Americans in India
Encyclopedia
History
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, more than 400,000 American soldiers were sent to India.
After the end of British colonial rule in India in 1947, the "colonial third culture" surrounding employment, which featured expatriates in superior roles, natives in subordinate roles, and little informal socialisation between the two, began to be replaced with a "co-ordinate third culture", based around the common social life of Americans working in multinational corporations and their Indian colleagues. Americans who came to India for work slowly assimilated into this culture. Many companies in those days found they had difficulty retaining American employees with children; they found educational facilities at the high school level to be inadequate.
In a break from the long tradition of older American expatriates coming to India to manage local subsidiaries of American companies, a trend began in the 2000s of younger Americans taking jobs at Indian companies, especially in the information technology sector, often at lower wages than they had previously earned in the U.S. In 2006 there were estimated to be roughly 800 Americans working in high-tech companies in India.
Numbers
In 2002, one widely-cited estimate stated that 60,000 Americans lived in India. However, exact numbers were difficult to come by because many did not register with the embassy. Some media reports around the time of the 2008 U.S. presidential electionUnited States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
stated that 10,000 Americans lived in India at the time. However this conflicted with another figure given by the head of the U.S. consulate in Mumbai, who estimated that there were 9,000 living in Mumbai and its surroundings alone.
In fiction
Fictional portrayals include Paul TherouxPaul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
's The Elephanta Suite, which invokes the "Ugly American" stereotype in each of the three novellas therein.
Notable individuals
This is a list of current and former U.S. citizens whose notability is related to their residence in India.- Tom AlterTom AlterTom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is best known for his work in Bollywood, but has also worked in the theatre...
, actor in the Indian cinemaCinema of IndiaThe cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
industry, former U.S. citizen - Justin McCarthyJustin McCarthy (dancer)Justin McCarthy is an American-born noted Indian Bharatnatyam dancer, instructor and choreographer. He teaches Bharatnatyam at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra at Delhi, where he has been for the last three decades...
- American-born noted Indian Bharatnatyam dancer, instructor and choreographer. - Samuel Evans Stokes, later Satyananda StokesSatyananda StokesSatyananda Stokes was an American who moved to India and adopted it as his own country. Stokes' given name was Samuel Evans Stokes, Jr., and belonging to a prominent family and was the son of a successful businessman who pioneered elevators in America he came to India in 1904 to work at a leper...
, came to India in 1904 to work at a leper colony in the Simla Hills. - Romulus WhitakerRomulus WhitakerRomulus Earl Whitaker is a herpetologist, wildlife conservationist and founder of the Madras Snake Park, The Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust , and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust....
, herpetologist and wildlife conservationist, born in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, became an Indian citizen in 1975. - Imran KhanImran Khan (actor)Imran Khan is an Indian American film actor. He is the nephew of actor Aamir Khan and producer-director Mansoor Khan.Khan rose to stardom for his debut role in the 2008 blockbuster film Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. The film won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut...
, American actor of Indian origin, active in the Indian film Industry. - Monica DograMonica DograMonica Dogra is an American singer and actress. of Indian heritage. She is one half of the Mumbai-based electro rock duo Shaa'ir and Func, and has recently acted in the Bollywood film Dhobi Ghat....
, American singer and actor of Indian origin based in Mumbai.
Sources
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Further reading
; a personal account from an unemployed American who moved to SikkimSikkim
Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...
to work as a newspaper editor
External links
- Young Americans in India, a video report from CBS NewsCBS NewsCBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...