The following article from the NYT caught my attention. Since Indians cannot
unite as depicted by some in this net, how do these first generation Indians in
USA manage to run an organization as written here?
Comments from netters, especially those in California who may know more about
the group, will help us all in understanding better. There may be organizations
like this in the east coast too.
Dilip
From the New York Times
In Jews, Indian-Americans See a Role Model in Activism
Heidi Schumann for The New York Times
A dance class at the India Community Center in Milpitas, Calif., which was
created by Indian-Americans based on models by Jewish groups.
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Published: October 2, 2007
When Anil Godhwani and his brother, Gautam, looked into creating a
community center for Indian-Americans in Silicon Valley, they turned to the
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco as a model.
Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image
Heidi Schumann for The New York Times
Rajiv Hora in a yoga class at the center, which promotes the variety of
Indian culture.
When the Hindu American Foundation began, it looked to groups like the
Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center for guidance with its
advocacy and lobbying efforts.
Indian-Americans, who now number 2.4 million in this country, are turning to
American Jews as role models and partners in areas like establishing community
centers, advocating on civil rights issues and lobbying Congress.
Indians often say they see a version of themselves and what they hope to be
in the experience of Jews in American politics: a small minority that has
succeeded in combating prejudice and building political clout.
Sanjay Puri, the chairman of the U.S. India Political Action Committee, said:
What the Jewish community has achieved politically is tremendous, and members
of Congress definitely pay a lot of attention to issues that are important to
them. We will use our own model to get to where we want, but we have used them
as a benchmark.
One instance of Indians following the example of Jews occurred last year when
Indian-American groups, including associations of doctors and hotel owners,
banded together with political activists to win passage of the United
States-India Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Act, which allows New Delhi to buy
fuel, reactors and other technology to expand its civilian nuclear program.
Indian-Americans have taken a page out of the Jewish communitys book to
enhance relations between the homeland and the motherland, said Nissim B.
Reuben, program officer for India-Israel-United States Relations at the
American Jewish Committee and himself an Indian Jew.
The American Jewish Committee, like some other Jewish groups, has worked with
Indians on immigration and hate crimes legislation. It has taken three groups
of Indian-Americans to Israel, where they have met Arabs and Palestinians, as
well as Jews.
Many Indian-Americans, like the Godhwanis and others with the India Community
Center in Milpitas, Calif., have taken an avowedly nonsectarian approach in
creating institutions. But among Hindus, who are a majority in India and among
Indian-Americans here, some assert that a vital bond they share with Jews is
the threat to India and Israel from Muslim terrorists.
Some on both sides of the discussion feel that way, and take a stance that
is anti-Muslim or anti-terrorist, depending on your point of view, said Nathan
Katz, professor of religious studies at Florida International University in
Miami.
Most Jewish groups, however, have tried to avoid a sectarian cast to their
work with Indian-Americans. Instead, Jews said they were struck by the
parallels between the issues that Jews and Indians had faced.
It echoes 30 years ago, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the
Wiesenthal center. There is the same feeling of a growing community that says,
We want our voices to be represented, and how do we that?
For years, many Indians who immigrated to the United States in the late 1960s
and early 1970s considered India their home. Now, most are rooted in the United
States, as are their children, and they have moved with astonishing speed into
politics, said Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, where
there is a large Indian-American constituency. Mr. Pallone is a founder of the
Congressional Caucus on India. Representative Bobby Jindal, a Republican from
Louisiana who is Indian-American, is running for governor of his state, and
Indian-Americans hold or are vying for other local elected positions nationwide.
Indian-Americans have reached out to American Jews, in part, because of the
growing friendship between India and Israel, whose chilly cold war relations
began to thaw in the 1990s.
Indian and Israeli heads of state have recently visited each others
countries. The countries have strengthened trade and intelligence ties. In
February, the chief rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, met with Hindu leaders in
India, after which the Jewish and Hindu clerics declared common beliefs, among
them that their respective traditions teach that there is one supreme being.
The statement was a breakthrough because many Jews had long considered Hinduism
a form of idolatry, Professor Katz said.
Inspired by the Wiesenthal Center, which produces a CD annually that compiles
Internet hate speech, the Hindu American Foundation issued its own report this
year about online hatred and bigotry against Hindus, Suhag Shukla, the
foundations legal counsel, said. The foundation also learned from the success
of Jewish groups that it needed a full-time staff member to lobby Congress.
The Hindu American Foundation is among those who contend that Jews and Hindus
are natural allies because of the common threat Israel and India face from
Islamic terrorists. There are the shared terrorist threats where we are the
religious minority, for example Jammu-Kashmir and Islamic terrorism there or
the situation in Israel, Ms. Shukla said, referring to the anti-Indian
insurgency in the northern state.
Those parallels disturb some Indian-Americans, who contend they veil a deeper
anti-Muslim sentiment.
This makes me relatively suspicious, because there is the desire to reduce
the complexity of the issues in a conflict, said Vijay Prashad, professor of
South Asian history at Trinity College in Hartford.
The India Community Center in Milpitas, Calif., represents the nonsectarian
approach many Indian-Americans take to replicating the experience of American
Jews. When Anil Godhwani began talking to other Indians in Silicon Valley about
opening a center, more than one person talked to us about making this a Hindu
community center sometimes in very strong terms, he said. That was never his
intention, though he was raised Hindu.
A Silicon Valley millionaire who sold his company to Netscape in the late
1990s, Mr. Godhwani said he and his brother envisioned a place that promoted
the variety of Indian culture to Indian-Americans and non-Indians alike. The
Godhwanis canvassed other ethnic centers and the Y.M.C.A. But the Jewish
Community Center model resonated with them. It celebrated Jewish culture while
avoiding the divisiveness of politics and religion. And it welcomed outsiders.
The India Community Center occupies a 40,000-square-foot building that offers,
among other things, free medical care for the uninsured, Indian language
classes and Bollywood-style aerobics but keeps out religious activities.
Talat Hassan, chairwoman of the centers board of trustees, said, Those of
us who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s in India grew up in a truly inclusive
atmosphere, and that is the gift that India can give to rest of the world: the
ability to embrace diversity in very deep way.
Then we came here, and maybe India was changing in this way too, Ms. Hassan
said, but Indian-Americans were organized around religion, and we found that
to be very divisive. We thought there should be a place where people can come
together as Indian-Americans, period, regardless of religion.
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