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The Evolution of An Identity: Indian American Immigrants from the Early 20th Century to the Present: A Fictional Family History

Diya Das
Tribute Books (2007)
ISBN 9780979504563
Reviewed by Andrey Bilko for RebeccasReads (3/09)

The book is based on a high school honors project about Indian American immigrants. It is a fairly short account and does not include much of the detail. The main appeal of the book is the fact that most of it is based on the author’s relative’s diary, which makes the whole story more personal and factual. The book is divided into three sections: the first wave of immigrants between 1917 and 1918, the second wave - post 1965 (specifically 1980-1981), and a separate identity of the generation X - 2005 to the present day. I did not like how the first and second sections are sixty years apart; it seems like too big of a jump. And overall, I felt like the text was jumping all over the place, including diary entries, fictional stories, and personal stories. This variety is interesting and intriguing, but needs slightly better transitioning and organization.

There are plenty of historical facts and information, most of which was novel to me. The history of discrimination against Indians, the Indian American-lead fighting for India’s independence from Britain, and America’s response to the organization’s activities, are all described on the personal level, based on diary entries. It is very disturbing to read about how discriminatory the United States was at the beginning of the century. The situation has greatly improved since then, but it is still nowhere to being perfect.

The second section of the book describes the influx of Indian professionals, doctors and engineers, who were experiencing much better treatment than their precursors in the early 20th century. These new immigrants were able to integrate into the American white community, while keeping their Indian heritage and customs.

The last section is the author’s personal account of having a double personality, being both an Indian and an American. Diya shares her experiences about being confused at how to behave among her American friends and Indian relatives, having to act differently, and juggling two identities at once, which she is not able to completely amalgamate into one. Reading that section, I could relate to Diya’s feelings, since being an immigrant myself, I felt the same way at one point in my life. But after a couple of years in the United States, I have found a way to keep my homeland’s identity and still consider myself an American. There is no set of instructions that one can follow in order to fuse two identities together, each person has to come up with their own way of accomplishing that goal.

The book is a nice, concise introduction into the rich history of Indian immigrants in America, which made me want to learn and research more on this subject.

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