An intergenerational conversation on Smithsonian’s ‘Beyond Bollywood’.
By Kavita Das
WASHINGTON, DC: Among the multitudes of people who attended the opening of the Smithsonian’s landmark ‘Beyond Bollywood’ exhibit on February 27th, were my mother and I. I was covering the exhibit opening yet I wasn’t sure what to expect. As the first national museum exhibit to focus on Indians in America, the significance was not lost on me, a second generation Indian American. So, I decided to wrangle an extra ticket for my mother because I thought it would be a doubly powerful experience to compare and contrast what resonated with each of us. I was not wrong.
My mother, who is seventy-two years old, immigrated to the United States with my father in 1973. After forty years practicing as an obstetrician gynecologist (OBGYN) in this country, she retired at the end of last year. She, a South Indian raised in Calcutta, married my father, a Bengali and that blending of subcultures has always permeated our household and lives. She is an ardent lover of Carnatic music, an excellent and inventive cook, possesses a wicked sense of humor, and doesn’t mince words. As a thirty-nine year old, I was born just a year after my parents immigrated to the U.S. With two siblings, I’m the only person in my family who didn’t go into medicine, instead spending fifteen years in the government, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors focusing on a range of social issues.
Before exploring this first-of-its-kind exhibit on Indian Americans, I wanted to know if my mom views herself as Indian, Indian American, or American.
“Indian American,” she says unequivocally. “Because I came from India and I am in America and I still have a lot of Indian ways and I love America. So, it’s fifty-fifty.”
I wasn’t surprised by her answer but I was surprised by the ratio. I would have guessed, 60% Indian and 40% American. Meanwhile, I used to cringe when people asked me, “where are you from?” There always seemed to be a hidden question behind the question and I came up with cheeky non-answers: “New York.” Nowadays, I think of myself as an American of Indian origin because I was born here, my ideas are shaped largely by this country since I went through the education system here and yet at the same time, I don’t think of myself as “American Period.”
As you move through ‘Beyond Bollywood’, it becomes clear that you are partly moving through time but mostly moving through seven aspects of the Indian American experience: Migration; Early Immigration; Working Lives; Arts and Activism; Yoga, Religion, & Spirituality; Cultural Contributions in Food, Music, Dance; and Groundbreakers.
I felt that this organization of the exhibit enabled us to understand many facets of Indian American life. However, like most samplers, you only begin to get a sense of a flavor before it’s time to move on to the next. Similarly, while my mom also appreciated the “excellent” organization of the exhibit, she also felt that “a lot of things were superficial. In each of them you could go deeper.”
Since the exhibit fittingly starts with the immigration experience, I asked my mom about her own. The exhibit showcased the types of practical and sentimental items Indian immigrants would stuff into the one suitcase they were allowed to bring. “Saris, books – medical books, some cooking vessels, some pictures, photo albums, wedding album, some pictures of the (Hindu) Gods, some jewelry … And certificates and official documents, which let you work here! I should have said that first!” she exclaimed demonstrating her unerring practicality.
My parents were part of the wave of doctors who immigrated to the United States from India in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The exhibit gave a nod to this moment in Indian American history by featuring noted physician and award-winning author Abraham Verghese’s first doctor’s bag as well as a quote from him about what it was like as an immigrant doctor to practice medicine in the United States: “It was hard to get a job in a nice hospital unless you wanted to be a bathroom sweeper. Hospitals in poor and rural areas needed us foreign medical graduates. Compared to hospitals in India, I liked how organized everything was, especially all the charts and nurses’ notes …”
My mom who recently finished reading Verghese’s book, ‘Cutting for Stone’, concurred with him, saying, “yes, that’s exactly what we thought – the hospital is not smelly, and it is very nice to come to it, and the appointments are made in advance, and you can see the patients in peace. That was a luxury.”
She went further to describe the impact that Indian American physicians have made: “(We have) made a difference to underprivileged populations in America because a lot of us worked in underprivileged areas. That gave a satisfaction also for the physicians because that’s how we were brought up, to help people, to treat illnesses.”
As we walked through Beyond Bollywood, pointing out various facts and artifacts to each other, I was surprised to discover that Indians had come to the U.S. as early as the 1700s. And while I knew of many of the innovative groundbreakers, there were a few who were new to me, including Congressman Dalit Singh Saund.
My mom and I spent several somber moments in the small area of the exhibit dedicated to discrimination and backlash faced by Indian Americans, in particular following September 11, 2001. We stood in front of the turban worn by Balbir Singh Sodhi, who was the first South Asian American to be murdered in an act of retaliation after 9/11. Included in that part of the exhibit was a reference to the “Dotbusters” a hate group that engaged in anti-Indian hate crimes in the 1990s. I asked my mom if she remembered that the “Dotbusters” called our house a few times. Oddly, she didn’t seem to remember this but I vividly recall being so shaken up by the calls as a teenager that I slept on my parents’ bedroom floor, too fearful to sleep on my own.
Once we had finished walking through the exhibit, I wondered if she thought it had faithfully represented the key aspects of her experiences as an Indian immigrant and Indian American. Was there anything missing? “I was looking for more cultural people to stand out a little more prominently … like the dancer, Kamala Natarajan. She should have been there. She made her life here. L. Subramaniam (Indian American violinist) should have been there.”
I was in total agreement. Given how involved my mother and father have been and continue to be in leading and participating in Indian American cultural organizations, I was surprised to not see them woven into this exhibit. In my mind, these cultural organizations play a key role in bringing together Indian American communities.
Another key aspect of Indian American life that was missing from Beyond Bollywood was the Indian enclave in America. The exhibit states that its focus is on “Indian Americans Shaping the Nation.” One of the most obvious imprints of Indian Americans on the American landscape is through Indian enclaves, like Jackson Heights and Flushing in New York City or Edison in New Jersey but also smaller enclaves in other parts of the country.
For me, the most significant missing piece of the exhibit was an element reflecting dialogues between generations of Indian Americans. For example, the children of Indian immigrants are deciding to go into different careers, they’re coming out to their parents, they’re marrying outside of the Indian community, but there really isn’t dialogue about these things. So, it would have been nice to see these challenging dialogues, which impact the future of Indians in America, reflected in Beyond Bollywood. And I think there’s an opportunity for the exhibit to be a touch point for this dialogue.
Ultimately, we both recognize the significance of this landmark exhibit, to her, an Indian American and myself, an American of Indian origin and the power of seeing at least some of our experiences reflected on the walls of the Smithsonian’s Beyond Bollywood exhibit. My mom aptly summed it up by saying, “it’s an excellent idea to have this kind of an imprint, which was missing. We’re a sizable population here. It’s a very good start.” And on this point, I can’t argue with my mother.
(After 15 years developing and leading innovative programs in the social change sector, Kavita Das now writes nonfiction and creative nonfiction and serves as a nonprofit consultant. Her work has been published in Quartz, The Aerogram, The Rumpus, Colorlines, Thought Catalog, DashAmerican, and The Sun. She’s also working on a biography about Grammy-nominated Hindustani singer, Lakshmi Shankar. Connect with Kavita on Twitter @kavitamix.)
To contact the author, email to editor@americanbazaaronline.com