whether they identify with a caste, with 47% of them saying they do. That being said, while 53% of foreign-born Indian Americans identify with a caste group, only 34% of US-born Hindu Indian Americans identify with a caste. In sum, 632 respondents said they are Hindus but only 293 of them identify with a caste. Of this 293, 83% self-identify as Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 1% each categorise themselves as Adivasi/Schedules Tribe (ST) or Dalit/Scheduled Caste (SC).
Indian Identity
41% said that “being Indian” is a central part of their identity, while 37% said it is “somewhat important”. Only 22% said that their “Indian-ness” is a “somewhat or very unimportant” part of their identity. Breaking this data down further, 83% of foreign-born Indian Americans say being Indian is “somewhat important” to their identity, compared to 70% among US-born Indian Americans. Furthermore, 88% of Hindus say being Indian is “very or somewhat important” to them, compared to 79% among Christians and 66% among Muslims, which the researchers say is “possibly a reflection of India’s current political climate.”
To this end, 43% self-identify as Indian American, 25% as Indian, and 10% as South Asian American. As expected, US-born respondents are 8% more likely to identify as Indian American and 22% less likely to self-identify as Indian. Second-generation Indian Americans, on the other hand, are more likely to self-identify as South Asian American, Asian American, and just American.
In addition, 45% “feel equally Indian and American,” 31% feel more American than Indian, 19% feel more Indian than American, and 5% feel “neither Indian nor American.” The data shows that those who are born in the US are more likely to feel more American than those who were born abroad.
Civic Engagement
US-born respondents were shown to be far more likely to attend a protest, march, demonstration, or rally than foreign-born citizens and non-citizens in the Indian American community. They are also more likely to attend public meetings, such as school board or city council meetings, and more likely to perform voluntary community service. Simultaneously, they are more likely to “work with others in their community to solve a problem.”
Political Engagement
US-born citizens are also more likely to contribute to political parties and campaigns, contact elected representatives and government officials, discuss politics with family and friends, post comments on political issues online, and volunteer or work in a political campaign. Furthermore, 47% of foreign-born citizens and 41% non-citizens do not participate in any of the above-mentioned civic or political activities. In comparison, only 22% of US-born citizens say they did not participate in any of these activities.
Cultural Engagement
Foreign-born Indian Americans are far more likely to celebrate Indian holidays like Diwali, Holi, and Indian Independence Day than those who were born in the US.
Social Circles
38% of respondents said that some of their friends are of Indian origin, 36% said that either “all or most” of their friends are of Indian origin, and 21% said that “very few or none” of their friends are of Indian origin. In areas where there is a higher concentration of Indian Americans, such as in New Jersey, respondents were more likely to report having a higher proportion of Indian origin friends. In fact, in areas where Indian Americans form more than 10% of the population, 63% of the respondents said that most or all of their friends are of Indian origin. Breaking it down further, US-born Indian Americans are “more likely to report a social network with a limited number of Indians.”
Looking at the respondents’ Indian friends in isolation, Hindus were more likely to report that most or all of their Indian friends are also Hindu, with 58%, compared to 48% and 46% among Muslims and Christians, respectively.
Political Affiliation
Only 27% of Democrats said that they are very comfortable having close friends who are Republicans. Conversely, 54% of Republicans said that they are very comfortable having friends who are Democrats.
35% of BJP supporters said they are very comfortable having close friends who are Congress supporters, while 23% of Congress supporters are very comfortable having close friends who are BJP supporters.
Discrimination
31% of Indian Americans responded that discrimination against people of Indian origin is a “major problem,” but 53% it is only a “minor problem.” Furthermore, 17% believe it is “not a problem at all.” An overwhelming majority also said that they believe that Latino Americans (90%), LGBTQ Americans (89%), African Americans (86%), women in America (86%), and Asian Americans (73%) who are not of Indian origin face more discrimination than Indian Americans.
30% of respondents said they experienced discrimination based on their skin colour, 18% based on their gender, 18% based on their religion, 16% based on their country of origin, and 5% based on their caste. In an indication how different Indian Americans view and define discrimination, however, 59% of foreign-born Indian Americans said they have not experienced any discrimination in the past year, compared to just 36% of US-born Indian Americans who said the same.
Breaking it down by religion, the report says that 39% of Muslims reported some form of religious discrimination, followed by 18% of Hindus, and 15% of Christians.
The full report can be accessed here.