print“Indians are the second largest group among Asians in the U.S. “Among U.S. immigrants, Indians are the third largest group” after Mexico and China.
Other than that they are better than you; that they come from a rich, ancient civilization, and are really impressive people—educationally, spiritually and cuisine-wise—you aren’t really told much about East Indians. Or, people from India, a country in South Asia.
If you want to be a fusspot—one of those angels that dances on the head of a pin—there is that minor thing Indians practice. “Social stratification based on caste,” as this bit of barbarism is politely termed. But don’t let trivia mar the fantasy cultivated by the immigration-industrial-complex.
While The Economist would never encourage its readers to link immigration policy preferences to the cultural proclivities of the candidates—the liberal magazine does, at least, report on the things Indians do (while calling Americans racists).
From “India’s Hunt For Foreigners“:
Since 2016 this hilly tea-growing state [of Assam] in India’s north-eastern corner has been compiling a National Register of Citizens (NRC). Billed as a scientific method for sorting pukka Indians from a suspected mass of unwanted Bangladeshi intruders, the seemingly banal administrative procedure has instead encoiled millions of people in a cruelly absurdist game.
Rather than find and prosecute illegal immigrants, [the state of] Assam has instead tasked its 33m people, many of them poor and illiterate, with proving to bureaucrats that they deserve citizenship. Those who fail risk being locked up. Some 1,000 people currently moulder in Assam’s six existing detention centres for “foreigners”. The Indian public has lately been shocked by stories of people, such as a decorated war hero and a 59-year-old widow, who have found themselves jailed for failing to prove their Indian-ness. But the state of Assam is clearly expecting a lot more to come. Ten purpose-built camps are planned.
* Image courtesy The Economist.